Pack Wars

### Outcome

Defeat of Lord Brandon Stark; Lord Cregan Stark is named Lord of Winterfell and Lord Protector of the North

**The Pack Wars** sparked as a dispute between brothers of House Stark; Brandon Stark, Lord of Winterfell, and his younger sibling Cregan Stark. The Wars were a series of battles and skirmishes in the North that lasted three years and devastated the North's population for a time.

## Background

Though the events that began the disagreement between the brothers is not clear, it is speculated that Cregan’s wife Wyllara was raped by Torrhen Stark. An abomination in the eyes of the North, Wyllara approached Brandon with the news instead of her husband, knowing exactly how her husband would react to such news; thinking Brandon would be more level-headed proved to be her undoing, as Brandon refused to believe any such lies. Wyllara, ashamed of her predicament, finally told Cregan, whose reaction was tenfold that of his elder brother. While at the mourning ceremony for their father Cregan’s anger showed itself in an outburst, a fight broke out in the Godswood, with Cregan threatening to kill Torrhen if he ever laid eyes upon him again, Cregan left almost immediately after to be with his wife’s family in White Harbour.

Though nobody can be sure of who ordered the attack, one thing can be certain. Torrhen Stark was stabbed to death in the streets of Wintertown, his final words accusing his brother, Cregan, of the vile act. With this evidence, coupled with the outburst at their father’s funeral, Lord Brandon called his brother to account for this supposed act of Kinslaying. When Cregan refused to return to Winterfell and be accused of such crimes, Lord Brandon had no choice but to declare his brother a kinslayer, and order him to face justice.

Cregan refused to accept his brother’s judgement, and the brotherhood between the North’s head family was drawn into battle lines, as many Lords of the North refused to believe that Cregan would do something so accursed. Lord Manderly joined his good-brother and raised his banners against Lord Brandon, declaring him a weak ruler and a fool. With nearly each of the large houses of the North married into the Starks, the stakes grew even more dire; the fanatical, mourning family of Elenya Ryswell gladly declared for Brandon the Wise Wolf, along with that of House Bolton, Umber, and Karstark. Though the Wild Wolf was temperamental with a reputation for hot-headedness and impulsivity, Cregan had gained a loyal following in the North over his years, and earned the support of houses Manderly, Dustin, Reed, Glover, Forrester, Hornwood, Flint, and Tallhart. House Mormont removed themselves from the disagreement, as Lady Lynara refused to draw blood from any of her kin.

## Conflict

The war lasted over three excruciating years of the summer; the first of the battles began on the Kings Road between Cerwyn and White Harbour, where though neither side had gathered their full strength, the mania of the war and desires for victory drove both sides into a frenzy of battle. Of course, Lord Brandon never participated in these skirmishes himself, sidelined to orchestrate the battle as he saw fit; without Cregan at his side to give advice, none of the fighting went quite as expected. Brandon’s son and heir Eddard was amongst the fray himself, and through the arduous years of fighting earned himself a reputation of honour.

The second battle began in the Barrows, where the losses were not as great, but the clear winner Brandon emerged victorious by taking Lord Cregan’s firstborn Rickon Stark hostage. When the war seemed all but over, the rebel himself considering giving up his claim for the sake of his boy, an infiltration lead by Lord Reed and Lord Peat into the keep of Cerwyn rescued Cregan’s son and turned the war in their favour. Many skirmishes took place along the Kings Road and in White Harbour itself, until the pinnacle battle late into the war in the Wolfswood.

Houses Glover and Forrester, the masters of the Wolfswood, had begun the war declared for Lord Cregan; they and their heirs had admired Cregan’s willingness to fight and his camaraderie on the field so much that siding with the Wise Wolf, who they scarcely knew or cared for, seemed unthinkable. It was the bastard brother of Lord Bolton who turned the masters of the Wolfswood against their declared liege, having taken their children, infants and adults alike, hostage to the sword. Glover and Forrester had but no choice to betray Cregan by turning their bows against him at the last minute. The Wolfswood became a slaughterhouse, more deaths than any of the previous major battles, until finally the war came to a stop by the death of Eddard Stark, Lord Brandon’s son and only heir.

## Aftermath

Broken-hearted by his boy’s death and the end of his line, Brandon withdrew his claim and fell into a deep depression. Cregan had finally won, but at such a heavy price, neither son of Robb Stark saw the war had been worth anything they had done to one another. What was Winterfell and the North without family to share it with? Brandon left the North of his own volition, full of shame and sadness over the things he lost. Though there is no official account of his end, it is said that the former Lord of the North threw himself from a galley in the Narrow Sea, and met his demise at the hands of the Drowned God.