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.

## History

### Background

According to legend, the Night's Watch was founded 8,000 years ago. They now protect the Seven Kingdoms from threats beyond their northern border, such as White Walkers, wildlings and giants. They man 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 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, over the years many were 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, at the time.

Members of the Night's Watch swear an oath of duty that prohibits marriage, family, and land ownership which lasts until their death. Recruits renounce all past allegiances and birth rights. Joining the Watch provides absolution for past crimes and immunity from further punishment. Brothers start with a clean slate and can rise within the ranks whatever their origins.

However, even though the Night's Watch vows are meant to be for life, it is possible for one to leave the organization without execution, so long as it is with the ruling monarch's approval.

They describe one another as "sworn brothers" because of the oath. Men of the Watch dress entirely in black, giving rise to the nickname "crows" - which is what the Free Folk commonly call them - or "black brothers." Members of the Night's Watch are not specifically forbidden from seeing their families, but they cannot leave the Wall without permission. Desertion is punishable by death.

The Watch was once highly regarded and their ranks were filled with volunteers from noble houses, as serving was a sign of selfless devotion to the protection of the realm. However, while the Night's Watch still has noble-born sons and noble-blooded illegitimate sons from Great Houses, many recruits are now also criminals avoiding punishment, nobles avoiding scandal, orphans, and other social outcasts. Men known as wandering crows, travel around the Seven Kingdoms gathering recruits for the Watch, offering them escape on the Wall. For some families, the Wall is a convenient place to exile embarrassing or disgraced family members. However, other families, such as House Stark, view the Night's Watch as an honourable and noble calling. Generations of Starks have joined the Night's Watch for the sake of honour.

Although joining the Night's Watch is often a punishment for many, it can also be a positive thing in the long run; the Watch is highly egalitarian compared to the rest of Westeros, and in a rigidly hierarchical society, joining can offer a rare chance at redemption and turning one's life around. At the Wall, every man is given what he earns, no matter their status, and even lowborn or bastard recruits can become high-ranking officers and commanders for their service. However, the Night's Watch is not completely egalitarian; both noble-born sons and illegitimate sons of lords are typically favored for advancement over those with no noble blood, though this may also be for the practical reason that recruits from noble households are generally more familiar with the duties required of the Watch, such as combat skill.

## Organization

### Structure

Men of the Night's Watch are divided between three different orders: the Rangers, the Builders, and the Stewards. Each order is led by its own officer, each appointed by the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch: the First Ranger, First Builder, and First Steward.

* **Rangers** - the true warriors of the Night's Watch. While all black brothers are expected to have some basic arms training and to take up a sword in defense of the Wall itself, the Rangers are the ones who are sent on dangerous scouting expeditions beyond the Wall, to track wildlings movements. When the Watch was more numerous in past centuries they formed the core fighting group sent to destroy large wildling warbands who attempted to pass south of the Wall.
* **Builders** - who physically maintain the structures of the Night's Watch, and repair the Wall itself.
* **Stewards** - who provide for the day-to-day needs of the Watch: gathering, cooking, and serving food, repairing clothes and equipment, tending to the horses and messenger-ravens, and gathering firewood. By far the largest of the three orders.
* **Captains** - an order created by The 995th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Tristan Reyne, they are the different leaders of the castles outside of Castle Black, they work essentially as the Lord Commanders of each castle, but are instructed to report to The Lord Commander at Castle Black every week on the 5th day of the week. They are appointed by Lord Commander however, they are usually groomed by the captain at the castle as a sort of heir to the title.

Each castle of the Night's Watch also has a maester assigned to it. These maesters take the oath of the Night's Watch and are considered full black brothers, but are not considered part of the three orders. Given that there were never more than nineteen castles along the Wall, there were never more than nineteen maesters in the Night's Watch at any one time. Since there are only three active castles on the Wall in modern times, there are now only three maesters in the Night's Watch at a time.

### Leadership

The leader of the Night's Watch is the Lord Commander. Each Lord Commander serves for life, and a new Lord Commander is democratically elected by other members of the Night's Watch in a Choosing.

It is unknown if there is any formal procedure to depose a Lord Commander and elect a new one, in cases where the current Lord Commander violates his oaths or is deemed medically unfit to lead, etc.

### Recruitment

Recruiters commonly known as "Wandering Crows" travel to the cities of southern Westeros to gather up new recruits to join the Night's Watch. In recent years, most of these tend to be criminals, murderers, rapists, and thieves taken from the dungeons of major cities and towns. A few also join because they are desperately poor and have no other better options. Once in a great while a younger son or bastard son of a major noble House will decide to join the Night's Watch, but they can often afford to travel to the Night's Watch on their own initiative.

Recruiters are few in number, and they are not considered a separate order in the Night's Watch. Instead, they are drawn from trusted members of the three orders, often those who can no longer fight well due to injuries but who can still travel.

## Possessions

### Castles along the Wall

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.

As the Night's Watch dwindled over the centuries, however, most of these castles were abandoned, and their tunnels sealed with ice. However the 955th Lord Commander, Tristan Reyne, made an effort to recruit more men and was able to man and rebuild more castles again. Out of the 19 castles along the Wall, the ones that are currently manned are: Castle Black (the central and main castle), Queensgate, Greenguard, Oakenshield, Sentinel Stand, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and the Shadow Tower.

### The Gift

The Gift is a region to the south of the Wall under the direct control of the Night's Watch. It lies at the northern edge of the region known as the North. It was donated to the Night's Watch by House Stark when the order was founded thousands of years ago, in order to support the Night's Watch with food and provisions. The Gift is officially not subject to the authority of Winterfell, and is technically not part of "The North", but is a special administrative zone directly ruled by the Night's Watch.

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.

## Notable members

### Recent Lords Commander

* {Brynden 'Bloodraven' Targaryen}, 993th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Lord of Castle Black. Lost and never found while on an expedition Beyond the Wall.
* {Brandon Locke}, 994th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Lord of Castle Black. Killed due to injuries he suffered in a ranging.
* Tristan Reyne, 995th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Lord of Castle Black. The current Lord Commander.

### Past Lords Commander

The original headquarters of the Night's Watch was the Nightfort, the first castle built at the Wall, and thus for thousands of years, it was where the Lord Commander of the Watch resided. A little over two hundred years before the War of the Five Kings, during the reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, the Night's Watch abandoned the Nightfort because they could no longer maintain it with their dwindling resources. Instead, they relocated their headquarters to Castle Black, where all subsequent Lords Commander were based.

* The "Night's King" - one of the early Lords Commander who, according to legend, lived eight thousand years ago. The legends say that he was seduced by a female White Walker, declared himself king of the Night's Watch, and conducted human sacrifices at the Nightfort. It took an alliance between the Stark King in the North and the wildling King-Beyond-the-Wall Joramun to overthrow him, and restore the Night's Watch.

### Captains

* Garred Tuttle, Captain of the Shadow Tower
* Waymar Royce, Captain of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea
* Donal Noye, Captain of Sentinel Stand
* Sleepy Jack, Captain of Oakenshield
* Ubbe, Captain of Queensgate
* Gareth Forrester, Captain of Greenguard

## Oath

When joining the Night's Watch, all members must swear the following oath, either in a sept if they are of the Faith of the Seven, or before a heart tree if they follow the Old Gods of the Forest.

> *Hear my words and bear witness to my vow. 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 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.*
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