When you think of the heavy hitters in Westeros, your mind probably goes straight to the silver-haired Targaryens riding dragons or the Lannisters dripping in gold. But honestly? They’re just the new kids on the block. Thousands of years before Aegon the Conqueror ever smelled Dragonstone, the First Men families in the Game of Thrones were already carving out kingdoms with bronze swords and weird magic. They aren’t just old. They are the literal foundation of everything George R.R. Martin built. Without them, there's no Wall, no Night’s Watch, and definitely no "Winter is Coming."
Most people forget that the First Men didn’t just show up and start farming. They fought a brutal, generation-spanning war against the Children of the Forest. It was bloody. They burned down the weirwood trees—those creepy white trees with red faces—because they thought the Children were spying through them. Spoiler alert: they totally were. Eventually, they signed a peace treaty called the Pact on the Isle of Faces. This changed everything. They stopped worshiping their old gods and started praying to the nameless gods of the wood. This cultural shift is why we still see "Old Gods" worship in the North today.
The Stark Truth About the Kings of Winter
You can’t talk about First Men families in the Game of Thrones without starting with House Stark. They are the poster children for this era. Founded by Brandon the Builder—a guy who supposedly built the Wall, Winterfell, and maybe even Storm’s End—the Starks represent the rawest form of First Men heritage. While the rest of the world moved on to the Faith of the Seven and shiny steel armor, the Starks stayed stuck in their ways. And thank the gods they did.
There’s a specific kind of grit that comes from First Men blood. It’s why Ned Stark insisted on swinging the sword himself when passing a death sentence. It’s an old-school philosophy: if you’re going to take a life, you owe it to the man to look him in the eye. That’s not just "honor." It’s a remnant of a time when magic was real and blood had weight. The Starks were the "Kings of Winter" for thousands of years, and they didn't get that title by being nice. They spent centuries crushing other First Men rivals like the Barrow Kings and the Red Kings of the Dreadfort.
Think about the crypts of Winterfell for a second. Most families burn their dead or put them in fancy marble tombs. The Starks bury theirs deep underground in the cold, with iron swords across their laps to keep the vengeful spirits inside. That is some heavy, ancient First Men superstition right there. It suggests they know something about death that the southerners have long forgotten.
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The Brutal Legacy of House Bolton
Speaking of the Red Kings, we have to talk about House Bolton. They are the dark mirror to the Starks. While the Starks were busy building walls, the Boltons were busy... well, flaying people. Honestly, it’s one of the grimmest parts of Westerosi history. They are a prime example of how "hard" these ancient families were. For thousands of years, the Boltons were the primary rivals to the Starks in the North. They didn't just fight; they supposedly wore the skins of Stark princes as cloaks.
This isn't just "evil for the sake of evil." In the context of First Men history, flaying might have had a ritualistic, magical purpose. There are theories that by taking the skin of an enemy, you take their power or their "luck." It’s gross, yeah, but it shows the depth of the lore. The Boltons eventually bent the knee, but that First Men blood doesn't go away. It just simmers. When Roose Bolton betrayed Robb Stark at the Red Wedding, he wasn't just being a jerk—he was reviving a rivalry that had been cold for a thousand years.
More Than Just Northerners
A huge misconception is that First Men families are only found in the North. Not true. Not even close. Before the Andal Invasion, the First Men were everywhere. Look at House Blackwood in the Riverlands. They are one of the few houses south of the Neck that still worships the Old Gods. They have a massive, dead weirwood tree in their courtyard that’s been there since the Dawn Age.
Then you’ve got House Royce in the Vale. Their motto is "Remember Our Heritage," and they literally wear "bronze armor" engraved with runes that are supposed to protect them from harm. While the Arryns (who are Andals) rule the Vale, the Royces are the ones who remember what the land was like before the knights arrived. Even the Daynes of Starfall—the guys who produced Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning—have First Men roots. They've been in Dorne for ten thousand years. Their history is so old it’s basically prehistoric.
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Let's look at the Iron Islands. The Greyjoys and other Ironborn houses claim they are different, but they are essentially First Men who went a very different direction. They didn't take up the Old Gods; they stayed with the Drowned God. But the blood is the same. It’s that same stubborn, "we were here first" energy that defines almost every conflict in the books and the show.
Why the Bloodline Actually Matters for the Ending
Why should you care about who is or isn't a First Man? Because of the magic. The "Greensight" and the ability to be a "Warg" (skinchanger) are traits almost exclusively tied to First Men DNA. You don’t see Lannisters or Tyrells warging into wolves. It’s a Stark thing. It’s a Wildling thing. It’s a Reed thing.
The Reeds of Greywater Watch are maybe the most "pure" First Men left. They are small, they live in moving castles in the swamps, and they still have a direct connection to the Children of the Forest. Howland Reed and his kids, Jojen and Meera, are the ones who actually understood the threat of the White Walkers first. They didn't need a maester to tell them; they felt it in the old magic of their blood.
The Andal Invasion: The Great Replacement
About 2,000 to 6,000 years ago (the Maesters can't agree on the date, which is a very human touch by Martin), the Andals showed up with their Seven-Pointed Star and their steel weapons. They basically steamrolled the First Men families in the south. They intermarried, they converted people, and they chopped down the weirwoods.
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But the North held out. The "Mote Cailin" fortress became the graveyard of Andal armies. This is why the North feels like a different country. It is a different country, ethnically and religiously. When you see Jon Snow or Bran Stark, you aren't just seeing "Northern lords." You're seeing the last remnants of a civilization that was almost wiped off the map.
- House Muddy: They used to be the Kings of the Rivers and the Hills. Now they’re extinct.
- House Gardener: Once the Kings of the Reach. Aegon the Conqueror burned them all at the Field of Fire.
- House Durrandon: The original Storm Kings. The Baratheons took their castle, their motto, and their daughter, but the bloodline technically lives on through the female line.
Mapping the Survival of the First Men
If you want to trace the real power in Westeros, you have to look at who survived the Andal purge. House Mormont on Bear Island? First Men. House Karstark? First Men (offshoot of the Starks). House Umber? First Men. These families are hardier because their ancestors survived the Long Night without dragons or fancy Valyrian steel. They did it with bronze and sheer willpower.
The struggle between the "Old" and the "New" is the secret engine of the whole series. The Faith of the Seven is all about rules, bureaucracy, and "knighthood." The First Men way is about the land, the seasons, and the terrifying reality that the world is much older and scarier than we think.
Immediate Steps for the Deep Lore Enthusiast
If you want to understand the First Men families in the Game of Thrones on a deeper level, stop looking at the family trees and start looking at the geography. The places where the First Men influence is strongest are always the places where the magic comes back first.
- Re-read the Bran chapters in A Clash of Kings. Pay attention to how he describes the "smell" of the crypts and the way the weirwood "tastes." It’s very visceral.
- Look into the "Grand Northern Conspiracy" theory. It posits that the First Men families of the North are much more loyal to the Starks than they let on to the Boltons, specifically because of their shared ancient blood.
- Check out The World of Ice & Fire (the big yellow book). It has incredible illustrations of the ancient First Men kings and their weird bronze armor. It helps visualize how different they looked from the knights in the show.
The story isn't over just because the TV show ended. George R.R. Martin has built a world where the past is never really dead. Those ancient families aren't just names on a page; they are the literal ghosts haunting the castles of Westeros. When the wind howls through the trees, that’s the First Men talking. You just have to know how to listen.