Eddard "Ned" Stark is a fictional character from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. He is one of the major first person points-of-view through which Martin narrates A Game of Thrones.

Lord Eddard Stark, the Warden of the North, holds his seat at Winterfell. He and Lady Catelyn Stark have five children: Robb Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark and Rickon Stark. Eddard has a bastard roughly Robb's age named Jon Snow, and has taken Theon Greyjoy as a ward.

Eddard Stark is known for his overdeveloped sense of honor and justice.

Eddard has a longsword made of Valyrian steel named "Ice."

Prior to A Game of Thrones

Eddard and Robert Baratheon were raised as wards of Jon Arryn at the The Eyrie. Eddard was instrumental in both Robert's rebellion against Aerys Targaryen as well as in supressing Balon Greyjoy's later rebellion against Baratheon.

Robert Baratheon was deeply in love with Eddard's sister, Lyanna Stark. Following her death Robert married Cersei Lannister and appointed Jon Arryn as his Hand.

Following the onset of A Game of Thrones

At the beginning of A Game of Thrones, Robert and Cersei Baratheon and their children visit Winterfell, at which time Robert asks Eddard to replace the recently deceased Jon Arryn as King's Hand. Eddard leaves his sons at Winterfell (Jon Snow, however, "takes the black," and proceeds to the Wall in the company of Tyrion Lannister) but takes his daughters Sansa (recently engaged to Robert's heir apparent Joffrey) and Arya to King's Landing.

Eddard begins to investigate the death of Jon Arryn, believing a Lannister plot behind his murder. Following Arryn's footsteps he discovers that Robert's legitimate children are in fact Jaime Lannister's by an incestuous affair with his sister, Robert's wife Cersei. Attempting to prevent the execution of the children that he knows Robert will order, Eddard warns Cersei, only to see her arrange Robert's death. Robert's dying wish that Eddard Stark be named Joffrey's regent is quickly ignored when Ned refuses an offer from Renly Baratheon to seize the city and is betrayed by Littlefinger, whom he hoped would win the city guard to his cause.

Varys convinces him to confess to treason and "take the black" (i.e., join the Night's Watch) by threatening the lives of Sansa and Arya, but Joffrey Baratheon, now one of many newly-crowned kings, orders him beheaded by Ser Ilyn Payne.

While some fans promote theories involving Eddard's unlikely survival (e.g., a Faceless Man posing as Stark and dying in his stead) Martin himself has consistently denied such a possibility, stating that he likes killing off at least one major character early on, so that people know he's "playing for keeps."