The Six Kingdoms
Through moments in history, the various realms of Westeros either saw their realm gain or lose in terms of land but at the end of it all, they would all persist to keep on existing. Occasionally, some lord in the riverlands would declare himself King of the Trident or the Rivers and Hills and the Seven Kingdoms would become eight.
Such kingdoms never existed for too long until the other realms carved the lands of the riverlands between themselves.
That had been the expectation of the Kingdom of the Trident.
Perhaps not today, perhaps not tomorrow, but most certainly in the future. There had been enough dynasties that called themselves Kings of the Trident for that to be a general assumption amongst the learned men of Westeros.
Therefore, when the seven kingdoms of Westeros for the first time in its histories reduced in number from seven to six, it took Westeros by surprise that it would not be the Trident that would find itself and House Tully consigned to the annuls of history once more. No. That distinction fell to the Kingdom of the Stormlands.
The union between Argella Durrandon and Ser Olyvar Buckwell was to be a union of two of the most powerful houses in the Stormlands. It is said that King Argilac had managed to procure promises such as that Olyvar would adopt the Durrandon name, words and sigil and that in truth, Argella would rule in her own right with Ser Olyvar as her consort, much like how they do so in Dorne.
Argilac had won those promises with concessions to House Buckwell and many of his lords, though it did not long for them to be broken. Many of the prideful stormlords, the king consort himself, could not see themselves governed by a woman and her weaknesses.
Though their marriage proved to be fruitful with the births of two daughters, in the shadow of Storm's End, intrigues between the king and the queen were plentiful.
So caught up in their games of intrigues, they failed to look towards their kingdom.
At first it was little things, raids between houses that had poor relations. Then from there, they would more and more turn from little raiding parties to war hosts.
And yet, the king and queen did nothing.
Even when their bannermen began to raid into neighbouring kingdoms in their little wars that started a chain of reactions that resulted in full borne war between the Reach, Dorne and groupings of stormlords against the invaders.
It was only until a plea by a lord from House Swann did the king and queen come to a halt of their games, but by then, it could have very well been truly too late. The Kingdom of the Reach had been able to reach as far as the head of the river Slayne. The Dornish had been able to take the castles of Blackhaven and Stonehelm and putting to torch Weeping Town.
Seeing their state of their kingdom, Argella and her king put aside their differences and rallied the stormlords. Surprisingly, they were able to halt an advance to the Dornish and Reacher expansion into their kingdom but they had lost many lands and castles and some lords blamed them for the situation the ancient kingdom had found itself in.
Though King Olyvar Durrandon courageously led hosts to try and reclaim lost lands and castles, he was stymied by the fact that if he went against the Reach, the Dornish would strike and the opposite would be true as well. It wasn't until the death of King Mern IX Gardener did a chance to gain former holdings of Storm's End show itself.
Argella roused the conquered nobles in rebellion, appealing to their history of fealty to Storm's End and the memory of her father, the much beloved Argillac. It worked for a time.
The king consort was making good progress, until the newly crowned King Edmund, the Fifth of His Name, fell upon him with a host greater in number than his own. Many of the rebel lords that had joined him where put to the sword, the king consort himself.
From then on, Edmund marched east, towards Storm's End with little resistance for he put to the sword any castle that resisted him. Many houses were rendered extinct by the new Gardener's king bloody path.
Edmund stopped his march when the Dornish seemed ready to rouse themselves from the Dornish Marches that they had acquired to launch for the Reach itself, thus a peace was found between Storm's End.
A peace that saw Storm's End greatly diminished in wealth, power and prestige.
It was said that King Edmund quipped that the stormlands were now less a kingdom and more in the manner of a large fief of a lordling of great importance in the Reach to great applause.
In that, he spoke truth.
King Edmund had perhaps seen the largest expanding of the Kingdom of the Reach in history for he had acquired the entirety of Cape Wrath. All that was left to Storm's End were the houses beyond Griffin's Roost, the griffin's themselves now paying fealty to Highgarden, and all the way to the Blackwater border with the Trident.
To make matters worse, the Houses of Massey's Hook, to the surprise of Westeros, declared for Dragonstone and the Targaryen Freehold.
It is said the letter that arrived to Storm's End from Lords Justin Massey and Lucifer Bar Emmon was one of scorn and derision at how Argella had brought ruin to the ancient kingdom of her forefathers.
This letter, this one letter, then truly broke the Storm Queen, defeated and her lords discontent, she reached out to settle a supposed folly on her father's part. She reached out north and offered her kingdom to the Trident.
"If this kingdom shall have carrion feed upon it, as a Queen of the Storm, I won't allow it to fall to the dornish, the greenhands or the Targaryens." She had declared her decision to her caught. "I'd rather see it in the hands of someone my father acknowledged."
Surprisingly, King Edmyn was not at all enthused by expanding his territory southwards. Though after conferring with his advisers, many supposedly speaking of the strength the Reach had gained with its new conquests and the expansion of the Targaryens into Westeros, he accepted the fealty of Storm's End to Edmynburgh.
To further seal the new fealty of his new lands, a raft of marriages were sealed between the houses of what was left of the Stormlands and that of the Trident. Chief amongst them, the marriage of Prince Henry Tully, a dutiful prince of four-and-ten years of age, to Princess Allison Durrandon, a dark-haired comely princess of three-and-ten years of age and Lord Edward Mallister of Seagard and Princess Alicent Durrandon.
It's said King Edmyn complained about his new acquisitions in private to anyone who was willing to listen. Strange really, for it is rare thing indeed for a kingdom to receive lands without fighting a war.
And it is with that, the Kingdom of the Storm came to an end.
But for some, a question lingers in their mind, for how long?
Histories of Westeros by Maester Owain of the Citadel