Dorne
Beneath the burning sun of Dorne, wealth was measured as much in water as in gold, so every well was zealously guarded. - A Feast for Crows[1]
Dorne is a unique region that stretches from the Red Mountains bordering the Reach in the west, to the Broken Arm and the Stepstones of the Narrow Sea in the east. The landmass is a large peninsula that makes up the southernmost border of Westeros, from the Stormlands to the Summer Sea.
Terrain and Culture[edit]
A strange and varied landscape, Dorne is known for its desert terrain, but is also home to dense jungles, fertile valleys and tall mountain passes. The Red Mountains make a natural border in the west where the Reach begins, and stretch north and east all the way to the border of Wyl and Blackhaven, forming a natural defense against the Stormlands, as well. The Boneway and the Wide Way are the only two passages through the Red Mountains, both of which lead into the Dornish Marches of the Stormlands.
Much of the terrain south of those mountains is occupied by a large central desert, but the fertile Torrentine Valley to the west and the lush jungles of the Broken Arm in the east provide a desirable green reprieve in an otherwise bleak and brutal landscape. Vibrant and hardy plant life can also be found clinging to the shores of the Greenblood, which flows from the Royalmarch to Lemonwood. However, Dorne is so well-known for its remote and desolate landscape, that even the Children of the Forest refer to it as the Empty Land. [2]
The Dornish Passes[edit]
See: Kingdom of Skyreach, The Vulture Kingdom, Kingdom of Yronwood
.jpg)
"The Red Mountains that compose its western and northern boundaries have kept Dorne separate from the rest of [Westeros] for thousands of years..." [2] As the only passages through the Red Mountains, both the Wide Way and the Boneway are contentious regions where many an army have been dashed upon the rocks. The hawks of Skyreach, House Fowler, stand guard in the Wide Way, while the black adders of House Wyl watch the entry to the Boneway. It is the Bloodroyals of House Yronwood, however, whom all of the lords of the Boneway swear their fealty. Though holding dominion over less than one-third of greater Dorne, the Yronwoods have fashioned themselves as the High Kings of Dorne. [2]
Notable Houses[edit]
The Torrentine Valley[edit]
See: Kingdom of the Torrentine
Beginning in the heights of the Red Mountains surrounding Castle Blackmont, the Torrentine River flows south through the middle of a secluded valley along the western edge of Dorne. The river veers ever more westward until it emptys into the Summer Sea, where House Dayne makes their home on the island of Starfall in the center of the Mouth of the Torrentine.
Notable Houses[edit]
The Greenblood[edit]
See: Kingdom of the Greenblood
"Though meager when compared to the Mander, the Trident, or the Blackwater Rush, the waters of the Greenblood are truly the lifeblood of Dorne." [2] Such a statement could not be more true in a land that is three-quarters desert. If not for the Greenblood, it is likely that all of Dorne south of the mountain passes would be empty of people. As it stands, however, the waters of the Greenblood have allowed for humans to settle and survive along its banks, if not thrive and prosper. The river also supplies the necessary environment required for the unique flora that does not grow anywhere else in Westeros, such as lemons and blood oranges. It is also along the Greenblood where many noble Houses have formed an interesting feudal elective system that combines their strengths into one as a bulwark against the Yronwoods to their north.
Historically, the ancient Greenblooders were considered one of the more civilized peoples of Dorne, especially by themselves. They worshipped the river, and were fervent in protecting and preserving its gifts, as well as their own independence and freedoms. They possessed unique water clocks, and were diligent keepers of time and calendars, counting and recalling the years by the regular flooding of their river, and by the reigns of their elected Kings, as well as those periods of cherished interregnum they term River Rule.
Since the Downfall of the Last Green King, the Greenblood has been ruled over by the Santagar Kings of Godsgrace, the first Andal-ruled kingdom in Dorne.
Notable Houses[edit]
The Dornish Desert[edit]
As we know, the large desert that dominates the landscape of Dorne is why the Children of the Forest referred to this place as the Empty Land. [2] Before the migration of the First Men across the land bridge between Essos and Westeros, this presumably meant that all of Dorne was uninhabited, save perhaps some giants living in the Red Mountains. However, the desert continues to shape the people and culture in Dorne to this day. Though the largest population centers are in the mountains and along the Greenblood, the desert has become home to nomadic horse riders renowned for their sand steeds. The Deserts have become an unlikely home for some of the most successful Andals in Dorne, in particular House Qorgyle. Having been granted lands by House Dryland, and taken more from House Dayne, they have spread their power across the sands, and changed the face of the region. With the elevation of Tamsyn II Dryland to the throne of Brimstone, much of the Desert came under the sway of the faith, and of the half-Andal peoples known as the Sun Dornish.
