Stepstones

The Stepstones are a chain of islands between the southern narrow sea and the northwestern Summer Sea. The islands are located east of Dorne in Westeros and west of the Disputed Lands in Essos. Just to the north is Tyrosh, which is sometimes considered the northernmost and easternmost of the Stepstones.

The islands are often affected by storms.

## Islands

There are fourteen major islands in the Stepstones, and countless other minor islands, most little more than small outcrops in the Narrow Sea.

* Pryr
* Highwatch
* Felstrong
* Tor
* Scarwood
* Guardian
* Golden Haven
* Larazor’s Rock
* Redwater
* Dustspear
* The Veiled Isle
* Bloodstone
* The Island of Serpents
* Grey Gallows

## Settlements

Barring the Island of Serpents, all the isles of the Stepstones have been at some point inhabited, and thus settlements, some well-kept but most decrepit and abandoned, can be found throughout. Ports and bays large enough to shelter a fleet from a passing storm are found on many of the larger isles, in particular Bloodstone, Highwatch, Scarwood, Grey Gallows, Redwater and Pryr.

## Timeline of Events

* 97AA - The Myrish general Craghas Drahar invades the **Stepstones**, claiming all of the major isles barring the Isle of Serpents and Dustspear through use of the Myrish navy. Earning the moniker Crabfeeder for the brutality with which he dealt with the pirates he found upon the isles, his actions were praised by that of the Kings and Lords of Westeros. However, it took little more than a decade before he and his Tyroshi and Lyseni companions started to increase the tolls they demanded for safe passage further and further to levels far in excess of that requested by the pirates he had slain.
* 99AA - Lys begins to raid ships passing through the Stepstones, selling those captured into the slave trade. Nobleborn Westerosis pay for their passage in costs equivalent to what could be garnered at the fleshmarkets of Slaver's Bay.
* 106AA - The Storm-King Rolland I Durrandon of Storm's End wages war on the Triarchy in response to the inhibitory charges associated with passing through the Stepstones, although is bested by the superior naval strength of the Triarchy. Support comes from an unlikely ally in the Velaryons and Celtigars, who have also suffered at the hands of the heavy tariffs demanded by Craghas. Within two years, the joint Westerosi forces have relinquished Triarchy control of all but Pryr and Highwatch.
* 107AA - The joint fleets of the Stormlands and the Kingdom of the Claw take Bloodstone, the Veiled Isle, Redwater and Grey Gallows in a series of successful campaigns against the Triarchy.
* 108AA - The isles of Guardian and Golden Heaven are captured by the Velaryon fleet, and promptly reclaimed by the Triarchy. The two isles exchanges hands four times over the course of 108AA, and are held at one point by the Pirate-Lord Dagon "Dead-Eyes" who exploiting the fighting between the two competing parties to claim the isles for himself.
* 109AA - By the middle of 109AA, the Triarchy had lost control of all of the Stepstones barring Pryr and Highwatch to the navies of the Storm King and the Kingdom of the Claw following numerous battles throughout the isles.
* 110AA - Following the loss of the Stepstones to the Westerosis that rose up against the Triarchy, the Tyroshi general Racallio Ryndoon, having visited Sunspear to arrange a deal with House Martell, arrives at Bloodstone with a fresh fleet and army, quickly smashing that left by Storm King and Crab King to watch over the isles. Within three moons, Triarchy control over the Stepstones had been reinstated, sparking further conflicts which raged near continuously for three years more.
* 113 AA - The Storm King and Houses of the Kingdom of the Claw are finally forced out of the Stepstones by the joint efforts of the Triarchy and their Martell allies, who lay claim to Dustspear as part of their payment for their involvement. The victory is celebrated for a moon straight throughout Myr, Tyrosh and Lys, paid for by the newly raised tariffs placed on the vessels passing through the isles.

* 137AA - The famed Tyroshi captain Racallio Ryndoon sails to the **Stepstones** upon the collapse of the Triarchy. He claims the isles of Guardian, Golden Haven and Highwatch, ruling over them for nearly a decade before being slain in a conflict involving the Burning Fleet.
* 145AA - At the Battle of Highwatch, the famed Tyroshi captain Racallio Ryndroon, hero of the Triarchy's efforts in the Stepstones over three decades prior, is slain by the Commander of the Burning Fleet. Ryndroon's pirate kingdom collapses in his wake.
* 218AA - The Braavosi attempt to set up a trading colony of Scarwood, much to the irritation of the Tyroshi and Lyseni. The Archon at the time, Vyrio Lashare hires the Wolves on the Wind to attack the colonists, then denies Tyroshi involvement upon the rage of the Sealord. The Braavos abandon their efforts in the Stepstones.
* 236AA - The Narrow Sea is ravaged by a great gale remembered as the Wistful Tempest by the more poetic Pentoshi bards. The fleet of the Pirate-King Durwin the Sour is destroyed, and Durwin is descended upon by his rivals in his time of weakness.
* 260AA - After the fall of Lys to the Volantenes, the surviving members of the Band of Nine flee for the Stepstones, eager to create kingdoms of their own in the archipelago.
* 261AA - Having carved themselves Kingdoms in the Stepstones, the last of the Band of Nine start a series of internal power struggles within the isles. The Summer Islander Jhalobhar Xoro claims Redwater, Guardian and Golden Haven, settling primarily on the lattermost for its similarities to Moluu, his birth-isle. Maegon Targaryen claims Bloodstone and the Veiled Isle, whereas Salazor Saan rules his kingdom from Scarwood. Maegon is slain when his ship is sunk off the coast of Grey Gallows by the Saan, who claims the isles ruled by the Valyrian for himself.
* 263AA - Andros Tarth returns to the Stepstones, having fled the Summer Isles after the uprising by the local populace in response to his claims of kingdom. He tries to approach the territory of Salazor Saan, but his ship is sunk by his former ally.
* 265AA - After the death of both Maegon Targaryen and Andros Tarth, the exiled Summer Islander Prince Jhalobhar Xoro started to grow deeply paranoid of Salazor, assuming that he would soon be betrayed by the Lyseni. Xoro’s assumption would ultimately prove to be correct, for Salazor had arranged for poisoned quills to be hidden within the Summer Islander’s colourful feathered neck-frill, a ploy that resulted in the exiled Prince’s quick but undoubtedly agonising death in 265AA.
* 273AA - In 273AA, Salazor Saan died from a pox, by which time he had grown fabulously wealthy from bribes received from Archon and Magisters alike, in hope of buying his allegiance. Taking their coin then pillaging their ships proved all the more profitable however, and thus many since have travelled for the Stepstones in hopes of discovering his supposed horde.
* 298AA - The Stepstones have not known a day without piracy since the years of the Triarchy of the Three Daughters, a union of Lys, Tyrosh and Myr that dissolved near a century and a half prior. Pirate-Lords and Corsair-Kings alike lay claim to the isles, carving their territory with steel, sail and blood. Few kingdoms last longer than a couple of moons, but there are those in history that have ruled for durations to challenge the Kings of Westeros. There are also rumours that a new Pirate-King may prowl the isles who claims descent from Salazor Saan, the Lyseni pirate notorious for being one of the Band of Nine, a group of ambitious merchants, sellswords and vagabonds that between them conquered much of the Disputed Lands, and Lys itself. After their expulsion from Lys, Saan carved an Kingdom for himself in the Stepstones, growing very wealthy. Many have since travelled to the Stepstones in hope of finding his hidden treasure horde.