Brandon Stark
Ned's wild elder brother, once heir to Winterfell and betrothed to Catelyn Tully; a name spoken of but never seen.
A soul of House Stark, born at Winterfell.
The fuller tale
How it ends for them
Died before the story ÔÇö before this story begins.
Brandon's ride to King's Landing ended in a treason charge ÔÇö 'come out and die' being poor legal strategy under Aerys II ÔÇö and his father's summons south ended in the throne room. The Mad King's idea of a trial gave Lord Rickard to the fire and gave Brandon a strangler's cord and a sword placed just beyond his fingertips. He died reaching for it. The books put the account in Jaime Lannister's mouth, a Kingsguard made to stand and watch; the show leaves the scene as a line of Ned's, which is roughly how Ned would have wanted it.
Their chapters, book by book
Where the page and the screen part
The show grants Brandon perhaps two sentences across eight seasons; viewers could be forgiven for forgetting Ned had a brother between Lyanna and Benjen. The books make him a small but load-bearing ghost: Catelyn's chapters measure Ned against him, Barbrey Dustin's grudge against the Starks begins in his bed, and the rumors around Ashara Dayne at Harrenhal attach to him in some tellings rather than to Ned. He is the books' first demonstration of a recurring thesis ÔÇö that the dashing elder brother dies and the dutiful second son inherits the story.