Garin the Great

"Garin the Great was captured alive and made to watch as Valyrians butchered every last man. SO many that their blood turned the great harbor of Volantis red as far as the eye could see. Then they forced Garin to watch as they marched on his own city and enslaved all the women and children his army had left behind. The singers claimed that Prince Garin called out Mother Rhoyne to curse the Valyrians, and she in turn flooded the city with foul waters and a damp fog that caused the skin of the Valyrians to harden and crack, and thus was born greyscale."

- Varys

Garin, better known as Garin the Great, is an unseen character in Game of Thrones. He is not expected to appear in the series, being long dead by the time it begins.

He was a Prince of the Rhoynar who led his people against the Valyrian Freehold in the Rhoynish Wars.

Background
Following many defeats by the Valyrians in a conflict that began from the slaughter of one of the old men of the river, the Rhoynish princes eventually set aside their differences and allied behind Prince Garin of Chroyane. Garin led the largest army Essos had ever seen against a hundred thousand Valyrian colonists, a hundred war elephants and three dragonlords. While thousands of them died, the Rhoynar defeated the Valyria's forces and killed two of their dragons, causing the third to flee. Thereafter, the Rhoynar named Garin "the Great".

Garin led his army against Volantis, only for three hundred Valyrian dragons to descend from the sky. Tens of thousands of Rhoynish soldiers were burned alive while others rushed to the Rhoyne, only for the dragons to boil the water to steam with their fire. Garin was captured and placed in a cage, forced to watched as the Valyrians butchered every last one of his soldiers. The Valyrians then forced him to watch at they enslaved all of the women and children of Chroyane.

Singers claim that Garin called out Mother Rhoyne to curse the Valyrians, and that she flooded the city with foul waters and a damp fog which caused the the skin of the Valyrians to harden and crack, thus giving birth to greyscale. The affliction became known as "Prince Garin's curse.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Prince Garin led two hundred and fifty thousand men to their deaths in an attempt to stop the Valyrians in the Second Spice War, and was given the name "Garin the Great" for giving the Valyrians pause.

Legend states that the men of Volantis hung Garin in a golden cage and mocked him as he called upon Mother Rhoyne to destroy them, though that very night the waters rose and drowned them. Some believe his curse may have also brought about the Doom of Valyria.

It is said that the spirits of Garin's enemies who were wiped out by the curse remain beneath the waters and that their cold breath rises from the murk to make the fogs that infest the ruins of Chroyane, their flesh having turned as stony as their hearts. Some believe that Garin rose from his watery grave and became the mysterious and possibly legendary figure known as the Shrouded Lord.