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  ===Background===
  Roose practiced an ancient and illicitly banned tradition called the first night, in which a lord had the right to bed a commoner's wife. One day, prior to Robert's Rebellion, Roose was fox hunting along the Weeping Water when he came across a young woman washing clothes in the stream, whom was married to the old miller without Roose's knowledge. Desiring the woman, and angered for not being informed of the marriage, Roose had the miller hanged and violently raped the woman beneath the tree where her husband still hung.
  A year later, the woman came to the Dreadfort with a newborn boy whom she claimed was Roose's bastard, named Ramsay. Roose considered having the woman whipped and the baby killed before realizing that the baby is indeed his, owing to its pale, cold eyes. He gave the woman money and annual supplies as payment to raise Ramsay, and had the tongue of the miller's brother cut out to prevent Lord Rickard Stark from being informed of his illegal activities. He sends his odious and depraved servant Reek to the young Ramsay and his mother after the latter demands a servant to help raise the boy, an act he considers to be highly amusing. Roose later participates in Robert's Rebellion and (according to a semi-canonical source) the Greyjoy Rebellion.
  Despite Roose's orders, Roose's only trueborn son, Domeric, seeks out Ramsay. Domeric dies soon after, and Roose suspects that Ramsay poisoned Domeric to become his heir. Roose, left without a trueborn heir, brings Ramsay to the Dreadfort, where he later serves as the fortress's castellan and has thus far refused to legitimize or otherwise acknowledge him as his true heir. He considers his bastard son foolhardy and tactless, with 'tainted blood that would poison even the leeches'.