Arya Stark

Arya Stark, the youngest daughter of Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell, arrives in Braavos as a fugitive from the wars that have destroyed her family. In the House of Black and White, the temple of the Many-Faced God, she seeks to become "no one," a servant of death who sheds all personal identity. Yet her training is a constant battle between the discipline of the Faceless Men and the fierce, unyielding core of the girl who was once Arya Stark.

Identity and Arrival in Braavos

Arya comes to Braavos after fleeing Westeros, having witnessed the execution of her father and the destruction of her house. She is taken in by the Faceless Men, who demand that she give up her name, her past, and her very self. She adopts a series of aliases—Arry, Weasel, Cat of the Canals, Blind Beth—each a mask to hide the Stark girl beneath. Her training begins with the loss of her sight, a physical deprivation meant to sharpen her other senses and sever her from the world of light and identity. She is taught to see with her ears, to smell lies, and to move through the world as a shadow.

Training and the Struggle for Detachment

The core of Arya's arc in A Dance with Dragons is her apprenticeship in the House of Black and White. She is instructed by the Kindly Man and the Waif, who test her obedience and her ability to suppress her own will. She learns to wear the faces of the dead, a process that requires her to accept the death of her own identity. Yet she resists. When the Kindly Man asks her who she is, she replies, "No one," but he sees through the lie. He tells her, "You have the eyes of a wolf and a taste for blood," a direct reference to her Stark nature and her list of those she means to kill: Ser Gregor, Dunsen, Raff the Sweetling, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei. This list, a prayer of vengeance, is the anchor of her old self, a direct contradiction to the Faceless Men's creed that they do not kill for personal reasons.

The Blind Girl and the Night Wolf

A significant portion of her training is spent as a blind beggar girl named Beth. Deprived of sight, she learns to navigate Braavos through sound, smell, and touch. She begs at inns like Pynto's, listening for secrets. In her dreams, she becomes a wolf, running with a pack in the riverlands, tasting blood and meat. This "night wolf" is a manifestation of her warging ability, a connection to her direwolf Nymeria that persists even across the narrow sea. This dual existence—the blind girl in Braavos and the wolf in Westeros—represents the split within her: the disciplined servant of the Many-Faced God and the wild, vengeful Stark. The Kindly Man and the Waif are aware of this, and it is the central obstacle to her becoming "no one."

The First Kill and the Price of Service

Arya is given her first assassination mission: to kill a merchant who insures ships. She is given a new face, that of an ugly girl with a broken nose and missing teeth, and told to observe her target. She struggles with the morality of the act, but ultimately she does not kill him directly. Instead, she picks his pocket, taking a gold dragon and leaving a Braavosi coin in its place. This act of theft, she later explains, was not stealing but an exchange: she took one of his coins and left one of hers, which he then used to pay a man whose heart soon gave out. The Kindly Man accepts this as a successful completion of the task, acknowledging that she has learned the art of indirect killing. This mission marks a step forward in her training, but it does not erase her past. Afterward, she is given back the face of Arya Stark, a sign that her old identity is not yet fully shed.

The Unfinished Transformation

By the end of the book, Arya has not fully become "no one." She is sent to begin her first apprenticeship with a mummer named Izembaro, to learn the art of disguise and performance. She is given a new, pretty face, but the Kindly Man's final question—"Who are you, child?"—is met with her practiced answer, "No one." Yet the reader knows that the list of names still burns within her. Her journey is one of constant tension between the discipline of the Faceless Men and the indelible identity of Arya Stark. She has learned to kill without emotion, to wear a hundred faces, and to move unseen, but she has not yet learned to forget. The wolf dreams, the list of enemies, and the memory of her family all remain, making her a faceless assassin who is still, in her heart, a Stark.