The Sundering of the Isles

The end of the Dance with Dragons saw the Iron Islands resplendant; Fair Isle and Kayce claimed for the ironborn, the west defeated and destroyed. But when Rhaenyra ascended to the throne, she demanded the ironborn return their prizes- and while Kayce was returned, Dalton held onto Fair Isle.

## The Sundering

### Fall of the Red Kraken

Two-and-twenty salt-wives had Dalton Greyjoy, and a name known from Lonely Light as far as distant Volantis; a cautionary tale told to warn children away from the shores, an ever-present worry in the minds of merchant sailors and weathered naval men alike, and had history gone that touch bit different he may have been more than that besides, but as it stands his story ends at Fair Isle -- occupied, that he refused to give up even at the Crown’s behest -- throat opened in a wide red smile as he slept. Tess, whose hand had held the dagger, washed ashore a while later; grey and mottled, and in death wearing a smile that spoke to contentment. The Red Kraken’s legend ended as he slept through a drink-addled stupor.

### Blood on the Water

Owing to that fact that he had no trueborn sons nor a rock-wife to speak of, when word reached the Iron Islands of their Lord’s untimely end it seemed the very fabric of Ironborn society frayed and came apart. Dalton’s sisters, scheming together with their husbands, seized the eldest of Dalton’s salt-sons, a boy by the name of Toron, with hopes to install him on the Seastone Chair. His mother they put to death, for a salt-wife had no claim as a rock-wife would. Houses Harlaw and Blacktyde saw fit to entertain their own idea on succession and looked instead to Rodrik Greyjoy, the younger of the two boys. House Drumm on Old Wyk only sat and waited and watched, but made no moves in support of either side. A pretender by the name of Sam Salt added his voice to the throng - naming himself a descendant of Harren the Black, though served as nothing more than a nuisance to both the warring sides

House Saltcliffe allied steadfast with Pyke, House Goodbrother, large as it was, fractured between the two, some seeking glory and a name, some seeing an opportunity in which to extend their own influence. For moons the two sides tore at one another; ships were sunk and villages razed, Ironmen died, drowned beneath the waves, while the two young brothers lived their lives detached from the reality of their situation. Each side believed they fought for the future of the Iron Islands, neither side realised how blind they were to the prospect of an outside attack.

### The Lion's Revenge

And such attack came, red and angry and curved of gilded claw; she came from the sea with her lion-crested army. She had not forgotten the slights paid to her as Dalton Greyjoy had reaved along her coasts as her husband fought and died during the Dance of Dragons. Johanna Lannister stood a black-shrouded avatar of grieving vengeance and she showed no mercy to those she caught up with. Nine cousins Greyjoy, two of Dalton’s sisters and their husbands; and lords Drumm, Goodbrother, Volmark, Harlaw, Botley, and Stonehouse, all of them killed by the Westermen during their raid on the Iron Islands. And on top of the already grievous loss, the capture of young Rodrik Greyjoy, to be taken to Casterly Rock, gelded, and made a fool. Toron survived the assault on the Islands. The Lannisters failed in their siege of Pyke, beaten back by the Ironborn defenders, and as they sailed out, defeated, the young Lord Reaper watched from one of Pyke’s tall towers.