This is going to be a bit different from the previous respect threads that I have made so far. The Night King, and the White Walkers in general, are not human warriors like Jaime, Sandor, Brienne or Bronn, they are supernatural and mysterious demonic creatures who possess numerous special abilities, and are a great force to be reckoned with. It appears that in the upcoming season 7 they will finally be registered as they main threat to the Seven Kingdoms (and possibly the whole world), and a large portion of the attention in the show will be focused on them and the war against them. With season 7 coming very very soon, now is the perfect time to remind ourselves just what the new main baddies are capable of.
The White Walkers:
The White Walkers (in the books they are more commonly known as "Others"), contrary to the popular grasp of them, are NOT zombies. The first White Walker - now known as the Night King - was created by the Children of the Forest back in the Dawn Age (~10,000 years prior to the current timeline), to aid them in their war against the First Men. He was originally a human of the First Men, who was put through some experimental magic ritual (probably blood magic) that turned him into what he is now. The Children of the Forest probably created more White Walkers as well, although we never see them do it and it is possible that the Night King is the one who created the rest of the White Walkers. He appears to have different and more powerful abilities than any other White Walker and he has been seen in the series to possess the power to create White Walkers out of human babies, so whether he created the White Walkers himself or not remains to be discovered. Or not. In any case, the Children's plan to create a powerful race of Ice Demons that will serve them backfired horribly and they ended up creating the most feared, horrible creatures in Westeros, who turned against the Children of the Forest and the First Men alike. They finally holed themselves up in the northernmost part of Westeros - an uncharted territory called "The Lands of Always Winter". The war between the Children and the First Men ended with a pact, which ended the Dawn Age and heralded the Age of Heroes.
About 8,000 years prior to the current timeline, the White Walkers reemerged from the Lands of Always Winter and ventured south, killing and destroying everything in their path, in what is now known as "The Long Night". The calamity lasted a whole generation and ended in what is now known as "The War for the Dawn", in which all of Westeros united against the White Walkers and their undead army, lead by a hero by the name of Azor Ahai. After the White Walkers were driven back to the far north, the Wall was built by King Brandon Stark (AKA Bran the Builder") and imbued with mysterious magic, and the Night's Watch was established in order to guard the reams of men and prevent another Long Night.
Fast forward 8,000 years into our current timeline. The Night's Watch is considered by most to be a faltering bunch of former petty criminals holed up to freeze their asses off in the icy north, the Long Night is thought to be a bedtime story that was created to scare little children, and practically nobody believes that the White Walkers or the Children of the Forest existed in the first place. A lot of shit goes down, and now Westeros is again at the risk of suffering the wrath of the White Walkers once more.
The White Walkers appear generally humanoid. They are taller than most humans, their skin and their hair are pale white, and their eyes are bright, icy-blue. They are sinewy and their bones are showing through their skin, giving them a zombie/mummy-like appearance (although, as I said, they are NOT zombies). They carry weapons (mostly long pole-arms) that end with a blade of a mysterious crystal-ice material. They are often shown to be riding undead horses as well. They have only two known weaknesses - Dragonglass (Obsidian) and Dragonsteel (Valyrian Steel).
So, let's start with the regular White Walkers and their abilities before focusing on the Night King.
Physicals:
Special abilities:
Weaknesses:
The Night King - the original gangster:
The Night King possesses several abilities that were not demonstrated by other White Walkers. It is quite safe to assume that he possesses all the abilities and physical stats of the regular White Walkers that were shown above, but all the extra abilities that he demonstrated are most probably exclusive to him alone.
He differs from other White Walkers in appearance by not having any hair or beard, and instead having horn-like spikes that surround his head, forming what appears to be somewhat of a crown. His weapon is also different from those carried by other White Walkers. It is some sort of pole-arm with a weird thin curved blade at the end.
Origin:
His creation by the Children of the Forest was witnessed by Bran in one of his LSD trips visions:
Special abilities:
That's it on the White Walkers and the Night King so far. We are bound to see a lot more of them in season 7 so I will try to update this thread frequently as the season goes on. Hope you enjoyed the read! ;)
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