  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | Risk is part of war. Every battle is a gamble, Snow. The man who does nothing also takes a risk. | „ |
| ~ Richard Horpe |
| “ | It is your courage I question, Justin, not your faith. You have preached defeat every step of the way since we rode forth from Deepwood Motte. It makes me wonder whose side you are on. | „ |
| ~ Richard questioning Justin Massey. |
Ser Richard Horpe is a supporting character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and a minor character in its television adaptation, Game of Thrones. He is a knight from the Stormlands and one of Stannis Baratheon's generals. A bloodthirsty soldier who enjoys battles and killing, he was rejected from joining the Kingsguard for his behavior.
Biography[]
Richard was a squire of House Horpe who wanted to join the Kingsguard, but King Robert I Baratheon chose another knight after Queen Cersei Lannister objected to Richard.
Years later, in 299 AC, the knight Ser Richard is one of the supporters of King Stannis Baratheon in the War of the Five Kings and one of the Queen's men, the men and women that converted to the faith of R'hllor. After the siege of Storm's End and the deaths of King Renly Baratheon and his castellan Ser Cortnay Penrose, Richard is part of Stannis's mounted army marching to King's Landing, while Ser Imry Florent commands the royal fleet. Richard fought in the Battle of the Blackwater, where he survived. When Lord Tywin Lannister arrived with the Tyrells and their respective armies, Horpe and Ser Justin Massey convinced Stannis to retreat to Dragonstone aboard Salladhor Saan's pirate fleet. At Dragonstone, Richard continues to worship R'hllor and take part in the nighfire burnings.
Richard is part of Stannis's small army, sailing aboard Salladhor Saan's fleet to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea at the Wall to answer the Night's Watch's plea for aid against Mance Rayder's wildling host beyond the Wall. Once they arrive at the castle, Richard, Stannis, and their forces are led by Cotter Pyke and his rangers to ride along the Wall from the north in order to reach Castle Black. During the battle beneath the Wall, Richard, supposedly kills Dormund, one of the sons of Tormund.
Rejoining Stannis Court at Castle Black, Richard wishes to claim Winterfell, but Stannis has no intention of granting it to him. Along with Justin, Richard is sent to ride along the kingsroad to scout the south and possibly deliver messages. Because of this, the Night's Watch and Jon Snow think of the two knights as the "wrong-way rangers," as at the Wall, the scouting is supposed to be done north of the Wall.
Back at Castle Black, during Stannis's war council, Richard advocates for laying siege to the Dreadfort but is met with disagreement by the Lord Commander Snow, who advises Stannis to gather the support of the northern mountain clans, as an attack on the Dreadfort is likely what Lord Roose Bolton expects Stannis to do. Only House Karstark declares for Stannis, under the castellan Arnolf Karstark.
Listening to Jon Snow's advice, Stannis and his army depart from Castle Black, but not for the Dreadfort. Richard is part of the host marching to the northern mountains, where they stop at every major clan to feast with their lords, who are honored to host a king. Afterwards, forces of warriors of the northern mountain clans join Stannis's host, who march hidden through the wolfswood, away from the kingsroad, with no scouts or travellers spotting them.
In an attempt to gain more northern support, Stannis and his forces march to the west to fight the ironborn invaders. Richard participates in the fight with Deepwood Motte, in which Stannis is victorious. By chance, the Baratheon forces are aided by House Mormont, who cut off the ironmen's retreat in the wolfswood. Most of Asha's ships in her small fleet are burned by the Mormonts, while the remaining ones are seized by Stannis and remain held at Sea Dragon Point. After capturing Princess Asha Greyjoy, Ser Richard and the rest of Stannis's forces take residence at Deepwood, where Stannis ransoms almost all the surviving ironmen captives to their families, who are able to pay their respective ransoms. Most of the surviving ironmen, highborn and lowborn alike, are returned to the Iron Islands, except for ten prisoners, who are Asha and nine others nicknamed the ragged nine: Tristifer Botley, Qarl the Maid, Cromm, Grimtongue, Fingers, Roggon Rustbeard, Rook, and two badly injured warriors. Cromm later dies from his wounds in prison. After receiving news of Lord Ramsay Bolton's marriage to Arya Stark, Stannis returns Deepwood to House Glover and decides to lay siege to Winterfell to rescue the girl. Houses Mormont, Glover, Umber, and all their respective vassals join the Baratheon army in the march.
