Game of thrones

Jon Snow and Robb instruct Bran in archery when their father Eddard receives word about a captured deserter from the Night's Watch, for which the penalty is death. Jon accompanies his father, Robb, Bran, and his father's ward Theon Greyjoy out to the holdfast where the deserter, Will, is being held. It is Bran's first time watching his father carry out an execution, but as the deserter is brought into position outside, Jon warns Bran not to look away, as their father will know. Jon praises Bran afterwards for keeping his composure.

On their way back to Winterfell, they find a dead direwolf and her newborn pups - which is very surprising because direwolves have not been seen south of the Wall in centuries. Jon talks Lord Eddard into allowing the young Starks to adopt them, pointing out that a direwolf is the sigil of House Stark: given that there are five direwolves and five trueborn Stark children, it must be a sign from the Old Gods that the Stark children are meant to have the pups. In order to make this point, Jon intentionally leaves himself out of the count of Stark children, and when Bran asks about this Jon responds that he is not a Stark. Just as they are about to leave, however, he finds the runt of the litter, an albino, which crawled away from its mother's corpse. On Theon's suggestion, as an outsider like himself, Jon takes this direwolf as his own, naming him Ghost.

House Stark of Winterfell is an exiled Great House of Westeros, ruling over the vast region known as the North from their seat in Winterfell. It is by far one of the oldest lines of Westerosi nobility, claiming a line of descent stretching back over eight thousand years. The head of the house was the Lord of Winterfell. Before the Targaryen conquest, the leaders of House Stark ruled over the region as the Kings in the North.

Jon is the bastard son of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, the head of House Stark and Lord Paramount of the North. Eddard never told anyone, including Jon, who his mother is - an unusual position for a bastard, as they normally know who their mother is but not their father. When Eddard left for the south to fight in Robert's Rebellion, he left his pregnant new bride Lady Catelyn Tully at Riverrun while he continued on the campaign, and she later gave birth to his first lawful son, Robb Stark. When Eddard returned from the war, however, he brought with him an infant boy, which he said was his bastard son that he fathered during the war. Eddard once told King Robert Baratheon that Jon's mother was a serving girl named Wylla when asked, but he refused to elaborate any further. Eddard never even told Jon himself whether his mother was alive or dead, though he later promised that when he later returned from serving King Robert in King's Landing, he would tell Jon about her (as by then he would have reached the age of adulthood). 

At Castle Black, Jon's expectations of the Night's Watch are soon disappointed. Instead of a brotherhood of noble warriors sworn to defend the realm from wildlings and White Walkers, he realizes the Watch is a dumping ground for criminals and wastrels. He earns the enmity of Ser Alliser Thorne, the Master-at-Arms in charge of training new recruits. He humiliates his fellow recruits with his superior fighting skills, learned from Winterfell's master-at-Arms over the course of many years. Benjen stands with Jon on his first watch and tells him that he is going ranging North of the Wall. Jon is keen to accompany him but Benjen insists that he complete his training. Tyrion helps Jon see that he is no better than the recruits but has been afforded more advantages than them. Jon offers to train some of his new brothers and Pypar and Grenn accepts. He also befriends the fat and bookish coward Samwell Tarly when he arrives at Castle Black and helps to protect him from the cruelty of Thorne. Thorne angrily tells Jon that going easy on Sam won't help him, and will risk getting him killed during the next winter

After completing his training, Jon is inducted into the Night's Watch and swears his oath before a weirwood heart tree on the north side of the Wall. He is assigned to the stewards rather than the rangers, and at first thinks it is due to his ongoing feud with Ser Alliser Thorne. However, Sam points out that Lord Commander Jeor Mormont has asked for Jon as his personal steward, and may be grooming him for command. Jon is concerned when his Uncle Benjen's horse returns to the Wall riderless. Later, Ghost finds the corpses of two rangers assigned to Benjen, Othor and Ser Jafer Flowers. Learning of Eddard's imprisonment in King's Landing, Thorne taunts Jon about being a traitor's bastard, causing Jon to draw a knife in anger. He is restricted to quarters. Later, Othor's corpse becomes a wight and attacks Lord Commander Mormont. Jon saves Mormont's life by burning the wight, earning a pardon for his earlier misdemeanor. Mormont also gives Jon his Valyrian steel sword, Longclaw - given that his own son Jorah fled into exile and left it behind. 
Jon ponders abandoning the Watch to join Robb's army when it marches against the Lannisters, but Maester Aemon tells him that he chose to stay with the Watch when he was similarly tested - as he is secretly a long-forgotten uncle of the Mad King, and was once known as Aemon Targaryen, but his entire family was killed at the end of Robert's Rebellion. 

News of Eddard's execution reaches Castle Black. Jon immediately leaves, meaning to join Robb and seek vengeance for his father's death. Samwell, Pypar, and Grenn intercept him and convince him to stay. Mormont tells Jon their war against the White Walkers is more important than the game of thrones in King's Landing. He tells Jon that the Watch is marching beyond the Wall in force, to find Benjen and learn the truth about the threat. Jon swears to him not to attempt to desert again and accompanies the troops as they set out.

