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.
I
Karlon's Grant
House Karstark is, by its own reckoning and the Citadel's grudging agreement, the grandest of the several houses descended from Winterfell's own line — sprung not from legend but from a named younger son, Karlon Stark, sent out from his brother's hall some thousand years before the Conquest with an army rather than an inheritance to make his fortune with. He made it by putting down a rebel lord near the Grey Cliffs and being granted the land for his trouble: Karl's Hold in the record's oldest spelling, Karhold in every spelling since.
A thousand years is a long time for an arrangement between a great house and its own cadet branch to hold, and for most of that thousand years it held without much incident worth a chronicler's attention — Karhold answering Winterfell's call, Winterfell trusting Karhold's blood as closely as it trusted its own, the sort of loyalty too steady to make interesting reading. It would not stay uninteresting.
II
Blood on the Trident
Rickard Karstark's part in Robert's Rebellion is recorded mostly by implication — he fought beside Eddard Stark at the Trident, one northern lord's sword among the thousands Robert Baratheon's warhammer made unnecessary in the end, and the maesters who logged that day's dead had no particular reason to single out a Karstark's part in it. What the Trident did establish, in the years the rebellion's veterans spent afterward trading war stories at Winterfell and Karhold both, was the plain fact of the debt: Rickard had bled beside Eddard Stark's own household, and a northern lord who had done that did not expect, and had never yet had reason to expect, that debt to run in the other direction.
It would. When the War of the Five Kings came for the North a generation later, Rickard Karstark marched south for Eddard's son with the same readiness his father's fathers had marched for Eddard's, and the war that followed spent every ounce of the trust the Trident had built between the two houses, and then a great deal more besides.
In the chronicle
The present tale
This chapter carries the house's fortunes into the novels' events — veiled until you choose to read on.
§
The Reckoning at Karhold
Torrhen and Eddard Karstark died breaking Jaime Lannister's line at the Whispering Wood, and their father did not forgive the man who had taken their killer captive rather than let him be killed in turn. Rickard's answer — murdering two Lannister boys held hostage in Robb Stark's own camp, in violation of a king's express word — cost him his head, struck off by Robb's own hand in payment for a debt of loyalty the Trident had built and the Whispering Wood had not yet exhausted. It was, this chronicle notes without softening the judgment, both the correct sentence under the laws Robb had sworn to keep and the single worst decision of his short reign, since half of Rickard's own bannermen rode home from Karhold rather than fight on for the king who had executed their lord.
What came after made the execution costlier still. Harrion Karstark, the last of Rickard's sons left living, was taken captive by Randyll Tarly's forces at Duskendale and held prisoner at Maidenpool through most of the war that followed, leaving Karhold in the hands of a castellan, Arnolf Karstark, whose loyalty to House Stark turned out to run rather thinner than his kinship. Arnolf declared for Stannis Baratheon publicly while scheming, by this chronicle's best information, to see Harrion executed by his captors and Harrion's sister Alys forced into marriage with Arnolf's own son Cregan — a plot Alys escaped only by riding alone to the Wall and placing herself under Jon Snow's protection, where the Lord Commander married her instead to Sigorn, Magnar of Thenn, and left Arnolf's ambitions with nothing left to marry.
In the chronicle
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.
The people of House Karstark
The lords, ladies, and branches of Karstark the books name — the notable, the infamous, and the merely unlucky.
Rickard Karstark
Lord of Karhold
d. 299 AC
He fought beside Eddard Stark at the Trident and beside Robb Stark at the Whispering Wood, where two of his sons died breaking Jaime Lannister's line. He avenged them the only way left to him — by killing two Lannister boys held hostage in Robb's own camp — and Robb, who owed him more than most kings could ever repay, beheaded him for it with his own hands. It was the correct sentence and the worst possible decision, a distinction the North went on paying for at the Twins not long after.
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.
Alys Karstark
Lady of Karhold
fl. 300 AC
She rode to the Wall alone rather than marry a kinsman who would have handed Karhold to House Bolton, and Jon Snow married her instead to a Thenn chieftain — a solution that struck most of the North as insane right up until it worked.
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.
Harrion Karstark
Lord of Karhold
fl. 299–300 AC
Rickard's last surviving son, captured fighting for a cause his father had already lost his head over and held prisoner at Maidenpool for most of the war — Lord of Karhold in name for months before he ever saw Karhold again, or learned what his own kinsman had been doing with it in his absence.
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.
Arnolf Karstark
castellan of Karhold
Rickard's kinsman and Karhold's castellan during Harrion's captivity, who declared for Stannis Baratheon with one hand while plotting, with the other, to see Harrion dead and Harrion's sister Alys married to Arnolf's own son — a scheme that unravelled only because Alys reached the Wall before Arnolf's son reached her.
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.
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Members
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.