About 500 miles northeast of King’s Landing, just beyond Blackwater Bay, is the royal island of Dragonstone and its vassal island of Driftmark. Further north near Crackclaw Point is Claw Island, and to the south is the long peninsula called Massey’s Hook. These regions are commanded from the citadel on Dragonstone by the heir apparent to the throne, known as the Prince of Dragonstone, due to the history of Dragonstone as being the westernmost point of Valyrian rule before the Doom. Survivors of that catastrophe escaped to area, taking up the Faith, and in time the descendants of the Targaryen lords who ruled at the citadel of Dragonstone—Aegon and his sisters—launched their invasion of Westeros from the islands.
Despite this august history and unique relationship to the Targaryens, the islands and their lords are relatively poor. Beyond having a great naval strength, which makes up the bulk of the royal fleet, there is little to recommend them. Dragonstone itself is rather barren and harsh, noteworthy only for the Valyrian citadel and the semi-active volcano that dominates the landscape. The other islands, and Massey’s Hook, are not much better, and the lords of these areas are sometimes mocked as “codfish lords”.
Beyond the revenue won by providing ships for the royal fleet and from the fishing that provides the area its staple foods, the lords of Dragonstone and its vassal islands are the first line of defense against pirates and smugglers who try to seek passage in and out of Blackwater Bay. Between Driftmark and Sharp Point at the end of Massey’s Hook is the Gullet, a narrow strait which is particularly guarded by an active sea watch.
The citadel on Dragonstone, where the Prince of Dragonstone has his seat, is a structure far beyond anything that could be made today. The Valyrians had the conceit of building the whole place to look as if it were made up of dragons of stone, and perhaps by some magical art now lost they shaped the stone so that it all seems seamless and almost alive. Driftmark is just to the southwest of Dragonstone and is in fact a larger island. Across the Gullet from Driftmark is the castle of Sharp Point at the end of Massey’s Hook. Claw Isle is approximately 125 miles north of Dragonstone.
