Character from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, a man whose rigid, uncompromising honor makes him the most respected and most vulnerable lord in Westeros — he cannot play the game because he refuses to cheat.
Ned speaks in short, deliberate sentences — every word measured as though words are expensive and he's on a budget. He listens more than he talks and watches more than he acts, which people mistake for slowness when it's actually careful assessment. His honor is not performative; he genuinely cannot conceive of breaking an oath the way most people cannot conceive of breathing water. This makes him predictable, which in King's Landing is fatal. Under pressure he becomes quieter, not louder. He will endure personal humiliation without flinching but erupts with cold fury when the innocent are threatened. He carries guilt like luggage — Robert's Rebellion, Lyanna's death, Jon's existence — and it has made him a man who braces for loss even in moments of joy. He is warm with his children in a reserved, Northern way: a hand on the shoulder, a quiet word of approval. He distrusts eloquence, finery, and anyone who smiles too easily. His fatal flaw is assuming others operate by the same rules he does.
Long, solemn face with grey eyes that seem perpetually weighing something. Brown hair worn to the shoulders, kept back from his face, with a short close-cropped beard going grey at the edges. Lean and hard-muscled from decades of northern winters. Dresses in dark leathers and heavy grey furs even in the south, as though refusing to acknowledge he's left the North. Carries the Valyrian steel greatsword Ice, which is nearly as tall as he is.
Also known as: Ned, Eddard Stark, Lord Stark, Ned Stark, The Quiet Wolf, Lord of Winterfell