A grim fortress on a volcanic island at the mouth of Blackwater Bay, beneath the smoking Dragonmont. Two centuries before the Doom the dragonlords of Valyria took the island and shaped a castle upon it with fire and sorcery, the westernmost outpost of the Freehold. It was the first Targaryen seat in Westeros, and after the Conquest the seat of the heir to the Iron Throne.
Wrought of Dragons
Small dragons frame the gates, dragon claws hold the torches, great wings roof the armory, and tails arch into stairways. Where other castles have merlons, Dragonstone has a thousand gargoyles and grotesques brooding along three curtain walls. The Great Hall is carved as a dragon lying on its belly, and those who enter pass through its maw. The Chamber of the Painted Table crowns the Stone Drum, where a map of Westeros is carved and painted into the wood.
Aenar's Refuge
Twelve years before the Doom, Aenar Targaryen sold his holdings in Valyria and brought his family, their wealth, and five dragons to this rock, because his maiden daughter Daenys had dreamed the Freehold's end. Their rivals called it cowardice, and then the Fourteen Flames broke and there was no one left to say so. Robert Baratheon gave the castle to his brother Stannis, and its septs have since given way to the nightfires of R'hllor.