A Theory of Brandon Stark and The Last Hero

[Corvo the Crow]

Starting with Brandon of the Bloody Blade

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Brandon of the Bloody Blade who drove the giants from the Reach and warred against the children of the forest, slaying so many at Blue Lake that it has been known as Red Lake ever since.

Brandon of the Bloody Blade slayed so many children that the Blue Lake turned to Red Lake. 

Red Lake, where House Crane of Red Lake, a house supposedly having skinchanger women, which descended from Rose of Red Lake, has it's seat.

 

He also drove the giants from the Reach but to where and why? And why did he slay the children? Let's continue with Brandon the Builder

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She looked as if she thought he was making that up. "How could men build so high, with no giants to lift the stones?"

In legend, Brandon the Builder had used giants to help raise Winterfell, but Jon did not want to confuse the issue. "Men can build a lot higher than this. In Oldtown there's a tower taller than the Wall." He could tell she did not believe him. If I could show her Winterfell . . . give her a flower from the glass gardens, feast her in the Great Hall, and show her the stone kings on their thrones. We could bathe in the hot pools, and love beneath the heart tree while the old gods watched over us

 

Legend has it that the giants helped raise the Wall, using their great strength to wrestle the blocks of ice into place. There may be some truth to this though the stories make the giants out to be far larger and more powerful than they truly were. These same legends also say that the children of the forest—who did not themselves build walls of either ice or stone—would contribute their magic to the construction. But the legends, as always, are of dubious value.

He works together with the giants and CotF, the peoples that Brandon of the Bloody Blade drove and slayed. Curiously, there's a house, Umbers, that lives close to the wall and has a giant in their sigil, a giant that breaks their sigil.

 

So they build the wall, but why? This must be after the Long Night has started for there to be a reason. So the Last Hero, sole survivor of a group of thirteen whose name is somehow conveniently "forgotten" to history despite older people are remembered has already risen and perhaps fallen. Let's get back to him later.

 

Going forward, Brandon the Breaker

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The greatest and oldest of these is the Nightfort, which has been abandoned for the past two hundred years; as the Watch shrunk, its size made it too large and too costly to maintain. Maesters who served at the Nightfort whilst it was still in use made it plain that the castle had been expanded upon many times over the centuries and that little remained of its original structure save for some of the deepest vaults chiseled out of the rock beneath the castle's feet.

Yet over the thousands of years of its existence as the chief seat of the Watch, the Nightfort has accrued many legends of its own, some of which have been recounted in Archmaester Harmune's Watchers on the Wall. The oldest of these tales concern the legendary Night's King, the thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, who was alleged to have bedded a sorceress pale as a corpse and declared himself a king. For thirteen years the Night's King and his "corpse queen" ruled together, before King of Winter, Brandon the Breaker, (in alliance, it is said, with the King-Beyond-the-Wall, Joramun) brought them down. Thereafter, he obliterated the Night's King's very name from memory.

In the Citadel, the archmaesters largely dismiss these tales—though some allow that there may have been a Lord Commander who attempted to carve out a kingdom for himself in the earliest days of the Watch. Some suggest that perhaps the corpse queen was a woman of the Barrowlands, a daughter of the Barrow King who was then a power in his own right, and oft associated with graves. The Night's King has been said to have been variously a Bolton, a Woodfoot, an Umber, a Flint, a Norrey, or even a Stark, depending on where the tale is told. Like all tales, it takes on the attributes that make it most appealing to those who tell it.

 

As the sun began to set the shadows of the towers lengthened and the wind blew harder, sending gusts of dry dead leaves rattling through the yards. The gathering gloom put Bran in mind of another of Old Nan's stories, the tale of Night's King. He had been the thirteenth man to lead the Night's Watch, she said; a warrior who knew no fear. "And that was the fault in him," she would add, "for all men must know fear." A woman was his downfall; a woman glimpsed from atop the Wall, with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars. Fearing nothing, he chased her and caught her and loved her, though her skin was cold as ice, and when he gave his seed to her he gave his soul as well.

