Fanfic / Thy Good Neighbor

Thy Good Neighbor is a fanfiction by blahhh!. It is a crossover between A Song of Ice and Fire and Bloodborne.

Investigating the sudden appearance of a manse in the Wolfswood, Lord Rickard Stark finds himself greeting Cyril Fairchild of the Old Workshop, who has decided to retire from his business in Yharnam and take up a peaceful residence in Westeros alongside his wife, Evetta. Things proceed to take a turn for the unnerving and the absurd.

Also archived on Archive of Our Own here and FFN here.

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Thy Good Neighbor provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Cyril describes Gehrman as such. A peerless warrior and teacher, yes, but clearly still pining for Lady Maria to Evetta's detriment.
• Adaptational Backstory Change:
  • Instead of Winterfell's Maester being Walys, it's Luwin. Later downplayed since Walys used to be the former Maester, but had to be replaced since he died after Ned left for the Vale.
  • It's mentioned that Evetta's family name is Vileblood, which implies Annalise has recognized her as a member of her family. Later still, Cyril comments that Evetta is considered to be Annalise's great-grandniece.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Lord Fairchild suggests Lyanna to start a correspondence with Robert to get to know him better. She's still not happy with the match, but the fact she has started getting to know him and that he does not have the weight of the Paramount Lordship of the Stormlands with his father still alive and his mother guiding him, their betrothal is off to a much better start than in canon.
  • Whether Ned and Ashara Dayne were in a relationship was subject to a ton of speculation both in and out of universe. In the books, Catelyn Tully and several servants at Winterfell even believed Jon Snow's birth mother was Ashara. Here, it's obvious to everyone there's mutual attraction between them as Ned, at his brother's urging, dances with her the night before the tourney. They dance three times.
  • Originally, due to Steffon Baratheon's lessons, Robert saw the Targaryens as family and at least vaguely respected Rhaegar. But with the breakdown in relationship between their families, Robert now is faintly disgusted by the prince, and understands there is a crisis brewing in the Seven Kingdoms.
• Affluent Ascetic: For all the insane wealth they boast, the Fairchilds live a fairly simple life, largely refrain from actively flaunting their wealth, and have no issue with serving food to Rickard themselves. Their clothes, despite their excellent make, are dyed in largely drab colors.
  • This trope is played with regarding their house. By Victorian standards, their house is comfortable and cozy enough with the time's typical decorations with heavy, ornate furnishings and knickknacks; but from the Westerosi's point of view, it's unimaginably luxurious with iron fences, realistic oil paintings, porcelain furnishings, copper oil lamps, and cream with sugar to name a few. Ned, by just walking through the house, could confidently say that it's more luxurious than even the Graftons' personal estate.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The brigands (actually bannermen of Whitehill and Bolton) assaulting the Old Workshop stumble across Rickard and his sons, pleading to take the Black. He dies mid-sentence, courtesy of one irate Cyril Fairchild.
• Aliens Speaking English: One of the major points in which the Hunter has not been called out - he stated he didn't expect Westeros to be inhabited at all, and yet he speaks the local language perfectly and his books are all written in the same. While characters from Essos could justifiably be expected to know the Westerosi tongue, a completely foreign civilization with which Westeros has never had any contact has much less explanation.
• Altar Diplomacy: Per Westeros tradition. Steffon Baratheon promises to fend off Aerys' unwelcome attention from the North in exchange for confirming the betrothal between Lyanna and Robert.
• Ambiguous Situation: While Rhaegar and Lyanna's interactions previous to the books are an unknown, it's fair to say they could not have possibly been as dangerous as early as they are here: Rhaegar, interested in Lyanna, presents himself at the Stark apartments with Kingsguard in tow at the precise moment her family was out, politely but firmly demanding an audience and a demonstration of her musical skills, with the excuse he heard her music and was interested in hearing her variation of his song. To add to the implausibility, she remembers the Royal Family's apartments are in the furthest tower from the Starks'. It is important to note that this means the grown heir of the realm inveigled himself into the rooms of the betrothed teenage daughter of one of the seven Lords Paramount at virtual swordpoint at a moment when he knew her family was not with her with a paper-thin excuse at the moment his wife was supposed to be having a very difficult pregnancy with a labor expected to be dangerous for the mother.
• Armor Is Useless: At least for Hunters, it is. Cyril doesn't bother to use any kind of armor, even for duels. He has even joked that should Ned manage to cut him down, Evetta's great grand-aunt, implied to be Annalise, will have him knighted immediately, and Brandon uses live steel and has learned to go for killing blows when possible, to Ned's horrified surprise. Even together, the brothers fare no better against the Hunter.
  • Graphically exemplified when bandits attack the Fairchilds, as Cyril manages to slice through their castle-forged armour as if it didn't even exist.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Ned is asked by Cyril what honor means to him, the latter explains all the tribulations he went through in Yharnam and how this changed him from who he was before and made him cast aside honor. Cyril then asks if Ned would hold on to his honor if it was actively detrimental toward protecting those he loved. Ned has no answer.
• Artificial Family Member:
  • Of a sort — Evetta reveals that she and Cyril have a son named Luca, with the author's note at the end of the chapter indicating it is the reanimated fetus that was once the Yharnam Stone.
  • Evetta herself is one, having been officially recognized as a member of the Vileblood by Annalise, specifically as her great-grandniece.
• Badass Bookworm: Cyril Fairchild was a former university lecturer turned hunter who still holds a great passion for books, learning and teaching. It doesn't stop him from slaying Yharnam beasts or manhandling trained warriors like nothing either. While he is primarily a combat tutor to Brandon (and more recently, Ned), he also made it a point to add math lessons to their swordwork, and if they don't complete the lesson to his satisfaction, they're staying put and reading until he's satisfied.
• Beneath Suspicion: The North is doing its best to keep everything as is, leaving no evidence of the major change in circumstances the glasshouses represent and the threat of eventual rebellion, so they keep buying expensive Reach food and scrupulously paying their taxes so the Throne keeps the status quo of ignoring them.
• Beneath the Earth: The source of much of Yharnam's monsters is the underground ruins of the Pthumerians.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Rickard is open to listen to the Fairchilds in spite of finding them creepy and impossible to understand because Evetta distributed food to the smallfolk in the wintertown out of selflessness. In the North, food equals life, so Evetta was impossibly kind and generous toward Rickard's subjects and the lord won't spit on that.
