[The Wall — Locations]
Before departing, Jon has a run-in with Jaime Lannister , who infamously killed his grandfather, the Mad King. Jaime sarcastically thanks him for protecting all of them from the mythical monsters that allegedly exist beyond the Wall , in order to taunt him. Before Jon departs for the Wall, he says goodbye to the unconscious Bran, who has been injured in a fall. He gives Arya a sword named Needle that he had made especially for her, advising her to "stick them with the pointy end." Jon says he will miss her, and they both hug.
As he prepares his saddle, Robb asks if Jon said goodbye to Bran and is sure Bran will survive. Jon says Starks are hard to kill, and Robb asks about his mother, and Jon assures him she was kind. Robb offers to visit him at the Wall sometime, and they bid farewell with a hug. At their parting on the Kingsroad , Eddard vows to tell Jon the truth about his mother the next time they meet. Jon is accompanied by his uncle Benjen and Tyrion, who has expressed a desire to see the Wall (and urinate from the top of it) before he dies. Ghost also accompanies Jon to the Wall.
After completing his training, Jon is inducted into the Night's Watch and swears his oath before a weirwood Heart tree on the north side of the Wall. He is assigned to the stewards rather than the rangers, and at first, thinks it is due to his ongoing feud with Thorne. However, Sam points out that Lord Commander Jeor Mormont has asked for Jon as his personal steward, and may be grooming him for command. Jon is concerned when Benjen's horse returns to the Wall riderless. Later, Ghost finds the corpses of two rangers assigned to Benjen, Othor and Jafer Flowers . Learning of Eddard's imprisonment, Thorne taunts Jon about being a traitor's bastard, causing Jon to draw a knife in anger. He is restricted to quarters.
On their way to the Wall and Castle Black, Jon and Ygritte are gathering firewood, when the warg Orell asks him about the defenses of the Night's Watch. Orell has seen through the eyes of his eagle that there are patrols on top of the Wall and he wants to know how frequent they are. Jon says they usually sent out patrols in teams of four, two builders to inspect for structural damage and two rangers to protect them, but that the frequency of their patrols often changes. Orell says the wildlings know there are nineteen castles along the south side of the Wall, but he wants to know how many are currently manned.
After surviving the perilous climb of the Wall, Jon, Ygritte and the wildlings led by Tormund Giantsbane advance through the Gift - the strip of land immediately south of the Wall which the Watch draws supplies from - and continue on towards Castle Black, to await Mance Rayder's signal to begin the attack. Afterwards, Jon confronts Orell about cutting his and Ygritte's rope loose on the Wall, nearly killing both of them in the process. Orell tells Jon that he doesn't see Ygritte complaining about what happened, because she is a wildling and understood what needed to be done in a pressure situation, also telling Jon that this is the reason he will never be able to keep her.
Jon and his fellow black brothers return to Castle Black, much to the annoyance of Thorne and Slynt. Once Alliser spots Ghost, he orders Jon to lock up Ghost or his direwolf will become food for the Night's Watch. Later, Jon reports that Mance Rayder's army was closing in on Craster's Keep and will reach the Wall before the next full moon. Jon states that defending the tunnel is hopeless since the gates will not stop the giants in Mance Rayder's army. He proposes they seal the tunnel, but Alliser Thorne refuses to listen. Alliser then assigns Jon and Sam to night duties atop the Wall until the next new moon.
Alliser decides to go down and defend the keep, leaving Slynt in charge of the Wall's defenses. Even though a wildling strike force led by two giants, one of which is riding a mammoth , charge towards Castle Black's outer gate, Slynt does nothing and breaks down, demoralizing the troops. Grenn steps in by falsely claiming that Alliser needs Janos back down in Castle Black, allowing Jon to take command of the Wall's defenses, silently thanking Grenn. The black brothers continue to rain down arrows on the advancing wildlings, even killing ones that are attempting to scale the Wall.