He brought her back to the Nightfort and proclaimed her a queen and himself her king, and with strange sorceries he bound his Sworn Brothers to his will. For thirteen years they had ruled, Night's King and his corpse queen, till finally the Stark of Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings had joined to free the Watch from bondage. After his fall, when it was found he had been sacrificing to the Others, all records of Night's King had been destroyed, his very name forbidden.

 

Brandon the Breaker, broke the thirteenth commander of the Night's Watch who crowned himself and became the Night's King. He did so with the help of Joramun of the Wildlings.

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"So how did you come by your other names?" Jon asked. "Mance called you the Horn-Blower, didn't he? Mead-king of Ruddy Hall, Husband to Bears, Father to Hosts?" It was the horn blowing he particularly wanted to hear about, but he dared not ask too plainly. And Joramun blew the Horn of Winter, and woke giants from the earth. Is that where they had come from, them and their mammoths? Had Mance Rayder found the Horn of Joramun, and given it to Tormund Thunderfist to blow?

 Joramun who blew the horn to wake the giants from the earth. The horn that wakes the sleepers? I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come." 

 

Let's get back to the Last Hero

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Oh my sweet summer child … What do you know of fear? Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north, when the sun hides it face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods.

The Others … Thousands and thousands of years ago, a winter fell that was cold and hard and endless beyond all memory of man. There came a night that lasted a generation, and kings shivered and died in their castles even as the swineherds in their hovels. Women smothered their children rather than see them starve, and cried, and felt their tears freeze on their cheeks.

In that darkness, the Others came for the first time … They were cold things, dead things, that hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins. They swept over holdfasts and cities and kingdoms, felled heroes and armies by the score, riding pale dead horses, and leading hosts of the slain. All the swords of men could not stay their advance, and even maidens and suckling babes, found no pity in them. They hunted the maids through the frozen forests, and fed their dead servants on the flesh of human children.

Now these were the days before the Andals came, and long before the women fled across the narrow sea from the cities of the Rhoyne, and the hundred kingdoms of those times were the kingdoms of the First Men, who had taken those lands from the children of the forest. Yet here and there in the fastness of the woods, the children still lived in their wooden cities and hollow hills, and the faces in the trees kept watch. So as cold and death filled the earth, the last hero determined to seek out the children, in the hopes that their ancient magics could win back what the armies of men had lost. He set out into the dead lands with a sword, a horse, a dog, and a dozen companions. For years he searched until he despaired of ever finding the children of the forest in their secret cities. One by one his friends died, and his horse, and finally even his dog, and his sword froze so hard the blade snapped when he tried to use it. And the Others smelled the hot blood in him and came silent on his trail, stalking him with packs of pale white spiders big as hounds

Yet there are other tales—harder to credit and yet more central to the old histories—about creatures known as the Others. According to these tales, they came from the frozen Land of Always Winter, bringing the cold and darkness with them as they sought to extinguish all light and warmth. The tales go on to say they rode monstrous ice spiders and the horses of the dead, resurrected to serve them, just as they resurrected dead men to fight on their behalf.

How the Long Night came to an end is a matter of legend, as all such matters of the distant past have become. In the North, they tell of a last hero who sought out the intercession of the children of the forest, his companions abandoning him or dying one by one as they faced ravenous giants, cold servants, and the Others themselves. Alone he finally reached the children, despite the efforts of the white walkers, and all the tales agree this was a turning point. Thanks to the children, the first men of the Night's Watch banded together and were able to fight—and win—the Battle for the Dawn: the last battle that broke the endless winter and sent the Others fleeing to the icy north. Now, six thousand years later (or eight thousand as True History puts forward), the Wall made to defend the realms of men is still manned by the sworn brothers of the Night's Watch, and neither the Others nor the children have been seen in many centuries.

