Night King

"He had been the thirteenth man to lead the Night's Watch, a warrior who knew no fear. And that was the fault in him, for all men must know fear."

- Old Nan The Night's King is a legendary figure in the A Song of Ice and Fire mythos and potentially the true main antagonist of the TV series Game of Thrones as a whole. According to the legends he was the thirteenth commander of the Night's watch, who sided with the Others.

In the TV series adaptation he is the apparent mastermind behind their coming invasion. He serves as the secondary antagonist of Seasons 5 and 6, and will most likely serve as the main antagonist of Season 8. In the novels he never appeared and he's considered only a legendary figure questioned by the archmaesters of the Citadel.

The religion of R'hllor claims that he and the Walkers are servants of an evil god of ice, archenemy of the Lord of Light, known as the Great Other. Red Priests claim that only Azor Ahai reborn can stop them and the Long Night that Never Ends. After his defeat, all records and informations about him were destroyed, his name was forbidden, and later forgotten. He was from the North, and some people believe the Night's King was a Bolton, a Magnar of Skagos, an Umber, a Flint, a Norrey, or a Woodfoot. Old Nan thinks he was a Stark, brother to a King in the North.

In the TV series, there is no mention of the Night King being Lord Commander of the Night's Watch or about the Night's Queen. It's shown instead, that the Children of the Forest created him as the very first White Walker to defeat the humans, in contrast to the legends who tell he got corrupted only years later after the Long Night that lasted a generation, before the defeat of the Others. Also according to history the White Walkers appeared centuries later, when the Children of the Forest were already disappeared and the Last Hero had to search for them to get help against the Walkers.

Role in the story
In the ancient history of Westeros, the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch came upon a female White Walker who seduced him. He took her back to the Wall and declared himself the Night's King, and her his queen. They ruled over the Wall, commiting atrocities and child sacrifices. It was through an alliance between the King of the North and the wildlings, that the Night's King was defeated.

At the time of the series, the Night's King was believed to be long dead or a myth, along with the Others. When word got to the Watch that they are not only real but mounting an invasion of the Seven Kingdoms with an army of the dead, Jon Snow became inspired to join the Night's Watch. The threat of the White Walkers had a toll on the wildlings, as the ones who follow Mance Rayder would plan on fleeing to Westeros for safety, putting them in conflict with the Night's Watch. An evil wildling named Craster, would sacrifice all his new born sons to the White Walkers, believing it would spare him.

According to the legends, the Night's King appeared only after the Long Night, the Battle for the Dawn, and the creation of the Wall. Before the Night's King reign the Others already fought against human multiple times. Also the Others appeared centuries after the war between the First Men and the Children of the Forest. It's possible the TV version of the Night King's story is created exclusively for Game of Thrones. It's also possible however, that the legends might simply be wrong, as it's history written centuries later after the events and George R. R. Martin said history is not completely reliable in both fiction and real life.

Game of Thrones
The episode Oathkeeper reveals the fate of the infants, as well as introduce the Night King. A White Walker takes Craster's last son to what appears to an altar where the Night King himself greets the infant, and with a poke to his cheek, turns him into another White Walker.

In the episode Hardhome, in which Jon Snow, now Lord Commander himself, goes to the titular village on a mission with Tormund, to make peace with the remaining wildlings from the army of Mance Rayder fled during the attack of King Stannis Baratheon (all the other wildlings and giants are around beyond the Wall like groups, Craster's wives, and a group at the river Milkwater ) and get them to the Wall. While they are evacuating the village, an army of wight's attack, and a massacre ensues. The Night King and other White Walkers oversee the attack. During the fight, Jon Snow kills as White Walker, which the Night King witnesses. After the fighting, Jon and his men flee with the last of the evacuates, and the Night King walks down the dock. Jon and the Night King make eye contact, and the king has him watch as he resurrects the dead of the battle into new wights.

