Game Of Thrones: 7 Things You Need To Know About The White Walkers

6. The Long Night

The reason that the Others are considered legends is that they haven't been seen in around 8,000 years, not since an event known as The Long Night. This was a time when darkness fell across the world, in the middle of a great winter, and devastated areas through famine and terror. It was during this time that the mysterious beings made their way south from the far North, with ice swords and wights to fight the living. It took the First Men and the Children of the Forest to ally together to defeat them and send them back to the Land of Always Winter, and even then it was only with the discovery that dragonglass could harm them. There are a couple of other legends that stem from this too, such as the tale of the last hero, and more pertinently in terms of what we've heard in the series, Azor Ahai. Both are rather similar stories, of a legendary warrior fighting the Others, and Melisandre for one believes it will require Azor Ahai to be reborn in order to save the world again this time around, with many theories suggesting this could be Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen (but probably not Stannis). This event was also the catalyst for another huge moment in Westerosi history, as it led to the building of the Wall, in order to prevent the Others from ever making their way South again.