• Big Brother Instinct: In Book 2, Brandon decides to play a bit of matchmaker with Ned and tells him to have a dance with Ashara Dayne, one of Princess Ellia's ladies-in-waiting. Prince Oberyn says he doesn't know whether to applaud Brandon's audacity or accuse him of kinslaying since he more or less just put his brother in Arthur Dayne's crosshairs.
• Big Eater: As per canon, Wyman Manderly.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Somewhat downplayed, as all parties do understand and work by human morality, but their values are quite different (Yharnam operated by Victorian social mores, while Westeros is in Medieval Stasis), resulting in nearly everything Cyril tries to do being misinterpreted by the Westeros natives.
  • Cyril genuinely meant for the money he gave Ser Cassel for Lord Stark to be an apology for inadvertently invading his land. Instead, the massive amount makes it look like a statement of power couched as an apology.
  • He genuinely doesn't understand why everyone is raking themselves over coals after Brandon's backstab attempt. In Yharnam, backstabs are a normal part of combat and Brandon was entirely justified in using it in a fight for his life- especially since Cyril was in no more danger than if he was attacked by a particularly impertinent mosquito. To everyone in Winterfell, Brandon, after insulting a foreign lord that had been nothing but impressively generous to his country and family, entered a bout he proved himself incredibly poorly at and then, after being disarmed once and granted a second chance with live steel, tried to backstab his opponent in a purely treacherous move, breaking Sacred Hospitality - which is the main tenet of behavior in the North.
  • Cyril offers to have Brandon visit for swordfighting lessons as a form of "reparation". Rickard doesn't see the motive, as he is used to dealing entirely with oaths and more overt threats, expecting to lose the gold Cyril had gifted him and more as an apology, and instead giving his treacherous son extensive training with an expert teacher and immense amounts of glass. On the other hand, when Lord Stark thinks he's proposing to have Brandon sent over as a hostage, Cyril immediately backs off, not feeling confident enough in his University training to actually serve as the tutor for a Duke's heir. Rickard is drawn to despair from the fact he simply has no idea of what the hell Cyril wants.
  • In a more humorous way, Luwin feels The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy shames the work of every maester with a bronze link in his chain, especially since it was written by a knight, not knowing that the author lived in a time period where knighthood was often granted for merits other than in combat, and he was knighted specifically for his scientific prowess.
  • At one point, Ned asks the Hunter if he is willing to take them seriously if the manage to wound him. Curious, Lord Fairchild asks what Ned means, who clarifies he has been fighting them both with literally only one hand. The Hunter explains it's not a slight against them - he's just too used to fighting with a melee weapon in one hand and a gun in the other.
• Bookworm: The Hunter. Luwin observes him as he makes progress with the Old Tongue tomes in the Stark library.
• Bullying a Dragon: A group of "bandits" (actually bannermen of a Northern lord attempting a False Flag Operation) attack the Hunter's Workshop and threaten to rape Evetta. What happens to them isn't shown, but is implied to have been nightmarish, since Cyril isn't just a Hunter of Monsters, but also a Great One. All we do hear about it is that screaming is involved. The next chapter does show some of the fight, and it's a Curb-Stomp Battle involving Ludicrous Gibs. The noblemen behind the attack, Lords Roose Bolton and Ludd Whitehill, die in their sleep mere hours after the slaughter.
• The Caligula: As per canon, Aerys II. While he hasn't yet descended into full insanity at the start of the story, Rickard despises him for extortionate prices for food from the Reach and veiled threats when he raises the price of lumber, fur and whale oil to compensate. It's due to this that he decides to open negotiations with the West on his own rather than allowing the Crown to join in. By the time of Chapter 13, the Defiance of Duskendale has come and gone, and Aerys is rapidly falling into paranoia, obsession and a growing pyromania.
• Cane Fu: The Hunter takes the Threaded Cane with him when he visits Winterfell. Rickard originally mistakes it for a status symbol, until he sees Lord Fairchild is more than capable of using it effectively in combat, even though it is far heavier than a greatsword.
• Can't Catch Up: At first, Brandon's goal was to equal Lord Fairchild's skill with the blade, but eventually, to his despair, he realized it was ultimately impossible.
• The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: The Lords of Lonely Light enjoy telling stories about impossibly wealthy lands beyond the Sunset Sea. When the Fairchilds imply they came from the West, Luwin ruefully comments on the Ironborns knowing more than the Maesters for once.
• The Confidant: The Fairchilds gain this status with the Starks. As insanely wealthy nobility, they have nothing to gain from Northern politics, they are genuinely friendly and have come to genuinely like the Starks, who reciprocate by approaching them for personal advice.
• Conspicuous Consumption: Cyril moved the Hunter's Workshop to the Wolfswood, where it is seen as an absurd example of this. Amenities that are common in Yharnam are considered rare or impossible luxuries in Westeros, let alone the North, among them his windows, indoor plumbing, and oil lanterns. The Doll also makes it a point to make regular gifts of food to Winterfell's smallfolk, and even salting the road to the Workshop for Lord Stark's convenience, when salt is well known to be a luxury that has to be mined at a high price.
• Cool Sword: Cyril gifts Ned with a silver sword, one meant to be paired with a Kirkhammer. During a training bout, the Hunter effortlessly cuts right through the young scion's mail and gambeson with it. Ned is very, very anguished with the gift, as he isn't sure why a second son was given a blade the Lannisters would willingly part with mountains of gold for, especially given he can tell its make is clearly superior to even Valyrian Steel. His father's revelations on the same chapter help explain some of it. In-Universe, Ned has started wondering what such a sword tells him about the Hunter's foes, that he had the need for it. Ned also makes a point of leaving it at home when he returns to the Vale to continue his fosterage, as it would raise too many questions as to where it came from (and Cyril notes that, against normal humans, the sword is so effective that Ned wouldn't learn how to fight properly if he used it).
• Creepy Good: The Northmen are very much freaked by the Fairchilds' wealth, possible magic nature and extremely different viewpoint on morals and good behaviour. They nonetheless won't attack them because they do acknowledge the Fairchilds have good intentions and seek to make their hosts more at ease and prosperous.
• Crisis of Faith: No details are given, but Cyril lost his faith in Yharnam. He still strives to be a good man, but feels envious of his past self's innocence.
