Eddard Stark

Introduced in A Game of Thrones, Eddard Stark is Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, head of the ancient house that has kept the North for thousands of years. Men call him Ned. He is a long-faced, quiet man, wed to Catelyn of House Tully and father to six children, and his people know him for a sense of honor that governs everything he does. Duty sits more heavily on him than ambition ever has. He is the oldest friend of King Robert Baratheon, beside whom he fought in the rebellion that ended Targaryen rule fifteen years past. Robert rides north to Winterfell to ask Ned to come south and serve as Hand of the King, the second most powerful office in the realm, a summons that pulls him from the cold lands he understands toward a court he does not.