The Stepstones

The drowned mountain chain between Dorne and the Disputed Lands. Whoever holds these rocks taxes the narrow sea's trade ÔÇö pirates, the Triarchy of the Free Cities, or a rogue prince with a driftwood crown.

The fuller tale

The drowned mountain chain between Dorne and the Disputed Lands has never belonged to anyone for long, and in the years before the Dance proper it belongs, for a memorable stretch, to Daemon Targaryen ÔÇö who spends years burning pirates and Triarchy garrisons off these rocks, is crowned by his own men King of the Narrow Sea, and hands the driftwood crown away again almost as soon as it is placed on his head, the single gesture that tells the realm exactly who Daemon is before the Dance ever gives him a bigger stage.

The Stepstones do not stop mattering once the Dance itself begins. Whoever holds these rocks controls the toll on the narrow seaÔÇÖs entire trade, and the same Triarchy Daemon spent years fighting here ÔÇö Tyrosh, Myr, and Lys ÔÇö is the alliance Otto Hightower later buys to break the Velaryon blockade at the Gullet, meaning the Stepstones war and the Dance of the Dragons are, in the end, the same feud continued by other means and other admirals.

By the warÔÇÖs close the islands have changed hands so many times, between pirates, princes, and hired fleets, that their only consistent ruler is whichever ship happens to be anchored there that season ÔÇö a chain of drowned peaks that gave Daemon Targaryen his first crown and, indirectly, gave the greens the navy that very nearly won them the war.

Souls the story brings here

The fallen of this place ÔÇö if any, they are named here. Spoilers.

• Craghas Drahar ÔÇö Cut in half by Dark Sister