Dongo , armed with a massive bow, manages to fire a huge arrow at one of the bunkers atop the Wall, and Jon is unable to warn his brothers fast enough before the giant fires again, violently killing one of his black brothers. Although Jon manages to repel most of the wildlings attacking the outer gate, including the mammoth, one giant manages to single-handedly lift the gate. Jon, knowing the inner gate won't hold against him, sends a group of black brothers led by Grenn to hold it at any cost. Jon decides to give Edd control of the top of the Wall, and tasks Sam with releasing Ghost from his pen to assist in the fighting, then orders half a dozen other men to descend with him and finally enter the fray.
The subplot in Season 4 in which Jon returns to Craster's Keep to finish off the mutineers there (that never occurs in the novels), and nearly encounters Bran again, was an invention of the TV series: in the books, the battle for the Wall begins soon after Jon returns, but due to the way the TV seasons were split, Jon returned at the end of Season 3 - even though the battle would only take place as the climax at the end of Season 4. Jon, therefore, had to have something to do in the earlier parts of the season.
In the aftermath of the battle, the survivors are rounded up and taken before Daenerys. She claims they've been manipulated by Cersei and offers them a choice: bend the knee and join her to build a better world with her, or refuse and die. As if to reinforce this point, Drogon roars menacingly from his perch behind Daenerys. Most of the survivors quickly kneel, with the exception of Randyll Tarly and Dickon Tarly . Randyll refuses to trade his honor for his life, claiming he has chosen his queen. Tyrion suggests she send him to the Wall , but Randyll reminds her that she cannot, as she is not his queen. Dickon follows his father, despite Randyll's protests. Daenerys accepts their choice and sentences them both to death by dragonfire, executing them.
Later, she receives a raven from Gendry calling for help beyond the Wall. Against Tyrion's advice, insisting Jon knew the risks of the mission and everything they've done will be for nothing if she dies beyond the Wall, and therefore unable to break the metaphorical "wheel", Daenerys flies North with her dragons, leaving her army on Dragonstone.
She arrives in time to save Jon and his party, burning countless wights and landing for them to climb up. The Night King, however, impales Viserion with an ice spear through the throat, killing him. Enraged, Jon sets his eyes on the Night King but as the monster reaches for another spear, he then shouts at Daenerys to leave. Reluctantly, she and the others flee just as the Night King throws another spear at Drogon, which misses, and they return to Eastwatch. Daenerys stands on the Wall with Jorah, who ushers her to leave, but stays, obviously concerned for Jon. When he returns on the horse of Benjen Stark , who sacrificed his life to save him, Daenerys is visibly elated and sees Jon's stab wounds for the first time when they remove Jon's frozen clothes, realizing the truth of what Davos said about him.
When Prince Joffrey refuses to pay his respects to Lord and Lady Stark after Bran 's fall, Tyrion slaps him until he acquiesces. He then breakfasts with his family, where he says he wants to visit the Wall and piss off it. He takes interest in Bran's fall, noting carefully his siblings' glum reactions to the news that Bran is likely to live.
On the road to Castle Black , Tyrion explains to Jon that he likes to read as it keeps his wits sharp. Upon reaching the Wall, he is temporarily rendered speechless by the size and scale of the structure. During his stay, Tyrion observes Jon Snow's superior attitude toward his fellow recruits and recommends he help the others train in order to earn their friendship. Maester Aemon and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont ask Tyrion to use his influence at court to recruit more men for the Night's Watch . While Tyrion is sympathetic, he doesn't believe in danger beyond the Wall.
Tyrion and Jorah continue their quest to Meereen on foot. Tyrion is annoyed that they didn't find any villages to steal a boat or supplies from as Jorah had hoped, so they're slowly walking and only have berries and roots to eat. The topic of just why Tyrion was even in Volantis comes up, and Tyrion is surprised that Jorah did not ask earlier: he explains that he actually fled from Westeros because he killed his own father. He says he did it because his father tried to have him executed for a crime he didn't commit, and then he found his father screwing the woman he loved. Tyrion then says that despite how miserable Jorah is now, at least he can say that he had a good father. Jorah asks how he could have known his father Jeor Mormont, but Tyrion explains he visited the Wall once and met him: he was a great leader who seemed to genuinely care about all of his men, a rare thing in the world, but now as the eulogy for Night's Watch members goes, "the world will not see his like again." Jorah is shocked to realize he means that his father is dead. Tyrion becomes apologetic and says he thought that Jorah knew already. Jorah asks how he died: Tyrion says he only knows the report he heard, which said that his father led an expedition beyond the Wall, but there was a mutiny, and Jeor was murdered by his own men. Jorah processes this in silent grief, then changes the subject by saying that they have to keep moving.
