Well, funny you should ask. Let me get my map! (LAUGHS) Here's King's Landing
and Blackwater Bay. This area here is the gullet
that you have to go through, and Dragonstone
and Driftmark are the two major islands
in the gullet. Driftmark is the seat
of House Velaryon, and right here are
the Stepstones. And you see, this is Dorne, and this is Essos. And one time,
they were connected. There was a land bridge. And the Broken Arm of Dorne, the seas rose up
and swallowed 'em. But they left these islands. And as you see, as you go down
the Narrow Sea, and you want to go
into the Summer Sea, you have to pass
through the Stepstones. They're
these independent islands that have frequently been
the haunt of pirates. And all of the trade, anything going down
has to pass through these. And you remember
that Corlys Velaryon and his family are merchants, and they make a lot
of their wealth through trade. I would urge that you not allow
this Triarchy much latitude in the Stepstones, Your Grace. If those shipping lanes
should fall, it will beggar our ports. Immediately to the east
of the Stepstones is an area called
the Disputed Lands. Three of the Free Cities
are located on or near that... Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh. And these cities have been
rivals for a long time. They're all
Old Valyrian colonies. And they've been disputing
the Disputed Lands for hundreds of years, often using
mercenary companies, the Free Companies,
the Sellswords. But at this particular point
in history, the three cities
have gotten together. They've decided, "We're gonna stop fighting
each other endlessly, and we're gonna form
a government together, called the Triarchy." Corlys, you know,
being dependent on sea, is not happy with this. And there are other people near the side
of the Narrow Sea in places like
Pentos and Braavos that are not happy with this. We have to break
the stranglehold on the Stepstones so our ships can go east again. About 400 years before the time
of Game of Thrones, or 200 years before the time
of, uh, House of the Dragon, the Valyrian peninsula exploded. And it was called
the Doom of Valyria, and it was over in a day.
It was over in a few hours. It actually blew
the entire section. The land cracked. The sea rushed in
from both sides. There's now a very dangerous sea
called the Smoking Sea north of Valyria
that's sort of breaking the former peninsula in half. What used to be lands
attached to each other are now some barren, windswept islands. And of course, hundreds
of dragons died in an instant, along with millions of people. And that was,
of course, the Doom that Daenys the Dreamer
had seen coming. So, get the hell out. And, uh... And the Targaryens
got the hell out, to establish themselves
on Dragonstone.