• Cutting Off the Branches: Cyril's backstory indicates he was a Noble Scion, and his relationship with the Doll, personal account of the events in Yharnam, and Word of God confirm he got the Childhood's Beginning ending.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Defied. The fact not even Ned, who considers Robert his brother in all but blood, can honestly and fully endorse him as a match for Lyanna, is a huge red flag for the Starks.
• Death by Adaptation: Chapter 8 reveals that Maester Walys was Maester of Winterfell, but died sometime before the start of the story. In canon, he is implied to have lived until after Robert's Rebellion ended. Also Roose Bolton and Ludd Whitehill, who here died mysteriously in 276 AC whereas in canon they still live by 300 AC.
• Death by Childbirth: Lyarra Stark, who died bearing Benjen.
• Declaration of Protection: To avoid a repeat of Roose's harebrained scheme, Rickard declares the Fairchilds under his protection and makes it clear they are welcome guests of House Stark; to visit them without his explicit permission is tantamount to a personal insult, to insult them is a one-way ticket to a permanent posting in the Wall, and to actually harm them is a death sentence.
• Defeat Means Respect: After being humiliatingly defeated by the Hunter time and time again, Brandon has developed a great respect for him.
• Disinherited Child:
  • After his shameful conduct on a duel with the Hunter, Rodrik Cassel, Luwin and Fane Poole feel Rickard needs to disinherit Brandon. Infuriate but saddened at the truth behind their pleas, Rickard instead declares that in six years, Brandon will willingly remove himself from the line of succession, be granted some money and loyal men, and booted out, all but pleading Rodrik not to ask anything more of him. Personally, he hopes the Hunter will help take Brandon west after the six years, allowing him to leave with honor and making it look like the whole business was horribly overblown, though he feels what little comfort the Hunter has granted him is already too much to ask anything else of him. It's deconstructed in that Rickard still loves his child and knows that so do his siblings, but the cold shoulder he is receiving from his own household means that he is now much more invested in socializing with the Fairchilds, so to avoid dimming their connection, he allows Lyanna to visit the Workshop.
  • In a weird sort of way, the Doll. By the end of his existence, Gehrman clearly did not see her as a sentient being, and so his will stipulated that the Workshop and his possessions went to Cyril, who desperately tried to give them to her, having no need for any of it. The fact he was rebuffed over and over was the start of his courtship and eventual marriage.
• Dramatic Irony: Ned is extremely uneasy when he hears Lord Fairchild mention to Brandon that as soon as the Starks return from Harrenhal, there will be a Hunter's Contract ready for him. Still believing Rickard's From a Certain Point of View lie that Brandon only received the offer because he impressed the Hunter, Ned is planning to offer himself in Brandon's stead, not knowing that none of the parties is likely to allow him to do so.
• Drowning My Sorrows:
  • Rickard, mournfully attempting the pointless task of sharpening Ice with a whetstone the day after Brandon's disastrous duel, is joined by Rodrik Cassel, who shares a large wineskin with him.
  • Later on, after celebrating Benjen's birthday, Lord Fairchild drops by, and they share a bottle of whiskey over their stories.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Cyril mentions he left Yharnam with all of his affairs settled, the plague destroyed and the last of his mentors, implied to be Eileen, having passed in comfort and peace.
• Empty Promise: When executing the Whitehill men who attacked the Workshop, he tells the leader that if he had taken his initial offer, he would still have followed them and slaughtered them anyway, the circumstances would just be minutely different.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When Melisandre visits Winterfell, Rickard asks her what kind of cost it would take to use Essosi style magic to allow fallow fields to bloom and viable harvests to grow in a single day. While in reality he is asking to measure Lord Fairchild's power against a known Essosi mage, Melisandre thinks that he is asking in hopes of improving the Northern harvests, and increases her opinion of him, since he is pretty much the only lord in her six centuries of life who appears to be interested in the potential of magic to help others under him rather than to covet her body, power or both. For reference, she told him that such a feat was absurdly hard and costly and that he frankly was better off investing in more glass gardens.
• Everyone Has Standards: No matter how much this so-called lord Fairchild gives him the creeps and how irritatingly vague he is when explaining himself, Cassel kept himself polite when meeting him for the first time because it's bad manners to throttle a man in front of said man's lady wife.
  • All of Winterfell is deeply unsettled by the gruesome way in which the Hunter dispatched the bandits that tried to attack the Workshop, but concede he was only protecting his home.
• Exact Words:
  • Cyril doesn't seem to like lying outright, but has no problem whatsoever allowing people to draw incorrect conclusions from his words. When Rickard and Rodrik confront Cyril with the fact that they've never heard of any lands like Yharnam or the Great Isles to the east, Cyril informs them that they've "been looking in the wrong direction." They take this to mean he is from the west from unmapped lands on the other side of the Sunset Sea. Cyril noticeably does not confirm or deny this. Given his true eldritch nature, he and Evetta could very easily hail from another planet or plane of existence altogether. On the other hand, the map Cyril lends Lord Stark does include both the Western lands and Westeros, he does not appear to be overly worried over being believed, and he makes sure to deliver plenty of proof, far more than necessary to make his point, making the issue less clear.
  • They also are vague about Evetta's relation to the Vilebloods. They never state which of her "parents" was a Vileblood, leading to the Northerners thinking it was Gehrman who was a Vileblood, when it was actually Lady Maria. As well, when Lyanna asks Evetta about a painting of Lady Maria, Evetta, after a moment of contemplation, specifically states that Cyril would consider her Evetta's mother, not that she was Evetta's mother.
  • When Rickard bids Eddard talk privately with him to impress upon him that he has all but been chosen as the new heir, he deliberately avoids talking about Brandon's horrid breach of conduct, and instead makes it sound like Lord Fairchild had been impressed by Brandon in a spar enough to consider him for a position on the West.
  • When Rickard asks Cyril to leave Roose Bolton for the Lord of Winterfell to deal with, Cyril promises to do no more than he has already done. It's implied that Cyril already used the Hunter's Dream to dispose of Roose and Lord Whitehill by this point, seeing how a Raven bearing news of them having died in their sleep reaches Winterfell a few days later.
  • When talking to Rickard about how he met the Doll, Lord Fairchild deliberately omits a great deal of information that might explain why Gehrman behaved so abominably with her. In the end, it doesn't really matter, as regardless of the details, Gehrman indeed left Evetta with no option but to love Cyril.
