An Army of the Dead: An Oath Written in Blood

So over on the W I floated a theory that got a bit of traction and voice , asked me a while back to repost it here.  The original thread seems to have been deep sixed when the W moved servers so this is going to be like one of those hollywood remakes, let's hope I do the original justice



Physical, Magical or Both ? The Question of The Wall


Ok, so there is a HUGE amount of debate over the magical nature of the wall. Does it contain warding ? What is it warded against ? Does it stop wargs ? Does it stop white walkers ? Etc. I'm not wildly concerned with that tbh. What concerns me is the fact that the wall cannot exist. It should, by all accounts, collapse under it's own weight and the only difference between our world (where a construction that size, made of that material, would simply fall down) and Planetos (where the damn thing has apparently stood for 8000 years), the only difference is that on Planetos they have magic. I'm calling magic being heavily involved in it's construction and continued defiance of conventional physics.




There's More Than One, "Army of the Dead"


Upon seeing the title of this thread, I'm sure many of you pictured everyone's favourite hoard of chilly zombies, the wights.  Well yes, they are most assuredly an army of the dead but what if I told you that there is another army of the dead & damned ?  Another army who wear black and call themselves, "crows" ?  That's right folks, the Night's Watch is an army of dead men.... or at least it used to be and that my friends, that is the problem.



The Power of Blood


I'm not going to labour this point, I think we all realise the power of blood sacrifice and how it relates to the working of magic on Planetos, there are innumerable examples.  One thing I will stress is the belief element of this.  What do I mean ?  Well making a sacrifice to the Black Goat of Qohor might actually get you something (I think, partly because of the expectation that it will) but making a sacrifice to The Seven is unlikely to yield any results.



Killed With an Oath


We all know the NW vows; lands, kings, last night etc.  But imagine those vows are more than a promise or a prayer, imagine those vows as a knife (or bronze sickle) to the throat.  It's said that a man who has "given his life to the watch" (note the wording), knows that his life is forfeit should he desert.  Why is that ?  I appreciate in modern times that the wall has become a dumping ground for the worst in Westeros but (given how seriously Ned takes this), I suspect that the penalty of death for desertion is a long-standing one.  The answer is simple but chilling, making your oath before a heart tree is not a ceremony to mark the start of your life as a brother of the Night's Watch, it's an execution.



An Energy Field Created by All Living Things. It Surrounds Us, Penetrates Us, and Binds the Galaxy Together.



I've talked a lot about blood sacrifice but in truth I use that as a more general term for the sacrificing of life for power.  This is something we see in stark relief when Mel takes some of Stannis' life force (for want of a better phrase) and uses it to construct the shadow assassins that do for Renly and the castellan of Storm's End.  I imagine the situation on the wall to be something very similar.  When a new crow takes their oath, they are essentially giving their life to the watch, giving their life to the wall.  Simply put, I think that is literal.



Ice Preserves

A famous (nay, infamous) phrase spoken by Maester Aemon but how does it relate ?  In the above Stannis example, we all know that Mel refuses to create more shadow assassins for Stannis because he couldn't take it, fire burns after all.  In my theory, the cold at the wall keeps the crows alive for quite some time, slowly draining all that sweet, sweet life energy from them over years & decades.  There are an unusually large amount of old guys on the wall no ?  Well there's your answer for that anomaly




The Problem of The Seven

Here's where the watch starts to get itself into some trouble.  As the years roll by and the original purpose of the wall becomes myth and legend, a new people begin to settle in Westeros, the Andals.  They bring a new religion with them and when the first andal recruits to the NW arrive at the wall, they refuse to take their oaths before a tree in some "pagan" ritual.  Instead they offer the words to the seven and I gotta be honest guys, I don't think anyone was listening  Of course many crows still fly to the wall from the north so the heart tree still gets it's souls but the numbers are waaaaaaaay down and the magic that preserves the physical structure of the wall begins to wane.



Conclusion


So here's the short version:

• The NW oath is a de facto blood sacrifice, but instead of dying immediately, the life is leached from you.
• The arrival of the andals totally effed this whole arrangement up.