The Iron Islands

 

Seasons

The Iron Islands is an archipelago in Ironman's Bay, located in the Sunset Sea off the western coast of Westeros. They are roughly west of the riverlands, northwest of the westerlands, and south of the north.

The main grouping of islands numbers thirty-one, with the seven major isles being Pyke, Great Wyk, Old Wyk, Harlaw, Saltcliffe, Blacktyde, and Orkmont. Eight days sail northwest of Great Wyk is a smaller grouping of thirteen clustered around the Lonely Light. Some of the Iron Islands are used for sheep grazing or are uninhabited. The islands are ruled from the castle of Pyke, the seat of House Greyjoy on the island of the same name.

The Iron Islands is the smallest of the nine regions of the Seven Kingdoms. Dorne is the least populous of the Seven Kingdoms, though Maesters who say this tend to note that this is only because Iron Islanders breed like animals. If seven "kingdoms" were to be counted from among the nine provinces of the realm, it appears that the Iron Islands would be omitted.

The Iron Islands are small, barely-fertile rocks. The grey, overcast weather has frequent rainfall, and the seas around the isles are often stormy.

People

The inhabitants of these harsh isles are known as ironmen, especially by the rest of Westeros, but they also call themselves the ironborn. They are a seafaring people, and some do not like to be far from the sea. The priests of the Drowned God likewise seldom stray far from the sea. The ironborn are considered independent, fierce, and sometimes cruel. They live in a harsh land and hold no love for the peoples of the mainland Westeros, whom they consider green and weak. Ironborn culture traditionally allows for one rock wife and multiple salt wives, and they prefer to have thralls perform manual labor.

The Faith of the Seven and the old gods find small favor with the ironborn, as their allegiance is given to their native Drowned God. In recent years after the failed assassination of King Aegon I, many Septs have been built on the islands, mainly on Harlaw and Great Wyk, with house Harlaw of the Tower of Glimmering and Myre of Harlaw specifically taking to the faith and lending their swords as protection for Septs on Harlaw Island. Ironmen who often sail to the mainland are more likely to have maesters, singers, and knights in their retinues.

Most ironmen insist on maintaining the Old Way of reaving and paying the iron price and resist or outright refuse to serve Greenlanders. Inclusion of Ironborn voices in the court of Riverrun and aid in food and materials from the mainland however have softened this refusal to work with Greenlanders so long as the Old Way remains.

Economy

The islands are sparse and rocky with a thin, stony soil that makes it hard for the smallfolk to farm, and they often have to do without animals that might make their job easier, such as oxen or horses. While their mines do not produce the precious metals of the westerlands, iron is abundant on the isles. Lead and tin can also be obtained. Most ironborn feel the dangerous and backbreaking labor required to mine these metals is work suitable only for thralls. With so little wealth on the islands themselves, it is not difficult to understand why the ironborn of old turned to raiding. Archmaester Haereg suggests that need for wood was what first drove the ironborn to raid the mainland.

Ironman's Bay contains schools of cod, black cod, monkfish, skate, icefish, sardines, and mackerel, and the shores of the isles have crabs and lobsters. Seven out of every ten families are fisherfolk, according to Archmaester Haereg.

Military strength

The Iron Isles can raise approximately twenty thousand men and five hundred longships. The Iron Fleet alone consists of one hundred ships which are three times larger than the standard longship. A longship such as Sea Bitch has fifty oars, while Great Kraken and Iron Victory are larger. The major lords of the ironborn can each float around a hundred ships. The only fleets comparable to those of the Iron Islands are the royal fleet in the crownlands and the Redwyne fleet at the Arbor.

History

Settlement

Maesters believe the Iron Islands were settled by the First Men many thousands of years ago. Legends claim that the First Men discovered what would be called the Seastone Chair upon the shores of Old Wyk. There is no evidence the islands were inhabited by children of the forest or giants. Weirwood trees do not grow in their poor soils, so the old gods did not have significant followers there. Instead, the humans who came to inhabit the islands worship their own local religion of the Drowned God.

Differing from maesters, the priests of the isles claim the ironmen are not First Men in origin but were created in the image of the Drowned God, and they therefore may have a connection with merlings. Some also suspect that the isles were originally inhabited by the Deep Ones, and that they are the ones who left the Seastone Chair behind.

Most ironborn believe that their ancestors were an offshoot of the First Men who simply crossed to the isles on boats, where their culture developed differently from their mainland cousins. The ancient First Men kept thralls, hinting that the ironborn were also First Men who retained the practice in their isolation.

Kingsmoots

According to legend, the islands were ruled by the Grey King during the Age of Heroes. For much of their history, each island was its own kingdom and had its own kings, a rock king who ruled the land and a salt king who commanded at sea. Chosen by kingsmoot, these petty kings constantly fought with each other, and they raided the First Men of mainland Westeros for timber, crops, and thralls.

