Editing Iron Islands (section)

===Settlement===
[[File:Tomasz Jedruszek Every Captain is a King.png|thumb|350px|Every Captain is a King, by Tomasz Jedruszek © Fantasy Flight Games]]
[[Maesters]] believe the Iron Islands were settled by the [[First Men]] many thousands of years ago. Legends claim that the First Men discovered what would be called the [[Seastone Chair]] upon the shores of [[Old Wyk]].{{Ref|ACOK|24}} There is no evidence the islands were inhabited by [[children of the forest]] or [[giants]]. [[Weirwood]] trees do not grow in their poor soils, so the [[old gods]] did not have significant followers there. Instead, the humans who came to inhabit the islands worship their own local religion of the [[Drowned God]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Iron Islands}}

Differing from maesters, the [[priest of the Drowned God|priests of the isles]] claim the [[ironmen]] are not First Men in origin but were created in the image of the Drowned God, and they therefore may have a connection with [[merling]]s. Some also suspect that the isles were originally inhabited by the [[Deep Ones]], and that they are the ones who left the Seastone Chair behind.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Iron Islands}}

Most ironborn believe that their ancestors were an offshoot of the First Men who simply crossed to the isles on boats, where their culture developed differently from their mainland cousins.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Iron Islands}} The ancient First Men kept [[thrall]]s, hinting that the ironborn were also First Men who retained the practice in their isolation.{{Ref|TWOIAF|The Iron Islands}}