04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

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 Watch: “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 WatchSixteen castles stand empty along the wall, falling into ruin, inhabitedonly by ghosts. The other three are haunted by the remnants of theWatch, 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 Watch 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 Watch 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 Watch, Castle Black entered a new era and took on a newpurpose.Lettered men who joined the Watch gravitated toward the Stewards,their skills and knowledge of great use in the maintenance of theWatch’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 Watch’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 Watch 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 Watch 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 Watch, men flow north from the Seven Kingdoms to fill theWatch’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 Watch 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’sWatch. It’s only recently been elevated to its current status. For most ofits history, the tower belonged to the Lord Steward. When the Watchabandoned 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