When Daenerys receives a letter from Gendry, asking for help with the wight hunt gone wrong, Tyrion tries to stop her from going to the Wall with her dragons, saying she is the most important person in the world, and she can't go to the most dangerous place in the world. He claims the group knew the risk when they left, and Daenerys shouldn't try to save them. When she steps on Drogon, she asks him what he would have her do. Tyrion says that doing nothing is the hardest thing to do, but if she dies, everything and everyone would be lost. Daenerys reminds him he told her to do nothing once, and having learned the hard way, she won't do this again. Tyrion looks at her as she and her dragons dive off the cliff, heading for the wall.
A month later, at breakfast, Tyrion tells his family that Bran is expected to live and notes his sibling's guarded reactions to the news. Cersei notes that it no mercy to let the boy live, after which Tyrion snidely remarks that only the Gods know his fate. Tyrion then crudely tells his family what he plans to do whilst at the Wall , and although Tommen and Myrcella laugh, Cersei ushers them away from his "filth." In response to Tyrion's information, Cersei visits Catelyn, who is sitting vigil for Bran. Cersei tells Catelyn that her first child , a beautiful, black-haired boy, died of a fever.
Yoren cuts her hair to make her look more like a boy and vows to get her to the Wall to reunite with Jon. She will pose as a fresh recruit for the Night's Watch. He tells her not to trust the others, as they could turn her in for a reward or possibly rape her, or both. When Arya joins the group, she is bullied by two boys, Hot Pie and Lommy Greenhands , but she defends herself and scares them off with Needle. Gendry , another recruit, also steps up to defend her. The entire group departs King's Landing, facing a journey of hundreds of miles through a war zone in order to get to the Wall.
Arya returns to the House of Black and White to put the face she used back on the wall. She is caught by Jaqen and the Waif. They are displeased that Arya has defied the Many-Faced God by killing someone who was not hers to kill. The Waif restrains Arya and Jaqen pulls out a vial of poison saying, "Only death can pay for life." Just before Arya thinks she is about to be poisoned, Jaqen drinks it himself and dies. The Waif questions Arya's grief for her friend, only to shock Arya by revealing herself to be Jaqen. Confused, Arya repeatedly removes multiple faces from "Jaqen's" body, until she sees her own face. Arya's eyes fill over with white as she is rendered blind as punishment.
In A Dance with Dragons , Arya continues to train with the Faceless Men without her sight. The blindness is induced by the milk she drinks every night. The kindly man tells her that they would have taken her eyes from her anyway, to help her to learn to use her other senses, but not for half a year. She begs at the streets, calling herself "Blind Beth", collecting money and pieces of information (among them about the two Lyseni pirate ships, Goodheart and Elephant , which were indirectly involved in the massacre at Hardhome ) and continues performing chores at the House. Occasionally she hears people talk about " The Black Bastard of the Wall ." That makes her sad, thinking that even Jon would never know Blind Beth. Sometimes she hurts herself, but does not complain. She misses the company of Brusco and her friends, though. The Waif tells her she must stay blind "Until darkness is as sweet to you as light, or until you ask us for your eyes" (in that case she will be sent away). Arya does not give up, and gradually learns to rely on her other senses. These senses include not only the conventional sense, but also her skinchanging abilities. Arya begins to skinchange into a cat who follows her around Braavos. Occasionally, someone (it turns to be the kindly man) beats her with a stick. She uses knowledge gained through the cat's eyes to impress the kindly man, telling him that she knows it has been him who is hitting her but without mentioning the cat. Apparently, this completes her blind training, because then she is given her eyesight back.
