House Durrandon

House Durrandon was the ruling dynasty of the Stormlands, once powerful enough to control the eastern half of Westeros. Its long retreat under pressure from neighboring realms culminated in the defeat of Argilac Durrandon at the Last Storm. The transfer that followed was personal as well as political: Argilac’s daughter Argella became Orys Baratheon’s wife, and Orys took the Durrandon arms and words and made Storm’s End his seat.

Territory and Decline

From Storm’s End, House Durrandon had once ruled lands stretching from Cape Wrath to the Bay of Crabs. Its authority steadily diminished over the centuries. The kings of the Reach encroached from the west, the Dornishmen pressed from the south, and Harren the Black and his ironborn drove the Durrandons from the Trident and the lands north of the Blackwater Rush. The house’s history before Argilac’s final struggle is therefore presented as a long contraction of territory, not as a sudden collapse.

Argilac, the last of the Durrandon kings, briefly arrested that decline through military success and service in wider conflicts. While still a boy, he turned back a Dornish invasion. He later crossed the narrow sea to join the alliance against Volantis, and twenty years afterward killed Garse VII Gardener, King of the Reach, at the Battle of Summerfield. These achievements helped sustain the reputation of the Storm King even as his realm’s former reach had been lost. By the time of Aegon’s conquest, however, Argilac was aging, and his only heir was his unmarried daughter.

Argilac's Bargain and the Coming War

The threat posed by Harren the Black shaped Argilac’s approach to the Targaryens on Dragonstone. With the feared king’s dominion close to his own, Argilac offered Lord Aegon his daughter in marriage and proposed lands east of the Gods Eye, from the Trident to the Blackwater Rush, as her dowry. The proposal sought to place the Targaryens between the Stormlands and Harren’s power. Aegon declined the marriage, noting that he already had two wives, and disputed Argilac’s right to give lands that had belonged to Harrenhal for more than a generation.

Aegon countered with a broader territorial demand. He would accept the offered lands if Argilac also ceded Massey’s Hook and the territory from the Blackwater south to the Wendwater and the headwaters of the Mander. Under Aegon’s proposal, Argilac’s daughter would marry Orys Baratheon, Aegon’s childhood friend and champion. The account records the counteroffer but does not describe an agreement. The negotiations instead give way to war, with control of the Stormlands and Argilac’s rule at stake.

The Last Storm

After Harren’s defeat, Argilac’s bannermen proved more loyal than Harren’s had been. Argilac gathered a large host at Storm’s End, whose curtain wall was considered even thicker than Harrenhal’s and whose defenses were thought impregnable. Reports from Lords Fell and Buckler, retreating before the approaching forces, informed him of Queen Rhaenys and her dragon. Argilac resolved not to await an assault on his castle; he rode out to meet his enemies in the field, choosing to determine his own fate in battle.

Orys Baratheon was prepared for the advance because Queen Rhaenys, riding Meraxes, had seen Argilac leave Storm’s End and reported the size and disposition of his force. Orys established himself on the high ground south of Bronzegate. The Stormlanders outnumbered their opponents nearly two to one and had almost four times as many knights and heavy horses. Despite his bannermen’s advice to wait out the weather, Argilac attacked as rain turned to a gale, judging that the wind blew against the Targaryen forces.

The battle continued into the night. Argilac led repeated cavalry charges up steep, rain-softened slopes, where the horses struggled and the formations lost momentum. Stormlander spearmen made better progress on foot, taking hills while rain rendered their opponents’ bowstrings ineffective. In the fourth charge, Argilac and his knights broke through the Baratheon center, only to encounter Rhaenys and Meraxes. The dragon’s intervention scattered the mounted attack and left Argilac thrown from his saddle.

Argilac continued fighting on foot. When Orys came down the hill, he found the king still resisting several opponents. Orys dismounted and offered him a final chance to yield; Argilac refused. The two fought, each wounding the other, until Argilac died with a sword in his hand. His death broke the stormlanders’ resistance: as news spread, lords and knights abandoned the fight and fled. The battle ended Argilac’s reign and left the fate of Storm’s End to his daughter and the surviving garrison.

Argella and the Durrandon Legacy

Argella declared herself Storm Queen and barred the gates against Orys and the Targaryen host, promising resistance rather than submission. Queen Rhaenys flew Meraxes into the castle to parley, but the garrison did not share Argella’s resolve. The soldiers raised a peace banner, opened the gate, and delivered her captive to Orys’s camp. Orys unchained her, covered her with his cloak, offered her wine, and told her of her father’s courage and death.

Afterward, Orys honored Argilac by taking the Durrandon arms and words for his own. The crowned stag became his sigil, Storm’s End his seat, and Argella his wife. House Durrandon’s story in this account thus closes not only with a battlefield defeat but with the transfer of its symbols and principal stronghold to Orys. Its former lands passed under Aegon and his allies, while the marriage connected Argilac’s heir to the man who had fought against him.