Chapter Summaries

Aermir warned Eddard that Catelyn must not threaten his family again, then discussed taking control of Moat Cailin and building an information network. He revealed that Eddard’s children were Wargs, while keeping the Night’s King and his undead army secret as he considered how to prepare for the danger ahead.

• Aermir returned to Eddard’s solar and warned that Catelyn would not get another chance if she acted against his family again.
• Aermir assured Eddard that he respected the Starks and had no interest in their seat, then proposed taking over Moat Cailin when he turned eighteen and creating an information network in the North.
• Aermir explained that people with latent magical gifts might be unaware of them and revealed that Eddard’s children were Wargs bonded to their Direwolves.
• Eddard recalled Arya and Bran describing dreams of running as wolves, and Aermir said they were likely joining their Direwolves in their sleep.
• Aermir decided not to tell Eddard about the Night’s King, whose enormous undead army could not yet be opposed, and planned to build his forces, recruit Wildlings, establish a network, and learn smithing from Tobho Mott.

Aermir watched Arya and Sansa train, then discovered that the Stark children had growing mana and agreed with Lord Stark to train them as wargs. He also continued expanding his plans for smithing, finding people with mana, and preparing to watch for the Night's King.

• Aermir told Arya and Sansa that every weapon had strengths and weaknesses, and encouraged them to learn several kinds.
• Aermir discovered that Sansa had 81 mana, Arya had 72, Robb had 40, Rickon had 45, Jon had 65, and Bran had 95.
• Aermir and Lord Stark decided that Aermir would train the Stark children as wargs.
• Aermir opened a smithy for Tobho and began learning to forge, while Tobho said he would teach him Valyrian steel only after he could make a top-quality sword.
• Aermir sent groups led by Caygan and Harrick to search for people with mana, and planned to study the Wall's runes and bond with snowy owls to monitor the North.

Aermir built a secret network and secured Eddard Stark’s approval for the Knights Templar, an order meant to defend the North and serve the Old Gods. As the order’s temple neared completion, Aermir expanded his intelligence network beyond the Wall and advanced his magical studies, but he still could not create a weirwood face.

• Aermir gained the common folk’s trust through healing and other Druidic miracles, then carefully recruited loyal members into his inner circle.
• Eddard confronted Aermir over his militant organization, and Aermir swore he did not seek power for himself and argued that the force would protect the North; Eddard eventually supported the order, and King Robert approved it.
• Aermir cultivated a forest near Moat Cailin and built a bond with Skadi, a snowy owl who gathered sixty owls into a reconnaissance network beyond the Wall.
• Aermir mapped the lands beyond the Wall, learned the Old Tongue, and discovered that the Thenns interacted with organized tribes of giants.
• About a hundred lesser nobles joined the order as Paladins of the Old Gods, while volunteers and Aermir’s magic brought the temple close to completion without his spending money.
• Aermir failed to give the temple’s weirwood a face, but he improved his enchantment skills and learned to imbue weapons and armor with a single enhancement.

Aermir expanded his influence across the North by linking weirwood trees into a network, advancing his druidic magic, and developing improved crops. His selective distribution of fertile seeds increased harvests for followers of the Old Gods and fueled growing discontent with the Seven.

• Aermir used executions as sacrifices to light a sacred weirwood beacon, linking it to the North’s root network and letting him observe areas around other weirwoods.
• Aermir advanced his druidic skills through experiments with poisons, animals, spells, and healing, developing Poison Gas and improving several existing spells.
• Aermir bred edible potatoes that could be harvested twice a year and improved wheat, barley, and corn to better withstand the cold.
• Aermir distributed improved seeds selectively to fervent followers of the Old Gods, whose fields produced two to three times as much as those of the Seven’s followers.
• During the famine, septons demanded a share of struggling farmers’ meager harvests, and many commoners turned away from the Seven to worship the Old Gods.

Aermir reflected on his two years teaching the Stark children to warg and his growing duties as Lord of Moat Cailin before returning to Winterfell to spend time with Robb, Jon, and Sansa. As Arya declared her ambition to surpass him and lead the Knights Templar, Sansa kept her feelings for Aermir hidden.

• Aermir taught the Stark children to extend their bonds beyond their direwolves, and Bran bonded with a crow he named Winter.
• Aermir discovered the Stark children could not cast spells because they lacked magic hearts, while his lessons with them became less frequent.
• Lord Stark granted Aermir the title of Lord of Moat Cailin and ten thousand gold dragons to restore the castle after Aermir helped defend the North.
• Aermir raced with Robb and Jon, sparred with them, and later told them about his service and rise to leadership.
• Aermir praised Sansa's archery at Winterfell, and she concealed her feelings for him as they walked back to the castle.
• Arya leaped onto Aermir's back and declared she would become a warrior of the North and commander of the Knights Templar, then vowed to become a greater warrior than him.