• False Reassurance: While not meaning it, the Hunter accidentally invokes this when Benjen asks him if he has hunted wolves. Cyril admits he hasn't - but he has hunted Paarls◊.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: In addition to the various canon ones from ASOIF, the lands to the west are heavily based on Europe around the 18th and 19th Century, with Cyril and Evetta performing musical pieces by, and mentioning the names of, composers who were alive during those periods, including Bach (who lived from 1685 to 1750), Chopin (1810 to 1849), and Tchaikovsky (1840 to 1893).
  • Cyril's homeland of the Kingdom of the Great Isles is based off of the United Kingdom, with Cyril's last name of Fairchild being English, the land being ruled by a House of Lords despite having a monarch, his father being an earl (a title unique to Britain), and the styles of address he mentions match those of Britain. As well, many of the scientific texts he gives Rickard are ones by British scientists.
  • The Kingdom of Gallia is France, as is implied by the name^note Gallia is Latin for Gaul, which is what France was known as before the Franks migrated there, with it being mentioned that the real French pastry known as pain au chocolat that Cyril bakes is from there, and he mentions it is known as chocolatine in some regions of the country, which reflects the pastry being called that in south-western France.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Lord Fairchild does possess firearms and the means to make them, but isn't keen on spreading them and the Northmen are more interested in his glass than in his weapons. Word of God is that there will be no proliferation of the weapons in the story.
• Fantasy Metals: Workshop steel, which is near-unimaginably dense (the Threaded Cane weighs 2 stone, or around 12 kg) and can create incredible weapons that shame Valyrian Steel. More crucially, it averts the Lost Technology aspect of the Valyrian steel simply because the man capable of making it is still alive, though knowledge of it has barely spread.
• Fate Worse than Death: When executing the brigands that attacked the Workshop, Cyril laments they are not going to die, but live in his nightmares and reenact their deaths for ever and ever. To the onlookers it seems just a weary promise not to forget them. To the readers, they know he is being entirely literal.
• Fiction 500: Cyril certainly has no issue with money. When Ser Rodrik informs him he's technically trespassing, he hands gold equivalent to more than 8000 dragons as an apology, and when discussing his rent for the six years he intends to live in the Wolfswood, he delivers enough glass - an insane rarity in the North - to build six glass gardens. The glass he gives is specifically polished plate glass of a quality that is beyond what Myr's best glassworkers can make. Winterfell has only one glass garden, which took the resources of the extinct Greystark line to fund.
• Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: Aerys. Rickard sourly remembers that when they met for the first time, after barely exchanging a few words, the monarch commanded him to build a second Wall a hundred leagues north of the first one. It took Lord Baratheon hours to dissuade him from the idea, but the fact alone that it never came back shows volumes about Aerys.
• Food Porn: Continuing from George R. R. Martin's tradition, meals are described lavishly. The Fairchilds keep an excellent table.
• Foregone Conclusion: The author's notes at the end of Book 1 outright state that Cyril is going to kill off the Others.
• Friendship Moment: Lords Fairchild and Stark share such a moment in Chapter 14, invoking memories of their respective spouses.
• Genius Bruiser: Luwin has a chat with Cyril when he visits Winterfell, and quickly realizes the young lord, while a hair shy of brilliant, is smart enough to be considered an Archmaester on his own right, and as his training bout with Brandon proves, he's brutally strong and skilled with the blade.
• Gentle Giant: Evetta is around nine feet tall, so her height lets her tower over an Umber man. She's also polite and sweet, and appeared on Winterfell's radar because she went in the wintertown to offer food to the smallfolk.
• Giving Radio to the Romans: Lord Fairchild does a slight version of this when handing around forty books from his library to Lord Stark for research. The books include basic history of the Great Isles, a copy of Burke's Peerage, scientific tomes by the local versions of Newton, Lavoisier and Dalton, and an extremely advanced tome on farming. In a deconstruction, Rickard notes that to achieve the results the books promise, he would need insane innovation the likes of Westeros has never seen, since it requires metalsmithing on Qohor's level, research on the Citadel's, and chemicals that risk something as horrible as the Tragedy of Summerhall. Luwin also comments on the risks of spreading such advanced knowledge, since it risks running into established interests that would fervently oppose it.
• Godzilla Threshold: The reason for Roose Bolton's ill-fated attack on the Workshop. In line with his family politics, he needed to counter House Stark by any means necessary, and the news of the North's massive windfall and the Starks' plan to gift glasshouses would have all but made it impossible to gather any meaningful aid for several generations (especially since the Boltons themselves would have received one), making decisive and swift action an absolute necessity. Gathering forces from Whitehill men, he plotted to kill Lord Fairchild to either force the Starks to admit that guests under their protection had been killed or keep their new glass hidden for fear of being exposed.
• Gossip Evolution: Exploited. When Lord Baratheon takes a detour to Winterfell on his way to Volantis, Rickard convinces him to help smother the truth of Lord Fairchild's arrival by couching his exploits in the trope, making them mundane enough to make Aerys deprecate them. In exchange, he confirms Lyanna's planned betrothal with Robert.
• Halfway Plot Switch: Discussed by Ser Rodrik and Rickard, who muse Lord Fairchild's entrance into Northern politics is more reminiscent of Old Nan's tales. The idea is revisited later, when Rodrik comments Lord Fairchild's abilities might as well be magic.
• Happily Married: Cyril and Evetta are quite a close couple, something everyone takes note of. This has eventual consequences, in that Lyanna, having grown knowing what a loving and egalitarian relationship is like from the Fairchilds and the undying devotion her own father practices towards her deceased mother, is unwilling to go through with her planned betrothal with Robert Baratheon, whom she fears will only see her as a conquest. In the context of Westeros, Robert's defects of whoring and drinking are not especially bad, but against the Fairchilds and Rickard he falls painfully short of an acceptable partner.
• Henpecked Husband: If Evetta makes a point to Cyril that he needs to do something, Cyril will do it.
• Heroic Lineage: The Hunter notes the incredible length of the Stark lineage, noting there are religions whose gods don't even reach half that age.
