Despite their name, they have been ruled from Storm's End ever since the Storm Kings of House Durrandon asserted their dominance over it against the Gardener Kings of the Reach and several Dornish houses. They are "marches" on the border that guards the Stormlands from Dornish attack. Endemic border conflicts between the three neighboring kingdoms played out in the Dornish Marches for centuries. The fighting for control over the Marches lasted until Dorne was brought under the rule of the Iron Throne through a marriage alliance one century before the War of the Five Kings.