Notable Houses[edit]
History[edit]
The Dawn Age[edit]
Little is known about the Dawn Age in Dorne before the coming of the First Men. Though it is possible that giants lived near the Greenblood, it is likely that they were largely situated amongst the Red Mountains. This would paint a picture of a mostly uninhabited land only sparsely populated by the original flora and fauna that sprouted along the banks of the Greenblood.
The Age of Heroes[edit]
"The First Men crossed from Essos to Westeros by land, all agree, walking or riding across through the hills and forest of the great land bridge that connected the two continents in the Dawn Age. Dorne was the first land that they entered, but few remained, as we have chronicled; many and more pressed on northward, through the mountains and mayhaps across the salt marshes that once existed where the Sea of Dorne is now." [3] Before the breaking of the Arm of Dorne, the landscape was quite different, with more avenues to travel by land. The First Men used to this their advantage when migrating from Essos and made the journey for generations, moving ever northward after traveling through Dorne. It is said that after much conflict between the Children and the First Men, the greenseers of the Children called upon the Old Gods to destroy the Arm of Dorne with the Hammer of the Waters. Though it stopped further migrations by land, it was much too late to end hostility between the First Men and the Children, for it was said that the First Men outnumbered the elder races three to one by the time the lands were severed. [3]
The Coming of the Andals[edit]
While Dorne proved a less than tempting target for most Andal conquerors, a few early Andal warlords did seek to carve out a place for themselves on the peninsula. Most notable among these were the Santagars, who settled in the thinly settled jungles of the Broken Arm and spent many years in peaceful detente with their Greenblood neighbors. Due to its proximity to Essos - as well as the small number of First Men already living there - the Broken Arm was one of the first regions in all of Westeros to become predominantly Andal.
First Century A.I.[edit]
Other early Andal settlements included Ghaston Grey, an island off the coast of Yronwood conquered by the Jordaynes, and the lands of Sandhorn in the Western Desert, where House Maltrevar erected a stout keep and, in Anchoran, dug one of the southern Dornish coasts' few proper anchorages. Many Andal adventurers chose to roam through Dorne without settling down; for a time, the Ullers, Allyrions, and Martells all commanded substantial hosts, traveling across the peninsula to sell their swords and practice glorified banditry. Conran Qorgyle, another early arrival, gathered one of the largest armies in Dorne about him over many years of wandering. House Martell once threatened to topple the Greenblood—and would have—were it not for the command skill of King Edred Lake, known as the Wetblade.
On the other side of Dorne, the Daynes fought against the Qorgyles for decades, sometimes with Fowlers or Yronwoods at their side but more often without. The warlord Conran Qorgyle cleaved himself to the king of Brimstone, Vorcan Dryland, and with their combined forces, they conquered the nomadic clans of the desert. For a time, the Daynes of Torrentine opposed their conquests but they were ultimately unable to stand against the Andal steel of Conran Qorgyle's warband. After his death, however, Caswyn Dayne was able to oust his sons from the desert and return the clans to their homes. It was nearly two decades before the return of the conqueror's sons to Dorne. Tywald Qorgyle and his brother, Lorence, were able to convince Dryland, Yronwood, and Santagar to join them in reconquering the desert. Their combined forces handed the Daynes their worst defeat in centuries, perhaps longer. The Qorgyles retook the lands from the Elbow to the Dustbowl and bent the knee to the kings of Brimstone.
However, save for the Santagar's in the furthest east, the early period of the Coming of the Andals saw no new Kingdoms in Dorne. The Andals who found purchase in the Barren Lands were those who aligned themselves with an existing Kingdom, whether as mercenaries or bannermen. Dorne was a place of near constant conflict - the Locust Wars, the Second Desert War, along with the Third and Winter War dragged much of the peninsula into years of bloody conflict between evershifting sides, the great Kingdoms of the Brimstone, Torrentine, Yronwood and Greenblood rarely seeing a decade of peace altogether, and rarely fighting with the same allies - or against the same enemy - twice in succession.
In a few short generations, the ancient Kingdoms of the Blackmont and Sky and Stone fell or were subsumed by neighbors, and while the latter reemerged following the revolt of Owen Fowler, the former remained under the rule of Starfall. The Great Desert, long a disunited collection of nomadic Clans, was largely united under the iron fist of Vorcan Dryland, aided by his Andal allies and eventual vassals, the Qorgyles, raising from irrelevancy a new power in Dorne. In the east, the Greenblood, a land in past centuries stranger to war and conquest, fought a long and losing campaign against the Yronwoods, their misfortunes exacerbated by years of Ironborn reaving and the sinking of the Andal-Greenblooder Fleet, a loss which claimed many of that generations greatest nobles and warriors.
