Editing House Stark (section)

===''A Game of Thrones''===
[[File:John_Picacio_Ned_Stark.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Eddard Stark]] by John Picacio ©]]
Following the death of his [[Hand of the King]], Lord [[Jon Arryn]], King [[Robert I Baratheon]] journeys to [[Winterfell]] to offer Lord [[Eddard Stark]] the office.{{Ref|AGOT|2}}{{Ref|AGOT|4}} A letter arrives from [[Lysa Arryn]], Jon's widow and Eddard's wife [[Catelyn Stark|Catelyn]]'s sister, who claims the [[House Lannister|Lannisters]] were behind Lord Arryn's sudden death. At Catelyn's urging, Ned grudgingly accepts the Handship and a betrothal of their daughter [[Sansa Stark|Sansa]] to Prince [[Joffrey Baratheon]].{{Ref|AGOT|6}} During the royal party's stay, Eddard's second son, [[Bran Stark|Bran]], accidentally witnesses Queen [[Cersei Lannister]] having sex with her twin brother, Ser [[Jaime Lannister|Jaime]].{{Ref|AGOT|8}} Jaime throws Bran out of the tower window, hoping to kill him to keep their relationship a secret.{{Ref|AGOT|8}} Bran survives, but is crippled and comatose.{{Ref|AGOT|9}}{{Ref|AGOT|10}}

Eddard rides to [[King's Landing]] along with his daughters, Sansa and [[Arya Stark|Arya]], while Catelyn remains at Winterfell with their sons. Meanwhile, Ned's bastard son, [[Jon Snow]], rides north with his uncle, [[Benjen Stark|Benjen]], to join the [[Night's Watch]].{{ref|AGOT|19}} Catelyn is inconsolable in her worry for Bran, ignoring her duties as Lady of Winterfell, but she is jolted back to reality by [[catspaw|an attempt]] on Bran's life thwarted only by [[Summer|his direwolf]].{{ref|AGOT|14}} As Bran lies comatose, he begins to have visions of a [[three-eyed crow]].{{ref|AGOT|17}}

Near the [[ruby ford]] and the [[crossroads]], Arya defends her friend [[Mycah]] from the aggressions of Prince [[Joffrey Baratheon]], upsetting Sansa.{{ref|AGOT|15}} This is exacerbated when Sansa's direwolf, [[Lady (direwolf)|Lady]], is ordered killed in place of Arya's, [[Nymeria (direwolf)|Nymeria]], which has escaped.{{ref|AGOT|16}} 

In [[King's Landing]], Eddard is outraged to find that the crown is heavily in debt (largely to Robert's goodfather, [[Tywin Lannister]], [[Lord of Casterly Rock]]) and that the king intends to throw a [[Hand's tourney|lavish tourney]] in his honor.{{ref|AGOT|20}} After taking up his duties as Hand, Eddard assigns twenty of [[House Stark guards|his household guard]] to assist the [[gold cloaks]] in keeping order in King's Landing.{{ref|AGOT|27}}

Ned investigates the death of Jon Arryn, determining that he was looking into the king's [[bastard]] brood. When Robert holds a [[small council]] meeting to arrange the death of the exiled [[Daenerys Targaryen]], who has wed [[Drogo]], a mighty ''[[khal]]'' of the [[Dothraki]], Ned refuses to condone the assassination and resigns as Hand.{{ref|AGOT|33}} In the streets of the capital, he is waylaid by Jaime Lannister and [[House Lannister guards|red cloaks]] in retaliation for Catelyn's abduction of [[Tyrion Lannister]], whom her foster-brother, [[Petyr Baelish]], had told her was responsible for the attempt on Bran's life.{{ref|AGOT|35}} Ned's leg is broken and his best men slain, but Ned survives and Robert re-confirms his appointment as Hand before going on a hunt and leaving Ned to sit the [[Iron Throne]].{{ref|AGOT|39}} In this capacity he sends men, including twenty Stark guards, under [[Beric Dondarrion]], [[Lord of Blackhaven]], to stop Ser [[Gregor Clegane]] from raiding the [[riverlands]].{{Ref|AGOT|43}} Gregor's attacks were ordered by Lord Lannister; since Lord Stark was wounded he was not lured into the field and thus could not be captured and traded for Tyrion. The men sent after Gregor are [[Battle at the Mummer's Ford|ambushed]] and many are slain.{{ref|AGOT|55}} Catelyn brings Tyrion to her sister Lysa at the [[Eyrie]], but Tyrion is released after [[Bronn]] is victorious in a [[trial by battle]].{{ref|AGOT|40}}

