House Darklyn of Duskendale

Long before any dragon flew over Westeros, the Darklyns already held Duskendale, and in the Age of Heroes their small kingdom once reached as far as Sharp Point. That realm was eventually swallowed by stronger neighbours, and its kings were reduced to mere lords of the same land. Beside them throughout stood House Hollard, sworn so closely that three Darklyn queens were born into that line.

In the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms the Darklyns held the mouth of Blackwater Bay, and the Storm King Monfryd I Durrandon once forced them into submission. Centuries later, when the Andals crossed the sea and pushed north, it was the Darklyns themselves who drove a rival king from the Blackwater coast.

Duskendale's independence ended with the War of Conquest. Aegon Targaryen and his half-brother Orys Baratheon defeated both the Darklyns and the Moutons, lords of Maidenpool, in what is remembered as the future king's first test of arms. The Darklyns bent the knee and became vassal lords ruling Duskendale under the new crown.

The bargain paid off almost at once: Ser Robin Darklyn was one of the first seven knights to wear the white cloak of the newly founded Kingsguard, opening a tradition of service to the Targaryen kings that the house would keep up for generations.

When the realm split between King Maegor I and his nephew, Prince Aegon, Ser Davos Darklyn — a Kingsguard knight — raised five thousand men in King's Landing to fight for Maegor. He died in the Battle Under the Gods Eye at the hands of Lord Qarl Corbray, and his own aged father fell soon after, when the Warrior's Sons rode out to hunt down the king's loyalists.

When the realm turned against Maegor and toward Jaehaerys, the lord of Duskendale was among the minor lords who handed the Red Keep over to the prince and his sisters Rhaena and Alysanne. He spent a stretch in the black cells before the new king pardoned him, in exchange for part of his lands. Years later, in 51 AC, one of his bastard daughters, Jonquil Darke, became Queen Alysanne's sworn shield.

Ser Steffon Darklyn already wore the white cloak under Viserys I, and when war broke out between his children over the succession, he sided with Queen Rhaenyra, who named him Lord Commander of her Kingsguard. He died trying to mount the dragon Seasmoke, during the Sowing of the Seeds.

In Duskendale, Lord Gunthor Darklyn was present when Rhaenyra was crowned and took a seat on her Black Council; when the other side regained the upper hand and sacked the town, King Aegon II's Hand, Ser Criston Cole, had Gunthor beheaded. Lady Meredyth Darklyn sheltered Rhaenyra herself for a time after she fled King's Landing.

With Aegon II back on the throne, the lord of Duskendale had to pay a heavy ransom to keep his head. Later, under Aegon III, the king wanted to give Ser Robert Darklyn the white cloak, but the regent, Lord Unwin Peake, overturned the appointment.

By the time Aerys II sat the throne, the Darklyns stopped paying taxes and demanded the Crown grant special rights to the people of Duskendale. The dispute spiralled to the extreme: the king himself ended up held captive inside the town.

During the captivity, the Dun Fort's master-at-arms, Ser Symon Hollard, killed Ser Gwayne Gaunt, one of Aerys's Kingsguard knights. The Hand of the King, Tywin Lannister, raised an army to take the town, but Lord Denys Darklyn made clear the king would die the moment troops came through the gates, so the siege stayed frozen until Ser Barristan Selmy slipped into Duskendale alone and got Aerys out alive.

With his hostage gone, Lord Darklyn had no way out but to surrender and beg for mercy, yet Aerys wanted his head and his whole house's. His wife, Serala of Myr, accused of pushing him into the kidnapping, was burned at the stake. House Hollard, vassals to the Darklyns, was put to the sword as well, save for young Dontos, whom Selmy managed to spare from the sentence.