The Big Picture
- The White Walkers were created by the Children of the Forest to protect against the First Men and have the power to turn infants into White Walkers.
- The Night King is the leader of the White Walkers and has the ability to resurrect the dead and manipulate the weather.
- White Walkers can be killed with dragonglass or Valyrian steel, and when a White Walker falls, the wights they resurrected lose their mobility. #GameofThrones
Game of Thrones certainly left its mark on television (thank the Old Gods, the New Gods, the Lord of Light, the Many-Faced God, and The Drowned God), spawning the successful prequel, House of the Dragon. But remember one of the most important elements of Game of Thrones, The White Walkers? Let’s take a look back at these bone-chilling villains.
The ancient, terrifying, mummy-like antagonists with their ice zombie army became increasingly vital as Game of Thrones raced toward its inevitable conclusion. Here’s everything you need to know about The White Walkers.
Who are the White Walkers?
The White Walkers are leaders of an ice zombie horde known as “wights,” seemingly intent on destroying the world of men. They come from the far North, deep beyond The Wall, but have been organized under the rule of the Night King and are making their way south to Westeros as we speak.
Not that anyone other than the wildlings, Jon Snow, the Night’s Watch, and Ser Davos took the threat seriously, though.
Where Did the White Walkers Come From?
The White Walkers were created by the Children of the Forest thousands of years ago as a form of protection against the First Men who were cutting their sacred trees and slaughtering their tribe. (Rude). The White Walkers were originally First Men themselves, before being captured by the Children of the Forest to be changed into weapons. The Children of the Forest pressed dragonglass daggers into the chests of these First Men to create the first White Walkers.
Eventually, the White Walkers rebelled, Cylon-style, from their lives of forced war-making and decided to make war on their own terms, attacking the living indiscriminately and becoming the most feared creatures in all of Westeros. Or so the legends say. We’ve yet to hear the White Walkers’ side of the story.
Who Is the Night King?
The Night King (or sometimes called Night’s King) is most recognizable of The White Walkers. You’ve probably seen this icy bad guy in a meme or gif, raising his arms in an “Are you not entertained?” gesture as he resurrects a whole horde of fallen wildling corpses into wights. Because that’s something he can do.
The Night King was the first of the White Walkers. He was one of the First Men before he was turned into something else by the Children of the Forest. He has the power to turn human infants into White Walkers, as we saw with Craster’s sons who were given as sacrifices to the Night King in return for Crasters’ and his brood’s safety. He also raised Dany’s dragon Viserion from the dead, and rode him while destroying the Wall. Talk about flex.
What Do the White Walkers Want?
I mean, they’re probably pretty mad about that enforced slavery thing. Also, they were created with a singular purpose — war — using untested magic as the instrument. In other words: The Children of the Forest were just kind of desperately winging it. They were playing with fire (or, in this case, ice) and most definitely got burned. Now, they’re getting everyone else burned, too.
Perhaps, given their origins, the White Walkers are incapable of wanting anything other than to conquer. Or maybe they’re just really angry. Frankly, this is the Children of the Forests’ fault, though it seems like a low blow to harp too much on this point, given that most of them are dead, many at the hands of The White Walkers themselves.
Have the White Walkers Attacked Westeros Before?
Yep. Roughly 8,000 years ago, during the longest winter in recorded history (it lasted an entire generation), the White Walkers struck Westeros. It was not good, but, eventually, the people of Westeros joined forces and, with the help of the Children of the Forest and the giants, drove the White Walkers back into the North. The Wall was built to keep the zombie horde at bay, and the Night’s Watch took their first pledge. Since then, the White Walkers have faded into fairy tale and most people in the world of men think they are simply a scary story made up to keep children in check.
What Do We Know of the White Walker Culture?
Well, we know they speak a language called Skroth, which author George R.R. Martin describes as sounding like the cracking of ice. Some of the White Walkers we have seen on the show have crown-like horns of ice, suggesting they are part of some kind of ruling class. This form of White Walker has always been seen wearing black armor. The Night King leads them.
What do the White Walkers believe in? Melisandre claims the White Walkers worship a god called the Great Other who is basically the Lord of Light’s enemy. It is unclear if the Great Other is related to any of the many other religious deities we have heard about on this show so far.
In Season 8, Bran reveals that the Night King wants to destroy him because he holds all of the history of man. The Night King has evidently tried to come for other Three-Eyed Ravens for the same reason, but now that he has marked Bran, it seems clear that the White Walkers want to destroy any remaining semblance of the living and their world.
What Powers Do White Walkers Have?
White Walkers are super strong and also seem to have some sort of ability to manipulate the weather. They usually appear accompanied by a blizzard and dropping temperatures. That’s just how White Walkers roll.
The Night King called down a mighty, zero-visibility blizzard that threw the Battle of Winterfell into chaos and confused both Daenerys and Jon and their dragons.
White Walkers have the ability to freeze anything they touch, as we saw in Season 2 when a White Walker froze Sam’s sword to the shattering point. Perhaps most terrifyingly, the White Walkers are able to reanimate corpses of fallen men, turning them into wights. Wildlings have taken to burning their corpses to prevent them from being added to the White Walkers’ increasingly massive army.
The Night King in particular has demonstrated further power. In addition to his aforementioned ability to turn human infants into White Walkers, he can turn hundreds of corpses into wights with the raising of his arms (the wights then act in a singular hive-mind, and come to save others who are in peril), can cause fissures in the ground, and can mark a person for pursuit as he does with Bran in Season 6. Once marked, it is rumored that no barrier can prevent the Night King from following his prey, which has led many fans to speculate that Bran’s mark will help the Night King and his army pass The Wall (as has indeed come to pass).
Oh, and he can also reanimate dead dragons into wight/undead dragons. Yeah. (Bears, too, but c’mon. Dragons.) In the Season 7 finale, we saw the reanimated Viserion as a mount for the Night King, able to destroy the Wall with his blue fire.
Can White Walkers be killed?
Yeah, it’s not easy, as Sam discovered the terrifying way. White Walkers are vulnerable to blades made from dragonglass or Valyrian steel. Jon Snow uses his Valyrian steel sword Longclaw to take out a White Walker at the battle of Hardhome in Season 5. Unfortunately, the art of forging Valyrian steel has been lost, which means there are a limited number of Valyrian swords left in the world. For more on Valyrian steel, check out our primer on the subject.
Unlike wights, it is much harder to burn a White Walker because they are so cold, though there is speculation that dragonfire might do the trick.
When a White Walker falls, however, the wights they resurrected lose their mobility mojo. This was previously only seen during Season 7, Episode 6 “Beyond the Wall” but played a big part in the survival of the people of the North. Arya’s deathblow to the Night King with her Valyrian steel dagger not only turned the icy leader to powder, his entire army also crumbled into uselessness. Handy, that!
— Dave Trumbore and Abby Cavenaugh contributed to this report.
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