Sansa refuses to give Joffrey the satisfaction of seeing her upset and shows no emotional response. Joffrey tells her that executing Eddard was showing mercy, as he gave him a quick death, and he suggests that he will mount her brother Robb's head on the wall after defeating him. Sansa retorts that maybe Robb will take Joffrey's head instead. Furious, Joffrey has Ser Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard strike her. Joffrey tells Sansa that they are still to be married. Sansa contemplates pushing Joffrey off the walkway but is discreetly stopped by Sandor. After Joffrey and Meryn leave, Sandor gives her a cloth to attend to her cut lip and tells her that she will be needing it again.
Robb, 17, attends the execution of Will , the deserter, by his father. On their way home with Theon, Jon, and Bran, they find a litter of newborn direwolf pups. Robb is surprised that there are any direwolves south of the Wall. When their father says they can keep the pups, Robb adopts one of them as his own, naming him Grey Wind .
On their way to the Wall, Bran's party makes camp. Osha remains distrustful of Meera and Jojen Reed and reacts with horror when they mention they intend to go beyond the Wall. Osha bluntly refuses to go, explaining that she lost her husband, who then rose from the dead and tried to kill her. She rages that none of them understand what lies beyond the Wall and that there is nothing left for men there. However, Bran agrees with Jojen, arguing that the raven has been waiting for him to find him since Bran fell from the tower.
At last, they make it to the Wall and stay overnight in the Nightfort , an abandoned castle on the Wall that is rumored to be haunted. During the night, Jon's fellow Night's Watch comrade Samwell Tarly , with Gilly and her child, emerge from a secret passageway.
Samwell, noticing the gigantic Hodor and Summer, realizes who Bran is and offers to take them to Castle Black, but Jojen tells Sam that they are going beyond the Wall, as no force in the realm of Westeros could withstand the threat posed by the White Walkers. Sam reluctantly shows them the secret sally port and gives them the obsidian blades found north of the Wall, which he earlier used to slay a White Walker. That night, Bran, the Reeds, Hodor and Summer finally pass beyond the Wall.
Benjen takes Bran and Meera to a Weirwood beyond the wall, and explains that he cannot pass due to magic used during the building of the Wall to make sure the dead can't go beyond it. He then rides off, leaving Bran and Meera alone by the weirwood. Bran sees the weirwood, and begins to crawl over to it. Meera asks him if he is ready, and he replies that he is now the Three-Eyed Raven - he has to be ready. He then places his hand on the tree and returns to his vision in the Tower of Joy. Following his father inside, he watches Ned find Lyanna in a bed of her own blood. She whispers to him and reveals she has just given birth to a newborn son, imploring Ned to protect him from Robert Baratheon. As Ned takes his infant nephew in his arms, Bran looks on and gulps, realizing the baby is his "half-brother" Jon.
Bran spends the third novel traveling to the Wall with the Reeds while also strengthening his skinchanging ability. Jojen warns him not to spend to much time in Summer's mind or else he'll lose himself. In their journey, they come upon a man from House Liddle, who seems to recognize who Bran is due to his direwolf and paralysis, but says nothing overtly. When they part, he leaves much of his food with them and Bran vows to pay House Liddle back for this once he returns to Winterfell. While hiding in an abandoned castle, the children see Jon fighting Wildlings below them. Bran skinchanges into Summer to fight them off, allowing Jon to escape. Once the Wildlings are gone, they continue traveling north until they reach the Nightfort at the Wall. Once there, they meet Sam and Gilly, who were instructed by a mysterious man named Coldhands to send Bran and his party through the Wall to meet him on the other side. Sam immediately realizes who is Bran, since he is both paraplegic and accompanied by a direwolf. Sam brings them to the Black Gate and opens it for them by reciting part of his Night's Watch vows. Before leaving, Sam swears three times that he will not tell anyone about meeting Bran, for his safety, and keeps his word.
Coldhands leads the party beyond the Wall for a great deal of time until they reach the cave of the three-eyed crow. Before entering, they are attacked by wights and have to fight their way in with the help of the children of the forest. Once there, Bran meets the three-eyed crow, who is a very old man whose life has been extended by the physical joining of his body with the weirwood roots. Bran asks if the three-eyed crow can help him walk again, but is told that he can't. But even though Bran will never walk again, he will fly.