• Heroic Sacrifice: How the Hunter first learned of Winterfell - he met an elderly man walking deeper into the woods, and, to the man's incredulity and refusals, nursed him to health and sent him back to Wintertown with some bear meat. Rickard bitterly notes it's still a tradition for the elderly and infirm in the North to go out "hunting" and spare their families the burden of feeding and caring for them during the worst of Winter.
• Heroic Safe Mode: Cyril recommends this trope to Ned, in that he understands the difficulty of killing and how it can affect the one forced to carry such duties out, so he prefers to Get It Over With and leave any deeper thoughts for the end.
• High Fantasy: By the time he fully accepts the Hunter and his gifts as magical to some degree, Rickard asks the visiting Melisandre what she thinks of one of his lesser magical feats, to make formerly fallow fields bloom in a day, to gauge him against the somewhat known abilities of the Fire Priests. Her response is that such a feat is basically Age of Heroes material, indicating even the best Essosi sorcerers consider Cyril's abilities as well beyond their league.
• Humanoid Abomination: Cyril has become a Great One, and while he maintains a human form, he occasionally shows moments of inhuman thoughts and mannerisms. It's ambiguous if this is a result of becoming a Great One or due to a lack of interaction with other humans for some time. He's also strong enough even while passing as a human to swing the Threaded Cane, which is mentioned to weigh two stone, like a stick. Rickard compares the weight of the thing to a war mace.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: At one point, Rickard is enjoying some candied pineapple. When Rodrik asks if he really should be eating that, Rickard dryly points out Lady Evetta has been giving him a box of candied fruit every month for nearly five years at that point. If there were any risks in eating the pineapple, he would have presented symptoms long ago. Besides, Lord Fairchild has much faster and easier ways to kill people.
• In Spite of a Nail: Due to Brandon committing a serious breach of Sacred Hospitality, he will be forced to renounce his lordship in six years' time, meaning that Ned will become heir of Winterfell.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Boisterous as he is, Robert is not blind to his faults. He and Stannis were put in charge of Storm's End's upkeep, and he shows how poorly he absorbed the lessons at the Eyrie; as a result, he is now permanently posted to his father's side to keep him on a shorter leash and supervise his lessons more closely.
• Infinite Supplies:
  • Fane Poole mentions that, while he is no maester and has no idea of what kind of resources would be necessary to build the Fairchild manse without anyone noticing, he is a castellan and knows better than anyone how many people are needed for the upkeep of such a house - and the fact no one has ever seen anyone besides the Fairchilds themselves on the manor grounds is very, very odd.
  • The Hunter and Lord Stark briefly bargain for the price of the former's stay in the North for six years. Cyril offers some glass, and Rickard unthinkingly accepts, still mired in the mess that will come out of Brandon's massive faux pas and willing to accept a cracked jar. In the early hours of that night, several massive crates appear without preamble or explanation on Winterfell's market square, each rivaling the size of nearby houses. All of them are stacked with enormous panes of perfect glass, each insanely expensive. Put together, it's enough glass to make six glasshouses, when it took the extinction of a rival Great House and the confiscation of their assets to fund even one glasshouse for Winterfell. Wyman Manderly also notes the sheer volume would make it impossible even for Houses dedicated to trade like the Redwynes to transport it with no one the wiser.
• Insult to Rocks: Lord Baratheon uses a variant to express his respect for Rickard and his heartbreak over the moral and mental degeneration of both Tywin Lannister and Aerys:
  Steffon Baratheon: I would count you amongst my friends, but I would hate to leave you in such poor company.
• Invading Refugees: When discussing the Faith of the Seven with Luwin, Cyril asks if the Andal migration to Westeros didn't have anything to do with the rise of the Valyrian Freehold in Essos. This is one of the details that make the Maester realize Lord Fairchild is certainly no fool.
• Knight Fever:
  • Cyril comments on the nobility titles of his homeland and the various forms of address, leading Rickard to mentally compare the title of knight (roughly the same as he understands it for recently-dubbed knights), baron (a petty lord), earl (a greater vassal), marquess (a main bannerman), duke (Lord Paramount), and the King. This also leads Cyril to comment that technically he is no lord, as he's the second child of an earl; only his father, elder brother and later nephew have the right to call themselves lords, though Rickard grants him the title during his visit. Cyril, however, is much more at ease with the title of Hunter, though due to everyone seeing him as nobility, he is given the title Lord Hunter by most.
  • Another detail that leads Rickard to accept the Fairchilds are really as foreign as they appear is the fact they refer to him as "His Grace" - a title that the Westerosi normally reserved for kings, who in turn are referred to as "His Majesty" by the Yharnamites.
• Leave Me Alone!: In Book 2's first Interlude, one of the last of the Children of the Forest briefly interacts with Lord Fairchild, who she sees as "the Great One" - a horrifyingly dangerous entity rivaling the Lord of Light and the Drowned God. He asks is there is anything he can do for her, and she begs him to let them be, refusing his help even when she is desperately aware the world is changing and now favors humanity.
• Like Father, Like Son: Much like Eddard in canon, Rickard hides knowledge from his children in an effort to spare them the painful truth.
• Locked Out of the Loop: To prevent anyone outside of Winterfell from learning about Fairchild and anything related to him, Rickard refuses to tell Ned about Brandon's breach of Sacred Hospitality. Lord Fairchild is also kept out of the loop because he never realized how bad that breach in hospitality was. After undergoing a significant amount of stress at the Spring Feast, Brandon finally tells him the truth in Chapter 13.
• Luxurious Liquor: At Benjen's birthday, Cyril visits Winterfell with a gift of Glenlivet whiskey for Rickard. Seeing he likes it, he keeps up the tradition of regularly sending him some bottles, allowing Rickard to enjoy it often and even share some with Steffon Baratheon and even Rodrik Cassel.
• The Magic Goes Away: Luwin and Lord Fairchild have a conversation on the topic, with the Hunter pointing out that, even if magic is recognized as dead, that implies a time where it was alive...
• Make It Look Like an Accident: A furious Rickard asks Rodrik Cassel if he should do this en lieu of disinheriting Brandon. It gives him a brief moment of ugly satisfaction before it rots into an even worse despair.
• Medieval Stasis: Along with the books Cyril lends to Lord Stark, the greatest prize is a map of the land West of Westeros - the lands implied to have once been Boletaria and Yharnam. Rickard begins planning to privately open negotiations with those lands to break this trope's hold on the North, restoring the maritime might that was lost with Bran the Burner.
