Eddard Stark

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Eddard Stark, sometimes called "Ned", is Lord of Winterfell, Lord Paramount of the North, and Warden of the North. He and Catelyn Stark have five children, and he has a bastard son, Jon Snow. Eddard is known for his sense of honor and justice; he dislikes deceit, intrigue, and secrecy. Though his family finds him kind, some consider his reserved personality a sign of coldness and disdain.

Appearance

Eddard is in his mid-thirties. He has a long face, dark hair, and grey eyes. His closely-trimmed beard is beginning to grey. He is neither as large nor as handsome as his brother Brandon was.

History

From the age of eight, Ned was fostered by Jon Arryn at the Eyrie, alongside Robert Baratheon. Ned befriended Robert, and came to consider Lord Arryn a second father. After Ned's father and brother died by command of Aerys II, the king demanded that Arryn send him the heads of the two wards. Arryn refused and instead launched a rebellion, in which Ned and Robert joined as lords of their houses and chief commanders. Shortly before the final battles of the rebellion, Ned married Catelyn Tully, who had been betrothed to Ned's brother Brandon before his death. Ned was present, along with Howland Reed, at a tower on the Dornish border known as the Tower of Joy when his sister Lyanna died there, an incident surrounded in mystery that haunted Ned ever after.

Once the conflict had ended and Robert had taken the throne, Ned returned home, bringing with him a bastard son, Jon, about whose origins he refused to speak, even to his own wife; he quickly silenced rumors that the boy's mother was the Dornish noblewoman Ashara Dayne. He spent the next fifteen years as Lord of Winterfell, a task he had never expected and did not always feel equal to; he rarely left his lands, and did not involve himself in the complex intrigues of the southern courts.

After Jon Arryn's death, King Robert asked Eddard to replace him as Hand of the King, the monarch's closest advisor. Ned preferred to decline the request, but went south at his wife's urging to investigate Arryn's death. He discovered that Robert's children were actually the product of incest between Robert's wife Cersei and her brother, Jaime Lannister. Pursuing his usual forthright, honorable approach, he confronted Cersei with this knowledge, giving her a warning to flee while she could. Instead, Cersei used her time to orchestrate Robert's assassination and buy off the City Guard. Ned trusted Petyr Baelish to keep the City Guard loyal to him, but Baelish betrayed him. Cersei had Ned imprisoned for treason. Although Ned's daughter Sansa, who was betrothed to Joffrey Baratheon, pleaded for Ned's life, Joffrey had him executed.

Quotes

Bran- "Can a man still be brave when he's afraid?"
Eddard - "That's the only time a man can be brave."


"If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and here his final words. And if you can not do that, then perhaps the men does not deseerve to die. [...] A ruler who hides behinds paid executioners soon forgets what death is."

References and Sources

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at House Stark.
The list of authors can be seen in the page history of House Stark.
As with A Wiki of Ice and Fire, the content of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.