Randyll, one of the most skilled military commanders in Westeros, hoped for a son who would carry on his legacy and lead House Tarly into battle. Much to his dismay, his firstborn turned out to be an overweight scholarly-minded boy with no thirst for violence. Randyll, ashamed of his son, forced Sam to take the black under threat of death in order to disinherit him (though it is unknown if Randyll would really have done this). Sam departed for the Wall, leaving his younger brother Dickon as heir to House Tarly.
Jon Snow and the Lord Commander are attacked by one of the dead, who has risen as a wight . Jon dispatches the wight and Sam watches as the two corpses are burned. Sam tells the others that he has read an old book that claimed that reviving the dead can only be achieved by the touch of the White Walkers , who sleep for thousands of years beneath the ice. When the others ask what will happen when they wake up, he only says that he hopes that the Wall is high enough. Sam admires Jon's new sword, Longclaw , given as a gift for defending the Lord Commander. Samwell tries, unsuccessfully, to stop Jon leaving the Wall when he receives news of his father's execution in King's Landing. He then convinces Pyp and Grenn to help him to pursue Jon. He is knocked off his horse by a low hanging branch which draws Jon back to check if he is okay. Sam stands, unharmed, and recites his vows with his friends to convince Jon to return.
Lord Commander Jeor Mormont of the Night's Watch leads the few survivors of the slaughter at the fight at the Fist south in hope of reaching the Wall. Samwell Tarly is exhausted and collapses. Rast is annoyed that Sam hid during the battle, and thinks they should leave him because he's slowing them down. Sam is upset that Grenn and Edd abandoned him at the start of the attack, although they refuse to leave him now. Mormont tells Sam that he has to keep moving, and sternly forbids Sam to die. Mormont orders Rast to keep Sam alive until they reach the Wall on pain of death.
Farther south beyond the Wall, Lord Commander Jeor Mormont leads the ragged survivors of the Night's Watch expedition to Craster's Keep . Craster mocks the survivors of the fight when they reach his Keep. He initially wants to refuse them shelter until he notices some of them stroking their weapons. Fearful that in desperation they might try to rush him, he relents. As the black brothers warm by his hearth, Craster mocks them. Craster insists that the black brothers should be grateful for his generosity, and that he is a "godly man" for helping them. Mormont tensely questions that he is a godly man, but Craster insists that he is - to the "real gods", the White Walkers , who consume entire armies on their way to the Wall but will spare Craster for his loyalty.
Sam explained to Gilly that he planned to get them across the Wall using a secret sally-port which would lead right into the Nightfort. Gilly expressed her amazement that Sam knew so much history just from reading books, insisting that he is a wizard much to Sam's delight, since Sam had a childhood dream to be a wizard, giving him a sense of nostalgia. When they finally caught a glimpse of the Wall, which Gilly had never seen before, she is awestruck.
Later, Samwell and Gilly finally arrived at the Nightfort. There, he encountered Bran Stark , Jon's younger half-brother and his companions- Hodor , Jojen and Meera Reed , and his direwolf Summer -who were traveling north beyond the Wall to find the Three-Eyed Raven . Bran and his companions initially mistook him for an intruder but sheltered them after seeing Gilly and her baby. Samwell, noticing the gigantic Hodor and Summer, realizes who Bran is and offered to take them to Castle Black. They decline and Jojen tells Sam that he and Bran were traveling to go beyond the Wall.
Due to his earlier encounters with the White Walkers, Samwell and Gilly were unwilling to return to the north. However, Sam reluctantly gave them the obsidian blades which he had found north of the Wall and which he had used to slay a White Walker. While Samwell and Gilly stayed behind in the castle, Bran and company finally reached the lands beyond the Wall.
