The Wall / White Walkers / Necromancy

[mrlukeduke]

It seems the Wall has the power to stop magic, or at least certain kinds of magic. For example it breaks the connection between Jon and his dire wolf via the "green" dreams. Other buildings of similar construction/age, e.g. Storm's End, seem able to block Melisandre's shadow sorcery, and hence why she needs to sneak inside its walls first with Davos.

So, why do we have a restless wight appearing at Castle Black? If the Wall was built with White Walkers in mind and we assume that it's the White Walkers who control the wights (by some necromancy), then logically – if there are no Others south of the wall – a wight should not have risen so easily at Castle Black and attacked Jeor/Jon.

Am I missing something obvious here? Does the Wall not stop necromancy, or is there a White Walker south of the Brandon's Wall?

[Consigliere]

There is precious little known about the Others at the moment. All we know is that they are capable of raising the dead. Who knows what other magical abilities they possess. Hopefully we will receive more info about the Others in TWoW.

[Slackylc]

Lots of these very old castles and holds seem to have magic woven into them, as Melisandre says. I think that The Others, and probably their wights as well, cannot pass on their own. However, the wight that attacks Jeor (and I think another one killed a few people elsewhere in the castle?) were carried back through the gate by men of the Night's Watch. I see this as similar as the way Sam brings Bran and co. through the Wall, i.e. only a brother of the NW can bring people through.

[Leif]

We need more info on the Others and the wights. At this point anything's possible.

[yolkboy]

So, why do we have a restless wight appearing at Castle Black? If the Wall was built with White Walkers in mind and we assume that it's the White Walkers who control the wights (by some necromancy), then logically – if there are no Others south of the wall – a wight should not have risen so easily at Castle Black and attacked Jeor/Jon.

IIRC that wight was already risen before crossing the Wall. He already had the blue eyes.

[mrlukeduke]

But I was under the impression that Wights don't rise at all without the magic of the Others, which would seem a contradiction unless there's a sneaky WW south of the Wall already (scary).

I thought it was like a puppet show, rather than the Wights having autonomy/intention even after the WWs leave them.

[RedLantern]

But I was under the impression that Wights don't rise at all without the magic of the Others, which would seem a contradiction unless there's a sneaky WW south of the Wall already (scary).

I thought it was like a puppet show, rather than the Wights having autonomy/intention even after the WWs leave them.

There's been a few hints that wights retain some memory of their lives; most notably Thistle looking at Varmyr in his prologue. We just don't know if they have the agency to act on these memories themselves or if they are exclusively puppeted by Others. Given the numbers of wights, I personally would think they're given a general direction ("Go South and kill things") and act on that, as opposed to being controlled directly.As far as how this all works regarding the wall, we just don't know enough. Maybe being South of the Wall broke the Others connection to Othor, and he reverted to his memories and attacked Mormont out of instinct?