 At the start of the War of the Five Kings, the castle is in ruin, with only a fraction of it habitable, and held by Lady Shella Whent, the last of her House, who is stripped of Harrenhal when the Lannisters seize her castle.The castle changes hands repeatedly over the course of the novels, many of those holding it meeting unpleasant ends.Riverrun is the ancestral stronghold of House Tully.