[White Walkers — Lore]
At Castle Black , Jon's expectations of the Night's Watch are soon disappointed. Instead of a brotherhood of noble warriors sworn to defend the realm from wildlings and White Walkers , he realizes the Watch is a dumping ground for criminals and wastrels. He earns the enmity of Ser Alliser Thorne , the master-at-arms in charge of training new recruits. He humiliates his fellow recruits with his superior fighting skills, learned from Winterfell's master-at-arms over the course of many years.
As Jon and the Free Folk arrive at the Fist of the First Men, they survey the bloody aftermath of the assault on the Night's Watch by the White Walkers and their army of undead wights. However, they only find corpses of horses and no human remains. Jon says that there were three hundred men of the Night's Watch at the Fist, and asks Mance if Mormont could still be alive. Mance says that with Mormont, it's possible he was able to escape, but that even if he did he and his men took quite a beating and are trapped miles away from the Wall with the White Walkers in close pursuit. Mance warns Jon that all of the missing corpses from the Fist are no longer his friends and brothers from the Night's Watch, but have been resurrected as undead monsters who serve the White Walkers. Jon reluctantly agrees.
To prepare for the forthcoming conflict with the Night King, the newly declared King Jon orders his bannermen to conscript all able-bodied men and boys aged 10 to 60 for combat training. However, he notes that having only half of the population in the North fighting the White Walkers is not enough he also orders that every woman and girl should also be trained and equipped as well. He also asks that all maesters should start searching for dragonglass. He stresses that dragonglass is now more valuable than gold due to the threat of the White Walkers.
At Winterfell, Jon, Sansa, and Davos discuss Tyrion's letter that they have received. While Sansa suspects it might be a trap, Jon doesn't think so due to Tyrion ending the letter with the line " all dwarfs are bastards in their fathers' eyes ", which Tyrion has told Jon in their first meeting years ago. Even so, Jon agrees that now is not the right time to go to Dragonstone. Davos opines that Daenerys will make a good ally in the war to come against the White Walkers .
Tyrion says they cannot split their forces. Davos then speaks up for his king and tells Daenerys that Jon won the support of the wildlings and fought the White Walkers. Davos also mentions that Jon came back from the dead. Davos says that it doesn't matter who bends the knee. Tyrion doesn't see the point of Jon's refusal to submit. When Jon disputes Daenerys's claims to queenship, Daenerys responds that he is in open rebellion since he has declared himself King in the North. Daenerys then receives a message from Varys . Daenerys orders Missandei to give Jon and his men food and lodging. When Jon asks if he is a prisoner, she says not yet.
Later, Jon and Tyrion discuss his predicament. Jon is unhappy his ship was taken away and is trapped on Dragonstone while the White Walkers and the Night King still pose a threat. Tyrion says he trusts the word of Jeor Mormont and Jon. Jon asks Tyrion how he can convince people about the existence of things which they don't believe exist. Jon wants to help his people and is frustrated with the deadlock. Tyrion encourages Jon not to give up. When Jon remarks that he is a fool for going south, Tyrion reassures him that the Mad King's daughter is not her father and has protected people from "monsters," telling him to speak with her servants. Tyrion asks if there is something he can do to help Jon.
As they proceed deeper into the mines led by torchlight, Jon shows her cave paintings they discovered left behind by the Children of the Forest, filled with arcane magical symbols. Daenerys is stunned that the mythical Children stood where they are standing now, thousands upon thousands of years ago, long before mankind ever arrived in Westeros. Jon says this isn't exactly true, leading her into another chamber, this one filled with narrative drawings of the Children and the First Men. Daenerys wonders if the Children and First Men fought each other, but Jon then shows her ancient carvings of the White Walkers themselves, one of which Jon recognizes as an image of the Night King. Jon explains that the Children of the Forest and the First Men only managed to drive off the White Walkers the first time during the Long Night because they chose to join together to fight off their own extinction, and that is the choice he and Daenerys have now.
Some time later, Jon witnesses Daenerys returning to Dragonstone on Drogon. Drogon approaches Jon who does not flinch at the dragon and starts to pet him, much to Daenerys’s amazement. While they talk about leadership styles, they are approached by Jorah Mormont who has returned from Oldtown, who Daenerys tearfully reunites with. Jon then receives a letter regarding the army of the dead approaching Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Tyrion proposes a plan to capture a wight to prove Cersei about the existence of the White Walkers. Jon agrees and departs with Davos, Jorah, and Gendry .
After recovering from his ordeal, Jon and the rest of his allies head to the Dragonpit to parley with the Lannisters. When Cersei dismisses their warnings about the Night King and his army as a ploy to trick her into lowering her defenses, they rattle the captured wight into lunging for her, making her and her allies see once and for all that the threat from beyond the Wall is real. Jon steps forward and picks up the wight's discarded hand, using a torch provided by Davos to demonstrate how fire can be used to stop them. He then uses a dragonglass dagger to the heart to end the wight's upper half, bluntly stating that if they don't win the coming war, such a fate awaits every person in Westeros. Seemingly convinced, Cersei immediately offers terms: satisfied that Daenerys is concerned with the Army of the Dead, Cersei will not withdraw her troops, but will guarantee that they will not hinder the Targaryen or Northern forces in any way during the battle against the White Walkers. She refuses to deal with Daenerys at all, however, and calls on Jon, as King in the North and Ned Stark's son, to keep the truce and to stay out of any future conflict between Cersei and Daenerys. Jon, however, says that he cannot serve two queens - and reveals to all assembled that he has already declared for Daenerys, infuriating all three Lannisters present. Declaring that there will be no truce if it is just her and Daenerys, Cersei storms out, content to let the Starks and Targaryens battle the undead alone and then deal with whoever emerges victorious from that conflict.
