The White Walkers were created by the Children of the Forest thousands of years ago as a form of protection against the First Men who were cutting their sacred trees and slaughtering their tribe. (Rude). The White Walkers were originally First Men themselves, before being captured by the Children of the Forest to be changed into weapons. The Children of the Forest pressed dragonglass daggers into the chests of these First Men to create the first White Walkers.

Eventually, the White Walkers rebelled, Cylon-style, from their lives of forced war-making and decided to make war on their own terms, attacking the living indiscriminately and becoming the most feared creatures in all of Westeros. Or so the legends say. We’ve yet to hear the White Walkers’ side of the story.