YARA: The Seven are gods of weakness and defeat,
pretty chains that the First Men kindly put on after the Andals crushed them,
except in the lron lslands.
Since the Dawn Age, the ironborn have followed the Drowned God,
who plucked fire from the sea
and made us to reave and sack and carve our names in blood and song.
When the Andals landed on the lron lslands,
they found a god who was father, warrior and stranger,
who took mother, maiden and crone when he would
and held the smith in thrall.
His priests are the Drowned Men,
who are clothed and armed by the sea itself.
They consecrate us to the Drowned God through our most sacred right,
the drowning,
and ask the god to raise us from the sea as he was, harder and stronger.
The ironborn do not fear the bloodiest battles or the roughest waves,
for the Drowned God taught us long ago that what is dead may never die.
When an ironborn falls,
we say the Drowned God needed a strong oarsman
and took him below to feast in the gods' watery halls,
attended by mermaids.
But even in death, an ironborn is a warrior.
We fight against the Storm God, who holds a castle in the clouds
and sends the winds to lure the ironborn off course or wreck our ships.
lt's said my legendary ancestor, the Grey King,
waged war upon the Storm God for a thousand years.
With the Drowned God's help,
he slew the great sea dragon, Nagga, and used her bones for his hall.
After his death, the Storm God tried to wash away any memory of this terrible foe,
but his songs fill our halls to this day.
lt was the Storm God who first blew the Andals to the lron lslands,
to subdue us and turn us from our faith.
True, they conquered and killed our king.
But, in time, they forsook their septs for the shore,
and their fat septons for the Drowned Men.
The Andals came to us as conquerors.
ln the end, they drowned.
The ironborn are of the sea, as our god made us,
and given to it, as our god taught us.
We do not fear the Storm God's winds or his waves,
but you should,
for they bring us to you.