Nymeria: The Sun and the Spear (Part 3)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:48):
In the songs, Nymeria is said tohave been a witch and a warrior.
Neither of these claims is true.Though she did not bear arms in
battle, she LED her soldiers on many battlefields, commanding
them with cunning and skill. It was a wisdom she passed along
to her heirs who would themselves command the hosts
when she grew too aged and infirm and though none matched

(01:08):
Nymeria's, of sending 6 captive kings in golden fetters to the
wall. Peres succeeded in keeping Dawn
independent against the rival kings north of the mountains and
keeping it whole against the rancorous, hot tempered Lords of
mountain and desert whom they ruled.
House Martel has guided Dawn for700 years, raising its great
towers at Sun Spear, seeing the Shadow City and the Planky Town

(01:32):
rise and defeating all those whothreatened its dominion.
And this is the story that led to those songs being written,
embellished or otherwise. This is the story of those 6
Kings and Golden fetters and howthey were sent to the wall.
This is the story of how House Martel came to guide Dorn for
these past 700 years. This is the story of the final

(01:53):
Roynauer migration which enabled, among many other
things, the raising of those great towers at Sunspier and the
will to create the Plankey Town.This is the story of how Nymeria
of the Roynar and House Martel of Dorn joined as one to conquer
and rule Dorn, the Sun and the Spear.
Hello and welcome back everyone to another episode of History of

(02:17):
Westeros podcast. This is a scripted episode.
Everything was written out in advance.
It's part three of the Nymeri series, though you don't have to
listen to the other two or watchthe other two first.
It works as a stand alone or as part of the series.
Every video we make is on YouTube but also on Spotify and
every episode is available in audio only form as well.

(02:39):
Wherever you find podcasts and they're ad free if you listen on
Patreon. This episode was Co written by
ninakruslingcheckoutherwriting@goodqueenalley.tumblr.com.That's good Queen Alley with 1L
in alley and check us out at historyofwesteros.com.
You can find ways to support us bonus episodes and use our
Episode Searcher. In the first half we've got love

(03:02):
and war. The second-half is filled with
dynasty and legacy, including parallels to and the impact on
several point of view charactersand a few others.
We pick up the story as the Roynish refugees attempt to
settle on a Bulu which was gifted to them by the Summer
Islanders. But the Summer Islanders feared
the retribution of Valyria. They need not have worried over

(03:22):
much as Valyria did not concern itself with the Roynar after
destroying their cities. Valyria as well thought little
of the escaped slaves who founded Braavos, even though
they had stolen some ships. And these Rhinar survivors were
never even enslaved to the Freehold.
The Rhinar had become something of an afterthought.
Not to mention the Summer Islands are quite far from
Valyria. To be fair, an invasion is not

(03:44):
the only way the Freehold could make their displeasure known.
For example, it would not do forthe Summer Islanders to be
denied ports and markets around the world at the behest of
Valyria. But if that is what the Summer
Islanders and Roynar feared, these fears were misplaced.
Valyria cared when Royish Archers were shooting down their
Dragons and flooding their cities.

(04:05):
But a group of refugees, even a very large group?
They don't care. They were no longer a threat,
and no longer even close enough to be worth enslaving.
The Freehold had done what it needed to do with the Roinar.
It had eliminated a powerful, successful collection of loosely
united city states whose access to and control of both the rich
resource of the Roin and an independent source of magic

(04:25):
could have proved a significant challenge to Valyrian absolute
power in Western Essos. The Valyrians did not need to
chase down every Roinar individual who survived because
the Freehold had permanently destroyed Roinish life as it had
existed prior to Nymeria's exile.
There would never be another great Roinar city state on the
banks of the Roin. The river would never be

(04:47):
dominated by Roinar Princess andtheir subjects again.
That socio Politico cultural idea had been destroyed and
could never be rebuilt, even by those Roinar who survived.
The irony is that Nymeria's flight in exile would parallel
that of the Targaryens in many ways.
The only Valyrian dragon Lords that escaped the Doom and the
only Roinar that escaped the destruction of the Roiner City

(05:10):
states. Just as Nymeria had widely
understood the ultimate futilityof resisting the dragonlords and
fled before she and her people could be destroyed, the
Targaryens would prophetically come to learn that Valyria would
be destroyed, and only their flight would spare them the
fates of their neighbors. But of course, the Summer
Islanders did not know all this.The calculations and

(05:32):
deliberations they made were based on information and
concerns separate from our own as readers.
They did not care to take the risk is the bottom line.
So the gift of abulu was a poor one.
Abulu was not well suited for habitation.
If it had been better suited, itwouldn't have been left empty
for so long. It might still have worked
though, as ruin our knowledge ofirrigation and maybe water magic

(05:54):
was likely more advanced than that of the Summer Islanders.
Thus, despite their superior technology, which will play a
huge role later in our story, the ruiner were unable to make
Abulu into a home. But where else could they go?
They were about as far West as anyone could be.
They tried Sothorios, the Basilisk Isles, now the Summer
Isles, and there was nothing else to the West.

(06:15):
Could they sail all the way E tofind a new home at the other end
of the world? That may have been considered,
but was likely not feasible. Many of their ships were just
not capable of sailing that far.While the Roynair were more
advanced with farming and the like, the Summer Islanders were
far superior at shipbuilding andnavigating.
I have to imagine they asked forthis help, perhaps even offered

(06:37):
to exchange other technology forit, but deduction implies that
Summer Islander caution slash desire to protect their own hard
won secrets extended to this as well.
The Rhinar fleet doesn't seem tohave been much improved.
By their time on the Isles. It seems that they had exhausted
all of their options in terms ofempty places to settle, so their

(06:57):
only choice was to find someone willing to share.
That wouldn't be an easy task, but they had a lot to offer.
Though we don't have an exact timeline for this episode, the
events described here were roughly 300 years before the
Doom, about 700 years before Aegon's Conquest, and something
like 1000 years before The Windsof Winter.

(07:20):
To Westeros. The battered tattered remains of
the 10,000 ships sailed W with Princess Nymeria.
This time she made for Westeros.After so much wandering, her
ships were even less seaworthy than when they had first
departed. Mother Royne.
The fleet did not arrive in dawncomplete.
Even now there are isolated pockets of Royne on the

(07:40):
Stepstones, claiming descent from those who were shipwrecked.
Other ships blown off course by storms made Felice or Tyroche
giving themselves up to slavery in preference to a watery grave.
In addition to those who did notmake it, not everyone left in
the first place. A few thousand stayed behind.
Those who stayed were perhaps those whose ships were among the

(08:01):
least seaworthy, those few who had acquired the decent land in
Abulu, and those few who were simply tired of searching for a
new home, who realized that if many thousands left, those who
stayed might be able to make it work.
Abulu, which became known as theIsle of Women, wasn't fruitful
enough for all the surviving Roynar, but it was apparently

(08:22):
enough for those who stayed, andwe know this because their
descendants still live there, along with those communities in
the Step Stones and elsewhere. It is intriguing to consider
these Rhinar founded settlementsmany centuries later.
Perhaps a few of these countlessstories will be explored or
referenced in the future. One other tale we do know.
A particular group of refugees sailed with a figure named
Rusalka, who claimed to hear Mother Royne calling them home.

