Melessa Tarly

George R. R. Martin's ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' saga features a large cast of characters. The series follows three interwoven plotlines: a dynastic war for control of Westeros by several families; the rising threat of the superhuman Others beyond the northern border of Westeros; and the ambition of Daenerys Targaryen, the exiled heir of the previous ruling dynasty. The Great Houses of Westeros represent the Seven Kingdoms which exist on the continent: the North, the Iron Islands, the Vale of Arryn, the Westerlands, the Stormlands, the Reach, and Dorne. A massive wall of ice and old magic separates the Seven Kingdoms from the largely unmapped area in the most northern portion of the continent.

Each chapter is narrated in the third-person limited point of view through the eyes of a single character. Beginning with nine POV characters in ''A Game of Thrones'' (1996), a total of thirty-one such characters have narrated over the course of the first five volumes of the series.

House Stark

House Stark is one of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms and the principal house of the North. Its seat is at Winterfell, one of the oldest castles in the Seven Kingdoms. Its coat of arms displays a grey direwolf running on a white field, and its words are ''Winter is Coming''. Bastards born in the North are given the surname "Snow". House Stark had ruled as the Kings in the North for thousands of years until House Targaryen conquered Westeros, whereafter the Starks were known as the Lords of Winterfell and Wardens of the North. For prizing honor and devotion to duty, House Stark is the closest of the noble houses to heroism.

Descended from Bran the Builder, the architect of the Wall, House Stark is the chief First Men dynasty in Westeros due to their successful repulsion of the Andal invasion and became the ruling house in the North after defeating the Barrow Kings and slowly uniting the North into one kingdom, contesting for dominance with House Bolton of the Dreadfort, the second-most powerful Northern house with a sinister reputation for their flaying tradition. Their expanding dominion would also repel incursions of pirates and raiders, and secure control of the Neck through their vassals of House Reed. They would also gain a new vassal from the Reach after House Manderly was exiled, granting them White Harbor in exchange for protection against piracy.

House Stark would ultimately unite the North and drive the ironborn away, making enemies with House Hoare, and a new vassal in House Mormont of Bear Island, just as the Andals arrived in Westeros and began conquering every kingdom the First Men had built and converting them to the Faith of the Seven. The Starks made peace with the Boltons and finally unified the North and began opposing the Andals as one force instead of individually like the rest of the First Men, sacking Andalos and driving them back from the fortress of Moat Cailin. They would lose their strength at sea after a failed voyage across the Sunset Sea ended in all their ships being torched. House Stark would also aid the Night's Watch several times against wildling raids, defeating many Kings-beyond-the-Wall, and forming a cadet branch, called House Karstark.
During Aegon's conquest of Westeros, the Starks intended to oppose the Targaryens, unwilling to bow to an outsider, but King Torrhen Stark knelt after hearing of the scorching of Harrenhal and the devastating outcome of the Field of Fire caused by the Targaryen dragons, becoming the first Warden of the North, and had a marriage alliance with House Arryn to keep the realm together.

Over the course of the novels, the Starks are scattered by the War of the Five Kings, and the fate of the House remains uncertain, as most characters believe that all the legitimate Stark sons are dead.

Family

Eddard Stark

Eddard "Ned" Stark is the Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, and briefly serves as Hand of the King to Robert Baratheon. He is executed, by Joffrey's order, on the steps of the Great Sept of Baelor. He serves as a POV character for 15 chapters in ''A Game of Thrones'' .

Catelyn Stark

Catelyn Stark is the Lady of Winterfell, wife of Lord Eddard Stark, and mother to his children Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, and Rickon. She is the daughter of Lord Hoster Tully of Riverrun; niece to Ser Brynden Tully (also known as the legendary "Blackfish") and sister to Lysa Arryn of the Vale and to Edmure Tully. She is murdered during the Red Wedding, and later resurrected as an undead, vengeful killer under the name of Lady Stoneheart. She serves as a POV character for 25 chapters throughout ''A Game of Thrones'', ''A Clash of Kings'' and ''A Storm of Swords''.

Robb Stark

Robb Stark is the oldest child of Eddard and Catelyn Stark, and the heir to Winterfell. He is not a POV character, but features in the POV chapters of his family members in the first three novels in the series.

