Unlike its previous season premieres, the eighth and final installment of "Game of Thrones" was not at its gory best, but the dismembered body of young Lord Ned Umber in a spiral of severed arms left behind by the White Walkers was a point of discussion for the HBO show fans.
The pattern that has appeared a lot on the show looked like The Night King's sigil, which Beric Dondarrion said was a message from him.
In an interview with New York Post, the premiere's writer Dave Hill revealed what the terrifying symbol means.
"As we saw with Bran and the Three-Eyed Raven, the spiral pattern was sacred to the Children of the Forest, who created the Night King by sacrificing a captured man in a spiral "henge of stones".
"The Night King then adopted the symbol as a sort of blasphemy, like Satan with the upside-down cross," Hill said.
The sigil was last seen in season seven, episode four, titled 'The Spoils of War', where Jon Snow shows Daenerys Targaryen the carvings on the walls of the caves beneath Dragonstone.
The Children of the Forest had inscribed the designs there, which represent the period in which they united with the First Men, despite both factions being at war for centuries, to defeat the White Walkers.
Season three saw Jon find the severed remains of the Night Watch's horses laid out in the same pattern.
In the first episode of the series' first season, the Night's Watch came across a group of Wildlings who had been slaughtered by the White Walkers arranged in a similar fashion on the ground.
