A White Walker is a humanoid creature from the HBO television series Game of Thrones, and the George R. R. Martin novel series A Song of Ice and Fire on which it is based. Primarily referred to as the Others in the novels, White Walkers are a supernatural threat to mankind who dwell north of The Wall in Westeros. The Verge named them among "the most visually iconic creatures on the show". White Walkers are also featured in the show's merchandising. Description Martin introduces the Others in the prologue of A Game of Thrones (1996), describing them as "Tall ... and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk" with eyes "deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice". Accompanied by intense cold, they wear armor that "seemed to change color as it moved", and wield thin crystal swords capable of shattering steel. The Others move silently, and they speak their own language; Martin writes that their voices are "like the cracking of ice on a winter lake". In A Storm of Swords (2000), they are shown to be vulnerable to weapons made of dragonglass (obsidian), as Samwell Tarly kills one this way: In A Dance with Dragons (2011), Sam uncovers ancient record fragments which suggest that the Others are also vulnerable to something called "dragonsteel", which he and Jon Snow surmise is another term for Valyrian steel. Creatures killed by the Others soon reanimate as wights: undead with pallid skin, black hands, and glowing blue eyes similar to the Others'. Dragonglass has no effect on wights in the books (though it kills them in the TV series). Wights may be physically injured, but even dismembered parts remain animated, however they may be destroyed by fire. The humans who live in the north beyond the Wall—called "wildlings" by the inhabitants of Westeros—burn their dead so they will not become wights. Wildlings call the Others "White Walkers", unlike others in Westeros. Novels In 2012, Chris Lackner wrote in Dose, "Fans of the novels are eagerly awaiting Martin's final two installments of the seven-part series. In particular, they are eager to learn more about the White Walkers—or The Others—a mysterious, undead race seemingly bent on humanity's destruction." Backstory In the novels and the 2014 companion book The World of Ice & Fire, Martin establishes that, millennia before the events of A Song of Ice