First Men

The First Men were the first human inhabitants of Westeros, crossing into the continent from Essos across a land bridge in the Dawn Age, some twelve thousand years before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire. They warred with the native children of the forest before making a lasting peace, and their blood and customs endure most strongly in the North and beyond the Wall.

Arrival and the Pact

The First Men came bearing bronze weapons and rode horses, and they cleared the forests and carved faces into the weirwood trees as they advanced. Their wars with the children of the forest lasted centuries until both peoples gathered on the Isle of Faces in the God's Eye and forged the Pact, ceding the open lands to men and the deep woods to the children. From the children, the First Men adopted the worship of the Old Gods of the Forest.

Culture

The First Men built in unmortared stone, raising ringforts and the great castles whose foundations still stand. They kept the old laws, including guest right and the practice of the lord carrying out his own sentences. After the coming of the Andals, who conquered most of the south, the bloodlines mingled, but the houses of the North, the crannogmen of the Neck, and the Free Folk beyond the Wall remained predominantly of First Men descent.

Legacy

Houses such as House Stark trace their line to the First Men and the Age of Heroes. The runic script of the First Men, the Old Tongue spoken by the giants and Free Folk, and the weirwood groves are surviving marks of their long dominion.