Night's Watch

The **Night's Watch** is a military order dedicated to holding the Wall, the immense fortification on the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms, defending the realms of men from what lies beyond the Wall. The order's foundation dates back to the Age of Heroes, at the time when the Others were pushed back. The men of Night's Watch wear only black, and they are known as **black brothers**. Recruits who join the Watch are said to **take the black**.

## Organization

### 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.

* **Builders** are responsible for tending to and maintaining the Wall and its castles. The order provides masons, carpenters, miners, and woodsmen to this end.

* **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.

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.

### Leadership

The Lord Commander of the Night's Watch is the final authority and oversees the entire order. Any man of the Night's Watch can be nominated to be the lord commander. A lord commander serves in office until the day he dies, when a replacement is elected by the men of the Watch.

At Castle Black, Lord Commander [placeholder] is advised by First Ranger [placeholder], First Builder [placeholder], and Lord Steward [placeholder].  [Placeholder] is the commander at the Shadow Tower, while [Placeholder] has command at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Maesters advising the senior leadership are [Placeholder] at Castle Black, [Placeholder] at the Shadow Tower, and [Placeholder] at Eastwatch.

The majority of the officers and leadership of the Watch are pulled from the upper crust of Westerosi society. A noble or knighted man is almost guaranteed a position as an officer in the Watch, but there are several powerful and influential brothers that are of common blood as well. The Watch, as a meritocracy, is one of the few places in feudal Westeros where a common man can rise high and even gain command over knights and lords, rising as far as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

### Recruitment

Once, serving on the Wall was honor 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 septor 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.

## Possessions

### Castles of the Night's Watch

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. Now the Watch uses mules to ride atop the Wall, as the paths have not been graveled between the older castles in many years. The mules are bred at Eastwatch and are specially trained for their duties.

The castles are listed from East to West:

Westwatch-by-the-Bridge · Shadow Tower · Sentinel Stand · Greyguard · Stonedoor · Hoarfrost Hill · Icemark · Nightfort · Deep Lake · Queensgate· Castle Black · Oakenshield · Woodswatch-by-the-Pool · Sable Hall · Rimegate · Long Barrow · Torches · Greenguard · Eastwatch-by-the-Sea

#### Notable Castles

* Castle Black, the largest maintained castle, located at the northern end of Kingsroad held by nearly six hundred brothers.
* The Shadow Tower, most western outpost of the Watch, garrisoned by two hundred men.
* Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, port of the Night's Watch with the smallest standing garrison.
* The Nightfort, the oldest and largest castle of the Night's Watch. 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, built seven miles east of the Nightfort and meant to replace it. It was paid for by Good Queen Alysanne Targaryen.
* Queensgate, originally called Snowgate, it was renamed after Good Queen Alysanne slept there for one night during her visit to the Wall.

### The Gift and the New 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 labor. 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.

### Ships

The Night's Watch employs a small fleet at Eastwatch.

## Recent History

With the Gift populated by descendants of the Wildlings, the North has seen more frequent and barbaric raids by the descendants of clans who refused to settle south of the Wall, nearly unopposed by the scant few brothers in black who manned the castles. Knowing this threat his entire life, Lord Torrhen Stark founded the Law of the Watch, decreeing that every man of the North must serve a stint of five years sworn to the Night’s Watch after the age of fifteen, but no later than twenty five. Initially ill received, the law was proven effective and eventually a sense of pride and duty was instilled in the Northmen for “serving your five.”

Joramun Snow is the 1000th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He is the bastard son of the late Lord Umber and a wildling woman called Yvale, a descendant of the Free Folk who settled in the Gift. She was rumored to be a greenseer. Joramun is said to have gouged his own eye out in an attempt to rid himself of terrible visions, inherited from his mother, but the truth is more likely that he lost it in battle to a member of the ice-river clans.

The right side of his face bears a terrible burn scar, especially around the empty socket where his eye once was, and in true wildling fashion he has had the scar tissue tattooed in dark ink with symbols of protection.

## Current Members

* **Lord Commander of the Night's Watch** - Joramun Snow
* **Lord Steward** -
* ---
* ---
* **First Builder** -
* ---
* ---
* **First Ranger** -
* ---
* ---