Introduced in 1998's A Clash of Kings, Ramsay is the bastard son of Roose Bolton, the lord of the Dreadfort, an ancient fortress in the North of the kingdom of Westeros.

[2][3] Rheon has received critical acclaim for his performance, although his character's reception has been more polarized; he is widely considered to be one of the show's most brutal and hated villains.

His actions are witnessed and interpreted directly through the eyes of Theon Greyjoy,[9] and indirectly from stories heard by Bran Stark and Davos Seaworth.

While hunting along the Weeping Water, Roose Bolton saw a miller's wife and decided to illicitly practice the banned tradition of 'the first night', wherein a lord had the right to bed a commoner's bride.

Roose nearly killed her and the baby, but when he saw the child had his signature pale, cold eyes, the taboo of kinslaying stayed his hand.

Roose then gave the woman the mill along with a pig, several chicks and a bag of coin every year on the condition that she never reveal to Ramsay the truth about who his father was.

Domeric would soon die of a mysterious sickness, and Roose believed that Ramsay poisoned him in order to rob his father of his trueborn heir.

Ramsay is accompanied by Dreadfort men called the Bastard's Boys, who are just as cruel and depraved as he is but who ultimately serve his father.

His two most distinctive features are his eyes — small and close-set, pale and icy like his father Roose — and his mouth, consisting of two fleshy, wide lips that form a "wormy" smile.

He practises the sadistic Bolton custom of flaying his captives alive and keeps a pack of female hunting dogs that he uses to hunt down stripped-naked young women before raping and killing them; he names his dogs after women he has killed and brings back their flayed skin as a gruesome trophy.

Ramsay is a capable fighter but was never properly trained, and thus uses a wild and aggressive fighting style, wielding his sword "as if it were a butcher's cleaver".

As the Northerners move to take back Winterfell, Ramsay persuades Theon to let him ride to the Dreadfort to gather reinforcements.

He returns with an army of Bolton soldiers and massacres the Northern relief force, but then proceeds to kill the Ironborn, burn Winterfell, and take Theon prisoner.

After Stannis Baratheon's capture of Deepwood Motte, Ramsay's wedding to "Arya" is moved from Barrowton to a rebuilt Winterfell.

Finally pushed to his breaking point, Jon instead decides that he will seek out and kill Ramsay himself, though he is stabbed by his own men before he can leave Castle Black.

Ramsay Bolton was played by Welsh actor Iwan Rheon in the HBO television adaption of the series of books,[12][13] who received critical acclaim for his performance.

[14][15][16] Ramsay is first mentioned in the show's second season and first appears onscreen in the third, though Rheon is credited as "Boy" until his true identity is revealed in the third-season finale "Mhysa".

He also recounts how at the age of eleven, he first encountered the Dreadfort kennelmaster's daughter, Myranda, and is drawn to her fearlessness, eventually taking her as his mistress.

After Theon Greyjoy and his forces capture Winterfell, Roose Bolton offers to Robb Stark to have Ramsay and the men left at the Dreadfort lift the occupation.

When Roose Bolton returns to the Dreadfort, he reprimands Ramsay for having overstepped his boundaries as castellan by mutilating a valuable hostage and sending terms of surrender to the Greyjoys.

The remnants of the Baratheon army march on Winterfell, but the Bolton cavalry, led by Ramsay, defeat them with ease and Stannis is slain.

Ramsay is approached by Smalljon Umber, who asks for his help in defending the North against the wildlings Jon Snow has offered refuge to at the Wall.

[18] In 2016, The New York Times referred to the character as "arguably the most hated man on television" and "the signature Game of Thrones villain", replacing Joffrey Baratheon.