(08:47):
They met with the same fate as those who made for Lees or
Tyros, which were at this time ruled by Valyria.
Thus Trusalka reminds us of Mother Mole, the woman of the
Free Folk, who prophesied that ships would rescue them if they
would only make this journey to haunted, ruined hard home.
The fate of those Free Folk was similar. 2 ships from Lees were
there at hard home, having been blown off course by storms, and

(09:10):
they carried women and children off to slavery.
Well, one ship called Elephant did, and it may have escaped
with its cargo of slaves, but we've entertained theories that
it won't actually make it back to lease either.
Perhaps it will end up on the step stones among some of these
so-called pockets of Reinhardt descendants.
The other ship called Good Heartwas forced to make repairs in

(09:31):
Braavos. This was a stroke of luck for
the free folk on board. Instead of being enslaved, they
wound up in the most aggressive anti slavery place in the known
world. There's a nice parallel here as
well, as Aria is our source for it.
She learns of the arrival of theGood Heart and reports it to the
Kindly Man just after waking from a wolf dream of Nymeria.

(09:51):
Arya has many dreams where Nymeria roams free throughout
the Riverlands, leading her own pack.
Wouldn't the Riverlands be a great place for Nymeria of the
Roynar, who themselves are riverfolk?
Haus Teague probably ruled the Riverlands at this time, given
that the Battle of 6 Kings wouldbe fought roughly a few
centuries later, and it was themwho were unseated at that

(10:11):
battle. They were often unpopular with
their subjects. Imagine if Nymeria could have
been a sort of Aegon the Conqueror come 1000 years early.
The foreign conquering invader with superior technology who
frees the Riverlands from an unloved overlord like Aegon did
to her in the black. Alas, the Riverlands is not
where they went. To be fair, it was rather full

(10:32):
of river men who may not have welcomed them, but they might
have been willing to try if it was closer.
They were desperate enough. Still, their ships again we're
not very trustworthy and Dorn was the closest, so they may
have just simply gone where theyhad to.
The remaining ships made landfall on the coast of Dawn
near the mouth of the River Green Blood, not far from the

(10:52):
ancient sandstone walls of Sun Spear, seat of House Martel.
Dry, desolate, and a thinly peopled Dawn at this time was a
poor land, where a score of quarrelsome Lords and petty
kings ward endlessly over every river, stream, well, and scrap
of fertile land. Most of these Dawnish Lords
viewed the Royna as unwelcome interlopers, invaders with queer

(11:14):
foreign ways and strange gods who should be driven back into
the sea once they'd come. Indeed, if we look at the map,
what other choices do we see? Westeros was essentially the
only option, and apart from being the closest, Doran was
probably their best chance because it was the most divided
and so low in population they were unwelcome.
But that likely would have been true anywhere in Westeros and

(11:37):
elsewhere. Many wanted to drive them back
into the sea. But who was going to do it in a
place with a king? The answer is easy.
It's the King's job. He gives the order, and that's
probably the end of it. But Dorn had many kings.
Why would the King of the Torrentine put effort into it?
That's the other side of Dorn. Would soldiers from Ironwood

(11:57):
March all the way from the Bone way to the coast to deal with
the problem facing the Martells?Not likely.
And thus the disunity of Dorn worked in the Roy Nars favor.
This was not just a current state of affairs.
There had never been a single ruling power in Dorn.
There was no single ancestral orlegendary Dornish hero whose
descendants claimed supremacy inhis name as to Starks, Aaron's

(12:20):
Gardeners, Lannisters and Durndans did in their respective
regions. Nor was there a political
history, even dormant, of a unified state under one dynasty
as existed in the Riverlands. Even the Iron Islands had
eventually and violently shiftedits political model to a
hereditary dynastic monarchy. Yet in Dorne, the style High
King of Dorne was at best limited and disputed.

(12:42):
The Ironwoods asserted their right to that title, and the
aristocratic families along the Green Blood might have practiced
an elective monarchy which claimed to rule the rest of
Dorne, but in practice no one really did.
It was just a bunch of people making claims.
A lot of words are when type things.
Nymeria had seen first hand how division among rulers and states

(13:03):
with similar socio political backgrounds and establishments
could be to the detriment of everyone.
Most of the Roinar Valyrian warswere fought between the
Valyrians and individual Roinishcity states, and only in the
last conflict did Prince Garin manage to convince a majority of
the Roinish Princess and princesses to join together
against the Valyrians. The Roinar lost together in part

(13:25):
because they didn't fight together until it was too late.
It may have been too late at thebeginning, but it was definitely
too late when they finally got to it.
Valyria picked them off 1 by 1 and that was that.
Nymeria seems to have used the same strategy that defeated her
own people, and except it was conquest, not destruction.
The obvious comparison here is the Targaryen conquest.

(13:47):
The Dorn Nymeria encountered was, in a way, a miniature
version of the Westeros the Targaryen siblings faced.
Just as Aegon and his sisters sought to establish a single
Westerosi monarchy where there had never been one, Nymeria
sought to establish in Dorn a new political entity, a united
state with herself and her firsthusband at its head.

(14:08):
Any of the kings of Dorn could have, in theory, united with her
instead of opposing her, and reaped the rewards.
But it was a singular Lord, not even a king, who saw the
advantage. Rather than seeing the refugees
as a problem, his ambition was sparked, and perhaps more.
But Moores Martel, the Lord of Sun Spear, saw in the newcomers

(14:29):
an opportunity. If the singers can be believed,
his lordship also lost his heartto Nymeria, the fierce and
beautiful warrior queen who had LED her people across the world
to keep them free. Moores probably saw that the
Martels had very little to lose and everything to gain by
alliance with Nymeria and her Royner House.
Martel began as and all adventurers who seized the lands

(14:52):
of First Men families and had never been kings in their own
right, though there had once been High Kings of the Green
Blood. As we said, the Martels hadn't
been among them. Mars wasn't aiming to revive or
reclaim an old title that his family once held.
He was carving out something entirely new.
The likelihood that they could establish themselves as kings in
the crowded collection of petty local kingdoms was probably

(15:15):
quite low. In the long term, they were more
likely to be swallowed by a larger Dornish Kingdom.
The best they could hope for in such a case was to be a powerful
family of royal vassals, second best at most, dependent on the
favor of any given local king above them, unless they managed
to succeed with Nymeria. Given the quality and character

(15:36):
of Nymeria, her deeds and accomplishments, it's actually
pretty easy to imagine anyone falling for her.
By the same token, that may be why the singers had such an easy
time with their version of events.
Singers will romanticize when they can, and this is such an
easy thing to romanticize, it would seem.
But sometimes the real version of events is sufficiently

(15:58):
amazing that embellishment is not required.
And Nymeria certainly qualifies as amazing.
Though even if Morris himself genuinely loved Nymeria, he
might have been fighting some Wester Rossi prejudice against
foreign marriage here. Westerosi history has been
filled with examples of xenophobia against non Westerosi
brides. Think of Laura Rogare or Sarala

(16:21):
Darklin, but things went badly for Moors, the Martels or his
people. The obvious target of
retaliation would be Nymeria andher Roynar.
That it was the Royish women whowere bad influences on their
good Westerosi husbands and paramars is what people would
say. They would take the blame.
Speaking of love reminds us thatthere would be countless other
relationships among the refugeesthat would not have been

(16:43):
documented. Just as it is in the real world
with war or any story where nameless thousands are in
conflict or just nameless thousands, there would be those
born during this ruinish odyssey.
Children born on ships may be called Ship born like Manson.
Dallas child was called Battleborn.
In real life. The 1st baby born on the

(17:03):
Mayflower was given the maritimename Oceanus.
There would be others born on Abulu or the Basilisk Isles.
I'm not so sure about anyone born in Yean making it out
alive. I'm not sure anyone was even
born in Yean in the 1st place, but still, there's a lot of
examples and time for children to have been born after leaving
Mother Roy. Lastly, there would be those Roy

(17:25):
and R children born just after the Landing in Westeros.
The first generation of Roy and R born in their new and final
homeland. This collection of young people
would be a special generation, with births and childhoods
unlike any other that came before or after truly
exceptional circumstances. A one-of-a-kind generation, and

(17:46):
their ancestry would be forever changed from that point on.
The Rhinar had given up, understandably so, on finding a
new home for themselves where noone else lived.
They had to live where other people already lived, and this
was a good start. The Rhinar didn't fade out
entirely, however. They weren't simply engulfed
into something much larger than themselves.

