Rickard Stark

Rickard was the only son of Edwyle Stark and Marna Locke, and from them he inherited the title of Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North.

He married his second cousin, Lyarra Stark, and had four children with her: Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna, and Benjen. Like the rest of his house, he kept good relations with the Night's Watch.

In 264 AC, Lord Rickard traveled to King's Landing. The visit stirred a sudden interest in the North in King Aerys II Targaryen, who went so far as to plan a new Wall, raised leagues beyond the current one, and the annexation of all the land in between. Like the rest of his schemes, the king soon forgot about it.

At some point in his life he also crossed paths with Lady Olenna Redwyne, though the record does not say when or under what circumstances.

Over the years, Rickard arranged two betrothals: his firstborn Brandon to Catelyn Tully, the eldest of Lord Hoster's daughters, and Lyanna to Robert, the eldest son of Lord Steffon Baratheon.

According to Lady Barbrey Ryswell, the idea of looking south for spouses did not come from Rickard himself but from Walys, the maester serving Winterfell at the time.

Before either wedding could take place, Lyanna disappeared. Convinced that the crown prince, Rhaegar Targaryen, had something to do with it, Brandon rode for King's Landing with a group of young lords to confront him.

King Aerys II had them arrested for conspiring against his son, and ruled that their fathers answer for it. It fell to Rickard to do so in King's Landing.

He demanded trial by combat, and it was granted. But according to Ser Jaime Lannister's account, Aerys chose fire itself as the Targaryen champion: he ordered his pyromancers to burn Rickard alive without even removing his armor.

Brandon had a rope put around his neck and a sword left just beyond his reach, forced to watch his father die unable to stop it. Straining to reach the blade, he strangled himself.

When King Robert I arrived at Winterfell, he asked Eddard to take him down to the crypts. There he stopped before three tombs set together, knelt, and bowed his head.

One of the statues was Rickard's: seated with a calm bearing, stone fingers closed over the sword resting on his lap. Beside him, in smaller sepulchers, were his children Brandon and Lyanna. As was done for every past lord of Winterfell, he carried a carved longsword across his legs, meant to keep the spirits from leaving the crypt.

Years after Rickard's death, Theon Greyjoy betrayed the Starks and seized Winterfell, and was soon besieged by northern troops. One night he dreamed of the feast Ned had held for Robert when the king visited the castle: music, laughter, and a hall that grew darker by degrees.

In the dream, the wine turned sour in his mouth, and when he looked up he found himself dining with the dead. Among them he recognized Lyanna, wearing a crown of pale blue flowers and a blood-stained gown; beside her, her brother Brandon; behind them both, Lord Rickard. Along the walls, other shapes moved in the shadows, long faces barely visible in the gloom.

Meanwhile, Bran, Rickon, Hodor, Osha, and the Reed siblings were hiding in those same crypts from Theon's men. When their supplies ran out they had to leave, and before doing so each took a sword from the tombs; Meera took the one that had belonged to Lord Rickard.

When Barbrey Ryswell arrived at Winterfell for the wedding of "Arya" and Ramsay Bolton, she had Theon take her and some of her men down to the crypts.

There she noticed a king's sword was missing, only streaks of rust left to mark where it had stood. The sight unsettled Theon, who had always heard that the iron in those swords kept the dead locked in their tombs.

They stopped before the three tombs grouped together. Above them rose Rickard's statue, long-faced, bearded, and solemn; its eyes were carved from stone like all the rest, but they looked sad.