Stormlands

The Durrandon domain is said to have once reached as far as Moat Cailin. It's one of the smallest regions in Westeros, but also one of the hardest to cross — mountains, rocky coasts and woods by the Cape of Wrath close off the land almost as well as its men do.

To the southwest, the Dornish Marches have spent centuries as the place where stormlanders and Dornishmen collide; the ground has changed hands so many times nobody blinks anymore. That endless border war is what shaped a people raised on arms.

The kingdom also takes in a handful of islands, Tarth and Estermont among them. The water around Tarth runs so clear and blue that the isle is known as the Sapphire Isle, though the rest of the stormlands' seas have a reputation for treachery, and ships coming down the narrow sea give Shipbreaker Bay a wide berth.

The last Storm King, Argilac the Arrogant, died fighting when Aegon the Conqueror took the realm. His lands, his title, even his family name and his sigil passed to Orys of the fledgling House Baratheon, and the Baratheons have held Storm's End ever since.

Once the Targaryens sat the Iron Throne, the region got a corner of its own for the new dynasty too: Summerhall, the Targaryen summer seat. A great fire destroyed it along with many lives, and nothing is left today but ruins.

Everything changed for House Baratheon when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen abducted Lyanna Stark, who was betrothed to Robert Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End. Robert rose against the Targaryens and won the decisive backing of Houses Arryn, Stark and Tully.

A year of war ended at the Trident, where Robert killed Rhaegar with his own hand. King's Landing had already fallen to Tywin Lannister by the time Robert arrived, and there he proclaimed himself Lord of the Seven Kingdoms.

To seal peace with the Lannisters he married Cersei. To his brothers he gave what was left to give: Dragonstone to Stannis, Storm's End to Renly.

While Robert lay dying, Renly went to Eddard Stark, the King's Hand, to ask his backing for a claim of his own. Ned refused — if Cersei's children were born of incest, the rightful heir was Stannis, not Renly. Renly fled King's Landing.

Even so he managed what Stannis couldn't: uniting the Stormlands behind him, along with House Tyrell and much of the Reach. His reign didn't last — he died without an heir, and his widow, Margaery Tyrell, ended up married to King Joffrey.

Storm's End's vassal houses turned to Stannis after that, and then, after the Battle of the Blackwater, to Joffrey. With Joffrey dead, the head of House Baratheon of Storm's End is now young Tommen — a title Stannis still contests.