• Mercy Kill: Averted. The "bandits" sent to attack the Workshop were brutally maimed and left near-dead... but that's it. Cyril did not delay their deaths, but neither did he speed them.
• Mirthless Laughter: Rickard indulges into this after officially receiving the Hunter's rent - he's all but set to become the wealthiest and most powerful Northern Lord Paramount ever and in a position to eventually even break away the North into his own kingdom, as his forefathers once had... and he would gladly trade it all away for the chance to have his son at his side once more.
• Morality Chain: The reason why Ned insists on running to the Workshop when he heard of bandits attacking the place is because he wants to protect the Plain Doll, having pegged her as the main reason why the Hunter is so polite and ready to compromise with people. Cyril confirms it would get extremely ugly if she came to be injured.
• The Mourning After: Rickard starts understanding the Fairchilds' history when he pieces together how Gehrman sank into this trope after the death of Lady Maria, to the point of ignoring everything else in favor of teaching young Hunters. While the truth is, well, slightly more complicated than that, it's close enough that Rickard understands Cyril and Evetta's relationship a bit better.
• Multipurpose Monocultured Crop: After a brief taste, Rickard and Luwin start promoting potatoes originally acquired from the Hunter as this, given their hardiness makes them ideal for a harsh climate such as the North's. While they are not popularized as fast as they would like and do not keep as well as cereals, the potatoes significantly add to the Northern crops, to the point they are now in the cusp of a bountiful harvest.
• My New Gift Is Lame: Averted. The Fairchilds are very kind and attentive gift givers.
  • When visiting Winterfell, the Fairchilds give each Stark child a gift. Benjen gets a clockwork toy wolf, Lyanna gets a phonograph music box, and Brandon gets a copy of Fechtbuch, a combat manual.
  • When Ned visits the Workshop, he's gifted a silver blade usually paired with a Kirkhammer.
  • In his birthday, Benjen gets a bike.
• Mythology Gag: The Hunter makes a reference to the Age of Fog that "swallowed the kingdoms of antiquity" and left the Church of God as the main scholastic and religious institution in the West.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • The Good Hunter is named Cyril Fairchild in this story.
  • The Plain Doll is named Evetta, after the voice actress of the character.
• Names to Run Away From: Rickard is rather wary of offending the Vilebloods of Cainhurst, because people from this lineage likely didn't earn their surname with kindness.
• Neck Lift: After successfully throwing Brandon to the ground during a practice spar, the Hunter raises him with a single hand and tosses him down the hill. And it's still hardly the worst fall Brandon has taken while training.
• No Social Skills: Heavily downplayed. Lord Fairchild is friendly and charming, but he has zero experience in Northern politics and is easily identified as a foreigner from his mannerisms alone.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Westeros puts a huge emphasis on being martial, so when Brandon purposely insults the Hunter to provoke him into a duel, everyone in Winterfell agrees that Lord Fairchild needed to defend his honor.
• Nonchalant Dodge: The Hunter spends most of his bout with Brandon doing this. Increasingly irritated, the Stark heir tries riling the Hunter - which proves to be a horrible idea.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Cyril wants to be polite towards Rickard and not cause trouble for the man, but the gifts and Culture Clash nonetheless upset the Lord of Winterfell very much. It might be argued that Cyril is doing the same thing as the other Great Old Ones before him, since he wishes to be benevolent yet lacks the necessary understanding to be truly such.
• Not So Above It All: While Lyanna is implied to be just as much of a Tomboy as Arya, she's absolutely entranced by the music box Cyril gives her.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Robert remembers that soon after returning from their "failed" expedition to Volantis, his father received a note from Aerys. Whatever was in that note so infuriated Steffon Baratheon that he tore it without giving anyone else the chance to read it, and despite considering himself a staunch Targaryen supporter before, he certainly wasn't one afterwards.
• One-Man Army: Lord Fairchild, of course. While his first recourse is his inhuman agility, his monstrous strength isn't far behind, and he's experienced and skilled enough to fluidly combine both with his lethal weaponry to make him an utter terror to fight against. While certainly not anywhere near, he is proud to teach Hunter movement techniques to Brandon and Ned, to the point that after a few weeks of training, they can take down the much larger, stronger and experienced Lord Umber in the Winterfell melee together.
• Outside-Context Problem: Westeros of the time period is a Low Fantasy setting with potential to bloom back into High Fantasy, having little in the way of superpowers (at the present day) and medieval-level technology. Cyril is a Humanoid Abomination and Deity of Human Origin from a vaguely-Victorian Gothic Horror setting. Somewhat ironically, it's the latter part that tends to trip him up the most, as he forgets that Westeros doesn't have the industry to do things like produce glass on a large scale, and he has absolutely no experience in medieval-style politics.
• Panacea: The Hunter admits he left his cushy lifestyle and university education in search of this in Yharnam, exclusive as the entrance was, and that the city's Hunters were willing to sponsor his treatment in exchange for years of service fighting against the horrors beneath the city.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In order to hide the Fairchild household's weirdness, Rickard claims Cyril is a Myrish glassblower who eloped with a woman from the Volantene Old Blood. Absolutely nobody is fooled by the tale when they meet the guy, but the Northern lords abstain from asking the truth because they trust in the Starks.
• Persona Non Grata: After his disastrous duel with the Hunter, Brandon becomes this in his own household.
• The Plague: The Beastly Scourge, so horrible it overwhelmed even Yharnam's fabled healing arts.
• Plague of Good Fortune: The Hunter's lack of understanding, willing or not, of just how much money he's dumping into the North, is causing Rickard Stark massive headaches, and the fact he doesn't get why the younger man is doing it only worsens the situation for him.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Cyril has begun experimenting with the art of baking. While his pain au chocolat might not be up to Gallian standards, he doubts any man from the Great Isles could do any better.
• Realpolitik:
  • Rickard is genuinely thankful for the Fairchilds' generosity during winter, but still has to investigate their origins and intentions, especially given the last time a woman with Valyrian coloring (Queen Alysanne Targaryen) visited the North, she took half a kingdom's worth of land and gifted it with no compensation to the Night's Watch, who had no means of working it, making it a tremendous waste the North had to pay for.
