The Iron Islands

The Iron Islands is one of the constituent regions of the Seven Kingdoms. Until Aegon's Conquest it was ruled by the Kings of the Iron Islands and then briefly the Kings of the Isles and the Rivers.

The Iron Islands are home to a fierce seafaring people who call themselves the ironborn. While some say the archipelago is named after the abundant iron ore on the islands, the ironmen claim it is instead named after their own unyielding nature. It is often said that every captain is a king aboard his own ship, so the islands are also called "the land of ten thousand kings".

The isles are ruled by House Greyjoy from their castle of Pyke. Bastards of noble origin from the Iron Islands receive the surname Pyke.

## History

### Kingsmoot era

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, however, 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.

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 kingsmoot 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 House 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 Greyiron kings reduced other ironborn kings to 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.

It took centuries for the 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.

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. Harwyn's grandson, 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 conquered riverlands.

The Hoare line, now Kings of the Isles and the Rivers, 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.

In 2 AC, Aegon led an invasion of the Iron Islands to defeat the various pretenders to Harren's throne, including Qhorin Volmark and Lodos. Aegon then allowed the defeated ironborn to choose Lord Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke to rule as the new Lord of the Iron Islands, a vassal of House Targaryen who now ruled the Seven Kingdoms from the Iron Throne.