Race: Stormlander
Sex: Female
Faction: House Baratheon / House Stark
Rating: 6.4
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Arena Status: Active (S2)
Brienne Tarth, heir of Evenfall Hall and the only living child of Lord Selwyn Tarth, stands as one of the most distinctive and tragic figures in the narrative web of A Song of Ice and Fire. Mocked across Westeros as "Brienne the Beauty," she is neither courtly nor conventionally feminine, but hers is a tale woven with iron sincerity, uncompromising moral clarity, and an evolving concept of what it means to be a knight in a realm where oaths are bartered like coin. Her story spans five novels, from A Clash of Kings through A Dance with Dragons, and intersects deeply with figures such as Renly Baratheon, Catelyn Stark, Jaime Lannister, and even the undead Lady Stoneheart. She is featured in Game of Thrones, portrayed by Gwendoline Christie, though with key divergences from her literary arc.
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| Brienne, the Maid of Tarth |
What Does Brienne of Tarth Look Like?
By Westerosi standards, Brienne is the antithesis of the ideal noblewoman. George R.R. Martin describes her as “horse-faced,” flat-chested, over six feet tall, heavily freckled, and bearing a nose that has clearly been broken multiple times. Her hair is a coarse straw-blonde, her teeth are crooked, and her fingers are thick and callused from constant weapon training. Yet she has strikingly beautiful blue eyes, a rare feature often remarked upon by others, most notably Jaime Lannister, who once reflected that “in this light, she could almost be a beauty…in this light, she could almost be a knight.” She dresses in cobalt blue armor, favors a velvet doublet over silk, and rides a black destrier barded in the heraldry of House Tarth—sun and crescent moon, quartered rose and azure.
What Is Brienne’s Personality Like?
Brienne's personality is as uncompromising as her sword arm. Raised with derision and isolation, she developed a blunt, dutiful nature that prizes honor above all else. She is not only physically strong, but emotionally resilient, though socially awkward and perpetually self-conscious. She clings to an idealized vision of knighthood that is increasingly rare in a world dominated by cynicism. She tells Catelyn Stark, “Young or old, a true knight is sworn to protect those who are weaker than himself, or die in the attempt.” Unlike the Mormont women, who are respected as warriors despite their sex, Brienne’s attempts to embody the knightly ideal expose her to both ridicule and violence. She is sincere to a fault, a quality Jaime Lannister describes as “loyal past the point of sense.”
What Is Brienne’s Background and Family History?
Brienne was born on the island of Tarth, the only surviving child of Lord Selwyn. Her mother died in her infancy, and her older brother Galladon drowned when she was four. Two other sisters died in infancy. Her father made multiple attempts to arrange a suitable marriage, but these were humiliating failures. Ronnet Connington famously gave her a rose and declared it “all she would have of him.” Another betrothed, Ser Humfrey Wagstaff, told her she must act like “a proper woman.” Brienne broke three of his bones and the engagement along with them. After these disasters, Selwyn stopped matchmaking and allowed her to train as a warrior under Ser Goodwin.
What Happens to Brienne in A Clash of Kings?
Brienne first appears serving Renly Baratheon, who she idolizes. After proving herself in a melee by besting Ser Loras Tyrell, she is inducted into the Rainbow Guard as Brienne the Blue. Her loyalty to Renly is unquestioning; she even cries upon his marriage to Margaery Tyrell. When Renly is assassinated by a shadow conjured by Melisandre, Brienne is accused of his murder. With Catelyn Stark’s aid, she escapes and pledges herself to Lady Stark’s service, taking with her Renly’s sword.
What Role Does Brienne Play in A Storm of Swords?
Brienne escorts Jaime Lannister from Riverrun to King’s Landing, a journey that forges one of the most complex relationships in the series. She saves him from capture, withstands insults, defeats him in combat while he is still shackled, and is ultimately mutilated by the Brave Companions alongside him. Brienne’s unwavering adherence to honor even while imprisoned at Harrenhal inspires Jaime, who returns to rescue her from a bear pit. Their mutual respect—and something more ambiguous—takes root. Upon arrival in King's Landing, she is accused by Loras Tyrell of murdering Renly, but is eventually vindicated by Jaime.
Jaime gifts her a reforged Valyrian steel blade—Oathkeeper—and sends her to find and protect Sansa Stark, honoring a promise made to Catelyn. Brienne accepts the quest without hesitation, recognizing the sword not just as a weapon, but a symbol of trust and identity.
