Arya Stark, played by actress Maisie Williams, is the youngest daughter of Eddard Stark and Catelyn Stark. She is adventurous and enjoys sword fighting and archery over more traditionally "ladylike" pursuits, and because of this, she and her sister Sansa are often in disagreement.

Arya was born and raised at Winterfell, and accompanied her father and sister to King's Landing. On the way there, she asks a young butcher boy, Mycah, to practice sword fighting with her. They are discovered by her sister and Prince Joffrey Baratheon; the latter of whom decided to bully and beat on Mycah.

Arya's direwolf, Nymeria, attacks Joffrey by biting his arm. Arya then takes Joffrey's sword, tossing it into the river nearby, and fleeing the scene with Nymeria. Knowing that Joffrey would have her direwolf killed, she urges her pet to run away.

When questioned, Sansa lies about what happened to protect Joffrey, who claims Mycah and Arya attacked him and set her wolf on him. This causes King Robert to sentence a direwolf to death on the request of his wife, Cersei Lannister. Since Nymeria is gone, Sansa's wolf, Lady, is killed instead. This incident forms a lasting rift between the two sisters.

In King's Landing

Arriving in King's Landing, Eddard attempts to make up for it by arranging for Arya to study sword fighting under the tutelage of the great Syrio Forel.

One day while chasing cats, Arya discovers rooms filled with dragon skulls underneath the Red Keep. There she overhears?Varys and Illyrio speak about Eddard's life being in peril. While she passes this information on to her father, the knowledge does not save him from betrayal.

When Ned fails to prevent Joffrey from taking the throne, the Lannisters dispatched their guards to kill the remaining members of the Stark household and capture Arya and Sansa. Arya and Syrio Forel are accosted by four Lannister guards during one of her lessons, and Syrio is able to hold off the guards long enough for Arya to escape. During her escape, however, she is forced to kill a stableboy that attempted to apprehend her, taking a life for the first time.

After several days of living on the streets, Arya follows a crowd to the Sept of Baelor, where her father plans to confess his alleged crimes for the sake of Sansa. As Ned passes by, he sees Arya, and directs to a Night's Watch brother named?Yoren to save her. ?

Yoren holds on to Arya as her father is executed, preventing her from watching. Immediately after, he cuts her hair and takes her to his caravan, which is departing to The Wall with recruits for the Night's Watch. At Yoren's bidding, Arya assumes the identity of "Arry the orphan boy," to avoid capture en route to returning her to Winterfell.?

Captured at Harrenhal

During the journey, she meets a prisoner named Jaqen H'ghar, apparently a murderer who was previously held in the black cells of the city dungeons. She also makes friends with Robert Baratheon's bastard son,?Gendry.?

Their party is later accosted by Lannister soldiers, and Yoren is killed in the confrontation, along with many of the other Night's Watch recruits. Arya manages to save Jaqen H'ghar however, who is recruited by the Lannister men.

Arya, Gendry, and the other survivors are taken prisoner, and escorted to the ruined castle Harrenhal. There, Arya is inadvertently recruited to be the cupbearer of Tywin Lannister.

She encounters Jaqen again, now a Lannister soldier, who promised to repay his debt to her by killing any three people she chooses. Arya uses this favor to kill a torturer named the Tickler, and a Lannister knight named Ser Armory Lorch. This raises suspicions in the castle, and Arya is forced to escape with the assistance of Jaqen.

He meets Arya and her companions once more in the Riverlands, where he tells Arya to find him in Braavos, where she can learn to become a Faceless Man like him.?

Journey Through The Riverlands

Arya and her companions are captured again while traversing the Riverlands, this time by a militant group called the Brotherhood Without Banners. While in their custody, she witnesses a duel between Beric Dondarrion and Sandor Clegane, the Hound, which the Hound wins. Arya later escapes from the Brotherhood, only to be kidnapped by the Hound, who plans to take her to the Twins in order to ransom her back to her family.?

They arrive just in time to witness the aftermath of the massacre of the Starks at the Red Wedding however, and the Hound spirits Arya away to save her life. The Hound then plans to take Arya to the Eyrie, where Arya's aunt Lady Lysa Arryn resides. Along the way, Arya and the Hound kill four Lannister soldiers at a tavern, one of whom being the one who stole Arya's sword, Needle, while she was traveling with Yoren's group.

Arriving at the Eyrie, Arya and the Hound learn that their plan has been ruined once again, as Lysa Arryn had died just a few days prior. Leaving the Eyrie, Arya and the Hound come upon Brienne of Tarth, who has been trying to find and rescue the Stark daughters. A confrontation results, in which Brienne defeats the Hound, sending him tumbling down a cliff. Arya sneaks away in the midst of the fight, seemingly leaving the Hound to die.

She makes for the coast, boarding a ship bound for Braavos called the Titan's Daughter.?

To Braavos

Arriving in Braavos, Arya seeks out the House of Black and White, the temple where the Faceless Men reside. She finds herself rejected by an old man though, who will not let her in. Arya waits outside for days, before eventually giving up and wandering the city.

After being accosted by thieves, the old man from the House of Black and White appears again, and takes her back to the temple, revealing that he is the man known as Jaqen H'gar that she met in Westeros.?

Arya spends months in Braavos training to become an assassin, but finds herself in trouble when she skirts her first mission to take revenge on Ser Meryn Trant, the Lannister knight who supposedly killed Syrio Forrel. As punishment, Arya is blinded, and continues her training without her sight. She manages to prove herself again to the Faceless Men, and is given back her sight, and tasked with another assassination mission.?

Arya is unable to complete her task once again though, taking pity on her target, and prepares to flee Braavos to avoid the wrath of the Faceless Men. Trying to escape the city, Arya is forced to contend with an assassin, but ultimately triumphs and make her way back across the Narrow Sea to Westeros.?

Return to Westeros

Upon arriving, Arya heads to the Twins, where she takes brutal vengeance on some of the perpetrators of the Red Wedding, including Walder Frey. ?She then heads south to King's Landing, where she intends to kill Cersei Lannister, but turns back upon learning that Jon Snow has been crowned King in the North, and has returned to Winterfell.

On her way there, Arya encounters her direwolf Nymeria again, but finds that the animal has grown accustomed to freedom, and the two part ways. Arya returns to Winterfell to find that Jon Snow is no longer there, but is reunited with her sister, Sansa, and her brother, Bran.

Their reunion grows tense however as Arya begins to suspect that Sansa may not be fully loyal to Jon. This is exacerbated when Arya finds a letter that Sansa wrote to their deceased brother Robb just before the War of the Five Kings, calling their father a traitor and asking Robb to bend the knee to Joffrey.?

Arya and Sansa confront each other after Sansa discovers Arya's "faces," masks she uses to conduct her assassinations.?