Deep Lake is a castle built for the Night’s Watch through the personal intervention of Alysanne Targaryen. Intended as a smaller, more manageable replacement for the crumbling Nightfort, it embodied the queen’s response to the Watch’s needs: she listened to its leaders, recognized the burdens of maintaining the old fortress, and pledged her jewels to finance a new stronghold.

Purpose and Funding

During her stay at Castle Black, Alysanne discussed the Wall, the wildlings, and the needs of the Night’s Watch with Lord Commander Lothor Burley and his officers. She agreed that the Watch needed a castle between Snowgate and Icemark, but judged the Nightfort overlarge, ruinous to heat, and already crumbling. Her proposed solution was to abandon it and build a smaller castle farther east. When Lothor Burley explained that the Watch lacked the coin for new construction, Alysanne offered to pay for the castle herself, pledging her jewels to cover the cost.

Construction and the Nightfort

The new castle took eight years to raise and was named Deep Lake. The Nightfort was abandoned before Deep Lake was completed, as Alysanne had wished; the old stronghold’s decline and the new castle’s long construction therefore overlapped. Deep Lake represented a practical change in the Watch’s defensive infrastructure: rather than preserve an oversized, deteriorating castle, the queen helped provide a smaller one farther east.

Memorial and Legacy

A statue of Alysanne stands outside Deep Lake’s main hall. The queen’s influence also reached beyond the new castle: Lothor Burley renamed Snowgate Queensgate in her honor. These memorials connect Deep Lake to the personal commitment behind its construction, preserving the memory of a ruler who supported the Night’s Watch not only through counsel but by supplying the wealth its own resources could not provide.