Baratheon of Storm's End

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History

Targaryen Dynasty

House Baratheon is the youngest of the Great Houses of Westeros. It was created when Orys Baratheon, one of Aegon I Targaryen's generals, his closest companion, and his rumored bastard half-brother, took Argella Durrandon, the only daughter of Argilac Durrandon, the last Storm King, to wife. Orys took the sigil and words of House Durrandon for his own and became the first Lord of Storm's End. Through the female line, House Baratheon descents from King Durran Godsgrief, who founded the kingdom of the Storm Kings during the Age of Heroes.  

First Dornish War and the Vulture Hunt

House Baratheon led an assault on the Boneway with one thousand knights. During a night raid by the Dornishmen the bodies of the invading army blocked the Boneway from both ends, and when Lord Orys ordered his men to fall back, a triggered rockfall cut off their retreat. With no way forward or back, the stormlanders were massacred, save for Orys and a dozen other lords thought worth the ransom. Orys and his bannermen found themselves the captives of the Wyl of Wyl, the savage mountain lord called the Widow-lover.   When Aegon eventually agreed to the Dornish ransom demands, Lord Baratheon and his bannermen were ransomed in 7 AC for each man's weight in gold. However, they were freed only after having their sword hands removed so they would not be able to use them again against Dorne. Orys became known as Orys One-Hand thereafter. In retaliation for this treachery, King Aegon descended on the mountain fastnesses of House Wyl with his dragon Balerion and burned them to rubble, though the Wyls managed to take refuge in their caves and tunnels beneath the mountains.   After losing his sword hand Orys became obsessed with vengeance against the Dornish, especially House Wyl leading house Baratheon to engage in fighting with Dorne near endlessly. When Sabina Martell came to King's Landing to provide peace terms, Lord Orys argued for sending the princess back to her father Nymor, the Prince of Dorne, without a hand.   House Baratheon received the opportunity for vengeance against the Wyls in the Second Dornish War also known as the Vulture Hunt, during the early reign of King Aelyx I Targaryen. In 37 AC, During an assault on the Red Mountains, mainly Nightsong and Blackhaven, the Vulture King split his host, having one half led by Lord Walter Wyl to besiege Stonehelm, the seat of House Swann.   Baratheon marched from Storm's End to engage in the battles surrounding this attack and subsequently crushed the Dornishmen beneath the walls of Stonehelm. Lord Walter Wyl, the son of the Widow-lover, was brought to Orys and Lord Baratheon chopped off hands and feet which he called his "usury".   On his return Storm's End, Orys died content, according to Duncan Baratheon, smiling at the rotten hands and feet dangling in his tent.  

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Seat and Holdings

The castle of Storm's End is located at Durran's Point on the northern coast of Shipbreaker Bay, south of Bronzegate and northeast of Griffin's Roost. The kingsroad runs north from Storm's End through the stormlands to King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms.   One of the strongest castles in the realm, Storm's End was once the ancestral seat of the Storm Kings of House Durrandon extending back many thousands of years. The castle is said to be protected by spells woven into its very walls that prevent magic from affecting it or passing through it.   Storm's End is surrounded by a massive outer curtain wall, one hundred feet high and forty feet thick on its thinnest side and nearly eighty feet thick on its seaward side. It is composed of a double course of pale grey stone with an inner core of sand and rubble. The wall is smooth and curving, the stones so well placed and so perfectly fit together that the wind can find no purchase. On the seaward side, there is a one hundred fifty foot drop below the wall into the sea. There is no safe anchorage by the castle. The curtain wall protects the castle's kitchens, stables, and yard.   Storm's End has only one tower, a colossal drum tower crowned with formidable battlements, making it look like a huge, spiked fist thrusting towards the sky from afar. The tower is so large that it comfortably contains the granary, barracks, armory, feast hall, and lord's chambers all at once. The main hall of the castle is called the Round Hall. The maester's cell and the rookery are located at the top of the tower, which is windowless on the side facing the sea. It is said that there are spells woven into the stonework of Storm's End.   The seaward side of Storm's End stands upon Durran's Point, a high white cliff overlooking the sea. A tunnel, accessible only at high tide and treacherous because of jagged rocks, leads to a cavern beneath the castle where the storm lords of old built their landing. The passageway is guarded by murder holes in its ceiling and can be lit by torches. A portcullis with narrow bars guards entry from the tunnel to the cavern.   The godswood of Storm's End has a weirwood, and the heart tree is carved with a solemn face.   Despite a good wind off Shipbreaker Bay, the weather is hot at Storm's End in summertime. There are fields and stony ridges in the vicinity.  

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