Chapter Summaries

After the Riverlands army seized House Chelsted’s castle, a royal decree promised rebel lands and titles to anyone who killed a stubborn rebel. An orphan named Carl killed Willis Chelsted and received his lands from Suleiman, and the news inspired the Poor Fellows to consider claiming power themselves.

• The Riverlands army captured Lord Willis Chelsted’s castle, distributed its farming tools to the villagers, and announced that taxes were waived and poaching was permitted.
• A royal decree offered the title and lands of a stubborn rebel to anyone who killed him, and the villagers learned that Willis was hiding in their granary.
• The villagers killed Willis, his wife, and their children, then sent Carl to Duskendale with Willis’s head.
• Suleiman honored the decree and named Carl Lady of House Chelsted, despite Adrian Celtigar’s alarm.
• News of Carl’s rise spread through Duskendale, prompting members of the Poor Fellows to consider killing for a chance at power.

Tyrion Lannister surrounded Oxford Town and ordered a brutal assault that crushed the rebel stronghold and captured Septon Anthony. As Anthony defended the uprising and condemned noble oppression, Tyrion acknowledged the Westerlands’ deep injustice and revealed his ambition to rule more wisely, while warning Anthony that Suleiman would exploit the people’s despair.

• Tyrion Lannister learned that Septon Anthony and five thousand rebels were inside Oxford Town, then ordered his army to surround it.
• After the septons refused to surrender, Tyrion ordered the catapults to bombard the town and sent Lannister infantry in, killing the defenders and capturing Anthony.
• Tyrion resolved to use victory to secure his succession and bring the Faith in the Westerlands under Lannister control, while privately promising to reduce taxes and improve justice.
• Anthony accused the nobles of oppressing the people and claimed the Red Comet proved that Suleiman was the Father’s scourge against their sins.
• Tyrion admitted that the people’s misery had rotted the foundations of the Westerlands and warned Anthony that Suleiman was an ambitious madman who would make their fate worse.

Tyrion Lannister burned the rebellious septons, appointed Septon Mion Lannister to lead a new Lannister-controlled church, and confronted rumors about Tywin’s disappearance. He found his poisoned father unconscious and declared he would inherit and rule the Westerlands, but Tywin’s hand clenched after Tyrion left.

• Ser Gregor Clegane burned more than one hundred septons, and Tyrion Lannister forced the survivors to blame devils for the uprising.
• Tyrion Lannister named Septon Mion Lannister bishop of the Westerlands and announced plans to build a Great Sept in Lannisport.
• Tyrion Lannister confronted Stafford Lannister and demanded to see Tywin Lannister, threatening to accuse his uncle of treason if he kept concealing the truth.
• Stafford Lannister led Tyrion Lannister to a hidden castle, where a maester explained that poison from an arrow had left Tywin unconscious and near death.
• Tyrion Lannister told Tywin Lannister he would inherit Casterly Rock and put down the rebellion before leaving his bedside.
• The maester discovered Tywin Lannister’s previously unresponsive right hand clenched into a fist after Tyrion had left.

Patrick Morrison killed a House Smallwood envoy and pledged himself to Suleiman’s rebellion, while Suleiman revealed plans to consolidate rebel territories under military district generals. Adrian Setiga warned Suleiman that his reforms would make powerful enemies, then drunkenly admitted he could not turn back from the rebellion.

• Patrick Morrison rejected House Smallwood’s demand that he abandon the rebellion and beheaded its envoy after the envoy insulted Suleiman’s origins.
• Patrick Morrison declared that House Morrison would continue fighting and vowed to rise alongside Suleiman, while his uncle urged him to demand power and resources from Suleiman.
• Adrian Setiga mocked Suleiman’s ambition to marry a princess and argued that dragons, not noble blood, had given House Targaryen its power.
• Suleiman showed Adrian Setiga a decree appointing Patrick Morrison and Alwood Halton as military district generals with control over their districts’ armies, personnel, and finances.
• Adrian Setiga warned Suleiman that his reforms threatened the nobility, briefly raised a dagger against him, then dropped it and drunkenly confessed that it was too late to turn back.