Daenerys and Tyrion rip into Jon over his ill-advised action. Tyrion suggests that learning to lie just a little might be a good skill. Jon responds by arguing that while such an attitude may or may not have contributed to getting his father killed, if no one is willing to speak the truth, then everyone's word is worthless, and lies will not help them win the coming fight. While Tyrion goes to talk to Cersei, Daenerys and Jon discuss the dragons and how her ancestors caged them, and in turn, her family become less impressive as the power of the dragons waned, that they became like everyone else. Jon responds that Daenerys is not like everyone else. When Daenerys confides she was made infertile by Mirri Maz Duur , Jon questions this, particularly when she admits it was Mirri Maz Duur who told her she was infertile. Their conversation is interrupted by the return of all three Lannisters. Cersei has agreed to work with Daenerys, but not by keeping her troops back: the Lannister army will march north to fight alongside the Starks and Targaryens. Little do Jon and Daenerys know that Cersei has no intention of keeping her promise, and that she intends to let them fight the White Walkers on their own and mop up whoever wins with the help of the Golden Company . Jaime refuses to back down from his pledge to help fight the White Walkers and defies his sister-lover by traveling north. Whether he will warn Jon and Daenerys of Cersei's plan remains to be seen.
He leads Daenerys through an underground cave, whose walls are rich in dragonglass. He shows her ancient wall drawings, which were made by the Children of the Forest . They depict the children themselves as well as the First Men and how they banded together to defeat their common enemy, the White Walkers. She is awestruck and starts becoming swayed by Jon's sayings, promising to defend the North with him when he bends the knee. Although he insists his people would never accept a southern ruler after everything they suffered, Daenerys asks him whether his own pride is more important than the lives of the Northmen.
Seemingly convinced, Cersei immediately offers terms: satisfied that Daenerys is concerned with the Army of the Dead, Cersei will not withdraw her troops, but will guarantee that they will not hinder the Targaryen or Northern forces in any way during the battle against the White Walkers. She refuses to deal with Daenerys at all, however, and calls on Jon Snow, as King in the North and Ned Stark's son, to keep the truce and to stay out of any future conflict between Cersei and Daenerys. Jon, however, says that he cannot serve two queens - and reveals to all assembled that he has already declared for Daenerys, infuriating all three Lannisters present. Declaring that there will be no truce if it is just her and Daenerys, Cersei storms out, content to let the Starks and Targaryens battle the undead alone and then deal with whoever emerges victorious from that conflict.
As they reach the throne room, Jon and Davos begin to speak with Daenerys as Tyrion watches by her side. The meeting is very tense as both sides refuse to submit to the other's demands. Tyrion plays an important moderating role by vouching for Jon's integrity and character, helping to soften Daenerys' attitude towards the insistent and unbowing King in the North. As the meeting is about to end on an unfavorable note, Tyrion urges Jon to simply bend the knee, reasoning that if Westeros is doomed by the threat of White Walkers, it makes no difference who he supports for the Iron Throne, especially if it will help him further his goals.
Cersei tasks Bronn with eliminating her brothers if they survive the war against the White Walkers . Tyrion reaches Winterfell along with Targaryen forces, in order to assist the North in the Great War . When the Northern lords are angry with Jon for giving up his crown to Daenerys, Tyrion speaks up for Jon, saying his efforts managed to secure them the "greatest army the world has ever seen" to defeat the Night King . However, when Tyrion reveals they allied with Lannister forces, their anger erupts again.
Jaime is furious that his sister and Euron plotted this behind his back, but Cersei angrily accuses him of plotting with Tyrion in favor of her enemies. Reeling from the accusation, Jaime incredulously reminds her that whoever wins the conflict in the North will turn their attention south afterwards; either the White Walkers will march south to kill them, or the Starks and Targaryens will come seeking revenge over the fact Cersei betrayed and left them (and essentially all of Westeros) to die, but Cersei is indifferent.
Later, Bronn brings Jaime to the catacombs of the Red Keep for a secret training session, but Jaime finds Tyrion waiting for him. Though genuinely upset with his brother, Jaime agrees to hear him out, and Tyrion explains that Daenerys is requesting an armistice to defeat the White Walkers, before continuing the war at hand. Upon returning to his sister's chambers, Jaime relays this information to Cersei. After Cersei seemingly agrees to the ceasefire, she informs Jaime she is now pregnant with his child. A stunned Jaime asks who she will say the father is. Cersei simply responds, "You", and the two embrace in happiness.
Jaime seems to care about those beneath him, refusing to flog stragglers after the Sack of Highgarden, refusing to leave his men at the Battle of the Goldroad, and lamenting at how easily the Dothraki army broke his own army. Not only is Jaime a prodigal leader, but he has a good amount of common sense, as evidenced by his decision to ride north to combat the threat that the White Walkers posed to Westeros, and his utter incredulity at Cersei's refusal to contribute.
Arya, due to her ability to distinguish truth and lies (via her mastery of the "Game of Faces"), changes topic and states that since the two of them are likely to die soon, she wants to know the feeling of physical love before she does. She kisses him forcefully on the lips, after which Gendry shows some slight resistance, but he finally gives into the overwhelming sense of attraction, though he is briefly startled by the scars on her rib cage. Gendry sleeps soundly after their liaison, whilst Arya lies awake, awaiting the arrival of the White Walkers .