In the episode The Door, it is revealed that the Night King was the first White Walker and that the White Walkers were created by the Children of the Forest as a weapon against the First Men. During one of his greendreams, Bran sees the undead forces of the White Walkers. He walks through the army until he stands before the Night King who sees him. The Night King grabs Bran by the arm which leaves a lasting mark, even after Bran has woken. This mark allows the Night King to penetrate the security spells around the cave and he sends his undead army inside it. Bran and Meera are able to flee but the Night King and his men eradicate all remaining Children of the Forest as well as the Three-eyed raven who is slain by the Night King himself.

A Song of Ice and Fire
In the novels George R.R. Martin stated that the Night's King is a legendary figure who's most likely to be dead. It's unkown if he's going to appear, or if it will be someone else to lead the white walkers. In fact there's also no mention of the Others having a leader at all. The Night King from the show might be added only for the TV version of the events. There are different rumors and theories about possible candidates for a new Night's King who will lead the Others during the Long Night that Never Ends.

A possible candidate for the next Night's King is Stannis Baratheon, due to his similarities with the Night's King and the fact he took the Nightfort as his seat in the North. Stannis is also said that he will break before he bends. In the House of the Undying Daenerys Targaryen sees in a vision a blue-eyed king with a red sword, who casts no shadow. The description matches with Stannis, who's said to have deep blue eyes, has the magic red sword called Lightbringer, and created two Shadow Assassins with Melisandre. Voices call Daenerys "slayer of lies".

In the book version the situation with the wildlings is more complicated and the events at Hardhome happen "off-screen" as Jon Snow, who's the POV character of this storyline, stays at Castle Black.

A Dance with Dragons
After Mance Rayder's force is defeated by Stannis Baratheon in the Battle of Castle Black, a wildling leader and woods witch known as Mother Mole leads thousands of Free Folk to the abandoned ruined village of Hardhome, once the greatest wildling village who was close to become a town. Mother Mole claims to have a vision of a fleet of ships coming to carry the wildlings away to safety across the narrow sea. Thousands of those who fled the battle are desperate enough to believe her, and follow her. She becomes a spiritual leader of these wildlings and they start to pray for salvation from across the narrow sea from the Others. In the TV series their leader is Rattleshirt, the Lord of Bones, while in the books he was burned alive by Stannis.

Stannis let Mance's army go on the other side of the Wall, in the lands of the Gift, after they bend the knee, but other humans and giants are still beyond the Wall, and the army of the Walkers is slowly marching to south: the mutineers at Craster's Keep are killed by the undead former member of the Night's Watch Coldhands and Craster's wives' fate is unknown. A wildling raider known as the Weeper gathered warriors at the river Milkwater, planning to cross the Bridge of Skulls, and take the Shadow Tower commanded by Ser Denys Mallister. Tormund leads four thousands wildlings and they're constantly attacked by the Others.

Jon Snow starts to garrison all the other abandoned castles at the Wall, and sends three groups to ranging beyond the Wall and find the wildlings, led by Alliser Thorne, Black Jack Bulwer, and Kedge Whiteye.

Melisandre sees visions of things beyond the Wall: she sees Hardhome and a future attack of wights and White Walkers (possible forshadowing of the Massacre at Hardhome that already happened in the TV series), the death of many of the rangers beyond the Wall, and the face of Brynden Rivers, the three-eyed-crow (or three-eyed-raven). Black Jack and his other two companions are caught and killed by the Weeper. Their heads are cut off with their eyes plucked out, and are impaled on spears north of Castle Black in the middle of the night. Melisandre warns Jon, that other of the six rangers beyond the Wall will die and return as wights. Alliser Thorne, before leaving, promised to Jon that he will return to Castle Black, alive or as a wight. Thorne and the other rangers disappeared beyond the Wall.

Meanwhile during a ranging, Jon and his men found a wildling group in the Haunted Forest with the giant Wun Wun ( in the show he comes at Castle Black from Hardhome). Jon sends a message to Cotter Pyke, the ironborn in command of Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, in which orders him to go to Hardhome with 11 ships and rescue the thousand wildlings and bring them south. 5 ships are wrecked by storms in the sea.

