Flaying

"In my family we say: A naked man has few secrets; a flayed man, none."

- Roose Bolton

Flaying is an ancient, and particularly barbaric method of torture, which involves the use of a blade to remove several layers of the victim's skin, exposing nerve and muscle tissue, and leaving them in perpetual agony, assuming they survive the procedure at all. The practice is commonly, and notoriously associated with House Bolton.

Season 2
"- My father outlawed flaying in the North - We're not in the North..."

- Robb Stark and Roose Bolton

Following the Battle of Oxcross Roose Bolton attempts, unsuccessfully to persuade King Robb Stark to reverse his father's policy banning the use of flaying in the North; preaching the merits of the practice during times of war.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the practice of flaying is synonymous with House Bolton, to the point where a bloody, skinless man became their sigil. Their house words: "Our Blades Are Sharp", also reflects House Bolton's perverse love of torture.

A thousand years prior to the War of the Five Kings, the Boltons bent the knee to the Kings in the North and were forced to abandon their tactic of flaying their captives. However, three hundred years later the Boltons rose in rebellion against the Starks of Winterfell. The Stark armies besieged the Dreadfort for four years before the Boltons finally yielded. For many centuries the Boltons remained grudgingly subservient to the Starks, although rumors persisted that they continued to flay their prisoners in secret, and maintain a hidden chamber in the Dreadfort to display the skins of their enemies. Rumor has it that the skins of several Starks are among the most prized in the collection.