Roose Bolton

"Fear is what keeps a man alive in this world of treachery and deceit."

- Roose Bolton "Roose has no feelings, you see. Those leeches that he loves so well sucked all the passions out of him years ago. He does not love, he does not hate, he does not grieve. This is a game to him, mildly diverting. Some men hunt, some hawk, some tumble dice. Roose plays with men. You and me... we are but his playthings."

- Barbrey Dustin

Roose Bolton is a character from A Song of Ice and Fire /Game of Thrones. Roose and his bastard son Ramsay Snow become the main antagonists of the story, proving to be even more ruthless and evil than Tywin Lannister and the King Joffrey Baratheon.

In the TV series he is played by Michael McElhatton.

He's the head of House Bolton and Lord of the Dreadfort. He receives regular leechings, which he believes to improve his health, prompting some to call him "The Leech Lord".

Roose Bolton practices the banned and now illegal tradition of the First Night privilege. He is however extremely discreet with his activities in order to avoid the attention and possible ire of House Stark.

Lord Roose fought at the Battle of the Trident during Robert's Rebellion. When Ser Barristan Selmy, seriously wounded, was brought before Robert Baratheon, Roose counselled that they should kill him. Robert ignored Roose and spared Ser Barristan's life, sending his own maester to tend to his wounds.

Just before the War of the Five Kings, Roose's trueborn son Domeric Bolton, the only one who survived the cradle, died of a "bad belly." Having no other trueborn heirs, Roose then brought his bastard son Ramsay Snow to the Dreadfort and made him his unofficial heir.