Battle of Castle Black

Commanders| Donal Noye†Ser Alliser Thorne†Janos Slynt†Jon Snow

Forces| Night's Watch:* ~40 Men from

Castle Black* ~100 Men from

Eastwatch-by-Sea* 1 Direwolf

House Brightflame:* 20 Knights
* ~100+ Mammouths

Casualties| Rickard Greywinde (WIA)50+ Night's Watch Men* Athos Wilder
* Lyonel Whent
* Alliser Thorne
* Janos Slynt
* Grenn

## Prelude

> *Artos: Wildlings don't care, they'll keep hitting this wall until they win, or until Mance dies.*
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> *Tristifer: I think the Night's Watch will break long before that army*
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The Night's Watch was severely depleted by the time of the attack, men had mutinied or deserted, with the North having not supplied nearly enough aid whereas before the Starks would have died helping defend the realm from the Wildlings. Now it seemed they were too occupied with the wars down south and political turmoil to send manpower when it was needed most. The Brightflame Lords arrived to Castle Black and quickly made notice of how poor its state was, a lot of the men were scared out of there wits, or too new to look like they truly made a difference, there were veterans ready to fight, but they seemed fewer and far between if the reports were to be believed. Ser Terrance the Towering claimed there numbers were roughly around 150 to 200, with no clear answer as to how many were at Eastwatch-By-The-Sea or the Shadow Tower given later events. Zelos and Daniel both had family in the Night's Watch, (Zelos' Uncle was a Steward, and Daniel's Father a ranger) but Daniel's father was not present and had been lost in one of the ranging's and presumed dead so Daniel describes his time there with him instead chatting with the Steward of the Dead Lord Commander Jon Snow, who he struck up a friendship with. Terrance the Towering went to the Maester of Night's Watch Aemon, where they talked about the situation, though Aemon ever the astute man seemed to guess and implied that he was aware of there reason for being here he would take what he could get.

The leaders of the Night's Watch and the Brightflame commanders orchestrated a plan of attack, though Donal Noye was quick to take the lead for the Night's Watch and when he was told of the raiding parties already attacking the South he made sure to have more men on the ground ready to hold off the enemy. Those that weren't on the castle walls were on top of the wall itself, and a small force put near the gate to check its defenses, they knew that the gate falling was going to be the death of them. The Brightflame soldiers positioned themselves where they saw best fit to be based on there own skills. Just as the Wildlings arrived on the horizon, the enemy was ready for them.

## The Battle

> *Robb: Lets show these Wildlings how us Southerners fight*
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> *Terrence: Men stand ready!*
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### Phase 1

The Wildlings attacked in a show of cohesion with there main host of 30'000 starting to push up as there raiding parties attacked from the south. Hitting the Castle from both sides while the men inside struggled to hold out. Donal Noyle was quick to lead the main attack in holding off the enemy, with men like Davon Yew, and Vysegos, Willaim Tyde, Jaqhaeros, Arthur, Landor, and Ser Kyllan shooting down foes with there arrow and impressive aim. The men more associated with close combat, like the Lords, Darron, Artos, Zelos, Rob, Shamus, and Daniel alongside his wife Visenya were fighting to defend the castle from the southern raiders as there men rained arrows down upon them. A quick raid of horsemen was lead by Tristifer, accompanied by Rickard, Derrick, Musty, and Mark where they briefly overwhelmed the horseless attackers before retreating as they had too many close calls. The Wildling's got close and started to climb the walls or break down the gates but here they were met by the Brightflame expedition who started to cut them down in an effort to stop them from having any chance to get inside the castle. Despite this more then enough slipped through the cracks to cause fighting to spill all around the castle, where prominent commander Janos Slynt was killed when an arrow pierced his neck as he was finishing off a Wildling. Despite this Jon Snow kept the Black Brothers fighting and they prevented the Wildings from being able to open the gates or damage the Castle's defenses that much before they were put down. The forces consisted mostly of the scattered men who escaped from the Defeat of Mole's Town and it was clear that without Styr they weren't as organized, thus there main charge was easy to route and stop, putting an end to the threat from the South.

The Threat from the North on the Other hand was not so easily pushed back as despite there efforts the army was too far vast to put down and despite there efforts to light up the area they fought mostly blindly, with Donal leading a party down to hold the gate personally while Alliser staying around to lead the troops holding them off. While Allisser mainly had his men fire into the night hoping to hit there targets, Donal came down with enough men to try and defend the gate. While the events of this battle have no known survivors, Donal's body and the body of his group were found alongside a dead Giant. And when the Wildlings backed off for the night, Jon risked going out to retrieve them.

