Great Wyk

Great Wyk is one of the Iron Islands and, after Dalton Greyjoy’s death, a focal point of the succession war that followed. Its people supported a rival claimant, drawing the island into a struggle that brought competing Greyjoy factions and Lannister forces to its shores.

Position in the Succession Struggle

The Red Kraken’s death left the Seastone Chair to his eldest salt son, Toron Greyjoy, who was not yet six. The succession quickly fractured: Dalton’s sisters and their husbands seized Toron and killed his mother; his cousins joined the lords of Harlaw and Blacktyde in backing his half-brother Rodrik; and the men of Great Wyk rallied to Sam Salt, a pretender who claimed descent from the black line. Great Wyk thus became the base of a third claim, distinct from both the faction controlling Toron and the supporters of Rodrik.

The Lannister Landing

After the three-way conflict had raged for half a year, Ser Leo Costayne brought a fleet and landed thousands of Lannister soldiers on Pyke, Great Wyk, and Harlaw. Alyn Velaryon had refused to take part in House Lannister’s vengeance against the ironborn, but Lady Johanna Lannister persuaded Costayne to lead the intervention, reportedly with the promise that she would marry him if he secured the islands for her son. The landing extended the struggle beyond a contest over the Seastone Chair into a campaign against the Iron Islands themselves.

Defeat and Devastation

Costayne failed to bring the islands under Lannister control. He was killed in the stony hills of Great Wyk by Arthur Goodbrother, and three-quarters of his ships were captured or sunk. The wider campaign nevertheless inflicted severe damage: hundreds of longships and fishing boats were burned, along with homes and villages, while stored grain and salt fish were carried off or destroyed. The Lord Goodbrother of Great Wyk was among the prominent ironborn slain. Toron remained on the Seastone Chair after his defenders repelled the Lannister assault on Pyke, but the fighting and destruction left the islands facing further deaths from starvation.

Significance

Great Wyk’s brief prominence in the account comes from its role in both phases of the crisis: its people backed Sam Salt’s challenge, and its hills became the site of Costayne’s death during the Lannister intervention. The island’s involvement shows how Dalton’s death turned a disputed inheritance into a wider war, while the campaign’s devastation compounded the cost of the succession struggle without settling it cleanly.