The board tips over the moment Robert Baratheon dies in season one. A boar, a hunting trip, a drunk king — and all at once nobody in Westeros is angling for a seat at the table. They want the table itself.
That is the engine driving the entire show. With so many rival houses in play, the civil war for the Iron Throne never had an obvious winner. Lannisters, Starks, Targaryens — at one point or another, every great family held a credible route to power and rule over the Seven Kingdoms.
Line them up against one another, though, and the picture sharpens fast. A few of these houses were never going to rule.
House Targaryen ruled Westeros for centuries, going back well before the events of prequel House of the Dragon. Their collapse after Robert’s rebellion opened a vacuum, and Robert’s death filled it with knives.
The Starks won by never wanting it
When the series ends, no family in Westeros stands taller than House Stark, and the gap is wide. Bran the Broken holds the Iron Throne. Sansa is crowned Queen in the North. One family, two crowns.
Winterfell did its part. It ranks among the northernmost settlements in the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall, and that alone made the Starks prominent long before anybody began tallying swords.
The Starks have never doubted that they belong up north, far from the politics and viciousness of King’s Landing. They were pulled into the War for the Seven Kingdoms only half-willingly, and still proved themselves a formidable force.
The family motto is “Winter is coming,” and the clever part is what it isn’t. They could have picked something boastful, a bit of self-promotion or self-aggrandizement. Instead it works as a reminder to every other house that far more is going on in Westeros than there seems.
What the Starks lacked was support for a claim on the throne. That only arrived once Daenerys attacked King’s Landing in the finale, after which Bran stood out as the clear best choice for a benevolent ruler over the beleaguered commonfolk.
The Lannisters are playing a different game
At the audience’s first look at Westeros, House Lannister is a family devoted almost entirely to the pursuit of power. House of the Dragon makes clear they have always sat close to the Iron Throne. For most of the series they held King’s Landing, and Cersei embodied the family’s fierceness as the last Lannister on the seat of power before Bran’s ascension.
Ask most people for the Lannister words and you will hear “A Lannister Always Pays His Debts.” That line is marketing. The actual motto is “Hear Me Roar,” and the debt phrase exists to serve it.
Casterly Rock counts among the most impressively fortified castles in Westeros. Tyrion takes over as head of the house after Cersei’s death, and unlike some families on this list, the Lannisters will likely remain a powerful presence even with a Stark on the throne.
Dorne is the house everybody underrates
House Martell has long been considered one of the most powerful families in Westeros, and it is the most culturally distinct of them all. The show undersells them. Consider, though, that the Lannisters treated Dorne as a safe place to send their children after Robert’s death, at least until it looked like Dorne contained a threat. That tells you plenty.
The Martell motto, “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken,” fits.
Wealth is no stranger to the Martells, much as it isn’t to the Tyrells. They are skilled warriors. They are also by far the most progressive house in the series, with no problem putting women in positions of power and no shame around bastards.
Their power was built through marriage rather than war, which sets them apart from most of Westeros. The Dornish were the last to join the Seven Kingdoms, and that late start does nothing to slow them down in the power games.
The Vale keeps outliving its own leadership
House Arryn’s greatness reaches back several centuries before the show, the House of the Dragon era included. They have ruled the Vale of Arryn for thousands of years and were still central to the politics of the Seven Kingdoms as the series opens.
Their seat is the Eyrie, an impenetrable fortress tucked away in the mountains.
When the Baratheons and Starks needed the Vale to stand up to the Mad King, Jon Arryn and his men fought against the tyranny of a corrupt and maniacal ruler. Leadership grew thin enough after Jon’s death that Littlefinger manipulated his way into power there.
Then Littlefinger dies, Robin Arryn takes his rightful place at the head of the feared Knights of the Vale, and the Vale keeps its seat in Bran’s court.
The Greyjoys are terrifying right up until they touch land
House Greyjoy — the Iron-Born, as they call themselves — is one of the most unique families on the show. They live on the Iron Islands, far from the Westeros mainland, by traditions and customs of their own. At times they resemble the Dothraki more than they resemble the Lannisters.
On the water, they are just as formidable as Khal Drogo’s kin. The Greyjoys command one of the largest and most impressive naval fleets in Westeros, and locked in battle on the open sea they are a sight to behold.
Landlocked, the story is entirely different.
Fighting is second nature to them, as is paying the “iron price” for what they have. “We do not sow” is the family motto, and it tells you everything about their military capabilities. They refuse to play by most of the rules the other houses follow, sustaining themselves mostly by pillaging and taking what they need from whoever they can take it from.
The Baratheons burned themselves to the ground
House Baratheon is all but extinct by the time the series ends. For centuries before that, and through most of the show, they ranked among the most prominent families in Westeros. Robert’s rebellion is the proof: the other houses would not have followed anything less than one of the most powerful families into war against the might of the long-ruling Targaryens.
Then Robert dies and the family splinters into a shadow of itself.
“Ours is the Fury” are their words, and they live by them. The Baratheons are hot-headed and brash, always ready to start or end a fight, and that temperament is a significant factor in what ends the house. After Robert’s death, the three Baratheon heirs all but destroy themselves and each other. It is hard to imagine what a united version of that family could have done.
Only Gendry is left to carry the legacy. The power he wields is minimal.
Bear Island doesn’t need to be big
Lyanna says it best: “We are not a large house but we are a proud house.”
House Mormont is not the most powerful family when the show begins. It is a historic one with a proud legacy, and their home on Bear Island keeps them clear of most of the King’s Landing conflict, with one exception. Any fight involving a Stark.
The Mormonts know no king but the King in the North and will stop at nothing to protect the Stark family, entering any battle on their behalf at the drop of a hat. Their motto is “Here we stand.” Their sigil is the bear.
Put those two things together and you understand why a house that small gets to sit this high on any list.