and Fire series, a pact existed between the Children of the Forest (elf-like creatures) and the First Men (mankind). This was weakened by the emergence of the Others, an enigmatic and malevolent nonhuman species who inflicted a night that lasted a generation and a winter that lasted decades. After the Others were pushed back, the Children and the First Men raised The Wall, a vast barrier of stone, ice and magic from one coast of northern Westeros to the other, to bar the passage of the Others south. A Game of Thrones As A Game of Thrones (1996) begins, the general belief across Westeros is that the Others are a legend to scare children, or else "gone eight thousand years". But the Others have re-emerged, and are gaining power—and creating wights—beyond the Wall. In the Prologue, a ranging party from the Night's Watch come face to face with a group of the Others, who kill Ser Waymar Royce. Reanimated as a wight, he then kills the ranger Will. Out ranging beyond the Wall, Jon Snow and the Night's Watch find the corpses of two of their fallen brothers. Brought home to Castle Black, the dead men rise and kill several of their living fellows before they are destroyed. A Storm of Swords Sam Tarly kills an Other with a dragonglass dagger in A Storm of Swords (2000). His former comrade Small Paul is killed and reanimated as a wight. The undead Paul is immune to the dragonglass, but Sam is able to put him down with fire. Bran Stark recalls the story of the Night's King, a Stark and the 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch who had been seduced by a female White Walker. The Night's King and his queen enslaved the brothers of the Watch until the Starks and the wildlings joined forces to defeat him. The Winds of Winter Martin said in 2012 that readers will see more of the Others in his forthcoming novel The Winds of Winter. He noted in a 2012 Dose interview, "[We'll learn more about their] history, certainly, but I don't know about culture ... I don't know if they have a culture". TV adaptation The White Walkers portrayed on HBO's Game of Thrones differ slightly in appearance from their literary counterparts, but Aaron Souppouris of The Verge named them among "the most visually iconic creatures on the show". In the