The islands were first unified when a powerful priest of the Drowned God, Galon Whitestaff, decreed it was sinful for ironborn to make war upon other ironborn. The other priests preached his word throughout the isles, until the various kings and longship captains convened on Old Wyk at Nagga's Bones for the first kingsmoot to select one High King of the Iron Islands to rule over all. Galon decreed the title was not hereditary, but upon the death of each High King a new kingsmoot would be convened to elect another. The new high kings were also called driftwood kings because of their crowns of driftwood.

The kingsmoots on Old Wyk ended the petty wars between each of the isles, and with their new unified strength, the High Kings began to conquer other lands instead of just raiding them. Under the rule of King Qhored the Cruel, the ironborn brought much of the western coast of Westeros under the rule of the Iron Island, including lands as far as Bear Island, the Arbor, and Oldtown. They were gradually lost by his successors, however, as mainland houses such as the Hightowers, Gardeners, and Lannisters increased in strength. The High Kings came from numerous houses, with most coming from Houses Greyjoy, Goodbrother, and especially Greyiron.

The Greyiron dynasty

Upon the death of High King Urragon III Greyiron, his younger sons convened a kingsmoot which chose Urrathon IV Goodbrother, although Urragon's elder son, Torgon Greyiron, was away raiding the Reach. Supported by priests unhappy with Urrathon's tyranny, Torgon declared the kingsmoot invalid when he returned to the Iron Islands, and the so-called Badbrother was overthrown. Although Torgon the Latecomer was wise, the ironborn were still in decline and the Cape of Eagles was lost to the Mallisters of Seagard. Torgon had his son rule alongside him for several years, and Urragon IV Greyiron thus also became High King without being chosen in a kingsmoot.

The dying wish of Urragon IV was that the high kingship pass to his great-nephew Urron Greyiron, salt king of Orkmont. When the priests insisted that a kingsmoot be held at Old Wyk, Urron had his men slaughter those who attended, including thirteen other kings and half a hundred priests. Urron Redhand established the hereditary rule of House Greyiron over the Iron Islands. Instead of being called High Kings, they titled themselves King of the Iron Islands and wore iron crowns. Abolishing the system of rock and salt kings, the Greyirons reduced other ironborn kings to vassal lords and extinguished families who refused to submit.

While the driftwood kings were elected by consent of the lords and captains, the iron kings led to infighting among the ironborn, which the priests were unable to stop. The Greyirons faced half a dozen major rebellions, numerous smaller insurrections and insubordinations, and at least two major thrall uprisings.

The stronger and larger kingdoms of the green lands took advantage of the ironborn's disunity to take back conquests on mainland Westeros. For instance, Garth VII Gardener, King of the Reach, drove the ironmen from the Shield Islands and fortified them to prevent ironborn raids up the Mander.

Unlike the First Men, the Andals built strong ships capable of fighting ironborn longships. During the coming of the Andals, wooden stockades of the First Men with replaced with stone castles throughout the Reach, the riverlands, and the westerlands, new defenses against the lightning raids of the ironborn. All of their possessions lost, the Greyirons barely held on to power, and the isles increasingly divided into civil wars. After a thousand years of hereditary rule, the Greyirons fell to a coalition of ironborn lords and Andal adventurers, who often intermarried with the natives of the Iron Islands.

The Hoare dynasty

The Greyirons were replaced as hereditary Kings of the Iron Islands by House Hoare, who intermarried with the Andals when they came to the isles. The priests of the Drowned God considered the Hoares ungodly and false kings, which Archmaester Hake agreed with. Archmaester Haereg, however, believed the Hoares were disliked for tolerating the Faith of the Seven, discouraging reaving, and promoting trade.

The priests eventually rebelled against King Harmund the Handsome, led by a priest remembered as the Shrike. They overthrew Harmund within a fortnight and mutilated his mother, Dowager Queen Lelia Lannister, which led to a long war with the westerlands which left the Iron Islands impoverished and ill-prepared for the Famine Winter. Ser Aubrey Crakehall claimed the islands for himself during the war, but he was swiftly overthrown by the ironmen.

It took centuries for the Iron Islands to recover, during which ironmen began to trade with coastal Westeros and the Free Cities. Only a shadow of what they once were, the ironborn no longer held territories on the fortified mainland and instead reaved in distant places, such as the Basilisk Isles, Stepstones, and Disputed Lands.

Kings of the Isles and the Rivers

A few generations before the Wars of Conquest, the peaceful King Qhorwyn the Cunning built a strong fleet to deter attack. His ambitious son, King Harwyn Hardhand, then conquered the Trident on the mainland from the Storm King Arrec Durrandon. Instead of relinquishing control of the territory to rivermen, the Hoares ruled both the riverlands and the Iron Islands as Kings of the Isles and the Rivers. Harwyn's son, King Halleck, ruled from Fairmarket on the Blue Fork of the Trident rather than from the Iron Islands, and he led unsuccessful campaigns against the stormlands, the westerlands, and the Vale of Arryn.

