In the grand history behind A Song of Ice and Fire, one event hangs heavy. It's a generational event that defined the lives of every person in Westeros. The Long Night was an inexplicable decades-long winter season that allowed the undead White Walkers to invade the continent. It could have wiped out humanity. Luckily, all living things banded together to fight the Army of the Dead and won. After they drove them out, Bran the Builder led the effort to keep them out.
One of the most critical aspects of any fantasy world is variety. Lord of the Rings follows its heroes from the pastoral Shire to the majesty of Rivendell. Westeros spreads from the unforgiving desert to the brutal tundra with every climate in between. Society varies as sharply as the weather. Part of the franchise's entertainment is seeing the ways of life from King's Landing to the Vale.
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Who is Bran the Builder?
Brandon Stark was the first King in the North and the progenitor of House Stark. Bran lived during the Age of Heroes, a mythological period that came long before the events of the narrative. The Age of Heroes began after the First Men reached Westeros and made peace with the indigenous species, the Children of the Forest. Neither the Children nor the First Men had a written language. As such, most scholars dispute the events of the Age of Heroes. Narratively, the fictional life of Bran the Builder and everyone who lived alongside him may be fiction within fiction. He's a legendary figure in the mold of Beowulf. Bran the Builder never appears in the plot. The character's lore must be viewed through the unusual lens left for stories told to fictional characters. George R. R. Martin once spoke on the Age of Heroes, saying:
No one can even say for certain if Brandon the Builder ever lived. He is as remote from the time of the novels as Noah and Gilgamesh are from our own time.
Bran was born to Brandon of the Bloody Blade, though his parentage is disputed. His potential father earned his grisly nickname after slaughtering so many Children of the Forest that the nearby Blue Lake became known as Red Lake. Brandon was born to Garth Greenhand, the High King of the First Men, who fathered many of the Noble Families of Westeros. That would link Bran the Builder through cousins and half-siblings to Houses Gardener, Oakheart, Redwyne, Fossoway, Hightower, and Bulwer. Brandon the Builder took the name Stark. He gave his son the same moniker, establishing a trend. House Stark reuses the name Brandon or its variations constantly. The current example is young Bran the Broken.
What did Bran the Builder accomplish?
Bran constructed The Wall and Castle Winterfell. Long after his father's era, the First Men made peace with the Children of the Forest. During the war, the Children used dark magic to transform a captured man into a frozen undead monster called a White Walker. He became the Night King and transformed others into an Army of the Dead. Years later, they attacked Westeros. This Long Winter ended when the living won the Battle For the Dawn and pushed White Walkers back to the far North. Bran had a history as a builder. He was said to have helped construct Storm's End and the Hightower. As such, he was the man chosen to build the Wall. He learned the True Tongue of the indigenous people to request their help. With their help, Bran built a Wall that would stand for thousands of years. Jon Snow would describe it like this:
Almost seven hundred feet high it stood, three times the height of the tallest tower in the stronghold it sheltered. His uncle said the top was wide enough for a dozen armored knights to ride abreast. The gaunt outlines of huge catapults and monstrous wooden cranes stood sentry up there, like the skeletons of great birds, and among them walked men in black as small as ants.
Bran would rely on the giants and the Children of the Forest again to build his home, Castle Winterfell. Winterfell also stands for thousands of years. It's the seat of power in the North, held by his descendants for countless generations. Some suggest it was built in segments over thousands of years. Either way, Bran didn't create the structure alone. During the war, a group of warriors called the Night's Watch formed. They would go on to guard the Wall for countless generations. Bran is said to have ordered a sector of 25 leagues to be set aside for their benefit. This area was called the Gift and used for the sustenance and support of the Night's Watch. Stories vary, but it's said that Bran the Builder created the Wall and the systems that still keep it safe.
Bran the Builder is a figure of legend. Whether he existed in fiction or not, the accomplishments attributed to him had to come from somewhere. Bran could have been a fascinating figure. Little is said about his personality. His legendary capacity for building things outlived any detail of his actual life. Brandon Stark, First of his Name, deserves some of the praise he's earned for creating the one moderately noble family in Westeros.
