The Long Night

The Long Night is the most cataclysmic event in the known history of Westeros, a generation-long winter of total darkness during which the Others descended from the Lands of Always Winter to slaughter the living. It is the foundational trauma against which the Wall, the Night's Watch, and the ancient pacts between men and the children of the forest were forged, and its return is the central apocalyptic threat of the present narrative.

Origins and the Coming of the Others

The Long Night occurred thousands of years ago, during the Age of Heroes, though the oldest written histories were set down by septons millennia after the fact, making precise chronology impossible. According to the accounts that survive, a winter fell that lasted a generation—a single, unbroken season of cold and darkness during which the sun hid its face. It was then that the Others first appeared, emerging from the uttermost north. They were beings of living ice, wielding swords so cold they shattered the steel of mortal men, and they rode the corpses of dead animals: bears, direwolves, mammoths, horses. The dead they killed rose again as their thralls, wights with black hands and bright blue eyes, swelling the enemy's ranks with every battle. The children of the forest, who had long dwelt in Westeros, fought alongside the First Men against this common foe, but their obsidian weapons and ancient magic could only slow the advance.

The Last Hero and the Forging of Lightbringer

As the Long Night deepened and hope faded, a figure known only as the Last Hero set out to find the children of the forest, hoping their magic could turn the tide. His companions died one by one, his sword broke, and his dog froze to death, until he was alone. According to the tales, he finally found the children, and together they forged a blade of dragonsteel—a weapon that could slay the Others. This legend is echoed in the eastern prophecy of Azor Ahai, who, to fight the darkness, tempered his sword Lightbringer by plunging it into the heart of his beloved wife, Nissa Nissa. Her cry of anguish and ecstasy, it is said, cracked the moon and the sun, and the blade thereafter burned fiery hot, never cold to the touch. In battle, Lightbringer's heat was so intense that when thrust into a monster's belly, its blood boiled, its eyes melted, and its body burst into flame.

The End of the Long Night and Its Legacy

The Long Night was finally ended when the Last Hero—or, in some versions, a coalition of the First Men and the children of the forest—defeated the Others in a great battle. The survivors then raised the Wall, a colossal barrier of ice stretching from coast to coast, and founded the Night's Watch to guard it. The Wall was said to be woven with ancient spells that prevented the Others from passing. The children of the forest also gave the Watch a hundred obsidian daggers every year during the Age of Heroes, a gift meant to arm the defenders against their ancient foe. The Long Night passed into legend, but the memory of its horror never entirely faded. The Starks of Winterfell, who claim descent from Brandon the Builder, the legendary architect of the Wall, have always held that winter is coming—a warning that the Long Night may one day return.

The Threat of Return in the Present

In the present narrative, the Long Night is no longer a distant myth but an imminent reality. The Others have been seen again beyond the Wall, and the wights—the risen dead—have attacked the Night's Watch at the Fist of the First Men and beyond. Samwell Tarly, researching in the archives of Castle Black, finds that the Others are vulnerable to obsidian and to dragonsteel, which he identifies as Valyrian steel. Jon Snow, the Lord Commander, recognizes that the ancient enemy is stirring, and that the petty wars of men must give way to a united defense. The Long Night, once a story told to frighten children, is now the defining crisis of the age, and the Wall—the shield that guards the realms of men—stands as the last line between the living and the endless winter.