What Does Brienne Do in A Feast for Crows?
Armed with Oathkeeper and Jaime’s letter of royal protection, Brienne embarks on a deeply melancholic search for Sansa. She takes Podrick Payne as her squire and traverses the war-torn riverlands, encountering outlaws, traitors, and the traumatized peasantry left in the wake of the War of the Five Kings. Her journey leads her to confront former Brave Companions—killing Rorge, and nearly dying to Biter. Gendry ultimately saves her, but the Brotherhood Without Banners, now led by the resurrected Lady Stoneheart (Catelyn Stark), captures her.
Brienne is ordered to kill Jaime or be hanged. When Podrick is threatened, she appears to yield, screaming “sword!”—a word loaded with desperate implication.
What Is Brienne’s Role in A Dance with Dragons?
Brienne makes a brief but pivotal appearance. She finds Jaime Lannister and tells him Sansa is in danger from Sandor Clegane, requesting he accompany her alone. Her sudden reemergence—especially given her earlier sentence—suggests she may be operating under duress or manipulation, possibly coerced by Lady Stoneheart. The full implications remain unclear, but her entanglement in the Brotherhood’s agenda points toward a dark trajectory.
Why Is Brienne an Important Character?
Brienne functions as both a character and a thematic contradiction. She embodies the ideal knight—protective, selfless, loyal—while being denied the title. Her presence exposes the hollowness of Westeros’s knightly codes. She does not kill for glory, she does not lie for gain, and she does not abandon oaths even when the realm collapses around her. Her blade may be called Oathkeeper, but it is her life that bears that name more truly.
She is also, paradoxically, one of the most emotionally raw figures in the story. Her yearning for love and acceptance makes her vulnerable in ways that her armor cannot conceal. Her loyalty to Renly, her relationship with Jaime, and her duty to Catelyn all reveal an internal compass that, unlike most in Westeros, does not bend with the wind.
Does Brienne Appear in the TV Series?
Yes. Brienne is portrayed by Gwendoline Christie in HBO’s Game of Thrones. While the series captures much of her dignity and moral clarity, it diverges significantly from the books in tone, relationships, and final outcomes. In the show’s final season, she is knighted by Jaime and serves briefly on Bran Stark’s Kingsguard. These events, though emotionally resonant, remain speculative in the canon of George R.R. Martin’s novels.
Final Thoughts
Brienne of Tarth stands apart in Westeros, not because of her strength, or even her sex, but because of her unwavering refusal to let the world make her cruel. She is an oath in motion—broken, scarred, misunderstood—but still striving. Her story is not one of conquest, but of endurance. Not of power, but of principle. And in the end, that may prove more subversive than any dragon.
Brienne of Tarth's Raw Power
Brienne Tarth’s battlefield presence is formidable for a purely human combatant, yet when judged against the great spell-flingers, elemental warlords, and demi-titans that populate wider fantasy canon, her ceiling is naturally constrained. Her score of 6.0 out of 10 balances three separate pillars—physical Strength, nonexistent Magical Ability, and hard-earned Combat Prowess—each weighted by scope, consistency, and peak feats. The result places her a full stride above ordinary knights but still two tiers beneath the epoch-shaping juggernauts who can tear cities from their foundations.
Strength
George R. R. Martin describes Brienne as “well over six feet tall,” broad-shouldered, and heavy enough that even Jaime Lannister, at peak conditioning, struggles to match her shove-for-shove while manacled. On the tourney field at Bitterbridge she shattered visored helms with a morningstar, knocking seasoned knights unconscious through full plate. Later, at Duskendale, she scaled a ninety-foot cliff hauling chain mail, sword, and a wounded companion—an endurance feat few armored soldiers could replicate. In straight power terms she operates on the upper human boundary: she can wrestle grown men into submission, parry two-handed axes one-handed, and deliver shield-rushes that bowl over destriers. Yet sinew will always have a ceiling; she cannot flip siege engines or snap iron gates without leverage.
Magical Ability
Brienne wields no sorcery, channels no eldritch aura, and has never displayed latent talent for skinchanging, glamour, or miracle. The most enchanted item she carries is Oathkeeper, whose Valyrian steel grants peerless sharpness and resilience but confers no active spell effects. Her immunity to glamour or curse is likewise untested; there is no evidence she can shrug off hexes through willpower alone. Against adversaries who bend the elements or twist reality, she must solve problems with steel, terrain, or allies, never with counter-magic.