Richard serves as Stannis's second-in-command during the march on Winterfell. Along the way, they are joined by members of the Houses Hornwood, Cerwyn, and Tallhart, as well as common men from the Stony Shore. The army finds themselves troubled and slowed by a snow blizzard, which keeps lasting for days. When the host stops at a crofters' village in the wolfswood, Richard tasks his men with getting food by fishing in two nearby lakes. While the northmen and Asha handle the cold and the blizzard, Stannis southron men from the Stormlands, the Reach, and the Crownlands are struggling, and some of them are dying from sickness or accidents in frozen waters. Richard is among those who refuse to give up on the march and insist that they must press on to attack Winterfell. Upon seeing Justin constantly having doubts, he questions Justin's courage and commitment to R'hllor. At one point, Richard, Ser Godry Farring, and other queen's men urge Stannis to burn an unbeliever alive as a sacrifice to R'hllor, although Stannis denies them, stating that half of his army is made of non-believers. Later, however, four men sworn to House Peasebury are sentenced to death by Stannis for cannibalism, and he allows the queen's men to burn them alive as a sacrifice to the Lord of Light.
Stannis's vanguard, which is made of northmen led by Mors Umber, is already at Winterfell, harassing the northern and Frey forces and the Bolton garrison within the castle. One day, Mors's riders arrive at the crofter's village to deliver to Stannis two fugitives: Arya Stark (actually Jeyne Poole) and Theon Greyjoy. The army of House Karstark also joins Stannis's host. The Baratheon forces also learn that they failed to gain the support of White Harbor and that Lord Wyman Manderly executed Lord Davos Seaworth, the Hand of the King, and delivered his head to Queen Cersei in King's Landing for the release of his son Ser Wylis Manderly, and now House Manderly and all the military forces of White Harbor fight for the Boltons and the Iron Throne, much to Stannis's anger (unbeknownst to the army, Davos is still alive and on a secret quest for Lord Manderly, who is not truly loyal to the Boltons).
Not too long after that, Tycho Nestoris, an emissary of the Iron Bank of Braavos, joins Stannis's camp with six ironborn bodyguards, who are almost all the ironborn captives that were left in Deepwood Motte, leaving only two in prison as they were too injured to travel. Tycho ransomed the six ironmen and hired them as his bodyguards so they could bring him to Stannis. Tristifer Botley, Qarl the Maid, Grimtongue, Fingers, Roggon Rustbeard, and Rook join Stannis's war camp as free men. After Tycho delivered Stannis urgent information and news from the Wall by Jon Snow, Richard was present along with Godry and Ser Clayton Suggs when Stannis interrogated Maester Tybald about his loyalties. Tybald, who was part of Stannis's host, presented himself as the maester of Karhold, but Stannis aggressively interrogates him and threatens to give him to the expert and creative torturer Clayton if he does not tell him the truth. After emptying his bladder in terror, Tybald confesses he is the maester of the Dreadfort and confirms what Tycho and Jon told Stannis: that Arnolf Karstark is conspiring with Roose Bolton to betray Stannis in battle.
Richard is put in charge of disarming Arnolf Karstark's men while Stannis breaks his fast with Arnolf, his son Arthor, and three grandsons, who are also captured. Richard and other queen's men advocate for burning Theon Greyjoy alive, although Stannis is skeptical of Richard's sincerity. Meanwhile, Asha tries to argue against the queen's men by begging Stannis to personally behead Theon beneath Winterfell's heart tree after battle, so that Stannis will execute Theon in the old way of the North, under the faith of the Old Gods, as it fits more with Theon's crime of betrayal toward House Stark, as he had sworn allegiance to Robb Stark, the King in the North. Executing Theon like that and burning him alive would make Stannis more popular among the northmen.
Currently, Richard is preparing with Stannis and their forces to engage Winterfell's vanguard, which is all cavalry made of men of the Houses Frey and Manderly and led by Ser Hosteen Frey. Following Stannis's strategy, the army is waiting for them near two frozen lakes in what will be known as the Battle in the Ice. Meanwhile, Tycho and "Arya" are being escorted by Justin and Alysane Mormont back to the Wall, from where Justin is to sail with Tycho back to Braavos, to spend the gold loan Stannis received from the Iron Bank for hiring an army of sellswords.
Gallery[]
External Link[]
- Richard Horpe on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.
