Unlike the wights, The Night King and his White Walker generals, aren't just the mindless zombies who kill everything that stands in their way. They seem to have a culture of their own; they speak a language that sounds like a cracking of ice on a winter lake. Their home is the Lands of Always Winter. It was here where The Night King converted one of the Craster's sons into a fully fledged White Walker. And he has been doing so for the past fifty years at least. But in the show, we see only twelve White Walkers. And before we delve further into who they might be, let's talk about the Night King and the curious case of number thirteen.

The mysterious number

In one of the previous articles, we explored the possibility that the Night King is, in fact, the Night's King, legendary 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. While we don't necessarily believe that this is actually true, we have to admit that there is some substantial evidence that supports this claim.

To recall, the Night's King was the legendary figure who lived in the Age of Heroes. He was 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch before he fell in love with the female White Walker. And when he gave her his seed, he gave her his soul. Then, he proclaimed himself the Night's King and her, his Queen. They ruled together for thirteen dreadful years from the oldest and by far the biggest Night's Watch castle, the mysterious Nightfort.

It was here where they sacrificed humans to the White Walkers and where he bound the men of the Night's Watch to his will. Sounds familiar?

Then, Brandon the Breaker, the King in the North at the time, and Joramun, the King beyond the Wall joined forces to defeat him. That's when all the records of the 13th Lord Commander were erased from history.

Some say he was a Bolton, or maybe a Magnar of Skagos, but if Old Nan is to be believed, he was a Stark, the brother of Brandon the Breaker.

You probably noticed that the number thirteen appears a lot in this legend. But the story of 13th Lord Commander isn't the only one where this number appears. We also have the tale of the Last Hero and his twelve companions who went on the quest to find the Children of the Forest.

And there is also thirteen white walkers in the show, as well. Which brings us to today's theory.

Connecting the dots

Now, let's talk discuss the Night King's creation that we saw in "Game of Thrones" Season 6 Episode 5. In our opinion, this scene actually revealed what happened to the Last Hero when he finally found the Children of the Forest. And perhaps the first thing he did after that was to touch his twelve companions, thus turning them into the White Walkers (and these are the same twelve we see in the show). And yes, despite popular belief, we think that he agreed to all of this for it was the only way to keep the peace between the First Men and the Others.

Together, they raised the Wall to keep the territories separated.

And the Night King and his twelve companions were the Commanders of the Night's Watch to make sure the other, more sinister part of the agreement was honored -- the human sacrifice. And if the Last Hero was the same person as Azor Ahai, then his wife, Nissa Nissa, was his Night's Queen. But after thirteen years, men decided it's time to violate the agreement and stop this awful practice. So the King in the North and the King beyond the Wall united and banished the Night King and his companions back into the Lands of Always Winter where they waited thousands of years to strike again.

A villain is a hero of the other side

Now before you dismiss this theory because it doesn't fit the timeline, you must know that these legends are not to be taken literally for they were passed orally from one generation to another.

And it was only when the Andals came, thousands of years after, that these stories were written down.

With this in mind, it seems that the Night King was only interested in keeping the peace between the two races, but he was utterly betrayed by men, despite the fact that he sacrificed so much to ensure that mankind survives the Long Night. And now, he is out for revenge. And if this theory is true, then this villain is, indeed, a hero of the other side, as George R. R. Martin would say.
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