Among the comments someone gave a very interesting idea, it was making Ned be the cause of North distancing themselves from Middle Earth.
He pointed out how Ned was going kneel to Robert and unite the realms mostly because of Jon Arryn.
While I like the idea, the thing I planned originally was to make like the can Rickard and Brandon goes to Kingslanding to question the king about Rhaegar kidnapping Lyanna and like the canon they are killed.
Ned in anger joins Robert in the rebellion, also his marriage to Catelyn is mostly because of Rickard, who felt they needed more allies in the south and made it without asking anyone.
Also unlike the canons many things changes like Sansa and Arya.