The Last Storm was the decisive field battle between Argilac Durrandon, the Storm King, and the Targaryen host commanded by Orys Baratheon. Fought in driving rain on high ground south of Bronzegate, it turned the Storm King’s final decision to resist into the defeat of his army and the end of House Durrandon’s rule. Its outcome was not only military: the surrender of Storm’s End and Orys’s marriage to Argella carried the defeated dynasty’s symbols and seat into a new political order.

Background and Forces

After Harren’s death at Harrenhal, Argilac learned that Queen Rhaenys and her dragon, Meraxes, had taken part in the campaign. Lords Fell and Buckler had retreated before the approaching force and brought him news of the dragon. Argilac resolved not to meet Harren’s fate inside an apparently impregnable castle. Instead, the old warrior king left Storm’s End to decide his own fate in the open field, sword in hand.

The Storm King’s approach did not catch Orys Baratheon unprepared. Rhaenys had watched Argilac depart from Storm’s End while flying Meraxes, and gave Orys a detailed account of the enemy’s numbers and dispositions. The Hand chose a strong position on the hills south of Bronzegate and dug in on the high ground, awaiting the stormlanders. Argilac’s army outnumbered the Conquerors’ force almost two to one and included almost four times as many knights and heavy horses. His numerical advantage, however, had to be brought to bear against a force already positioned on difficult ground.

Battle in the Rain

Rain began steadily in the morning and had become a howling gale by midday. Argilac’s bannermen urged him to postpone the attack, hoping the weather would pass. But the stormlander king saw the Targaryen banners hanging sodden over the hills and noted that the wind blew from the south, into the faces of Orys’s men. He ordered the assault, beginning the battle known to history as the Last Storm.

The fighting continued well into the night and proved far less one-sided than Aegon’s conquest of Harrenhal. Argilac led three charges by his knights against the Baratheon position, but steep slopes and rain-softened ground hampered their warhorses. The horses struggled and foundered; the attacks lost cohesion and momentum. Stormlander spearmen had more success climbing the hills on foot, approaching unseen through the rain until they were close. Meanwhile, the wet conditions rendered the Targaryen archers’ bowstrings useless. One hill fell, then another, as the stormlanders pressed their advantage.

Argilac’s fourth and final charge broke through the Baratheon centre, but the attackers then encountered Rhaenys and Meraxes on the ground. The dragon remained formidable even without taking to the air. Dickon Morrigen and the Bastard of Blackhaven, who commanded the vanguard, were caught in dragonflame alongside members of Argilac’s personal guard. The horses panicked and fled, colliding with riders behind them; what had broken through the centre became a disordered charge. The intervention checked the assault at the point where it might have turned the battle.

Argilac’s Death and the Surrender

Argilac continued fighting after being thrown from his saddle. When Orys came down the muddy hill with his men, he found the Storm King holding off several opponents. Orys ordered the others aside, dismounted to meet Argilac on equal footing, and offered him one last chance to yield. Argilac refused. The two leaders fought; according to the account, each wounded the other, but Argilac died still armed and cursing. The death of their king broke the stormlanders’ resolve. As news of his fall spread, his lords and knights abandoned the fight and fled.

Storm’s End did not surrender immediately. For several days, Argilac’s daughter Argella barred its gates against Orys and the Targaryen host, declaring herself the Storm Queen and promising continued resistance. Rhaenys flew Meraxes into the castle to parley, but the defenders did not share Argella’s willingness to fight to the end. That night the garrison raised a peace banner, opened the gate, and delivered her captive to Orys’s camp. The contrast between her defiance and the garrison’s decision brought the siege to an end without another battle.

Settlement and Significance

Orys released Argella from her chains, wrapped her in his cloak, gave her wine, and spoke gently to her about her father’s courage and death. He then adopted the arms and words of the fallen Durrandons. Their crowned stag became his sigil, Storm’s End his seat, and Argella his wife. The new lordship thus joined conquest to dynastic succession: Orys’s victory removed Argilac, while his adoption of the family’s heraldry and marriage to its heir connected his rule to the house he had defeated.

With the riverlands and Stormlands under the control of Aegon and his allies, the remaining kings could see that they too would soon face the conqueror. The battle’s larger significance lies in this change of political circumstance as well as its result on the field. Argilac had chosen an open fight rather than await an attack within Storm’s End; his death dissolved the army’s resistance, while the castle’s subsequent surrender gave Orys the seat from which to rule. The Stormlands passed into the conquerors’ settlement through military defeat, the submission of the fortress, and the preservation of Durrandon identity in the new lord’s arms and marriage.