 

To put in a chronological order according to what we've learned so far: Brandon of the Bloody Blade slays children and drives the giants from the Reach> Thirteen men, including LH-whose name is curiously unknown-  set out to find the Children, his companions die or desert, his sword is broken(or perhaps his word is broken?) the Others chase after him but he reach the CotF and the "first men of the Night's Watch band together and defeat the Others> Brandon the Builder builds the wall with help of giants and CotF, the two races that were driven from the reach or slayed> Thirteenth Commander of the Night's Watch takes his Corpse Queen and becomes the Night's King and after a reign of thirteen years, defeated by Brandon Stark and Joramun.

 

How about reading it like this: Brandon of the Bloody Blade, Brandon the Builder and Brandon the Breaker are the same people. He forced the giants and Children to help him build the wall and later on, he defeated the Night's King, the thirteenth commander of the Watch, who was actually the Last Hero who was the last surviving member of the thirteen men company, making him the thirteenth. @Seams likes to point out words/swords and the Last Heros sword is broken just as the Night's King's word is broken. We know that Last Hero survived at least until he reached the children and banded the first men of the Night's Watch. Surely this great hero would have founded a house of his own if he was lowborn, and quite likely he already was a member of a noble house and yet we have nothing on his identity. Why? Because all records of him were erased as this once great hero of the mankind consorted with the Others. Also why is it that it was a Stark that took him down? Starks live quite a ways away from the wall. Along with the numerous mountain clans, Umbers live the closest, Glovers and Boltons are still closer than Starks but it's a Stark that brings him down. It must have been personal, perhaps because it was a brother? This would be a "Black Brother" if there ever was one, giving the Watchmen one of their many names.

 

This has been discussed before many times, the original NW vow probably didn't have some parts of the vow we have today.

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They said the words together, as the last light faded in the west and grey day became black night.

"Hear my words, and bear witness to my vow," they recited, their voices filling the twilit grove. "Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

The woods fell silent. "You knelt as boys," Bowen Marsh intoned solemnly. "Rise now as men of the Night's Watch."

 

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The door opened its eyes.

They were white too, and blind. "Who are you?" the door asked, and the well whispered, "Who-who-who-who-who-who-who."

"I am the sword in the darkness," Samwell Tarly said. "I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men."

When the Black Door asks Samwell who he is, Samwell tells he is the sword in the darkness, the watcher on the walls, the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. These are what defines a man of the Watch. "I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post." Taking a wife, holding lands, fathering children, wearing crowns and winning glory are all things that Night's King has done and therefore included to the vows after this.

 

Finally, a few more things

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"I'm Jon Snow."

She flinched. "An evil name."

"A bastard name," he said. "My father was Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell."

 

Jon Snow is an evil name. Why is it? Is it "Jon Snow" that's bad or Jon? Perhaps the Snow part because it's a bastard name? 

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"You are a free man now, and Ygritte is a free woman. What dishonor if you lay together?"

"I might get her with child."

"Aye, I'd hope so. A strong son or a lively laughing girl kissed by fire, and where's the harm in that?"

Words failed him for a moment. "The boy . . . the child would be a bastard."

"Are bastards weaker than other children? More sickly, more like to fail?"

"I will not father a bastard."

Tormund shook his shaggy head. "What fools you kneelers be. Why did you steal the girl if you don't want her?"

 

Being a bastard is not considered a bad thing beyond the Wall so it's not about the name being a bastard name.

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Jon found Samwell Tarly with the other stewards, watering his horses. He had three to tend: his own mount, and two packhorses, each bearing a large wire-and-wicker cage full of ravens. The birds flapped their wings at Jon's approach and screamed at him through the bars. A few shrieks sounded suspiciously like words. "Have you been teaching them to talk?" he asked Sam.

"A few words. Three of them can say snow."

"One bird croaking my name was bad enough," said Jon, "and snow's nothing a black brother wants to hear about." Snow often meant death in the north.

 

Snow is nothing a black brother wants to hear about. "Snow", with a capital S no less, "often meant death in the north". Perhaps a certain Snow, a black brother, brought death? But why is it considered an evil name for a wildling? 

