Mance Rayder

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Mance was once a man of the Night's Watch before breaking his vows and abandoning his post. He has since become extremely influential among the wildlings, and called "The King Beyond the Wall". He is an unremarkable-looking man in his middle years, with a fondness for music.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mance was actually a wilding child, but was taken by the Night's Watch and raised as one of them. He was a loyal member of the Night's Watch for most of his life until he suffered an injury and was healed by a wildling woman. While he recuperated, she mended his torn cape with swatches of red fabric. Upon returning to the Wall, the Night's Watch commanders required him to replace his mended cape with one of uniform black. This minor infringement of freedom caused him to abandon the Night's Watch and live with the wildlings in the way he wished.

Mance undertook the monumental task of uniting the notoriously individualistic wildlings under his guidance to invade Westeros. When Jon Snow met with Mance under pretext of joining his campaign, Mance explained that he had taken possession of a magic horn that could topple the Wall, and would use it as a last resort if he could not bypass it militarily. However, Mance revealed that the wildings, including his own people, had been hunted by the Others and their wights, and were unable to stop them. His true aim therefore was not to destroy the Wall, but to use it as a shield against the Others.

Mance undertook his invasion of the Wall while it was manned by a skeleton crew commanded by Jon Snow. Despite overwhelming odds, Jon successfully held Mance's forces at bay long enough for Stannis's unexpected reinforcements to arrive and demolish the disorganized wildling army. Jon smuggled Mance's son away from the Wall in the care of Samwell Tarly because he knew that Stannis's sorceress Melisandre was looking to sacrifice a child of royal blood, and that Mance's title of "King Beyond the Wall" could be construed as a royal lineage.