8.000 BC (Before Aegon's Conquest), the first King in the North, Brandon "The Builder" Stark, won the war for the Dawn with his allies, the Umbers, the Dustins, who were just vassals to the Barrow Kings then, and two unexpected allies in House Dayne and a lord from the Stormlands, Duran.
It is said that King Dorian Dayne, King of the Torentine River, had a dream that he was needed in the Far North, and not only him, his sword Dawn was needed too.
Dawn is the ancestral greatsword of House Dayne, who bestow the title Sword of the Morning on the sword's bearer. It is said to be made from metal forged from the heart of a fallen star; in reality, it was forged from a meteorite. Its blade is as pale as milkglass.
Dawn has the same properties as Valyrian Steel, but that wouldn't be documented yet because Valyrian Steel was discovered 3.000 years after King Dorian's time.
At the time, Dawn was the best sword in the world.
King Dorian Dayne "The Sword Of The Morning" fought the Others and their Wights alongside with King Brandon Stark "The Builder", where they became as close as brothers.
It is said that Brandon saved Dorian's life, and then the two of them made a Blood Pact. It is said that he who wields Dawn cannot harm a Stark, and if he does, then the sword will reject him, and every time he tries to pick it up it will burn him.
It is not known who exactly killed the Night King, the leader of the Others. But it is known that Brandon Stark took the body of the fallen Night King and burried him in the crypts of where he would later build his home, Winterfell. Brandon also took the Night King's and the Night Queen's crowns, both were the same, an open circlet made of bluish ice, with specks of purple and black all over it. It was incised with the runes of the First Men, surmounted by nine black and purple ice spikes wrought in the shape of longswords. Around the swords, you could see Direwolves, running and snarling.
Brandon also took his throne.
The Night King's throne was made of ice. It was not a regular ice that you could come across in natur, it was magical ice.
The throne was made of an ice that was bluish. But it had purple and black colorations all over it. You could feel the air hum around the throne with magical potency. The top of the throne was decorated with a snarling direwolf. The backrest, arms and the legs were crafted with such perfection you could see the tiny details that added to its beauty. The throne itself had no cushion of any sort. This was a seat made to signify power. It wasn't there for comfort.
This then became the throne of the Winter Kings. This is how the Stark family symbol became the direwolf.
People speculate that the Night King was Brandon's ancestor and that was why he burried him in his family's crypts, and took the Direwolf as his own symbol.
Just by being near it made one bow down in deference.
For thousands of years this seat signified the power of the Stark family. Nobody outside of their blood could ever grace it. Only those who gave birth to Starks, or were Starks themselves. In the early days this throne was considered to be a symbol of power... a symbol that the Starks were the magically superior family. An item that a person could lust for their whole life but never obtain. Many a family had tied to force their claim on it. But none succeeded.
Lastly, Brandon took his sword.
The Night King's sword was special, the Starks could lift it, but they could not wield it. Much like Dawn can be lifted by members of House Dayne and others, but none but the Sword of the Morning can really wield the sword. The sword, too, was made of an ice that was bluish. But it, like the throne, had purple and black colorations all over it. The hilt of this sword was decorated with a snarling direwolf, with glowing purple eyes. But unlike Dawn, no one could wield the blade. For 3.000 years members of House Stark, be it Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses, or even cousins, none of them could lift the sword. This sword, was called ICE, and it later served as inspiration for the name and design of the Valyrian Steel Greatsword that was given to the Starks by the Valyrian Freehold.
300 years after the reign of King Theon Stark "The Hungry Wolf", King Jorjen Stark decreed to hide the Winter Throne, along with the crown and sword, to quell the rumors that it was the throne that gave the Starks their powers after the Boltons and several Stark offshoots rose in rebellion.
After Brandon built the Wall and Winterfell, Duran, who Brandon befriended, asked him to built him a fortress that would withstand every storm the Storm God throws at it.
The same night the castle was completed, it was said that a storm the likes of which the Stormlanders had never seen struck the castle. Many thought that the Storm God was testing the castle, to see if it could withstand His wroth. Three days and Three nights the storm continued to test Brandon's creation, but the castle held. From then on Duran was forever known as Duran Godsgrief, who would later take on the name Durrandon.
Duran then named the fortress, Storm's End.
Storm's End was surrounded by a massive outer curtain wall, one hundred feet high and forty feet thick on its thinnest side and nearly eighty feet thick on its seaward side. It was composed of a double course of pale grey stone with an inner core of sand and rubble. The wall was smooth and curving, the stones so well placed and so perfectly fit together that the wind can find no purchase. On the seaward side, there was a one hundred fifty foot drop below the wall into the sea. There was no safe anchorage by the castle. The curtain wall protects the castle's kitchens, stables, and yard.
Storm's End had only one tower, a colossal drum tower crowned with formidable battlements, making it look like a huge, spiked fist thrusting towards the sky from afar. The tower was so large that it comfortably contains the granary, barracks, armory, feast hall, and lord's chambers all at once. The maester's cell and the rookery would later be located at the top of the tower, which was windowless on the side facing the sea. It is said that Brandon himself wove spells into the stonework of Storm's End.
The seaward side of the castle stands upon Durran's Point, a high white cliff overlooking the sea. There was a watery passage through a cavern that leads beneath the castle, protected by a portcullis, bars, and murder holes.
The godswood of Storm's End had a weirwood heart tree carved with a solemn face, that was said to have been carved by Brandon himself.