Sam brings Gilly​ and her baby to a storage room where she can hide. Gilly wants Sam to stay with her as he promised, but he cannot as he sworn to defend the Wall as a brother of the Night's Watch. Before he leaves her, Gilly begs Sam to promise her that he won't die and the two finally share a kiss. As Sam and Pypar are preparing arrows at the southern gate, Pypar laments that he never seen a real battle before or ever even held an edged blade. Pypar asks how Sam is not afraid, but Sam replies that he is, as there are thousands of wildlings about to overrun them. Pypar asks how he managed to kill a White Walker while being afraid, and Sam says that at that moment, he just had to do something or Gilly would have been killed and her baby would have been taken. Sam further explains that at that moment, he wasn't himself; he was nothing, and when you are nothing there is nothing to be afraid of. Before walking away, he looks at Pypar and says, "I'm not nothing anymore." When the battle for the Wall begins, Sam and Pyp take part in defending Castle Black's southern gate. Pyp is firing a crossbow as Sam assists by reloading another crossbow, but Pyp's aim is poor due to inexperience and nerves and he repeatedly misses his shots.
Later that evening, Sam and Gilly joined the other Tarlys for dinner. Sam reveals his plans to train as a maester at the Citadel and promises that he will return to the Wall as soon as he has finished his studies. When Dickon asks him about hunting Beyond the Wall, Sam responds that he hunts rabbits. An openly scornful Randyll then interjects that Jon did all the hunting for him. He also criticizes his son's size (even though Sam is markedly slimmer than he was when he first arrived at Castle Black ), and hunting and fighting abilities. Randyll also adds that he will not let his son inherit the family's Valyrian steel sword Heartsbane and House Tarly. Gilly then springs to her lover's defense by pointing out that Sam had killed a Thenn and a White Walker . While Dickon dismisses the White Walkers as a fairy tale, Randyll quickly realizes that Gilly is a wildling. He disparages Sam for allowing himself to be seduced by a "wildling whore." In response, Melessa chides her husband for his "dishonorable" conduct and motions for Gilly to leave the dining room with her and Talla.
Horn Hill is located in the warm lands of the southern Reach, where it rarely snows. Sam says that he never saw snow in his life before he was sent to the Wall, making it an even more desolate and alien environment for him.
Some may have seen Samwell as better suited to joining the Order of Maesters , as like the Night's Watch they swear vows that abandon all claim to inheritance, but their intellectual pursuits would fit Sam's talents much better. However, Randyll felt that a Tarly joining the non-martial Maesters would still be a massive embarrassment to the military reputation of their House. Because Randyll was horrified at the prospect of a member of House Tarly ever wearing a Maester's chain, he instead sent Sam off to join the Night's Watch, where at least in theory he would be defending the realm from the dangers beyond the Wall. Ironically, the officers at Castle Black decide that the best use for Sam at the Wall is to serve as an aide to the blind old Maester Aemon , given that many of their recruits are starving peasant boys or criminals who can't even read, and Sam is not only literate but quite well-read. Sam gains some small respite from his suffering at the Wall when he discovers that Maester Aemon's library at Castle Black contains thousands of books collected by the Watch over the millennia, many of them extremely rare (even a well-stocked library such as at Winterfell normally only contains several hundred books).
Joffrey is present at the Great Sept of Baelor for Eddard's public trial where, due to threats to Sansa's life, he confesses to treason and acknowledges Joffrey as the true king. Joffrey, playing to the crowd, reveals that his mother and his betrothed have both urged him to spare Eddard's life and exile him to the Wall (this deal had been worked out by Queen Cersei, Varys , Grand Maester Pycelle , the High Septon and Yoren - who was waiting in the crowd to take him in custody). Joffrey had been told to spare him, but surprises everyone by saying that his mother and betrothed have the weak hearts and constitutions of women, while he has no mercy for traitors.
Ygritte was a quick-witted and courageous young spear wife . She had red hair and displayed great skill as an archer. Living north of the Wall , she was well skilled in survival and was staunchly loyal to the cause of Mance Rayder . She valued her status as a free woman, and disparaged those living south of the Wall as 'kneelers', who blindly followed hereditary leaders instead of choosing a king.
While marching south towards the Wall, Ygritte and the rest of the Free Folk arrive at the Fist of the First Men . They survey the bloody aftermath of the fight at the Fist . Mance orders Ygritte, along with Jon and a group of twenty wildlings led by Tormund, to scale the wall and attack Castle Black from the south.