Blackfish Brynden Tully rallied the West Riverlands lords to reject Lannister aid and exploit the divided rebel armies. He planned to bait Patrick Morrison into attacking House Smallwood, then crush him in a coordinated ambush.

• Tytos Blackwood described how Suleiman's divided forces threatened the West Riverlands from the Southwest Riverlands and House Lychester's lands.
• A lord accused Tytos Blackwood of secretly favoring the rebels and the Westerlands, but Blackfish Brynden Tully defended his honor and stopped the quarrel.
• Blackfish Brynden Tully rejected seeking Lannister aid, warning that Tywin Lannister's army would devastate the Riverlands.
• Blackfish Brynden Tully argued that Patrick Morrison and Lushen would struggle to coordinate, leaving the rebels vulnerable to attack.
• Blackfish Brynden Tully ordered Moller Smallwood to provoke Morrison and lure his army toward House Smallwood's castle, where the West Riverlands forces would ambush him.

Roslyn burned Lord Suleiman’s letter urging retreat and chose to defend Lion's Den as Vale cavalry raided the East Riverlands. He ordered civilians armed and organized into militias, turning the region into a battlefield while he prepared to hold the mountain forts to the death.

• Roslyn rejected the option of fleeing to King's Landing and declared that he and Lushen would defend Lord Suleiman’s land.
• The adjutant reported that Mountain Clan Wildlings were killing East Riverlands people and Vale cavalry were raiding and burning villages.
• Roslyn ordered civilians moved into captured castles, supplied with food and weapons, and led by his soldiers as militias against the Vale.
• Roslyn ordered the old subjects scattered among mountain forts and vowed to hold Lion's Den while drawing the Vale cavalry into a prolonged war.
• Soldiers distributed grain and weapons to the commoners, who eagerly scrambled to arm themselves.

Robert Baratheon learned that Suleiman had rebelled and ordered him captured alive, while Patrick Morrison’s army was routed and the Riverlands campaign deteriorated. After learning Rushmarsh had fallen, Patrick was appointed to command the West Riverlands and was stopped from taking his own life.

• A Crownlands noble reported that House Lychester and Suleiman had raised an army and were marching toward King's Landing, and Robert Baratheon swore to take Suleiman alive.
• Patrick Morrison regretted ignoring Ser Old Lopin’s advice after his six-thousand-man army was crushed by House Smallwood and the West Riverlands coalition.
• Eck Morrison refused Patrick entry to Resting City and ordered his archers to fire, while Ser Old Lopin covered Patrick’s retreat.
• Tytos Blackwood cornered Patrick and demanded his surrender, but Suleiman’s men ambushed the West Riverlands cavalry and rescued Patrick.
• Will reported that House Frey had captured Rushmarsh and Lushen had retreated east; a messenger then appointed Patrick Governor and General of the West Riverlands.
• Patrick tried to kill himself out of guilt, but Will and the other knights stopped him and urged him to reorganize the army and fight again.

Brynden Tully persuaded Ser Old Lopin to surrender, then used him to seize Pinkmaiden, where Ser Eker died defending the castle. Molle Smallwood’s army captured Adam City after three days of fighting, and Molle ordered Tox’s corpse mutilated and displayed as a warning to commoners.

• Brynden Tully convinced Ser Old Lopin to kneel to House Tully and revealed that Suleiman’s men had rescued Patrick Morrison.
• Ser Old Lopin used the surrender ruse to take Pinkmaiden, but let the captured Loach Knights escape; Ser Eker stayed behind and died fighting House Tully’s troops.
• Molle Smallwood offered the defenders of Adam City a pardon, but Tox refused to surrender and vowed to make the attackers pay dearly.
• Molle Smallwood’s army stormed Adam City after three days and nights of battle, suffering nearly two thousand casualties as Tox and the defenders were killed.
• Molle Smallwood ordered Tox’s corpse desecrated, beheaded, and hung from the castle’s highest flagpole as a warning to commoners.

After Patrick Morrison’s defeat, he turned his surviving soldiers to guerrilla raids while Suleiman prepared to evacuate King's Landing and deliberately create a vast Faith Militant. Brynden Tully moved to suppress the rebellion by winning over commoners and trapping the remaining rebels, while privately planning to absorb Suleiman’s followers and preserve his reforms.