  • The glass Cyril has given the North allows them to spread the rumor that he's an exiled Myr glassmaker; to prevent Myr from poking too much, Rickard prepares an edict for Lord Manderly to send to the Myr Triarch that should something happen to Cyril, he's prepared to sell timber to Braavos, their slavery-hating neighbor, at a loss. With the Arsenal's rate of production only restricted by supply, this would increase Braavos' naval might to the point Myr would easily be defeated and their government broken.
  • Steffon Baratheon knows full well Aerys would make him his new Hand if he returned with the truth of the Fairchilds and the North's new wealth. On the other hand, he does not want the position to start with, Aerys' madness would only end in disaster for everyone involved if he tried to seize the Fairchilds and their secrets, and Tywin Lannister would take bloody vengeance upon being passed over. Seeing he has virtually nothing to gain, Lord Baratheon only asks Rickard to confirm Lyanna and Robert's betrothal and thus lock Rickard into the plan to break away the Vale, Stormlands, Riverlands and the North from the Seven Kingdoms.
• RedBaron: As of Chapter 13, Part 3, Brandon and Ned are now known as the Northern Blade and the Wolf Knight, respectively.
• Revealing Cover-Up: While Lord Fairchild was extremely generous with his books, Luwin mentions it's strange any mention of Yharnam itself is extremely limited. Fane Poole also mentions there's no information on the Vilebloods of Cainhurst.
• Ridiculously Fast Construction: To the point that Lord Fairchild's manse somehow gains a small glasshouse with pineapples of all things, when the fruits take from 15 to 18 months after planting, between the first and last days of the Spring Feast. It's mentioned that there are also winter roses growing there.
• Royal Blood: Luca Fairchild, due to the Vilebloods' lack of any closer heirs, was adopted by the House as Annalise's heir. The fact he was born from the Yharnam Stone, the lithopaedic child torn from Queen Yharnam, and is thus technically a new incarnation of the stillborn Mergo, may or may not have influenced Annalise's decision.
• Sacred Hospitality:
  • Cyril knows the trope by name, and when informed of the Westerosi variant, makes sure to have freshly baked bread with large flecks of salt prepared for Lord Stark and his retinue.
  • In turn, Richard offers similar refreshments when inviting Cyril and Evetta to Winterfell. Brandon trying to inflict a Back Stab when dueling with Cyril is taken as a major breach in Guest Right, though Cyril doesn't see it that way, due to all the monstrous entities he has backstabbed in Yharnam.
• Secret-Keeper: Brandon was let into the knowledge of Lord Fairchild's origins by his father, who meant him to keep the secret as part of his education to become Lord Paramount. Instead, Brandon slowly despairs over what he thinks is the Hunter's abuse of his father and land, and in a desperate attempt to make him look less of a threat, ruins his own future by breaking Sacred Hospitality.
• Secret Test of Character: It seems that Eddard undergoes one in Chapter 8, To No Avail, when he refuses to Back Stab the Hunter and is scandalized when the idea is suggested.
• Selective Obliviousness: Most of Winterfell is actively ignoring the more fantastic elements associated with the Fairchilds. Somewhat justified in that, as the author pointed out, the stories from Essos lean toward the absurd (including Deep Ones, giants, and stranger things), so such oddities aren't unheard of to the people of Westeros.
• Shout-Out: The Doll and Hunter’s names may be one for another Bloodborne Fanwork, ‘’The Night Unfurls’’
• Silent Snarker: At one point in the Feast of Winterfell, an Umber cousin makes a pass at the Doll and insults Cyril. Without a single word, Evetta bodily picks the man from his seat at the high table and dumps him into the children's table.
• Sincerity Mode: The Hunter admits he died several times to Gehrman's training. Rickard takes it as Humor Mode.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Briefly infuriated by Brandon's insults towards the Doll during their spar, Cyril grants him a brief warning in response to his mocking. An instant and a single blow of the Threaded Cane later, Brandon's weapon is ruined and his shoulder is nearly pulped. When the Hunter all but announces he's going to do the same a second time and even does it slightly slower to give his opponent more of a chance, Brandon manages to hold the stroke and briefly bind the Hunter... only to get swat away with no more effort than the first time.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Rickard reflects that, in contrast to the many tiny forms of magic the Hunter invokes without effort or note, when Melisandre casts her glamour and tries to show her power, she immediately goes into covering the debilitating cost of her skills. The fact she is willing to openly admit that one of the smallest tricks Lord Fairchild has performed is comically out of her ballpark, even as a well-known devotee of the Lord of Light, is enough to make him wonder what exactly is the upper limit on his new friend's power.
• The Social Expert: Lord Manderly, upon hearing the rumor Rickard Stark wants him to help seed, takes a moment to lean back, think about what that rumor implies and what he knows to be true, and immediately arrives to the truth Rickard wants to hide, and more crucially, what the next step must be in his plans and the role he could play in it.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Steffon Baratheon, due to delaying his travel to Volantis to journey to the North, misses the storm that would have killed him and his wife in canon and arrives safely back to the Stormlands, to Robert's elation.
• Technology Levels: The fountain pen and pocket watch the Hunter gifts to Lord Stark convince the latter Westeros is hopelessly behind the West in these.
• Thread of Prophecy, Severed: Melisandre visits Winterfell in her quest to go to the Land Beyond the Wall to seek answers about the disappearance of the visions of the fated battle against the Walkers. Her Interlude reveals the Lord of Light's visions have completely faded from all Essosi fire priests. Word of God comments the Hunter's arrival accidentally altered the Background Magic Field, and while it did not affect much at the start, by now their abilities to see the future are near-completely gone. It also doesn't help that, per Word of God, Cyril's "hunt" for the Others will end via "Prey Slaughtered".
• To the Pain: Rickard was planning to do this on the political level to the Boltons. Lord Fairchild's actions made it unfortunately unnecessary.
• Token Evil Teammate: The Boltons, for the North. Everyone tolerates them basically because they serve as an useful check on Houses Umber and Karstark, but they are well aware they still carry the legacy of the Red Kings and led the Greystarks to ruin. This lasts until they send Whitehill men to attack the Workshop in a bid to stop House Stark from benefiting from Lord Fairchild's rent, by either forcing them to admit that guests under their protection were slain or entirely denying their existence, gambling on either irreversibly staining their honor or preventing them from enjoying the rewards. However, with the attack being brutally averted, Rickard prepares to counter... which proves unnecessary when Lords Bolton and Whitehill mysteriously die in their sleep after the Workshop attack. Rickard has warned Roose's widow that either she ensures the mindset never returns, or he will allow her lords to tear apart the Bolton lands.