Sansa Stark

Sansa Stark is the second child and elder daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark. She serves as a POV character for 24 chapters throughout ''A Game of Thrones'', ''A Clash of Kings'', ''A Storm of Swords'', and ''A Feast for Crows''. Sansa is introduced as beautiful and demure.

Arya Stark

Arya Stark is the third child and younger daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark. She serves as a POV character for 33 chapters throughout ''A Game of Thrones'', ''A Clash of Kings'', ''A Storm of Swords'', ''A Feast for Crows'', and ''A Dance with Dragons''. So far she is the only character to appear in all 5 books as a POV character.

Bran Stark

Brandon "Bran" Stark is the second son and fourth child of Eddard and Catelyn Stark. He serves as the third-person narrator of twenty-one chapters throughout ''A Game of Thrones'', ''A Clash of Kings'', ''A Storm of Swords'', and ''A Dance with Dragons''. In ''A Game of Thrones'', he sees Queen Cersei and her brother Jaime Lannister committing incest, and Jaime pushes Bran from the window to keep the relationship secret. Bran survives, but loses the use of his legs. While comatose, Bran dreams of a three-eyed crow. Slowly, he develops the ability to assume his wolf Summer's consciousness, making him a warg or ''skinchanger''. After his older brother Robb is crowned King in the North, Bran becomes Robb's heir and the acting Lord of Winterfell. In ''A Clash of Kings'', Jojen Reed teaches Bran how to correctly use his telepathy, and directs him beyond the Wall. In ''A Dance with Dragons'', Bran meets the Three-Eyed-Crow: an alias of the last trained clairvoyant.

Rickon Stark

Rickon Stark is Ned Stark's youngest child and is three years old in ''A Game of Thrones''. When Theon Greyjoy captures Winterfell in ''A Clash of Kings'', Rickon hides in the crypts. After Winterfell is sacked, he and the wildling woman Osha travel through the North. In ''A Dance with Dragons'', he is said to be on an island of cannibals, presumably Skagos.

Jon Snow

Jon Snow was raised as Ned Stark's illegitimate son and serves as the point of view character in 42 chapters throughout ''A Game of Thrones'', ''A Clash of Kings'', ''A Storm of Swords'', and ''A Dance with Dragons''. He shares the Stark family values of honour, and tries to stay morally correct and honest, even when forced to act otherwise. He is theorized to be the son of Lyanna Stark, Ned Stark's sister, and Rhaegar Targaryen.

Benjen Stark

Benjen Stark is Ned Stark's younger brother and a First Ranger in the Night's Watch. He appears briefly at the start of ''A Game of Thrones'', first in Winterfell and then later on the Wall at Castle Black, where he travels with his bastard nephew Jon Snow. Benjen is sent on a mission into the lands beyond the Wall to search for a missing ranging party, but he and his men also disappear. The bodies of two of his men are later found and brought back to Castle Black; they reanimate as undead wights and kill several men before they are destroyed, but no trace of Benjen has yet been found.

Lyanna Stark

Lyanna Stark was Eddard Stark's younger and only sister, and has been deceased for 14 years at the beginning of ''A Game of Thrones'', but is mentioned in every published book in the series. She died at the young age of 16, was said to have been very beautiful by all who knew her as "a child-woman of surpassing loveliness" and "a wild beauty". She was also remembered as being headstrong and "had a touch of" the fabled Starks' "wolf blood", and was one of the best horse-riders in the North. She was betrothed to Robert Baratheon, who was deeply in love with her, although she was unimpressed by Robert's reputation for infidelity. Her life's tales are mainly told through the words of Eddard Stark and Meera Reed (via Bran Stark's viewpoint chapter), with some passing commentaries from other people such as Barristan Selmy, Cersei Lannister, Roose Bolton and Kevan Lannister.

