p style="text-align: left;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Helvetica','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"strongspan style="text-decoration: underline;"Prologue/span/strongbr /br /Harsh frosted winds perpetually gnawed at the face of those with the misfortune of crossing the mighty Frostfangs. Unbeknown to most claiming to live in the North, those in the emReal North /emmade the gruesome trek almost daily. It was a place of only nightmares and struggle, where everlasting snow could render a man blind. It was a place of screaming gales, a place where colossal rocks tore through the earth like the blades of the Old Gods themselves. Blizzards lasted weeks on end, with any soul stranded in the freeze condemned to their graves before the first flake of snow kissed them. The Sun rarely shone on these lands; when it did, it hastily vanished behind the never-ending carpet of drab which lingered above. br / br / Most men shuddered at the mere thought of travelling through the cruel peaks, but to the Free Folk it was home. The majority of them had never experienced any sort of warmth above freezing; with the regard that only when the boiling water of the cooking pot turned to snow was it cold. They were a hardy people, raised with the sole aim to survive, and throughout their many tribes they still possessed a strong ethos of family. Free Folk lived away from hierarchy, and they did not respect any man that believed in hereditary nobility, a 'kneeler'.br / br / Mance Rayder was their leader, an honourable man who unified the people of the North for the first time, through fear and uncertainty. Men and women alike were encouraged to fight under his command, to protect the Free Folk from human invaders and invaders indescribable. One of their major foes was the Night's Watch, who frequently bombarded their warriors from their perches high atop the Wall. Their people came from the same ancestors and the same culture, but the swift invasion of the continent by the Andals some 8,000 years previous meant they had grown separate. Vicious battles between both sides had raged on for decades, with neither offering negotiation nor a ceasefire – they were very much at war. br / br / Most recently, a man who appeared to be from the Night's Watch had allegedly been spotted sneaking around near to camp in order to gain knowledge on the Free Folk./span/p