As the battle commences, Arya is stationed on the walls overlooking the battlefield alongside Sansa. After the wights easily defeat the initial charge of Dothraki screamers and begin to overwhelm the living beyond the trench, Arya tells Sansa to go to the crypts and hands her a dragonglass dagger. Sansa says she doesn't know how to use it, and Arya simply says "stick 'em with the pointy end. Arya shoots flaming arrows at the wights as the army retreats into the Winterfell, narrowly saving the Hound as well. As Daenerys couldn't light the trench as planned, due to being caught in a blizzard conjured by the White Walkers, Davos orders the archers to light the trench and Arya shoots into it as well, however the arrows arrow doused as soon as the hit the trench and are unable to light it. Melisandre manages to light the trench, giving the living some moment of reprieve, which when the Night King commands some of the wights to go into some parts of the trench, smothering the flames and allowing the rest to cross.
Though he reacts swiftly enough to whip around and catch her by the neck and arm, Arya drops her dagger from the arm he is restraining, catches it in her free hand and plunges it into his heart, causing the Night King to shatter into icy shards. With his death, the White Walkers shatter as well, and the horde of wights, including Viserion , drop dead as the magic animating them died with the Night King and his lieutenants, bringing an end to the White Walkers, wights and the Long Night forever.
Sansa and Jon arrive at Bear Island and are summoned before Lyanna Mormont . Jon asks for the assistance of House Mormont in the upcoming battle for Winterfell to help them save their brother, as House Mormont has pledged themselves to House Stark. However, Lyanna tells him that he is a Snow and Sansa is a Bolton. Sansa says that she did what she had to do, but she didn't want it. When Sansa attempts to flatter Lyanna and Jon explains how he served under Lyanna's uncle Lord Commander Jeor Mormont , Lyanna wants them to get to the point. Ser Davos steps in and manages to convince Lyanna to pledge her allegiance, telling of the coming threat of the White Walkers , however, a mere sixty-two men are contributed.
He asserts that forging a treaty with Daenerys is an opportunity they can't afford to miss due to the threat of the Walkers, and therefore a risk that he, as King, must take for the sake of saving the North as they need the dragonglass, dragonfire, and weapons to defend themselves against the White Walkers. Sansa, as well as Jon's bannermen, disagree with his decision. Sansa tries to convince Jon to stay by telling him to send an emissary to Dragonstone in his place, but Jon insists that he meet Daenerys monarch-to-monarch. He does not want to leave the North but is the only one there who has experienced the army of the dead, knows how bad their odds are, and he will never stop fighting for the North's survival. Jon gives Sansa control of the North while he is gone and Sansa accepts the responsibility. As Jon leaves, they bid each other farewell.
An unspoken understanding passes between her and Tyrion, who tearfully kisses her hand as if in farewell. Before she can act, however, Arya manages to slay the Night King in the godswood, causing the entire army and the remaining White Walkers to shatter and collapse. Sansa and the other survivors make their way out of the crypt to survey what remains.
Eddard Stark executes a deserter from the Night's Watch named Will . Will tries to warn Eddard about the return of the White Walkers , but Eddard dismisses him as a madman. Eddard's sons Robb , Bran , and Jon accompany him to the execution. Eddard makes a point of telling Bran that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword and take responsibility for his own decisions.
Bran, without the consent of Brynden, connects to the weirwood with the Sight , and sees an army of wights and White Walkers. The Night King, who is present, intercepts his vision by touching him. Brynden informs Bran that the Night King now has knowledge of their location and the cave's magic won't prevent the white walkers or wights from entering due to the mark placed on Bran's arm.
Meera drags Bran through the woods beyond the wall, while he is still caught in visions about past and future events. They are chased by wights and just when they are about to kill them, a hooded person arrives and is able to kill all the wights, using a flaming chain. He urges Bran and Meera to come with him. Later, when they make camp, their rescuer reveals himself, and to Bran's surprise, it is his presumed to have been dead uncle Benjen. He explains that he was stabbed by a White Walker and left to die, but the Children of the Forest rescued and stopped him from becoming a Wight. He says that Bran must now be the new Three-Eyed Raven , and that he shall be waiting for the White Walkers when they come to the realms of men.
Sam calls off Ghost, Jon's direwolf, when he comes near Gilly , one of Craster's wives. Gilly calls Sam brave. Sam takes her to Jon for help rescuing her unborn child from Craster but Jon refuses to disobey their orders to stay away from Craster's wives. Jon later follows Craster into the woods and sees him leaving a newborn boy for the White Walkers . Craster spots him and incapacitates him. Craster drags Jon back to his keep and demands that the Watch leave. Sam becomes infatuated with Gilly, vowing to return and rescue her.
While collecting dung for fuel, the companions hear three horn blasts, signalling White Walkers. In a panic, they rush back to the Fist, but the slower Sam is left behind after tripping in the snow. As an eerie blizzard rolls in, Sam takes shelter behind a rock. He watches as armed wights and White Walkers approach out of the snow. A White Walker mounted on a dead horse notices Sam, but appears to ignore him, ordering the wights towards the Fist.
