(SPOILERS ADWD) Do white walkers warg?

[Harlequin Griff]

Hello everyone, this is my first post but I've been lurking for a while, I just wanted to know if anybody else thought about the way the others control the wights (I tried to search, but the forum's search doesn't seem to work, at least with me).

In my opinion the only sensible explanation would be warging, in fact, unless the white walkers can use some kind of old magic that hasn't been presented already, warging it's the only technique that allows people to control other living things. It is certainly possible to control more than one body at the same time (Varamyr controls six) and we know that warging is not restricted to animals, Bran warged Hodor for example, finally it’s possible to warg a weirwood tree, but, on the other hand, we don't know any character that has developed his warging abilities so much that he could assure us that warging dead bodies is possible or not, the only candidate would be the three eyed crow, but since we don't really know his purposes, we can safely assume that he hasn't told Bran everything he knows.

For now it has been very easy, but if we try to understand the consequences the real problems starts. If this is true, it could be possible for a skilled enough warger to stop the wights (or to lead them...), and, once you know that they can be killed by dragonglass, fighting the white walkers alone would not be that difficult, frightening maybe, but not difficult.

In addition this explanation can answer some questions, for instance:

- Coldhands is not Benjen but is a dead body controlled through warging by Benjen (Benjen is a Stark, it is possible that this ability is common trait of that family).

- This theory could also explain Patchface, the maester said that he was cold when they found him, maybe he died and now someone’s is using his body as a way to send messages.

- The Wall could be a barrier that prevents people from warging: this would explain why coldhands cannot pass the wall (he would fall as a dead body), why Jon doesn't sense Ghost and why Ghost cannot sense Summer, they are on the opposite sides of the wall.

However this theory is not that neat, it doesn't explain how the two bodies that attack Mormont are controlled: if we assume that there are no white walkers south of the wall, then the only two candidates are someone we don’t know yet and the three eyed crow (since he can control weirwood south of the wall maybe he can also control people), but in this case the question would be why he wanted Mormont dead (to prevent the Night’s watch from going north of the wall?).

Another question that arises is why warging seems to be much more common in the north: maybe is something related to the First Men’s blood, but, in this case, it must had had a role in the conflict with the children of the forest, perhaps the white walkers are just men captured and transformed through ice magic by the Children to win the war, but I’m probably going to further.

P.S.

As I said I wasn’t able to search for other topics on the same argument, if there are some, please put the link below.

As you probably noticed English is not my first language, so sorry if I made some mistakes…

(edit: changed the font)

[King of Winters]

Welcome to the Forum :cheers:

I agree that the The Others can warg Wights using some other magic. I think that they probably developed it as a sort of insult to regular warging, as I think that The Others were once COTF that disagreed with The Pact. Sort of like Morgoth when he made Trolls to mock the Ents in LOTR. Because of the way they changed through magic they developed a way to warg the dead instead of the living.

I also think this could explain why we haven't seen that many Others and we've seen an army of Wights. Probably because they can warg a number of Wights at a certain time and stay at the bad of the army so they're not harmed.

[yolkboy]

Well i'll say something about the Wall being a 'barrier'. In Mel's readings, there is definately wildlings raised as wights on the castle black side of the wall, so it doesnt seem to stop the Others doing their thang.

Ps please dont use that font, its really hard to read and will put people off.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

It's definitely possible that the Others are warging wights, but I remain unconvinced.

[Harlequin Griff]

Well i'll say something about the Wall being a 'barrier'. In Mel's readings, there is definately wildlings raised as wights on the castle black side of the wall, so it doesnt seem to stop the Others doing their thang.

Ps please dont use that font, its really hard to read and will put people off.

I know, but it's clear that the others cannot raise as wight every man that dies south of the wall, so there must be somethings that prevents them from doing this.

[yolkboy]

I know, but it's clear that the others cannot raise as wight every man that dies south of the wall, so there must be somethings that prevents them from doing this.

Ive always thought that this was just proximity. And they had no problem raising the wights at Castle Black in aGoT. When the Others arrive at the Wall they will be able to kill people on the other side with their ice mist, and raise them as wights, if i have understood Mel's visions correctly.

[Roadside Rose]

Welcome to the boards

[JonNonRegis]

In my opinion the only sensible explanation would be warging, in fact, unless the white walkers can use some kind of old magic that hasn't been presented already, warging it's the only technique that allows people to control other living things.

It's possible, but I doubt it because...

1. Wights aren't living things. We have never seen a warg assume command of a dead wolf and make it do things, and no reason to think they can.

2. If the white walkers were uber-powerful skinchangers, so powerful they could overrule death itself, I think they would use that in other ways.

Imagine, for instance, them doing what Varamyr tries to do -- seize control of a living human's body. We have seen no instance of the Others trying any such thing.

3. The Wall blocks warging/skinchanging. We know this because when Jon is south of the Wall, he can no longer sense Ghost north of it.

However, the wight Jon kills at Castle Black was most certainly south of the Wall. Ergo, it was not being controlled/warged by an Other, which would have to be north of the Wall.

So it's not warging.

[Leif]

Nah, it's just necromancy.