The rainwood is a large forest that lies on Cape Wrath in the stormlands.[1]
Geography
Misty and green,[2] the quiet rainwood is famed for its fur, timber, and amber.[3] Although it is rainy, the region is fertile enough.[4]
Trees in the rainwood include red cedars, hemlocks, maples, white oaks, redwoods, sentinels, soldier pines, huge willows, wormtrees, and occasionally weirwoods.[5][6] Flowers and ferns include sword and lady ferns, bellflowers, piper's lace, evening stars, poison kisses, liverwort, lungwort, and hornwort. Pale mushrooms grow from tree roots and trunks, and toadstools can be found by logs. Green, grey, purple, red-tailed, and silvery moss grows in the rainwood, as do lichens.[6]
The rainwood lacks proper roads, having instead crooked trails which pass between huge rocks, through deep ravines, and near waterfalls. The wood is full of caves, with one system having bat-filled limestone caverns and a still black pool with blind white fish.[6]
Strongholds in the rainwood are often integrated with the surrounding forest.[3] Mistwood is located in the southern rainwood, while Rain House is found in its northeast.[7] Because of the presence of amber, Amberly might also be situated in the forest.
History
House Durrandon
The rainwood was once part of a primeval forest which also included what is now the kingswood and was inhabited by children of the forest. The children tolerated the building of First Men villages along the forest's streams, but conflict broke out over the First Men's use of timber.[5]
Durran Godsgrief of Storm's End claimed the forest for the First Men, leading to generations of warfare between House Durrandon and the children. The woods witch known as the Green Queen held the forest for almost a generation.[8]
Much of the rainwood was conquered during the coming of the Andals, but King Baldric I Durrandon encouraged the Andal warlords to fight amongst each other. The children of the forest gradually disappeared from the rainwood after the First Men and Andals made peace.[9]
House Targaryen
Half of the rainwood burned in 8 AC after an attack by Dornishmen during the First Dornish War.[10]
Drought during the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen led to fires in the rainwood.[11]
Among King Aerys II Targaryen's unrealized grandiose schemes was the idea to bring water from the rainwood to Dorne via a canal beneath the Red Mountains.[12]
Recent Events
A Storm of Swords
Ser Davos Seaworth receives the title "Lord of the Rainwood" from King Stannis Baratheon.[13]
A Feast for Crows
Ser Dermot of the Rainwood tells knightly stories of the forest while at Darry.[14]
A Dance with Dragons
During the landing of the Golden Company, their gathering point is a deserted coastal stretch near the edge of the rainwood. The Golden Company then marches against nearby Griffin's Roost.[15]
The Winds of Winter
| Warning This information has thus far been released in a sample chapter for The Winds of Winter, and might therefore not be in finalized form. Keep in mind that the content as described below is still subject to change. |
At Ghost Hill Nymella Toland and Valena Toland tell Princess Arianne Martell there is talk of elephants in the rainwood.[16]
Arianne and her party travel through the rainwood on the way to the Griffin's Roost. While staying overnight in a cave, they find a cavern with stone columns decorated with faces; Ser Daemon Sand explains it was once populated by the children of the forest. The travelers find that Mistwood has been occupied by the Golden Company, and the sellswords escort them to Griffin's Roost.[6]
Quotes
Here the trees rule, it is said, and the castles oft seem as if they have grown from the earth instead of being built. But the knights and lords of the rainwood have roots as deep as the trees that shelter them, and have oft proved themselves steadfast in battle, strong and stubborn and immovable.[3]
—writings of Yandel
Dusk found them on the fringes of the rainwood, a wet green world where brooks and rivers ran through dark forests and the ground was made of mud and rotting leaves.[6]
—Arianne Martell's thoughts
References
- ↑ A Game of Thrones, Map of the South
- ↑ Fire & Blood, Jaehaerys and Alysanne - Their Triumphs and Tragedies.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: The Men of the Stormlands.
- ↑ So Spake Martin: The Stormlands, August 6, 2000
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: The Coming of the First Men.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 The Winds of Winter, Arianne II
- ↑ The Lands of Ice and Fire, Westeros.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: House Durrandon.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Stormlands: Andals in the Stormlands.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Dorne: Dorne Against the Dragons.
- ↑ The Sworn Sword.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aerys II.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 36, Davos IV.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 61, The Griffin Reborn.
- ↑ The Winds of Winter, Arianne I