House Egen of Talamon is an old Andal house of the Vale, its origins bound up with the very conquest that made the Eyrie paramount in those mountains. The founder of the line was a companion of Artys Arryn during the Andal invasion, riding under his banners through the campaigns that broke the First Men of the mountains. For that loyalty and kinship-in-arms, Artys rewarded him with lands close beneath the Gates of the Moon, where his descendants raised a modest stone keep and, in time, the small town of Talamon grew around it.
The Egens have long served the Lords of the Eyrie with a particular closeness, their seat sitting astride the approach to the mountain road. By the time of A Game of Thrones, Ser Vardis Egen, a renowned knight of the Vale, holds the post of captain of the household guard at the Eyrie, in service first to Lord Jon Arryn and then to Lady Lysa and the young Lord Robert. Vardis dies in the sky cells' shadow when he is chosen as Lady Lysa's champion in Tyrion Lannister's trial by combat, slain by the sellsword Bronn in single fight.