The 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.

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.

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, such as the senior rangers. 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
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.

Possessions
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 eight of them are maintained. The castles themselves are closer to garrisons, composed mostly of barracks, stables, storehouses, towers and out-buildings, and as of recently, outer walls. After the events of Redbeard's invasion, castles upon the Wall that were exposed to the south had walls erected. 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, that was until Redbeard's invasion.

The castles that are currently manned are:


 * The Shadow Tower
 * Greyguard
 * Icemark
 * The Nightfort
 * Castle Black
 * Long Barrow
 * The Torches
 * Eastwatch-by-the-Sea

The Night's Watch employs a small fleet at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.

The Long Night
The Night's Watch is one of the oldest orders in the Seven Kingdoms, as it survived the fall of the kingdoms of the First Men, the Andal invasion, and Aegon's Conquest. It was founded over eight thousand years ago, at the end of the Long Night. Under cover of an endless night that lasted for a generation, the Others invaded from the Lands of Always Winter, laying waste to much of Westeros. The Others were finally defeated by the Night's Watch at the Battle for the Dawn, which is recalled in "The Night That Ended".The Wall was allegedly built by Bran the Builder in order to protect the Seven Kingdoms, with the brothers of the Night's Watch choosing their own Lord Commander since that time. During the Age of Heroes it was also recorded that the children of the forest gave the Night's Watch a hundred obsidian daggers every year.

Other than the corrupting of the thirteenth Lord Commander, the so-called Night's King, further attacks by the Others never came, however. Instead, the most frequent attacks came from the wildlings, sometimes led by their Kings-Beyond-the-Wall, and their constant attempts at raiding in the north. Little by little, the Night's Watch forgot that its main mission was not the fight against the wildlings, but against the Others.

Hundred Kingdoms
The Night's Watch built nineteen castles along the hundred leagues of the Wall. At the zenith of its power, the Watch had seventeen of the castles manned, with at least ten thousand men between them. Castle Black alone once quartered five thousand fighting men with all their horses, servants, and equipment.The highborn of the north have traditionally considered it an honor to serve on the Wall. Many younger sons of northern houses, low in the line of succession, gladly took the black. Shields of nobles from the Hundred Kingdoms of Westeros were proudly displayed in the Shieldhall at Castle Black.

Six kings were sent to the Wall after Nymeria's War and the unification of Dorne by House Martell.

226 AC
RAYMUND REDBEARD invades the North over the Wall. JACK MUSGOOD and the Watchmen march south and met the Northmen at Long Lake, intercepting REDBEARD and his forces before they can make it too far south. MUSGOOD is slain by REDBEARD before REDBEARD met his end.

226 AC - 251 AC
During the reign of Lord Commander ORBERT PEAKE, the Watch set up routine patrols along the Wall and the paths leading north beyond it. This would lead to the wildlings memorizing these routine patrols, which subsequently led to the deaths of more rangers than in previous tenures. PEAKE, being the stubborn man he was, refused to recognize his mistakes.

251 AC - 260 AC
LYN CARON continued PEAKE’S routines, being a close friend of the man and just as stubborn. More men perished under the reign of CARON, though they took just as many Wildlings with them. In 260, upon learning of the demise of his house and the ruin of his family’s keep, he threw himself from the top of the Wall.

260 AC - 288 AC
The rule of WILLEM WENDWATER as the 997th Lord Commander was regarded as the turning point of the Night’s Watch. He did away with the routine patrols and instead created randomized patrols and routes. Within a few years, raids on the Wall and in turn the North were nearly non-existent. WILLEM was a brave and courageous man, more Ranger than Lord Commander, or so his men said. He would often join his Rangers on rangings, but that would be his demise. In 288, one ranging ventured too far after being set upon by a freak blizzard. WILLEM would not make it back to the Wall alive, succumbing to complications from frostbite.

288 AC - Present
YORICK TOLAND, a Dornish R’hllorite, had been on that ranging with WILLEM and carried him back to the Wall. As one of the only Rangers not affected by frostbite, he was viewed as strong and was voted in as Lord Commander in an overwhelming majority. He continues on the teachings of WILLEM WENDWATER, joining his Rangers as often as he can. His focus recently, however, has been on Castle Black and other keeps along the Wall.

Thanks in no small part to him favouring R’hllor, KING VISERYS has taken to funding the Wall in a slew of ways including giving the Third Gift to the Watch. While the Northmen were not at all happy with it, as they saw the Watch as a down-trodden joke of an organization at this point, YORICK was ecstatic. More recently, supplies arrived that allowed the Stewards to reinforce the outer walls of Castle Black, reconstruct and repair decrepit keeps along the Wall. Newly forged arms and armour also have begun to pile up in the armoury.

Present day
The year is now 309 AC, and the arrival of new recruits is all the buzz at Castle Black. These are the most recent of the many prisoners and volunteers sent to the North by KING VISERYS and his allies. Lord Commander YORICK TOLAND has devoted a day to welcoming the recruits with a surely rousing speech and a subsequent ‘feast’, if you can call what the Castle Black chef concots a feast compared to the extravagant feasts of the southron lords.

177 AC - 199 AC
MANDON MOSS, 993rd Lord Commander

199 AC - 226 AC
JACK MUSGOOD, 994th Lord Commander

226 AC - 251 AC
ORBERT PEAKE, 995th Lord Commander

251 AC - 260 AC
LYN CARON, 996th Lord Commander

260 AC - 288 AC
WILLEM WENDWATER, 997th Lord Commander

288 AC - Present
YORICK TOLAND, 998th Lord Commander