In A Song of Ice and Fire, five children are born to Catelyn and Eddard Stark. The Starks have three sons, Robb, Bran, and Rickon, and two daughters, Sansa and Arya. Another boy, Jon Snow, generally supposed to be the illegitimate son of Eddard Stark, is brought up alongside the five Stark children at Winterfell as, for a time, is Theon Greyjoy, son of the Lord of the Iron Islands.

The Stark children are all major characters, with the exception of the youngest, Rickon. George R. R. Martin alternates between the point of view of various key characters, and Sansa, Arya, and Bran are all point-of-view characters in the first book of the series, A Game of Thrones. In A Song of Ice and Fire, seven chapters are seen from Bran's point of view, six from Sansa's, and five from Arya's. Arya goes on to have a more important role in the books that follow.

Eddard and Catelyn Stark are also point-of-view characters, as is Jon Snow. Robb Stark is not a point-of-view character, but he plays a major role in the early part of the series as the "King in the North," one of the major threats to the power of the Lannisters and Baratheons, who hold the iron throne.