Chapter 2: The Wall & The Giftthem. Such tactics are simply impossible with the Wall, which is toothick and its foundation too deep to be tunneled under in most places.Even if sappers did manage to lay a shaft in below it, collapsing it woulddo very little real damage—at most it would replace a section of Wallwith a pile of slick and treacherous ice at least as insurmountable as itwas to begin with.There is, however, a legend every black brother learns of two Brotherswho claimed the title King-beyond-the-Wall, Gorne and Gendel.These two found a path through a network of caves between the towersof Greyguard and Stonedoor. Together with their people they passedbeneath the Wall and emerged far to the south of it. The King in theNorth fell upon them there with his host, where Gorne killed the King,but the King’s son slew Gorne as well. The wildlings say Gendel andhis people escaped the slaughter and fled back to the caves, where it isbelieved their descendants haunt the caves today, lost in darkness andhungry for the flesh of the living. If anyone has found Gorne’s Waysince, they haven’t spoken of it.Going ThroughWhen you can’t go over, can’t go around, and you can’t go under, youmust go through. But the Wall is not just high, nor long—Brandonbuilt it thick as well.At the top, the Wall is wide enough for a dozen men to ride abreast.At its base, it is thicker still. Tunneling through would seem to be afool’s errand. Even if a hundred men with picks and axes could avoidnotice by the patrols of the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>, it would take them a year topass through. But this does not stop men from trying.There is a tale, often coupled with the story of Gorne and his passageunder the Wall, of Arson Iceaxe, who managed to dig halfway throughbefore being found by the men of the Nightfort. The Brothers didn’ttrouble the wildling at his work: they simply sealed the tunnel behindhim and left his bones to freeze beneath the Wall.For those that don’t care to cut a new tunnel, each castle of the<strong>Watch</strong> also had a tunnel dug by the men that manned it. When inuse, these tunnels were well defended and gated with iron portcullises,oaken gates, and murder holes. As the Brothers abandoned thosecastles, they locked the gates and sealed the tunnels with blocks of iceand stone.There are three tunnels still in operation, one each at Eastwatch-bythe-Sea,Castle Black, and the Shadow Tower. They are all low, narrowaffairs: rangers passing through must go single-file and lead their littlegarrons past each gate. Iron gates stand in the passage and heavy oakdoors seal the portal on the north end of each tunnel. Armed with pikesand crossbows, any of the passages can be held almost indefinitely by nomore than a handful of men.Over the millennia it has stood, the Wall has seen thousands of mentry to breach it. With steel, stone, and fire they’ve come and have alwaysbeen pushed back. Flames are quenched by melting ice, men are thrownto their deaths in the treacherous climb, lost in the earth beneath it.Thousands have tried to break it, but the Wall still stands... cold andhard as the men that have vowed to hold it.Defending the WallAs the old adage goes, the Wall defends itself. But that only goes so far.Given time, men will find a way around anything. So those who havetaken the black stand their watch against the coming of another LongNight, acting as check against the wildlings... and perhaps, things worsethan mere men.TacticsIn defending the Wall, the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> has a number of potent advantages.First is the Wall itself: as a defensive fortification it is practicallyinsurmountable. Second, is the discipline of those who hold it.The <strong>Watch</strong> is a dedicated military force, each man trained to fight andfollow orders. Third, the <strong>Watch</strong> is supplied by the Seven Kingdoms.One need only look to history and the coming of the Andals to see whatadvantage there is in bearing arms and armor of steel against foes armedwith bronze, wood, and stone.Where the <strong>Watch</strong> is greatly disadvantaged is in numbers. In theselate days the Brothers count fewer than one thousand men in theirranks. Beyond the Wall to the north, tens of thousands of wildlingshowl after the blood of the “kneelers,” wanting nothing so much as tobreak the Wall and take the land that has so long been denied them.And that is to say nothing of what other enemies hide in the snowywastes beyond the edge of the world.As their numbers have diminished, the men of the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong>have retreated from most of the places they once held in force. The threecastles that are still inhabited also stand in defense of the only threegates through the wall that remain unsealed.These gates are the only practical means of moving a large forcethrough the Wall and into the lands to the south. As such, they arethe main objective of any attack and the focus of the defenders’ efforts.Defensive fortifications are arrayed with this in mind.Above each gate and for a half-mile to either side, the Wall is toppedwith a parapet of ice to provide cover against missile fire from below(and to help prevent untimely falls). In more prosperous times therewere siege engines placed at regular intervals as well, each stationed soas to provide overlapping fields of fire with the weapons to either side.War on the WallIt goes without saying that attacks against the men on the Wall from the ground, and vice versa, involve making ranged attacks. At itsvery lowest point, the Wall is still over six hundred feet high. Per the Warfare rules, units can only make Marksmanship attacks on targetsup to 200 yards away.As an optional rule, the Narrator can waive this restriction and simply assess the standard penalty for extended range. As well, defendersstanding behind the parapets on the Wall should receive a +5 bonus to their Defense. If units on the Wall take active cover, ducking downto crouch behind the merlons, the cover bonus to Defense increases to+10.45
