House Rosby

A small, ancient house seated at the castle of Rosby on the kingsroad north of King's Landing ÔÇö poor in swords but fat in coin, thanks to the traffic that passes their gates.

The fuller tale

Rosby is a house whose strength was never measured in armies. Its castle sits close enough to the capital that its lords are forever in the current of court, and rich enough on trade and land that greater houses have long eyed its inheritance. In the books its face is old Lord Gyles Rosby, a grey and coughing man who seems always one winter from the grave, cautious to the point of paralysis, and valuable chiefly for his empty coffers being full. Cersei Lannister names him her master of coin precisely because a man who wants nothing and offends no one is easy to seat on a council.

When Gyles finally dies, the scramble over his lands and his young ward shows exactly how the game is played over the small houses: a lord matters less for what he did in life than for what falls loose when he dies. Rosby fields few spears, but a castle a day's ride from the Iron Throne is a prize worth quiet murder.