Later at the Citadel, maesters and students debated on the precise anatomical makeup of the formidable creature that was the White Walker (though not wights, as it was generally agreed that despite their reanimation, their bodies remained more-or-less* the same dead as when they were alive).
Of course, all such discourse remained hypothetical, as humanity had not seen a White Walker - much less their creator and leader - since the Battle of Winterfell (also known by the fanciful as the Long Night**). One could argue that since some sort of magic was involved in their creation***, the question was an ineffable one, but lack of understanding has rarely stopped the scholar’s insistence that their interpretation of things is the correct one.
One school of thought proclaimed that since the Night King was an ordinary man before the Children of the Forest got their mitts on him, he must have retained his physical body after the transformation. To what extent his form remained human - skin? bones? musculature? - it was difficult for even the proponents of this argument to say. Any hypotheses, being impossible to verify, inevitably shifted from the biological to the philosophical. Perhaps he no longer had blood coursing through his veins, they conceded, but he must have known he was capable of being hurt, for did he not wear armor? And in wearing armor, did he not exhibit an awareness of his mortality? And this awareness of his mortality, was it not, despite his supernatural nature, very human?
It is at this point in the discussion when one outspoken - or foolhardy - maester-in-training (for it was always the younger ones) would usually bring up the question of wight society, insofar as these creatures had one.
To begin with, there was a clear hierarchical structure with the Night King and his White Walker lieutenants on top, and any number of reanimated corpses below. And while there was no evidence, anecdotal or otherwise, of any sort of wight culture or civilization, at least in terms of language, religion, or the arts****, there were multiple and documented reports of the Night King’s army creating gruesome tableaux using the bodies (or body parts) of their victims, whose spiraling designs have unknown anthropological significance.
There was a lesson to be learned here, they insisted*****. Something like “White Walkers (and Night Kings) are people too” or (relating to the original topic, from which the conversation had so drastically deviated) “We are all the same on the inside” or even “Wight rights******.”
To be sure, such passionate rhetoric had its advocates, but for the most part, the maesters at large, led by Archmaester Sandhu, discounted the entire proposition as “poppycock and bunkum,” adding - “we are not writers of fiction, but scholars of fact. Let the bards, minstrels, and writers of plays speculate for your entertainment. We at the Citadel will record only what is known to be true.”
And so the topic was closed, until such time that another eager young academic would broach the subject again. And thus the debate raged on.
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* Sometimes less, depending on the method of their death.
** Despite it lasting merely for the duration of one normal night.
*** A topic on which maesters remained vague, but King Bran in his creepy omniscience told them so, therefore it must be true.
**** To be fair, there was hardly an opportunity for an open exchange of ideas between mankind and the AotD, so some supposition is necessary.
***** Something pat and banal and suitable for a t-shirt, or perhaps on an Oldtown gift shop postcard.
****** Though this last one made people uncomfortable, particularly the more progressive maesters, who worried it was a step away from declaring wight supremacy.
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Ok, I admittedly got carried away with the write-up for this one! The anachronisms are intentional, and the pseudo-intellectual analysis is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, so please don’t come at me.
Inspired by: Andreas Vesalius (/vɪˈseɪliəs/; 31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564), a 16th-century Flemish anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body). The book was based largely on human dissection, and transformed anatomy into a subject that relied on observations taken directly from human dissections.
Anyone else notice that the legend of Storm’s End is kinda reminiscent of the Swamp Castle bit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
“Five more castles he built, each larger and stronger than the last, only to see them smashed asunder... His lords pleaded with him to build inland; his priests told him he must placate the gods by giving Elenei back to the sea; even his smallfolk begged him to relent. Durran would have none of it. A seventh castle he raised, most massive of all.”
Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.