[[File:Enife Stark children.jpg|thumb|350px|[[Rickon Stark|Rickon]], [[Bran Stark|Bran]], [[Arya Stark|Arya]], [[Sansa Stark|Sansa]], [[Jon Snow|Jon]], and [[Robb Stark|Robb]], by enife ©]]

At the [[Wall]], Jon Snow deals with the cruel tutelage of Ser [[Alliser Thorne]] while making friends such as [[Samwell Tarly]] and learning lessons from his elders.{{ref|AGOT|26}} Jon becomes the personal [[steward]] of [[Jeor Mormont]], [[Lord Commander of the Night's Watch]].{{ref|AGOT|48}} The youth encounters a hint of the evil that supposedly lies [[beyond the Wall]] when the corpses of two of his uncle's men [[Wight|rise from the dead]] and go on the rampage at [[Castle Black]]; Jon saves the Lord Commander from being killed by [[Othor|one of the wights]].{{ref|AGOT|52}}  

Eventually, Ned arrives at the same conclusion at which Jon Arryn did: that Queen Cersei's children are not Robert's, but bastards born of [[incest]] between the Lannister twins, and determines that it is this secret for which Jon was murdered. He approaches Cersei with this truth, warning her to flee the city.{{ref|AGOT|45}} Enlisting Lord Baelish to recruit the gold cloaks,{{ref|AGOT|47}} Ned confronts Cersei after Robert's death from a hunting accident, insisting that [[Stannis Baratheon]] is now king by rights. Littlefinger betrays Ned, however, and the Hand's men are slaughtered by [[Janos Slynt]]'s gold cloaks and Ned is thrown into a [[black cell]].{{ref|AGOT|49}} Sansa is held hostage in the [[Red Keep]],{{ref|AGOT|51}} but Arya manages to escape thanks to [[Syrio Forel]], the fencing master Ned had hired to train her in swordplay.{{ref|AGOT|50}}

[[Robb Stark]] calls the banners to Winterfell and marches south to aid his mother's family, [[House Tully]] of [[Riverrun]], against the Lannisters, and to rescue his father and sisters from the capital.{{ref|AGOT|53}} At the [[Twins]], Catelyn arranges an alliance with [[Walder Frey]], [[Lord of the Crossing]], to negotiate passage over the [[Green Fork]], promising that Robb and Arya will wed [[House Frey|Freys]].{{ref|AGOT|59}} Robb captures Jaime in the [[battle of the Whispering Wood|Whispering Wood]]{{ref|AGOT|63}} and then relieves the Lannisters' siege of Riverrun with the [[Battle of the Camps]].{{ref|AGOT|69}} The rest of the Stark army, led by [[Roose Bolton]], [[Lord of the Dreadfort]], is defeated by Tywin in the [[battle on the Green Fork]], however.{{ref|AGOT|62}}

Ned initially refuses to name Joffrey as the true king, but in the end agrees in order to ensure the safety of Sansa.{{ref|AGOT|58}} When he publicly announces this support at the [[Great Sept of Baelor]], however, the capricious boy king orders Ned's execution rather than allow him to join the Night's Watch as planned.{{ref|AGOT|65}} In response, the northern and river lords at Robb's war council in Riverrun proclaim him [[King in the North]], seceding from the realm of the [[Iron Throne]].{{ref|AGOT|71}}

Benjen has gone missing [[beyond the Wall]], and Jon Snow, after briefly deserting the Watch to join his half-brother's army, rides as part of the [[great ranging]] meant to determine his fate and the threats of the [[Others]] and [[wildlings]].{{ref|AGOT|70}}