01 ROBB STARK

Name=Robb Stark Nickname=Robb, Lord, King of the North Birth=281 AC Age=18 Occupation=Head of House Stark, Lord of Winterfell, The King in the North, Commander of the Northern Army, family duty Family=Eddard (dead father), Catelyn (mother), Jon (younger half-brother), Sansa (younger sister), Arya (youngest sister), Bran (younger brother), Rickon (youngest brother) Appearance=short dark auburn-brown curly hair, a stubble-to-short brown beard, blue eyes, tall at 5'10", muscular build, fair complexion Clothing=a tunic, padded undersleeves, jerkins, leather armor, fur collars, trousers, cloaks, boots, a belt with a sword hanging from it

Personality=Robb has a keen sense of honor and justice, which he received from his father. He is fair, caring, and willing to do anything to keep his family safe. He is close with his siblings, particularly his half-brother Jon, and shared mutually loving relationships with them all. Robb also regarded his father's ward, Theon, to be like a brother to him. Robb is also quite smart and clever. Robb saw no reason for torture, cruelty, or unnecessary executions, and treated his prisoners of war well and justly. He did not wish for violence or war and did his best to limit the deaths and casualties on both sides. He also expended tremendous sympathies to innocent victims of war. Robb had a surprisingly keen mind for warfare and strategy, a trait that takes Tywin completely by surprise. Tywin had originally seen Robb as a stupid child who hadn't the slightest idea of the violence of war and after his first taste of battle would "run back to Winterfell with his tail between his legs." The Lannisters were quite surprised when Robb led a stunning surprise attack in the Battle of Whispering Wood to crush the western half of the Lannister armies under Jaime. Tywin also did not expect Robb to have the determination to send hundreds of his own men to their deaths in a feint to the east. Robb was realistic enough to recognize his own limits as a warrior and swordsman. When Jaime offered him to end things with a duel between them, something that would have saved thousands of lives before the war truly began, Robb declined the offer, knowing that if he agreed, Jaime would win. Robb is very much his father's son, but this means that he has not only his father's strengths, but also his father's weaknesses. Like Eddard, Robb lacked proper political skills and had a tendency to put honor before reason. Like most Northerners, Robb was more proficient as a warrior than as a politician. Much like his own father and the man he was named after, Robert Baratheon, Robb was an excellent warrior and military commander but a poor politician.