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Jon faced him. "If you've had the Horn of Joramun all along, why haven't you used it? Why bother building turtles and sending Thenns to kill us in our beds? If this horn is all the songs say, why not just sound it and be done?"

It was Dalla who answered him, Dalla great with child, lying on her pile of furs beside the brazier. "We free folk know things you kneelers have forgotten. Sometimes the short road is not the safest, Jon Snow. The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it."

Free folk konw things what kneelers have forgotten. Perhaps why Jon Snow being an evil name is one of those things. Forgotten how, why? Because a certain Stark erased all records of that thing before the incident became common knowledge.

[Phylum of Alexandria]

To further add confusion, Yandel points out that Brandon of the Bloody Blade might have been the father of Brandon the Builder.

I've got no help to give on this topic, though. It's all super confusing to me.

 Good luck to you!

 

[Megorova]

1. Brandon of the Bloody Blade - father of the Last Hero, Bran the Builder. Before the First Long Night the father chased away the giants from the Reach, and killed many CotF.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Brandon_of_the_Bloody_Blade

"In some tales he is mentioned as the ancestor or father of Bran the Builder"

2. His son, after the Children created (or summoned) the Others to fight against the First Men, which caused the First Long Night, went north. Found there the Children and made the Pact with them - piece between their races, for the greater good, to end the Long Night. Then him and the Children used giants to build The Wall and Winterfell, and maybe also some other famous castles.

3. Apparently then the giants were used by the Northerners as slaves. The Umbers and Joramun's Horn comes into play in this time period. Joramun helped Brandon the Breaker (of chains) to get rid of the Night's King, and in exchange for this, Brandon Stark (the Breaker) let the giants go, and they went beyond The Wall into the Lands of Always Winter. Joramun freed the giants from slavery.

Something like that. Probably.

[Daeron the Daring]

22 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

Forgotten how, why? Because a certain Stark erased all records of that thing before the incident became common knowledge.

I like the idea.

I personally think The Last Hero was in fact the Night's King. It seemed obvious to me that people didn't really understand what was going on between TLH/NK and the Others, so they tokk him down, and decided (or maybe the time did) to divide this man into two differents personas, one good and one bad, so the good doesn't really get overshadowed by what people tought is bad. Or something similar. Technically speaking, (I guess) Brandon the Breaker, Brandon of the Bloody Blade, Brandon the Builder can't be the Last Hero/Night's King and all three at once, I don't think it's totally relevant either. As far as Westerosi stories go, the Others didn't appear the day the First Men appeared on Westeros, but much later on, so either that's false or Brandon the Builder isn't a descendant of Garth Greenhand. Either way, the Starks probably had many Brandons in their thousands of years. Generations grow up and died (supposedly) during the Long Night. The NIght's King only ruled for 13 years, supposedly. A lot of mythology that cannot be made into a single picture.

I don't think it has to be either. We need the important stuff, only, which is that this whole conflict was resolved by this dude and probably his marriage to this female Other. But I'm sceptical about it, other may eb as well, let's narrow it down even more.

The most important thing we have to learn about this is that it wasn't the complete extinction or dissapearance of the Others that solved this issue, which brings the obvious conclusion: The present resolution could and should be the same regarding this. Most probably.

[three-eyed monkey]

On 2/15/2022 at 7:53 PM, Corvo the Crow said:

Starting with Brandon of the Bloody Blade

Thanks for a great read. Lot's to think about.

Personally, I think there's a good chance Brandon of the Bloody Blade was the Last Hero as both are Azor Ahai figures. Dragonsteel sword, Lightbringer and Nissa Nissa, bloody blade. I think they're all the same person.

The last hero story seems to me to be allegorical. I don't know if we should take the story too literally. Maybe his horse and dog did die and his sword did break, but we should not ignore the use of symbolism here.

Honor is a horse, as Jaime told us, so the last hero lost his honor. A dog can sniff a lie, as the Hound told us, so the last hero lost his ability to tell the truth from the lies. Swear your sword, as every king as well as the Night's Watch said, so the last hero broke his oath. This clearly parallels Jon's story. He lost his honor with Ygritte. He could not tell the truth from the lies in the pink letter. He then resolved to ride on Ramsay, forswearing his oath in the process. His horse died, his dog died, and then his sword broke.

