The Night's Watch

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 meagre 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.

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.

## **Customs:**

### **Structure:**

The Night's Watch consists of three orders: rangers, builders, and stewards. All are subject to the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, and each of the three orders is led by its own officer, the First Ranger, the First Builder, and the Lord Steward, respectively. These officers are appointed by the lord commander.

* **Stewards -** are responsible for an assortment of critical functions, providing vital day-to-day services. They hunt and farm, tend horses, gather firewood, cook meals, make clothing, maintain weapons, and bring supplies needed by the Night's Watch from the South. Like other members of the Watch, the stewards must be ready to fight at a moment's notice, and all have received at least basic combat training. Bowen Marsh serves as the Lord Steward or First Steward.

* **Builders -** are responsible for tending to and maintaining The Wall and its castles. The order provides masons, carpenters, miners, and woodsmen to this end. Othell Yarwyck leads them as the First Builder.
* **Rangers -** are the main fighting force, adept at surviving in the wilderness and tasked with scouting and patrolling the haunted forest beyond The Wall. They actively defend The Wall and ride out to face the Watch's enemies, including Wildlings and legendary Others. The First Ranger is Benjen Stark.
* Recruiters for the Night's Watch are called wandering crows. The organization also includes septons, maesters, and, at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, sailors. Because brothers come from throughout The Seven Kingdoms or even Essos, there is an unspoken pact to not discuss politics or former loyalties.

One blast of a sentry's horn represents returning rangers, while two are used for Wildlings and three for Others. Two long blasts followed by a short one are used as a call to mount horses.

### **Recruitment:**

Once, serving on The Wall was honour and a sign of selfless devotion to duty, with many knights, honorable men, and nobles taking the black voluntarily. The Night's Watch is now often seen only as a way to avoid punishment, suitable less for knights than for the dregs of Westeros. These men are salvaged from dungeons by traveling recruiters known as wandering crows. Disgraced nobles, bastards, and even the unwanted legitimate offspring of nobles are “encouraged” to take the black, making many of today’s Watch a surly and dissatisfied lot.

Those who come voluntarily are free to leave during any time of their training, but no man may leave after he has said vows. Any deserters are sentenced to death. After taking the vows, the men of the Watch cannot own any land, marry, or father children. Men are also encouraged to sever any ties left with their families, if they are lucky enough to have one.

Men of the Night's Watch are garbed all in black, a tradition that earned them the nickname "crows", particularly among The Free Folk, who often call them "black crows." While some use this name derogatorily, many in the Night's Watch have adopted the term for their own use. They are also called the "black brothers", and in song they have been called the "black knights of the Wall."

### **Vows**

When recruits are considered ready to take the black, they say their vows either in a sept or before a heart tree. The vows are as follows:

'*Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.'*

Brothers of the Night's Watch serve for life. It is customary to finish a black brother's eulogy with the words, "And now his watch is ended." Castle Black contains a lichyard, and knights can be laid to rest in ancient tombs near the lichyard or burned on a pyre.

## **Castles and Land:**

The Night's Watch raised nineteen castles to guard the hundred leagues of The Wall, although they have never manned more than seventeen at one time. Today only three of them are maintained by an ever dwindling force. The castles themselves are closer to garrisons, composed mostly of barracks, stables, storehouses, towers and out-buildings, as they have no walls of their own (other than The Wall itself). They were purposefully built this way so the Watch could man only The Wall itself and focus on threats from the north. The Night's Watch feared no attack from the south because of their vow not to take part in the wars of The Seven Kingdoms.

Due to manpower shortages, the Watch only mans the Shadow Tower, Castle Black, and Eastwatch. Patrols between the castles used to be more regular, but as the manpower of the Night's Watch diminished, so did the number of patrols.

The castles are listed from west to east:

* **Westwatch-by-the-Bridge**
* **Shadow Tower**, the most western castle still currently in use.
* **Sentinel Stand**
* **Greyguard**
* **Stonedoor**
* **Hoarfrost Hill**
* **Icemark**
* **Nightfort**, the oldest and largest castle of the Night's Watch, which was abandoned during the reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen due to the high costs needed to maintain it. It houses The Black Gate, a secret way through The Wall sealed by a magical ancient door fashioned from weirwood, which only opens to a sworn brother of the Night's Watch.
* **Deep Lake**, located seven miles east of the Nightfort. Originally meant as a replacement to the Nightfort. It was paid for by Queen Alysanne Targaryen, and built by men sent to The Wall by King Jaehaerys I Targaryen.
* **Queensgate**, originally called *Snowgate*. The castle was renamed after Queen Alysanne Targaryen visited.
* **Castle Black**, one of the three castles currently still in use. Castle Black is located at the northern end of The Kingsroad, and an eastern road leads toward Eastwatch.
* **Oakenshield**
* **Woodswatch-by-the-Pool**
* **Sable Hall**
* **Rimegate**
* **Long Barrow**
* **Torches**
* **Greenguard**
* **Eastwatch-by-the-Sea**, also called Eastwatch for short, is the third of the three castles currently in use by the Night's Watch. Eastwatch is a port.

### **The Gift:**

The Gift is a tract of land measuring twenty-five leagues southward from the Wall that the Night's Watch received from King Brandon Stark of the north. For years the Watch farmed The Gift, but as their numbers dwindled there were fewer hands to plow the fields, tend the bees and plant the orchards, so the wild reclaimed much of the area.

Wishing to restore the Night's Watch and reward its loyal service in defense of the realm, Queen Alysanne Targaryen, wife of King Jaehaerys the Conciliator, doubled the extent of The Gift. Towns and villages that were located within the "New Gift" supported the Night's Watch with their taxes, rendered by goods and labour. In time, the New Gift lost population as people moved south, into the mountains or into the Umber lands east of The Kingsroad to avoid wildling raids, further reducing the support structure for the Night's Watch and The Wall.

The nearest point of civilization to Castle Black is Mole's Town, a subterranean settlement whose brothel is frequently patronized by brothers of the Night's Watch.