Cape Wrath
Cape Wrath is the largest peninsula within the Stormlands, jutting out into the Narrow Sea. Bordering Shipbreaker Bay, the Stormlands Marches, and the Sea of Dorne, the region stretches from the hills and plains of the western Drench to the Estermont Isles in the east. Dominated by the primeval Rainwood, Cape Wrath bears the brunt of storms sweeping through from the Summer Sea and is rich in timber, furs, amber, and fertile soil. Originally granted to the Children of the Forest by Durran the Devout and later reclaimed by Durran Bronze-Axe, the peninsula once again fell away from the Storm Kings under the reign of the incompetent Durwald the Fat and has remained an independent enclave under the influence of the mysterious Green Queen ever since. Little is known of the notorious woods-witch outside of the forest itself, but it is said that even the remaining Stormman houses of the region pay greater heed to her words than any riders from Storm's End.
The men of Cape Wrath are a varied lot. Those woodsmen of the Rainwood and the Estermont Isles dwell in quiet, murky subsistence in their wet forests, preferring to uphold the laws of weirwood and root above bronze and stone, holding the Pact signed on the Isle of Faces in especially high esteem. The scions of House Wylde and House Greenstone have learnt to live in tune with nature, to the beats of thunder on the coasts, and the breath of wood and branch—with most of Cape Wrath following suit
The Rainwood
Covering the majority of Cape Wrath, the Rainwood was once part of a vast primeval forest that stretched north to encompass what is now known as the Kingswood. A temperate cloud forest, the Rainwood is one of the last true, untouched stretches of wilderness south of the Wall, featuring ancient, old-growth redwoods, sentinels, soldier pines, and weirwoods shrouded in a perpetual, dense, rolling fog.
The Rainwood stands as the last true realm of Those Who Sing the Song of the Earth, known to the Andals and First Men as the Children of the Forest, who once spread across all of Westeros before the arrival of mankind. Though the Rainwood has at times been nominally subjugated by the Storm Kings, the Children are a fiercely independent and untamed people. For at least the past few hundred years, the Rainwood has been under the guardianship of the mysterious woods-witch, the Green Queen.
The Drench
Stretching from the mountains of the Slayne Valley to the west to the edge of the cloud forest, the Drench is the most hospitable region in Cape Wrath, free from the many dangers lurking in the depths of the Rainwood. Despite the thin soil and frequent storms that batter all of the Stormlands, the wealth of forests, open plains, and rivers fed by mountain-top ice melts makes the Drench an attractive home for those Stormmen who keep close to the ancient ways of the Children.
Estermont Isles
The most recent addition to the realm of the Green Queen, the Estermont Isles are a string of small, mountainous islands infamous for their dreary, windswept climate—a rather miserable place, even amongst the lands of the storm. With the ruling House Greenstone having peacefully assimilated into the greater Kingdom of the Rainwood in the interest of mutual defense, the Isles are mostly left to their own devices.
Houses of Cape Wrath
- Brownhill of Brownshore
- Densmore of Densmore
- Gore of Goring Hill
- Greenflight of the Crow's Nest
- Greenstone of Greenstone
- Hamfast of Bronzeaxe
- Kellby of Bluegrove
- Lush of Amberly
- Redwind of Redwind
- Shaw of Greenpools
- Slayne of the Slaynefort
- Tudbury of Tudbury Hall
- Whitehead of the Weeping Tower
- Wylde of the Rain House
History
The Dawn Age & Age of Heroes
The Children of the Forest have lived amongst the ancient trees of the Rainwood since before the First Men crossed the Arm of Dorne into the lands now known as Westeros. While once their domain stretched across the entire continent, the Rainwood now stands as the last true bastion of Westeros’ native peoples. First ‘granted’ to the Children by Storm King Durran ‘the Devout,’ son of Durran Godsgrief and his wife Elenei, the Rainwood was retaken only a century later by Durran ‘Bronze-Axe.’ Despite this reclamation, the Children of the Forest proved difficult to truly subjugate, and the Rainwood eventually fell away from the Storm Kingdom under the reign of the incompetent Durwald ‘the Fat.’ It has remained an independent enclave under the rule of the mysterious woods-witch, the Green Queen, ever since.
First Century A.I.
Having seen the distant storm of Andals brewing upon the horizon in her green dreams, the Green Queen sought to strengthen her realm against any who might see it razed. Through a marriage to King Brok Wylde of Cape Wrath, who sacrificed his own wife before a weirwood and disowned both of his young children, the whole of the Rainwood came to be united under her rule in 31 A.I. The Estermont Isles were similarly assimilated into the realm in the year 50 A.I., following the birth of the first son of Lord Greenstone’s grandson, Dickon, and the Green Queen’s daughter, Rain.
The First Century A.I. saw a flourishing peace between the Kingdom of the Rainwood and the Kingdom of Storms, following a mutual defense pact forged between the Green Queen and King Qarlton ‘Halfhand’ Durrandon. Sworn in blood before root and soil, the two leaders committed to come to the other’s aid should either realm be threatened by Andal incursion. Though the Stag made no promises for his successors, the peace was upheld during the following reign of King Durran ‘Stormcrowned.’
In the year 51 A.I., King Gwayne Gardener and Lady Josera Crane arrived in the Rainwood, having sought out the Green Queen in an effort to return the magic of the Children to the Reach. Following a 12-year stay in the Paintwood Court, the two returned to Highgarden, bringing with them a host of Singers to be settled in the forests of Vinewarren and Redwater Wood. In the year 79 A.I., these Singers would play an integral part in the War for Goldengrove.
In the year 86 A.I., the first Andals stepped foot in the Rainwood, following the shipwreck of Ser Robert Mertyns and his family along the coast of Cape Wrath. Though tensions ran high and Lord Forrest Wylde wished to see them all slaughtered, the Green Queen allowed the refugees safe passage out of her forests, unwilling to allow harm to befall another people driven from their homes.
In 97 A.I, following a negotiation with King Durran ‘Stormcrowned,’ the Isle of Wrathrock was ceded to the Stormlands in order to land the displaced Sisterman refugees. The Rookelands of Griffin’s River are granted to the Rainwood in exchange.