After the fight at the Fist , Sam is wandering in the blizzard looking for shelter. He suddenly notices another man of the Night's Watch. When he walks toward him, he discovers the man has been decapitated. A wight then approaches Sam, about to attack him. The direwolf Ghost knocks the wight down and rips out its flesh as it drags towards Sam. Finally, the wight is lit on fire by Lord Commander Jeor Mormont and the last remaining Night's Watch of the fight appeared. Mormont is angry that Sam didn't send any ravens in the confusion of the attack of the White Walkers. Finally, Mormont announces that they should retreat to the Wall and warn about the White Walkers to the others in Castle Black and the rest of Westeros .
Suddenly, they are interrupted by the loud squawks of the crows. Sam and Gilly go outside to investigate, and see hundreds of crows angrily squawking at them. Gilly is then horrified to see a White Walker approaching them, and knows that it is after her child . Sam tries to halt its advance, but the Walker shatters his sword with his bare hand and knocks him aside, and heads for Gilly and her baby (unbeknown to them both, Craster had made an arrangement with the White Walkers that his male offspring would be added to their numbers after being turned by the Night King ).
Gilly continues to tend Sam's wounds. Olly enters with some food, having heard what happened. Once Gilly leaves, Olly expresses concern at joining forces with the wildlings, particularly Tormund, who led the raid in which his parents were killed. Sam reassures Olly that Jon knows what he is doing, and that unless he is successful, neither the Night's Watch nor Westeros stands a chance against the White Walkers. Sam explains this is a hard choice Jon had to make, however unpopular, and then tells him not to worry, as Jon always comes back. Olly appears unconvinced.
Sam is assigned to menial labor in the Citadel, from sorting books in the library to serving meals to the other maesters and even latrine duty, with Sam himself growing increasingly impatient with the daily repetition. After seeing another maester entering a gated section of the library, Sam asks Archmaester Ebrose about the Long Night while helping with a dissection, since very few people in the South believe the White Walkers exist. While Ebrose doesn't doubt Sam's awareness of the Walkers, he does assure him that the beginning of this winter is not the end of the world and reminds him of the importance of healthy skepticism.
Throughout the series, Sam has shown himself to be capable of incredible bravery when he is pushed. While he cowered during the fight at the Fist, especially when he encountered a White Walker for the first time. One of his shining moments came when he faced off against another White Walker when it tried to attack Gilly and her son - Sam's extreme capacity for love towards Gilly compelled him to continue to attack the creature, even after it easily overpowered him already, and in spite of Sam being aware of the historical reputation of the White Walkers and how they had decimated the Rangers at the Fist of the First Men. Sam later proved himself to be gradually immune to the bullies that he had suffered most of his life, as evidenced by how he shamed Janos Slynt for his cowardice when the latter tried to shame him for loving Gilly. Sam's bravery wavered temporarily when he returned to Horn Hill and was chastised by his father Randyll again, so much that he was unable to speak throughout most of the conversation, but later on, he openly defied his fearsome father by stealing the family heirloom Heartsbane and verbally daring Randyll to try and take it back (albeit, not to his face).
The two then make their escape, spanning their minimalist forces across Theon's three ships. While Yara expresses her desire to reclaim the Iron Islands, Theon is somewhat forlorn, despite Yara's promise of refuge from the threat of White Walkers on the mainland. Theon states that he will follow his Queen, but Yara recognizes he wants to fight in the North . Having done his duty to House Greyjoy, she lets him go.
Grudgingly, he sentences Davos to death, but Davos hands him a letter from the Night's Watch that is requesting assistance, now that the threat of the White Walkers has become very real. Stannis, despite seeming interested, doesn't change his mind until Melisandre agrees with Davos that the real threat to the realm lies north and has nothing to do with the War of the Five Kings. Stannis brings Davos back into the fold, needing someone to rally more troops to his side, and decides that they should march to the Wall and help the Night's Watch against the threat of the White Walkers.
Tormund scoffs at the idea and declares that he would knight Brienne ten times over if he was a king, presumably under the assumption that only a king has the standing to perform the knighting ceremony. Jaime notes that Tormund would not need to be a king to knight Brienne, as knights are also permitted to perform the ceremony. He offers to knight her himself, and she accepts, becoming Ser Brienne. She celebrates with the others, but the festivities are cut short by three horn blasts, signalling the arrival of the White Walkers .
Sandor eventually finds Lem and his two cronies, about to be hanged by Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr. Sandor demands the privilege of murdering them himself, but relents and settles by hanging Lem and one crony personally, then taking Lem's boots for himself. Later, while eating with the Brotherhood, Beric reminisces on his previous fight with Sandor and convinces him to join their cause, as they are heading North to counter the coming White Walkers .
He then kicks the crate containing the wight, sending running towards Cersei. Sandor then pulls the wight back from its adjacent chain, dragging it towards him before cutting it into pieces with his sword, to prove the wight's abilities. Cersei agrees to join Jon and Daenerys in the Great War against the White Walkers, however she is secretly planning their demise by not sending men and hoping that the bulk of the army of the living will be killed by the army of the dead. Sandor later sails to White Harbor, as Daenerys and Jon join all their collective forces to band together at Winterfell to await the coming showdown with the Night King.
Olenna's words to Jaime do eventually come back to haunt him: He finds out that Cersei, rather than honoring the public agreement she made with Daenerys at the Dragonpit Summit , intends to betray her and leave her and Jon Snow to fight against the army of the dead whilst she uses the Golden Company to solidify her rule over Westeros. When she angrily accuses him of being a traitor and threatens to have him killed for meeting with Tyrion - despite Jaime's not knowing who he was going to be meeting with - and for trying to honor his pledge to help the North fight off the White Walkers, their accord is broken. Jaime finally realizes that Olenna was right in calling Cersei a monster, and leaves her.
