Harrenhal

Harrenhal is the largest castle in the Seven Kingdoms, a vast and ruined fortress in the Riverlands on the north shore of the great lake called the God's Eye. Enormous, gloomy, and widely believed to be cursed, it has brought ruin to nearly every house that has held it since its building.

Harrenhal was raised by Harren Hoare, the ironborn King of the Isles and the Rivers, who labored forty years to build the greatest castle ever seen, working countless captives to death in its construction. He completed it on the very day that Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros.

Geography

Harrenhal is so large that its halls and towers dwarf any other castle in Westeros; its great hall alone could seat thousands, and its stables, kitchens, and yards are built on a giant's scale. Five great towers crown it, twisted and partly melted, named the Tower of Dread, the Widow's Tower, the Wailing Tower, the Tower of Ghosts, and the Kingspyre. So vast is the castle that its later, dwindled garrisons cannot fill or maintain it, and much of it stands empty and crumbling.

The towers are misshapen because they were melted by dragonfire. The God's Eye lake beside the castle holds the Isle of Faces, where the weirwoods and the green men of legend are said to remain.

History

On the day Harren completed his castle, Aegon the Conqueror flew to it on his dragon Balerion the Black Dread and burned Harren and all his line within their new walls, melting stone and roasting the ironborn king. Ever since, Harrenhal has passed through a succession of houses, House Qoherys, Towers, Harroway, Strong, Lothston, Whent, and others, almost all of which have met extinction or disaster, feeding the belief that the castle is cursed.

In the story

During the War of the Five Kings, Harrenhal changes hands many times. Tywin Lannister makes it his base, and Arya Stark, disguised as a serving girl, passes through it in servitude, witnessing its cruelties and bargaining with the assassin Jaqen H'ghar. It is later held by Roose Bolton and by the brutal mercenaries known as the Brave Companions, before passing to others still. Its grim reputation only grows with each new master's fall.