What’s up with the Stepstones and the Free Cities in House of the Dragon

polygon.com:

Trouble is certainly brewing around King’s Landing in House of the Dragon, with a succession plot looming almost as large as one of the dragons. But as we see in this week’s episode, there are other parts of the continent that have Game of Thrones’ danger going for them already. And the main plot, which is mostly about sea-based shipping lines, might also be the most confusing.

[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episode 2.]

Corlys Velaryon’s rant toward the beginning of the episode sets up his troubles with shipping, but it also includes a flurry of proper nouns, enemies, allies, and cities that are all pretty easy to miss. The big picture idea is that Corlys (along with many other merchants of Westeros) are losing ships to a pirate called the Crabfeeder who has his base on the Stepstones. But as Viserys makes clear, the whole thing is a lot more complicated than that.

To help you keep up with Westeros’ newest conflict, here’s a breakdown of Daemon and Corlys’ war and why it matters, even if Viserys can’t officially sanction it.

The Stepstones are a small rocky island chain south of King’s Landing between Westeros and Essos near Sunspear. On their own, they have essentially no value at all. They can’t really be built on, and there’s no soil to farm and no minerals of any value. However, because trade between Westeros and Essos is a critical part of both continents’ economies, the Stepstones could provide a suitable base of operations for any pirate who wanted to harass ships as they travel the southern part of the Narrow Sea or charge outrageous tolls for safe passage. Which is exactly where the Crabfeeder comes into play.

While the show doesn’t go into much detail, Fire & Blood (the novel