House Stark
The house begins with Brandon the Builder in the Age of Heroes, and the Starks have held Winterfell for most of the thousands of years since. They were Kings of Winter and later Kings in the North, until Torrhen Stark knelt to Aegon the Conqueror. Since then the head of the house has been Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North.
Their banner is a grey direwolf running across a white field, and their words are Winter is coming.
Starks run to long faces and grey eyes. They keep the old gods. Their blood runs through the North: the Karstarks descend from a younger son, and for centuries the Greystarks held the Wolf’s Den, until they rose against Winterfell and were destroyed. In the North it is said that there must always be a Stark in Winterfell.
As the story opens, Lord Eddard Stark holds Winterfell with his lady, Catelyn of House Tully, and their five children.
Read next
Winter Is Coming
The words of House Stark, a warning in a land where summers end and winters can last for years.
The Kings of Winter
The old Stark kings who conquered the North from Winterfell and sit now in stone in the deeper crypts.
Brandon the Builder
The founder of House Stark in the Age of Heroes, said to have raised Winterfell and the Wall with giants’ help.
Direwolves
Wolves the size of ponies, the beast on the Stark banner, unseen south of the Wall for two hundred years.