The Citadel

House Baratheon of Storm's End

General Information

Storm’s End is one of the strongest castles in the kingdom with its massive, rounded curtain wall a hundred feet high and as much as eighty feet thick on the seaward side. The great drum tower is keep, granary, barracks, feast hall, and lord’s dwelling all at once. The stones of the wall and tower are entirely smooth and placed so perfectly together that the wind can find no purchase. It sits hard upon a high cliff overlooking the sea, and there is a barred, watery passage through a cavern that leads beneath the castle.

Reputedly raised by Durran, the first Storm King, Storm’s End was built to withstand the terrible storms that came howling from the sea into Shipbreaker Bay. There are many legends concerning the castle, but one at least may be true—that the children of the forest used their magics in the raising, for the castle walls act as a shield from outside magic.

The last Storm King was the first to be defeated and slain by Aegon and his sisters, and his lands, titles, family name and arms, and even his daughter were given to Orys, illegitimate sibling to Aegon, as the first Lord of Storm’s End. King Robert Baratheon won his throne after leading a revolt against the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen. Their motto is, “Ours Is the Fury.”

Spoilers

After the death of King Robert Baratheon, his brothers Lord Stannis and Lord Renly put forward their claims to the throne, the latter by claiming the illegitimacy and incestual nature of Cersei’s children and the former by marrying Margaery, daughter of Lord Mace Tyrell of Highgarden. Renly was assassinated by a shadow conjured by Stannis’s sorceress, Melisandre of Asshai’i, and much of his host at Storm’s End went to Stannis. Stannis is now the true lord of the house and the best claimaint to the Iron Throne. King Stannis has a ten-year-old daughter, Shireen, by his wife Queen Selyse of House Florent.

Disasterously defeated at the Blackwater by the combined Tyrell-Lannister host, King Stannis managed to flee to Dragonstone with a paltry remnant of his force. He raised and then removed Alester Florent as his Hand, putting Davos Seaworth (whom he raised to lord) in his place. Stannis was ready to sacrifice his bastard nephew Edric Storm at Melisandre’s direction, but Lord Davos, Salladhor Saan, and several conspirators sent him to safety in the east. In the end, Lord Davos convinced Stannis that the true danger must be faced on the Wall.

Arriving at the Wall in the nick of time, Stannis’s force managed to defeat the wildlings and capture Mance Rayder. Lord Stannis forced the election of a new Lord Commander and is determined to make some of the castles on the Wall his new base. He remains in possession of Storm’s End and Dragonstone, having small garrisons there.