It is possible that after Daenerys and her army march north to fight the army of the dead, the castle is either once again abandoned as it was after Stannis left, or it is manned by a smaller retinue of Stark/Targaryen forces responsible for mining the remaining dragonglass for the war effort against the white walkers.
After a hooded man on a horse came to rescue Bran and Meera from the Wights, he revealed himself to be the Benjen Stark who went missing during his last Ranging. He recounted that when he was stabbed by a White Walker and left to die, the Children of the Forest found him and saved him from dying and turning into a wight with the same process that creates White Walkers (dragonglass inserted into his heart).
The White Walkers , also known as the Others , were an ancient race of formerly-human ice creatures who came from the far north of Westeros . After remaining hidden for thousands of years, they returned and were sighted by several sworn brothers of the Night's Watch and countless wildlings . However, most who live south of the Wall believed them to be nothing more than creatures of legend.
The White Walkers were thousands of years old, coming from the time preceding the Age of Heroes . Born of powerful and untested magic , they were created to protect the Children of the Forest from the First Men , who had waged war on them ever since they had arrived from Essos . However, the White Walkers eventually broke free of the Children's control and became the most feared creatures in Westeros, posing a threat to all life.
Eight thousand years before Robert's Rebellion , the longest winter in history fell on the entire world and lasted a whole generation. In the darkness and cold of the "Long Night," the White Walkers descended upon Westeros from the Far North, killing all in their path and reanimating the dead as wights to serve as mindless soldiers in their undead army. The people of Westeros soon realized they had to rally together or the White Walkers would kill them all. In a conflict known as the Battle for the Dawn , the living won a decisive victory and pushed the White Walkers far north to the Land of Always Winter . With help from giants and the Children of the Forest, the Wall was raised to bar their return. The Night's Watch was founded to guard the Wall and the realms of men should the mysterious threat ever rise again.
Although the White Walkers have faded into legend over the centuries, disturbing reports began to reach the Night's Watch, just before the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings . The return of the White Walkers was confirmed during the great ranging undertaken by Lord Commander Jeor Mormont , and by an unprecedented attack by the wight army on the wildling settlement of Hardhome . Despite repeated pleas for support from the Night's Watch, the rest of the Seven Kingdoms turned a blind eye to the return of the White Walkers as they remained embroiled in their own civil wars, believing the White Walkers to be purely mythological, much like giants and Children of the Forest, who have also faded into legend.
The ultimate goal of the legendary White Walkers was the end of every living thing in existence, which they planned to achieve by killing the Three-Eyed Raven and creating an endless winter to eclipse the known world. However, their plans were thwarted when Arya Stark killed the Night King at the Battle of Winterfell , resulting in the permanent extinction of the White Walkers and the end of the Great War .
White Walkers outwardly resemble humans but differ greatly from them in other aspects. They are as tall as most humans and have long wispy white hair, with some also having white facial hair. They have pale grey-white skin which is sinewy and stretched taut across their frames, giving them a somewhat gaunt and mummified appearance despite their overall bulky frame. Their most notable trait however, are their vibrant deep blue eyes.
White Walkers seem to have divisions, or ranks within their army, with the ones at the top likely having reanimated many wights, while the ones at the bottom seem freshly created. At the end of Oathkeeper , a White Walker donning black armor appears holding Craster's last son, which likely denotes him as having a high position in the Night King's army. The Night King's lieutenants also seem to stay close to him, riding on undead horses.
The Night King is the supreme commander of the White Walkers, possessing the ability to directly control anyone in his army. It is implied that the White Walkers and Wights have a hive mind, being able to "see" through each other's eyes and sensing when someone in their army dies.
The show never stated how many White Walkers existed in total or showed all the White Walkers in one onscreen shot. Usually a single White Walker or small groups were shown at one time, making it hard to establish how many White Walkers existed. Twelve White Walkers are shown in the background when the Night King turns Craster's last son. However, it is known that Craster sacrificed 99 sons to the White Walkers. Additionally, four White Walkers were killed on screen at different points in the series: one killed by Sam with a dragonglass dagger, one killed by Meera with a dragonglass spear, and two by Jon with Longclaw. During the Battle of Winterfell, twelve White Walkers enter Winterfell along with the Night King to kill Bran Stark . All the White Walkers were destroyed after Arya killed the Night King.
White Walkers have a very strong affinity with ice magic and coldness. They are physically far stronger than humans, capable of effortlessly tossing people back tens of feet in the air. Since they are inhuman, White Walkers have no physical restrictions. As such, they do not require food or water and seem to be immune to disease, fatigue, extreme cold and extreme heat. White Walkers are immortal. Their arrival is usually accompanied by blizzards and sudden temperature drops. Because of this, they can spread extreme cold wherever they go. The White Walkers wield crystal swords and spears.
However, one of their most deadly abilities is to reanimate the dead as their servants, known as wights. They are capable of reviving any dead creature as wights, including horses, giants, and even dragons. They cannot, however, revive a corpse into servitude if it has been burned. Once a wight has been created, its eyes turn an icy blue, similar to the White Walkers' own eyes. Wights serve their masters without question.
