Eddard Stark

Second son of Lord Rickard Stark, Eddard was raised as a ward at the Eyrie beside Robert Baratheon, and became Lord of Winterfell when the rebellion killed his father and brother in the Mad King's dungeons. He fought the war to the Trident and the Sack of King's Landing, and carried his sister Lyanna's promise north with him for the rest of his life.

His honor was his weapon and his ruin. When Jon Arryn died, Robert named him Hand, and Ned went south to do his duty: he uncovered that Cersei's children were Jaime's, that the royal succession was a lie, and tried to do the right thing with the wrong sort of men in the room. He was broken in the Black Cells, forced to a false confession, and beheaded before the crowd at the Great Sept of Baelor.

The North rose for his son in his name, and his children scattered across the realm — Arya west, Sansa south, Bran and Rickon believed dead. Everything the five kings fought over began with a dead hand and an unbroken promise.