East of the Bay of Seals lies one of the most mysterious places in all of Westeros,

a cold mountainous island wrapped in fog, isolation, and terrifying legends, an island where

the people are said to wear skins and untained hides like wildlings and sacrifice humans to weirwood trees,

where passing ships are lured to destruction by false lights along the shore,

before survivors are butchered and eaten during winter.

An island where men are rumored to ride unicorns and even carry the blood of giants in their veins.

That island is Skagos. And somehow, this nightmare island

may hold the future of House Stark itself, and perhaps the key to the winds of winter. Most of what

we know about Skagos comes through rumor, scattered references and descriptions from the maesters

themselves. The Skagosi, who call themselves the Stoneborn, are viewed by the rest of the

North as little better than wildlings. Huge hairy people clad in skins and furs riding shaggy horn

beasts, mistaken for unicorns. Some maesters believe they possess Ibaneese blood. Others whisper they

descend from giants. Whether any of that is true is impossible to know, but in a song of ice and

fire, rumors are dangerous because sometimes they exaggerate the truth, and sometimes they hide it.

The Skagosi technically bend the knee to Winterfell, though often reluctantly. The island has

rebelled against the Stark's multiple times, most famously during the reign of Darren the second.

When the rebellion became so brutal, it claimed the life of Barathagin Stark himself.

And yet, despite its savage reputation, there are hints that Skagos preserves something ancient,

something older than the rest of the north.

The Skagosi still trade in obsidian weapons and arrowheads, dragon glass.

Their customs feel deeply tied to the oldest traditions of the first men, perhaps even practices

stretching back towards the dawn age itself.

...