Probably. My guess is that, back in the day, a large proportion of Night’s Watch recruits were prisoners of war from conflicts, especially between the Westerlands, Riverlands, Reach, Vale, Stormlands, and Dorne. The Highborn get ransomed, but the common soldier is expensive to feed and the Night’s Watch will take them off your hands.
Dear maester Steven, I read that around the time of Aegon’ s conquest the Night’s Watch numbered 10000 men, but late in the reign of Jahaerys I their strength was greatly reduced, and by the start of the story they number only 1000 men. They only seemed to decline after Aegon’ s conquest, and so I was wondering if the Targaryen unification somehow reduced the number of recruits for the Wall?
Published
RFTIT Tumblr Backup 