### Phase 2

Things quitted down after the first hit and the Nights Watch waited vigilantly for whenever the enemy would strike again, but the Wildlings seemed to be planning something and were smart enough to hold back before doing so, when the day broke the enemy had pulled away from the Gates and Jon started ordering some men to resupply there defenses where they can and find ways to keep the gate secure. The Bright Flame Knights got some rest where they could as they knew the next attack would be fierce, though the southern party was more or less completely obliterated, that would mean the Wildlings were likely to try and hit them harder thinking they needed to go all out, and many could attest they had a sense of foreboding for what came next. There fears were proven right for the most part, they saw the enemy coming around the afternoon and many of the survivors attested that the enemy looked like they were going to go for all or nothing. The Night's Watch/Brightflames prepared for battle the walls were manned and arrows were fired. but this time there was a concentrated effort to take the gate as many Wildlings and even Giants pushed on towards it to try and take it off its hinges, nothing the top of the wall did stopped them so the men who were protecting the gate made a bold play and opened it so that a Vanguard could rush out and try to take the enemy on directly. Mostly those on horse who could afford to make such an attack and fall back when necessary but he vanguard had a surprising amount of infantry according to Ser Tristifer who claimed roughly 50 men ran out with the 20 or so horse riders. Attacking the Giants mainly a Giant we know to be Mag the Mighty was important in the early going, though it was mostly a job for the archers and horse riders as none of the men not on a horse wanted to get anywhere near the beast as it was. They pelted him with arrows and some of the horse men struck at his legs with lances and swords before the Mighty Giant dropped low enough for Ser Tristifer to finish off. Though Artos Starkwood claims to have been the real killer of Mag, most of the reports there claim the Beast was dead long before Artos Lance pierced it. Though Artos didnt leave the wall without a death of a Giant as a second one nearly killed him knocking it off his horse before Artos engaged him, sadly there aren't many reports of how the battle went down in detail but when it was over the Giant was dead and Artos was not. These grand victories sadly did not turn the tides of war as though the men fought as hard as they could many were dead and eventually the gates fell from the efforts of the mammoths and attacking Wildlings. With the gates opened the Black brothers either fled back inside or pushed to try and but up a defensive wall at the entrance hoping to stall the attack as long as possible. One notable party lead by Lyonel Whent were described by Robb Griften and Rickard Greywinde as running into the approaching Wilding horse shouting there vows and fighting to the last man, killing several even as the Wildlings cut them down. Rickard fought with the defensive line and tried to help maintain the retreat until an arrow found its way in his shoulder, hindering his ability to fight and finally forcing the brave Northerner to flee.

All of the Brightflame Knights were able to make a steady retreat, except 2. the first being Zelos Wilder who when he tried to convince his uncle to flee, found him refusing and staying behind to try and keep the enemy at bay, Zelos refused to leave without him and had to be basically forced on his horse by his retreating allies according to Rickard. Athos would hold the line before falling though of what is never known nor has a body been recovered. The other was Terrance the Towering, who upon seeing the battle lost fell back to the castle where he went to Maester Aemon, the Maester had the sword Dark Sister which they had recovered some time ago and knowing that was what he was after allowed him to take it. Terrance did, but not before taking the Maester with him as he refused to allow such a good man to be killed by Wildlings, certaintly in a brutal fashion. He was just barely able to escape them no doubt because of the last Nights Watch who held there ground. Though he had retrieved the sword the Wildings had taken the Castle and with it there freedom to march on the rest of the North and who knows how far down.

## Aftermath

> *Zelos: How's everything going to work now, there will be hell to raise with all those deserters, is there even a Night's Watch anymore, Did we get the Sword at least?*
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> *Terrance: Yes, though the victory of that feels rather hollow*
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Castle Black was the last to fall, though Bowen Marsh succeeded at the Bridge of Skulls Eastwatch and Shadow Tower fell with only token numbers falling back and meeting the surviors of the other battles. Jon Snow lead them to Winterfell to report the results, and Robb stark made the controversial decision to keep them there, seeing as they had nowhere to go though many suspected he was planning to make sure Jon didnt have to return to the Black once the castles were regained. The Wildlings would move on the rest of Westeros starting a war with the North lead by Mance Rayder. Robb and Mance would lead there forces agaisnt each other for months but both would end up falling to House Brightflame in the aftermath.

The Brightlflame posse fled to White Harbor to lick there wounds and inform the king of the Wildling invasion. They had underestimated the threat and now they needed to make sure everyone knew for sure how dangerous the matter was, Though on there way there they made the mistake of passing through Bolton land and when they were camped at Red Cross where they stopped to give Maester Aemon who died on the way a proper funeral they were attacked by the Boltons on Lonely Hill. This would lead to the brief conflict between the Brightflames and Ramsey Snow.