After a generation of darkness and brutal winter, The Long Night faded into history
and peace was restored to Westeros.
In the North, the First Men and Children of the forest raised a mighty wall to keep the
Others from Lands of Always Winter away from the realms of men.
To guard the wall, the Night’s Watch was created, a brotherhood of men in black who
took vows swearing off all titles, rights and allegiances.
Night gathers, and now my watch begins.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.
I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.
I shall live and die at my post.
I am the sword in the darkness.
I am the watcher on the walls.
I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that
wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.
I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all nights to come.”
The Night’s Watch was led by an elected Lord Commander, who would serve the realm
as a neutral party, forbidden from engaging in the politics of the rest of the continent.
And so it was, until the 13th Lord Commander, known to history as the Night’s King, rose
to power.
Although many are skeptical about the stories associated with Night’s King, and dismiss
the more fanciful versions linked to his existence, many in Westeros, primarily in the North,
were raised hearing tales of the hero who fell to darkness.
A prominent version of the story, states that the 13th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch,
was once a great and fearless warrior, but was seduced by a beautiful woman with skin
was as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars, who led him astray.
The woman was also known to have skin as cold as ice, leading many to speculate about her
origins, with some claiming she was linked to the Others, possibly one of their kind
herself, or else an undead servant known as a Wight.
While others claim she may have been a daughter of a Barrow King from the Barrowlands, who
were known to have pale white skin.
In any case after seducing the Lord Commander she fled and he chased after her with no regard
for his own safety.
At last he reached her and when they laid together he gave her his soul and when they
returned to the Watch, he took his seat at the Nightfort and declared himself King and
the woman he loved his Queen.
For years they ruled with the Night’s Watch as their personal army, committing barbarous
atrocities, until the King in the North rose against them, entering into an uneasy alliance
with Joramun, the King beyond the wall, who had raised an army of Free Folk, also known
as Wildlings, who lived north of the wall when it was constructed and were cut off from
the rest of the continent.
Together these Northern Kings descended upon the Nightfort and after a vicious battle,
defeated The Night’s King and freed the Watch from his brutal reign.
As a rebuke of Night’s King, future Lord Commanders destroyed all records of his reign
and any mention of his name became forbidden.
The Maesters of Westeros, who question the legend of the Night’s King, believe it more
likely he was simply an ambitious Lord Commander, who took a wife and attempted to carve out
his own Kingdom in the North until eventually defeated by a coalition of forces who rose
against him.
And that over time his story became mixed with mythos until the truth of his existence
was lost in the stories.
Over the years many have attributed the Night’s King to several of the major houses of the
North.
Some say he was Bolton, others a Magnar of Skagos.
But the most widely believed story, is that he was a Stark and a brother by blood of the
King in the North who defeated him, possibly named Brandon.
With the restoration of the Night’s Watch, relative peace returned to First Men of the
continent.
But it was not to last, for beyond the narrow sea in the continent of Essos, a people known
as the Andals, who worshipped new gods known as the Seven, would soon begin their migrations
west, eventually leading to an invasion of Westeros.