Dragonstone

Nearly two centuries before the Doom, the Freehold of Valyria pushed its reach to the farthest point west it would ever hold: a volcanic island across the narrow sea. The lords who lived along those waters tried to resist, but no power of that age could stand against Valyria, and the island fell under its rule.

At the foot of the volcano, a fortress rose built with the arts of Valyrian sorcerers, who did not chisel stone the way an ordinary mason would — they shaped it with fire and spellcraft, the way a potter shapes clay. Towers and halls take the shape of dragons crouched or about to take wing, and where another castle would have battlements, this one is crowned with thousands of gargoyles — griffins, demons, basilisks, minotaurs, hell hounds — keeping watch from above. Smaller dragons flank the gates, stone claws hold the torches, and carved tails curve into arches, bridges, and stairways.

When the Doom wiped Valyria from the map, this was the only one of its holdings left standing, because the Targaryens had already settled there years before, fleeing what was coming. The techniques that built it were lost with the rest of the empire; no one has raised stone that way since.

After Aegon's Conquest, Dragonstone remained the traditional seat of the heir to the Iron Throne, who bore the title Prince of Dragonstone from then on. In the year 113 After the Conquest, that title fell to Rhaenyra Targaryen.

Sixteen years later, in 129, she was crowned within those same walls. That year, two brothers of the Kingsguard, the Cargyll twins, fought a duel inside the fortress, and off its coast a naval clash known as the Sowing of the Seeds was fought.

The fortress fell the following year, in 130, and Rhaenyra died that same year.

Under Aerys II, command of the island's Sea Guard fell to a man named Tristimun, feared among the smugglers who worked the narrow sea.

That watch did not save the dynasty. Robert's Rebellion ended Targaryen rule, and in 284 the island came under assault. Once crowned, Robert Baratheon granted Dragonstone to his brother Stannis, who founded House Baratheon of Dragonstone there.

Stannis returned to Dragonstone shortly after his brother, King Robert, rode north to offer Eddard Stark the position of Hand of the King.

During his time there, Queen Selyse's men tore down the fortress's sept, and Melisandre burned the carved figures of the Seven Gods it held.

After the defeat at the Blackwater, Stannis came back to the island with barely two thousand men and a fleet reduced to almost nothing.

Stannis left the fortress to go defend the Wall, taking with him his family, Melisandre, and most of his troops.

Only a small garrison remained behind. Paxter Redwyne laid siege to the island, and Loras Tyrell eventually took it by storm, at heavy cost to his own men.