Recognizing the danger, the Children and the First Men reached a peace known as the Pact. However, the White Walkers grew beyond their creators' control and became a threat to anyone living, becoming the most feared creatures in the known world.

As the Children grew desperate, a group of their greenseers, resorted to dark magic, capturing one of the First Men and turning him into the first of the White Walkers, whose purpose was to protect the Children from the First Men. The invasion of Westeros by the First Men and their encroachment into the lands of the Children of the Forest, the natives of Westeros, led to a long period of warfare between the two people for control of the continent. The conflict that arose from the Long Night is known as the War for the Dawn as the White Walkers sought to bring an end to all life and to cover the world in an endless winter. In the darkness and cold of the Long Night, the White Walkers descended upon Westeros from the farthest north, the polar regions of the Lands of Always Winter. Thousands starved as the crops and fields lay buried under dozens of feet of snow. They swept through cities and kingdoms, riding their dead horses, hunting with their packs of pale spiders big as hounds.' ― Old Nan to Bran Stark Įight thousand years before the Targaryen Conquest, a winter known as the Long Night descended upon the world, which lasted an entire generation. In that darkness the White Walkers came for the first time.

Kings froze to death in their castles, same as the shepherds in their huts and women smothered their babies rather than see them starve, and wept, and felt the tears freeze on their cheeks. ' Thousands of years ago, there came a night that lasted a generation.

War ages legend of kings