Combat Prowess
Where brute force ends and swordcraft begins, Brienne excels. She has trained since childhood under Ser Goodwin and later refined her technique through endless melees, river skirmishes, and life-or-death duels. During her escape from Riverrun she dispatched three outlaw blades in a heartbeat, opening with a shield-bash, rolling into a knee strike, and finishing with a reverse-grip cut—all while protecting a shackled prisoner. Her duel with a freshly released Jaime, still proud and deadly despite captivity, revealed not only superior physical leverage but smarter tempo: she cycled from high guard to grapple, using the riverbank’s mud as a hidden ally to sap his footing. At Maidenpool she recognized a feigned surrender, pivoted into a shoulder throw, and neutralized Ser Hyle Hunt without lethal force.
Tactically, Brienne reads stance, grip, and emotional fatigue as fluently as other knights read banners. She targets knees to end fights quickly, guards the weak with circular footwork, and trusts no victory until the foe’s weapon lies on the ground. Her single glaring flaw is over-commitment; she absorbs wounds that could be avoided if she yielded initiative. Against multiple opponents wielding missile weapons she is vulnerable, as seen when Brave Companions beat her down before hacking Jaime’s wrist.
Brienne of Tarth's Tactical Ability
Tactical Ability Rating: 6.5 / 10
Brienne of Tarth is not a banner-unfurling general who maps campaigns across continents, yet her travels reveal a quietly competent tactician whose instincts keep her—and those she guards—alive in half-ruined castles, outlaw-ridden riverlands, and the shifting politics of court. Measuring her performance against the broadest catalogue of fantasy commanders, she earns a score of 6.5 out of 10 that is solidly above average: quick to read danger, inventive under pressure, and buttressed by a modest but reliable network of assets, though ultimately constrained by limited authority and a sometimes linear style of thinking.
Strategic Mind
Brienne’s strategic sense excels in localised conflict where terrain and timing decide outcomes. During her overland journey from Storm’s End to Bitterbridge, she redirected a baggage train onto an abandoned hunter’s trail when scouts reported fresh hobnail prints on the main track; hours later, brigands sprang a fruitless ambush on empty wagons while her detachment slipped through dense oak scrub unscathed. Her night entry into Saltpans shows similar foresight: anticipating crossbows behind shuttered lofts, she advanced under cover of a laundry cart, forcing defenders to choose between blind shots or surrender—an economy of force that saved townsfolk from a looting reprisal. What limits her is scale. When the Brotherhood Without Banners tightened patrol rings around the Trident crossings, she reacted rather than anticipated, ping-ponging between ferries until local fishermen refused her coin. The incident highlights a planning horizon measured in leagues and days, not kingdoms and seasons, placing her strategic aptitude at competent but not visionary.
Resourcefulness
Where strategy ends, ingenuity begins, and here Brienne thrives. Starved of coin near Crackclaw Point, she bartered two links from her mail hauberk for coastal passage, then reforged the gap with a fireplace poker hammered flat over driftwood—crude, but proof that every scrap can become an asset. When a fever laid Podrick low outside Fairmarket, she raided a long-abandoned watchtower for dried pine resin, brewed a pungent poultice, and reduced his delirium before dawn. In Harrenhal’s library she copied, by moonlight, a faded quartermaster’s roster and later used the scribbled sigils to bluff passage through three separate checkpoints, claiming to transport “Lord Lothston’s winter stores.” Each improvisation buys time, space, or credibility without external cavalry. Her lone blind spot surfaces when emotion overrides calculation; confronted with Randyll Tarly’s scorn, she wasted an entire morning contesting his insults instead of gathering river intelligence, a lapse that cost her a half-day detour. Even so, her day-to-day problem-solving ranks high in any universe, earning her Resourcefulness a robust grade.
