#Storm's End

[gifharbor]

— Vhagar sensed his coming first. Guardsmen walking in the battlements of the castle's mighty curtain walls clutched their spears in sudden terror when she woke with a roar that shook the very foundations of Durran's Defiance.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | 1.10 'The Black Queen'

[archangel-lucerys]

"But he has an errand to complete and a message to deliver"

That boy saw the biggest monster alive and had a one track mind of his mission, he was the best and bravest of them all 🥲

[duchess-of-oldtown]

The thing about Stannis that people often forget that he was only 17 when Robert's Rebellion started. His parents are dead, his older brother who was meant to be in charge and head of the family has practically abandoned him with all the responsibilities of being Lord of Storm's End, being head of the family and raising Renly who was 3 or 4 at this time. He's seventeen and all of a sudden he has to make a choice between what he knows is the "right" thing to do which is staying loyal to the Crown or standing with his brother, who he no doubt loves despite his later declaration in ACOK. He's seventeen and there's an army outside the walls, everybody inside those walls has to rely on him when he knows that they really want Robert, he is in charge when doubtless he wants Robert back. He's the one who is meant to be in charge after all, the one with the experience, he's only 17. He has to watch Renly grow thinner and thinner, likely going without food himself just to give Renly an extra mouthful here and there. He has to see people turn on House Baratheon from inside the castle, probably knowing them all his life. He has to punish them or end up looking weak, he can't afford weakness. Not when there are hundreds depending on him. And Robert. He's depending on him too, afterall. Then comes the news that Rhaegar is dead, King's Landing is Robert's and he's King now. Weeks later, Stannis gets news that the Siege is about to be lifted. Doubtless he looks out over the walls and sees who has come to save him. It's not Robert. It's Ned Stark, who Robert went to war with, who Robert sees as a brother, far more than he's ever treated Stannis. And even then Stark has to run off for another duty, leaving Stannis to deal with Storm's Ends recovery. Then when things are settled, the Baratheons unite. Robert has a task for Stannis rather than a thank you or an apology. Stannis grits his teeth and gets on with it. He fails to capture the last Targaryens. He returns only to hear Robert's grumbles. And when comes time for dealing with succession, Renly- who is only a child - gets Storm's End. Stannis gets Dragonstone, the reminder of his failure not his achievements. It breaks Stannis's trust in Robert. In the following years, Robert becomes more and more of a disappointment. He beds Delena Florent at Stannis's wedding ruining the nuptials which are nothing more to Stannis than a political move no doubt recommended by Jon Arryn. He becomes more lazy, more distant, less and less of somebody to look up. To make matters worse, Renly who Stannis protected, starved for and practically raised, still looks up to Robert, pushing Stannis away. By AGOT, Stannis is isolated by his own House, trapped in a loveless marriage, weighed down by duties he never asked for, responsibilities that he has to shoulder because Robert won't, crushed under the knowledge of the Lannister Twincest and its repercussions and he's just been pushed aside again by Ned Stark, this stranger who Robert idolises so much. Its the last straw so he leaves. Months later, Robert is dead, Renly is at the heart of trouble and the Realm is bleeding again. Stannis declares himself King, not only because Melisandre wraps the shroud of messiah around him or he really feels any sort of higher calling or ambition. He does it because that's what he does, he cleaned up Robert's messes, he steps into Robert's shoes and does his duty. Just has he's been doing since he was just a child.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Was trying to think of another time after "Blood & Cheese" when Jaehaera Targaryen had a role in the story until her child marriage to her cousin to end the conflict?

Sure, when she's helped to escape during the Fall of King's Landing, when Larys got Aegon II and his surviving kids out of the Red Keep and the city via the secret passages. (A small role, but thankfully not as tragic as her brother Maelor's.) Though Jaehaera was one of those targeted by Rhaenyra and her "knights inquisitor" bounty hunters, the Kingsguard Ser Willis Fell got her to Storm's End safely.

She was at Storm's End for about a year and a half, while Rhaenyra ruled in KL and also after Aegon and the greens retook the city. While the council debated what to do with their hostage Aegon the Younger, including the option of marrying him to Jaehaera, she was still with the Baratheons. After Aegon II's death and after the peace agreements, Jaehaera was escorted back to KL by Lady Elenda Baratheon's father and three of the Four Storms, and of course Willis Fell. (Who became Aegon III's Lord Commander since, uh, he and a rookie were the only Kingsguards left...) And then Jaehaera and Aegon married.

Now, if you're asking if they'll do more with her in the show, since Maelor doesn't exist... 🤷‍♀️ your guess is as good as mine.

[asoiafreadthru]

A Game of Thrones, Jon III

“I don’t care,” Jon said. “I don’t care about them and I don’t care about you or Thorne or Benjen Stark or any of it.

“I hate it here. It’s too…it’s cold.”

“Yes. Cold and hard and mean, that’s the Wall, and the men who walk it. Not like the stories your wet nurse told you. Well, piss on the stories and piss on your wet nurse. This is the way it is, and you’re here for life, same as the rest of us.”

“Life,” Jon repeated bitterly. The armorer could talk about life. He’d had one.

He’d only taken the black after he’d lost an arm at the siege of Storm’s End. Before that he’d smithed for Stannis Baratheon, the king’s brother.

He’d seen the Seven Kingdoms from one end to the other; he’d feasted and wenched and fought in a hundred battles.

They said it was Donal Noye who’d forged King Robert’s warhammer, the one that crushed the life from Rhaegar Targaryen on the Trident.

He’d done all the things that Jon would never do, and then when he was old, well past thirty, he’d taken a glancing blow from an axe and the wound had festered until the whole arm had to come off.

