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  ==Description==
  Martin introduces the Others in the prologue of ''A Game of Thrones'' (1996), describing them as "Tall ... and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk" with eyes "deeper and bluer than any human eyes, a blue that burned like ice". Accompanied by intense cold, they wear armor that "seemed to change color as it moved", and wield thin crystal swords capable of shattering steel. The Others move silently, and they speak their own language; Martin writes that their voices are "like the cracking of ice on a winter lake". In ''A Storm of Swords'' (2000), they are shown to be vulnerable to weapons made of dragonglass (obsidian), as Samwell Tarly kills one this way:
  In ''A Dance with Dragons'' (2011), Sam uncovers ancient record fragments which suggest that the Others are also vulnerable to something called "dragonsteel", which he and Jon Snow surmise is another term for Valyrian steel.
  Creatures killed by the Others soon reanimate as wights: undead with pallid skin, black hands, and glowing blue eyes similar to the Others'. Dragonglass has no effect on them. Wights may be physically injured, but even dismembered parts remain animated, so they must be destroyed by fire. The humans who live in the north beyond the Wall—called "wildlings" by the inhabitants of Westeros—burn their dead so they will not become wights.