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As the saying used to go "The seven kingdoms shit and the Riverlands wipe ". Thanks to Draekan Stark that was no longer possible. The Riverlands had been rendered essentially useless to any would be conquerors .
This meant that from now on, any of the Westerosi warmongering and expansionist rulers would need to directly contest territories from their neighbors or attempt to claim the inhospitable Dornish deserts , this in turn would make the great game of Westeros much more bloody as armies fought in the more populous kingdoms.
Ironically despite this not one kingdom had dared to assault the North even indirectly for hundreds of years lest they end up provoking the Starks. The Starks for their part were content to grow rich and prosperous from trade with Essos and would take no part in the southern games.
The Iron Islands however benefited from both trades with the Starks and the wars of the south. The Hoares were a house that unlike other ironborn at the time didn't sneer at trading and "paying the gold price " as the other ironborn did. They exploited the ignorance of their kin to grow rich and covertly increase their own power and influence until they rivalled house Greyiron itself, eventually managing to overthrow the ancient house at the kingsmoot through a mix of bribery and intimidation.
Under their stewardship the Ironborn would turn from a minor backwater kingdom to one of the kingmakers of Westeros. The Hoares first strengthened ties to the Starks and Lannisters (and in turn the Old gods and the faith of the seven respectively) in order to counteract the domestic influence of the Drowned Men who had repeatedly denounced the Hoares as blasphemers and unworthy of the Seastone chair.
Harmund the Host was the first openly literate king of the Iron Islands and welcomed scholars, smiths and traders from across the known world. He would also be the first king to allow the greenmen and septons on the Isles. During his reign he would further build ties with the North through both trade and marriage alliances.
Predictably as the Hoares attempted to reform the Priests of the Drowned God rebelled and they did it multiple times with every reform.
Unfortunately for them the Hoares had used these rebellions as pretexts to wipe out any treacherous or potentially treacherous lords lessening highborn patronage for the up. Worse (for the drowned priests) , the increasing wealth the Hoares brought in and the improvements to the life of the average iron islander meant that support for their revolts dwindled with each successive attempt and each one was answered with ever more censorship and cruel reprisals.
By the time of the desolation the Drowned men were stripped of any power and the last of its members had their limbs hacked off before being dumped into the Dornish deserts ; afterwards a new clergy wholly subservient to the The Salt Throne was formed, these new Drowned men would be far less fanatical and less bloodthirsty in following the Drowned God.
That isn't to say the Hoares intended to curb Ironborn battle lust, far from it they simply wished to control and direct it at more profitable targets. The Iron company was made no less than a decade before the desolation. Made up of no less than 50 longships and crewed by at least ten thousand fully armoured men, the Iron company was and still remains the largest sellsword/sellsail company in the world.
Though under the control of the Hoares(who received a large portion of its earnings), the company was allowed free reign in ito dealings and contracts, so long as they didn't disrupt trade or start wars. They would be hired by various kings and lords in the many wars between the kingdoms of Westeros and earned a reputation for their effectiveness and brutality. Though many other sellsail companies would spring up in their wake, the Iron company remains the most prominent.
Further south however things were not as prosperous for the Reach.
Less than a few years after the desolation , The Storm King Osric Durrandon ,who had previously expanded his holdings all the way to the mouth of Blackwater Bay and worked to build up the strength of the Stormlands after the preceding civil war (including building a small but growing storm fleet) , sensed weakness in the Reach after its devastating losses in the war for the Riverlands. Seizing upon the discontent many reach lords felt for their Greenhand overlords, Osric swayed many of them to his side and invaded with 50 thousand men.
His invasion proved to be successful as he smashed the unprepared hosts of Highgarden in many battles and his storm fleet with the aid of the Iron company even managed to set the arbor ablaze in a surprise attack. However just as the road to Highgarden was opened , he received word that the rival Dornish kings and princes had united in a grand alliance and taken the Marches and were surging to the rest of the Stormlands.
The Storm king was forced to retreat to save his homeland with much of his army, this allowed the Gardeners who had made an alliance with the Lannisters to retake much of their territory.
King Oscric would smash the Dornish in the battle of Nightsong but his armies were exhausted from years of constant war and he would never again be able to regain his conquests in the Reach.
As for the Dornish, their alliance fell the second their armies did and soon the Martells, Daynes, Yornwoods and many others would return to their wars. Until a massive fleet carrying the Rhyonish survivors from their war against the Valyrians landed on Dornish shores.
Its leader princess Nymeria would make Dorne a home for her people by marrying Mors Martell and together they would try to unite Dorne into a single princedom. That task would soon prove far more difficult than expected.
And so the Great wheel of Westeros spun as it ever did, crushing houses and allowing others to rise to power only for them to be usurped and replaced continuing the game.
Of course that wasn't true everywhere