• Patrick Morrison rejected retreat to Harrenhal and ordered his thousand surviving men to raid weakly defended areas, seize supplies, and draw commoners into the fighting.
• Suleiman learned that Patrick Morrison was missing, ordered William Mooton to conceal the defeat, and announced plans to evacuate King's Landing and create a vast Faith Militant.
• Brynden Tully ordered the West Riverlands lords to pardon and recruit repentant commoners, preserve Suleiman’s laws, and block the rebels’ escape routes by controlling the waterways.
• Tytos Blackwood challenged Brynden Tully’s refusal to pardon the Mud Knights and Hedge Knights, arguing that House Tully would drive loyal knights toward Suleiman.
• Brynden Tully privately agreed with Tytos Blackwood and revealed that House Tully would accept Suleiman’s followers, preserve his institutions, and reward those who joined them.

Suleiman persuaded Bana to abandon his old identity and become the Gray Bishop, leading a monastic order loyal only to him. Meanwhile, Riverlands forces seized King's Landing and massacred more than a thousand people accused of supporting false kings, leaving Bonifer Hasty and the Poor Fellows forced to submit and call the slaughter a victory.

• Suleiman offered Bana a fabricated past and the role of Gray Bishop, and Bana accepted, pledging his life to Suleiman.
• Suleiman told Bana to build a monastic order that would serve him and help him gain control of the Faith and its armed forces.
• Riverlands armies entered King's Landing through all seven gates and took control of the city's defenses by Suleiman's command.
• Riverlands soldiers rounded up alleged false kings and their supporters outside the Red Keep and executed more than a thousand people without trials.
• Bonifer Hasty tried to stop the massacre, but monks and Holy Hundred members restrained him as Riverlands archers aimed at the castle.
• Brother Vickar urged the frightened Poor Fellows to celebrate the executions as a victory of the Seven, and scattered cheers followed.

Brynden Tully persuaded Suleiman's former knights to submit to House Tully, but Moller Smallwood's cruelty drove them to rebel alongside Patrick Morrison. After Tytos Blackwood killed himself in remorse, Brynden was left facing a renewed uprising and a Riverlands slipping beyond his control.

• Brynden Tully and Edmure Tully convinced more than a hundred knights loyal to Suleiman to bend the knee to House Tully, with Tytos Blackwood vouching for them.
• Tytos Blackwood reported that Patrick Morrison's forces were dwindling, while Brynden questioned whether the surrendered knights could be trusted.
• Moller Smallwood hanged farmers and ordered Old Lopin and the loach knights into a dangerous forest attack, prompting the knights to plot with Patrick Morrison.
• Old Lopin tried to stop the knights from rebelling, but his squire stabbed him, and the knights joined Patrick Morrison in a nighttime assault on Smallwood's camp.
• Patrick Morrison killed Moller Smallwood's two sons and broke through the encirclement, while Moller Smallwood died in the fighting.
• Brynden Blackwood told Brynden Tully that Tytos Blackwood had killed himself to atone, as messengers reported the renewed rebellion and Brynden Tully despaired over the Riverlands.

Morton Waynwood’s Vale cavalry devastated the East Riverlands before retreating behind the Bloody Gate, while Suleiman argued that their brutality would strengthen popular resistance. After Adrian Celtigar warned him that Westerosi vassals would abandon a defeated liege, Suleiman was left alone with the military reports.

• Morton Waynwood revealed his ambition to seize control of the Vale and led seven hundred knights into the Riverlands to ravage its villages and towns.
• Riverlanders increasingly resisted the Vale raiders, and Lushen’s army pursued Morton as the cavalry burned more than a hundred settlements and killed tens of thousands.
• Morton withdrew through the Bloody Gate, praised the Riverlanders’ fighting spirit, and ordered them not to pursue the Vale forces farther.
• At Duskendale, Suleiman laughed at reports of the Riverlands’ defeats and claimed Brynden Tully had failed to unite and strengthen the region.
• Suleiman told the Riverlords to return to their armies and prevent panic, while Adrian Celtigar warned that defeated liege lords could not rely on their vassals.
• After Adrian left, Suleiman crushed the military report in his hand and remained alone in the silent hall.

