Long before humans settled the lands of Westeros, the continent was populated by the Children
of the Forest, a mysterious and magical people, small in stature but dark and beautiful.
Born with acute hearing and vision, the children weaved leaves, vines and flowers into their
hair and were fond of singing, making music so beautiful it brought a tear to any who
listened.
A stone-age culture, they spoke the True Tongue and created hidden villages in forests, caves
and crannogs, carving faces into Weirwoods all across the continent believing that when
they died, their spirits would live on in the trees.
Worshipping the Old Gods, many of the Children possessed strange and powerful magic, like
their Skinchagers, who could send their consciousness into the body of an animal, or those born
with the greensight, giving them prophetic dreams and visions.
Though these diminutive forest dwellers lived alongside the Giant race, who called them
the squirrel people, their interactions were not always peaceful, with some violence known
to have occurred between them.
Yet in time both these races faced a far more menacing threat from the First Men of Essos
who began to migrate through the arm of Dorne roughly 12000 years before Aegon’s Conquest.
A bronze-age people, the First Men brought new technologies and cultural practices to
the continent, introducing metal, horses, a writing system and pagan gods.
Though the Children were initially welcoming, they grew hostile as the First Men cut down
their forests and sacred Weirwood trees leading to two thousand years of war between them.
Fighting a desperate campaign to defend their homeland, the Children used magic and wielded
weapons of obsidian, but their enemies were too numerous, larger, stronger, and better
armed.
According to legend, Brandon of the Bloody Blade, who in some believe was the father
of Bran the Builder, slaughtered so many of the children at Blue Lake the area was renamed
Red Lake.
Losing the war, some legends claim the Children attempted to cut off the flow of migration
from the east by performing a powerful magical ritual to shatter the Arm of Dorne, thereby
creating the Islands of the Stepstones.
Yet even this was not enough to turn the tide of battle, and the native westerosi found
themselves retreating further North where they once again attempted a ritual, possibly
from the Children’s Tower of Moat Cailin, calling upon the Hammer of the Waters to shatter
the “Neck” of the continent and split the land mass in two.
But they failed in their mission, and merely flooded the territory creating swamps and
marshland.
Eventually, a peace agreement was negotiated on the Isle of Faces, which gave the Children
dominion over the deep woods while the First Men took the open lands and promised to cease
their burning of the Weirwood Trees.
In time, this peace allowed for many of the First Men to adopt the worship of the Old
Gods.
Though the pact brought an age of peace, the Children eventually faced yet another threat
against them when a terrible winter and great darkness fell over continent for a generation,
bringing forth famine and terror, as the mysterious Others, or White Walkers, invaded from the
far north.
Tall and gaunt with skin as pale as milk and eyes that shine bright blue.
They wielded razor thin swords of ice and were able to raise both human and animal dead
to fight in their armies.
Facing such an enemy, stories say the First Men were only sparred total annihilation because
of the efforts of the Last Hero who went on a quest to find the Children of the Forest,
seeking alliance against their common foe.
With the Children at their side, and the discovery of Dragonglass as an effective weapon against
the White Walkers, the Night’s Watch led the people of Westeros to victory at the Battle
for the Dawn, pushing the Others back into the Lands of Always Winter.
And while the Children aided in their defeat, some have come to suggest that they are also
to blame for the attack, as the White Walkers may have originate in the Dawn Age from a
magical ritual involving dragonglass, that transformed humans into this new race.
Hoping to use them as a weapon of war against their First Men enemies, the Others eventually
turned against the Children who created them and became a threat to every living being
in Westeros.
After they retreated North, stories say Bran “The Builder” raised a massive wall to
keep guard against future attacks, with the Children of the Forest casting powerful spells
upon the ice and initiating a yearly tradition of giving 100 dragonglass daggers to the Night’s
watch every year.
Though Children of the Forest were diminishing in numbers, they continued to interact with
the First Men throughout the Age of Heroes, with some of their kind supporting the Warg
King of Sea Dragon Point until he was defeated by House Stark.
Yet as the years went on the doom of the Children awoke in the East, as the Dragonlords of the
Valyrian Freehold began expanding Westward, leading the Andals of Andalos to migrate across
the Narrow Sea in search of a new homeland.
Believed to have occurred between 6 and 2 000 years before conquest, the tall fair haired
men of Essos descended upon the First Men and Children with weapons of iron and suits
of plate, fighting in the name of their seven faced gods.
Relentless in their pursuit of land, they found great success, spreading their religion
and culture throughout the southern half of the continent.
Yet while they fought wars against the first men, they also formed alliances and intermarried,
options which were not available to the Children of the Forest, who were slaughtered to near
extinction.
Almost immediately upon landing in Westeros, the Andals began burning their sacred weirwood
trees and killing their people wherever encountered.
As the First Men rallied to defend themselves against the invaders, King Durran XXI of the
Stormlands formed the Weirwood alliance with the Children of the Forest, uniting their
forces to defeat the Andals at Black Bog, the Misty Wood, and the Howling Hill.
It was believed king Gwayne IV Gardener also reached out to the Children for aid, while
another group of native westerosi in the Riverlands used their magic to send a hundred wolves
upon the Andals at White wood.
Unfortunately these victories were few, as other legends speak of men like Erreg the
Kinslayer who orchestrated the massacre at High Heart, killing the children and their
First Men allies before cutting down their sacred trees.
Though the Andals eventually conquered the Riverlands, they failed to capture the Isle
of Faces, which was defended by the Green Men sworn to protect their weirwoods and as
a result, some believe the Children of the Forest who dwelt in the area may have survived,
by seeking refuge with their allies on the island.
As the years went on and the Andals gained more territory, the dwindling population of
Children were forced to flee into the North were First Men rule still held strong.
Though the Andals also attempted to conquer the lands of House Stark, there forces were
thrown back every time, with some believing that a group of Children lived in the marshland
of the neck alongside the crannogmen, helping them protect the north from invasion.
In time, hostilities between the Andals and First men diminished and the Children became
figures of legend, with many believing they never existed at all.
Though some of them lived for a time in the North, they soon vanished from there as well,
with the few that remained living beyond the wall.
Largely keeping to themselves, they only occasionally interacted with the Free Folk, like when the
Kings Gendel and Gorne supposedly mediated a dispute between a clan of Children and family
of Giants.
Many years later in 300 AC, when young Bran Stark travelled North to train under the new
three eyed crow, his party found over 60 of the Children living in a cavern underground
protected by magical barrier.