Hother Umber

Hother Umber, known throughout the north as Whoresbane, is the younger uncle of Jon Umber, the Greatjon, and a veteran warrior of grim reputation. His epithet derives from an incident in Oldtown fifty years before the present conflict, when he disemboweled a whore who tried to rob him—a whore who, it is whispered, was actually a man. This act, and the name it earned him, mark him as a man of brutal pragmatism, feared and respected in equal measure.

Role at Winterfell and Alliance with the Boltons

After the Red Wedding, with the Greatjon held captive by the Freys, Hother Umber becomes the effective leader of House Umber in the north. He marches south with Ramsay Bolton to attack Moat Cailin, bringing three hundred spearmen and a hundred archers, along with some Hornwood and Cerwyn men. At Winterfell, he is a prominent figure in Roose Bolton's host, seated at the high table and treated with wary respect by the other northern lords. His presence is a key part of Bolton's strategy to consolidate power, as the Umbers are one of the most powerful houses in the north.

Tensions and the Northern Remembers

Despite his alliance with the Boltons and Freys, Whoresbane is not a man who has forgotten the Red Wedding. At Winterfell, he is grim-faced and scowling, and his loyalty is openly questioned by others. When the Freys accuse Wyman Manderly of murdering their kin, Hother Umber is present, and the underlying tensions between the northern lords and their new overlords are palpable. He is one of the lords who, along with Manderly, the Ryswells, and others, is suspected of nursing a deep-seated hatred for the Freys, held in check only by the fact that the Freys hold the Greatjon captive. His presence at the wedding of Ramsay Bolton to the false Arya Stark is a testament to the precarious nature of Bolton's rule, where every northern lord is a potential enemy waiting for the right moment to strike.