Chapter 2: The Wall & the GiftThe past centuries of relative peace, combined with a shrinking pool ofmanpower, have seen the catapults, scorpions, and trebuchets that usedto mount the Wall disappear. There has been no call for them in any livingmemory. Now, facing north above Castle Black, only two catapultsremain functional, and no one has sighted the killing field to the northin years.Typically, the men atop the Wall are armed with longbows, thoughnearly anything can become a weapon when dropped or thrown fromthat height. Hitting a man from that distance is difficult and most areadvised not to fire on single targets. There’s an old adage to that effect,among the <strong>Watch</strong>: “Ten men is an opportunity, five men a fair bet. Oneman is a wasted arrow.”Below, the tunnels that comprise the only passage through the Wallare secured at the outer portal with thick, oak doors bound and studdedwith iron. Behind that and set deep in the ice, two iron gates furtherstymie any prospective invader. Far from being mere passive defenses,these gates are actively defended by men wielding spears and crossbows,with pots of boiling oil standing nearby. Well supplied, a dozen men canhold these tunnels almost indefinitely.Castles of theNight’s <strong>Watch</strong>Sixteen castles stand empty along the wall, falling into ruin, inhabitedonly by ghosts. The other three are haunted by the remnants of the<strong>Watch</strong>, hundreds of men living in quarters built for thousands.Castle BlackHuddled at the base of the Wall in the shadow of Winter itself, CastleBlack stands at the head of the Kingsroad, a ramshackle heap ofcrumbling towers and timbered keeps. Neither the largest nor the first,Castle Black is however the most central of the castles built to guardthe Wall. As such, when the <strong>Watch</strong> began to withdraw from the restof the Wall, Castle Black became the chief of those that remainedinhabited.In the first days of its existence, the castle was mainly used as asupply depot. Its position at the midpoint of the Wall and at the endof the Kingsroad made it the logical choice to serve as distributionpoint for the supplies that came up from the Seven Kingdoms. Swordsand spears, candles, casks of beef, and wains of wool all flowed up theroad from the prosperous lands of the south to Castle Black wherethe Lord Steward and his men received them, storing them beforedistributing them to each of the stations along the Wall according totheir needs.For the first two thousand years of its existence, the <strong>Watch</strong> keptno records but what was passed from one man to another. The FirstMen had no writing but the simple runes they carved. When the Andalscame to Westeros they brought with them two great boons: thecraft of forging steel and the gift of the written word. After the peacewas made and the newcomers were integrated into the custom of theNight’s <strong>Watch</strong>, Castle Black entered a new era and took on a newpurpose.Lettered men who joined the <strong>Watch</strong> gravitated toward the Stewards,their skills and knowledge of great use in the maintenance of the<strong>Watch</strong>’s resources. Documents began to pile up. Tunnels and cellarswere dug to hold them, and when those were filled, more were excavated.Anything from bills of lading, books of hours, and stock ledgersto histories and treatises on the nature of the Wall, the Others, and theturning of the seasons can be found in the vaults beneath the castle.Over time, Castle Black became not only the <strong>Watch</strong>’s main supplycenter, but the focal point of what scholarship was conducted alongthe Wall. Those cunning men who found themselves taking the blackin the days when the <strong>Watch</strong> was flush with men, resources, and status,would often continue their intellectual pursuits in their new situation.The Wall itself is a singular artifact in the history of mankind, worthyof study for a host of reasons. And while Castle Black is by no meansthe only place where scholarship and the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> meet, it is byfar the largest collection of lore and recorded history to be found on theWall—and perhaps anywhere in the North.Just like the meat and butter that come up the Kingsroad to feed theNight’s <strong>Watch</strong>, men flow north from the Seven Kingdoms to fill the<strong>Watch</strong>’s ranks. For the vast majority, their first billet on the Wall is inCastle Black. In older times, when knights and the sons of noble housesregarded taking the black as an honorable vocation, many of those comingnorth would spend only a few days there waiting for their duty assignment.Those without the benefit of highborn education could lookforward to at least several weeks in the “tender” care of the men ofCastle Black.Every member of the Night’s <strong>Watch</strong> is required to fight, and everyman goes armed. Those who come to the Wall with a working knowledgeof weaponry and fighting are given a few days’ orientation andassessment before being inducted to their order (rangers, stewards, orbuilders) and assigned a post. Those who don’t are given intensive trainingin combat and the order of battle. At one time, there were dedicatedquarters set aside to house newcomers. But now, as their numbershave diminished, many of the towers and keeps that make up the castlecomplex have fallen into disrepair or outright ruin, and men are left totheir own devices to find whatever accommodation they can. Newcomershave their pick of the empty cells and furnish them with whateveraccouterments they can scrounge.Even the occupied buildings are beginning to show the wear of infrequentmaintenance and too little care. There simply aren’t enoughmen to do the work that’s needed. The builders patch the most grievousholes, mend what cannot be managed, and pull down those buildingsthat have deteriorated beyond hope of repair. The First Men built well,though, and strong. Worn and aging as they may be, those holds stillstanding remain strong.Lord Commander’s TowerThough not at the center of the castle compound, the Lord Commander’sTower is at the heart of Castle Black and the whole of the Night’s<strong>Watch</strong>. It’s only recently been elevated to its current status. For most ofits history, the tower belonged to the Lord Steward. When the <strong>Watch</strong>abandoned the Nightfort, the Lord Commander’s household movedeast and the commander himself took the tower as his own.The tower itself is stout and solid. The outer wall is a thick shellof gray stone, the interior walls, floors and ceilings crafted of strong,46
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