Resource Arsenal
Unlike high lords who command mailed hosts or archmages who wield bound efreeti, Brienne’s toolkit is humble but not negligible. She carries Oathkeeper, whose Valyrian edge alone can tilt skirmishes, and a royal writ bearing Tommen Baratheon’s seal—leverage that unlocks gates in holdfasts still loyal to the crown. Her familial banner of House Tarth opens doors among Stormlanders, and her reputation with Ser Hyle Hunt, Septon Meribald, and the inn-keeps of the Trident grants modest lines of shelter and gossip. Yet these assets hinge on personal rapport rather than institutional weight; should she lose the seal or fall out with a companion, the arsenal shrinks quickly. Nor does she possess a standing cadre of scouts, smiths, or sappers to execute larger designs. Compared across worlds where strategists field sky-ships or undead legions, her resource base sits in the upper-low tier—useful, adaptable, but undeniably finite.
Brienne of Tarth's Influence
Brienne’s ability to shape the choices of others is rooted in an unpolished sincerity that cuts through Westerosi cynicism, yet her reach rarely extends far beyond the road she is walking. Knights, squires, and commoners who meet her face-to-face often find themselves disarmed by her earnest code, but lords in high towers still dismiss her as an oddity. Weighing her performance in Persuasion, Reverence, and Willpower against the full spectrum of fantasy figures yields a composite 6.0 out of 10: respectable, occasionally stirring, but not epoch-turning.
Persuasion
Brienne’s conversational arsenal has no silvered compliments or courtly flourishes; she trades in blunt truths and quiet constancy. On the rain-slick parapet outside Storm’s End, she convinced a wary Ser Robar Royce to hear out her innocence only moments after Renly’s murder—an appeal made while swords were still wet with his blood. Later, deep in the Kingsroad woodlands, she cajoled a terrified shepherd lad into guiding her through a secret cattle track by promising to rescue the boy’s sister from marauders, a pledge she kept the same night. Yet her unvarnished style falters in formal chambers: Randyll Tarly’s rough justice at Maidenpool remained unmoved by her plain-spoken self-defence, and a Blackwood envoy dismissed her warning of bandit ambush because she lacked the diplomatic credentials to press the point. Her persuasion therefore proves potent in intimate crisis, far weaker in institutional politics, averaging to a mid-tier impact.
Reverence
Reputation follows Brienne in uneven ripples. In small septs along the Roseroad the faithful still whisper about the “Blue Maid” who pulled a half-collapsed bell tower clear of trapped novices during a summer squall—a deed retold at harvest sermons. Hedge knights recall the dusk when she broke Ser Illifer Salt’s lance in the opening pass and immediately knelt to bind his shattered arm before claiming victory coin. Such episodes earn her local admiration and, occasionally, a fireside ballad. However, at court her name stirs smirks more often than awe. The Tyrell retinue pegged her as an uncouth curiosity until the melee at Bitterbridge (an event renowned in songs but rarely cited in Highgarden ledgers). In King’s Landing, gold cloaks still reduce her identity to “the wench with the sword,” forgetting that she rode through four city gates bearing Tommen’s own seal. In short, Brienne inspires deep respect among common folk and rank-and-file soldiers who witness her deeds, but she has yet to forge the kind of legend that echoes across realms. Her reverence score therefore lands below the realm-shaping luminaries yet above anonymous sellswords.
Willpower
If influence may also be measured by the force a person exerts upon their own soul, Brienne stands near unshakable. When an untreated infection sent fever-dreams skittering through her mind in a barn outside Maidenpool, she still forced herself awake every hour to turn Podrick’s moaning body so he would not drown in his own sweat. After the inn at the crossroads erupted in slaughter and a spear tore her thigh, she hobbled half a league to drag three orphaned children clear of a brush fire sparked by the fighting—an act performed while blood soaked her boot with each step. Even her enemies feel that gravity: one repentant outlaw later testified to a septon that the Maid of Tarth “looked at me as if the Seven Themselves were weighing my heart.” That moral mass does not buckle under pain, exhaustion, or despair; it radiates outward and bends other wills, if only within a close radius. In the currency of internal fortitude she scores high, nudging the overall Influence average upward.
Brienne of Tarth's Resilience
Brienne of Tarth’s endurance is forged in bruises and indignities rather than spellcraft or divine favor. She has weathered shattered bones, relentless mockery, and the noose itself without surrendering her purpose. Measured against a multiverse where some champions reincarnate at a whim and others shrug off volcanoes, she occupies a sturdy middle‐high tier, with a score of 7 out of 10. Her score balances three axes—Physical Resistance, Magical Resistance, and Longevity—and reflects a survivor who bleeds freely yet refuses to break.