After the arrival of Stannis Baratheon at the Wall, Jon speaks with Tormund, who is now a captive of the Night's Watch. Tormund asks Jon if he loved Ygritte, and, when Jon does not respond, says that she loved him very much, as the only thing she talked about after Jon left her, was killing him. He convinces Jon to have her body burned beyond the Wall . Thus, Jon takes Ygritte's body to a grove in the Haunted Forest and makes a funeral pyre before a weirwood tree, burning his love's body with tears in his eyes.
Later, during dinner inside, Sandor questions Beric on why he keeps being resurrected, to which Beric replies he does not know. When Beric talks about the divine justice of the Lord of Light , Sandor dismissively states that if there was such a thing, then Beric would be dead while Sally would still be alive. Thoros then asks Sandor to look into the flames in the hearth. Despite protesting it was his luck to get stuck "with a bunch of fire worshipers", Sandor looks into the flames and sees a vision. He says he sees a mountain shaped like an arrow, a castle on the Wall , and wights marching towards it. Beric remarks that even though he does not know why he keeps being resurrected, he says that there must be a reason with Sandor agreeing, after seeing his vision.
Sandor suffers from pyrophobia as a result of a childhood trauma in which his own brother forced his face into a fire. As a result, Sandor freezes up in situations that could result in his death, such as during the Battle of the Blackwater and his recent quest beyond the Wall.
The Hound and Arya never make it to the Bloody Gate , and do not hear about Lysa's death. Instead, they reach a small village where they reside for several weeks. The village elder warns them that heavy snow and frost cover the high passes to the Vale, and the Hill tribes have become fearless now that they are armed with steel. The Hound decides not to go to Riverrun or the Wall , but to Saltpans , and travel from there to the Vale by sea.
Samwell Tarly : Nobody really knows how the Wall was built. Yes, every child hears how in the days of the First Men , Brandon the Builder raised the Wall with magic and giants and set the Night's Watch to guard it.
Our order of builders repairs the keeps and towers, digs tunnels, crushes stone for roads and footpaths, and clears away trees wherever the forest presses too close to the Wall. Or at least they would if they had the men and the tools and the time.
The order of rangers is the fighting heart of the Night's Watch. They ride beyond the Wall fighting and trading with wildlings , surviving shadowcats and snow leopards. The rangers are meant to scout out threats to the Wall and return to report. And they did, back in the days when men could go north and come back alive. Now they just come back .
Without all of us guarding the Wall together, well, it probably still wouldn't have ever fallen. Solid ice rising hundreds of feet into the air and running hundreds of miles to the sea. No army is smashing it any time soon. Which is why our enemies have never tried. Well, not directly.
The brothers Gendel and Gorne , Kings-Beyond-the-Wall , went under the Wall through ancient caves buried deep in the Earth. But on the way back, they took a wrong turn and were lost in the darkness. People say that their children's children's children are still down there looking for a way up, or for more food to find its way down.
When our Rangers found Arson Iceaxe picking away at the Wall, he was almost halfway through. The Rangers decided not to disturb him and seal the way behind him with ice and stone and snow. Some say if you place your ear flat to the Wall, you can still hear Arson chipping away with his ax.
A hundred years ago, another King-Beyond-the-Wall, Raymun Redbeard , realized the Wall's size is both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. He waited for our patrols to pass and then sent climbers to the now unguarded stretch of the Wall.
Lucky for the Night's Watch, the Wall isn't without its own defenses. Besides being incredibly tall and thick, the Wall is also treacherous. Many times a patrol will find the broken corpses of wildlings who have tried to climb the Wall, only for a piece of it to break off mid-climb or to have their hold slip as the sun melted the ice just enough. When the light strikes the Wall just right, it can even look like it's weeping.
A thousand years ago, the Night's Watch could have lined up shoulder to shoulder along the Wall, all the way from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to the Shadow Tower , to meet Mance Rayder and his army. But now Mance isn't bothering to find tunnels under the Wall or climb over it.
