Stonedoor

Stonedoor is one of the nineteen castles along the Wall, long abandoned by the Night's Watch and fallen into ruin. When Jon Snow, the Lord Commander, negotiated the passage of thousands of free folk through the Wall, he needed to find places to house them. Among the wildling chiefs who swore oaths to him was Soren Shieldbreaker, a famed warrior. Jon granted Stonedoor to Soren and his followers as their new home, a decision that provoked disapproval from his own officers. Othell Yarwyck, the First Builder, complained that Stonedoor was too isolated, worrying that no one could know what mischief Soren might get up to in those hills. Bowen Marsh, the Lord Steward, was even more hostile, declaring that he knew Soren by his deeds and that the Watch should be fitting him for a noose, not giving him a castle. Jon pressed ahead regardless, part of his broader strategy to repopulate the empty forts and secure the Wall against the coming winter and the threat of the Others. The grant of Stonedoor was one of several such assignments: Tormund Giantsbane received Oakenshield, Morna White Mask received Queensgate, and other wildling leaders were considered for Hoarfrost Hill and Rimegate. The skinchanger Borroq, whose boar terrified the horses and provoked Ghost, was also sent to Stonedoor, as the woods north of the castle were said to be full of wild boars, and Yarwyck darkly speculated that Borroq might make his own pig army. Jon's decision to give Stonedoor to Soren Shieldbreaker was part of a larger pattern of integrating the free folk into the Watch's defenses, a policy that deepened the rift between him and his senior officers and contributed to the tensions that led to his assassination.