Old Wyk

Old Wyk, one of the Iron Islands, became a center of resistance during the struggle over who would rule the islands after House Hoare fell. Its sacred association with the Drowned God gave the island a pivotal role in the competing claims: there, beneath the bones of Nagga the Sea Dragon, the priests crowned Lodos as their priest-king. Old Wyk later saw both Aegon Targaryen’s intervention and a renewed campaign against Lodos’s followers under Goren Greyjoy.

Sacred Ground and Rival Claims

The priests of the Drowned God placed a driftwood crown on Lodos’s head beneath Nagga’s bones. He proclaimed himself the living son of the Drowned God and was said to work miracles. His claim was part of a wider contest: other claimants arose on Great Wyk, Pyke, and Orkmont, and their adherents fought on land and sea for more than a year. Stories held that the waters between the islands became so choked with the dead that hundreds of Kraken were drawn to them by blood.

Aegon’s Intervention

In 2 AC, Aegon Targaryen came to the islands on Balerion, accompanied by fleets from the Arbor, Highgarden, and Lannisport, as well as a small number of longships sent by Torrhen Stark. The ironborn had been weakened by their year of internal fighting, and many welcomed the dragons. At Old Wyk, Lodos called on the Kraken of the deep to destroy the invaders’ ships. When no such intervention came, he walked into the sea with stones hidden in his robes, seeking counsel from his divine father; thousands of followers followed him. Their bodies continued to wash ashore on Old Wyk for years, leaving the island marked by the failed religious revolt as well as the fighting that preceded it.

Goren Greyjoy’s Campaign

The island again became a stronghold for Lodos’s movement when Goren Greyjoy, Lord Reaper of Pyke, gathered a hundred longships and attacked Old Wyk and Great Wyk, where the pretender’s followers were most numerous. His forces killed thousands of them. Goren sent Lodos’s head, preserved in brine, to King’s Landing. King Aenys welcomed the gift and offered Goren a boon; Goren used the opportunity to demand that septons and septas who had come after the Conquest to convert the ironborn be expelled from the islands. Aenys agreed. Old Wyk’s religious importance thus shaped not only the rebellion and its suppression, but also a change in the place of the Faith of the Seven among the ironborn.