Physical Resistance
Brienne’s frame, already massive, has been reinforced by years of punishing drills and live steel contests. Early proof emerged at the tourney of Bitterbridge: six consecutive tilts left her right collarbone cracked, yet she fought through the final melee, disarming Ser Gallard Ashford with a blindside pommel strike despite visible swelling. Later, when a collapsing barn roof caught her between beam and truss during a night raid near Raventree, she leveraged the debris off her back, staggered outside, and immediately hoisted a trapped stableboy over one shoulder for half a mile to the healer’s tent. The healers recorded “bruising the color of a sunset from neck to thigh” but no spinal damage—a testament to dense musculature and instinctive fall-bracing technique learned sparring against heavier foes on Tarth. Even protracted abuse fails to dim her reflexes. During the forced march from Maidenpool to Harrenhal in iron fetters, she covered the same distance as mounted captors, subsisting on half rations, and still burst into a sprint when a gaoler lost his grip, wrestling him down before the others reacted.
Magical Resistance
Westeros offers few metrics for arcane durability, yet Brienne’s travels expose her to sorcerous threats—from glamoured assassins to wildfire traps. Her lack of spell training leaves no active countermeasures, but neither does she crumble under occult pressure. While escorting a septon’s reliquary along the Blackwater Rush, she passed within yards of lingering wildfire pools; the inhaled fumes felled three men with seizures, yet she continued rowing until clear air revived her oarsmen. On another occasion a hedge-wizard’s fear hex struck her escort, sending mailed veterans fleeing into thorn scrub; Brienne advanced through the spell’s radius, her heartbeat spiking but her grip unshaken, and broke the caster’s staff with one downward hack. Scholars later suggested her ironclad focus blunted the mind-magic’s bite—proof that willpower can serve as a crude ward. Still, she lacks resistance to direct transmutation or soul-binding rites; a determined warlock could exploit that gap. Thus, in a wider cosmos teeming with psionic shields and anti-spell auras, her Magical Resistance stands at 5: commendable for a non-mage, yet plainly mortal.
Longevity
Resilience encompasses not just shrugging off cuts but enduring the long campaign. Here Brienne’s score rises again. Consider the cumulative ledger: at seventeen she broke two ribs in a meleé at Haystack Hall; at twenty she suffered a compound forearm fracture defending Evenfall’s quay; by twenty-three she had lost two teeth to mailed fists outside Renly’s pavilion. Each time she returned to training within moons, adopting new guard positions to protect healing limbs. Her recovery habits—honeyed oat poultices, cold-water immersions, and nightly isometric holds with a weighted pole—reflect a discipline that slows scar tissue and preserves range of motion. She also displays remarkable tolerance for deprivation. During the winter march from Duskendale to Darry she slept three hours a night in frozen mail without fever, whereas hardier born soldiers collapsed with lung blight. Finally, she has twice confronted imminent execution: once by outlaw gallows and later under Lady Stoneheart’s judgment. Both times she maintained mental clarity, bargaining for her squire’s life before her own—a steadiness that hints she could survive imprisonment, exile, or protracted siege. Nonetheless, she remains bound to natural lifespan and lacks supernatural comeback; a single mislaid artery would finish her story. Factoring hardiness, convalescence speed, and psychological stamina, her Longevity merits 8.
Brienne of Tarth's Versatility
Brienne of Tarth thrives not because she dominates any single arena but because she retools herself, again and again, to meet threats that shift like river mud beneath her boots. From storm-lashed coastal keeps to bandit-ridden willow roads, she proves unusually elastic for a warrior forged in the rigid caste of Westerosi knighthood. The calculus behind her 6.5 score weighs three vectors—Adaptability, Luck, and the elusive Shaved Knuckle in the Hole—each illuminating a different facet of her capacity to pivot when circumstance demands.
Adaptability
Brienne’s life is a procession of rapid costume changes, literal and figurative. After the fall of Riverrun she slipped through siege lines by swapping her cobalt plate for a squire’s drab doublet, dulling the edge of Oathkeeper with soot so it resembled common steel. When that same river crossing washed out its main span, she repurposed discarded coracle frames into makeshift pontoon planks, lashing them with horse-tack to float her injured squire across before daylight betrayed their silhouettes. Combat adjustments follow the same pattern. In the torchlit crypts beneath Evenfall she shortened her grip to half-sword against tight arches, using mailed fists to drive opponents into walls where their polearms became liabilities. Weeks later, facing sellsword outriders on the windswept ridge above Sow’s Horn, she lengthened her footwork to kite three faster spearmen until they tired in chainmail heat, then counter-charged downhill for decisive momentum. These shifts—from disguise to engineering improvisation to stance manipulation—show a warrior who refuses to ossify. Still, her adaptability is bounded by a mortal toolkit; she cannot conjure illusions or pilot sky-ships when terrain turns truly alien. Even so, within the human scope she earns a vigorous mark.