(18:06):
Though the country was still called Dorn.
In the long run, the union of the two peoples did create
something new, and when the two houses became join as House
Nimros Martel, they became potent enough to finally unite
that which could not be united. As likely as love and romance
may have been for Moores Martel,the benefits to his lordship

(18:26):
were more tangible. The sun and the spear.
When Moore's Martel took Nymeriato wife hundreds of his Knights,
Squires and Lords, bannerman didthe same, and many of those who
were already wed took Royish women for their paramours.
Thus were the two peoples unitedby blood.
These unions enriched and strengthened Haas, Martel and

(18:47):
its Dawnish allies. We might call this a win win
situation. The benefits to both sides are
very clear. The Roynar are accepted as
equals, or nearly so, rather than be made subordinates or
worse. One of the clearest proofs of
this is that they didn't remain House Martel.
People still call them House Martel for shorthand, but the
full proper name, as we've already used is House Naimaros

(19:07):
Martel, a mostly female population of refugees mixed
with Dornish customs, meaning a tolerance for paramours in this
case. That must have caused some
issues, some jealousy, or the things of that nature, things
that are common in all kinds of relationships.
But where would these husbands and lovers come from if they had
tried to migrate somewhere else?Right.
If the Rhinar had landed in the Riverlands as we thought about

(19:29):
earlier, there just wouldn't be enough single men.
Dorne was somewhat uniquely prepared for this from a
cultural perspective because nonsingle men were socially
permitted to take lovers. The near perfect fit makes us
wonder if there wasn't more forward thinking involved here.
We talked earlier about how theyhad few options and how
proximity was important. So the question is, did Nymeria

(19:52):
lead her people to the region ofthe Green Blood because it was a
river or because she saw opportunity?
Could be a little of both. We'd have a hard time believing
that she set out for Westeros without at least some idea of
where they were headed. Surely they were scouting
missions at the very least, if not diplomatic missions to get
an idea of how they'd be received.
Maybe to learn the language or something.

(20:13):
It's one thing to show up in Safarios's refugees where you
can just help yourself to the land because no one had already
laid claim to it. Except, you know, the monsters
and diseases. But no humans is the point.
It's nearly unthinkable that they would simply say well and
just start sailing in their 10s of thousands and just kind of
hope it all works out. Landing in the wrong place could

(20:34):
get them killed, and not just bydisease or famine, which they
had already experienced plenty of, but by the locals.
The locals could be very dangerous.
The Reinhard didn't even speak the language as we said.
Like maybe they learned in advance some steps could have
been taken there, but we don't know for sure.
And clearly a lot of the DornishLords didn't like the Roynar and

(20:54):
might have been willing to drivethem off or kill them off.
But perhaps this view is due to a case of sour grapes.
The Martels were not burdened bythe Roynish refugees.
On the contrary, this was a hugeboon.
They would flourish both. So while there's no direct
evidence, common sense tells us that there's a strong chance
Nymeria had some idea what she was getting her people into

(21:17):
before landing in Dorn, and maybe even specifically landing
at the sand ship of House Martel.
They were on a Bulu for years, we're told.
Plenty of time to look for a newhome rather than just setting
sail and seeing what happens. Regardless of the circumstances,
Nymeria was committed to Dorn astheir new home and made the
grandest of shows to seal the deal.

(21:39):
When Alexander the Great, a Macedonian Greek conquered
Persia, he took a Persian wife names to Terra.
At the same time 80 of his officers and nobles also took
Persian wives in a mass ceremonycalled the Susa weddings.
He also rewarded 10,000 other non nobles who married Persian

(22:01):
women like the Dornish and Roynar pairings.
Many of these were polygamous marriages.
The burning of the ships. To celebrate these unions and
make certain her people could not again retreat to the sea,
Nymeria burned the ruinous ships.
Our wanderings are at an end, she declared.

(22:21):
We have found a new home, and here we shall live and die.
The flames lit the coast for 50 leagues as hundreds of leaking
listing hulls were put to the torch and burned to ash in the
light of their burning. Princess Nymeria named Moore's
Martel the Prince of Dawn in theRuinish style, asserting his
dominion over the red sands and the white and all the lands and

(22:44):
rivers from the mountains to thegreat salt sea.
A bold claim, but words are wind.
It was a much bolder demonstration, and no mere
words. Those ships were really burned.
Given how many times they had picked up and left somewhere, I
suppose it must have been important to be clear that yes,
this was it. It also really demonstrates how

(23:05):
much trust Nymeria had built with her people by this point,
and how committed she was to Dorn as her and her people's new
home. Remember that for the Roinar,
the River Roin was literally thecentral aspect of their lives,
political, social, cultural and religious.
Most, if not all of them had probably lived their entire
lives on or close by the Rhine, and probably lived and or worked

(23:26):
on these similar vessels every day.
They had names, memories, etcetera.
Was it not a betrayal to burn a vessel that saved them from
slavery? Only these boats were left to
remind them of their happier days navigating up and down the
Rhine. They could look at and touch
these ships and be interacting with objects that were linked
directly to their lives before exile.

(23:48):
This was not just Nymeria destroying their ships, this was
Nymeria putting a blunt, absolute end to the Royish way
of life they had all known before their exile.
Westeros, and especially Dorn really would have been something
like an alien world for the Roy NAR, a place few if any of them
had probably ever seen or even imagined.
Totally different in climate, society, politics, religion and

(24:08):
culture. Everything really populated by
people completely foreign and foreign in a variety of ways.
There's multiple ethnic groups in Dorn, yet their leader was
now forcing them to stay in whatmight have seemed a very strange
and inhospitable place with seemingly no way to ever go back
to the Roin, something no doubt many would still have hoped for
someday. That Nymeria did not face a

(24:31):
widespread mutiny among her people following this
declaration speaks to her strength as a leader and the
Roinar belief in her. Nymeria had suffered so much
alongside them, and had alone managed to survive among the
native Roinous Princess. It was her foresight which had
saved them from total annihilation at the hands and
Dragons of the Freehold. And so the Rhinar may have seen

(24:52):
Nymeria as someone they could and should implicitly trust, no
matter what she ordered them to do.
Going against her might have seemed even more unthinkable
than burning the ships. It also demonstrated something
important to these Dornish Lords, canny enough to notice
that is, such as perhaps Moore'shimself, that these were still
Nymeria's people. She had a very strong hold on

(25:14):
them. There are quite a few real world
examples of leaders burning their ships, though most are
likely inventions. Tariq Ibn Ziad, for whom
Gibraltar is named, is said to have done it upon landing in
Spain, kicking off the Muslim conquest, but this is probably a
legend. William the Conqueror is said by

(25:36):
some to have done it upon landing in England, but the
truth is that he only burned a few ships, not nearly all of
them. Arnan Cortez definitely did it
in Cuba, but not to inspire his troops to prevent anyone from
reporting him for mutiny. Bounty of the Roynar.

