Hoarfrost

**Hoarfrost** is the assumed name of a warrior and rebel from the North, who led a group of mercenaries-turned-brigands in revolt against House Stark and the Iron Throne during 338, in what became known as the War of the Frost.

## History

The man known as Hoarfrost is a largely mysterious figure; some claim that he was a Dustin or a Tallhart or a Hornwood, though most believe he was simply a common man of uncommon ability. What *is* known is that he lived and died above the Neck, calling the frigid hills and snow-swept plains of the North his home.

Sometime around 336AC Hoarfrost first appeared on the annals of history, as the maesters sent word of autumn and the Northern lords prepared themselves for what was to come. He served as a forrester in the Wolfswood, and gained minor renown for saving a young noble boy from a shadowcat - slaying the beast with his woodsman's axe. He was given a suit of armour, the beast's fur as a cloak, and a prodigious thanks, eventually moving on as winter settled in earnest.

As winter deepened and food became scarce, stories of Hoarfrost began to spread. Legends said that he was gathering those men that were left their families to spare them an extra mouth to feed - namely older men, second or third sons, and even a few daughters. They gathered to him in the Wolfswood and he called them his Companions; together they eked out a living, hunting and trapping and fishing as best they could.

The snows continued to deepen, however, and Hoarfrost and his companions were soon driven southward. His numbers had swollen to two and a half thousand - far too many to feed by hunting alone. They advanced southward, catching what game they could and serving lords that could pay in grain or livestock. But there was never quite enough.

Eventually, Hoarfrost and his men turned to banditry - it was a slow decline, first blackmail here or strong-arming there, but once they sacked their first town the slide was swift. Word began to spread of his deeds, and even as those among his party that could not stomach such black action fled, others flocked to his banners. This is what became the War of the Frost - a conflict that took on Hoarfrost's name and his legacy, but ultimately resulted in his death.

## Personal Life

Hoarfrost is a man unknown, appearing and disappearing in the history books in a period of only three years. Though it is known that among his friends he was a generous if quiet man, and to his foes he was a terrifying and implacable enemy: who he truly was, from whence he sprang or even his lineage, are all lost to us.

It is not even known if he bore children, trueborn or otherwise - for those of his Companions that lived through the War of the Frost speak little of their time there, choosing anonymity over the infamy that would come from such ties. Even his name - both *Hoarfrost* and *Of the Barrows* were given to him by those that knew him, and assumed as one might shoulder a suit of armour. No man knows if these sprang from truth or the avid minds of his followers; if they were his real names, or if in the secrecy of his own private quarters, he called himself another.

## Death and Legacy

Hoarfrost's death at the Battle of the Fever has been the source of both song and legend in the intervening forty years, his battleaxe and cloak still seen as a relic of pride and glory. The Companions, broken and scattered, fled to the corners of the North, returning to whatever lives they once led or beginning bandit companies of their own. At the headwater of one of the streams which feed into the Fever river, a small monument has been erected to those who fell in battle there, and to the man that led them.