Factions and Evil

One of the qualities of A Song of Ice and Fire that almost everyone remarks upon is that there are no monolithic, one-dimensional groups. Yes, there is conflict between House Lannister and House Stark; but there is also conflict within those houses, and group membership is not a sign that anyone is good or bad. This comes up so often, and with such emphasis, that the Others stand out like a sore thumb: here, it seems, we suddenly have a group that is one-dimensional, ahistorical, and simply evil.

This demands an explanation.

In season 7 of the TV show, Bran has a vision in which a group of Children creates the first Other. If we assume that this is at least roughly what George R.R. Martin intended as the origin of the Others, the problem is shifted: the Others become a weapon rather than a group, and we should be asking about those who wield this weapon: the Children of the Forest.

These, too, might seem like a one-dimensional, even clichéd group at first glance. Elf-like creatures in tune with nature, who are slowly receding from the world? That's pure Tolkien, and it is not like George "R.R." Martin to leave anything Tolkien pure.

In fact, taking the books and the TV show together, we have already seen at least two very different factions of Children of the Forest. There are those who created the Others as a weapon against the First Men; and then there are those who fight against them, even enlisting the aid of humans to do so, that we meet in the Heart of Winter.

We even get a glimpse into the worldview of that latter group, through Leaf's words to Bran: "The gods gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as deer will overrun a wood where there are no wolves to hunt them. That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling." (ADwD, Bran III) -- Those are the Leavers, if you will; those who decided that their days are done, who conceived of their kind as niche dwellers and harmony seekers from the beginning. But note that even in Leaf's melancholy monologue, the trauma of being overrun by unrestrained humans is apparent -- as is the idea of culling their numbers.

We know much less about the other faction, the one that created the Others to push back the human tide -- and the one that, if the theory outlined here is correct, is still controlling the seasons in order to keep the humans in Westeros from becoming too numerous or too powerful. But there are a number of things we can infer from what we know:

  • They either repented after creating the Others or were defeated or outmaneuvered by the rest of the Children, who made a Pact with the First Men and helped them build the Wall to keep the Others out.
  • They were probably ideologically aligned with, if not the same group as those who used the Hammer of the Waters to smash the Arm of Dorne.
  • They probably still exist, and react (perhaps overreact) to things that are happening in the world.

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