In the opening scene of the first episode of Game of Thrones, audiences got their first glimpse of the terrifying threat that had lain dormant in the frozen north of Westeros. The ranger, Ser Waymar Royce, had led his party of Night's Watchmen beyond the wall to hunt a band of wildlings. He pressed them on, despite their protests, through the biting cold until they eventually came across the remains of the wildlings laid out on the snow in ritualistic sacrifice. Before long, they discovered the culprits – the White Walkers – before being swiftly and brutally killed. After throwing the decapitated head of a Night's Watchman at the feet of a sole survivor, they left him alive to escape back to the wall to tell the tale.