A few also join because they are desperately poor and have no better options. Instead, they are drawn from trusted members of the three orders, often those who can no longer fight well due to injuries but who can still travel. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come." They are responsible for keeping wildlings, the Others, and other creatures that live beyond "The end of the world" out. It is unknown if there is any formal procedure to depose a Lord Commander and elect a new one, in cases where the current Lord Commander violates his oaths or is deemed medically unfit to lead, etc. The Gift is a region to the south of the Wall under the direct control of the Night's Watch.

Night falls and now my watch begins. Patrols from these castles would travel along the top of the Wall watching for threats from the north, or repairing damage to the Wall.

Stannis Baratheon and other characters become involved with the Night's Watch as well. The Gift is sparsely populated by only a handful of smallfolk, as most have relocated to the south over the generations while the Night's Watch dwindled and wildling raiding parties over or around the Wall increased in frequency. It was donated to the Night's Watch by House Stark when the order was founded thousands of years ago, in order to support the Night's Watch with food and provisions. 1. The northern areas closer to the Wall are almost completely empty.

By the end of the reign of King Robert Baratheon, only three major castles along the Wall are still manned: Castle Black, the Shadow Tower, and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.

―The Night's Watch oath "Night gathers, and now my watch begins.

Jon Snow becomes Lord Commander of them later in the books. In the HBO series, the oath was changed slightly to: Men of the Night's Watch are divided between three different orders: the Rangers, the Builders, and the Stewards.

Stannis Baratheon and other characters become involved with the Night's Watch as well. These maesters take the oath of the Night's Watch and are considered full black brothers, but are not considered part of the three orders. I am the shield that guards the realms of men.

Once and a great while a younger son or bastard son of a major noble House will decide to join the Night's Watch, but they can often afford to travel to the Night's Watch on their own initiative (such as Jon Snow and Waymar Royce) many times though, they are either force by families who deem them unworthy of their noble House and even father's disowning their son's who either bring shame or disappointment or in extreme case (such as Samwell Tarly) threatening them with death which force's them to join out of fear. In recent years, most of these tend to be criminals, murderers, rapists, and thieves taken from the dungeons of major cities and towns.

There are nineteen castles spread out along the southern face of the Wall as bases for the Night's Watch. Ser Alliser ThorneLord Commander {Osric Stark}The {Night's King}Lord Commander {Brynden Rivers}First Ranger Benjen StarkFirst Steward Bowen MarshCommander Cotter PykeEddison TollettCommander Denys MallisterSer {Mallador Locke}GrennPyparSamwell Tarly{Qhorin}Recruiter {Yoren}Maester {Aemon}. Each castle also contained a tunnel cut under the Wall, through which scouting parties would travel to the north to track wildling movements.

Guest.

Recruiters are few in number, and they are not considered a separate order in the Night's Watch. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.

As the Night's Watch dwindled over the centuries, however, most of these castles were abandoned, and their tunnels sealed with ice.

It shall not end until my death. I am the watcher on the walls. All are subject to the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, and each of the three orders is led by its own officer, the First Ranger, the First Builder, and the Lord Steward, respectively.

The Night's Watch is an organization of soldiers on Westeros that protect the Wall on the north end of the continent.

The leader of the Night's Watch is the Lord Commander. At the start of the tale, Jeor Mormont is Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. The Night's Watch is grievously under-strength by the beginning of the book series, having fallen from 10,000 when Aegon the Conqueror invaded to less than 1,000, divided into three garrisons at Castle Black (600 soldiers), the Shadow Tower (200 soldiers) and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea (less than 200 soldiers). It lies at the northern edge of the region known as the North. After the Battle of Castle Black, the Night's Watch takes a headcount: their entire manpower (including the garrisons at Eastwatch and the Shadow Tower) has been reduced to 589 brothers. The Gift is officially not subject to the authority of Winterfell, and is technically not part of "The North", but is a special administrative zone directly ruled by the Night's Watch.

Each castle of the Night's Watch also has a maester assigned to it.