Storm's End

Storm's End is the ancestral seat of House Baratheon and the chief stronghold of the Stormlands. It stands on the eastern coast of Westeros, on a point of land above Shipbreaker Bay, where it has weathered the fury of the sea and the storms that give the region its name. Storm's End is reputed to be one of the strongest castles ever built, and in thousands of years it has never fallen to siege or storm.

The castle is famed both for its strength and for the legends of its founding. It is said to have been raised by Durran Godsgrief, the first Storm King, who took the daughter of the sea god and the goddess of the wind to wife, and whose castle the angry gods tried again and again to destroy until at last, with the help of a young Brandon the Builder in some tellings, a fortress was built that could withstand their wrath.

Geography

Storm's End is defended by a single immense curtain wall, unusually thick and high, with no weak angle for the storms or for besiegers to exploit. Within rises the great round drum tower of the keep. The wall is so massive that the wind cannot find purchase and the sea cannot undermine it. Magic is said to be woven into its stones, and no army has ever taken it by storm.

The castle overlooks Shipbreaker Bay, whose rocks and currents wreck ships driven in by the relentless gales.

History

Storm's End was the seat of the Storm Kings, the line of Durran Godsgrief, for thousands of years, until the last Storm King, Argilac the Arrogant, died fighting Orys Baratheon, Aegon's commander, during Aegon's Conquest. Orys married Argilac's daughter, took up the Baratheon name and arms, and was granted Storm's End, founding House Baratheon as Lords of the Stormlands.

In the story

During Robert's Rebellion, Storm's End was held for the rebels by Stannis Baratheon through a long and starving siege, relieved at last by the smuggler Davos Seaworth, who slipped onions and fish through the blockade and was knighted, and maimed, for it. In the War of the Five Kings, the castle becomes contested between Stannis and Renly Baratheon, and it is outside its walls that Renly is slain by a shadow conjured by Melisandre.

Rulers

Storm's End is held by House Baratheon, Lords Paramount of the Stormlands, whose words are "Ours is the Fury" and whose sigil is a crowned black stag on a golden field.