War Beyond the Wall

The War Beyond the Wall was a war that took place from 418 AC to 419 AC when Lord Jon Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North rode beyond the wall to battle against the King Beyond the Wall Ekkill Crowsbane. It resulted in the death of Ekkill Crowsbane and the collapse of the wildling army, in addition to leading to the rise of the Crippled King.

Background
Following the uniting of many wildling clans in early 418 AC, word quickly spread past the wall to the ears of the Northern Lords and Ladies who feared another invasion from beyond the wall. These fears increased in tandem with the rise of raids upon House Umber lands, with a few daring to venture further south to the lands of House Karstark. Upon hearing of this; Lord Stark rallied his bannerman at Winterfell for a Northern Council on the best way to fight this wildling menace. Before this council even took place, many attempted to position themselves as the principle bannerman of House Stark, yet this only resulted in tension between them.

March Northwards
A force of 25,000 gathered in the shadow of the Last Hearth, with a third of this force remaining to protect the lands of the North and its people. The others marched onward towards and through the wall. Using the skilled scouts of the Nights Watch, it was determined that this army of wildlings had gathered in the natural harbour of Hardhome, the march was not easy, and many starved or froze to death before they had even reached their destination. In addition to this, the host was attacked day and night from wildling raiders who employed guerrilla tactics on the weaker parts of the large Northern caravan. However, the men of the Dreadfort held the rear valiantly against these threats, with Alysanne Stark delivering inspiring speeches to each man every morning as the winter sun crested the horizon. Although this did not make up for the lack of a warm bed or plentiful food, but these men were of the North, and hardy, continuing to push further into the wilderness without complaint.

Battle of Hardhome
Of the 16,750 men that had left Castle Black two moons before, 15,000 reached Hardhome. It was hard to tell the numbers of the actual wildling army given their unorganised nature, but it was estimated by the Northern Lords who fought against them to be around 40,000. The battle was short lived, as the wildlings quickly fell apart after many cavalry charges struck their flanks and centre breaking their spirit and ending the lives of thousands of wildlings. Much of the victory had been credited to Torrhen Manderly whose plan allowed for crannogmen of House Reed to rain terror down from above hardhome with poison darts weakening the vanguard enough for the cavalry to smash through and slaughter the poorly equipped and poorly trained wildlings that made up the vanguard of their army.

It did not take long for the vast majority of wildlings to throw down their weapons and flee back to the poor villages they called home. Less were killed, and even less were captured by the Lords of the North. Although among the dead was Ekkill Crowsbane, singers claimed that he was killed by a poor northern farmer boy, but the more likely nature accepted by the maesters of the Seven Kingdoms was that he was crushed to death in the retreat as the unorganised wildlings clamoured over each other to escape with their life.

Battle of the Milkwater
While the wildling army had been crushed, small tribes had begun to band back together, the worst of these had been the Nightrunners, who attacked the Northern army from the sides at night. It was then decided by the Lords of the North to push further north to deal with the remaining wildling menace rather than allowing them to gather strength once more around the mouth of the Milkwater. The Forrester men came in use here, due to their experience within the Wolfswood they tracked the Nightrunners far north where they had joined forces with the men of Thenn and the Ice-River Clans, with the wildlings of Skuggi, Radovan and the Magnar of Thenn commanding their forces.

Supplies had begun to run thin as the large Northern host marched further and further north, where all around them only ice and snow remained. Tensions between houses had begun to show, with House Umber and Karstark having their forces separated at each end of the camp. Houses Manderly and Stark of the Dreadfort had attempted to bring the houses back together with little success and it seemed they would be at arms any day now. It was only when Torrhen Ryswell spoke to both men did they agree to work together for the betterment of the North.

Soon after they finally came upon the band of wildlings, 9,500 strong. The fighting was strong as the Thenn’s commanded the vanguard and held their resolve against the charge of the Northmen. That was until the Magnar of Thenn was cut to pieces by Rickard Umber and Cregan Karstark did the wildlings spirit waver just enough for the Stark calvary to break through their lines. Radovan was killed by Jon Stark himself, while Skuggi was crushed by a multitude of horses. With their leaders dead, the last remaining wildling forces fled their spirit finally broken, and the War Beyond the Wall was won.

March Home
 The march home was not an easy one, as those injured in the battles were unable to get the medical attention they needed and food stores began to run low as each day only brought them slightly closer to the seven hundred foot wall. In addition it seemed that the old tensions between houses had begun to reappear as they argued amongst each other for food. Leading to Jon Stark rationing the food amongst the men equally which while not solving the tensions did ease them enough for no fighting to break out between Houses.

Eventually the now significantly smaller Northern host reached the wall, which was a sore sight for the surviving men of the host, many had been left behind either too injured to walk or simply fell asleep never to wake up. But the wildlings had been vanquished for now at least.

Aftermath
Shortly after the Northerners returned to their homes feeling once again safe in their holdfasts knowing the wildling threat had been vanquished once more, something began to stir beyond the wall. At first it was a whisper, but over the years of peace and prosperity in the North, the wildlings began to become more bold once again, and rumours of the Crippled King made their way over the huge ice wall.