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  ===Description===
  Bran is seven years old at the beginning of ''A Game of Thrones'' (1996).  He is the fourth child and second son of Eddard "Ned" Stark and his wife Lady Catelyn, and has five siblings: an older brother Robb, two older sisters Sansa and Arya, a younger brother Rickon, and an older illegitimate half-brother Jon Snow.  Bran is constantly accompanied by his direwolf Summer, the simpleton stableboy Hodor (who carries him around after his crippling), and the Reed siblings Meera and Jojen.
  Martin describes Bran as favoring his mother in appearance, having the thick auburn hair and deep blue eyes of the Tullys.  According to Martin, Bran is a strong willed, but sweet and thoughtful boy, well-loved by everyone at Winterfell.  He enjoys climbing and exploring the walls and ramparts of the castle; he is also dutiful and tough-minded.
  With his dreams of being a knight dashed by the crippling attempt on his life in ''A Game of Thrones'', duty forces Bran to overcome his new limitations and embrace his new abilities.  His gradual acceptance of his seemingly-prophetic visions (called the "greensight") and his ability to psychically inhabit his direwolf Summer (which marks him as a type of skinchanger known as a warg) show his growing maturity and his worth beyond the loss of his legs.  He also manages to enter Hodor's mind, and later skinchanges into crows and even weirwood trees under the mentorship of the Three-Eyed Crow.