The decline of the Greenblood did not become truly apparent however, until the landing of Vorian Roxton in 86 A.I. Gavyn Brownhill, the newly elected Green King, sent Ser Samuel Santagar and Magnar Dylan Brook to negotiate with Roxton, only for Roxton to break off his unprovoked siege of the Tor to take service with the Yronwoods. Roxton would take part in fighting the uprising that centered around House Fowler struggling to regain their independence as kings. Despite Roxton and Yronwood's defeat, the Bloodroyal Yorick III agreed to honor his word, and strike next into the Greenblood. Thus, after defeating the forces of the Green King Gavyn Brownhill, Vorian Roxton declared himself the 'Lord of the Tor' in 97 A.I. A second war would see the seizing of the Bramble, a famed redoubt that guarded the northern banks of the upper Greenblood river. These defeats led to the first deposing of a Greenblood King in the memory of the kingdom, and the raising up of Bastian Briar as Green King.
Second Century A.I.[edit]
A majority of Bastian's reign was spent fighting the Andal house Santagar and their allies, Daelwell and Vyrwel. For a short time just before Bastian became king, the Santagars had sworn fealty to the Green Kings, but their continued friendship with the Bloodroyals quickly degraded that relationship. When the Santagars marched to aid their Yronwood kin, their inclusion in the kingdom of the Greenblood was forfeit. By the time of Bastian Briar's reign, the Andal warbands of Daelwell and Vyrwel landed in the Spottswood. With Symeon Santagar at their head, they began an invasion of the Greenblood, and knowing the reputation of the Daynes for fighting against Andals, Bastian sent to Starfall for aid. The conflict lasted for eight years and cost the lives of thousands of Andals and Dornish First Men alike. In the end, the Andals sacked and burned the Greenseat, bringing about the end of the most ancient of First Man kingdoms. The last of the Briars had nowhere to call home and fled to Starfall with the Daynes.
Symeon Santagar, styling himself King Symeon II of Godsgrace, decided to leave the Green Kings as a relic of the past. Instead he put aside the trappings of past rulers, declaring himself to rule by the guidance of the gods, rather than the consent of the families. New great houses rose up across the Greenblood, including House Ladybright of Lamplight, House Vyrwel of Greenguard, and House Daelwell of Goldpeppers. Save for House Brownhill, the First Men families of the Greenblood found themselves reduced to minor vassals and landholders by 120 A.I.
Western Dorne, meanwhile, was undergoing a shift of its own. The great Kingdom of the Brimstone had been at peace for decades, remaining above and apart from the wars which tore apart the east during the reign of King Tamsyn. Just as conquest brought the Andals to the Greenblood, though, peace entrenched them in the Desert. The Faith of the Seven won increasing numbers of converts in both the Andal ruled west of the Kingdom and in the Brimstone proper, and the children of Andals and Clansmen continued to increase in number and prominence. The changes eventually triggered an exodus of traditionalist Desert Clans northwards - a migration which resulted in the Scorpion Clan, those half-Andal descendants of Conran Qorgyle's multiethnic Host, claiming even greater swaths of the West's wells, oases and pasture.
In 128 A.I., more Andals began landing in the young kingdom of Godsgrace—namely House Todonar and House Pengroz. Their landing sparked a rebellion in the kingdom of the Bloodroyal where the Allyrions and Roxtons broke their oaths of fealty to House Yronwood and bent the knee to the Santagars of Godsgrace. Uthor Yronwood declared war on Godsgrace to reclaim the lands of the Tor, but was defeated by the combined might of the Andals after only two years of conflict. Captured by Lord Argos 'the Morningstar' Daelwell, Uthor Yronwood would meet his end by execution and would be remembered as the last of the Bloodroyals. Seizing the castle of Yronwood, King Symeon II Santagar granted it to Lord Lucas of Todonar. Seeing the vulnerability of Wyl, the Stormlands took the opportunity to invade the Boneway, led by Lord Harras 'the Gust' Dondarrion. Castle Wyl was taken and the Stormlands held control of the Boneway briefly before King Dagos 'the Redstar' Dayne and King Devin Fowler marched to liberate the Boneway from the Stormlands.
In 144 A.I. King Symeon II, the founder of Godsgrace, died of his declining health at the age of seven and sixty. By the laws of Andal succession, his grandson was crowned as Symeon III.
