House Stark
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House Stark is a fictional family from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Several of the main point of view characters of the series belong to House Stark. House Stark rules the North and has many lesser houses sworn to them. They live at Winterfell. The sigil is a grey direwolf on a field of white, and their words are "Winter Is Coming".
The Starks trace their ancestry to Bran the Builder who, according to legend, built Winterfell and the Wall with help of the Children of the Forest, a vanished people skilled in magic.
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History
Since Bran the Builder is supposed to have lived 10,000 years ago, the Starks are an old family, tracing their lineage back to the First Men. They have been Kings of the North / Kings of Winter for almost all of that time until the last king Torrhen submitted to Aegon the Conqueror. Since that time they hold the North for the Targaryen kings as Lords of Winterfell and Wardens of the North.
The Starks pray to the old gods, rather than the seven.
Genealogy
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Edwyle Unknown daughter==+==Royce
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Rickard 3 daughters==+==Vale lords
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+---------+--------+------+ offspring
Brandon | Lyanna Benjen
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?==+==Eddard==+=====+====+====+=====+==Catelyn Tully
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Jon Snow Robb Sansa Arya Bran Rickon
Notable Starks
No precise lineage of House Stark is known, but the individuals listed below are supposed to be in rough chronological order.
- Bran the Builder
- Theon the Hungry Wolf
- Brandon the Shipwright
- Brandon the Burner
- Dorren
- Jon
- Rickard
- Rodrick
- Edrick
- Benjen the Bitter
- Benjen the Sweet
- Eyron
- Edderion the Bridegroom
- Walton the Moonking
- Brandon the Bad
- Jorah and Jonos
- Edwyn the Spring King
- Bran the Daughterless
- Torrhen the King Who Knelt
- The last King of Winter, who bent the knee to Aegon the Conqueror, making the North part of the Seven Kingdoms
- Cregan
- Fought Aemon the Dragonknight
- Brandon
- Barth
- Jonnel
- Rodwell
- Beron
- Donner
- Artos the Implacable
- Willam
- Edwyle
- Rickard
- Rickard was killed by Aerys Targaryen at the start of Robert's Rebellion.
Starks in A Song of Ice and Fire
Brandon Stark
Eddard's elder brother, killed during Robert Baratheon's rebellion. He was betrothed to Catelyn Tully, and fought Lord Petyr Baelish ("Littlefinger") for her honor. Upon Brandon's death during Robert's rebellion, his younger brother Eddard married Catelyn to keep their two houses together. Although Catelyn had loved Brandon but considered Ned a stranger, they came to love one another deeply; their son Brandon is named for him.
Eddard Stark
Eddard "Ned" Stark, Warden of the North, and Lord of Winterfell. His wife, Catelyn Stark (of House Tully), married him only after the death of her betrothed, Ned's brother Brandon. He and Catelyn Stark have five children, and Eddard has a bastard roughly Robb's age named Jon Snow, and has taken Theon Greyjoy as a ward. Eddard is known for his overdeveloped sense of honor and justice. He has a longsword made of Valyrian steel named "Ice".
Ned and Jon Arryn were friends of Robert Baratheon, and fought alongside him during his successful rebellion against the Targaryens. Jon was made the Hand of the King, and Robert the King. After Jon was murdered, Ned was appointed to the office of the Hand. Robert soon died, gored during a boar hunt while drunk on poisoned wine. Ned investigated, and discovered evidence that Robert's three children - including the new King, Joffrey - were actually the incestuous children of Robert's wife Cersei and her brother, Ser Jaime Lannister. After confronting Cersei and having his suspicions confirmed, her sought to gain allies against the Lannisters and King Joffrey. One such ally, Littlefinger, betrayed him. During Ned's confrontation with the king's court, the city guards cut down his men and Littlefinger held a dagger to Ned's throat to keep him from interfering.
King Joffrey's advisors told him to have Ned join the Night's Watch, effectively negating his crime of treason but at the cost of exile and the loss of all of his lands and titles. Joffrey instead had Ser Ilyn Payne behead him in front of hundreds of people, including his daughters Sansa and Arya. Ned's death prompted the Starks and their allies to make war on the king.
Lyanna
Rhaegar Targaryen crowned Lyanna queen of beauty after winning the tournament at Harrenhal. Shortly after this, he abducted her, triggering her fiancé Robert Baratheon's rebellion. Eddard Stark confronted members of the King's Guard at the Tower of Joy to reclaim her, and made a terrible (but unidentified) promise to her as she lay dying. Some fans believe she is the mother of Jon Snow, likely with Rhaegar himself, and that this promise was to conceal her child by claiming him as his own.
Benjen Stark
First Ranger in the Night's Watch. He disappeared shortly after Jon Snow joined the Watch.