(25:56):
The Roy Nah brought considerablewealth with them.
Their artisans, metal workers and stonemasons brought skills
far in advance of those achievedby their Westeros counterparts,
and their armourers were soon producing swords and Spears and
suits of scale and plate no Westerosi Smith could hope to
match. Even more crucially, it is said
the Royish Water witches, new secret spells that made dry

(26:19):
streams flow again and deserts bloom.
With this in mind, plus the value of a huge population
boost, it becomes quite easy to understand why Moore's Martel
saw the Roynar as an opportunityrather than a burden, let alone
a problem, and why Nymeria herself may have perceived how
valuable her people could be to them.

(26:39):
The Roynar could have taken one look at the poor armor,
stonework, architecture, and what it could be instead.
It also becomes a bit or a lot easier to understand their
confidence in doing what had never been done before uniting
Dorn. It had only ever been a
collection of kingdoms, and House Martel was not among the
current kings of the time again and had never been.
Technology can make that big of a difference though.

(27:01):
This isn't 1 gigantic singular advantage like Dragons.
This is a bunch of small advantages that add up to a huge
one. Better swords, better Spears,
better Shields, better armor they probably had better
saddles, better stirrups, betterlots of things that we can't
think of. And that's just the category of
war. On top of that, we have better

(27:22):
irrigation, better stone work. We could sit here for a while
and name things that would probably be pretty close to
accurate, if not right on target.
Dorne is pretty lacking when it comes to ports, for example,
much less cities or towns. Even today, the only true port
in Dorne is the Plankey Town, which seems to be largely an
invention of the Roynar. More on that later.

(27:43):
Too many new boons to list really is the point, but The
World of Ice and Fire summarizesit well for us here.
Suffice it to say that the wealth and knowledge that the
Ruiner brought with them to Westeros, together with the
ambition of Lord Moore's and theindomitable will of Nymeria of
the Ruin, enabled the Martels togreatly expand their power.
Not only did they greatly expandtheir power, they greatly

(28:05):
expanded their towers. They wanted to rule.
All of Dorne did. Nymeria and Moors and their
current castle called the Sand Ship was not fit for the Prince
and Princess of Dorne. Long ago, back in Essos, it was
the Roynar who first taught the Andols the secrets of
metalworking. This upgrade was not enough to
prevent Valyria from dominating and enslaving them, and

(28:28):
eventually the Andols began their famous migrations to
Westeros, where the metalworkingupgrade was enough for them to
dominate the First Men, including many from Dorn, major
houses included. It's a parallel and a case of
history repeating itself. The Roynair joined the Andols in
fleeing to Westeros thanks to Valyria, and again taught them

(28:52):
secrets of metalworking. From sand ship to sun spear.
Sunspier's history is a curious one, having been little more
than the squat, ugly keep calledthe Sand Ship in early days
under the Martels, beautiful towers bearing all the hallmarks
of Royish fashion would eventually spring up around it.
It became known as Sunspier whenthe Sun of the Royne was wedded

(29:16):
to the Spear of the Martels. In time the Tower of the Sun and
the Spear Tower were both constructed, the great golden
Dome of the one and the slender high Spire of the other becoming
the first things that visitors beheld by land or by sea.
The world book really doesn't mince words here, does it?
Squat and ugly versus beautiful towers bearing the hallmarks of

(29:38):
royish fashion. The twin pillars of the newly
formed and soon to be royal House of Dorn wanted their
capital to reflect like the sun their new houses combined.
Symbolism. Perhaps Nymeria and or the
Roynar saw it as a hopeful sign that the ancestral Martel
holding was the sand ship. If anything was going to carry
the river loving Roynar forward into the future, it would most

(29:59):
fittingly be a family whose architectural symbol was a ship
ready to sail on the Dornish sands.
Hence, Sun Spear is marked by the Tower of the Sun and the
Spear Tower Extremely different from any other buildings in all
of Westeros, not just Dorn. Markedly more sophisticated than
Andal architecture, for the mostpart, there's nothing like
dramatically superior architecture to showcase the
difference between these cultures.

(30:21):
And to further drive the point home like a spear that the
Rhinar brought a lot of valuableknowledge with them.
Of course, this change would have taken quite a while,
possibly decades, and we have noidea how spread out all these
projects were, but the majesty would be apparent.
As it says in the quote, the towers would be the first things
you'd see when approaching by land or sea.

(30:42):
A work of art and greatness, shutting high in the air like a
spear for which it's named, shining beautifully in the
bright sun of Dorn. They didn't sacrifice
functionality for beauty, however.
Sunspear is strategically placedand well defended.
But no matter how impressive or defensible their new home was, a
castle alone wasn't going to bring the rest of Dorn to its
knees. It was time to make good on

(31:02):
their pledge before the burning ships to make themselves rulers
of Dorn. It was time for blood and
battle. George RR Martin says the best
real life comparison for Dornisharchitecture is southern Spain,
where Moorish and European styles are merged in a variety
of ways that can still be seen to this day.

(31:24):
Quite a few of the scenes that take place in Dorn, among other
places, were filmed in southern Spain.
Nymeria's war. It is said that amongst the
Royner who came to Dawn with Nymeria, eight of every 10 were
women, but 1/4 of those were warriors in the royness
tradition, and even those who did not fight had been hardened

(31:45):
during their travels and travails as well.
Thousands who had been boys whenfleeing the Royne had grown into
manhood and taken up the spear during their years of wandering.
By joining with the newcomers, the mantels increased the size
of their hosts by tenfold. We mentioned the population
boost, that because the refugeeswere disproportionately women,
they could expect a baby boom ofsorts in the next generation.

(32:08):
But in the short term there was still a significant military
boost. Tenfold it says.
That means 10 times. It sounds like it might be an
exaggeration, even, but A5 fold increase would be enormous if
that's all it was. Still, it's probably surprising
to hear that the Martels had by far more royness troops than
their own. But on the other hand, that goes
a long way towards explaining how they went from second tier

(32:31):
to a player for the top spot so quickly.
They gained thousands of troops.That's a huge number, especially
relatively speaking, because troop numbers in Dorne are the
lowest of any of the other kingdoms, save perhaps the Iron
Islands. Not to mention these troops were
generally better equipped thanksto the Rohiner Smiths.
And on top of all that, there was a boost to their coffers

(32:52):
through Rohiner wealth and new trade opportunities.
This was a massive change of fortunes for House Martel the
Royner, and a massive change to the power balance in Dorn.
I think they realized the opportunity almost immediately
given the burning of the ships during which Nymeria declared
him the Prince of Dorn. So they had declared their
intent to all well before getting started.

