Iron Islands

The Iron Islands are a harsh cluster of islands off the western coast of Westeros in the Sunset Sea, home to the ironborn, a hardy and warlike seafaring people. One of the constituent regions of the Seven Kingdoms, the islands are ruled from Pyke by House Greyjoy.

Geography and People

The islands, chief among them Pyke, Great Wyk, Old Wyk, Harlaw, and Orkmont, are bleak, storm-lashed, and poor in arable land. The ironborn turn to the sea for their livelihood, and historically for plunder. They prize strength, seamanship, and raiding, holding that a man should win his wealth by the sword, not earn it through trade or labor, a creed they call paying the iron price.

The Drowned God

The ironborn worship the Drowned God, a deity of the sea who, they believe, made them to reave and rule. Their priests, the drowned men, anoint the faithful by drowning and reviving them, and their watchword is, "What is dead may never die." This faith sets them apart from both the Faith of the Seven and the Old Gods of the Forest.

History

In ancient days the ironborn were ruled by kings chosen at the kingsmoot on Old Wyk and once held dominion over much of the western coast. After Aegon's Conquest, House Greyjoy was raised to rule the islands. In recent history, Lord Balon Greyjoy led a failed rebellion for independence, and his daughter Asha and brother Euron feature in the upheavals of the War of the Five Kings.