Dagon Ironmaker

## Lord of Ironmaker Keep

**Dagon Ironmaker** is the fourthborn son of Bryce Ironmaker. After the tragic deaths of his brothers, which were tragedies of the highest order and absolutely none of which were ever facilitated or advanced by Dagon himself, and the death of his father, Dagon Ironmaker inherited House Ironmaker.

## Appearance

Dagon is blessed with the traditional Ironmaker musculature. While his muscles have lost some of their trademark definition over the years, he still looks every inch the improbably powerful man that once dragged his longship across Old Wyk to win a bet. He shares the traditional Ironborn look: dark hair, grim expressions, close-cropped beard, and pale blue eyes. He lost his left eye in a raid on the Stepstones but that incident has somehow morphed into a tale of him engaged in a life-or-death struggle with an angry shark. When pressed on the issue, he simply refers to the injury as the result of a "fishing accident."

## History

Dagon initially had slim prospects of winning his father's title. But his eldest brother, Bryce, died of a wasting illness shortly after Dagon was born. By the time Dagon earned his spurs, the secondborn, Arryk, had been captured while attempting to enslave merchants from Oldtown and was forced to take the black. While the thirdborn, Jarak, fed a hedonistic lifestyle, Dagon set about proving he was the better choice. He captained a voyage from Pyke to Bravos, deftly navigating three ships through the Stepstones and creeping past the pirates in the dead of the night.

After returning to Ironmaker Keep, carrying a cargo of Qartheen cargo of spice and silk that he smuggled out of Braavos. Using these goods as "proof," Dagon fed stories to Jarak about how easily wealth could be won from the poorly-defended merchants of the Narrow Sea. Dagon then departed, ostensibly to raid the Redwyne Straits. Jarak, goaded by Dagon, prepared for a raid of his
own. Fate, however, was not kind to Jarak; two days after he departed, he encountered Dagon on what appeared to be a return voyage from plundering the shipping off the Arbor. Dagon offered a toast of Arbor
white to Jarak prior to the latter's departure and, when the two ships drew alongside, Dagon's crew immediately attacked Jarak's crew. By the time the fighting was over, Jarak had been captured and his crew butchered. Dagon buried Jarak's own axe in the man's head, tossed his body overboard, and burned the ship. Jarak's death, as all Ironmaker deaths from raiding, was chalked up to a "fishing accident."

Dagon put ashore on a minor island in Ironman's Bay, ostensibly to celebrate his twenty-fifth name day, and, together with the five crewmen he felt were sufficiently loyal to trust, killed those members of his
crew he felt were insufficiently reliable. After returning to Ironmaker Keep, he ensured his remaining crew fell victim to a variety of
accidents. His bosun drank himself to death in a bar, with Dagon picking up the tab, while the navigator woke up with a cut throat after staying the night in a seedy little inn on the outskirts of Pyke. Dagon started a rumor on Saltcliffe that his cook had bedded a local captain's wife; the cook was subsequently murdered despite his claims of innocence. The cook's mate and quartermaster, engaged in the type of relationship that few on the Islands approved of, were beaten to death by an angry mob on Harlaw. Dagon's clean-up operation took three months to complete, during which time he had recruited an entirely new crew to replace the old one.

By the time Dagon was ready to put to sea again, it had become clear
that his father, Lord Bryce, had contracted some sort of wasting illness. For once in his adult life, someone near Dagon was dying without Dagon's direct involvement. Dagon ensured he did everything possible to appear the filial son: he brought Maesters from as far afield as the Citadel, he administered the House in his father's place, and spent an hour a day at his father's bedside. Lord Bryce lingered for the better part of year before dying. By the time he was twenty-six, Dagon had become Lord of House Ironmaker.

