House Greyjoy

Aeron Greyjoy

the Damphair

House: House Greyjoy of Pyke; youngest surviving brother of Balon and Victarion, elder brother of Euron

High priest of the Drowned God and a leading voice among the ironborn, last confirmed disappearing from the Iron Islands after the kingsmoot that crowned his brother Euron.

Balon Greyjoy's youngest surviving brother spent his early years as the household's embarrassment rather than its priest — a hard-drinking, frivolous man the text implies few ironborn took seriously — until a near-drowning remade him entirely, and Aeron emerged from that brush with the sea a devout and humorless prophet of the Drowned God, preaching the Old Way with a conviction his earlier self would scarcely have recognized. He wears the title Damphair for the wet hair he never lets fully dry, a walking reminder of the faith's central rite, and by the time his brother Balon dies, Aeron has become one of the isles' most influential voices — respected in a way his siblings, with their crowns and their reaving, mostly are not.

The arc of Aeron Greyjoy

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

Fearing what an unrestrained Euron would do with the Seastone Chair, Aeron calls the ironborn to a kingsmoot on Old Wyk — the old custom of choosing a king by acclamation rather than inheritance — hoping the captains will choose more wisely than blood alone would. They choose Euron anyway, drawn by promises of dragons and conquest that Aeron's austere faith cannot match, and the priest's despair at the result is total: reaching for his god in the moment of defeat, he finds, by his own account, only silence. He resolves to rouse the smallfolk of the isles against his 'godless' brother rather than accept the kingsmoot's verdict — and disappears from Old Wyk the following day, his fate afterward a question the published novels have not yet answered.

Where the books leave Aeron Greyjoy: Aeron Damphair called the kingsmoot that was meant to save the Iron Islands from his own eldest brother, and watched the captains acclaim that brother instead — a defeat the priest answered by vanishing from Old Wyk rather than accepting it, his fate beyond that point left unresolved by the last published pages.

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

In the timeline

Theories about Aeron Greyjoy

SourcesAFFC · The ProphetADWD · The Drowned ManTWOIAF · The Iron Islands

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House

Why did Aeron Greyjoy call the kingsmoot?

Fearing his brother Euron's ambitions would ruin the Iron Islands, Aeron invoked the ancient custom of choosing a king by acclamation, hoping the captains would pass over Euron in favor of a safer claimant.

What happens to Aeron Greyjoy after the kingsmoot?

Having lost the kingsmoot to Euron, he vows to rouse the isles' smallfolk against his brother and vanishes from Old Wyk — his fate from that point is left open in the published novels.