Then there's the twelve companions. Luwin taught Jon the constellations, the twelve houses and their rulers. So the twelve companions are rulers of houses, which in the time of the First Men meant kings, fighting over the realm no doubt but perishing one by one, which again parallels current events. Since the series began we've had a lot of kings and claimants. Robert, Joffrey, Tommen, Stannis, Renly, Robb, Aegon, Viserys, Dany, Euron, Balon, which is eleven. Maybe Victarion or Darkstar or Hot Pie will make twelve. In terms of an epic tale, these are Jon's companions, his contemporaries. The other significant figures of the age.

If you believe that Jon too is an Azor Ahai figure then it's clear to see why such a parallel exists with the last hero.

[EggBlue]

I can't support my intuition using quotes like you guys... sorry but I have long been thinking that Nights King is a misunderstood figure and is in fact the last hero . looking at Jon's story , his NK imagery and his assassination has led me to believe there is a good chance that NK  and his "corpse" Queen's actions were misinterpreted and thus, they have become villains in the stories. it's not hard to imagine that if Jon stays dead , a thousand years later , he'd be remembered as a tyrant in the watch just like NK.

[Corvo the Crow]

30 minutes ago, three-eyed monkey said:

Thanks for a great read. Lot's to think about.

Personally, I think there's a good chance Brandon of the Bloody Blade was the Last Hero as both are Azor Ahai figures. Dragonsteel sword, Lightbringer and Nissa Nissa, bloody blade. I think they're all the same person.

Thanks. When I started writing/compiling this, I started with the idea that Brandon was the LH, but later thought not since Brandon's name reaches us, wheras both LH and NK have no names that reach us. NK has no records of him beside the story as they were all destroyed, but if his name was erased, it couldn't have been Brandon as the name was kept in use throughout the millenias and as for LH, we now the names of people that predate him or at the latest lived around the same time and yet his name is something that is forgotten. Why? How and why would people forget the name of their saviour even though they remember his story? Story was kept being told over and over and over for hundreds of generations but not the name. NK has to be the LH and he can't be Brandon whose name reached us. He's probably his brother, the brother why NW became the order of the black brothers.

[Corvo the Crow]

16 minutes ago, three-eyed monkey said:

Thanks for a great read. Lot's to think about.

Personally, I think there's a good chance Brandon of the Bloody Blade was the Last Hero as both are Azor Ahai figures. Dragonsteel sword, Lightbringer and Nissa Nissa, bloody blade. I think they're all the same person.

Thanks. When I started writing/compiling this, I started with the idea that Brandon was the LH, but later thought not since Brandon's name reaches us, wheras both LH and NK have no names that reach us. NK has no records of him beside the story as they were all destroyed, but if his name was erased, it couldn't have been Brandon as the name was kept in use throughout the millenias and as for LH, we now the names of people that predate him or at the latest lived around the same time and yet his name is something that is forgotten. Why? How and why would people forget the name of their saviour even though they remember his story? Story was kept being told over and over and over for hundreds of generations but not the name. NK has to be the LH and he can't be Brandon whose name reached us. He's probably his brother, the brother why NW became the order of the black brothers.

[Corvo the Crow]

Some more food for thought, the NW wows or the part that defines who is a member of the NW

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They were white too, and blind. "Who are you?" the door asked, and the well whispered, "Who-who-who-who-who-who-who."

"I am the sword in the darkness," Samwell Tarly said. "I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers. I am the shield that guards the realms of men."

I think these may all have been people.LH may have been a sword in the darkness, as we are told of his sword being broken in the Night(and later on, his word broken as NK) Joramun is specifically told to wake the giants with his horn, named for some reason Horn of Winter, so he would be the horn that wakes the sleepers. Who are the other ones? House Royce's words are "We remember" What did they remember?  Their CoA is a bronze shield with runes on it, could they be the shield that guards the realm of men?  Do they remember this still and is it why Waymar was sent off to watch even though House Royce being a powerful one and having no need to get rid of the extra sons?

