Dagon Greyjoy

Dagon Greyjoy is the younger son of the ailing Lord Harras Greyjoy, called the Rosescourge for his vicious raid on Highgarden during the Second War of Reclamation. He supports the return of the Old Ways to the Iron Islands.

## History

### Early Childhood

Born in the year 349 as the second son of Harras Greyjoy, Dagon came into the world with a full head of hair and underneath the curious eyes of his brother, carrying their infant sister in his arms. Though his birth wasn’t particularly remarkable, his screaming was the first sign of defiant independence.

Dagon had a happy young childhood with his brother and sister on Pyke, spending as much time playing with them as he did eating or sleeping, though it would have been more if he had any choice in the matter. From the beginning he was fiercely competitive, never being satisfied on a game ending until he had won.

At five namedays old, Dagon joined his brother and sister to witness the last child their mother would bear, his youngest brother, Harlon. Dagon adored his brother from the beginning and has remained fiercely protective of him ever since.

After Harlon was born, Dagon was sent with his older brother to foster at Old Wyk, with the Drumm family. There, Dagon was introduced to another older brother, Tristifer Pyke. Even if they only shared half of the same parentage, Dagon looked up to Tristifer and tried to model himself after his bastard brother, who was far older than he was.

During his time at Old Wyk, Dagon gained a passion for not only violence, but for leading others to it. He would often try and organise other children in their chores and practices, trying to imitate what he had read and heard of great lords in the past. He grew closer to his brothers, with their sparring sessions at Old Wyk being some of the happiest times of his life, even if he usually lost. While playing with his brothers, he made some friends of his own, gaining a lifelong friend in Cedric Drumm.

Left alone at Old Wyk with Tristifer after his father, older brother and sister travelled to the Twins, Dagon became a bit more of a troublemaker, forming a small gang with some of the other boys around and training them to steal things for him. Though it was mostly harmless items, things came down a bit harder on Dagon when he stole a knife from the kitchen. He had no nefarious purpose. He just wanted it.

After Theomore returned from the Twins, things went back to normal for a while. That was, until the night when the reavers returned. There were cries for help and a gathering at the docks, where the three boys were already exploring. Finding a longship packed with men covered in blood, Dagon was in awe. Those men who lay unmoving or required help were still heroes in his eyes, but the men without a scratch - those who walked with their heads held high and their coffers heavier, they were something special. In that moment, they were like gods in the boy’s eyes. They were the reavers he wished he could be.

### Adolescence

Though he was still very young, Dagon only became more adventurous, more intent on seeking glory and becoming the best reaver the Iron Islands had to offer. He and his brothers would often sneak out to take turns practising being the captain of a Longship, experiencing all there was about leading a vessel across the waters. Dagon was particularly adept at direction and management, having understood each and every part that kept a ship running, and knowing in fine detail how they had to be instructed and led.

After a while, Dagon hatched a plan with his siblings, even recruiting some of the boys that had been in his ‘gang’ as younger children. They took a longship, saying they were simply going on a longer sailing exercise than normal. In truth, they rode to a fishing village, isolated from the rest of the world, to experience the world as Reavers did, to pay the Iron Price as their ancestors had.

Dagon loved it. There was a thrill and a rush that one got from spilling blood, sure, but seeing the reavers moving like a well-oiled machine, destabilising any resistance and cutting it to ribbons almost on reputation alone before they’d even gotten to the violence really got his blood pumping. Despite his young age, Dagon was strong and large, able to kill a few men of his own during the scuffle.

At the raid’s end, with two of their own lying dead, Dagon was confused at what seemed to be hesitance or some kind of strange reaction in his brother’s manner. He tried to help him and encourage him to at least take some of the spoils from the skirmish, but he had noticed a change in Theomore’s mood. Still, he and Tristifer planned for their next raid and where they could go next, what kind of spoils they could find. In truth, Dagon cared little for the spoils themselves. It was almost a challenge, the shores and towns just waiting there, to see how long it would take him to crush them.

After the incident at the fishing village, Theomore returned home, and was instead sent off to Ten Towers. Dagon had no idea of what had happened between his brother and father, but was now left strangely alone. Harras took more of a personal interest in Dagon, and the boy had the importance of the Drowned God and of paying the Iron Price repeatedly drilled into his mind, told over and over that as a Greyjoy, he was expected to be the example for all Ironborn. If not, he was a failure.

Dagon was schooled in the ways of the Drowned God and the Old Way, and gained a particular interest in history. Strangely for an Ironborn boy, he would learn to read in secret, from a thrall that once served as a mainland Maester. He used this to try and gain more understanding of the lands beyond, but only to find out about their great admirals, generals and tactics.

### Early Adulthood

Dagon had little idea of what had happened to his brother before hearing of his closeness to Elia Harlaw, and his return home to demand the marriage from their father. Dagon only arrived after the argument was mostly over, though his laughter at the state of his father and brother’s faces was heard throughout the castle, reportedly.

As much as things had been awkward for that time, being separated from his brother, Dagon was ecstatic to attend the wedding. He still admired Theomore, and was pleased to see not only him finding a woman worthy of him, but of the respect the North showed to the Greyjoy family; he hadn’t expected to see Starks, Freys, or anyone from as far away as the Mormonts were on the Iron Islands in a hundred years.