Only then, crippled, had Donal Noye come to the Wall, when his life was all but over.

“Yes, life,” Noye said. “A long life or a short one, it’s up to you, Snow.

“The road you’re walking, one of your brothers will slit your throat for you one night.”

[its-actually-minicika]

HELP??

This scene would have been too powerful if the showrunners left it as it was intended. We were so robbed :")

Still, this is HUGE. How much was Aemond supposed to regret Lucaerys' death at Storm's End, and how much of it did we just overinterpret?

Was what we saw on screen, during those last moments, even regret? Or was it more shock of the situation he'd created, and realisation of what's to come?

I love this. This is amazing and I won't be shutting up about this.

[daenysthedreamer101]

House Baratheon of Storm's End

House words - "Ours is the Fury"

House colors - Gold and Black

House sigil - A black, crowned stag on a gold field

Region - Stormlands

Culture - Andal

Language - Common tongue

Religion - Faith of the Seven

Seat - Storm's End

Members of the family tend to be tall, have black hair and blue eyes

[mejcinta]

Look, killing male Strongs is just a harmless sport. Alys can explain.

[zetaaa]

Once upon a time, in a fortress by the sea...

[ser-arthurs-dawn]

The Stag and The Wolf

And all my days are trances, and all my nightly dreams are where thy dark eye glances, and where thy footstep gleam - in what ethereal dances, by what eternal streams. -E. A. Poe

[ladystarksneedle]

[thaliajoy-blog]

New Legendary Ladies of The World of Ice & Fire series. First, Elenei :

"The songs said that Storm’s End had been raised in ancient days by Durran, the first Storm King, who had won the love of the fair Elenei, daughter of the sea god and the goddess of the wind. On the night of their wedding, Elenei had yielded her maidenhood to a mortal’s love and thus doomed herself to a mortal’s death, and her grieving parents had unleashed their wrath and sent the winds and waters to batter down Durran’s hold. His friends and brothers and wedding guests were crushed beneath collapsing walls or blown out to sea, but Elenei sheltered Durran within her arms so he took no harm, and when the dawn came at last he declared war upon the gods and vowed to rebuild."

"Five more castles he built, each larger and stronger than the last, only to see them smashed asunder when the gale winds came howling up Shipbreaker Bay, driving great walls of water before them. His lords pleaded with him to build inland; his priests told him he must placate the gods by giving Elenei back to the sea; even his smallfolk begged him to relent. Durran would have none of it. A seventh castle he raised, most massive of all. Some said the children of the forest helped him build it, shaping the stones with magic; others claimed that a small boy told him what he must do, a boy who would grow to be Bran the Builder. No matter how the tale was told, the end was the same. Though the angry gods threw storm after storm against it, the seventh castle stood defiant, and Durran Godsgrief and fair Elenei dwelt there together until the end of their days."

[archangel-lucerys]

I think about lucerys and all the potential for greatness lost due to some man's ego, how he had the makings of a great dragon rider of his generation in the coordination of arrax and luke to shake off vhagar for as long as they did was any indication.

And this is not just a show addition even in book when arrax panics hearing vhagar's roar lucerys immediately takes control of him

Understand arrax is the youngest riding dragon and vhagar the oldest (not count storm cloud because he was panic riding)

Lucerys realising he's about to be hunted immediately setting to calm arrax, first preparing him to be vigilant, speaking in valyrian only theough out the chase, maneuvering expertly and escaping vhagar teo times successfully and after arrax panics he regains control

And we know from the opening of the strom's end scene and the flight back how hard it was for them to fly in the storm, these were added scenes to show how this is not an easy flight for them but they tried their hardest with a much powerful enemy on their tail

He Would have grown to be the greatest dragon rider.

Like he had more situational awareness than most grown People! He is panicking internally but that did not stop him from being vigilant and alert to vhagar and aemond's movements

So much potential and future gone because of one mistake and ego of a far lesser man

his main weakness was the small and weaker body of his dragon due to age, same with jace and baela had their dragons been older they would have had such an advantage but simply because they're still softer is was easy to rip them apart, be it with other dragons or arrows.

[copperarsenite]

the clear day by emwithoutnumber

Argella Durrandon, the bride.

orys baratheon x argella durrandon / a song of ice & fire fanfiction

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / complete / web weave

[jeandejard3n]

A Song of Ice and Fire: Storm's End

[warsofasoiaf]

Is storms end really just one huge tower only? I knew that it had a single huge drum tower, but I thought they would atleast be a main keep underneath. I mean, the main building and then on top of it a huge tower. But it's all in just one tower, like a huge lighthouse.

So it's not just one huge tower, official artwork of Storm's End show that rather than looking like a lighthouse, it looks like a central tower surrounded by a curtain wall, which itself has towers at its vertex points. Given that Storm's End is said to have one tower, these wall towers are probably only a little larger than the curtain wall itself. Technically, drum towers are supposed to have a larger diameter than height, but the term has been used to describe circular towers of any height and width.

The drum tower that Storm's End has is so large that it houses the granary, armory, barracks, feast hall (which would probably double as a throne room), and lord's chambers. Smaller buildings would be in the interior of the curtain wall or abutting it within the central ward, those would be places like your stable and your smithy, and it has a cavern beneath it that leads to a deeply unsafe anchorage (which is where Davos smuggled his onions).

GRRM does have architecture that doesn't really work with medieval levels of understanding - most of GRRM's impressive castles are so large that they'd collapse under their own weight, but at least Storm's End is said to have some form of arcane element in its construction, so I'm a touch more forgiving there.

Thanks for the question, Arya.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King