History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireIronIslandsHouses

* FromNobodyToNightmare: They were always nightmares, but during the first phase of the War of the Five Kings, when Balon Greyjoy was the Ironborn's king everyone treated them as [[BigBadWannabe a joke barely worth notice until the real threats had been dealt with]]. The death of Balon and the entrance of his extremely competent yet far more monstrous brother, [[VilerNewVillain Euron]], who has a far more focused strategic vision (along with some very dark hidden ambitions) and waited to take advantage of the spent forces of the various factions of Westeros, turns the Ironborn into a genuinely serious threat able to directly challenge the other factions.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: The Ironborn are hated pariahs among the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, being loathed for their reaver culture and their long history raiding western half of the continent. Any attempt to better integrate them into Westerosi society has always ended in disaster so few try anymore, leaving the Iron Islands politically isolated for much of its existence. [[Literature/FireAndBlood Fire and Blood]] at one point notes even the idea of bringing an ironborn to King's Landing (to be part of the king's council) is "unthinkable", giving the impression they're only a bare step above wildlings as far as the rest of the kingdoms are concerned. The only reason they are tolerated by the Crown is because they've spent the centuries following Aegon's Conquest mostly keeping to themselves.

Son of Urras, he attempted to claim the Driftwood Crown upon his fathers death without a Kingsmoot.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: He is convinced that continuing the war is foolish, and that danger is coming and proposes that they sail away, beyond the Sunless Sea in order to escape.

* OldSoldier: Still at it, even though he maybe should start thinking about hanging up the ax.

The smallest of the regions of Westeros overall, the Iron Islands is an archipelago in Ironman's Bay off the western coast and is home to the Ironborn, who have a reputation as fearsome raiders. Their main religion worships the Drowned God. For centuries the Ironborn ruled a kingdom that stretched across the Riverlands, but it was destroyed by Aegon the Conqueror, who destroyed the ruling House Hoare. House Greyjoy was elected to replace them, and they bent the knee to the Iron Throne, but have long harbored desires to rebel and return to the Old Ways of raiding and raping along the coast. House Greyjoy and their people are driven by a generational hatred against the mainland "oppressors" - though some Ironborn lords have taken ladies of the Riverlands and Westerlands noble houses as wives. Bastards in the Iron Islands are given the surname "Pyke". Other practices that are deemed unworthy are to work the fields and mines and the practice of literacy, which has made historical documentation of the islands notoriously difficult; practices that are deemed worthy always involve the spoils of the sea, such as fishing.

* DropTheHammer: Wielded a large hammer in battle.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: The Ironborn are hated pariahs among the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, being loathed for their reaver culture and their long history raiding western half of the continent. Any attempt to better integrate them into Westerosi society has always ended in disaster so few try anymore, leaving the Iron Islands politically isolated for much of its existence. ''Literature/Fire and Blood'' at one point notes even the idea of bringing an ironborn to King's Landing (to be part of the king's council) is "unthinkable", giving the impression they're only a bare step above wildlings as far as the rest of the kingdoms are concerned. The only reason they are tolerated by the Crown is because they've spent the centuries following Aegon's Conquest mostly keeping to themselves.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: The Ironborn are hated pariahs among the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, being loathed for their reaver culture and their long history raiding western half of the continent. Any attempt to better integrate them into Westerosi society has always ended in disaster so few try anymore, leaving the Iron Islands politically isolated for much of its existence. The only reason they are tolerated by the Crown is because they've spent the centuries following Aegon's Conquest mostly keeping to themselves.

* AesopAmnesia: Most of the Ironborn still long for the days where they could reave freely for a living and had territories on Westeros and constantly try to re-establish the Old Way. Yet despite their constant failures to bring back the Old Way and gain independance they still fail to realize that the Old Way could only work when the other kingdoms were far less organised and well-protected and as such couldn't react properly to the Ironborn raids, and that these days as long over as the mainland kingdoms have many castles and fortififications to protect themselves from Ironborn attacks, that several of them have their own fleets, and have much larger, better equiped and disciplined armies than they have. Their numerous defeats are also in good part due to their unwillingness to forge alliances with other kingdoms and that they attack those who may be willing to ally with them.

-->''"We did not come to these holy islands from godless lands across the seas. We came from beneath those seas, from the watery halls of the Drowned God who made us in his likeness and gave us to dominion over all the waters of the earth."''
--->--'''Sauron Salt-Tongue, a priest of the Drowned God'''

* CutLuthorACheck: As shown with the prosperity that the Ironborn knew during the rule of House Hoare, the Iron Islands could get considerably richer and more prosperous if they made a living as sailors and merchants, or privateers or sellswords, instead of constantly returning to reaving. But the violence of their culture, and power and influence of the Drowned Men and of other fundamentalists believing in the Old Way such as Dalton or Balon Greyjoy prevent them from realizing it and condemn the isles to misery and ruin after their attempts to bring back the Old Way are inevitably crushed.