Dagon, though he was pleased, found he often lived a now separate life from his brother, Though his friendship with some of the other Ironborn lordlings and even those older than him flourished as he gained not only influence, but respect, he did feel some disappointment at how things had turned out. As Theomore seemed to retreat further within himself, building a tower of isolation, it only strained Dagon’s feelings.

The Greyjoy continued with his reaving and raiding, bringing his long-term comrades with him all of the way. He explored with his raiders, sailing around Westeros while narrowly avoiding the eyes of the Reachmen who watched for any approaching Ironborn, sailing around the coast of Dorne and as far as the Stepstones. Though he rarely landed, Dagon found himself curious about the world at large, and how big it seemed to be.

It was this long voyage to the Stepstones that would be amongst the very last of these ‘exploring’ cruises. Arriving back at Pyke, Dagon was barely on the shores of the Iron Islands when he had men rushing to his side, trying their best to inform him of what had happened to his father, and how ill he truly was.

### The Second War of Reclamation

Standing alongside his brother Theomore, Dagon could only watch as his father was wasting away in bed, unable to do anything thanks to the illness that was claiming his body. They were told that the two of them would share the command of the Iron Fleet while he was bed-ridden, with war vastly approaching their shores. Unable to simply sit and wait, both of the Greyjoys readied their banners. Dagon called upon many great houses of the Iron Islands, with many that supported and respected him quick to fall under his leadership.

Dagon and Theomore, using not only the force of the Ironborn but tactics and cunning, were able to launch a devastating two-pronged attack upon Fair Isle, resulting in the capture of many hostages that ended up stored upon Theomore’s ship. With the winds in their favour, Dagon passionately tried to convince his brother that they should keep their momentum. If they wasted too much time, the war would drag on too long, resulting in more deaths. Dagon thought shock and awe to be their best course.

Theomore refused him, and Dagon decided to take matters into his own hands. He sailed his half of the Iron Fleet towards Crakehall lands, assuming that Theomore would relent and follow him soon after. He was wrong. Theomore, shrewd as he was, went to meet the Redwyne Fleet who mobilised soon after, a factor that Dagon hadn’t expected so soon. With a diminished force and few ways to strike at the Southron heartlands without his forces being harrassed into dust, he came up with a cunning gambit.

Recruiting his old friend, Cedric Drumm, Dagon gave him a message and sent him alone into the Westerlands, to meet with Lord Lannister of Casterly Rock. They met in secret, where Dagon offered an arrangement to the Warden of the West - that the Ironborn would not reave his lands once the conflict was over, and would leave him alone after the war. In return, he would let them pass through, and not interfere with their machinations elsewhere. His ships still moved towards the shores, but Dagon slowed them, trying to buy Cedric time, even as he knew it only put his brother in more danger, as much as it pained him.

His gambit paid off. With the go-ahead from Lannister, the Ironborn landed in the Crakehall lands,sacking Crakehall for the extra supplies they would need and rushing down through the Westerlands and the Reach, moving to a Highgarden that perhaps didn’t even realise they were there. In a daring attack, Dagon brought half of the Iron Islands’ might down upon the home of House Tyrell, breaching the walls and sacking the castle. He razed what he could and took everything else, including Meredyth Tyrell to be his first Salt wife.

To try and disrupt the Southron forces and split them apart, as well as to please his reavers, Dagon continued to raid the Reach, razing and stealing what he could of the plentiful land to try and soil the main breadbasket of the enemy forces. As strong as his Ironborn were, the halved force could not stand against Lord Baratheon’s host and were routinely forced back.

Now seeing that he was outmatched in the field, and with his glories taken, Dagon retreated back to his half of the Iron Fleet, taking it to try and meet Theomore’s. He regrouped with his brother and smashed the Redwyne Fleet at Fair Isle, sending many of the sons of the Mander to the Drowned God that day. Though they had accomplished much, Dagon could tell that they needed to return to lick their wounds and return stronger another day.

Despite his victories, Dagon could not help but feel guilt and shame at the state of his brother’s eye. As much as it was an impressive scar, his brother’s brush with death had only been because of his miscalculation, of not realising that Theomore would be forced to meet the Redwyne Fleet in the open sea thanks to his actions.

### Aftermath

With the war over, Dagon was left with his spoils. The riches of Highgarden, from gold and precious baubles to Meredyth, the daughter of the Reach’s Lord. Dagon got to work almost immediately on producing his own heirs, and soon his first son, named Harras for his grandfather, was born.

Dagon’s relationship with his own father had become almost silent in comparison. After returning from the war, Harras had said almost nothing at all to his younger son, and only stared at him with a look that Dagon considered nothing but hateful contempt. Perhaps he knew that Dagon’s actions had almost killed his heir, or he simply saw him as a stupid boy who had endangered the fleet. Dagon did not know, and perhaps never would.

As he stewed, now having a second son in Benjicot with his salt wife, some of the other houses of the Iron Islands seemed to take more of a liking to him than his older brother. Dagon once again found himself conflicted as some of the Ironborn pulled back towards their Old Ways, opposing how Theomore seemed to cosy up to many of the Greenlanders, engaging in trade and acting like he was one of them. Dagon was left unsure, only knowing that he had to keep his people alive, keep the Old Way alive.

As the new year came around, Dagon joined his brother and took others along with him to attend a funeral at Winterfell, where tragedy had befallen the North.