Shortly after acceding to the throne, Dagon began to fabricate
evidence that Jarak was in actuality a prisoner on Bloodstone, an island in the Stepstones. After his initial overtures failed, with the pirates claiming that they had no idea who Jarak Ironmaker was, Dagon led an expedition of five ships to Bloodstone. Dagon, after contriving to have the pirates capture a ship loaded with Arbor wine, led his men ashore in a midnight raid. The massacre that ensued was mostly one-sided, but a
handful of pirates retained enough of their faculties to pose a threat. Dagon learned that the hard way when he lost his left eye to a particularly aggressive swordsman. Dagon's raid turned up little evidence for Jarak -- none of the pirates captured and subsequently interrogated knew who Jarak was, Jarak obviously was not found on Bloodstone, and there was no paper trail to follow. The investigation had hit a dead end, its only lead exhausted, and Dagon ordered a return to their ships before pirates from nearby settlements could be mustered
to counterattack. The raid on Bloodstone failed to uncover any evidence in the search for Jarak, but that was to be expected: Jarak was at the bottom of Ironman's Bay, a gem-encrusted axe buried in his skull. Dagon's overt mission was a failure but his covert intentions had been fulfilled.

When asked after the fact what happened on Bloodstone, Dagon had only three words: "Axes and vengeance."

After Dagon's raid on Bloodstone, he returned to Ironmaker Keep to focus on more domestic affairs. He was married to a daughter from a cadet branch of the Flint house, the Lady Nyra, who would give him three sons, one of whom would die in infancy. Dagon was confronted by a woman named Joy from Harlaw, whom he remembered fondly, and presented with his bastard son. He was then widowed when Lady Nyra died during childbirth, giving him his only daughter in the process.

After Lady Nyra's death, Dagon undertook a long journey at sea with his bastard, Martyn Pyke. He took the lad to Braavos, sailing past the port on Bloodstone he had raided shortly after the lad was born, and sailed as far afield as New Ghis. Upon returning to Ironmaker Keep,
Dagon decides to give Joy a position on his household staff. The two
never reunite their old passion but nonetheless remain on cordial terms, if only for the sake of their son.

## Timeline

* 329 AC: Dagon Ironmaker is born.
* 355 AC: Dagon becomes Lord of House Ironmaker.
* 356 AC: Dagon conducts a punitive raid on the Stepstones and loses an eye.
* 358 AC: Dagon marries a daughter of Lord Flint, Lady Nyra.
* 359 AC: Dagon, confronted with a bastard son that looks uncannily like him, takes the son, Martyn Pyke, into his house and gets the mother, Joy, a job sewing together sails. Lady Nyra is not pleased. Martyn, being old enough, is named Dagon's squire despite his lack of appropriate training.
* 360 AC: Lady Nyra gives Dagon twins, whom he names Jarak and Bryce.
* 361 AC: Young Bryce Ironmaker dies of complications arising from a fever.
* 362 AC: Lady Nyra gives Dagon another son, whom he names Stefan.
* 363 AC: Lady Nyra dies in childbirth but her daughter, Myranda, survives.
* 365 AC: Dagon gives Joy a position in his household staff.
* 366 AC: Dagon makes Jarak his page.
* 368 AC: Stefan is sent off to foster with House Harlaw.
* 369 AC: Impressed by the boy's progress, Dagon makes Jarak his squire. At the same time he makes Myranda his cupbearer.
* 370 AC: Martyn earns his spurs. Dagon arrives in King's Landing.

## Family

* Lord Bryce Ironmaker (b. 297, d. 355)
	+ Bryce Ironmaker (b. 319, d. 330)
	+ Arryk Ironmaker (b. 322, d. 343)
	+ Jarak Ironmaker (b. 324, d. 354)
	+ Lord Dagon Ironmaker (b. 329)
		- Ser Martyn Pyke (b. 353)
		- Jarak Ironmaker (b. 360)
		- Bryce Ironmaker (b. 360, d. 361)
		- Stefan Ironmaker (b. 362)
		- Myranda Ironmaker (b. 363)