Aermir persuaded Tobho Mott to serve Moat Cailin by promising to share his magical smithing knowledge, then began agricultural reforms to increase food production and trade. The surplus strengthened Moat Cailin’s security, but Aermir’s plans for a port city faced a lack of funding.

• Aermir showed Tobho Mott exceptional armor and a sword, then persuaded him to swear an oath and stay as master smith of Moat Cailin.
• Aermir explained that Tobho would craft and inscribe weapons while he imbued them with magic, and gave him a hundred gold dragons to build a forge.
• Aermir introduced crop rotation, model farms, composting, manure, and natural pest controls across Moat Cailin and its surrounding lands.
• Farmers adopted the new methods, increasing crop yields and allowing Aermir to build food reserves and pursue trade agreements with neighboring regions.
• Aermir planned to establish a port city for more distant trade, but he lacked the funds and would need to negotiate with House Manderly.

Aermir improved public health in Moat Cailin and the surrounding villages through sanitation works, hygiene campaigns, and medical training. The chapter then looked back five months to his council’s plans for three schools designed to educate students while securing their loyalty to Aermir and the Old Gods.

• Aermir hired engineers and used earth magic to speed construction of sewers and waste-treatment facilities around Moat Cailin.
• Aermir promoted cleanliness in the castle and villages and established herbal workshops where healers shared knowledge.
• Aermir trained gifted healers to combine herbs with magic, but their only successful magical potion killed living cells and was safe to drink only after three days.
• Five months earlier, Aermir and his advisers discussed plans for schools for nobles, commoners, and future civil and military officials.
• Aermir said school admissions and teaching would emphasize loyalty to him and the Old Gods, while commoners would receive basic education and officials would study administration, diplomacy, and martial skills.

Aermir expanded commoner education into a guild and military training system while reorganizing and drilling his army. The chapter ended with his ranger companies failing a difficult stag hunt before Aermir killed the animal with a remarkable shot and ordered the soldiers to train harder.

• Aermir established a path from commoner schools into trade guilds and the military academy, structured his army, and trained Caygan and Harrick for intelligence and command roles.
• Aermir took more than half his army to the Flint Mountains, taught tactical formations, and knighted Harick and Caygan as Greenwood.
• Eric asked Harrick whether Emre the Druid had blessed him with giant blood, and Harrick urged him to rely on hard training rather than seek shortcuts.
• Aermir ran mock battles and taught his soldiers to adapt their tactics to the enemy and the terrain.
• Aermir led ranger platoons commanded by Ser Dick and Ser Anguy on a training hunt, but both platoons failed to approach and kill the stag.
• Aermir shot the stag through both eyes with an arrow infused with wind and ordered the soldiers to pay for their failure through hard training.

Aermir reviewed a failed mock battle, warded the Old Gods’ temple with mist rituals, and established a guarded soap workshop to strengthen Moat Cailin’s finances. The soap attracted merchants from neighboring countries and began bringing revenue to the castle.

• Aermir held a feast for his exhausted soldiers, then resumed their training and staged a mock battle between Caygan’s infiltrators and Harrick’s defenders.
• Caygan’s team destroyed the siege equipment and sabotaged supplies but failed to defeat Harrick, and Aermir rebuked Caygan for getting his men killed and Harrick for defending the camp alone.
• Aermir performed four mist rituals around the temple of the Old Gods, making visitors follow the stone road and disorienting those who strayed into the forest.
• Aermir recalled how to make soap with the Identification spell and produced it from natural fats and lye extracted from coal ash.
• Aermir built a guarded soap workshop, hired twenty loyal followers, and sold the soap to merchants whose demand strengthened the castle’s finances.

Aermir expanded his lands’ mining, farming, and charcoal enterprises while preparing for winter. At Casterly Rock, Tywin ordered Gerion north to contact the mysterious Druid and Aermir, but his council’s dismissal of Aermir left him furious.

• Aermir used his elemental abilities to find copper and iron deposits and planned a forging district, while limiting new oaths after binding roughly 1,000 people.
• Aermir used copper for irrigation pipes and established two ecological farming villages, then taught his subjects food preservation to prepare for winter.
• Aermir established a guarded charcoal production site near Flint Forest, intending to supply the castle and export charcoal.
• Tywin learned that his spies could not penetrate the temple, Moat Cailin, or Moonflow Harbor Manor, and decided to send Gerion north to befriend the Druid.
• Tywin ordered Gerion to contact Aermir as well, but Tygett and several advisers dismissed Aermir’s 3,000-man army and accomplishments.
• Tywin defended Aermir’s growing influence, then angrily threw his goblet and dismissed the council.

