Arlan III Durrandon

Arlan took one of Roderick Blackwood's daughters as his wife, wedding her before the weirwood at Raventree Hall, the seat of the bride's family.

The marriage bound the Durrandons to one of the great houses of the riverlands, a tie that would soon be tested by war.

When Roderick Blackwood rose against King Humfrey I Teague, Arlan took his side, wanting the riverlands to stay in Blackwood hands rather than fall to the Teagues.

The Storm King's forces crushed Humfrey's men at the Battle of the Six Kings, but the victory came at a cost: Roderick fell in the fighting.

Roderick left an eight-year-old son as his heir, and Arlan did not trust the dead lord's brothers to rule in the boy's name. He proposed to the river lords that they crown Shiera, Roderick's eldest daughter, with his own son holding the reins of government; the lords turned him down.

Rebuffed, Arlan changed course: rather than force a regency on the riverlands, he set out to conquer them outright for the Storm Kingdom. His forces drove the Durrandon banner into the shore of the Sunset Sea, but the conquest did not outlast his reign — the kings who followed him could not hold what he had taken.