Amory Lorch

"I judged you might be good for something more than brutalizing peasants. I see I overestimated you."

- Tywin Lannister to Amory Lorch Amory Lorch is a recurring character in the second season. He is played by Fintan McKeown and debuts in "What is Dead May Never Die." Ser Amory Lorch is a knight fighting for House Lannister in the War of the Five Kings. He was killed by Jaqen H'ghar at Harrenhal.

Background
Ser Amory Lorch is a landed knight of House Lorch, a knightly house sworn to House Lannister. He has been a loyal vassal of the Lannisters for many years. The sigil of his House is a black manticore on a red field.

Season 2
Lorch is raiding in the Riverlands when he is approached by a Gold Cloak with a warrant for the royal bastard Gendry. They have been run off by Yoren and his Night's Watch recruits who are harboring the boy. Lorch confronts Yoren's group and attacks them when they refuse to give up Gendry. He kills Yoren personally after his men have subdued him and then imprisons the survivors, ordering them to be taken to Harrenhal. He does not realize that Arya Stark and Gendry are among them. He questions them about Gendry and is tricked into believing that the slain Lommy Greenhands was his target because he was carrying Gendry's bull's head helm.

Lorch and his men deliver the prisoners to Ser Gregor Clegane at Harrenhal. Ser Gregor oversees the torture of the captives, killing several of them. When Lord Tywin Lannister returns to Harrenhal he ends the interrogations and orders the prisoners put to work, criticizing his men for wasting valuable manpower.

Lorch attends a war council held by Lord Tywin. Tywin criticizes his men for underestimating Robb Stark and demands that they devise a new strategy. Lorch reports rumors from spies that there is discontent in Robb's camp. Tywin is dismissive, saying that discontent is a part of war and that the very same spies would report the same from the Lannister side.

Ser Amory is chastised by Lord Tywin during a war council after the knight's illiteracy means that a letter meant for Lord Damon of House Marbrand is instead accidentally sent to Lord Marlin of House Dormund, a vassal of House Stark. Exasperated, Tywin remarks that "my cupbearer reads better than you!" Later, Amory catches Arya Stark with a stolen letter and tries to seize her, and then heads to inform Tywin. Frantically, Arya seeks out the assassin Jaqen H'ghar and names Amory as her next kill. Ser Amory is killed with a poisoned dart dipped in wolfsbane just as he enters Lord Tywin's chambers. Tywin mistakes it for an assassination attempt on himself.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Ser Amory Lorch is a noted servant of Lord Tywin Lannister and a member of House Lorch, a knightly house sworn to Casterly Rock. During the Sack of King's Landing at the end of Robert's Rebellion, Ser Amory Lorch and Ser Gregor Clegane were assigned to eliminate the last scions of House Targaryen, breaking into the royal apartments and brutally killing Prince Rhaegar's wife, Elia Martell, and their children, Aegon and Rhaenys, an act that has marred the reputation of both.

Lorch killed Rhaenys by stabbing her about fifty times. Even Tywin considered that the manner was overly brutal. He asked Lorch why killing a four year old girl required so many thrusts, and Lorch answered that she kicked him and would not stop screaming. Tywin commented that if Lorch had half the brain a turnip has, he would have calmed Rhaenys with a few sweet words and used a soft silk pillow to smother her.

In the books, Ser Amory comes into conflict with Yoren while hunting down the Brotherhood Without Banners instead of Gendry. Although Yoren repeatedly assures Lorch that his caravan has nothing to do with the Brotherhood, Lorch picks a fight with him without any provocation or reason.

There is no mention in the books that Lorch is illiterate.

Lorch is not one of the names Arya gives to Jaqen, and was not killed by him. After Roose Bolton took Harrenhal, he and Vargo Hoat had Lorch thrown into the bear pit, where he was torn apart. Arya considered that poetic punishment for Yoren's death, as she had thought of Yoren as hairy and tough like a bear.