During the Tourney at Harrenhal, the greatest tourney in Westerosi history, Lyanna rescued Stark bannerman Howland Reed by beating away three bullying squires. She was later chosen by the eventual jousting champion, Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, as the tourney's "Queen of Love and Beauty". Because Rhaegar was already married, and Lyanna was a maiden betrothed to Robert Baratheon, Rhaegar's wooing of Lyanna was considered an outrageous scandal at the time. One year later, she was said to have been abducted and raped by Rhaegar, triggering a civil war that resulted in the overthrow of House Targaryen. At the end of the war, Eddard and six of his companions ventured to the Tower of Joy within Dorne, where Lyanna was located and guarded by three of the most prominent Kingsguard knights — the "Sword of the Morning" Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Oswell Whent, and the "White Bull" Ser Gerold Hightower (lord commander of the Kingsguard). After a fierce skirmish that killed everyone except Eddard and Howland, Eddard entered the tower and found Lyanna dying in a "bed of blood". Before she died, she asked her brother Eddard to make a promise, something that Eddard regarded as a price he paid that haunted him days and nights for 14 years.

Eddard later takes her body home to be entombed in Winterfell's crypt, and installs a stone statue in her likeness in front of her sarcophagus. When he returns, he also brings back a newborn boy named Jon Snow, whom he claims is his own bastard by a woman named Wylla, who were later implied to be a wet nurse serving House Dayne of Starfall. Although Jon Arryn persuaded Robert to marry Cersei Lannister, Robert greatly mourns Lyanna for over a decade, causing great strain in his marriage with Cersei.

Jeyne Westerling

Jeyne Westerling is the older daughter of Lord Gawen Westerling of the Crag, a Westerlands bannerman of House Lannister. She meets Robb Stark when he is wounded, and falls in love with him during his convalescence. He marries her the next day to preserve her honour, in doing so breaking a marriage contract with House Frey. After Robb's departure for the Twins, Jeyne remains in Riverrun and does not witness the massacre. After the Red Wedding, she is granted a royal pardon. In ''A Feast for Crows'', she is openly mourning and last appears riding to Casterly Rock as a political prisoner.

During the 2014 San Diego Comic Con, George R. R. Martin stated that Jeyne Westerling will appear in the prologue of the sixth book, '' The Winds of Winter'', but did not reveal whether she would be the prologue POV character.

Servants and vassals

Roose Bolton

Lord Roose Bolton is a significant vassal of Lord Eddard Stark. His seat is the Dreadfort and his sigil is a flayed human, a homage to the ancient Bolton tradition of flaying enemies. He is nicknamed "the Leech Lord" for regular leechings meant to improve his health.

Ramsay Bolton

Ramsay Snow is the bastard son of Lord Roose Bolton, later legitimized as Ramsay Bolton. He is known as the Bastard of Bolton or the Bastard of the Dreadfort. Ramsay is vicious, ruthless, psychopathic, sadistic, opportunistic, unpredictable, and fearless. He takes great pleasure and pride in torturing others and enthusiastically practices the Bolton custom of flaying their enemies. Roose suspects that Ramsay murdered Roose's legitimate heir and expects that Ramsay will kill all of Roose's future children. He is described as ugly, with blotchy skin and dry, dark hair.

Rickard Karstark

Rickard Karstark is the Lord of Karhold and one of the main Stark vassals. During the Battle of the Whispering Wood Jaime Lannister kills two of his sons, who were guarding Robb Stark. Rickard's surviving son Harrion Karstark is later killed by the Lannisters. When Catelyn helps Jaime escape in an attempt to recover her daughters, Rickard murders two of Jaime's cousins and has his army desert Robb to search the Riverlands for Jaime, offering his daughter Alys Karstark to whoever brings him the Kingslayer. Due to this Robb executes Rickard personally.

Alys Karstark

Alys Karstark is the only daughter and youngest child of Lord Rickard Karstark. She is betrothed to Daryn Hornwood, heir to the Hornwood, but Jaime Lannister kills him alongside two of her brothers. Her father offers her to whomever captures Jaime Lannister, so the sadistic sellsword Vargo Hoat captures Jaime in the hope of becoming Lord of Karhold. However, after Rickard's death his uncle Arnolf Karstark plots to take control of Karhold. He declares for Stannis when he comes North in the hope this will mean the Lannisters execute his great-nephew Harrion Karstark, so Karhold will pass to Alys, whom Arnolf intends to force into marriage with his son Cregan Karstark. Arnolf also intends to betray Stannis when the Boltons attack. However, Alys (pursued by Cregan) flees to the Wall seeking Jon Snow's help and reveals her uncles' plans. To protect her Jon imprisons Cregan and arranges for Alys to marry the Wildling leader Sigorn, Magnar of Thenn, in a ceremony performed by Melisandre, which will aid Wildling integration into the North. If Harrion dies childless, Karhold will pass to the newly formed House Thenn.