[three-eyed monkey]

5 hours ago, Corvo the Crow said:

NK has to be the LH and he can't be Brandon whose name reached us.

I agree with your logic that the Night's King can't be Brandon, whose name reached us, but I don't think it means he has to be the last hero. You're right that we don't get the last hero's name either, but there may be a number of reasons for that, like for the sake of mystery and intrigue. We may yet get the last hero's name,  but we are specifically told that the Night's King was erased from the records.

 

6 hours ago, EggBlue said:

I can't support my intuition using quotes like you guys... sorry but I have long been thinking that Nights King is a misunderstood figure and is in fact the last hero . looking at Jon's story , his NK imagery and his assassination has led me to believe there is a good chance that NK  and his "corpse" Queen's actions were misinterpreted and thus, they have become villains in the stories. it's not hard to imagine that if Jon stays dead , a thousand years later , he'd be remembered as a tyrant in the watch just like NK.

Jon definitely has both Night's King and last hero parallels. However, I suggest this is not because the Last Hero and the Night's King are the same person, but rather there is a choice coming for Jon between becoming Night's King or Last Hero.

So the Night's King was a Lord Commander who wed the Others and declared himself King of the Night essentially, turning the Watch into his thralls, which sounds like they died and were raised by his cold bride. As such it is a tale about a man who allied with the Others to gain a throne.

The Last Hero fought the Others and defended the realm. If his twelve companions were kings then it stands to reason that he too was a king. If he broke his oath when he broke his sword, then it was his oath as a king, which is to protect the realm. He then went to the children in search of redemption and they told him what he must do. I suspect saving the realm came at the cost of his throne, which would set him up as an opposite to the Night's King, someone who forfeited the throne to save the realm.

I suspect Jon is going to stay dead, in a way. He will of course have his second life in Ghost, a second life worthy of a king according to Varymyr, but before the end of Winds he will have to return to his corpse, because he can't really influence the story as a wolf. That's when he'll have a choice, ally with the Others and rule the night, or defeat the Others and save the day. Become the Night's King or the Last Hero.

[Corvo the Crow]

Apart from his secret identities as Benjen who is also Daario Naharis and Butterbumps for all I know, one proposed candidate for Cold Hands was the Night's King, who was taken down by Brandon the Breaker.

 

After a wolf dream, Jojen asks Brandon who he is.

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"You are a prince," Jojen reminded him softly. "You remember, don't you? Tell me who you are."

"You know." Jojen was his friend and his teacher, but sometimes Bran just wanted to hit him.

"I want you to say the words. Tell me who you are."

"Bran," he said sullenly. Bran the Broken. "Brandon Stark." The cripple boy. "The Prince of Winterfell." Of Winterfell burned and tumbled, its people scattered and slain. The glass gardens were smashed, and hot water gushed from the cracked walls to steam beneath the sun. How can you be the prince of someplace you might never see again? ASOS Bran I

 

So who is Bran? He's Brandon the Broken, but perhaps the Breaker as well?

Bran and co. questioning CH as to who he is.

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Men of the Night's Watch. "You killed them. You and the ravens. Their faces were all torn, and their eyes were gone." Coldhands did not deny it. "They were your brothers. I saw. The wolves had ripped their clothes up, but I could still tell. Their cloaks were black. Like your hands." Coldhands said nothing. "Who are you? Why are your hands black?"

The ranger studied his hands as if he had never noticed them before. "Once the heart has ceased to beat, a man's blood runs down into his extremities, where it thickens and congeals." His voice rattled in his throat, as thin and gaunt as he was. "His hands and feet swell up and turn as black as pudding. The rest of him becomes as white as milk."

Meera Reed rose, her frog spear in her hand, a chunk of smoking meat still impaled upon its tines. "Show us your face."

The ranger made no move to obey.

