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  === Lyanna Stark ===
  Lyanna Stark was Eddard Stark's younger and only sister, and has been deceased for 14 years at the beginning of ''A Game of Thrones'', but is mentioned in every published book in the series.  She died at the young age of 16, was said to have been beautiful by all who knew her as "a child-woman of surpassing loveliness", headstrong and "had a touch of" the fabled Starks' "wolf blood", and was one of the best horse-riders in the North.  She was betrothed to Robert Baratheon, who was deeply in love with her, although she was unimpressed by Robert's reputation for infidelity.  Her life's tales are mainly told through the words of Eddard Stark and Meera Reed (via Bran Stark's viewpoint chapter), with some passing commentaries from other people such as Barristan Selmy, Cersei Lannister, Roose Bolton, and Kevan Lannister.
  During the Tourney at Harrenhal, the greatest tourney in Westerosi history, Lyanna was chosen by the eventual jousting champion, Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, as the tourney's "Queen of Love and Beauty".  Because Rhaegar was already married, and Lyanna was a maiden betrothed to Robert Baratheon, Rhaegar wooing's of Lyanna was considered an outrageous scandal at the time.  One year later, she was said to have been abducted and raped by Rhaegar, triggering a civil war that resulted in the overthrow of House Targaryen.  At the end of the war, Eddard and six of his companions ventured to the Tower of Joy within Dorne, where Lyanna was located and guarded by three of the most prominent Kingsguard knights — the "Sword of the Morning" Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Oswell Whent, and the "White Bull" Ser Gerold Hightower (lord commander of the Kingsguard).  After a fierce skirmish that killed everyone except Eddard and his close friend Howland Reed, Eddard entered the tower and found Lyanna dying in a bed of blood.  Before she died, she asked her brother Eddard to make a promise, something that Eddard regarded as a price he paid that haunted him days and nights for 14 years.  Eddard later takes her body home, to be entombed in Winterfell's crypt, and installs a stone statue in her likeness in front of her sarcophagus.  When he returns, he also brings back a newborn boy named Jon Snow, whom he claims is his own bastard by a tavern wench named Wylla. Although Jon Arryn persuaded Robert to marry Cersei Lannister, Robert greatly mourns Lyanna for over a decade, causing great strain in his marriage with Cersei.
  In the HBO television adaptation, Lyanna is portrayed by Cordelia Hill in childhood and Aisling Franciosi during her late teens.