(33:12):
This wasn't sneaky, they made the challenge openly.
They realized what their combined powers could accomplish
and weren't shy about it. Morris had a general idea how
powerful the other kings in Dornwere, and realized that his
house now had the power to defeat them all, and Nymeria was
clearly on board with this and might have been the person who
first suggested the idea. The fact that there had never

(33:34):
been a single ruler of all Dorn meant that Nymeria was working
with arguably as blank a slate as was possible to have in
Westeros, at least South of the Wall.
Nymeria wasn't usurping the place of an established royal an
important consideration when shewas coming into Doran as both a
woman and a foreigner, and so doubly challenged as a ruler
within the Westerosi patriarchy.One of the only things they had

(33:55):
to worry about was the kings making common cause together
against the Martel's. But again, this is Dorn.
He could feel confident that that wouldn't happen, but that
doesn't mean it would be easy and it would not be fast.
Because again, this is Dorn. That truth cuts both ways.
There are reasons it's never been united.
Many years later we'll see the Dragons struggle to conquer Dorn

(34:18):
and lose their grip soon after. So we know that superior
manpower and technology by itself is not enough.
I wonder though if it was calledthe conquest by those living in
Dorn at the time and for generations after that term came
to mean Aegon's Conquest. Of course in current times and
the conquest of Dorn also now refers to him and or Deron the

(34:40):
1st. Maybe they called it the
unification of Dorne or the joining of Dorne, who knows.
They probably had a word for it though, before the Roynar,
before Nymeria, before the conquest, before the
unification, they probably had terms for that too.
Something like that. There would have been terms for
all these things. Now there aren't a lot of
particulars in terms of battle or strategy involved in
Nymeria's war, so it's not too much for us to go through each

(35:03):
of the six kings and petty Lordsdefeated by Nymeria and Moors.
We'll focus more on who these individuals were, the power and
reputation of their realms and houses.
We're not certain in what order the Kings were defeated, except
for the last one, the final boss, so to speak.
But here they are, in an order that makes the most sense to us.
The toes of Dorn. We know that House Tall and of

(35:24):
Ghost Hill bent the knee, and due to their proximity to
Sunspear, it's likely they were among the first to do so.
We don't know if any other nearby Houses of note were sworn
to House Martel at the time, though it seems possible, if not
likely in current times. House Tolland is a direct
bannerman of House 9 Moros Martel, and their sigil is a
dragon eating its tail, a mockery of the Targaryen sigil.
That obviously hadn't happened by this time.

(35:46):
Back then, their sigil was a ghost, and they were no one's
bannerman. It seems that changed with the
coming of the Roynar Houses, like the Dalts of Lemon Wood who
reside on the other side of the Green Blood, or House Illyrian
who reside upriver may have comesoon after.
It may not have been House Tolland, but someone was first.
Some house in the region faced asudden incursion of unfamiliar

(36:08):
looking soldiers, some with entirely alien garb and unusual
armament, maybe turtle looking, others with the same, but an
entirely unfamiliar ethnicity. At first they wouldn't even have
a name for the Royner. Who are these people and why are
there so many? Imagine generations of being
neighbors with House Martel, establishing a border through
centuries of testing each other,having some idea of each other's

(36:31):
relative strengths. Then all of a sudden you hear
rumors of foreign refugees, burned ships, and some bold
declaration to unite the entire country.
Or maybe this unspecified Dornish Lord or lady heard
nothing of any of that and just simply found an army on their
doorstep one day. Given how insular Dorn was then

(36:52):
and now, really, it's entirely possible, though certainly word
would spread eventually. You can keep the movement of
enemies hidden sometimes, but you can't conceal conquests for
long, if at all. Word would definitely get out.
In some cases, surrender would have been immediate.
There can be advantages to beingamong the first to bend the
knee, and sometimes the situation's just hopeless.

(37:12):
Why fight? But for example, Edmund Tully
was the first River Lord to bendthe knee to egg on the
Conqueror, and in turn he becamethe first ever Lord Paramount of
the Riverlands and the second ever Hand of the King.
If we continue with our assumption that they forced the
toes of the Dornish foot into submission first, the southern
part seems to have been next. We do know Western Dorn, AKA the

(37:33):
ankle and the heel fell before the northern portion, which
would be the shin I suppose. So that brings us to fire and
brimstone to hell. War in Hell.
The region around the Brimstone River is fairly referred to as
hellish. The river is sulfurous, the
people aren't quite right, and of course it's extremely hot and

(37:54):
dry. You probably think of house
Uller, and rightly so. This is the event that brought
them into the fore, however, though they were already famous
thanks to that time where they burned some rival Lords at
dinner to death. In this era, they were
subordinate to House Dry Land, who ruled as kings of the
Brimstone King Lucifer. Dry Land, aptly named for the

(38:14):
region, was defeated and captured by Nymeria and Moors.
Clearly, the region wasn't too hellish for the soldiers of
Moors and Nymeria. It was surely notable to many
that she was with the army at all, but Dorne is no stranger to
women in battle and this likely earned her the respect of many.
It certainly couldn't be said that others did all the hard
work for her. This would have been a

(38:36):
significant shock to and test for Nymeria and her Roynar.
If Dorner's society around the Green Blood might have seemed
vaguely familiar to them as one river based culture.
To another, life along the Brimstone might have seemed like
some kind of abomination. A river whose waters could not
be safely drunk and whose fish could not be safely eaten.
A river that, unlike the life giving Mother Royne, harbored a

(39:00):
lot of death. If the Roy R could win here, it
would prove that they were not simply displaced Associee river
folk, but true Dornish men and women now able to adapt
themselves even to an environment totally opposed to
what they had known. Though it is possible that
Royneish water magic included methods of purification.
If so, this region might have tested those limits as well.

(39:20):
It might also be the key to their victory here.
The Rylands might have been overconfident in their natural
defenses. They wouldn't be expecting
sorcery, but they probably did know they were unpopular given
the names Lucifer, Hellgate Hall.
The evil connotation is pretty blatant.
Even other Dornish would probably look down on the region

(39:40):
and their kings most likely. And Lucifer is called quote, the
last of his ilk by Yandel. Ilk is often used, especially in
A Song of Ice and Fire, to have a negative connotation.
Think of Dick Crabb declaring that the crack claw men bow only
to the true king, not Robert andhis ilk.
Or Rickard Karstark referring toJaime Lannister when he claims

(40:04):
that the Squires he killed were of his ilk.
This all suggests that the dry lands were not exactly the most
friendly or well loved of dynasties, and that Nymeria was
deposing not a popular local hero.
But the last of an I'll remembered royal family or royal
ilk. Lucifer lost his crown and was
sent to the wall wearing golden fetters.

(40:24):
We're guessing he was the first of the king sent to the wall.
Perhaps a strange sight for the brothers in black.
But as the years rolled by, morekings were sent to the wall by
Nymeria and Moors. They may have gotten accustomed
to it. I can imagine some wagering a
year or more before we get another Dornish king.
Which do you want to bet over and under on that?
Or which Dornish king will be next?