Wyman Manderly

Wyman Manderly is the Lord of White Harbor, the only city in the North, and the wealthiest of the Stark vassals. He is an enormously fat man, with two sons, Ser Wylis and Ser Wendel Manderly. During the War of the Five Kings the Manderlys and Boltons begin a private war over the Hornwood lands after Ramsay kidnaps the widowed Lady Donella Hornwood, Wyman's cousin, forces her to marry him and then starves her to death. Wyman's heir Wylis is captured when Roose Bolton treacherously sends a large Northern force to be wiped out by Randyll Tarly. Wyman's younger son Wendel is murdered at the Red Wedding by the Freys. Due to his heir being held captive Wyman cannot openly defy the Lannisters. Three Freys come to his city with Wendel's bones and a peace is apparently made, in which Wyman's granddaughters Wynafryd and Wylla will marry one of these Freys, Rhaegar Frey, and another of Walder Frey's grandsons, "Little" Walder Frey. When Davos Seaworth arrives in White Harbor to treat with Wyman to support Stannis, Davos denounces the Freys present for their treachery. Wyman apparently has him executed but secretly executes a criminal in his place, leading to Cersei returning his heir. Wyman reveals to Davos he knows where Rickon Stark is hiding and will support Stannis if Davos returns him. Wyman is implied to have murdered the White Harbor Freys when their stay was over (thus keeping to guest right), then put them in pies which he serves to the Freys and Boltons when he attends Ramsay's wedding, even eating some himself. The Freys suspect him of murdering their kin, and when Little Walder is murdered (possibly by his cousin Big Walder Frey) their uncle Hosteen Frey attacks Wyman and cuts him in the neck. It is unclear if he survives.

Hodor

Hodor is Old Nan's great grandson and a slow-witted stable-boy at Winterfell. Although his real name is Walder, he is commonly called "Hodor" because that is the only word he is capable of saying. He is over seven feet tall, and hinted to possibly have giant ancestry. He has a friendly, childlike disposition and possesses great physical strength, though he is too timid and gentle to use it against others. After Bran Stark is crippled in ''A Game of Thrones'', Hodor is tasked to carry him around in a sling on his back. When Winterfell is sacked and burnt, Hodor escapes north with Bran, Jojen, Meera, Rickon and Osha.

Osha

Osha () is a wildling woman who sneaks south of the Wall to escape the Others. When she and her fellow refugees try to kidnap Bran Stark in ''A Game of Thrones'', she is captured by Robb Stark and taken back to Winterfell, eventually employed as a scullery maid, and is given limited freedom for her good behavior. She becomes close to Bran Stark and often gives him advice about the oncoming winter. When Theon Greyjoy captures Winterfell, Osha chooses to protect Bran and Rickon over her freedom. She joins Bran and Rickon hiding in Winterfell's crypt after faking escape. She later parts ways with Bran and is entrusted to take care of Rickon through the North in their escape, and by ''A Dance with Dragons'', they are reported to have landed on the island of Skagos, supposedly inhabited by cannibals.

Jeyne Poole

Jeyne Poole is the daughter of Vayon Poole, the steward of Winterfell, and Sansa Stark's best friend. She has brown eyes and dark hair and is described as being very pretty. Following the arrest of Eddard Stark in ''A Game of Thrones'', the members and servants of his household are killed. Jeyne reappears in ''A Dance with Dragons'', having survived the massacre but being sent to Petyr Baelish's brothels. The Lannisters use her as a stand-in for Sansa's younger sister Arya and send her north to marry Ramsay Bolton at Winterfell. Theon Greyjoy recognizes that she is a fake, and that the Boltons are aware of the ruse. It is implied that Ramsay Bolton tortures her and forces her to perform sexual acts on dogs.

Jon Snow, Arya's half-brother, believes Jeyne to be the real Arya and sends Mance Rayder to rescue her. The group enlists Theon's help, but their cover is blown and Theon and Jeyne barely escape.

