Ser Roland Crakehall

A knight of the Kingsguard, sworn white cloak to King Daeron — big, blunt, and bound by oath to stand wherever the blood royal points him, even in a trial of seven.

The fuller tale

A knight of the Kingsguard sworn to King Daeron II, Ser Roland Crakehall is built along blunt, practical lines — a big man more comfortable executing orders than debating them, which serves him well in a role that asks its wearers to set aside personal judgment in favor of wherever the blood royal happens to point.

That obedience is tested directly when the trial of seven calls him to fight on Prince Aerion’s side, whatever his private opinion of Aerion’s conduct might privately be. His white cloak binds him to stand wherever the crown’s interests require, even into a fight where six good men stand arrayed on the side of plain justice — the Kingsguard’s peculiar cruelty, that duty and rightness are not guaranteed to point the same direction.

The page and the screen

Ser Roland Crakehall’s casting, where announced, follows the novella’s brief but symbolically loaded treatment of him — one of several white cloaks whose personal reluctance the trial forces into the background of a larger obligation.

Where they stand, season by season

Their fate — if death has found them, it is written here. Open at your peril.

The chronicle records no death for this soul — they are living when the tale leaves them, or their ending is a page the maesters have yet to turn.