Luck
Brienne would scoff at claims of fortune, yet improbable favor dogs her steps. During a midnight jaunt through the storm-shattered orchards of Acorn Hall, a freak lightning flash illuminated a concealed pit seconds before her destrier would have plunged, granting her just enough time to wrench the reins. Days later, while scouting the weed-choked trenches outside Hayford, she stumbled upon a long-buried wine cache—usable barrels miraculously intact—which she traded to a hedge company for fresh mounts and a river chart that shaved a fortnight off her pursuit. Most telling is her brush with Lady Stoneheart’s gallows: the noose had already bitten skin when a sudden commotion—some say an arrow from unseen allies, others the accidental discharge of a nervous outlaw’s crossbow—snapped the branch and bought Brienne precious seconds to bargain for Podrick’s life, turning certain death into reluctant parole. Such episodes do not elevate her to uncanny destiny, but they tip odds often enough to matter, lifting her Luck component to slightly above the cosmic median.
Shaved Knuckle in the Hole
Beneath the obvious advantages of size and sword lies a subtler edge: Brienne’s capacity to weaponize underestimation. Lords see an ungainly maiden; raiders see a lone traveller; few anticipate the tactical library humming behind those earnest blue eyes. On the wind-battered decks of a Saltpans fishing cog she posed as a mute deckhand, patiently gleaning salted rumors of a Stark girl from drunken smugglers before revealing her lineage with a flourish of the royal seal. In a septry granary outside Fairmarket she used her encyclopedic recall of chivalric ballads—memorized in childhood nights when singers visited Evenfall—to lull orphan sentries into trading local passwords, granting her after-hours access without spilling a drop of blood. And when Oathkeeper finally leaves its scabbard, its Valyrian bite carries an intrinsic surprise for foes who still think her longsword a tourney relic. These hidden layers—scholarly memory, social camouflage, and a blade most assume is mere castle-steel—constitute her trump card. Nevertheless, each surprise expends itself after first use; repetition breeds familiarity, muting the edge. Hence the Shaved Knuckle factor props, but does not skyrocket, her overall versatility.
Brienne of Tarth's Alignment
Brienne of Tarth is a human of Westerosi stock, born to the Stormlander noble line of House Tarth on the sapphire-blue island of Evenfall. Though her stature and martial vocation set her apart from the lace-veiled women of her class, her race carries no inherent supernatural traits, and she relies solely on sinew, steel, and a relentless moral compass. Over the course of the War of the Five Kings she serves—or is bound to—several banners: first Renly Baratheon as a Rainbow Guard knight-in-all-but-name, then Lady Catelyn Stark as sworn sword and emissary, and finally King Tommen’s court through the personal commission of Ser Jaime Lannister. Yet these shifting loyalties never fracture her core allegiance to the chivalric ideal itself; faction is merely the vessel through which she pursues an oath.
Those oaths are invariably cast in the service of the powerless. She intervenes when hedge knights wager on her body, breaks spears to free starving orphans near the Trident, and risks certain death at Lady Stoneheart’s noose so her squire Podrick and the wounded Ser Hyle might live. Even when ordered by Jaime to track Sansa Stark, she treats that command not as royal fiat but as a personal debt owed to a dead mother who once showed her respect. In Westerosi terms she mirrors the Seven-Pointed Star’s vision of a perfect knight, yet the realm refuses her the title because she is a woman. Rather than bend to bigotry, she soldiers on outside the codified structure of the Kingsguard or any sworn brotherhood, choosing honor over heraldry whenever the two diverge.