Backstory=Robb Stark, or Robb, is the eldest son of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell and his wife, Lady Catelyn. He was born at Riverrun and raised at Winterfell. His father left his mother the morning after their wedding to fight in Robert's Rebellion and did not return until after Robb was born. He has two younger trueborn brothers, Bran and Rickon, and two sisters, Sansa and Arya. Robb also has a "bastard half-brother", Jon Snow, with whom Robb shares a close relationship. Jon is actually Robb's cousin by blood, as Jon is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. Robb is also close to his father's ward, Theon Greyjoy, whom he counts as his best friend outside of the family. Robb has been trained from childhood to wield a sword and wear armor by Winterfell's master-at-arms Ser Rodrik Cassel, and is highly proficient with both for his young age. He lives at Winterfell with his family. Robb and Jon help Bran during his archery training, at which he is doing rather poorly. Robb instructs Bran to relax his bow arm; however, Bran's application of this somehow makes this his worst shot. Robb, Jon, and Rickon burst into laughter, and are accosted by Ned, remarking that neither Robb nor Jon was a skilled archer at Bran's age. Suddenly, Arya hits Bran's bullseye with an arrow before Bran can. Bran chases Arya while Ned, Catelyn, Robb, and Jon laugh until Ned receives news that a Night's Watch deserter has been found. Robb, 17, attends the execution of Will, the deserter, by his father. On their way home with Theon, Jon, and Bran, they find a litter of newborn direwolf pups. Robb is surprised that there are any direwolves south of the Wall. When their father says they can keep the pups, Robb adopts one of them as his own, naming him Grey Wind. He welcomes King Robert Baratheon to Winterfell with the rest of his family. He helps his mother maintain discipline during the feast, removing his sister Arya when she starts flicking food at Sansa, despite his amusement. Robb displays an antipathy toward Joffrey from the beginning, noting that he is a "right royal prick," and is visibly annoyed when Sansa looks at Joffrey in admiration. Robb bids farewell to Jon during his departure to the Wall, stating that he'll be all in black the next time they meet, which Jon agrees with, stating that the color suits him well. Due to Bran's being left comatose in a fall, his mother's refusal to leave an unconscious Bran's side, and his father's departure for King's Landing, Robb must help Maester Luwin run the castle, making new appointments to the castle's staff. Because of Catelyn's absence in her care for Bran, Robb deals with the confusion and tears of his youngest brother, Rickon, which he reveals to his mother before a fire breaks out in Winterfell. While Robb attends to this, an assassin breaks in and almost kills Bran, but is stopped by Summer. When Catelyn and Ser Rodrik decide that threats from the Lannisters necessitate their departure for the capital, Robb is left in command of Winterfell. Robb visits a recovering Bran and has to tell him that he will never walk again. Bran says he would rather have died. Robb receives Tyrion Lannister and Yoren, both traveling down from the Wall to King's Landing together. Robb very pointedly offers hospitality to any man of the Watch, silently letting Tyrion know he is not invited to stay at Winterfell. When Bran arrives, Tyrion asks if he likes to ride and sympathizes with him for being a cripple, which annoys Bran, but Tyrion simply says that like being a dwarf, it is the truth, no less so for being a hard truth. He gives Bran the design of a saddle which will allow Bran to ride even in his current state; Tyrion explains to Robb that "you must shape the horse to the rider," by starting with a yearling and training it to respond to the reins and Bran's voice (as he can't use his heels). When Robb asks why Tyrion had done this favor for Bran, he explains that he has a certain sympathy for "cripples, bastards, and broken things." Due to this kindness, Robb says he can stay, but Tyrion says he would prefer the brothel in town, guaranteeing Robb's easiness. While taking Bran outside the castle to test his new saddle, Robb and Theon are talking about Robb's future plans, when they realize that Bran has wandered off. Bran has been taken hostage by a band of wildlings, but they are found by Robb who advances on them with a sword. One of the wildlings Stiv holds a knife to Bran's throat and makes Robb drop the sword. Theon kills Stiv with an arrow, which angers Robb as Bran could have been injured. Only one of the wildlings, Osha, is taken prisoner. Osha says that the greatest danger lies north of the Wall, from the White Walkers, not from the Lannisters in the south, but Robb disregards her warning. Following Robert's death and Eddard's arrest, Robb receives a letter from Sansa detailing her wish for Robb to swear fealty to Joffrey, in order to maintain peace between the Starks and the Lannisters. Luwin explains that although Sansa wrote the letter, it is the words of Cersei Lannister expressed on the page. In response Robb instead calls his banners, marching House Stark's vassals to war. When Theon asks whether he is worrisome, he points to the fact that he is shaking, proving himself to be so. Theon assures him that he would be stupid not to be. Robb holds a feast for several of his newly-arrived bannermen. Greatjon Umber assumes that he will lead the vanguard, and is offended by the suggestion that he would be made to march behind Galbart Glover, threatening to withdraw from the host. In response, Robb promises that, after the conflict with the Lannisters, he will oust Greatjon from his keep and hang him for breaking his oaths to House Stark; when the enraged bannerman goes to draw a weapon, Robb's direwolf Grey Wind sets upon him, biting off two of his fingers. Robb recites that "it [is] death to bear steel against your liege lord", but then diffuses the situation by excusing Greatjon's aggression, saying that "doubtless, the Greatjon only meant to cut my meat for me." The Greatjon roars with laughter and accepts Robb's commands, much to the shock of Bran, who witnessed the entire incident. Robb says farewell to Bran and to Rickon, who is convinced he'll see neither Robb nor his parents again. Catelyn and Ser Rodrik Cassel intercept Robb's army in the Neck as it presses southwards. Robb initially exclaims with excitement upon seeing his mother but stops short of embracing her lest he look weak in front of his bannermen. Catelyn looks at her son with understanding, later embracing once their liege-lords have left their tent. She tells Robb he has no choice but to go to war. However, he cannot lose, for the sake of Ned, Sansa, and Arya, as if he is defeated, Tywin Lannister will show their family no mercy. Later on, Robb and his lords are debating on the route of their march, and on whether to march directly against Tywin's army or against Jaime's army besieging Riverrun. To get to Jaime, they need to cross the Green Fork of the Trident, and the only crossing is at the Twins, held by the notoriously prickly and easily-offended Lord Walder Frey. A Lannister scout is captured, and Robb sends him back to warn Lord Tywin that twenty thousand Northern soldiers are marching against him. Following Robb's arrival at the Twins, his mother instructs Theon to shoot down messenger ravens, so no word of their presence can be relayed, despite only finding a nameday message to his grand-niece Walda. He quickly realizes that negotiation is the only option, which is proven to be true when Walder's envoys arrive. Catelyn goes in Robb's place as she had previous experience with Walder from her childhood and believes she is more likely to come back alive. Upon her return, Robb hears Walder's conditions: he must take on Olyvar Frey as his squire and knight him in due process, Arya must marry Waldron Frey when they both reach an appropriate age (which Robb jokingly remarks on her future unhappiness) and following the end of the conflict, Robb must marry a woman of House Frey. Understanding the situation, Robb asks Catelyn about the beauty of his daughters, to which she can remember only one. He accepts all the conditions, crossing the Green Fork in the process. He sends a small force of men to distract the main Lannister army under Tywin's command at the battle on the Green Fork. Meanwhile, his main army attacks Jaime's forces near Riverrun, winning the Battle of Whispering Wood and taking Jaime as a captive. Jaime suggests they end the war now with a bout of single combat between himself and Robb, but Robb refuses and has him imprisoned. Robb laments that his diversion sent 2,000 men to their deaths. He gives a speech to his army and tells them that they have won a great victory, but the war is far from over. Robb is devastated by the news of his father's death. He is found hacking his sword at a tree in anger and grief. Catelyn calls to him and tells him he is ruining his sword. Robb drops the sword and falls into her arms, vowing to kill the Lannisters who murdered his father. Catelyn comforts him and promises him revenge, but only after they rescue Sansa and Arya first, both of them unaware that Arya has evaded capture. At Robb's camp, Robb and his bannermen debate whether to cooperate with Stannis Baratheon or Renly Baratheon in the war against King Joffrey; Renly has greater forces, but Stannis is the elder Baratheon and next in line of succession excepting Cersei's children. Jon Umber questions why the northerners should be told what to do by rulers in the south at all, reminding them that the North was independent of the other kingdoms before Aegon's Conquest. With the dragons gone, Umber declares there is only one king worthy of his respect and allegiance and bows before Robb, calling out, "The King in the North!" The other northern bannermen take up the cry and bow before the new King in the North, swearing fealty to Robb.