(40:44):
Those who bet on the continued success of the Sun and Spear
would do quite well in such gambling.
House Uller was elevated to Chief House of the region with
Hell Gate Hall supplanted by thesimilarly named Hell Holt.
Perhaps this was another Edmund Tully joining Egg on the
Conqueror situation here. The Ullers may have turned on
their unpopular overlords, the Dry Lands helping the Martel's
win and earning a reward. Either way, there was no more

(41:07):
King in Hell, but there was a sufficiently mad and dangerous
house in charge of the area instead, one that was grateful
to House Nimeros Martel. In fact, the Lord Uller of the
time. An older man may have
accompanied the army for the rest of the campaign.
It's a near certainty that his forces did, and he'll play a
greater role later in the story.We don't know what became of
Hellgate Hall, but no one lives there now, so it's likely in

(41:32):
ruins. Perhaps thanks to Nymeria's war,
Lucifer may not have had any heirs, or perhaps they were sent
to the wall with him. Either way, it marked the
extinction of house dryland on to the next Dornish domino.
The Blind Hawk Lord Uller was said to be an older man, but

(41:53):
Garrison Fowler, King of Stone and Sky, was aged, blind and
cunning despite his lack of eyesight.
The latter quality indicates he wouldn't be blind to the
existence or danger originating from this new and improved House
Martel. The seat of House Fowler was and
still is at Skyreach and in current times they hold the
title Wardens of the Prince's Pass.
But when the Nimros Martel army came to force their submission,

(42:16):
it was called the Wide Way and they were Lords of it, not mere
wardens. Skyreach is an oldcastle dating
back to the times when they wereonly First Men in Westeros.
It was carved by House Fowler out of the mountain itself, high
above with quote soaring stone towers.
Yet somehow they were overcome here, and from our best guess,
it wasn't an extended affair. This implies there wasn't a

(42:37):
siege, which might be expected given the difficulty in
assaulting this elevated castle.Still, that can't be ruled out
given their military advantages.Superior ruinish siege equipment
is possible, but unlikely. Perhaps, given we hear of no
such thing that are now. Diplomacy may have been
involved, or intrigue. Sometimes cunning means making

(42:57):
the best of a bad situation, andfrom King Garrison's
perspective, losing gracefully may have been preferable to
death, or House Fowler losing Sky Reach forever.
The Fowlers are an old House, having once been one of the most
powerful kingdoms in Dorn, so there's also a lot of pride to
consider here. But also they had to consider
the much more recent fate of House Dry Land.

(43:19):
King Garrison may have decided that capitulation to the Martel
Roynar party was better for Fowler fortunes than resistance.
By sitting at the end of the Prince's Pass House, Fowler
could choose who would be LED inor out of Dorn, and if it helped
the Fowlers in the future to encourage a foreign army to come
into Dorn, there wouldn't be much the Martells or anyone

(43:40):
could do about it. Since Sunspear is also really
far away from Skyreach, the Fowlers could be sure of ruling
somewhat left alone without fearof micromanagement from the
Martells and their Royner allies.
So Nymeria and Moors might have seen the Fowlers as bannermen,
but they would be bannerman. Sunspier would need to keep
sweet because of the distance and these other factors we've

(44:02):
just gone over. The Prince's Pass is far too
important. The Fowlers did go on to be key
supporters along with the othersand others, so the defeat must
not have been too hard to swallow for them, at least not
for the Fowlers who ruled afterwards.
The Crown of Stone and Sky was never worn again, and despite
his age and capabilities, Garrison Fowler was sent to the

(44:24):
wall to take the black. Maybe he was fast tracked for
command, as we see with characters like Dennis Mallister
and even to some extent Bloodraven.
Perhaps he befriended Lucifer Dryland or one of the other
Dornish kings that joined them soon enough, such as this next
one. The madman Woody, the man Woody

(44:46):
Kingdom ruled from King's grave,is our pick for 3rd.
Located not far north of Skyreach, one might think the
two are more likely than most tocome to common cause against Sun
Spears ambitions, but of course we hear of no such thing.
They remained, predictably, Dornish.
Worse, the king at the time was Alban Manwoody.
Described as a troublesome madman, he claimed dominion over

(45:08):
all the Red Mountains, a claim he clearly couldn't back up
given some of the other kings inDorne held portions of the Red
Mountains as well. Maybe this was just talk, but
talk is probably not all that troublesome, so we suspect he
was aggressive, or at least something else.
Mad does carry a variety of connotations.
There's Mad King Aries, who was a violent madman, and the Mad

(45:31):
Mouse, who was just a brave small knight as a guest.
This guy Alban was probably closer to Aries, especially as a
fellow king, and quite likely capable of burning people alive,
but probably not so close to Aries as to have footlong
fingernails or something like that, regardless of his hygiene
or otherwise. If he was in the competent class

(45:54):
of madman, then it easily explains why he was considered
troublesome in the choice between the likely ambitious and
certainly mad King Albin to the north and the equally ambitious
but rational and intelligent Nymeria and Moors to the South.
The Fowlers, returning to them for a minute, might have figured
it was better to surrender theircrown voluntarily to the latter

(46:15):
rather than lose both it and their lands to the former.
The madman Nymeria and the Martels could be negotiated with
for an acceptable settlement andbe expected to hold to that.
But can you negotiate with a madman in good faith?
Can you expect them to hold up their end of the bargain?
The Fowlers might have also feared being attacked by the men

(46:37):
what he's while they were attempting to hold off Nymeros
Martel. They could have been attacked on
two fronts. That wouldn't be good.
The description of Albin Manwoody almost makes it easy to
understand why he was defeated and why his family continued
afterwards. Still, again, we're talking
about a Dornish castle in the Red Mountains.

(46:57):
Like Skyreach. Unless there is a surrender,
it's unlikely to have been easy from a military standpoint.
A possibility is that King Albin's family turned on him.
This is something for us to consider in many of these cases
really, but this might be the most likely time for that guess.
Because if Albin was truly mad, it's a lot more believable for

(47:18):
his family to turn on him if hisstrategy for defending their
Kingdom against Nymeria and Moors was in effect, suicidal.
Better to conspire against theirown king, even if he's family.
Again. Think of Aries, his own family
was preparing to turn on him. Robert's Rebellion simply
happened 1st and Aries's eventual plan for defense was to

(47:38):
blow up King's Landing. Suicidal.
Now King Alban of course wouldn't have a store of
wildfire, but he might have beenprepared to die before yielding,
forcing his family and householdto do the same or to turn on him
if the opportunities presented itself.
Which maybe it did. Of course, again, we're just
making guesses here, but we leantowards these less violent

(48:00):
outcomes because these kings keep surrendering and or getting
captured. None of them are dying in
battle. This suggests these aren't
struggles to the bitter end. It's certain that Albin did not
die like Aries. There was no King Slayer here.
The sigil of House Man Woody is a crowned skull commemorating a
king slain by the founder of their house sometime long ago.

(48:24):
But Albin Man Woody, the Last King of King's grave, died a
member of the Night's Watch. War of the evening.
We're calling it this because this king, our 4th, is Vorian
Dane, the Sword of the Evening, King of the Torrentine.
What a title, the Sword of the Evening.