That pattern clarifies her place on the alignment grid: Chaotic Good. On the moral axis Brienne is unequivocally good—driven by compassion, protective of innocents, and unwilling to secure her own safety at another’s expense. On the order-versus-freedom axis she is chaotic, not because she courts lawlessness, but because she subordinates written codes to an inner sense of justice. When Lord Randall Tarly cites chain-of-command to bar her from searching the Crownlands, she departs anyway, convinced that a missing girl outweighs a marshal’s decree. When Jaime assures her that a signed letter from King Tommen grants safe passage, she nonetheless forges on disguised as a hedge knight because stealth, not protocol, best serves her vow. Even her eventual acceptance of a royal writ functions as a tool, not a shackle; the moment that parchment imperils innocents, she is prepared to tear it up.
Crucially, her chaotic bent is principled rather than capricious. She does not rebel for pride or amusement; she rebels because Westerosi law—shaped by men born to swords and politics—has failed to shelter the vulnerable. If a true, inclusive system of knighthood ever embraced her, Brienne would follow its strictures to the letter, but until that dawn she remains self-directed, answering to a code too exacting for the age that mocks her. Race and faction supply context, but her alignment springs from the collision between a rigid feudal world and a heart that refuses its crooked geometry. Pride and Prophecy keeps an updated character alignment matrix across all planes of existence.
Brienne of Tarth's Trophy Case
Arena Results
Titles & Postseason Results
Halls of Legend Records
Overall Conclusion on Brienne of Tarth and Position Across Planes of Existence
Brienne of Tarth’s composite rating of 6.4 captures a warrior whose excellence remains unmistakable yet mortal, a champion who earns victory by calloused hands and unblinking honor rather than by sorcerous spectacle. Her Raw Power sits at 6: she can hew plate in half, out-wrestle most knights, and wield Valyrian steel with trained precision, but she cannot summon flame nor smite foes across a valley. Her Tactical Ability (6.5) shows a quick, ground-level mind—adept at reading terrain, improvising cover, and repurposing scrap into siege ladders—though grand strategy eludes her. Influence (6.0) is intimate rather than imperial: she can sway a sellsword at sword-point or win a peasant’s loyalty with a single rescued child, yet high lords still dismiss her. Resilience (7) reflects a body that endures shattered ribs and a spirit that withstands the noose. Versatility (6.5) crowns the whole: whether disguised as a washerwoman or steering a fishing cog through breakers, she retools her skills to fit the hour. Averaged and weighted, these facets anchor her firmly above the universal mean while acknowledging ceilings she cannot breach.
Across planes of existence, that 6.4 translates into three distinct operating tiers. On a Prime-Material analogue—any realm where steel, muscle, and resolve dictate the flow of infantry lines—Brienne functions as a near-elite asset. Give her a modest shield wall and she becomes its unyielding hinge, buying minutes that decide sieges. In the Fey-tinted border realms, where enchantment saturates the air but magic remains fallible, she is a mortal bulwark: illusions might cloud her eyes, yet her battlefield composure and Valyrian blade allow her to carve a path to the enchanter himself. She may not dispel the glamour, but she survives long enough for allies to do so. Within high-magic outer planes—where archons manifest radiant wings and pit fiends hurl meteors—her role narrows to a point of defiant, almost tragic heroism. She will guard the portal while archmages duel in the heavens, fully conscious that an errant spell could erase her. It is precisely this willingness to stand anyway that preserves her rating’s upper edge: few purely human fighters can remain relevant—even as a delaying force—once cosmic artillery begins to roar.
Two intangible qualities bolster her score. First is her moral gravity. In worlds awash with sorcerers who bend the elements, it is astonishing how often armies waver when confronted by a single unbreakable conscience. Men who would never bow to a crown sometimes lower their swords before Brienne’s blue-eyed certainty, sensing that killing her would profane something larger than stone-and-blood politics. Second is her capacity to weaponize underestimation. Foes who see only a “wench in mail” forget that size, leverage, and a drilled center-line can topple cavalry. By the time they recognize their misjudgment, Oathkeeper has already drawn a crimson ledger down their cuirass.
Yet ceiling is ceiling. Against demigods she lacks the soaring durability of enchanted plate; against arch-mages she has no wards; against galactic tacticians she cannot read the theater beyond her sight line. Therefore 6.4: a badge of achievement for any mortal, a reminder that the cosmos still towers overhead, and a precise placement for a knight whose greatest miracle is remaining true when miracles are scarce. Pride and Prophecy keeps an updated power ranking across all planes of existence. This will only be sortable on desktop viewing. The below table shows a summary within the same plane of existence of this article.
