Lothor Burley

Lothor Burley was Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch when Alysanne Targaryen visited the Wall. He received the queen with a show of force and hospitality, then brought her into direct contact with the Watch’s hardships. Her visit helped secure the abandonment of the ruinous Nightfort and the building of Deep Lake, while Burley’s own actions also gave Snowgate the name Queensgate.

Command at Castle Black

Concerned about how the queen might be received, Alaric Stark sent ravens ahead to announce her arrival. Burley responded by assembling eight hundred of his finest men to welcome her at Castle Black. That night, the brothers feasted Alysanne on mammoth meat, accompanied by mead and stout. The welcome placed the Watch’s numbers and traditions around a royal visitor who had arrived by dragon, while Burley himself guided her through the order’s remote and demanding world.

At dawn, Burley took Alysanne to the top of the Wall. Apologizing for Castle Black’s food and rough accommodations, he explained that the Watch did what it could, but that its beds were hard and its halls cold. The queen answered that the food was nourishing and said she required nothing more. The exchange made the difference between royal comfort and the Watch’s daily conditions explicit, without keeping the queen at a distance from them.

Showing the queen the Watch’s world

Burley also took Alysanne into the Haunted Forest, escorted by a hundred rangers. When she wished to see more of the forts along the Wall, First Ranger Benton Glover led her west along its top, past Snowgate to the Nightfort, where the party descended and spent the night. The journey exposed Alysanne to the scale and severity of the Watch’s frontier, and to the state of one of its oldest strongholds.

The visit was not merely ceremonial. Alysanne reminded Burley that she had come on behalf of the Iron Throne, and she spent afternoons with him and his officers discussing the wildlings, the Wall, and the Watch’s needs. Burley thus served not only as her host and guide but as the commander who put the institution’s practical concerns before the queen.

The Nightfort and a new castle

Alysanne judged the Nightfort too large, crumbling, and costly to heat. She considered a castle between Snowgate and Icemark necessary, but proposed that the Watch abandon the Nightfort and build a smaller one farther east. Burley did not disagree with her assessment; he explained that the Night’s Watch lacked the money to build new castles.

Alysanne had anticipated the obstacle and pledged her jewels to pay for the new castle. The project, which took eight years to complete, became Deep Lake. The Nightfort was abandoned before construction was finished, as the queen had wanted, and a statue of Alysanne stood outside Deep Lake’s main hall. Burley also renamed Snowgate Queensgate in her honor, marking the visit in the Wall’s geography as well as in its buildings.

Leadership and legacy

Burley’s part in these changes lay in making the Watch visible to the queen: he received her, showed her the Wall and its forts, and discussed the order’s needs with her. His agreement that the Nightfort was no longer suitable, coupled with his frank admission that the Watch could not finance a replacement, gave Alysanne the opportunity to address a material problem rather than offer a merely ceremonial gesture.

The outcome was practical and enduring. The Watch left a failing stronghold for a smaller castle built farther east, while Snowgate became Queensgate. Burley’s tenure as Lord Commander is thus remembered in the account through the encounter between the Watch’s limited means and Alysanne’s willingness to fund what its commander could not.