(48:45):
If we only knew what that meant.We have two main guesses though.
One that he was older and another younger candidate had
emerged, so he passed the title and the sword to his relative,
Sir Davos Dane, who was Sword ofthe Morning.
Around this time, a retired Sword of the Morning could be
called Sword of the Evening. Or perhaps in those days the
custom was that a king cannot wield dawn, so maybe he set

(49:07):
aside the sword in the title when Crown of Star Fall passed
to him. Sword of the Evening could also
indicate an evil Dane, one who claimed the sword Dawn without
earning it, or who was otherwisevillainous in some outstanding
fashion. He wasn't associated with hell
or madness, but the night connotation could signify

(49:29):
something, well, dark, but it's no sure thing.
The even Star of Tarth is a somewhat similar concept, and
there's nothing evil about that.You can still see falling stars,
the sigil of House Dane in the evening, right?
The imagery still works. We don't know what time of day
they fell to House Nimros Martel, however.
Starfall is the castle of House Dane, of course, and it sits on

(49:50):
an aisle at the mouth of the Torrentine.
Like many of the royal seats in Dorne, this sounds difficult to
assault, yet it's relatively lowin population.
It's not hard to see how they were defeated, even without
details and even with the struggle of the castle's
geography. Even if we have the Order wrong,
geography also tells us Nymeria and Moors had added the strength

(50:12):
of several kings to their host by the time they marched on
Danelands. Did Vorian wield Dawn against
the Nimros Martel armies? Did honor demand a champion face
him in turn? It's a stirring image.
Perhaps Sir Davos Dane had this honor, though he survived the
war as well, So if he did, you know he won that challenge or at

(50:32):
least wasn't killed during it. We only know for sure that House
Dane continued on like these other houses and that King Gori
and Dane only lost his crown, not his head.
He also didn't go down fighting and House Dane kept Starfall as
a vassal of Sun Spear. Gori and Dane wore the golden
fetters and certainly gave off those evening vibes when wearing

(50:53):
his new Nights Watch black. Whether he wielded Don or not,
he certainly didn't take the famous great sword to the wall
with him. Many of his new brothers would
surely have been disappointed inthat, but even more, he'd be
getting a lot of questions aboutit.
They would want to know about his house, Dawn, all those
mutual origins, all that fun stuff while huddled around the

(51:14):
fire with some mulled wine. The Demon Vulture.
Farther up the Torrentine lies the castle Blackmont as the most
remote house relative to Sun Spear.
Our best guess is that the Blackmont Kings came next.
We wondered just how mad the MadMen would he truly was.
But the reputation of King Benedict was far more
sensational. He was said to have worshipped a

(51:36):
dark God and was said to be ableto turn into a vulture.
Like the sigil of House Blackmont In Westeros, this is
often an ignorant or distorted understanding of skin changing,
but we know better than to ignore the possibility.
We also know better than to makeit a certainty, but in doing so
it opens up another big questionfor us.
How did Nymeria practice religion following her landing

(51:57):
in Westeros and or how might shehave used religion to assist her
in the conquest as she adapted to Dorn?
I think it's likely that Nymeria, like Aegon centuries
later, would have adopted the Faith of the Seven when she
landed or as she began her conquest.
Given how committed Nymeria was to becoming a permanent member
and leader of Dorn, literally burning her connection to her

(52:19):
royish life with the ships and all that would have been a first
step, and I would imagine she would have seen the advantage of
following the majority religion of her new home.
If she did become a Faith of theSeven follower, then perhaps
Nymeria used her faith to portray herself as a pious
savior of the faithful in Blackmont, overthrowing this
dark God worshipping King Benedict.

(52:41):
Perhaps King Benedict's subjectswere not as fervent in his
defense. Given this reputation, it
wouldn't be great for morale that so many other kings of Dorn
had fallen to house Nimros Martel either.
As the momentum of the conquest increased, their chances would
have looked grim, especially given so many of the defeat it
had joined Moors in Nymeria. It appears to us that the long
campaign against all these Dornish kings didn't wear them

(53:04):
down so much as embolden and strengthen them.
Victory after victory surely helped them all see that final
goal as attainable. They had kept their faith in
Nymeria, and it continued to payoff.
Martel allies likely felt similarly.
Their leader Moore's chance to marry Nymeria, as opposed to
making her an enemy, continued to be a windfall.
This opinion would also be held by others in Dorn looking in

(53:25):
from the outside. So again, we suspect that
surrender may have come before massive losses were incurred.
Given the sheer hopelessness of the situation.
Even a king who can skin change into a vulture can't overcome so
much. Even Dornish stubbornness has
its limits, but the surrender istemporary.
Apparently, even with Benedict Blackmont sent to the wall and
their house defeated, they rose again at some point during the

(53:48):
campaign to join the final boss House Ironwood.
A further inspection of the Blackmont sigil reveals that
yes, that's a baby in the vulture's claws.
This is a major contender for the most evil sigil in all of
Westeros. They're like the Bolton's of
Dorne or something like that. We don't know their House words.

(54:09):
Let's suggest we steal babies. Nina Krusling, a House words
aficionado, suggests Nourished by Battle.
We'll meet her halfway and suggest Nourished by Babies. 11
years of iron. Though we had to make guesses as
to the order in which the other kingdoms fell, we know for a

(54:30):
certainty that House Ironwood was the last before Nymeria.
If anyone was going to ever unite Dorn under 1 banner, House
Ironwood would have been the best guess.
They had amassed the most power and held it for some time, and
called themselves High Kings of Dorn, though clearly that title
didn't hold as much authority asit might otherwise imply.
They were very likely the most powerful house in Dorn, perhaps

(54:52):
by a wide margin prior to the war, but they were probably not
the most powerful by the time the war came to them, even more
so than the other kings. King Yorick, the 5th Ironwood,
would have had plenty of advancewarning and would have
marshalled his banners. These allies, or perhaps vassals
at the time in some cases, are well known names and help us
understand why. This was by far the most

(55:14):
difficult portion of the war. It lasted longer than all the
other kingdoms put together. The Ironwood Kingdom was perhaps
as powerful as all the other subjugated kingdoms thus far,
and it lasted longer than all the others put together.
These houses included Jordain, Will Corgile, and the previously
defeated Black Monks. Unlike the other conflicts,
which seem to have been relatively quick, this one

(55:36):
stretched out for over a decade.House Ironwood and their allies
were far more powerful, capable,determined and prepared.
It seems there were many battles, at least three of which
occurred in the Bone Way. In the third Battle of the Bone
Way, King York personally foughtPrince Moore's and slew him.
This battle took place nine years into the war.

(55:57):
What a confrontation that must have been.
With such a long struggle there would have been an enormous
amount of pent up enmity. What circumstances could bring
the two Lords together on the battlefield?
Did it drag on so long? The war?
I mean that one finally took it upon himself to end things by
single combat with the other, well, it didn't work.
The war didn't end with Moore's death, it took two more years.

(56:21):
It's clear from this how much power Nymeria held as Co founder
of the new house and architect of the newly united Dorn, though
normally the hour passes to the air, not the wife or husband,
but this was clearly not a normal scenario.
As we'll see later, there will be challenges to her rule, but
we know of no opposition to her continuing as leader of the war
or of any reduced enthusiasm forfinishing what they started,

(56:44):
despite how long everything was taking.
So despite the crushing loss of their Prince, Nymeria continued
and forced the Ironwoods to submit two years later.
Even after this extremely long campaign with House Martel, the
Ironwoods weren't extinguished though.
Yorick went to the wall like theothers, also in golden feathers
of course. This was their signature move.

(57:06):
By then. These were kings of Dorn.
Yes, defeated but still to be respected.
His line continued as Lords and ladies of Ironwood, the Wardens
of the Stone way. To this day they still call
themselves the Blood Royal and are still the second most
powerful house in Dorn. The Martels would much later
become familiar with claims to titles not actually held by the

(57:28):
families in question, given thatthe Targaryens would claim the
title King of the Roynar from the time of the Targaryen
Conquest, despite the fact that Dorn remained independent from
the Iron Throne or the better part of two centuries
thereafter. Dorn was united at last, but
there were many challenges ahead.

