Sunspear

[Rivine]

It is a time of strife and violence in the Seven Kingdoms. It has been half a year since the death of Robert Baratheon and five kings have arisen to vie for the Iron Throne. With the kingdoms torn asunder there is ample opportunity for those who seek to advance themselves...

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Sunspear is the seat of House Nymeros Martell and the capital of Dorne. The castle is located north of the Greenblood on the far southeastern coast of Westeros and is surrounded on three sides by the sea. The princely Water Gardens lie three leagues away on the coastal road. Sunspear is a walled settlement, protected by three massive Winding Walls encircling one another and containing miles of narrow alleys, hidden courts, and noisy bazaars. The Threefold Gate, where the gates are lined up one behind the other, avoids the labyrinth, instead allowing straight passage on a brick path to the Old Palace. Rising from the Old Palace is the Spear Tower, which can house noble prisoners in cells at its top, and the Tower of the Sun, which contains the seat of the Prince of Dorne.

Clinging to and overshadowed by the castle's massive Winding Walls, the so-called shadow city spreads westwards. Mud-brick shops and windowless hovels are closest to the walls, then west of those are stables, inns, winesinks, pillow houses, some with walls of their own. More hovels and buildings then spread beyond those walls. The shadow city is no more than a town when compared to the Free Cities, but it is the closest thing to a true city that the Dornishmen have.

 

[Xanaphia]

For most of Elia’s life, she was confident in her position. The eldest trueborn granddaughter of the House Allyrion, it was her birthright. The presence of an older bastard brother did not concern her, he would not take what was rightfully hers.
She was Dornish; that she was a woman was no obstacle to holding her ancestral throne. And yet, her brother had reached above his station. One of Princess Arianne’s many consorts, and one of those who was foolish enough to fall for her. Foolish enough to ask for her hand. Dorne might have been accepting of a great many things, but a bastard was never going to marry the heir to Sunspear. A bastard could never be a proper match, but an Allyrion might be…

She would not be passed over. She was the trueborn heir! In her veins flowed the blood of ancient Dorne, the union of the Yronwoods and Allyrions made flesh. Yet it was the Bastard of Godsgrace who accompanied her father and the Red Viper to King Landing, instead of his trueborn daughter. Was he trying to usurp her position? If he was legitimized, he could marry the princess and steal her rightful heritage. It was what drove her to join the Scarlett Rose, to proudly wear the red flower just behind her left ear, visible when her curly hair was pinned up to the side.

When Princess Myrcella Baratheon came to Dorne, engaged to the youngest Martell, Elia made her second political move of her young life. She attached herself to the young princess, knowing that positioning herself of Myrcella’s Lady in waiting would give her good position to negotiate a proper marriage. A marriage that would ensure her brother could not steal Godsgrace from her.

This day she sang for the young girl. She was rather well known for a bawdier version of “The Dornishmen’s Wife” which ended on a more playful than the original, but it was certainly not an appropriate song for the young girl. Instead she deferred to the girl, who had grown quite fond of her lively rendition of “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”, where she danced about and slapped her knee in time with the verse.

“She kicked and wailed, the maid so fair,
But he licked the honey from her hair.
Her hair! Her hair!
He licked the honey from her hair!”

Myrcella laughed at this part, too young and innocent to get the innuendo implied. Elia laughed too, hard enough to lose her place in the song, as servants brought up the young girl’s meal, and her betrothed. Elia bowed, and took her leave, wandering the castle for a time, for something to do with herself.