Brynden Tully (Lord Tywin's Gift)

## Brynden Tully

Ser **Brynden Tully**, also known as **Brynden Blackfish**, **Brynden the Blackfish**, or simply the **Blackfish**, is a knight from House Tully. He is the younger brother of Hoster Tully, Lord Paramount of the Trident, and the uncle of Lady Catelyn Stark, Lady Lysa Lannister, and Ser Edmure Tully. The Blackfish has served as the Captain of the City Watch of Lannisport for House Lannister since the Greyjoy's Rebellion.

## Appearance and Character

Brynden is tall and lean, with a hoarse, smoky voice. He is clean-shaven, and his face is craggy and windburnt, his features lined and weathered. His once-auburn hair has gone to grey. He has bushy eyebrows and laughing eyes of deep blue.

A kind man with the patience to listen, Brynden is also a blunt and stubborn man who does not care what others think. He is a seasoned warrior, a veteran of half a hundred battles, and precise in his movements. He is also a strong swimmer.

As the Captain of the City Watch of Lannisport, Brynden wears grey heavy plate armor and helm, but when commanding outriders he trades this for mail and leather. Brynden also owns grey ringmail under blackened steel, with a black trout adorning the helm's crest. He rides a grey horse, as well as a chestnut courser decorated in red and blue. Brynden's cloak, in the blue-and-red colors of House Tully, is fastened by a clasp of obsidian and gold in the shape of a black fish, his only concession to ornament. The banner of his standard-bearer depicts a black fish.

## History

### Early life

Brynden is the brother of Hoster Tully, younger than him by five years. The brothers were close through their childhood. Together with Norbert Vance, Brynden squired for Lord Darry, and was eventually knighted. In 260 AC, Brynden fought in the War of the Ninepenny Kings against the Band of Nine on the Stepstones. There, he proved himself a great and worthy knight, and gained fame and renown throughout the Seven Kingdoms.

After their father died, Brynden's older brother Hoster inherited the rule of Riverrun. Hoster sought to betroth Brynden to Bethany Redwyne, but Brynden refused, straining their relationship. While other lords like Lord Bracken and Walder Frey made offers as well, Brynden remained unwed.

When Catelyn Tully was eight, Hoster called Brynden the "black goat of the Tully flock" during an argument. Brynden pointed out that their sigil was a fish, which made him a black fish instead of a black goat. Brynden took for his personal sigil the Tully emblem, but with a black trout jumping, instead of a silver trout, and he became known as the "Blackfish".

While Brynden's relationship with Hoster was strained, he had a good relationship with Hoster's children, Catelyn, Lysa and Edmure, as well as Hoster's young ward, Petyr Baelish. When Hoster was too busy and Lady Minisa Whent too ill, the children ran to Brynden with their problems and stories. On the night when Catelyn's betrothal to Brandon Stark was announced, Petyr, who had been in love with Catelyn, passed out drunk on a table after Catelyn rejected a kiss from him. In order to prevent Hoster from seeing his young ward like this, Brynden carried Petyr away.

### War of the Usurpers

The War of the Usurpers began in 282 AC. Brynden fought in the war, further increasing his fame, particularly in the Battle on the Green Fork. Here the Blackfish had been sent down the kingsroad with around twenty-thousand men to try and distract Lord Tywin Lannister's forces encamped near Old Harroway's Town, while the bulk of the Northern and Riverland forces moved down through the Twins to relieve the ongoing siege of Riverrun. Despite marching his troops through the night in an attempt to catch Lord Tywin's forces off guard the organizational prowess of Lord Tywin meant he was still able to rally his troops in time for the battle and won an easy victory over Brynden's forces.

After Lord Tywin finds out from his prisoners that Brandon Stark is leading a force down to Riverrun he leaves to move back westward, allowing the Blackfish to retreat and reform his army at the mouth of the causeway.

Brynden saw little combat after the Green Fork, the attempt to relieve Riverrun's siege had failed. Brandon Stark and Ser Elbert Arryn, the newlywed husbands of Brynden's nieces, Catelyn and Lysa respectively, had been slain in the fight after a foolhardy attempt to win the battle by charging at the Lannister commanders when the battle was all but lost.

After the war drew to an end Brynden returned to Riverrun where he was rejoined by his niece Lysa. He also took on Tyrion Lannister, Lord Tywin's second son, as a squire as part of King Rhaegar I Targaryen's plan to keep the peace throughout Westeros where Tyrion was also betrothed to Lysa. Over the following five years Brynden and Tyrion grew to like one another, especially as the love grew between Lysa and the Lannister boy.

### Greyjoy's Rebellion

After five years of peace within the realm the Iron Islands launched a rebellion against the Iron Throne in an attempt to secede from the Seven Kingdoms in what became known as the Greyjoy's Rebellion. The rebellion drew in the Crown, the Reach, the Westerlands and the Riverlands through self-declared King Balon IX Greyjoy's various assaults against their lands and fleets. Thus Brynden became the primary Riverlands commander involved in the war alongside Lord Jason Mallister.

Brynden's main bout of combat was seen during the Siege of Pyke in which he and his squire Tyrion Lannister were some of the first through the first breach that began the inevitable downfall of the Greyjoy's keep. He fought well, as did his squire who saved his life at one point from a Greyjoy soldier. When the castle fell Brynden watched as his squire was knighted in front of him by King Rhaegar I Targaryen in recognition of his bravery in the field and saving the Blackfish's life.

After the rebellion came to a close Brynden travelled to Lannisport where he witnessed his niece Lysa and former squire Tyrion marry, then remained to observe the tourney that followed. Once the celebrations were over the Blackfish offered his services to Lord Tywin Lannister to join and lead the City Watch of Lannisport, both to look over his niece and to get away from Riverrun where tensions with his brother Lord Hoster Tully remained high owing to his refusal to marry.