The Night King, leader of the White Walkers, possesses the ability to change humans into White Walkers. He picks up Craster's son from an icy altar and places an index finger on its cheek, causing the baby's eyes to glow blue and his skin to grow pale, taking on the appearance of the White Walkers. Whether or not this ability extends only to the Night King, all of the White Walkers amongst his caste, or all White Walkers in general is unknown.
During the Massacre at Hardhome, White Walkers are shown to be resistant to fire due to the extreme cold they radiate, which snuffs out any flames in their vicinity. They can also freeze normal weapons they come into contact with, causing them to shatter and break. White Walkers are invulnerable against even highly concentrated dragonfire. It is unknown if they are also immune to wildfire .
Since the Night King was the first White Walker ever created, his death will cause the death of all other White Walkers, and subsequently, their wights. As such, he is simultaneously the strongest and weakest part of the undead army.
Soon the Children saw that their creation had grown beyond their control, and forged an alliance with the First Men to avoid mutual destruction. In what would become known as the " Battle for the Dawn ", the alliance beat the White Walkers back to the far north , where they vanished. This victory led to a lasting truce between the Children and the First Men; the Children would keep their forests, and the Men could keep their farms, towns, and cities. The truce also marked the creation of both the Wall and the Night's Watch, the latter having been armed by the Children with dragonglass blades, in case the Walkers should ever return.
Viserys explains Rhaenyra that the real reason for Aegon's Conquest of the Seven Kingdoms was a dragon dream . Aegon foresaw the return of the White Walkers and the Long Night and called his dream " The Song of Ice and Fire ."
There have been peculiar rumors from beyond the Wall mentioning the White Walkers. According to Will , a renegade from the Night's Watch taken captive near Winterfell , his patrol was attacked by the White Walkers and his comrades Gared and Waymar Royce were killed by them. Prior to this incident, the White Walkers had massacred a tribe of wildlings and left the corpses out as a warning. His story was not believed by Eddard Stark , who executed him as a deserter. The White Walkers showed an ability to animate the corpse of a dead wildling child as a wight.
A band of wildlings fleeing south of the Wall passes close to Winterfell . One of them suggests taking a Stark captive for Mance Rayder , the King-Beyond-the-Wall , but the others refuse to return north due to the dangers posed by the White Walkers , instead asserting they should head as far south as possible.
After disposing of the remaining bodies, Sam tells Jon that he read that only the touch of a White Walker could do what they have seen tonight. A worried Sam notes the weakness of the Night's Watch and if the White Walkers decide to come in force then they are in real trouble.
After recent events, Lord Commander Mormont decides to mobilize the Night's Watch to head out beyond the Wall to assess the situation and if necessary make a preemptive strike against their enemies. He explains to Jon that the war in the South is of little concern in relation to the threat of the returning White Walkers.
After Craster discovers Jon, attacks him and orders the Night's Watch to leave his roof , Mormont confronts Jon, though he also admits he's aware that Craster worships the White Walkers and sacrifices his newborn sons to them in exchange for safety for him and his daughter-wives.
Sam , Grenn , and Eddison Tollett gather dung around the Fist of the First Men when they hear a horn being blown and believe Jon and Qhorin have returned. They then hear a second blow, the signal for incoming wildlings, and draw their swords for battle. A third hornblast is heard, the signal for White Walkers, which has not been blown in thousands of years. The three run to the Night's Watch camp, but Samwell is left behind as a blizzard envelops the entire plateau. He seeks refuge behind a rock while a White Walker leads a vast horde of wights. The White Walker finds Sam, but, for reasons unknown, ignores him and rides past him atop a wight horse while leading the horde for an invasion, emitting a screeching roar with another White Walker far behind.
Rast sets the last son of Craster on the ground in the Haunted Forest . A White Walker , riding a wight horse, takes the baby to a mysterious place in the far north, to the Land of Always Winter, and places him on an altar made of ice. Another White Walker with pointed horns on its head approaches, picks up the baby, and touches him on the face below his eye. The baby's eyes turn bright blue, similar to that of the White Walkers.
The White Walkers launch an attack on Hardhome as the Free Folk board ships provided by Stannis Baratheon bound for Castle Black . During the attack, Jon fights one of the White Walkers, discovering their vulnerability to Valyrian steel, and kills it with his sword Longclaw , bringing him to the attention of the Night King. The wight army overwhelms the defenders and sends a panic through the settlement, and wildlings try to swim to the ships instead of boarding rowboats. Those that die are reanimated as wights by the Night King, who looks on intimidatingly as Jon, Eddison Tollett, and Tormund row away.
Bran immediately confronts Leaf about creating the White Walkers in the first place. Leaf tries to explain that they were at war with the First Men and were desperate to protect themselves from the invaders of their lands . Later, Bran is the only one in the cave awake and is anxious to warg back into the weirwood tree. Unfortunately, the Night King is able to see him and grabs his arm, branding him with an icy mark. He breaks out of the vision with a scream. Brynden tells Bran, Meera and Hodor that the Night King is now able to locate Bran and bypass the barrier keeping the White Walkers and wights out of the cave. The Children of the Forest use magic projectiles and incendiaries to fend the Walkers off, but are overwhelmed. They light a fire around the entrance which prevents the wights from entering, but the Walkers extinguish a pathway and walk through. The wights climb on top of the Weirwood, dropping through the top of the cave. Meera desperately tries to get Bran out of the vision and attempts to get the frightened Hodor to carry Bran away to no avail. Meera kills the first White Walker that enters with a dagger of dragonglass, as she fights alongside the remaining Children of the Forest to try to fend off the wights until Bran wakes up. Wights begin to swarm the cave, killing all of the Children of the Forest except for Leaf, as Meera starts yelling at Bran to warg into Hodor. Hodor in the cave puts Bran's body on a sled and starts hauling him towards the exit at the back of the cave with Leaf and Meera, as Summer is killed attacking the wights. As the wights are closing in on them, Leaf sacrifices herself, using magic to cause a huge explosion, buying the other three a significant amount of time. While Brynden and Bran are still sharing a vision, the Night King kills Brynden, and his figure within Bran's vision blows away as ashes and rags.