Halleck's son, King Harren the Black, ordered the construction of Harrenhal, an enormous castle on the northern shore of the Gods Eye in central Westeros. The building of Harrenhal over forty years beggared both the Iron Islands and the riverlands.

The Hoare line ended with the deaths of Harren and his sons during Aegon's Conquest. Inspired by Aegon Targaryen, Lord Edmyn Tully led the river lords in rebellion against the Hoares at Harrenhal. Harren refused to yield to Aegon and the castle was too strong to storm, so Aegon flew his dragon, Balerion, over the walls and roasted Harren and his sons in their tower. Most of Harren's supporters were killed in the burning of Harrenhal or by river lords as they retreated back to Ironman's Bay, and Aegon granted rule over the riverlands to House Tully of Riverrun.

Recent Events

  Two years after Aegon’s Conquest, Aegon led an invasion of the Iron Islands to defeat the pretenders who rose in Harren the Black’s absence. The force was made of Rivermen, Westermen and Reachlanders with a handful of participants from the other regions and though they had all sought great and bloody glory the fall of Harren the Black had been as much a blessing to the Ironborn as it was to the Rivermen.   The faux welcome that Aegon and his forces received lead to the Ironborn being allowed to choose their next leader in their old ways, with a Kingsmoot. Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke was selected to lead the Ironborn so long as he bent his knee to the Iron Throne and when it came time for him to bend, instead of doing so Vickon Greyjoy made an attempt to ambush all the greenlanders present and kill King Aegon. Lord Edmyn Tully slew Vickon Greyjoy and helped get King Aegon to safety behind the men they had brought.   For this betrayal, house Greyjoy's ships were burnt in the port of Pyke by Balerion and the Iron Islands were placed under the rule of House Tully, making them the Lord of the Iron Islands and Lord Paramount of the Trident. Jonos Greyjoy who lost an arm in the fighting that stopped the assassination and revolt over the next few decades encouraged a conspiracy led by Qhorin Harlaw the son of Beltran Harlaw who’s father had nearly been King in Harren the Black's absence until Aegon landed before being slain during the revolt. The Drowned Priest Lodos Twice-Drowned helped Jonos stir tension on the islands by leading a campaign in Qhorin’s name to rid the islands of the Faith using ships and chains to drag Septs into the waters, and the strength of the Ironmen themselves to rip Septons apart, throwing the pieces of them into the waters around the Island.   In response King Aelyx I was powerless, bound to the mainland for his troubles with High Septon and Prince Baelon. Aelyx did all he could by instructing Lord Tully to handle the matter of rising rebellion and banners of the Riverlands were dispatched to the island. In the fight to remind the Ironborn to whom they owed fealty. Lord Piper, who commanded men of 6 houses; Darry, Erenford, Lychester, Mooton, Piper and Roote, was killed during the initial landing. Despite the death of Lord Piper and a few of his commanders, the rebellion was quelled. The dead included Jonos One Arm, and Qhorin Harlaw who are said to have been killed together by the young heir to house Piper. Though weakened, the Iron Islands quickly rebounded, driven by a return to raids on the Westerlands, and the support of house Tully in feeding the people of the Islands as well as including them in the Riverlands court. The proverbial velvet glove offered after the iron fist, though that iron fist burnt out Pyke and the ten towers of house Harlaw, giving Pyke to the smallest house of the Iron Islands, house Codd, and Harlaw isle to Harlaw of the Tower of Glimmering who had accepted the Faith of the Seven and fought against their cousins for Lords Piper and Tully.   Houses Drumm, Harlaw of Glimmering and Tawney have all stood steady as voices of the Iron Islands at Riverrun in the last decade while house Greyjoy has quietly and steadily rebuilt their navy and kept separate from the mainland politic. Aid from the Riverlands as well as permission from King Baelon to 'bring the Stranger' to the shores of the Westerlands for the trouble the West had caused Baelon, encouraging Islanders to embrace the old way, have softened ill feelings relating to the subjugation of the Islands, and the growing number of Septs. Some houses, such as Harlaw of Glimmering and Myre of Harlaw have taken to the Faith of the Seven, lending protection to the Septs on Harlaw Island earning more trust from the Rivermen than some others of the Islands. Old Wyk and Great Wyk however remain a stronghold of the Drowned God and the Septons fear to build upon them.   After the defeat of Prince Vaenor at the Blackwater Fork, King Baelon summoned an envoy of the Iron Islands to King’s Landing to speak of their place in the Kingdom and their role in the ‘natural order’ of things. The Iron Islands has so far as anyone knows yet to give King Baelon an answer on whatever it was he offered them, nor does he seem eager to have the answer. Still, it is clear that the Iron Islands are without a leash under King Baelon so long as they know where to tread beneath house Tully.