Duran was so amazed at the wonder his friend had built that he named his firstborn son after him and vouched that when he became King they would be brother's in marriage as well as affection. Duran also named the main hall of the castle Brandon's Hall.
After he was done with Storm's End, Brandon visited his friend, the King of the Torentine Dorian Dayne, "The Sword Of The Morning" at Starfall.
The location that Starfall is built, is perhaps the best location to build a home in Dorne.
The castle was located in the western Red Mountains on an island in the Torentine where it pours into the Summer Sea. Starfall, which includes a tower called the Palestone Sword, guards the western arm of Dorne.
It sits in between two mountains and the mouth of the latgest river in Dorne. That makes the climate at the mouth of the Torentine and Starfall, more like the Reach than Dorne. While still hotter than the majority of Westeros, the location of the mountains and the river make it a perfect spot fot vegetation to grow.
The original Starfall did not take full advantage of it's position as the most fertile region in Dorne.
Starfall was built where the first Dayne found a magic stone after he followed the path of a shooting star. The Daynes grew in power to become the Kings of the Torrentine and the strongest house in Dorne.
Starfall, while an impressive castle, could not compare to the likes of Winterfell and Storm's End. It was basically a tower in an island surrounded by walls with no brige connecting the sides of the river with the island.
Brandon, wanting to thank his friend for coming to his aid in the War for the Dawn, offered to redesign and contruct a better castle for him. A castle fit for a King, a castle worthy of a man who wields a sword made out of the Heart of a Fallen Star.
It took five years, but Brandon's work was complete. While Winterfell was huge and imposing and formidable, but lacked beauty, and Storm's End was tall and formidable, but small and ugly, Starfall was a mixture of the two.
Not as big as Winterfell, but larger than Storm's End. Not as tall as Storm's End, but taller than Winterfell. Starfall was both an imposing and beautiful castle.
While Winterfell and Storm's End were build with grey stone, Starfall was built with white stone. It is said that right before the sun set's in the Sunset Sea, it's light hits Starfall at an angle that the white stone of the castle can be seen all the way to the Arbor.
The Starfall that Brandon built used the island's full resources. The castle contained high walls that seemed to melt into the stone of the island's cliffside, inside were several tall towers with a dome like shape at their tope, and it consisted of a great keep, where all the family would gather, the barracks.
Unlike the previous castle, Brandon's make, had an easy way for the castle's inhabitants to enter the Torentine. He ate away the stone of the island until it was more managable, and he built a descending staircase with a strong gate, which while opened revealed an access to a very small port facing the Torentine and not the Sunset Sea.
To the North-West of Starfall, Brandon built a sturdy bridge connecting the island of Starfall with the mainland, with two formidable gates at either side.
From that day an alliance has existed between House Dayne and House Stark, and many Kings of Winter have married daughters of the Kings of the Torantine and vice versa.
Throughout the centuries many people from all over Dorne, and even the Reach flocked to Starfall, because it's like an oasis in a desert, everyone seeks to go there. It got to the point where the Daynes of Starfall built a city/harbor on the other side of the bridge. A city which after thousands of years counts around 25.000 people. House Dayne also built a fleet to protect their home, largely to deter attacks from the Ironborn and the Redwyne Fleet. The Star Fleet, has 80 warships and 100 merchant carracks, trading galleys, and whalers.
Star City is the first and biggest city in Dorne, and that makes House Dayne the most powerful House in Dorne before Nymeria's War. Due to House Dayne's power Nymeria was not able to conquer them, instead they were assimilated into the Kingdom of Dorne with House Nymeros Martell as their overlords 100 years after Nymeria's passing, where they had more autonomy than the other Lords, and paid half the taxes the other Houses did.
House Dayne is the only house in Dorne that still keeps to the Old Gods. It is said that the Weirwood Tree in Starfall is the oldest in Westeros.
Some Maesters say that members of House Dayne are mostly born with purple/indigo eyes, because of chronic exposure to Skymetal, which Dawn is made of.
1.000 years after the time of Brandon The Builder, a star fell into the Mountains of the North. King Cregan Stark sent his younger son, Prince Edric to investigate. His son confirmed the rumors that, indeed a star had really in the Mountains of the North.
King Cregan Stark immediately sent a raven to Starfall, for them to send someone to help them mine the star and teach them how to utilize it. King Arthur Dayne, sent his sister, Princess Dyanna Dayne and a trusted advisor to help House Stark with the fallen star.
When the excavation began, it had seemed as if the Old Gods had smiled on House Stark. While digging the star out of the ground, a large vein of Gold was discovered. A vein that, if the star had not fallen there, would've never been discovered.
King Cregan quickly turned his attention to the mountains and named his son Lord and "Warden" of the Mountain Clans.
Prince Edric, travelled to every different Lord and Clan of the Mountain and tasked them to mine the mountain until they find gold. To their pleasant surprise, the gold vein that was discovered by the falling star, was so large that it continued all over the mountains.
The digging for the star finally proved successful a year later, when there was enough of the star to make a Greatsword, just like the first Dayne had done.
The sword was the complete opposite of Dawn, the only similarity between them was the size. The new blade was pitch black, so black it was like staring into the abyss, or into the night sky with all the stars gone.
Prince Edric took the name Black, and became the first Lord of the Black Mountains, as they would later be called. He married Princess Dyanna Dayne and, at her behest, named the sword "Dusk", as it was the opposite of "Dawn". Dusk can be wielded by any member of House Black, not only the "worthy" members of the House like House Dayne and Dawn.
This is Starfall. (Just imagine a bridge on the left side of the castle connecting the island with the side of the Torentine River).