Krakens

Krakens appear in the account of the Iron Islands’ post-conquest succession wars as creatures associated with mass conflict at sea. They are reported near the islands during the fighting, then invoked by the priest-king Lodos against Aegon Targaryen’s invasion—but do not rise to defend him.

Reports During the Succession Wars

For more than a year, rival claimants and their adherents fought on land and sea after House Hoare was destroyed. The waters between the islands were said to be so crowded with the dead that Krakens appeared by the hundreds, drawn by the blood. The account presents their arrival as a report associated with the scale of the fighting, rather than describing individual creatures or encounters.

Lodos’s Failed Invocation

When Aegon Targaryen descended on the islands in 2 AC with Balerion and allied fleets, Lodos, the priest-king on Old Wyk, called upon the Krakens of the deep to rise and drag down the invaders’ ships. They did not appear. After the appeal failed, Lodos walked into the sea, claiming he would seek his father’s counsel; thousands followed him. His invocation gives the Krakens a place in the islanders’ religious imagination, while their absence marks the collapse of his claim to divine power.

Role in the Account

The Krakens are linked first to the aftermath of fratricidal warfare and then to a failed appeal for supernatural aid. That contrast sets the reported creatures apart from the tangible force of Aegon’s invasion: the krakens do not alter the outcome, and the Iron Islands’ political settlement proceeds under the authority of the conqueror.