With Viserys Targaryen missing, Septon Yangsi urged Suleiman to abandon the search for a king and lead the common people, while Bryn pledged his loyalty to Suleiman. Suleiman decided to act without Viserys, then confronted Lymond Guburk as he tried to take his army home, leaving the Riverlands coalition on the brink of breaking apart.

• William Mooton told Suleiman that Viserys Targaryen had vanished at sea, and Suleiman considered capture, shipwreck, or Varys’s involvement as possible explanations.
• Septon Yangsi urged Suleiman to stop supporting the Targaryens and lead a revolt against kings and nobles, while Suleiman challenged the idea of rule by priests.
• Bryn told Suleiman he would kneel before him if he became king, and Suleiman declared that he would have to take the place himself.
• Suleiman’s cavalry intercepted Lymond Guburk’s army as it tried to return home to defend its lands from Vale raiders.
• William Mooton warned Suleiman not to kill Lymond, while Arwood Halton argued that the army would fall apart unless Lymond was killed.

Suleiman spared Lymond Guburk and rallied his soldiers despite news that the Lannisters were marching on King's Landing and Stannis's fleet had entered Blackwater Bay. In King's Landing, he ordered a mass evacuation that sent hundreds of thousands of people toward the Stormlands, the Reach, and the West Riverlands, while keeping able-bodied adults in the city.

• Suleiman received news of the approaching Lannister army and Stannis's fleet, then lifted Lymond Guburk to his feet instead of punishing him.
• Suleiman persuaded the Guburk soldiers to trust him and fight, promised to take them home victorious, and ordered Walter Hean to strengthen the fortifications.
• Suleiman told Bonifer Hasty and the septons that King's Landing's food would run out within a month and ordered them to evacuate civilians before famine struck.
• Bonifer Hasty was assigned to lead 150,000 people to the Stormlands, the High Sparrow to take 50,000 to the Reach, and Yangsi to lead 100,000 to the West Riverlands.
• Suleiman ordered the elderly, infirm, women, and children handed to the departing groups while able-bodied adults and useful families remained in King's Landing, and the great evacuation began.

Suleiman rejected Arwood Halton’s proposal to defend King’s Landing, insisting he could win the war within days or weeks. He planned to lure Stannis Baratheon’s forces through the Mud Gate and destroy them with wildfire, leaving the Riverlands army a path home.

• Arwood Halton urged Suleiman to defend King’s Landing and warned that the Riverlands army could collapse if the war lasted beyond a month, but Suleiman insisted victory was near.
• Suleiman told Bryn, Toman, and Hallyne the Wise that several Riverlands lords seemed suspiciously confident and that the enemy would seek a swift battle.
• Suleiman assessed the forces approaching King’s Landing, including Stannis Baratheon’s fleet and armies from the Westerlands, Stormlands, Vale, and Riverlands.
• Hallyne confirmed that wildfire had been planted throughout Mud Gate and nearby homes, sewers, and gatehouse spaces.
• Suleiman planned to leave King’s Landing’s defenses empty, feign surrender to Stannis, and ignite the wildfire after his troops entered the city.
• Suleiman justified the Poor Fellows’ expected deaths by promising to reward their families, then drew his Valyrian steel sword and extinguished a candle.

Stannis Baratheon learned that Suleiman's actions had plunged the Stormlands into chaos and ordered a coalition advance on King's Landing. Suleiman planned to attack the Westerlands army outside the city despite his lords' objections, then rejected Awood Halton's offer to guarantee his survival if he stayed to defend King's Landing.

• Davos Seaworth reported that refugees and Poor Fellows had overwhelmed the Stormlands, while Suleiman held Crownlands nobles' families hostage, and Stannis Baratheon rejected a prolonged blockade in favor of summoning five armies to attack King's Landing.
• Suleiman learned that nearly thirty thousand Reach troops had gathered at Bitterbridge and said House Tyrell would likely stay out of the fighting if Poor Fellows and Ser Bonifer Hasty threatened the Reach border from Dorne.
• Suleiman planned to lead Riverlands forces and elite Poor Fellows out of King's Landing to attack the Westerlands army, while sending one thousand men to defend Harford City against West Riverlands and Vale forces.
• Awood Halton and the other lords urged Suleiman to remain behind the city's walls, but Suleiman insisted they could defeat the Westerlands army because its commander was a dwarf.
• Awood Halton privately offered to guarantee Suleiman's survival if he held King's Landing, but Suleiman refused the proposal.

