Children of the Forest

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The Children of the Forest, sometimes referred to simply as the "children" are the original inhabitants of Westeros, who lived alone throughout the continent of Westeros, long before the arrival of the First Men during the Dawn Age. Much is unknown about the children, They are a mysterious and magical people who have not been seen by humans for thousands of years. Tales describe them as diminutive humanoid creatures, no larger than children at their tallest, dark and beautiful. The giants call them woh dak nag gram little squirrel people. They call themselves in the True Tongue those who sing the songs of the earth [1]. They worshipped nameless gods of forest and stream and stone. The children built no cities, castles, or holdfasts, not even towns. They lived in the woods, in caves, crannogs, and secret tree towns. They worked no metal, wore shirts of woven leaves and bark leg-bindings. [2] It's said that the children of the forest had the greensight ability, which granted the greenseers powerful magic.[3] however the Maesters believe that the greensight was not magic, simply another kind of knowledge. They believe that their wisdom had something to do with the faces in the trees [4]

Appearance

They were smaller than men with nut-brown skin and large ears, they usually had large golden eyes, but a few had green or red eyes; these had the gift of greensight to be greenseers. They have three fingers and a thumb with sharp black claw instead of nails. .[5]

History

Approximately 12,000 years before Aegon's Landing, the children ruled the entire continent of Westeros, worshiping nameless nature spirits that were later called the Old Gods. Around this time the First Men crossed into Westeros from the eastern continent via the Arm of Dorne. Their burning of the great weirwoods caused the children to go to war against them. The children wielded obsidian weapons and bows in battle, but also used powerful magic. They shattered the Arm of Dorne, forming the archipelago later known as the Stepstones, but it was not enough to stop the advance of the First Men. Eventually, the war ended in a truce known as the Pact, which was made on the Isle of Faces in the midst of the lake known as God's Eye. The children's greenseers and wood dancers met with the First Men and terms were agreed: the Children retained the standing forests and the First Men were able to settle the open lands. Faces were carved on all the trees of the island to cement the agreement, with the sacred order of green men established to maintain it, and the Pact endured for some four thousand years.

Approximately eight thousand years before Aegon's Landing, during an extended period of winter known as The Long Night, the Children of the Forest joined with the First Men, to fight against the Others in the War for the Dawn. Eventually the Others were driven back into the Lands of Always Winter.

The children of the forest taught the worship of the Old Gods to the First Men, but this was largely supplanted in the South by the Faith of the Seven after the Andal Invasion. Relations between the children and humans grew distant over the years, until they ceased altogether. By the time of Aegon's Landing, humans had not seen the children for thousands of years.[6]

References and Notes