Rickard Karstark
Lord of Karhold
d. 299 AC
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
House Karstark — seat, history, and blood
House Karstark
The seat, the words, the line, and the tale of House Karstark — drawn from the novels and the Citadel's fuller histories, with the television series set aside wherever it parts from the books.
- Seat
- Karhold
- Region
- The North
- Founder
- Karlon Stark, a younger son of Winterfell who, some thousand years before the Conquest by the Citadel's rough count, put down a rebel lord and was granted land near the Grey Cliffs for it — Karl's Hold in his own time, Karhold in every time since
The Karstarks are the oldest and grandest of the Stark cadet lines, sprung from a younger son sent out to earn his own seat rather than wait on his brother's. For most of a thousand years that arrangement suited both houses well enough. It suited them rather less in the third year of the War of the Five Kings, when a father's grief for two dead sons overrode a lord's oath to his king, with consequences the North is still counting.
The people of House Karstark
The lords, ladies, and branches of Karstark the books name — the notable, the infamous, and the merely unlucky.
Alys Karstark
Lady of Karhold
fl. 300 AC
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
What the record disputes
Where the sources disagree or a song outruns the maesters, the chronicle marks the doubt rather than settling it.
"The Sun of Winter" is attested chiefly in semi-canon and supplementary sources; the Chronicle does not treat it as confirmed by the novels.
The precise year of Karlon Stark's founding grant is not fixed in any chronicle to a single date; the Chronicle gives the rough figure the sources themselves use rather than sharpen it.
What is House Karstark known for?
The Karstarks are the oldest and grandest of the Stark cadet lines, sprung from a younger son sent out to earn his own seat rather than wait on his brother's. For most of a thousand years that arrangement suited both houses well enough. It suited them rather less in the third year of the War of the Five Kings, when a father's grief for two dead sons overrode a lord's oath to his king, with consequences the North is still counting.
Where is the seat of House Karstark?
House Karstark holds Karhold, in The North. The chronicle traces the house from its founding down to its part in the present tale, marking legend as legend wherever the songs run ahead of the record.
Is House Karstark in the books or only the show?
Book canon. This history follows George R. R. Martin's novels first, then the histories — Fire & Blood and The World of Ice & Fire — and does not follow the television series where it diverges.