Who was the Night's King really?

[Nocturne]

First i would like you to re-direct your attention to Lml thread: 

 

If you don't wanna read trough it (its a good read though) the main point is that the NW originally were undead heroes that fought against the others. They had to fight fire with fire because nothing else worked at the time. We don't really know how the conflict ended as the clues we have on it are scarce and contradicting tales at best. 

I would like to propose something: The Last hero and the Night's King are the same person. We know from the stories that The Last hero formed the NW and won the battle for Dawn.

We don't really know how he did it though. I for one find it hard to believe that even if he and the original NW were turned into Undead to fight the Others to even playing field, they couldn't have achieved victory since they didn't have the numbers for sure on their side. Yes they had dragon glass, but that only works on the Others themselves, they would first have to go trough their endless hoards of wights who would not be affected by it.

I do believe that instead they managed to force the Others into a truce, this is where the Night's King comes into play. We know that supposedly he was the 13th commander of the NW, but we have no idea who the previous other 12 were. Its my belief that trough the ages the tales got mixed up, and the number 13th was just the number of the company of undead heroes that fought against the Others in the war for dawn.

So probably trough some guerrilla warfare (a tactic that the Children of the forrest loved to use) the heroes with the help of the Children forced the Others into a truce. The conditions i believe were harsh, they demanded constant sacrifices be provided to them, and that they have someone in their ranks to guarantee that the NW held up their end of the bargain..enter the "female other" that was supposedly the queen of this Night's King.

Thoughts?

 

[Macgregor of the North]

Im interested in the idea of the Last Hero being the Nights King. The whole number 13 thing and him with his 12 companions and all that seems to fit well so it's not too far fetched really. 

I think if the Others and the Nights Watch came to a truce which saw the Others fall back, and the Cotf were involved then possibly the Cotf were like the middle 'men' to bridge the language barrier. 

I wholeheartedly believe that the only beings in the story (other than the Others of course) who could speak this language that sounds like Ice cracking is the singers who sing the song of the earth, so they could have negotiated some terms. 

I do think Dragonsteel played a huge part in the Others agreeing to some kind of parley (if there was one), there has to be some truth to the weapon that "they couldn't stand against".

I'll add as well that the Nights Kings pale bride is never referred to as a female Other in any text. This is simply a made up description from the various forums. We have yet to see female Others.

She is however referred to as a pale skinned blue eyed Sorceress, which to me sounds more like an Icy version of Melisandre. 

If the Last Hero set himself up at the Wall, and was sacrificing baby boys to the Others as the Nights King, alongside this pale Queen, then perhaps the Stark in Winterfell, brother to the Last Hero/Nights King decided one day he wanted to break the truce, perhaps afraid the Others would grow too powerful and win past the Wall and head south again?.

So he rode on the Wall and smashed the Nights King and installed a more wholesome regime at the Wall, with living humans, no Icy Sorceress's and no sacrifices etc?. 

It's all quite wild speculation I suppose until Bran reaches through the past to clear things up for us, as we just don't quite have enough info to be sure of any of this stuff yet, including timelines of when it all happened. 

My status is, enjoying the speculation but too unsure to commit to full beliefs yet.

[Cymorococh]

I like this idea a lot. How likely do you think it is that this will be cleared up in the actual text? There just seems to be so much else to get through!

[Macgregor of the North]

34 minutes ago, Cymorococh said:

I like this idea a lot. How likely do you think it is that this will be cleared up in the actual text? There just seems to be so much else to get through!

Could be a Bran vision of the past, in which case it may not be spelled out for us exactly but we may have to just get it and figure it out. 

Alternatively, Leaf or Bloodraven could give Bran a detailed history lesson which may spell things out better, but I'd say Bran will be a more powerful character and his on page stuff will probably be his own journey through the past, which would be gold for us.

Funnily enough though, GRRM may write it in such a way that it doesn't fully confirm or clear it up and leaves us all debating it after the books are done, like he may well do with most topics. 

 

[Wolf of the Steppes]

7 hours ago, Cymorococh said:

I like this idea a lot. How likely do you think it is that this will be cleared up in the actual text? There just seems to be so much else to get through!

I think that it has to be addressed in some way, otherwise, why waste the time writing about it in the first book.  Bran's 4th chapter of the series.

Agreeing with Macgregor on the assessment, especially:

6 hours ago, Macgregor of the North said:

Funnily enough though, GRRM may write it in such a way that it doesn't fully confirm or clear it up and leaves us all debating it after the books are done, like he may well do with most topics.