The Lord Commander sends the wildling princess Val, sister of Dalla the late wife of Mance Rayder, beyond the Wall to find Tormund. Later they return and they negotiate peace. Finally Tormund's four thousand wildlings passes the Wall, while the giants and their mammoths passes from Eastwatch-by-Sea. They live in the Gift and help the Watch, also commanding the other ruined castles at the Wall. The Night's Watch is not very happy about it, but they accept it (Jon Snow's death in the books has nothing to do with the wildlings, as is about with the Boltons and Stannis). The Night's Watch and the Free Folk are now allies and work together to prepare themselves for the imminent war against the Others.

When Cotter Pyke arrives at Hardhome with six ships left, the situation has grown desperate. Wildings are eating their own dead and there are wights are massing in the forest and coming from the sea. Slavers have already taken some of the wildlings, women and children. The desperate wildlings didn't know they were slavers and begged them to take their wives and daughters away from Hardhome. The slavers took them with their 2 ships, meaning to sell them as slaves in Essos. One ship is most likely on it's way to Qarth or Slaver's Bay, while the other ship made it to Braavos where the Sealord of Braavos, Ferrego Antaryon has taken the ship and the wildlings, as slavery is illegal in Braavos. The rest of the wildlings are with Cotter Pyke and are currently surrounded by wights. The wildlings try to take the ship Storm Crow by force which costs Cotter six of his crew. Cotter sends a raven to plead for help via land from Jon, since traveling by the sea is far too dangerous. Jon was preparing to go with Tormund at Hardhome to save the Free Folk, but this changed after her receives a letter from Ramsay Bolton, declaring that Stannis Baratheon died in battle outside Winterfell and that he has Mance Rayder has a hostage. Tormund agrees that he will lead the ranging on Hardhome.

Apart from Mother Mole, the names of the wildling leaders at Hardhome in the books are unknown, while in the show two of them are named Karsi, and Loboda, the latter a Thenn leader. The actual status of Cotter and the wildlings is unkown, but judging from Melisandre's vision it's likely that the Others will soon appear at Hardhome, and the massacre will occur like in the show.

Trivia

 * The Night's Kings first appearance on the show was controversial to the fans of A Song of Ice and Fire novels, of which Game of thrones is based off of, because there was no implication of his presence in the books, and potentially spoiled future novels by revealing that he was behind the Others.
 * When asked about this, George R.R. Martin claimed: "As for the Night's King (the form I prefer), in the books he is a legendary figure, akin to Lann the Clever and Brandon the Builder, and no more likely to have survived to the present day than they have."
 * There is speculation that the Night's King may be connected to the Starks or the Boltons.
 * He is played by Richard Brake who is also Joe Chill in Batman Begins.
 * He is evidently similar to The Lich King.
 * Book readers have noticed some similarities between the Night's King and Stannis Baratheon:
 * Both of them are described as fearless men. The difference is that the Night's King chooses love over duty, while Stannis never abandons duty.
 * The Night's King fell in love with the Night's Queen and gave his soul to her through their unholy union. It was stated, also in the show, that Stannis is not in love with Melisandre but she's the only one who can appease his nightmares caused by blood magic. Ever since Stannis needed to have sex regularly with her. Also, while it's implied the Night's King was completely under control of the Night's Queen, Stannis is not under Melisandre's control, although he tends to listen to her often, but only after reflecting about her ideas alone for sometime and always threatening Melisandre to punish her if he doesn't get any results. The creation of shadow assassins through the sexual intercurse between Stannis and Melisandre is referred as an "unholy union".
 * The Night's King took the Nightfort as his seat and started to make horrible human sacrifices for his queen and the Great Other, including children. Since his defeat the Nightfort remained abandoned, until Stannis took the Nightfort as his new seat. Stannis can accept human sacrifice for R'hllor sometimes, but only if it's also an execution of a criminal. In the TV show version he's even more willing to accept it, burning alive his brother-in-law and daughter as well.
 * The Night's King is sometimes considered to be the main antagonist of Season 6 along with Ramsay Bolton. However, it's not true, because the Night's King made fewer appearances in Season 6 than Ramsay Bolton (1 appearance against 4 appearances currently).