Brynden Tully chose to march the Riverlands army toward King's Landing despite the West Riverlands remaining unstable, while Clement Piper stayed behind to protect his family. At Harrenhal, Karak rallied the commoners to resist the Vale and support Suleiman, though some questioned whether they should oppose all nobles, including him.

• Brynden Tully received Stannis Baratheon's order to join the assault on King's Landing and learned that Suleiman was sending about a hundred thousand refugees into the West Riverlands.
• Clement Piper refused to accompany Brynden Tully, giving him his army and asking him to rescue his family from Suleiman's custody in King's Landing.
• Vale riders attacked a civilian militia outpost, and a wounded boy reached Harrenhal to warn Karak that the Vale people were coming.
• Karak rang the alarm and told Harrenhal's gathered commoners that the Vale had attacked them and their fleeing lords had abandoned them.
• When an elderly man asked whether they would also fight Suleiman, Karak argued that Suleiman was their ally and urged the commoners to defend the Riverlands with him.
• The crowd rallied behind Karak, shouting support for Suleiman and the Riverlands.

As the Vale army struggled against Riverlands resistance, Lushen and Roslyn arranged to have the Vale soldiers desecrate ancestral graves to enrage the local people. The Riverlanders rose in fury, while Bronze Yohn Royce warned the Vale lords that if they marched on King's Landing and lost, they might never make it home.

• Bronze Yohn Royce and the Vale knights lamented their heavy losses and blamed Morton Waynwood's brutal campaign for turning the Riverlands' commoners into desperate fighters.
• At the Lion's Den, Lushen convinced Roslyn to provoke the Riverlanders by having Vale soldiers dig up their ancestors' graves.
• Vale soldiers desecrated graves outside Lord Harroway's Town, driving its defenders to swear vengeance against every Vale man.
• The desecration spread across the Riverlands, stirring its people to fury and resistance.
• Morton Waynwood urged the Vale lords to march on King's Landing and kill Suleiman, but Bronze Yohn Royce asked how they would return home if they lost.

Suleiman ordered Tam to hold Harford City for two days, while privately revealing to Evelyn that he planned to use wildfire there and at Mud Gate to destroy enemy armies without destroying King's Landing. He explained that preserving his political usefulness mattered more than a straightforward victory, then left Evelyn contemplating his ruthless view of power and history.

• Suleiman sent Tam with a thousand men to garrison Harford City and promised to reinforce him at dawn on the third day.
• Evelyn challenged Suleiman's risky military plan, and he revealed that Aerys Targaryen had buried enough wildfire beneath King's Landing to destroy the city.
• Suleiman explained that destroying King's Landing would kill his civilian supporters and make the Targaryens the ultimate victors, so he planned to trap enemy forces at Harford City and Mud Gate instead.
• Suleiman admitted that Tam and his men needed to hold Harford City so the wildfire trap could devastate the enemy, despite having promised to save them.
• Suleiman told Evelyn that rulers wrote rules to protect themselves and that history judged results more than methods, then closed his book of noble genealogies and wondered whether anyone would keep updating it.

As rival armies converged on King's Landing, Harford City prepared to withstand an assault while Reach commanders debated how to respond to the war. The Vale and Riverlands forces marched south, and Randyll Tarly advised Mace Tyrell to avoid the siege and let others exhaust themselves against Suleiman.

• Tam rallied Harford City's defenders to hold for two days, trusting that Suleiman's reinforcements would arrive at dawn on the third day.
• Brynden Tully met Yohn Royce and learned that House Frey had joined the Vale army with three thousand infantry and two hundred knights.
• Brynden Tully accepted the Frey troops' presence and led the allied Vale and Riverlands armies toward King's Landing.
• Mace Tyrell learned that House Florent had left the Reach army to answer Stannis Baratheon's call, then asked Randyll Tarly to assess the war.
• Randyll Tarly judged Suleiman's best chance to be defending King's Landing and advised Mace Tyrell to let the Baratheons, Vale, and Lannisters bear the siege's losses.