White Walkers

Lore & Background

The confusion often stems from the visual similarity between White Walkers and certain Magic creatures. In the source, Martin introduces the Others in the prologue of A Game of Thrones (1996), describing them as 'Tall [...] and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk' with eyes 'deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice'. Accompanied by intense cold, they wear armor that 'seemed to change color as it moved', and wield thin crystal swords capable of shattering steel.

The Others move silently, and they speak their own language; Martin writes that their voices are 'like the cracking of ice on a winter lake'. In A Storm of Swords (2000), they are shown to be vulnerable to weapons made of dragonglass (obsidian), as Samwell Tarly kills one this way. Creatures killed by the Others soon reanimate as wights: undead with pallid skin, black hands, and glowing blue eyes similar to the Others'. Yet, the specific lore of the Long Night, the Wall, and the Army of the Dead remains the exclusive domain of George R.R. Martin's creation.

Reader's Guide

The White Walkers are not a faction in Magic: The Gathering and therefore have no goals, members, or role within its conflicts. Fans often associate them with Ice Age mechanics or Innistrad's winter themes due to shared aesthetics of cold necromancy. In the actual MTG canon, similar roles are filled by the Winter Court, Phyrexian compleationists, or various ice-themed planeswalkers who control the dead through frost rather than magic specific to Westeros.

Did You Know?

• In the novels, the Others are primarily referred to as 'the Others', while 'White Walkers' is a term used by wildlings.
• The Night King, their apparent leader in the TV series, was created by Leaf, one of the Children of the Forest, by stabbing a human prisoner in the chest with an ice dagger.
• In the TV series, the Night King killed Daenerys Targaryen's dragon Viserion in the seventh season episode 'Beyond the Wall', then reanimated him as a wight.
• Arya Stark killed the Night King with a Valyrian steel dagger in the episode 'The Long Night', causing both him and the other White Walkers to shatter and the Army of the Dead to be obliterated.