Wight

A **wight** was a corpse, either human or animal, that had been reanimated with necromancy by the White Walkers. Collectively, the wights under the control of the Night King, the master of the White Walkers, were referred to as the **Army of the Dead**, or more simply, **the dead**.

The wights, like their White Walker masters, were all suddenly and simultaneously rendered extinct with the death of the Night King by the hand of Bran Stark and Jon Snow during the Battle of King's Landing.

## History

### Long Night

Eight millennia prior to Aegon's Conquest, the wights under their White Walker overlords first emerged from the Lands of Always Winter, and swept over Westeros during the Long Night.

Eventually, an alliance of the First Men and Children of the Forest drove the White Walkers and the Army of the Dead into the distant north, in what became remembered as the Battle for the Dawn. The Wall was constructed between the North and the lands beyond, to protect the continent against any future invasion from the Walkers.

### Conflict beyond the Wall

After over eight thousands years of absence, during which time the Long Night had long since faded into myth and legend, the Free Folk and the Night's Watch began encountering wights and White Walkers in the lands just beyond the Wall. The Free Folk soon allied together under the leadership of Mance Rayder in an effort to get south of the Wall, but the Night's Watch resisted their passage until the massacre at Hardhome, where the wights wiped out scores of the Free Folk, only for their corpses to be raised again as wights themselves by the Night King. The Free Folk subsequently allied themselves with Lord Commander Jon Snow, and were granted passage into the Gift.

Following Daenerys Targaryen's invasion of Westeros, Jon Snow (now King in the North) sought to unite the warring factions of Westeros together by presenting proof of the existence of the wights by capturing and presenting one to Queen Cersei Lannister in King's Landing. During the Wight Hunt, the Night King killed Viserion, one of Daenerys Targaryen's dragons, and reanimated him as a wight ice dragon, greatly bolstering the potency of the Army of the Dead.

### Great War

Riding Viserion, the Night King broke through the Wall and lead the Army of the Dead into the Seven Kingdoms, beginning the Great War. They faced the alliance of the Living in their first major pitched battle at Winterfell, where Viserion was killed after being speared by a dragonglass-tipped scorpion bolt. The White Walkers won the battle regardless, and the Night King was able to successfully reanimate Viserion for a second time.

As the survivors of Winterfell retreated south, the Army of the Dead swept over the length and breadth of the North, killing all in their path, and further swelling their numbers. Eventually, the dead succeeded in breaking through Moat Cailin and crossing into the Riverlands beyond.

The wights eventually encircled King's Landing, where the alliance of the living planned to make their final stand against the dead. The Night King, who had been left stranded on Dragonstone following a battle which saw the dead on the island (Viserion included) incinerated in a wildfire explosion, held off attacking the capital of the Seven Kingdoms until he could be returned to the mainland to oversee the battle in person.

In the meantime, the Army of the Dead swept over the entirety of the Riverlands, Crownlands, most of the Westerlands, and large sections of the Reach and the Stormlands, desolating the continent and killing millions.

The wights finally met their end during the Battle of King's Landing. The Night King, whilst attempting to kill Bran Stark, was forcibly warged back in time into the body of Rhaegar Targaryen just as he was being struck down by Robert Baratheon. The action crippled the Night King in the present, and he was subsequently dealt a killing blow by Rhaegar's son, Jon Snow. As the Night King had created all the White Walkers, and collectively they had all created the Army of the Dead, the death of the Night King destroyed the magic animating both the White Walkers and wights, causing their sudden and simultaneous destruction across the continent.

## See also

* Wight on Wiki of Westeros
* Wights of A Wiki of Ice and Fire