Wolf Pack Company

Biodata

Background and History

Northern Origins

Harris Hoare and Timotty Snow founded the company after serving Lord Cregan, the Wolf of Winterfell. Most members encountered when Gendry joined were descendants of the original northmen. The company preserved banners more than a century old, dating back to the wolf hour of the Dance of the Dragons 6 7.

Despite its northern ancestry, the company no longer considered itself a vassal of House Stark. It continued to follow news from the North, but its commander had not ordered it to join the northerners during the War of the Usurper. Handsome Man described the North as its birthplace and the Disputed Lands as its home 19 27.

Recruitment and the Firepowder Herb Contract

Gendry and Qyburn joined through Fatty’s recruiting office in Myr after other companies rejected them. Their smithing and medical skills helped overcome concerns about their ages, and they entered under the nicknames Hammer and Maester. Gendry subsequently trained in archery, swordsmanship, and horsemanship 6 7.

Their first assignment took approximately forty company members to the Firepowder Herb Estate to protect its valuable harvest. The company defeated Purplebeard’s raiders, but lost three knights, including drillmaster Morningstar. During the subsequent convoy journey, Handsome Man surrendered three crates of herbs to secure passage through another ambush rather than sacrifice the company 7 9 11.

Cassor’s Fall and Gendry’s Succession

The company’s longstanding contract with Cassor’s family rested on friendship and blood ties, making it unwilling to abandon him during Myr’s political struggle. Cassor’s poisoning and Magister Joey’s betrayal also brought about Greybeard’s death. The survivors fought through the city, aided by Gendry, Handsome Man, and Dick the Bowmaker 10 12.

Steel Fist delivered Greybeard’s wolf-head ring to Handsome Man as his successor. After a poisoned crossbow bolt permanently impaired Handsome Man’s arm, he passed the ring and command to Gendry. The survivors escaped through Salladhor Saan’s smuggling passage and formally swore allegiance to their new commander aboard the Mead 12 13.

Liberation of the Disputed Lands

Gendry retained the existing officers and chose the Firepowder Herb Estate as the company’s new base. He freed slaves and organized them into the Free Army, while Salladhor offered ships, secret routes, intelligence, and naval protection. By the capture of the seventh estate, the Wolf Pack’s veterans were equipping themselves with fireweed revenues and training the freed recruits 13 14.

A Myrish expedition led by Jaqpo and Vargo Hoat attempted to suppress the new faction. Gendry’s cavalry ambush destroyed the Brave Companions; other mercenaries surrendered, and surviving Unsullied accepted freedom before choosing to join him. Surrendered sellswords could enlist under Wolf Pack discipline or leave after relinquishing their equipment and paying ransom 15 16.

Defeat of Myr’s Mercenary Coalition

Bloodbeard’s army besieged the headquarters with three giant catapults. Gendry answered with a dawn assault, using concealed archers and a cavalry charge to break the Second Sons. The Wolf Pack captured the siege engines, while the Free Army, defecting mercenaries, and the Golden Company helped overwhelm the remaining host 20 21.

The victory brought the Long Spear Company’s eight hundred cavalrymen into Gendry’s ranks. Brown Ben Plumm and the surviving Second Sons also submitted, then staged a return to Myr as covert agents. The Wolf Pack and Free Army occupied most of the Disputed Lands and surrounded Myr without immediately storming it 22.

Stepstones and Myr

The Wolf Pack and Free Army first seized two unnamed Stepstones islands. Gendry later conquered smaller pirate islands, attacked the docks of Bloodstone and Grey Gallows, and cut off pirate supplies. Captured pirates were compelled to acknowledge him as King of the Narrow Sea 18 23.

Gendry then redirected his fleet toward Myr. Slave uprisings weakened the city, and Brown Ben’s Second Sons opened the inner gates. After the conquest, Gendry assigned his commanders to restore order and secure the fleet, while announcing his intention to abolish the Archon Assembly and govern as Interim Ruler 24.

Tyrosh and Military Reorganization

The Wolf Pack Fleet and Narrow Sea Fleet attacked Tyrosh as revolts broke out both aboard its ships and inside the city. Wolf Pack and Free Army troops captured the docks and outer city, then besieged the Black City. News of rebellion in Myr and an approaching Dothraki force prompted Gendry to leave Ser Jorah overseeing the siege and return with part of the army 29 30.

Against Khal Zhako’s Dothraki, the defenders combined siege weapons, shield formations, an oil-slicked field, and fire arrows before launching an armored cavalry counterattack. Following Zhako’s fall, Gendry reorganized his forces into three legions and two fleets. The Wolf Pack Legion became the heavy cavalry and heavy infantry core of his military 33 36.

