Robb Stark

Robb was born at Riverrun in 283, while his father was away fighting in Robert's Rebellion. Catelyn Tully spent her pregnancy safe within her family's walls; Eddard did not meet his son until the war ended and the family could finally settle at Winterfell together.

There Robb grew up alongside his sisters Sansa and Arya, his brothers Bran and Rickon, and Jon Snow, the bastard son his father brought back from the south. He and Jon were closer to friendly rivals than simple companions, opposite in look and temperament, though they hunted together in the Wolfswood and shared the falconry lessons Eddard kept for his heir. One afternoon Jon covered himself in flour to frighten his younger siblings from an empty crypt tomb; Bran ended up in tears in Robb's arms while Robb laughed.

When Alys Karstark was six, her father Rickard brought her to Winterfell hoping to one day marry her to the Stark heir. No betrothal was ever fixed, but Robb, courteous as he was raised to be, told her she danced beautifully. Even then he sat in on his father's councils, learning to rule before he was old enough to do it.

Robb was present at the execution of the deserter Gared, and it was on the ride home that he and Jon found a litter of six direwolf pups dead in the snow beside their mother. He kept a big grey one for himself and named him Grey Wind.

Not long after King Robert and his court arrived at Winterfell, Robb began sparring with Prince Joffrey using wooden swords. Their rivalry caught fire the day Joffrey wanted to fight with live steel; Ser Rodrik Cassel stopped him, while several of the watching Lannisters laughed at the northern boy.

When Eddard became Hand of the King and rode for King's Landing, Robb was left to govern Winterfell, first alongside his mother and then alone once she too went south. Word that his father had been arrested for treason changed everything: he called the Stark bannermen to war and marched into the Riverlands, both to aid House Tully and to try to free Eddard. Many of his own lords doubted a sixteen-year-old commander, but he held them together. He left Winterfell with twelve thousand men and gathered another six thousand at Moat Cailin.

Learning that Riverrun was under siege by Jaime Lannister while Tywin Lannister approached from the south, he split his forces: the foot, under Roose Bolton, would move against Tywin, while he crossed the Twins with his cavalry to relieve the siege. Walder Frey only granted passage in exchange for a marriage pact — Robb would wed one of his daughters once the war was over. With four thousand Frey men added to his cause, he pressed on with his great-uncle Brynden Tully's counsel.

At the Whispering Wood he caught Jaime Lannister's army by surprise and destroyed it, taking Jaime himself prisoner, then lifted the siege of Riverrun, forcing Tywin to fall back to Harrenhal. When word came that Joffrey had ordered Eddard's execution, any chance of peace with the Lannisters was gone. His bannermen and the lords of the Trident proclaimed him King in the North, and the war that followed would come to be known as the War of the Five Kings.

Settled at Riverrun, Robb sent Theon Greyjoy — who had fought at his side at the Whispering Wood — to Pyke, to offer his father Balon Greyjoy an alliance: he would recognize the Iron Islands' independence in exchange for help against the Lannisters. He also sent his mother south to treat with Robert's brothers, Stannis and Renly, who had each crowned themselves king. Neither mission bore fruit: Balon answered with a full invasion of the North, and Catelyn came away with no treaty worth the name.

Robb, meanwhile, drove into the westerlands, laid siege to the Golden Tooth, and crushed Stafford Lannister's army at Oxcross. He won again at Ashemark and at the Crag, where he was wounded and nursed back to health by Jeyne Westerling. It was there that word reached him that Theon had seized Winterfell and killed his younger brothers, Bran and Rickon. Jeyne comforted him, and out of that comfort came something more: to preserve his honor, Robb married her soon after. The Frey men riding with him on the campaign, humiliated by the broken contract, withdrew their support and rode home.

Back at Riverrun with his new wife, Robb found his mother appalled and House Frey furious. His uncle Edmure, ruling Riverrun while his father Hoster lay dying, had beaten back an attempt by Tywin Lannister to cross the Red Fork near the castle. The victory had an unexpected cost: unable to pass Riverrun, Tywin's men reached King's Landing in time for the Battle of the Blackwater, tipping the war in the Lannisters' favor.

Robb also learned that his mother, driven by grief over the presumed deaths of two of her children, had freed Jaime Lannister and placed him in Brienne of Tarth's custody, hoping to trade him for Sansa and Arya. Lord Rickard Karstark, who had lost two sons to Jaime at the Whispering Wood, answered the release by murdering two prisoners in Riverrun's cells. Robb sentenced him to death and beheaded him himself. Karstark's men deserted the army that same night.

With Hoster Tully dead, Robb meant to return north, retake what had been lost, and avenge his brothers. Fearing that if he died Winterfell would pass to Tyrion Lannister through his marriage to Sansa, he discussed the succession with his mother; to Catelyn's dismay, he proposed that Jon Snow succeed him instead. 'I've won every battle, but somehow I'm losing the war,' he confessed around that time. He sent Maege Mormont and Galbart Glover north with a letter whose contents he shared with no one. Before marching for the Twins, to make amends for his own broken match, he persuaded Edmure to marry one of Walder Frey's daughters.

Though Grey Wind seemed to sense something as they rode into the Twins, Robb passed through the gates for Edmure's wedding to Roslin Frey — the wedding that would come to be called the Red Wedding. After the ceremony and the bedding ritual, Walder Frey gave the signal; crossbowmen disguised as musicians opened fire, and a slaughter began.

Roose Bolton, who had marched with Robb since the war's first days, delivered the final blow, driving his blade into Robb's heart. Catelyn, mad with grief, killed Walder Frey's simple grandson Jinglebell before her own throat was cut. Grey Wind was killed as well; his head was cut off and sewn onto Robb's body as a last insult.

He died at the Twins in 299, at sixteen, having won every battle he fought. Shortly before, Petyr Baelish had described him: 'The Young Wolf remains untamed on the field of battle.' The Greatjon Umber, swearing his loyalty before the other lords of the North, had gone further: 'Here sits the only king I mean to bend my knee to — the King in the North!'