Quote Originally Posted by Jinx View Post
Kind of off-topic...

Psy, can you explain something to me? I've been re-reading the books and obviously I understand how lesser houses are the bannermen of larger houses. But I'm confused how THOSE houses have bannermen too. Wouldn't they just automatically be the bannermen of the largest house?

It's something I've been legitimately curious about, and this thread kind of went there and made me remember to ask.
The King owns all of Westeros. But he's like, bloody hell, I can't micromanage every jot of land. I'll keep the Crownlands for myself to manage. Lords Stark, Lannister, Martell, Tyrell etc. you each take this piece of my land and manage it for me. And Ned Stark's like, blimey, this North is pretty big. I'll keep Winterfell for me to manage. Lords Bolton, Umber, Karstark, Cerwyn etc. each of you have a piece of my land and manage it for me. And so Roose Bolton is like, bloody hell, I can't manage all of this. I'll keep the Dreadfort for me to manage... and so on.