House Bolton of the Dreadfort is an extinct noble house from the North. After the Red Wedding, they became the Great House of the North, having usurped their position from their former liege lords, House Stark. Their original lands were in the northeast of the Stark territories. Their stronghold was a castle called the Dreadfort and the head of the house was the Lord of the Dreadfort. House Bolton was infamous for its centuries-old practice of flaying their enemies alive, to the point that they used a flayed man as their House sigil.
|
Roose Bolton was the head of House Bolton, a vassal family to House Stark of Winterfell. He was the Lord of the Dreadfort. Roose takes pride in his house sigil; the flayed man. Although torture is outlawed in the North, his family is famous for flaying the skin from their enemies as a means of torture and execution. Roose fought for Eddard in the civil war as Robert's Rebellion and proved his worth as a soldier in the Battle of the Trident. Roose had a trueborn son, Domeric, by his first wife, who perished, forcing Roose to rely on his bastard son, Ramsay Snow.
Ramsay Snow is Lord Roose Bolton's bastard son and the product of rape. Ramsay is Roose's only living child following the death of Domeric Bolton, as well as the only possible heir to House Bolton until the birth of a child by Roose's new wife, Walda Frey. He stays behind as castellan of the Dreadfort when his father left for the south to fight in the War of the Five Kings. Ramsay keeps a pack of dogs, which he employs for hunting. He is also in a relationship with Myranda, whom he supposedly planned to marry before his father ultimately had him legitimized.
|
The Boltons supposedly gave up the practice of flaying after bending the knee to House Stark, and centuries later Lord Eddard Stark outlawed flaying in the North altogether, but the Boltons continued the practice. This resulted in them being despised and feared by many of the Northern houses, especially after their betrayal of House Stark and their torching of Winterfell. Shortly before the Battle of the Bastards, Lord Ramsay Bolton murdered his father, Lord Roose Bolton, taking his father's titles and ranks.
|