Stepstones

Long before the First Men ever set foot in Westeros, these islands were not islands at all: they formed a tongue of land joining Essos to the western continent. The First Men crossed it more than ten thousand years ago, reaching what is now Dorne, where they settled and clashed with the Children of the Forest.

The Children of the Forest tried to close that crossing with their magic to stop more men from coming. It half worked: the land sank, leaving behind the Broken Arm and the Stepstones themselves, but the First Men were already established and breeding too fast for the broken bridge to change anything.

Myr and Lys, two of the Free Cities, have clashed again and again over these islands, and the Seven Kingdoms themselves have sent fleets into that fight more than once over the centuries.

In the middle of one such war, Daemon Targaryen gathered the backing of House Velaryon and a host of hired swords and crowned himself lord of these waters: King of the Stepstones and of the Narrow Sea. The title lasted only as long as his patience with the place; when he chose to leave, he left it behind without a second thought.

Years later, the War of the Ninepenny Kings was fought here too: on these islands the fighting aimed to stop the Blackfyre Pretenders before they could carry their war onto Westeros.