Robb
Robb was the eldest legitimate son of Lord Eddard Stark, and heir to Winterfell. When Lord Eddard relocated to King's Landing to become the King's Hand, Robb remained at Winterfell to rule in his father's stead. When Eddard was beheaded by Ser Ilyn Payne, Robb declared himself King in the North rather than swear fealty to the Lannister king, Joffrey Baratheon, drawing the banners of the north and of the riverlands to his cause. Despite winning every military conquest against the Lannisters, he was betrayed and murdered by Walder Frey at the wedding of his uncle, Edmure Tully, to Frey's daughter Roslin. Robb's direwolf, Grey Wind, was killed as well, and their heads were cut off and sewn onto each other's bodies.
Sansa
Elder daughter of Lord Eddard Stark and Lady Catelyn Stark, Sansa (a POV character) loves the pageantry and buzz of the court, and may have been the only Stark happy to go to King's Landing.
Sansa was initially to be wed to King Robert's heir apparent Joffrey Baratheon. Sansa's sister Arya and Arya's direwolf Nymeria violently defended Arya's friend from Joffrey, and Joffrey's mother Cersei had Sansa's direwolf Lady killed when Nymeria could not be found. Although this sourced their relationship for a time, Sansa soon became infatuated with Joffery again. When Eddard Stark arranged for passage to the North for his daughters, Sansa informed Cersei (hoping to be allowed to stay at court), thereby informing Cersei of Eddard's plans against her.
Eddard was imprisoned and, despite Sansa's pleading and Cersei's counseling, executed. Joffrey, by now king, began a reign of terror at court, a great deal of his caprice targeted towards Sansa who quickly fell out of love with him and in love with Ser Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers. The Tyrells conspired to marry her to Loras's brother Willas, but the Lannisters beat them to it, wedding her to Tyrion Lannister without notice. The wedding to Tyrion was never consummated.
After Sansa saved the drunken Ser Dontos from execution, he agreed to help her escape. They met in the Godswood periodically and then, after Joffrey's death, he took her to a ship held by Littlefinger, who murdered Dontos and brought Sansa to the Eyrie disguised as his fictitious bastard daughter, Alayne Stone. Littlefinger soon expressed romantic feelings for Sansa - or, at least, sexual feelings for Sansa and romantic feelings for her mother. This soon led to a clash with the jealous, paranoid Lysa Arryn, who had been in love with Littlefinger for years and had recently wed him. When Lysa threatened to kill Sansa, Littlefinger killed Lysa and framed Lysa's minstrel for the crime.
Arya
Arya (a POV character) is a nine-year-old tomboy who flouts convention and authority. In King's Landing, her father arranged for her to study fencing under the Braavosi swordsman Syrio Forel using Needle, the sword her half-brother Jon gave her. At Harrenhal she befriended Jaqen H'gar, a Faceless Man, who arranged for her travel to Braavos for further training.
Bran
One of several Brandon Starks over the centuries, including Brandon the Builder and Brandon the Burner and, most recently, his late uncle Brandon Stark, Bran is the son of Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn Stark, the fourth eldest child but second eldest boy, therefore heir to Winterfell after his brother Robb. Bran dreams of one day becoming a knight. Part of A Song of Ice and Fire is written from Bran's point of view.
Early in A Game of Thrones, Bran was pushed out a tower window by Jaime Lannister after catching Jaime and Cersei Lannister in flagrante delicto. Bran was in a coma when Lord Eddard traveled to King's Landing, but soon awakened to find himself paralyzed from the waist down and dubbed "Bran the Broken." Maester Luwin devised a "saddle" with which Bran could be transported by Winterfell's half-giant stableboy, Hodor.
During his coma, Bran begans to have visions of a three-eyed crow; with the help of Jojen Reed, he was later able to interpret these dreams as being prophetic, and to refine his ability to project his consciousness into his direwolf, Summer. When Theon Greyjoy captured Winterfell in A Clash of Kings, Bran, his brother Rickon, Hodor, the wildling Osha, and Jojen and Meera Reed, hid in the catacombs until Ser Rodrik Cassell's failed siege. During this time Theon claimed the two dead, substituting the murdered bodies of two local smallfolk (peasants).
After Winterfell's razing, Bran, Hodor and the Reeds traveled north to the Wall. Samwell Tarly aided them in crossing the Wall but, sworn to secrecy, did not tell Jon Snow that his half-brothers were alive. Sam traveled onto Castle Black, while Bran and the others traveled further north in search of the three-eyed crow in the company of "Coldhands", a creature who seems to be a self-aware wight. (In A Song of Ice and Fire wights are zombie-like creatures created by the inhuman Others from corpses; they are normally incapable of thought, emotion, or the sense of touch).
Rickon
Rickon is the youngest legitimate son of Lord Eddard Stark. He remained at Winterfell while it stood intact, then traveled with Osha while Bran searches for the three-eyed crow with Jojen and Meera Reed, at which point he ceased to be directly present in any of the first person narratives. Rickon's direwolf is Shaggydog.