Rimegate

Rimegate was a Night's Watch fort that became a rebel stronghold during the short-lived uprising of 50 AC. Its recapture ended the revolt there, but the wider campaign carried a lasting cost: Lord Walton Stark died pursuing the rebels who escaped north, and his brother later blamed King Jaehaerys’s clemency for that loss.

Setting and Rebellion

The uprising began among former Poor Fellows and Warrior’s Sons who had received clemency from the boy king. Led by Olyver Bracken and Raymund Mallery—knights who had served in Maegor’s Kingsguard before abandoning him for Jaehaerys—the rebels turned against the Night's Watch. The Lord Commander had given the two men command of Rimegate and Sable Hall, both crumbling forts, with orders to restore them. Instead, they sought to make the castles their own seats and establish themselves as lords.

Recapture and Flight

The revolt at Rimegate was swiftly put down. For every man of the Night's Watch who joined the rebellion, ten remained true to their vows. With Lord Walton Stark and his bannermen joining the loyalists, the black brothers retook the fort and hanged the oathbreakers; Bracken was beheaded by Walton with Ice. At Sable Hall, news of Rimegate’s fall prompted the rebels to flee beyond the Wall, hoping to make common cause with the wildlings.

Consequences and Significance

Walton pursued the fugitives, but two days north, in the Haunted Forest, giants attacked him and his men. Walton killed two giants before he was dragged from his saddle and killed; his surviving men carried him back to Castle Black. The rebels’ attempt to find refuge among the wildlings also failed: the free folk rejected them, and Mallery’s head was delivered to Eastwatch half a year later. Rimegate thus marks the point where the rebellion was decisively checked, while the pursuit that followed transformed a brief revolt into a lasting grievance. Walton’s brother Alaric, who succeeded him as Lord of Winterfell, blamed the king’s clemency for Walton’s death and argued that Maegor’s former men should have been beheaded rather than sent to the Wall.