House Lannister of Casterly Rock is one of the Great Houses of Westeros, one of its richest and most powerful families and oldest dynasties. The major characters Jaime, Cersei, and Tyrion and the recurring characters Tywin, Kevan, and Lancel are members of the house. Tywin is the head of House Lannister and Lord of Casterly Rock

Tyrion Lannister is the youngest son of Joanna Lannister and Lord Tywin Lannister. Tywin is the head of House Lannister, the richest man in the Seven Kingdoms and Lord Paramount of the Westerlands. The Westerlands are one of the constituent regions of the Seven Kingdoms and House Lannister of Casterly Rock is one of the Great Houses of the realm. He is the younger brother of Jaimeand Cersei Lannister. His mother Joanna Lannister died giving birth to him. His father and sister hold him in contempt as they blame him for the death.

Tyrion accompanies King Robert Baratheon's party to Winterfell, but after weeks on the road, he leaves the party and rides ahead to seek the pleasures of the winter town's brothels, where he makes the acquaintance of Ros. He gives the prostitute a Lannister lion necklace to thank her for their time together. Jaime convinces him to join the family for dinner. Tyrion dawdles outside the feast hall, reluctant to make nice with the Starks and his own family, and as a result meets Jon Snow, Lord Eddard Stark's bastard son. He realizes that Jon is something of a kindred spirit: "All dwarfs are bastards in their father's eyes," he explains. When Tyrion's nephew, Prince Joffrey Baratheon, refuses to pay his respects to Lord and Lady Stark after Bran's fall, Tyrion slaps him three times until he acquiesces. He then breakfasts with his family, where he reveals that he wants to go and visit the Wall - to see it and piss off of it, he says, to the laughter of Tommen and Myrcella, before returning to King's Landing. He takes an interest in Bran's fall and how it happened, Tyrion while in Winterfell noting carefully his brother and sister's reactions to the news that Bran is likely to live.

On the road to Castle Black, Tyrion explains to Jon that he likes to read as it keeps his wits sharp, just as his brother's whetstone keeps his sword sharp. Reaching the Wall, even Tyrion is temporarily rendered speechless by the size and scale of the structure.During his stay, Tyrion watches the new recruits train. He realizes that Jon Snow, due to his advantages of being trained by a castle master-at-arms at Winterfell, is acting superior to his fellow recruits, embarrassing them by beating them easily in training. After Tyrion points this out, Jon begins helping the others train, earning their respect and friendship. Maester Aemon and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont ask him to use his influence at court to get more men and resources sent to the Night's Watch. Tyrion is sympathetic, but doesn't believe that there is anything more dangerous than wildlings beyond the Wall. However, Benjen Stark's account of life beyond the Wall gives him pause. Tyrion befriends Yoren, a recruiter for the Watch, and they agree to travel back to the capital together.

Pausing at Winterfell on the return trip home, Tyrion gives Bran plans for a special saddle so that he can ride even in his crippled state. He taunts Theon Greyjoyabout his family's defeat during their uprising before leaving. Stopping at theCrossroads Inn on the way home, he is surprised to meet Catelyn Stark, and even more so when she denounces him as an attempted murderer and has him arrested by her father's bannermen to face the King's justice. She was told by Petyr Baelish that the knife used in the assassination attempt on Bran was one Tyrion won from Petyr by betting on a jousting tournament. Catelyn takes Tyrion, protesting his innocence, to the Eyrie. A sellsword from the inn, Bronn, accompanies them and notes Tyrion's wealth and a promise he will handsomely reward any man who aids him. Along the way they are attacked by some of the hill tribes and Tyrion kills his first man, bashing in the skull of an attacking tribesman with a shield. Tyrion warns Catelyn that her sister, Lysa, has become irrational with grief and will try to kill him. She is skeptical, but once at the Eyrie, Tyrion's warning proves accurate. Tyrion defends himself with the shield of House Bracken.
Lysa hysterically accuses him not only of the attempted murder of Bran, but also of conspiring in that of her husband Jon Arryn, the former Hand of the King who died under mysterious circumstances, which Lysa tells Catelyn was one of the Lannisters' doing. Tyrion is thrown into one of the Eyrie's "sky-cells", dungeons which simply open on their fourth side to the open air with a drop of many thousands of feet to the valley below.

Tywin Lannister's forces have been attacking Catelyn's home in the Riverlands ever since she arrested Tyrion. It's not that he cares so much about Tyrion, he explains to Jaime, but because even though Tyrion is the least of them he is still a Lannister, and if they allow one of their own to be taken so easily, they risk losing the respect of the other Houses. The hillmen deliver Tyrion to his father's army, where he learns that Robb Stark is leading an army to war. Tyrion warns his father that Robb should not be underestimated. Tywin agrees to honor Tyrion's alliance with the hill tribes. When Shagga says they will only fight if Tyrion is with them on the field, Tywin also agrees, to Tyrion's dismay. Tyrion is commanded by his father to lead the hill tribes into battle from the front. Feeling that his father means to kill him, Tyrion retires to his tent, where he finds that Bronn has found a prostitute for him, a girl named Shae. Tyrion attempts to learn more about Shae via a drinking game, but finds his questions deflected. Instead he tells her about his own past with Tysha, a wheelwright's daughter. They married and spent several happy weeks together until Tywin learned of the matter. Tywin had Jaime tell Tyrion the truth, that Tysha was a prostitute that Jaime had paid to make his brother happy for a while. Tywin then gave her a piece of silver for every one of his guards she had sex with while Tyrion was forced to watch. Since then Tyrion has never attempted to take a wife or lover, only whores he can pay and send on their way.