Somewhere beyond the Wall, the Night King and his White Walkers continue their march south through a snowstorm. As a sign of their growing strength, they have added at least three Giants to the ranks of their army of the dead.
Jon takes Daenerys down into the caves on Dragonstone after she allows him to mine the dragonglass. However, his ulterior motive is to show her the carvings on the cave's walls, which depict the Children of the Forest and the First Men fighting the White Walkers together. One of these carvings strongly resembles the Night King.
Bran Stark wargs into a flight of ravens that fly over the Wall into the Land of Always Winter. Through the ravens, he sees the army of the dead led by the White Walkers and the Night King, traveling south towards Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Unfortunately, the Night King spots Bran, causing him to quickly disperse the ravens.
The White Walkers and the army of the dead finally reach the Wall where Eastwatch-by-the-Sea stands. The Night King uses Viserion to burn the Wall, nullifying its magic and allowing the White Walkers and their wights to cross into the Seven Kingdoms .
The White Walkers quickly advance south and attack Last Hearth , massacring the population and adding them to the army of the dead. Ned Umber is found pinned to a wall in the middle of severed arms arranged in a spiral, which Beric Dondarrion deduces is a message from the Night King.
The White Walkers finally arrive at Winterfell for the Battle of Winterfell. As the living assemble for the final battle, the White Walkers lead their army on their undead horses. The White Walkers send out their army to destroy the living and attack the castle while they hang back at the tree line. When Jon and Rhaegal try to attack them, a massive blizzard slams into them, preventing direct engagement with the White Walkers. The Night King, riding Viserion, commands the wights to scale the castle walls and break down the defenses. The Night King then battles Jon, Daenerys , and their dragons. The two living dragons manage to overwhelm their dead brother and the Night King is thrown from his mount.
The rest of the White Walkers enter the castle and rendezvous with the Night King before entering the godswood . The Walkers stand aside as the Night King kills Theon and walks towards Bran. Before the Night King can draw his blade and kill Bran, Arya attacks him with her Valyrian steel dagger . He grabs her midair, but through sleight of hand, Arya stabs the Night King in the heart. The Night King explodes into ice, causing the other White Walkers to explode and their entire wight army to crumple.
The appearance of the White Walkers in the TV series isn't quite the same as in the books. They weren't fully revealed until the Season 2 finale, only quick shots mostly in the shadows in the premiere episode of Season 1. Freeze-frame shots of this display an early working-model design for the White Walkers, but given that it only flashed on-screen for a fraction of a second, this may never have been intended as their final appearance. This early design was almost skeletal, without noses. This original version really appeared too briefly to be seen without taking screenshots, but as this was the only glimpse of the White Walkers in the first season, fan sites (and wikis) heavily circulated these screenshots, somewhat obscuring the fact that the White Walkers' "official" design hadn't been firmly established yet.
According to Pixomondo , the TV series's special effects studio, there was indeed a complete redesign of the White Walkers between the barely glimpsed early concepts in Season 1, and the fully revealed version introduced in the Season 2 finale: "The producers and creatives were not happy with the White Walker costumes from season one; they wanted to redesign the look and it took a bit longer than expected." Only one full version of the redesigned White Walker costume was made by the Season 2 finale, thus the large shot of multiple White Walkers in the shot is just one stunt man doubled up many times. CGI enhancements were used to give the effect that wisps of cold air are emanating from the White Walkers' bodies, as well as to make their abdomens much more gaunt than human physiology.
The final version introduced at the end of Season 2 is closer to how they appear in the books. Some differences remain, in that White Walkers are said to wear much more armor in the books, made out of a strange reflective metal that almost acts like camouflage. Further, the White Walkers in the books are described as "gaunt" but they don't seem to have quite so much of a mummified appearance. They are actually said to have an otherworldly, icy beauty to them. The White Walkers in Season 4 wear more armor than those glimpsed in Season 2, but generally maintain the established appearance. Their armor is black and dark grey, of some unknown material, as opposed to the reflective metal described in the books. Weiss and Benioff suggested in the "Inside the Episode" for " The Door " that the White Walkers began wearing the armor only after Sam killed one of them, and that this incident reminded them that there were things that could still harm them (in that episode, the armor is shown to be strong enough to repel dragonglass projectiles, "Hardhome", shows it is useless against Valyrian steel). Michele Clapton also operated under this assumption, and told Weiss and Benioff that her thinking was that the armor was actually scavenged bits of art and architecture from some long-forgotten culture of the far north.
Author George R.R. Martin , when discussing with comic-book artist Tommy Patterson what the White Walkers were supposed to look like in the comic-book adaptation of the story he was drawing, said that: "They are strange, beautiful...think, oh...the Sidhe made of ice, something like that...a different sort of life...inhuman, elegant, dangerous." Martin also confirmed that the White Walkers are not "dead", just an inhuman kind of life. The Sidhe are a kind of otherworldly fairy creature from Irish mythology, said to inhabit burial mounds, etc., not unlike the Barrow-wights of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth.