Organization and Leadership

Command Succession

Officers and Specialists

Later Military Structure

Recruitment, Discipline, and Traditions

• Binding oath: Members must not kill indiscriminately, steal, rape, or harm comrades. The company preferred too few recruits to accepting unsuitable ones 6.
• Limited background scrutiny: Applicants could be vague about their past. The oath applied from enlistment onward, rather than serving as a judgment of earlier conduct 6.
• Recruitment difficulties: Strict rules discouraged applicants and historically kept the company small. It preferred Westerosi recruits, though its membership also included men from elsewhere 6 7.
• Pay and departure: Fatty described pay as average for the Three Daughters and membership as allowing men to come and go. Gendry and Qyburn were initially offered half pay for their first year because of their ages 6.
• Nicknames: Company nicknames were more commonly used than personal names 6.
• Sobriety: During communal drinking, part of the company had to remain sober; at the estate feast, half drank wine and half drank juice 8.
• Northern solidarity: Veterans and badly wounded members volunteered to protect their comrades during the retreat from Myr 12.
• Expanded screening under Gendry: Both the Wolf Pack and Free Army were ordered to exclude recruits who sought to restore slavery or slaughter innocents 19.

Military Capabilities

Heavy Cavalry

• Armored riders used lances, longswords, morningstars, axes, spears, and warhammers for shock attacks 16 23.
• Gendry and Long Spear led an arrowhead formation that broke the Second Sons’ lines 21.
• Absorbing the Long Spear Company added eight hundred cavalrymen, greatly increasing the mounted force 22 23.

Infantry and Training

• Steel Fist commanded shield-bearing infantry capable of holding formations and advancing alongside the Free Army 15 21.
• Wolf Pack instructors trained freed slaves in short swords, shields, heavy spears, and northern-style frontal assaults 14 19.
• Unsullied instructors supplied a separate system of light-infantry phalanx training 19.
• The Free Army’s formations remained less reliable than those of the Unsullied, requiring veteran Wolf Pack troops to strike first and give recruits time to form up 21.

Archery

• Black Billy’s archers used Myrish crossbows, yew longbows, eastern horn-and-sinew bows, and rarer goldenheart bows 15.
• Dick’s concealed archers supported the dawn attack on Myr’s coalition 20.
• The later archery corps included elite Summer Islander goldenheart bowmen and increasingly numerous skilled yew bowmen 40.

Fortifications and Logistics

• The original Wolf’s Den had stake-filled ditches, watchtowers, orderly tent rows, broad lanes, and separate horse lines 6.
• The estate headquarters received raised and widened walls, deeper trenches, and sharpened stakes 18.
• Fireweed revenues funded equipment purchases during the early expansion 14.
• After the conquests, Myrish craftsmen and Tyroshi smiths supplied armor, ships, crossbows, and ballistae through arms factories operating at full capacity 42.
• Early holdings lacked strong geographical barriers and strategic depth, leaving the company dependent on winning successive field battles 18.

Equipment and Symbols

• Wolf-head command ring — Black iron and bronze, engraved with ancient First Men runes. Passed from Greybeard to Handsome Man and then Gendry 12 13.
• Historic wolf banners — Repeatedly patched standards preserved for more than a century 7.
• Wolf Pack badges — Gray or gray-and-white insignia worn by company personnel 6 26.
• Elite armor — Black or gray-white plate, plated scale, and brigandine; later army reviews showed even the worst-equipped troops wearing mail 21 23 45.
• Captured siege engines — Three giant catapults taken from Myr’s coalition and subsequently positioned outside Myr 21 22.
• Wolf Pack flagship — Formerly the Myrish warship Lace Lady. Equipped with three hundred oars, deckside ballistae, and bow and stern trebuchets for burning-pitch barrels 29.

Relationships

• Free Army — Freed-slave force trained and supported by Wolf Pack veterans. Its recruitment from liberated estates supplied the expanding regime with soldiers beyond the original company 14 19 22.
• Magister Cassor’s family — Longstanding patrons whose close ties drew the company into Myr’s political conflict 10 12.
• Salladhor Saan — Smuggler and pirate partner who enabled the escape from Myr and offered naval protection, routes, sailors, and intelligence. The relationship became more delicate as Gendry’s power grew 11 13 18.
• Prince Oberyn Martell — Cooperated with Gendry over trade and a possible alliance; shared an interest in opposing House Lannister 16 17.
• Golden Company — Potential enemy turned battlefield ally. Gendry later exchanged conditional promises of assistance while insisting it not obstruct his conquest of the Disputed Lands 18 21 22.
• Long Spear Company — Defected during the coalition battle and entered Gendry’s ranks under its own captain 21 22.
• Second Sons — Defeated opponents who submitted under Brown Ben. Their staged defection back to Myr enabled them to open the city’s inner gates 22 24.
• House Tyrell — Explored cooperation over fireweed and the Stepstones. Garlan’s inspection convinced him that the Wolf Pack’s equipment, morale, and growing auxiliaries made it a major military threat 23.
• Myrish and Tyroshi slaveholders — Opposed the company’s territorial expansion and slave-liberation policy through expeditions, mercenary coalitions, and diplomatic demands 15 18 20 29.

Notable Quotes

“Your oath begins when you join. We don’t care if you killed someone back home, but in the Wolf Pack Company, an oath is iron.”
— Fatty 6

“Winter is coming! The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives!”
— Handsome Man and the company 10

“The North is our birthplace, but the Disputed Lands are our home now. Once the Wolf Pack Company came here, we were no longer vassals of House Stark.”
— Handsome Man 19