The city is built with multi-colored bricks and is surrounded by tall, solid walls with towers at every corner. The north wall runs along the Skahazadhan, while the west wall runs along the bay. The city has a large harbor located outside the main walls. Its sewers open directly into the bay. The noble families of Meereen live in large stepped pyramids, with the most powerful, the Great Masters, living on the Great Pyramid. The Great Pyramid rears 800 feet above the rest of the city and is one of the tallest structures in the world (along with the Hightower of Oldtown and the Wall ).
The bodies of several rangers are discovered a short distance north of the Wall and are identified as Night's Watchmen who have been missing for weeks. Despite a corpse's prolonged absence, Sam notes that the bodies show no signs of rot and appear in perfect condition. Later that evening one of the bodies reanimates as a wight and attempts to attack the Lord Commander. The creature is stopped when Jon discovers the creature's weakness is fire.
The Night's Watch is organized in three departments: the Rangers, who fight, defend the Wall and patrol the Haunted Forest ; the Builders, who maintain the Wall and the castles; and the Stewards, who support and feed the members of the Watch.
According to legend, the Night's Watch was founded 8,000 years ago, in the last days of the Long Night . Their original purpose was to defend against the White Walkers, but after the demons' disappearance, the order was also tasked with keeping other dangers at bay. They now protect the Seven Kingdoms from threats beyond their northern border, such as wildlings and giants , and, should the need arise, White Walkers. They man, maintain and defend a vast structure known as the Wall , a 700 foot tall and 300-mile long barrier which separates the Seven Kingdoms from the lands to the far north. It is formed mostly from ice with small trenches and wooden fortifications covering the top. The Watch have built nineteen castles along the southern edge of the Wall to house their men. However, the Watch's gradually shrinking numbers meant that all but three of these had to be abandoned. They also control a region south of the Wall known as the Gift , from which they obtain supplies and provisions. The region was donated to them by House Stark , the Kings in the North , thousands of years ago.
When Tyrion makes a visit to the Wall while traveling to Winterfell, he is met at Castle Black by Lord Commander Jeor Mormont and Maester Aemon . They implore him to bring news to the king that the Night's Watch is severely undermanned and undersupported: they are down to under a thousand members, and barely have the resources to feed and support the few men they still have. Mormont warns Tyrion about disturbing rumors coming from beyond the Wall, about missing scouting parties, and the one man who did survive an attack say it was the White Walkers finally returning, just before he was executed. Aemon warns that they have had a very long summer lasting for years, and that the coming winter may also be long and bitter - and only the gods can help them if they do not do more to prepare for what's coming.
The Watch takes severe losses in Jeor Mormont's disastrous expedition beyond the Wall , losing nearly three hundred men as a result. Combined with heavy losses during the battle for the Wall , as well as losses from other wildling attacks, by the time that King Stannis Baratheon arrives at the Wall, the entire organization had less than half (around 500 men) of its military strength remain. After becoming Lord Commander, Jon convinces a few minor houses (Houses Ashford , Caulfield , Smallwood , Mazin , and Wibberley ) to send men to the Night's Watch. The Watch suffers further losses after the Massacre at Hardhome and the Mutiny at Castle Black , leading Jon to order the surviving wildlings to help garrison the remaining castles, likely raising their numbers by a few hundreds. However, much of this new strength is lost at the breaching of the Wall, with only a dozen left alive from Eastwatch.
There are nineteen castles spread out along the southern face of the Wall as bases for the Night's Watch. Patrols from these castles would travel along the top of the Wall watching for threats from the north, or repairing damage to the Wall. Each castle also contained a tunnel cut under the Wall, through which scouting parties would travel to the north to track wildling movements.
The Gift is sparsely populated by only a handful of smallfolk , as most have relocated to the south over the generations while the Night's Watch dwindled and wildling raiding parties over or around the Wall increased in frequency. The northern areas closer to the Wall are almost completely empty. The closest significant settlement near the Wall is Mole's Town , located a few miles down the Kingsroad from Castle Black.
After the battle for the Wall , the Night's Watch takes a headcount: their entire manpower (including the garrisons at Eastwatch and the Shadow Tower) has been reduced to 589 brothers. Most of the losses are taken at the fight at the Fist , and more at the following Battle of the Bridge of Skulls and the battle for the Wall.