House Greyjoy

House Greyjoy is the ruling house of the Iron Islands in the period covered by Fire & Blood. Its position was established after the destruction of House Hoare, when Aegon Targaryen ended a succession war and allowed the ironborn to choose their own lord paramount. That settlement made the Greyjoys royal vassals, but not dependable instruments of royal power: later conflicts show island lords asserting their own priorities, and Dalton Greyjoy openly disregarding the Iron Throne’s commands.

Rise after the fall of House Hoare

The extinction of House Hoare at Harrenhal left the Iron Islands without an uncontested ruler. Qhorin Volmark of Harlaw claimed descent from the old dynasty’s black line and assumed the kingship, while the priest Lodos, on Old Wyk, was crowned with driftwood and proclaimed himself the living son of the Drowned God. Other claimants appeared on Great Wyk, Pyke, and Orkmont. For more than a year, their supporters fought across the islands and surrounding waters, turning a succession dispute into a conflict among competing political and religious claims.

In 2 AC, Aegon arrived by dragon with fleets from the Arbor, Highgarden, and Lannisport, as well as a few longships from Bear Island. The islanders, already weakened by their fighting, offered little resistance, and many welcomed the dragons. Aegon killed Qhorin Volmark with Blackfyre but allowed Volmark’s infant son to inherit his lands and castle. Lodos called on the deep to destroy the invaders’ ships; when no such deliverance came, he walked into the sea, and thousands of followers followed him. Their deaths continued to shape the islands’ history, as their bodies washed ashore over the years.

A chosen lord under the Iron Throne

After the fighting, several possible arrangements for governing the Iron Islands were considered. The ironborn might have been made subject to the Tullys of Riverrun, the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, or even Winterfell. Aegon heard these proposals but chose instead to let the islanders select their own lord paramount. They chose Vickon Greyjoy, Lord Reaper of Pyke. Vickon did homage to Aegon, establishing House Greyjoy’s position as a ruling house under the Iron Throne through a settlement that combined royal supremacy with local choice.

That authority had a defined limit. Vickon’s writ extended only across the Iron Islands, and he relinquished claims to the mainland lands House Hoare had seized. Aegon assigned Harrenhal and its domains to Quenton Qoherys, but required him to accept Edmyn Tully as liege lord. The resulting arrangement separated Greyjoy authority over the islands from House Hoare’s former mainland holdings. House Greyjoy’s elevation therefore did not restore the wider dominion its predecessor had claimed; it established a narrower island lordship within the new realm.

Religion and the limits of royal influence

The challenge associated with Lodos did not end with Aegon’s intervention. In a later rebellion, Goren Greyjoy, Lord Reaper of Pyke, led a hundred longships against the followers of Lodos on Old Wyk and Great Wyk. He defeated them and sent the priest-king’s preserved head to King’s Landing. Aegon’s son, King Aenys, welcomed the gift and offered Goren a reward. Goren asked for the expulsion of the septons and septas who had come to the islands after the Conquest to convert the ironborn to the Faith of the Seven. Aenys agreed.

The episode revealed a tension within the settlement: Greyjoy rule could help suppress a rival claimant, yet the king’s gratitude could also strengthen the islands’ religious independence. Goren presented his request as a matter of the ironborn’s worship, and Aenys’s concession limited the efforts of the Faith to convert them. The house’s authority thus operated not only through inheritance and homage but through its ability to speak for local customs in dealings with the crown.

Dalton Greyjoy and renewed defiance

Under Dalton Greyjoy, the distance between formal vassalage and practical obedience widened. During Aegon III’s reign, Lady Johanna of Casterly Rock continued to resist the ironborn raids in the west. Dalton did not declare himself king, but paid little heed to orders from the Iron Throne. He continued raiding when commanded to stop and refused to return women taken by his men, invoking the Drowned God and the ironborn salt-wife custom. He also refused to restore Fair Isle to its former lords, treating the demand as no more binding than the order to cease raiding.

When Johanna attempted to build a fleet to carry the war to the ironborn, Dalton attacked the shipyards and took a further hundred women. His reply to the Hand’s reproach mocked the western lords rather than acknowledging royal authority. The sequence made clear that Dalton’s power rested on his ships and his willingness to act, while the crown’s orders alone could not compel compliance. His earlier value as an ally of the Blacks during the Dance did not make him loyal to the new king’s government.

In 133 AC, Alyn Velaryon’s voyage brought Dalton’s ambitions into sharper view. Dalton had assembled hundreds of longships near Fair Isle and at waters off Feastfires, Kayce, and Lannisport, preparing to meet Alyn. He planned, if successful, to take his fleet north along Alyn’s route, raise his banner over the Shield Islands, attack Oldtown and Sunspear, and claim Driftmark. He also contemplated taking Lady Baela as a salt wife, adding a personal threat to his wider maritime ambitions. The episode presents House Greyjoy’s power as a force capable of threatening several coasts at once, not merely resisting a single royal command.

Dalton’s death was followed by a three-sided struggle for the Seastone Chair. His three sisters and their husbands seized the boy Toron Greyjoy and killed his mother; his cousins allied with the lords of Harlaw and Blacktyde to support his half-brother Rodrik; and the men of Great Wyk rallied behind Sam Salt, who claimed descent from the black line. The rival claims echoed the fragmented succession that had preceded Vickon’s elevation. Lady Johanna’s forces later intervened in the fighting: Ser Leo Costayne landed Lannister troops on Pyke, Great Wyk, and Harlaw, but died in the campaign and lost most of his fleet. The Lannisters burned boats, homes, and villages and seized food stores. Toron remained on the Seastone Chair at the point described, but the devastation made the cost of imposing rule on the islands unmistakable.

Political significance

Across these episodes, House Greyjoy’s relationship with the crown shifts from negotiated submission to recurrent resistance. Aegon’s decision to let the ironborn choose their own ruler gave the new regime a local intermediary, while limiting the Greyjoys’ authority to the islands. Goren’s suppression of a religious rival won royal favor but also secured a concession against the Faith’s presence. Dalton’s raids then demonstrated how readily a powerful Lord Reaper could turn the islands’ ships and customs against the crown’s wishes. The later succession conflict, with rival claimants and a destructive mainland intervention, returned the house to the instability that had first made Aegon’s settlement necessary.