He's dead." Bran could taste the bile in his throat. "Meera, he's some dead thing. The monsters cannot pass so long as the Wall stands and the men of the Night's Watch stay true, that's what Old Nan used to say. He came to meet us at the Wall, but he could not pass. He sent Sam instead, with that wildling girl."

Meera's gloved hand tightened around the shaft of her frog spear. "Who sent you? Who is this three-eyed crow?"

"A friend. Dreamer, wizard, call him what you will. The last greenseer." The longhall's wooden door banged open. Outside, the night wind howled, bleak and black. The trees were full of ravens, screaming. Coldhands did not move.

"A monster," Bran said.

The ranger looked at Bran as if the rest of them did not exist. "Your monster, Brandon Stark." ADWD Bran I

"Yours," the raven echoed, from his shoulder. Outside the door, the ravens in the trees took up the cry, until the night wood echoed to the murderer's song of "Yours, yours, yours."

"Jojen, did you dream this?" Meera asked her brother. "Who is he? What is he? What do we do now?"

"We go with the ranger," said Jojen. "We have come too far to turn back now, Meera. We would never make it back to the Wall alive. We go with Bran's monster, or we die." ADWD Bran I

 

He's a dead thing, Brandon "the Broken" Stark's monster.

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"They'll kill him."

"No. They killed him long ago. Come now. It is warmer down deep, and no one will hurt you there. He is waiting for you." ADWD Bran II

 

He was killed long ago. How long ago we've not been told but this comes from a CotF that is over 200 years old.

 

Worth noting is that even after they realize he is a dead thing, the Ranger still doesn't show his face. Why? Why hide your face even when your "secret" is discovered if you don't hide yet another secret under that scarf? A familiar face perhaps? A Stark's face. No, not Benjen's. He's still alive as evidenced by him not being part of Theon's dream of the feast of dead.

Quote

That night he dreamed of the feast Ned Stark had thrown when King Robert came to Winterfell. The hall rang with music and laughter, though the cold winds were rising outside. At first it was all wine and roast meat, and Theon was making japes and eyeing the serving girls and having himself a fine time . . . until he noticed that the room was growing darker. The music did not seem so jolly then; he heard discords and strange silences, and notes that hung in the air bleeding. Suddenly the wine turned bitter in his mouth, and when he looked up from his cup he saw that he was dining with the dead.

King Robert sat with his guts spilling out on the table from the great gash in his belly, and Lord Eddard was headless beside him. Corpses lined the benches below, grey-brown flesh sloughing off their bones as they raised their cups to toast, worms crawling in and out of the holes that were their eyes. He knew them, every one; Jory Cassel and Fat Tom, Porther and Cayn and Hullen the master of horse, and all the others who had ridden south to King's Landing never to return. Mikken and Chayle sat together, one dripping blood and the other water. Benfred Tallhart and his Wild Hares filled most of a table. The miller's wife was there as well, and Farlen, even the wildling Theon had killed in the wolfswood the day he had saved Bran's life.

But there were others with faces he had never known in life, faces he had seen only in stone. The slim, sad girl who wore a crown of pale blue roses and a white gown spattered with gore could only be Lyanna. Her brother Brandon stood beside her, and their father Lord Rickard just behind. Along the walls figures half-seen moved through the shadows, pale shades with long grim faces. The sight of them sent fear shivering through Theon sharp as a knife. And then the tall doors opened with a crash, and a freezing gale blew down the hall, and Robb came walking out of the night. Grey Wind stalked beside, eyes burning, and man and wolf alike bled from half a hundred savage wounds.

Even Robb who is not yet dead at the time joins the feast but Benjen is not a part of it. This monster of a Brandon's face was probably the face of a Stark and he was killed "long ago", some 8000 years I think, by another Brandon to whom he was a monster to, a real monster that copulated with an Other and gave her his soul as well as his seed. Him retaining his cognitive functions, and eye color was likely because he wasn't wighted and brought back to life after his dead, but he was already "wighted" when he died.