Rickon Stark

**Lord Rickon Stark** was the youngest child and third son of Eddard and Catelyn Stark.

## Biography

### Background

Rickon is the fifth child and youngest son of Lady Catelyn and Lord Eddard Stark. Eddard is the head of House Stark and Lord Paramount of the North. The North is one of the constituent regions of the Seven Kingdoms and House Stark is one of the Great Houses of the realm. House Stark rules the region from their seat of Winterfell while Eddard holds the title of Lord of Winterfell. He is also the Warden of the North to King Robert Baratheon.

Rickon was born and raised at Winterfell. He has two older brothers, Robb and Bran, and two older sisters, Sansa and Arya. He also has an older "bastard half-brother", Jon Snow. He is six-years-old when his uncle, Lord Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, mysteriously dies.

### Season 1

Rickon watches Bran's unsuccessful practice at archery and laughs when Bran misses and is outwitted by Arya; Rickon later helps Robb and Jon put the arrows back in their place. His brothers find a litter of direwolf pups in the Wolfswood and bring them back to Winterfell. Rickon adopts one of the pups and names him Shaggydog.

Rickon receives the visiting King Robert Baratheon with his family at Winterfell, standing close to his mother. During the welcome, Robert fondly ruffles his hair.

His father accepts Robert's offer to serve as the Hand of the King. Rickon's brother, Bran, is found severely injured at the base of a disused tower.

Eddard travels south to the capital King's Landing, taking Arya and Sansa with him. Catelyn initially remains with Bran, but after protecting him from an assassination attempt and then discovering evidence implicating House Lannister in his injuries, she follows Eddard south to warn him in secret. Rickon's oldest brother, Robb, is left in charge of Winterfell.

King Robert dies as a result of a hunting accident. His son Joffrey Baratheon claims the throne. Eddard challenges his legitimacy and is arrested for treason. Robb decides to ride against King Joffrey and wants to bid his younger brothers goodbye, but Rickon is nowhere to be found. Afterwards, Bran tries to reassure Rickon that Robb will return along with their parents, but Rickon wistfully replies, "No, they won't."

Rickon sees his father in the crypts below Winterfell in a dream. He goes down to the crypts with Shaggydog to look for him. He meets Bran, who also had a dream about his father being there. When Bran emerges from the crypts, Maester Luwin tells him that their father has been killed for treason against Joffrey Baratheon.

### Season 2

As Bran holds court for his people, remaining the the acting Lord of Winterfell, Rickon sits beside his older brother, shelling nuts loudly with a rock. A shepherd reports being unable to tend to his flock with his three sons fighting in the south and Bran offers to assign two orphans from Winterfell’s outlying winter town to aid him if he will give them room and board. The shepherd gratefully accepts. When the shepherd leaves, Bran tells Rickon to stop. Having seen everyone, Bran tells Maester Luwin that he is going to go for a ride before dark and calls for Hodor.

An attack on Torrhen's Square is used as a feint orchestrated by Theon Greyjoy to lure away the garrison, headed by Rodrik Cassel, from Winterfell. He seizes the poorly defended castle and forces Bran to surrender to him by threatening the people. Rickon is distraught when Theon publicly executes Rodrik. Along with Bran, he tries to plead for Rodrik's life but to no avail. Osha manages to free Bran and Rickon and leads them out of the castle. They reach the shepherd's farm in the winter town. Rickon remembers that Bran sent Billy and Jack there and wants to approach them for food. Bran is cautious about putting them in danger if they are tracked.

Bran's concern proves valid when Theon later reaches the farm but cannot find Bran or Rickon. He brutalizes the shepherd and then returns to Winterfell with the charred corpses of two boys, claiming that they are Bran and Rickon. The escapees actually back tracked through the stream and are hiding in the crypts at Winterfell. Luwin correctly deduces that the bodies must be the orphans from the farm.

A Bolton force led by Roose's bastard son, Ramsay Snow, besieges Winterfell, trapping Theon's meager Ironborn garrison. The Ironborn turn on Theon and accept Robb Stark's offer to spare their lives in return for surrendering. However, the House Bolton forces flay the Ironborn alive and sacks Winterfell, killing many of its inhabitants in the process.