The Riverlands, House Lannister, and the Vale reacted to Emre the Druid’s growing influence with concern, political maneuvering, and religious opposition. The chapter ended with Vale knights spying on Emre as he preached beneath a weirwood.

• Lord Hoster Tully, Ser Edmure Tully, and Maester Vyman discussed how Emre’s power to improve fertility could weaken the Riverlands’ grain trade, and Edmure proposed sending an envoy north.
• Tywin Lannister ordered spies to investigate Emre, sent ravens to influential houses, and tasked Kevan with secretly meeting the High Septon.
• Lord Yohn Royce urged caution at a Vale council and suggested Hugh Pryor speak with Emre, but Hugh rejected the idea and demanded that Emre’s teachings be stopped.
• Emre preached the Old Gods beneath a weirwood to a gathering that included Robin Flint.
• Ser Harlan and Ser Martyn watched Emre’s gathering, and Harlan accused him of trying to destroy their faith.

Aermir, disguised as Emre the Druid, staged a display of the Old Gods’ power that killed Ser Harlan and Ser Martin and won the crowd’s reverence. He flew away pleased with his performance, intending to use stories of divine punishment to strengthen the Old Gods’ influence and pressure House Manderly and other followers of the Faith of the Seven in the North.

• Ser Harlan and Ser Martin condemned Emre’s reverence for the Old Gods, while Aermir encouraged their anger without directly insulting the Seven.
• Emre summoned mist and roots to demonstrate the Old Gods’ power, but the knights refused his invitation to embrace the ancient faith.
• Emre called upon the Old Gods to judge the knights, and lightning struck and charred Ser Harlan and Ser Martin.
• Robin Flint and the gathered witnesses were awed by the display, and many began to revere Emre and the Old Gods.
• Aermir transformed into an eagle and flew away, reflecting that divine-punishment stories would help his plan against House Manderly and other northern followers of the Faith of the Seven.

Lord Yohn Royce warned King Robert Baratheon and the Small Council that Emre the Druid’s growing power and influence in the North threatened the realm. The council split over whether to ally with Emre or oppose him, while Robert remained unconcerned as long as Emre stayed in the North.

• Lord Yohn Royce told King Robert Baratheon that Emre had forced Northerners to convert and executed Ser Harlan and Ser Martin after they challenged him.
• Varys confirmed that Emre had called up roots to bind the knights and lightning to kill them, but Robert dismissed the danger.
• Lord Yohn Arryn convened the Small Council, where Grand Maester Pycelle urged caution and Petyr Baelish suggested allying with Emre or bringing about his downfall.
• Renly Baratheon warned that Emre’s influence over people and prosperity could shift loyalties, while Stannis Baratheon stressed the need to protect the realm’s stability.
• Robert recalled seeing Emre kill Mandon Ser Moore during the Greyjoy Rebellion and said he would not oppose Emre as long as he stayed in the North.

The High Septon condemned Emre the Druid as a threat to the Faith and called on septons and northern houses to oppose his influence. Wyman Manderly rejected the Faith’s request for support and chose to remain neutral, following Lord Stark’s advice.

• The High Septon denounced Emre the Druid in the Great Sept of Baelor and urged the faithful to resist his teachings.
• Septon leaders discussed organizing patrols and seeking support from northern houses, while one elderly septon warned against reviving the Faith Militant.
• The High Septon sent ravens across Westeros and ordered envoys to appeal to House Manderly, House Locke, and House Hornwood.
• A month later, Wyman Manderly considered the Faith’s request and recalled his son Wendel Manderly’s account of the Druid’s power.
• Wyman refused to denounce Emre or openly reject the Faith, choosing instead to remain neutral and heed Lord Stark’s advice.

Aermir rebuked noble trainee Jorah Glover for looking down on commoners, insisting that all magically gifted priests and priestesses were equal in the eyes of the Old Gods. Over the following months, the temple’s Wargs, Skinchangers, knights, paladins, and spies grew into a united force preparing to protect the North.

• Aermir restrained Jorah with vines and declared that nobles and commoners chosen by the Old Gods were equals within the temple.
• The trainees built friendships across class lines as Wargs such as Athos Tallhart and Isira developed brief bonds with animal companions, while Dacey excelled at Skinchanging.
• Aermir’s followers trained to protect the sacred domain of the Old Gods and became increasingly devoted to his teachings.
• Harrick trained temple knights and paladins, while recruits from across the kingdom joined their growing disciplined force.
• Caygan gathered intelligence across the North, Riverlands, and Vale, and trained the Crow Guard in assassination with help from Essosi professionals.
• Aermir ordered the newly trained assassins to kill their former instructors to keep the Crow Guard’s secrets, beginning a cycle in which they would train their successors.

