Highlights
- The Starks are the first family of Game of Thrones, ruling the North and known for their distinct physical characteristics and unique abilities.
- House Targaryen is known for their enigmatic appeal, with silver hair, purple or light blue eyes, and a history of inbreeding and prophecies.
- House Lannister is cunning and scheming, with golden hair, emerald green eyes, and a legacy driven by Tywin's desire to be remembered as one of the greats.
The Starks are arguably the first family of Game of Thrones, and the very first to appear on the screen. The North was an independent kingdom for thousands of years until Aegon's Conquest and House Stark ruled it. At the beginning of Game of Thrones, Ned guarded the North as Warden and held the title of the Lord of Winterfell. The Starks have unique attributes, as distinct from the Lannisters, two of which (Cersei and her twin brother/ lover, Jaime) appear shortly afterward in Game of Thrones.
King Robert I Baratheon was strong and well-built, and these aspects emphasize the theme that members of various noble Houses are distinguished on the basis of distinct physical characteristics, especially hair color. Much has been made about Rhaenyra Targaryen and Ser Laenor Velaryon's boys in House of the Dragon. Alicent Hightower dismisses Rhaenyra's sons as "plain-featured," in that they are neither Targaryen nor Velaryon by looks. Furthermore, members of the Great Houses of Westeros are also known for their unique qualities and abilities.
House Stark
Members of House Stark of Winterfell such as Eddard, his brother Benjen, and his late sister, Lyanna all had brown hair. In the case of Jon Snow's mother, Lyanna, she was assertive and had a hint of wildness to her. Her father, Lord Rickard Stark ascribed Lyanna's wildness to her having "the wolf blood." In the source material, she had the quintessential long Stark face and grey eyes.
Ned's daughter, Arya mirrors her late aunt's wildness. She, too, is beautiful, and assertive with tomboyish traits. Other than this, Author George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire implies that Starks kids are "Skinchangers," albeit with varying degrees of ability. They have the power to enter the mind of an animal and control them. The term "Warg" is referred to those who skinchange into a wolf or a dog. Ned's children are considered untrained wargs in the books, but since Sansa loses her direwolf, Lady early on (in the books and in HBO's Game of Thrones), this aspect remains unexplored. Arya has dreams that she sees through Nymeria's eyes, and Jon has similar dreams. As for Bran in HBO's Game of Thrones, he is the only Stark with warging abilities. He wargs into Hodor, and controls him at various points in the show. He also wargs into Summer, and birds.
House Targaryen
Members of House Targaryen of Westeros have unique features. They are the Blood of Old Valyria, and they claim to have the blood of the dragon, which gives them an enigmatic appeal. The defining aspect of House Targaryen is that their patriarch Aenar imposed self-exile upon his House and migrated to Dragonstone twelve years before a cataclysm destroyed the Valyrian Freehold. Some Targaryens have dragon dreams, some have visions and the monarchs relay the guarded secret (Aegon's dream) to the successor. In House of the Dragon, Rhaenyra famously remarks, "Everyone says Targaryens are closer to gods than to men..." adding that people say so because of their ownership of dragons.
The Targaryens have hair in shades of silver, platinum, and gold, with purple, or light blue eyes. Other defining aspects include the trait of insanity which is ascribed to generations of inbreeding. They also practiced strange customs such as marrying brothers and sisters to keep the bloodlines pure, and certain members believed in prophecies more so than other Westerosi.
House Tully
Catelyn Stark was a Tully by birth, and she took pride in her name. As seen with Catelyn's character, the Tullys of Riverrun are fair-skinned, with auburn hair and eyes in various shades of blue.
Catelyn, the daughter of Lord Hoster had the quintessential Tully characteristics. She is described as beautiful in the lore and has long fingers, high cheekbones, and long auburn tresses. As a Southerner, she was raised in the Faith of the Seven, and in Game of Thrones season 1, episode 1 "Winter Is Coming," she visited Ned in the Godswood and told her she felt like an outsider there.
House Lannister
The words cunning, brainy, and scheming are a fit for the Lannisters of Casterly Rock. They are golden-haired (even though Robert Baratheon disparagingly calls them yellow-haired back in Game of Thrones season 1). The lore describes them as "comely," and "fair" with "emerald green eyes." The Lannisters trace descent from "Lann the Clever" who in the Age of Heroes, took Casterly Rock from the Casterlys.
The head of House Lannister, Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion's father, Tywin, took the reins of his House after his father, Tytos passed away.
The man who orchestrated the massacre of the Red Wedding said that the so-called War of the Five Kings was the last war of his career. He wanted to leave a legacy for his children and be remembered as one of the greats in Westeros. The cold-blooded, Machiavellian Tywin perfectly described the ordeal Tytos left House Lannister in:
He was a good man...but a weak man. A weak man who nearly destroyed our House and name.
House Baratheon
The late King Robert I looked every bit Baratheon, in that, he was study, tall, and powerful. House Baratheon, founded by Aegon the Conqueror's commander and close friend, Orys Baratheon is a relatively new House in Westeros. Members of the House are tall, with black hair and blue eyes, defined, square jawlines, and are known to be exceptional warriors like their founder. The Baratheons are also known to have mercurial temperaments, a trait which in and of itself is a testament to their words - "Ours is the Fury."
House Martell
King Daeron I who is infamous for launching the Targaryen invasion of Dorne, thought of the Martells as "salty Dornishmen, with dark eyes, dark hair in ringlets, and olive skin." Pedro Pascal's Oberyn Martell was the epitome of grace and elegance of the premiere nobles of Dorne.
The Martells trace descent from Morgan Martell who was an Andal adventurer. Rhaegar Targaryen's first wife, the Dornish Princess, Elia Martell whom he cast aside for Lyanna Stark is described as "beautiful" in the lore. She was "slender" with black eyes. As seen in Game of Thrones, the Dornish have cultivated attitudes toward sex that are more open as compared to the rest of Westeros.