Jojen and Meera Reed

Jojen and Meera are the children of Howland Reed, the Lord of Greywater Watch and a loyal Stark bannerman. They first appear in ''A Clash of Kings'', when their father sends them in his place, to attend the harvest festival and renew House Reed's pledge to House Stark and support the children of the late Eddard Stark. They become fast friends with Bran Stark and his baby brother, Rickon, and are shown solely from Bran's point of view.

The older sister, Meera, is sixteen years old when introduced in ''A Clash of Kings''. As is typical of crannogmen, Meera is short, slim, and flat-chested with long brown hair and green eyes, and is described as having a cheerful disposition. She is intensely loyal and protective of her "prince" as well as of her own brother, with Bran commenting that the only one who ever angers or upsets her is her brother, Jojen. Though she is never described as being particularly beautiful, both Theon Greyjoy and Bran Stark seem to consider her attractive. She is a skilled huntress and fights with a small fishing net and a three-pronged frog spear (similar in style to a retiarius); she is able to defeat Bran's direwolf, Summer, in mock combat by entangling the direwolf in her net. The legacy of Bran's late aunt Lyanna Stark is also largely narrated through her storytelling.

The younger brother, Jojen, is thirteen when he first appears, but his sullen seriousness and maturity make him seem older. He is short and slim with unusually deep green eyes, and he wears green-colored clothing. He claims to have "greensight" and the power of prophetic "green dreams", from which he knows various arcane facts, including the day of his death. In Winterfell, Jojen recognizes Bran Stark as a skinchanger who is able to enter the mind of an animal and control it, and he mentors Bran to help him gain control of his abilities. When Theon Greyjoy captures Winterfell, Jojen and Meera hide with Bran and Rickon in Winterfell's crypt after feigning escape, and they join Bran in his journey north in search of the three-eyed crow after Ramsay Snow sacks and burns Winterfell. At the end of ''A Storm of Swords'', they travel beyond the Wall and Jojen becomes very weak. In ''A Dance with Dragons'', Meera struggles to keep the group's spirits up but implies that Jojen's future is bleak.

House Targaryen

House Targaryen was the ruling house of the Seven Kingdoms for nearly 300 years, holding royal court in King's Landing. Its coat of arms shows a red, three-headed dragon breathing fire on a black field, and its words are ''Fire and Blood''.

The Targaryens originally came from Valyria on the continent of Essos, one of forty dragonlord families in the Valyrian Freehold, but not the most powerful. Before Valyria was destroyed, the Targaryens left for Dragonstone, the westernmost outpost of their empire. A century after the Valyrian "Doom", Aegon I Targaryen was approached by an alliance of some of the Free Cities against Volantis, Valyria's oldest colony, who sought to rebuild the Freehold under their rule, which Aegon consented to before defeating Volantis with his dragon, Balerion. With the Valyrian Freehold broken, Aegon turned west towards Westeros, intent on uniting the Seven Kingdoms under one ruler, with Dragonstone being the perfect staging point for his conquest, due to having deep waters for his fleet and within range of the continent. With the aid of his sister-wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, the Targaryens, using their three dragons, successfully conquered six of the Seven Kingdoms by destroying defiant houses and making subjects of submissive ones, with the seventh one peacefully joining the realm through marriage. Aegon built the Iron Throne with his enemies' swords and his dragon's flame, building the Red Keep as his throne room and King's Landing as his new capital.

The Targaryen dragons were the last known to exist and died out long before the events of ''A Game of Thrones''. People of Targaryen ancestry, referred to as "blood of the dragon", tend to have silvery-gold or platinum hair and purple eyes ranging from lilac to violet.

Fifteen years before the events of the series, the Targaryens were deposed in Robert's Rebellion, with the children Viserys and Daenerys fleeing to Essos.

Family

Aegon V Targaryen

Aegon Targaryen, nicknamed "Egg" in his youth, is one of the two main characters in the ''Tales of Dunk and Egg'' novellas. As a child, his father Prince Maekar reluctantly permitted him to serve as squire to the knight errant Ser Duncan the Tall, in the hopes that the lessons learned through humble service and hard experience would help him avoid the excesses and shortcomings of his royal brothers. He was later crowned as King Aegon V when a Great Council bypassed those before him in the line of succession

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