  • Later on, Lord Umber recognizes the obvious falseness of the story Lord Stark presented for the Hunter, and reaches a wordless agreement with Lord Manderly to be pointed to any people who should be killed without the need of involving Rickard.
• Tragic Dream: Rickard loves his children beyond anything else, but every now and then he imagines a world where Lyarra Stark only bore him three children. He lives in mortal fear of the day when the daydream ends without utter self-loathing.
• Training from Hell: Brandon and Ned are on receiving end of Cyril's favored method of training, which usually involves a copious amount of utter Curb-Stomp Battle and traumatizing moral lessons. Cyril himself was likely trained the same way by Gehrman, as he admitted of dying several times under his tutelage.
• Tranquil Fury: Cyril treats his bout with Brandon as an exercise in dodging and is clearly having fun while doing it... until Brandon basically makes a coarse pass at the Doll. At that point, he stops treating the whole thing lightly, and actually goes on the offensive.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Utterly fed up with Aerys' Fleeting Passionate Hobbies and megalomania, Rickard is laying the ground for a massive rebellion to break away from the Seven Kingdoms with the Riverlands and the Stormlands, by going ahead with the canon matches betweeen Lyanna and Robert Baratheon, Ned and Catelyn Tully and Elbert Arryn and Lysa Tully. He's clearly very affected for having to break the oaths upheld by the Starks for centuries, but finds the idea of keeping the North under Aerys even worse.
• Undead Tax Exemption: Lord Fairchild appears to make no secret he hails from insanely distant lands and makes it a point to lend several dozen books to support his claim, along with enormous amounts of foreign money. All this and more leads Rodrik to declare that even if they are mummers, the sheer absurd amount of effort needed to hold the claim is more than enough for him to willingly accept it.
• Undying Loyalty: Willam Dustin feels as much for Brandon Stark, especially after seeing how far he has progressed as a warrior and potential Lord of Winterfell... not knowing he is determined to return from Harrenhal and sign the Hunter's Contract and leave the North to Ned.
• Unfit for Greatness: As much as it hurt Brandon to be disinherited, some part of him is genuinely thankful, since he does not believe himself capable of ruling the North responsibly, believing Eddard to be more capable in this regard.
• Unishment: Played with in that it is seen like this by outsiders and Lord Fairchild and the complete opposite way by Brandon. After Brandon's Back Stab attempt, Lord Fairchild invites him to study the blade and the sciences with him. While Rickard doesn't exactly understand what he entails, he comments it looks more like a reward... except that, while not cruel or malevolent, Lord Fairchild is a harsh teacher who ensures both body and mind are taxed to the limit and Brandon regularly returns from the Fairchild manse exhausted and beaten, and the Hunter's lessons include both harrowing moral lessons and mathematics that are much more advanced than any Westerosi lord would be expected to handle.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The Crown has never been particularly kind to the North despite their relentless loyalty. It's one of the reasons Rickard refuses to contact the Crown with information on the Fairchilds and the West until he has rock-solid proof of their claims... and first dibs on the markets they represent.
• Victorian Novel Disease: Cyril mentions that he traveled to Yharnam to be cured of consumption, another name for Tuberculosis.
• We Used to Be Friends: Steffon Baratheon laments this of himself, Tywin Lannister and Aerys, mournfully lamenting what kinds of men they have become.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 2, Bread, Salt and Sacred Hospitality. The Fairchilds come from the West - a land Westeros has never succeeded in reaching.
  • Chapter 5, The Wolf Who Challenged the Moon. Brandon challenges the Hunter to a training bout, insults him, and is disarmed. Given a second chance with live steel, he's trounced and sent to the ground again. When the Hunter is leaving the ring, Brandon goes for a Back Stab - a horrendous insult that breaks Sacred Hospitality and destroys his future as Lord Paramount, leaving Ned to become his father's heir anyway. More horrifyingly, Rickard outright tells Brandon that had the Hunter not been so supremely skilled as to pull his strength and killed Brandon, he would have tried to do the same to him, completing his family's ruin and dooming the North to a pointless war with Yharnam.
  • Chapter 11, The Stranger in the Mirror and 12, Black Under the Paleblood Moon. The Workshop is attacked by suspiciously well armed bandits, who were secretly sent by Roose Bolton and Ludd Whitehill. The attack is brutally repulsed with no survivors, and soon after Winterfell receives notice of the deaths of Bolton and Whitehill in their sleep that very same night.
  • Chapter 13, Better Days, Part 1, Lord Fairchild is informed of Brandon's status, and seeing he is fine with ceding his lordship to Eddard, offers to make him a Hunter instead.
• World's Best Warrior: Steffon comments in Chapter 15 that Brandon and Eddard's fighting skills might rival Barristan Selmy and Arthur Dayne, two members of the Kingsguard who are considered among the best fighters in all of Westeros, if not the world.
• World's Strongest Man: Cyril Fairchild, by virtue of being a Great One. Thus far, every fight he's seen participating in ends in a Curb-Stomp Battle. This of course comes with the territory of being an Eldritch Abomination.
• Wrecked Weapon: Cyril has a habit of wrecking his sparring partners' weapon. He broke Brandon's practice sword and another borrowed (this time genuine) sword during their first spar in Winterfell. Later when he duels with Ned, the Hunter shatters his blade more thoroughly, the first blow shattering the swordtip, the second wrecking it in half, and a third reducing it to a dagger.
• You Remind Me of X: Unfortunately for Evetta, Rickard mistrusts her because he draws comparisons between her and people who wronged the North. The description of her as having a Valyrian coloration is reminiscent of Alysanne Targaryen, whose New Gift to the Night's Watch ultimately made the organization and the North poorer, and when Rickard actually meets her, her pink and pale red clothes put the Boltons in his mind.
• Your Normal Is Our Taboo: Westeros is pretty high on being honorable, to the point no one would consider going for a Back Stab. Brandon going for such a move against Cyril, who was his father's guest, practically destroys his reputation. Cyril, having faced opponents who absolutely require you to take every advantage you can get, sees nothing wrong with underhanded tactics and doesn't actually mind the fact that Brandon tried to stab him in the back.

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