The wooden keep rotted away "a thousand years past". The Kings of Winter from House Stark eventually defeated the Marsh Kings, adding Moat Cailin to the realm of Winterfell.
It was a key defense of the north against which the Andal armies threw themselves time after time with no success. The swampy terrain was enough to prevent Moat Cailin from falling during the coming of the Andals to Westeros. The Marsh Kings and their crannogmen held Moat Cailin-sometimes with the assistance of the Barrow Kings, Red Kings, and Kings of Winter-against all attacks from the south. Some scholars discount the legend, instead attributing the watery landscape to natural events. The children failed and only succeeded in flooding it, however, creating bogs and swamps. From the Children's Tower, they are said to have used the hammer of the waters on the Neck to break Westeros in two, separating the north from the south in the same manner they shattered the Arm of Dorne. Īccording to myth, the greenseers of the children of the forest worked dark magic at Moat Cailin. Raised by the ancient First Men, it is claimed that Moat Cailin has defended against southern invasions for ten thousand years. It stands where the south and west walls once met.
It has only half of the crenelations of its crown. The Children's Tower is tall and slender.
#Ancient stronghold chest full#
Attackers face constant fire from the other towers should they attempt to attack any one tower, wading through chest deep water and crossing a moat full of lizard-lions. The remaining three towers, which are covered with green moss and white ghostskin, command the causeway from all sides so that enemies must pass between them. Today only great blocks of black basalt lay scattered about, half sunk in the ground where the wall once stood, and the keep rotted away. Moat Cailin was once a great stronghold, with twenty towers, a wooden keep, and a great basalt curtain wall as high as that of Winterfell's. 5 Chapters that take place at Moat Cailin.