Near the middle point of the Second Century, the long-ruling King Tamsyn I Dryland of Brimstone perished with no clear heir. The Brimstoner Civil War resulted, a struggle between Tamsyn's grandson, similarly named Tamsyn, and one of his distant cousins, Lucifer Dryland. The former, raised in the Qorgyle capital of Cliffsides in Andal religious, courtly and martial fashions, earned the support of his army (commanded formerly by his father, Prince Devlin Dryland), Qorgyles and the nascent Kingdom of Godsgrace. The latter, promising to drive the Andals from the west, allied himself to the King Arthur Dayne, who had united the Red Marches following the fall of the Yronwoods, and gathered the eastern Clans under his banner. The result was a crushing defeat of Lucifer, and the establishment of Dorne's first half-Andal Kingdom.
With the end of the Brimstoner Civil War, and the Torrentine's dominion over the Red Mountains, Dorne entered the Three Kingdoms period. For some generations, the borders remained relatively stable between the three great powers of the Torrentine, Godsgrace and Brimstone - Mountain, River and Desert.
The latter half of the second century A.I. saw the conflict between the Torrentine and Godsgrace decline dramatically. As the still-young Andal kingdom developed and consolidated its power, the Torrentine became ensconced with increasingly more conflict against the Reach and the Stormlands. The two ancient kingdoms north of the Red Mountains had become more aligned than perhaps ever in history, and with less to fight about between themselves, raids from Marchers of Reach and Storm became more commonplace. A particularly large raid after a harsh winter in 145 A.I. was said to be the true beginning of the larger wars; led by Peake forces, the Reachmen sacked and burned Dornish towns on their march down the Wide Way before being turned back by the army of King Arthur Dayne.
In 158 A.I.—the following spring—Arthur called on the Fowlers of Skyreach and the Wyls of Wyl to march into the Reach. With an army of ten thousand men between them, the Dornishmen marched on castle Nightsong and Starpike, sacking and burning them both. They took battles against the Mullendores, the Peakes, and the Tarlys, but the Gardeners never raised their own banners during that conflict. Rather than stay and give them the opportunity, the Dayne-led armies left the castles of Nightsong and Starpike empty and returned home. Retribution for these acts would not be seen by King Arthur Dayne, however, and the Torrentine saw relative peace for the remainder of his reign, until his death in 181 A.C.
It would be less than a year into the reign of Arthur's son, King Daven Dayne, when King Gwayne Gardner and Storm Queen Vika Durrandon made a coordinated invasion of the Red Mountains through both the Wide Way and the Stone Way. While Daven contended with Tarly and Horpe men at Castle Blackmont, the Peakes, Gardeners, and Mullendores led an invasion of the Wide Way, sieging castles on their way to Skyreach. At the same time, the Storm Queen and marcher lords of Dondarrion marched on Castle Wyl of the Stone Way. The Wyl army was crushed at Castle Wyl and the army of Lord Trevor Yronwood was forced into a retreat toward Skyreach. After defeating Tarly and Horpe's distraction force, Daven marched on Skyreach and the Dornish armies met the Reachmen in battle beaneath the castle. An initial victory by the Dornishmen led to a split in their armies as they aimed to recapture lost castles in the passes, and after the Reachmen regrouped, they were able to take out the smaller Dornishmen armies one by one, eventually leading to the capture and sack of Skyreach.
The young lord's daughter was captured in the siege and so he surrendered the castle and the war. Lord Osmund Peake demanded the Fowler lord declare his independence from the Dayne kings and stay out of conflicts with the Reach, which the lord agreed to, shattering the Daynes' hold on the Red Mountains for a time. Shortly after this, the Stormlands finished their invasion of the Stone Way, but an uncle of the Lord Dondarrion had been given charge of Castle Wyl. The onset of winter was not long in the coming after the Reachmen and Stormlanders returned to their homes across the mountains, and opportunity arose for King Daven Dayne to reconsolidate his kingdom while theirs dealt with heavy snows. At only eight-and-ten, the young lord of Skyreach died suddenly and the castle was inherited by his uncle, Lord Halbert Fowler, in 185 A.I.
Halbert was quick to realign himself with King Daven Dayne, and their two armies—joined by the might of Lord Willam Yronwood—marched on Castle Wyl to liberate it from the Stormlanders. Lord Greydon Dondarrion and his uncle were joined by their allies, Lord Garrett Konugton and Lord Nyles Harthwood. A large battle ensued on Castle Wyl, fiercely close, but the Dornishmen won the day and sent the Stormlanders into a retreat. Angry with actions of King Daven, Lord Osmund Peake, marshaled his army to march against the Daynes once more. The Peakes marched with purpose to reinforce the Stormlanders at Castle Blackhaven. By the time they arrived, however, the Dornish had already retaken Castle Wyl and fortified their position. For the time being, the Marcher lords north of the Red Mountains returned home to fight another day.