In the Game of Thrones television show, the term "White Walkers" is used as an alternate name for a species called the Others in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. They are held to be fairy stories by most of the people of Westeros. According to legend, the Others were creatures of ice and cold who, more than eight thousand years ago, came from the uttermost north during a winter that lasted a generation and a night that covered the world, the Long Night. The Others were defeated in the Battle for the Dawn by a great hero wielding a sword of flame. After the Others' defeat, Bran the Builder constructed the Wall with magic and artifice to ensure they could never return to threaten the people of Westeros and the world beyond. The Battle for the Dawn apparently unified the peoples of the North under the rule of the Starks and saw Winterfell built shortly thereafter.
The White Walkers are always accompanied by cold temperatures, and coming from the Land of Always Winter , it would seem that they prefer cold climates. They might even have difficulty surviving in warmer climates. Characters within the narrative debate whether this is because White Walkers actually generate cold and might even cause winters (such as the Long Night), or because they simply wait for the next winter cycle and move south when the temperature drops (in which case they didn't cause the Long Night, but seized on the opportunity it provided). White Walkers do not leave footprints in snow.
It is stated in the books that they fear the day and only come out at night. In " Valar Morghulis ", however, they are seen in the twilight hours when the sun (hidden by heavy clouds) hasn't completely set yet. The reason for this was most likely practical: the White Walkers in the novels have only appeared in near pitch-darkness, and in the visual medium of television it would be difficult to strictly match this (i.e. even night scenes set in a forest seem curiously well-lit by the moon, so we the audience can see what is happening). The White Walkers again seem to appear during the day, albeit a completely overcast day, in " Hardhome ."
Craster's wives do say that they believe that the infant sons that Craster gave the Others as sacrifices were turned into new White Walkers - but it wasn't clear if this is what actually happens, or if it was just the wild suspicion of Craster's frightened, isolated wives. When Samwell is told to flee with Gilly and her newborn son, Gilly urges that if he doesn't "they" will come for him. When he asks who "they" are, another wife says: "The boy's brothers...Craster's sons. The white cold's rising out there, crow. I can feel it in my bones. These poor old bones don't lie. They'll be here soon, the sons."
Confirmation of what exactly happens to Craster's sons has not occurred in the books yet, but the Season 4 episode of the TV series " Oathkeeper " revealed that the White Walkers do turn in fact Craster's infant sons into new White Walkers.
When George R.R. Martin was in the very early stages of starting work on the novel series, he sent a three page pitch memo to his agent giving a very rough idea of what the overall story would be like - back when he envisioned it as merely a trilogy of novels ( Tywin Lannister 's death at the end of book three/Season 4 is essentially the end of what would have been the original first novel out of three). Many ideas from this pitch memo were later heavily revised and bear little resemblance to the final version. When Martin briefly described the Others/White Walkers in this memo, he also referred to them using an alternate name never used in the main novels: The Neverborn :
While these ideas in the pitch memo were tentative, they do seem to fit with what was revealed in Season 4 of the TV series - implying that the White Walkers are actually never "born", do not reproduce biologically as their own independent race, but "reproduce" by turning select humans into new White Walkers.
This brings up another vague comment made by Martin about the White Walkers. Early in production on Season 1, the TV series had to make its own costumes and weapons for the White Walkers, and Martin was asked if it fit well with his mental vision of what the White Walkers' material culture is like. Martin responded that the White Walkers don't really have what we would call a "culture." What he meant by this is unclear: the novels also say that the White Walkers have their own language, weapons, armor, etc. so they have some vestiges of such things.
Taken together, the fact that the White Walkers don't reproduce naturally, and don't really have their own "culture"/society, seems to indicate that they were never an independently existing race the way that humans, giants, and Children of the Forest were. It vaguely seems that they are more like demonic or magical spirits somehow housed within human bodies which they possess and turn into "White Walkers." How the first White Walker was created to begin with was later explained in the show, with a vision of Bran showing the Children of the Forest creating the Night King as part of their war efforts against the First Men .
The White Walkers are often known as "the Others" in the novels, and were still known by this name in the first draft of the pilot script. In the books, "white walkers" is the name given to the creatures by wildlings, and with only a few wildling characters, the term is heard only seldom. The name is also used in Westeros, though mostly by older characters such as Old Nan , Maester Aemon , and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont.
The Night's Watch is a military order which holds and guards the Wall to keep the wildlings and White Walkers from crossing into the Seven Kingdoms . The order is a shadow of its former strength and its meager forces have been decimated by recent attacks from both wildlings and White Walkers. For the past couple of centuries, the order has been led from Castle Black .
Increased wildling activity beyond the Wall leads the Watch to send out several patrols to investigate. Some do not return. A three-man scouting party consisting of Ser Waymar Royce , Gared , and Will is sent out, but only Will returns - then frantically tries to desert the Watch by running south but was caught. He rambles that the legendary White Walkers killed his companions, but he is disbelieved as a madman and beheaded by Eddard Stark for desertion.
The Night's Watch engages in the first open conflict between men and White Walkers in eight millennia when their position is assaulted in the fight at the Fist . They suffer heavy casualties, though a few dozen men led by Mormont manage to fight their way out, and retreat southwards. Mormont himself is then killed by his own men when they mutiny at Craster's Keep .