Following the Sack of Winterfell, Rickon and his companions emerge from the crypt to discover Winterfell in ruins. They also find a dying Maester Luwin resting under the willow tree. While Bran and Rickon offer to bring medicine to treat Luwin's wounds, he declines their offer and tells them to gather all of their warm clothing and travel north to Castle Black, where they would be safe with their half-brother, Jon Snow. At Luwin's own request, Osha euthanizes the elderly maester after the boys leave with Hodor. Rickon then travels north, accompanied by his older brother, Bran; their guardian, Osha; Hodor; and their two direwolves.

### Season 3

Following the Fall of Winterfell, Rickon, along with Bran, Osha, Hodor, and the direwolves, Summer and Shaggydog, travel north toward Castle Black, the headquarters of the Night's Watch. Rickon inquires into Bran's welfare following his awakening from a greensight vision. During the journey, the group encounters Jojen Reed and his sister, Meera Reed. During the first encounter between the two parties, Rickon and Hodor are out hunting, leaving Bran and Osha behind to guard the camp.

The siblings are members of House Reed, a vassal house of House Stark, and had been searching for Bran and Rickon so that they can protect them. Bran also experiences strange dreams of seeing the world through the eyes of his wolf, Summer. Bran would later learn from Jojen that he is a Warg and has the ability to enter the minds of animals and control their actions. On one occasion, Rickon is present when Jojen descends into a fit due to the exertions of his vision.

Later, Rickon and his companions reach the Gift, a region south of the Wall that is considered to be beyond the borders of the Seven Kingdoms. The Gift had been granted to the Night's Watch thousands of years ago by Brandon the Builder, from which the Watch draws support for its material needs. While the region is fertile, it has become uninhabited due to frequent wildling attacks that forced the smallfolk to migrate south over the centuries. When his brother, Bran, raises this controversial issue, which troubles Osha due to her Wildling ancestry, Rickon adds that he had heard tales about the Wildlings drinking blood.

Rickon and his companions take shelter at an abandoned mill to escape a thunderstorm. Later, the group notices a band of Wildlings chasing down a Northman. During the ensuing incident, Bran uses his Warg powers to Warg through Summer and Shaggydog to fight off the Wildlings. This party of Wildlings includes Jon Snow, who earlier had been taken captive by them. Using his Warg abilities, Bran helps Jon Snow escape from his captors and later return to the Night's Watch.

Following the events of that night, Bran instructs Osha to bring Rickon to Last Hearth, the seat of House Umber, whose lord, Jon Umber, was a loyal bannerman of the Starks. This arrangement also suited Osha because she was unwilling to travel beyond the Wall with Bran due to the threat of the White Walkers. Rickon becomes upset, being separated from his brother and expresses his desire to accompany him on his journey. Bran tells him that if he or Robb do not return, Rickon needs to stay alive as the heir to Winterfell. Accompanied by his direwolf, Shaggydog, Rickon leaves with Osha as they head for the Last Hearth.

It is around this time that the Red Wedding takes place and several more members of Rickon's family are killed: his mother, Catelyn Stark; his brother, Robb Stark; his pregnant sister-in-law, Talisa; and her unborn child.

### Season 4

After the Red Wedding, the Starks' former bannerman, Roose Bolton, who personally killed Robb, is appointed as the new Warden of the North. His bastard son, Ramsay Snow, has physically and psychologically tortured Theon Greyjoy, the Starks' former ward, turning him into a broken pet called "Reek", who reveals to Roose that he did not in fact kill Bran and Rickon, and that they may be with Jon Snow at the Wall. Roose sends his best hunter, Locke, to find Bran and Rickon, promising him a 1000 acres and a holdfast. Locke infiltrates the Night's Watch and eventually catches up with Bran at Craster's Keep, but Bran wargs into Hodor and kills Locke before he can interrogate him as to Rickon's whereabouts.

After the Bolton army drives the remaining ironborn from the North and takes Winterfell, Roose Bolton asks Ramsay if he has heard anything from Locke. Ramsay informs him that he has not. Roose dismisses Locke's absence as unimportant, speculating that Bran and Rickon may already be dead anyway.

### Season 5

Rickon is still largely believed to have died along with Bran at the hands of Theon. When Sansa Stark returns to Winterfell to be wed to Ramsay at the behest of Petyr Baelish, Ramsay initially forces Theon to keep up the charade and apologize to Sansa. Eventually, however, an irate Sansa forces Theon to finally admit that he did not kill her brothers. Stunned by this admission, her anger towards Theon cools but when she asks if he knows where they might have gone to, he breaks down and leaves the room, fearful of what Ramsay will do if and when he finds out what he just told her. However, Sansa appears to be left with a sense of renewed hope by the revelation that she still has surviving family left.