Brandon Stark

As the eldest son of Rickard and Lyarra Stark, Brandon grew up knowing that Winterfell and the whole North would fall to him one day. Part of his upbringing took place as a ward of a lord at Barrowton, though he much preferred riding through the Rills to staying shut inside castle walls. During those years he had a relationship with Barbrey Ryswell, who fell in love with him.

Those who knew him described him as very unlike his brother Eddard: tall, grey-eyed, and quick to anger, the wolf's blood that also ran through Lyanna. He was held to be the finest swordsman among his siblings and a rider likened to a centaur, always keeping his blade well honed and ready to use.

At the great tourney Lord Whent held at Harrenhal, Brandon was unhorsed in the joust by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. He is also said to have arranged for Ashara Dayne to dance with his brother Eddard, who was too shy to ask her himself.

His father arranged his betrothal to Catelyn Tully, daughter of the lord of Riverrun. Petyr Baelish, who had been raised alongside her and secretly loved her, challenged Brandon to a duel for her hand. Brandon defeated him, and only Catelyn's pleading kept him from killing the boy.

Shortly before the wedding, Brandon left Riverrun to meet his father, who was traveling from the North for the ceremony. Along the way word reached him that Lyanna had disappeared, supposedly at the hands of Prince Rhaegar. Together with Ethan Glover, Elbert Arryn, and other companions, he rode for King's Landing.

Believing the prince was inside the Red Keep, they shouted threats against him. King Aerys II had them all arrested and charged with plotting to kill his son.

The fathers of the arrested men were summoned to court to answer for their sons. Rickard Stark demanded that Brandon's innocence be settled by trial by combat and offered himself as his champion; the Mad King chose fire as his house's champion. Rickard burned bound over a bonfire, sealed inside his own armor, before his son's eyes.

Brandon had a leather cord tied around his neck, with a weapon left just out of reach; struggling to break free to save his father, he ended up strangling himself. His body was laid to rest in the crypts of Winterfell.

Years later, Robert Baratheon asked Eddard to take him down to the crypts of Winterfell and knelt before the tombs of Brandon and Lyanna, beside their father's own. Northern custom placed a longsword across the lap of every buried lord, to keep vengeful spirits inside their tombs.

When Theon Greyjoy took the castle, he dreamed of a feast of the dead where Brandon and his family sat at table with him among the shadows. Bran, hiding in the crypts with Rickon, Hodor, Osha, and the Reed siblings, took his uncle's namesake sword from the tomb before they fled to the surface.

When Barbrey Ryswell returned to Winterfell for Ramsay Bolton's wedding, she noticed that same sword was missing from the tomb and spoke aloud of how much Brandon had loved it. Privately, she told Theon that on their last night together Brandon had admitted he never wanted Catelyn Tully, and that only his father's southern ambitions had pushed him into the match. Of him she said, without rancor: "Brandon never had any qualms about taking what he wanted."