Dragonstone

Dragonstone is an island fortress in Blackwater Bay, the ancient Westerosi seat of House Targaryen and the first foothold of the dragonlords in Westeros. It stands on a volcanic island off the east coast, near the mouth of the bay that leads to King's Landing, and is a grim, smoking stronghold built in the Valyrian style, unlike any other castle in the Seven Kingdoms.

Dragonstone was established by the Targaryens generations before Aegon's Conquest, when the family fled the Valyrian Freehold some twelve years before the Doom of Valyria and made the island their westernmost outpost. From Dragonstone, Aegon and his sister-wives launched the conquest that forged the Seven Kingdoms.

Geography

The island is dominated by the smoking volcano called Dragonmont, on whose slopes the castle is built. The fortress is wrought of fused black stone shaped, by Valyrian arts now lost, into the forms of dragons, gargoyles, and grotesques, so that towers seem to be winged beasts and the very walls bear monstrous faces. Great stone dragons crown its towers, and gargoyles serve as merlons and waterspouts.

The island is bleak and sulfurous, its fishing village huddled beneath the castle, its slopes streaked with the dragonglass and obsidian thrown up by the volcano. Dragonstone guards the sea approach to King's Landing.

History

Dragonstone was the seat from which Aegon launched his conquest, and afterward it became the traditional seat of the heir to the Iron Throne, the Prince of Dragonstone. For nearly three centuries it remained in Targaryen hands. After Robert's Rebellion toppled the dynasty, the island was the last refuge of the loyalists; it was from Dragonstone that Daenerys Targaryen and her brother Viserys were spirited away as children before the castle fell to the rebels.

After the rebellion, Dragonstone was granted to Stannis Baratheon, who made it his seat.

In the story

Dragonstone is the stronghold of Stannis Baratheon, who from there presses his claim to the Iron Throne. It is on Dragonstone that he falls under the influence of the red priestess Melisandre, who proclaims him the chosen of R'hllor and burns the old gods' idols on its shore. From Dragonstone Stannis launches his ill-fated assault on King's Landing at the Battle of the Blackwater. The island's dragonglass also proves significant as a weapon against the threat from beyond the Wall.