Olenna Tyrell discussed the rising Druid and the young Lord of Moat Cailin with Willas and Margaery, deciding House Tyrell should cultivate ties and gather intelligence. As the Faith’s crusade against Emre intensified, she arranged for the Tyrells to publicly support it while keeping their options open.

• Olenna told Willas that reports described a rising power in the North called the Druid, whom she viewed as a potential asset.
• Olenna told Margaery that House Tyrell would quietly foster ties with the Druid to learn his intentions.
• Olenna pointed out the achievements of the eighteen-year-old Lord of Moat Cailin, and Willas and Margaery agreed that his influence and popular support warranted attention.
• After hearing of the High Septon’s sermons against Emre the Druid, Olenna concluded that someone was manipulating the High Septon.
• Olenna instructed Margaery to let the Faith wage its crusade while House Tyrell publicly supported it and remained ready to abandon it if it became a liability.

Aermir planned to develop Moat Cailin’s wetlands through aquaculture and edible plants while the search for rice continued. Rumors of Roose Bolton’s growing ties to Emre the Druid unsettled northern lords and widened a disagreement between Catelyn and Eddard Stark.

• Aermir told Athos Snow, Maester Torrhen Reed, and Eddard Snow to explore fisheries and cultivate cattails in Moat Cailin’s wetlands while they searched for rice.
• Roose Bolton sent envoys to Emre the Druid, and rumors that House Bolton had gained the druid’s favor spread among northern lords.
• Lord Greatjon questioned whether the North should submit to Emre and warned his advisers against powers outside House Stark’s banners.
• Jorah Mormont and Maege Mormont discussed Bolton’s possible ambitions, and Maege agreed to send a raven to Dacey for information about the druid.
• Catelyn urged Eddard Stark to distrust Bolton’s dealings with Emre, but Eddard defended their alliances and ended the argument by insisting his decision was final.

At Moat Cailin, Aermir restrained his advisers from retaliating against House Bolton and chose to answer Roose Bolton’s rumors with a counter-rumor campaign. He continued training Dacey Mormont, whose skinchanging had greatly increased her strength and speed, and returned to sparring as Caygan prepared to spread the story.

• Athos told Aermir that House Bolton had spread rumors using his name, prompting Harrick and Jorah to urge an attack on the Dreadfort.
• Aermir rejected an impulsive assault, telling Harrick and Jorah that he would handle House Bolton strategically.
• Aermir sparred with Dacey Mormont, whose skinchanging enhanced her strength and speed, and subdued her in a neck hold.
• Aermir praised Dacey’s potential and said she could eventually defeat the Mountain.
• Aermir ordered Caygan to have the Crow Guard spread a rumor that Roose Bolton had sought Emre the Druid’s favor and been humiliated.
• Aermir resumed training and effortlessly tossed his wargs and skinchangers around without using magic or buffs.

Aermir pursued experiments in his hidden laboratory, developing hardier crop seeds and a spell to alter his facial appearance. After more than a year, he created a cure for Red Fever and planned to make it into affordable pills.

• Rumors of Roose Bolton's humiliation spread across the North, and the gossip deepened divisions among its lords.
• Aermir experimented with mutations and developed seeds that could withstand the North's harsh climate.
• Aermir created a spell that let him subtly change his facial features without altering his bone structure, hair, or eyes.
• Driven by memories of his mother, Aermir spent more than a year studying plants and animals to find a cure for Red Fever.
• Aermir completed a vial of medicine that cured Red Fever and planned to produce it as affordable pills for commoners.

Aemir disguised himself as a shipwrecked traveler and then a wandering bard to spread fear of Emre the Druid and the Old Gods among the people of the Three Sisters. He left Lord Borrell and his knights wary of Emre and inclined to defend the Faith of the Seven.

• Aemir pretended to have washed ashore on Sweetsister and questioned villagers about the island’s people and tensions.
• Aemir told tavern patrons that Emre was undermining the Seven and using magic to turn people from their faith, stirring their fears.
• Aemir repeated his warnings in other towns while changing disguises and steering conversations against Emre.
• Disguised as a bard, Aemir sang Lord Borrell and his knights a ballad portraying Emre as a threat to the Faith of the Seven.
• Aemir claimed that Emre had shown extraordinary powers during the Greyjoy Rebellion, and Lord Borrell and the knights agreed to remain vigilant.