(57:49):
Nymerian no longer had Moore's Martel at her side.
Could she hold it together? Without him, she might have been
seen as a foreign conqueror. It's a very different scenario
without him. It helped that so many of the
deposed kings were men with bad reputations.
But memory is short, and this isthe Game of Thrones from the
depths of Flea Bottom. Lord Ken of House Hammer has

(58:10):
declared for Queen Carrie, Fire of the North, who recovered Dark
Sister from beyond the Wall. Thanks to our Ironborn captains,
including Black Mato. Storm Rider, Captain of the
Rusted Hinge, Lord Chucklaws, Captain of the Droman Night
Blood, Destroyer of Evil, John Gregor, Captain of the Fist of
the Drown God, Sir Kiran of Lonely Light, Scourge of the

(58:31):
Sunset Sea, captain of Naga's Breath, a Droman armed with
siphons of wildfire. Aileen Archer, Queen, captain of
the border Collie. Crimson Kate, Captain of the
Drown Queen's Vengeance, Just Sign of the Just Collector of
Tolls, Captain of the Golden Gift.
Beneath the Gold, A podcast focusing on lesser known A Song
of Ice and Fire characters. Prakash, the Lord Protector of

(58:52):
the Gallifreans, captain of the TARDIS of the Seven Seas,
Tempest of House Brewer, Captainof the Summer Storm.
Catherine the Cruel, Captain of the Kraken's Claw, Lana Del
Rely, Death Dreamer, captain of the Cyclopean call Hara Dark
Charm, known as Lady Bad Luck, captain of the Black Cat and
Prowler of the Seas. Neena the Airwave Nomad, captain

(59:16):
of the nuanced nitwit Coaster ofthe Currents.
Lydia the Drowner, AKA Lydia theKraken, Captain of Green Smile,
a long ship decorated with the rotting skulls of dead foes, and
your secret Targaryen captain ofthe Boriqua Machateros.
We've been using Descript for three years now.

(59:36):
To start, it was an audio editing tool.
It provides a transcript that you can edit from directly.
It's really neat. Instead of editing the waveform,
you can simply cut words out andDescript removes the
corresponding portion of the track.
Over these three years, Descripthas continued to improve,
becoming an invaluable part of our video editing toolkit.
We use it to make captions animated quotes like the ones in

(59:58):
this episode. Unlike many other transcription
tools, it allows you to add yourown Dictionary of words, so it
recognizes words like Nymeria and Manwoody, things like that.
Now, it's one thing for us to endorse a product we use
personally, but I think it's in another level entirely to
endorse something that we use for a living.

(01:00:19):
Find it at get.descript.com/how Descript or click the link in
the description. A new Dorn.
Doran was united for the first time.
That alone marks a huge milestone and we have the
ability to look ahead and see that the society that formed in
this era is still in place during A Song of Ice and Fire.
Yes, they are now part of the Seven Kingdoms, but they joined

(01:00:41):
by marriage, not by conquest. They built a lasting society
that survived war and then marriage to the Dragons and has
so far survived the War of 5 Kings.
And what's come after? We'll see about the rest, but
Doran Martell is Nymeria's descendant, and so are Aryan and
the Sand Snakes. We don't know the full length of
Nymeria's war, but the conquest of the Ironwoods took eleven

(01:01:03):
years. That doesn't count the time it
took to conquer the other 5 kings, so we'd guess 15 or so
total years, give or take a few.During those years though,
progress would be slower becauseof constant war.
The Roynar would be adjusting, and Doran would be adjusting to
them. It would be a permanent change.
Doran didn't just absorb the Roynar, they had too much of an

(01:01:23):
impact for it to go so simply like that.
This was adjoining a union, and that's literally speaking.
If we're talking about all the marriages after 15 years of war,
there would be a whole new generation.
Most would be born of a Dornish father and a Royish mother, but
plenty of the reverse as well. There might have been an unusual
number of such children because this is not a monogamous

(01:01:44):
society. Many men would have children
with multiple partners, and there was an unusual number of
extra partners available. All of a sudden now these
children will be born of two cultures, but probably if not
mostly accepted by both sides, because the cultures were
joining quite well and in part because there were so many of
them. In the real world, the opposite
is sadly too often the case. But this is the creation of a

(01:02:06):
new ethnic group, and that change would impact all of Dorn.
Even those without a ruinous parent born in this era would be
part of this new Dorn, united and uplifted by new technology
and knowledge, which was likely very good for the economy.
For example, their goods would be in much higher demand outside
of Dorn. Now people around the world
would have a much greater interest in Dornish swords,

(01:02:28):
spear, armor, stonework, jewelry, you name it.
Meanwhile, locally, the farms and orchards would be producing
more food as the techniques brought by the Roynar would pay
off in the long term by bearing,well fruit and grains more than
ever before. So the youngest Dornish people
would be facing a different outlook in life, one with more

(01:02:49):
opportunities as compared to their parents and their parents
parents going back for many generations.
The Roynar assimilation. As the newcomers, the Roynar had
to assimilate and adapt to a greater degree than the native
Dornish, whose ancestors were either and all or First Men, or
more likely, a mixture of both. But Dorn became the only place
where and all and First Men mixed in any significant numbers

(01:03:11):
with this newcomer third group. But they brought so much to the
table with their technology and their ancient culture and
perhaps even their sorcery, thattheir culture was not fully
assimilated. We mentioned earlier that many
of them were wealthy and or knowledgeable and thus uplifted
the houses they married into, potentially by large amounts.
These and other factors helped them carve out a historical

(01:03:32):
niche. Even today they are considered a
separate people significant enough to be name dropped in the
royal style. Let's go all the way back to
Brand 1A Game of Thrones, the 1st chapter after the prologue.
In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the first of
his name, King of the Andals andthe Roynair and the First Men,
Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.

(01:03:54):
And by the word of Eddard of theHouse Stark, Lord of Winterfell
and Warden of the North, I do sent unto you to die.
And though according to Arya it was a quote great scandal, we
learned in her first chapter that she named her direwolf
Nymeria. It's nice to know these elements
were introduced quite early. The Roynar are the third
migration after the Endalls, andthe even older First Men, the

(01:04:16):
smallest of the three migrations.
Of course. Now to be clear, we aren't even
sure what year the Roynar migration occurred, not even
what century. But our best guesses suggest
something like 900 years before Song of Ice and Fire, maybe 2 to
300 years before the Doom, Something like that.
To be fair, we know even less regarding the timeline of the
End All and First Men migrations, but those were
gradual things. Those took place over centuries

(01:04:39):
in waves. There was just the one Rhinar
migration. Sure, word may have gotten out
to the other rhinish communitiesof the success in Dorn, and many
might have come to join, but this would have been small
groups of migrants. And we know this because there
weren't any larger population groups of rhinar in existence at
all. There were no large groups to
come join them. It could have only been small
groups. We don't hear much about their

(01:04:59):
water magic in these days. It may have died out or been
killed off by worshippers of theSeven, or it lost potency so far
from the rhin, or perhaps it wasexaggerated in the 1st place.
Technology mistaken for sorcery,that sort of thing.
It wouldn't be the first time. Over time as well, the locals
would learn the techniques or atleast become familiar with them,
and it wouldn't seem so magical or exotic.

(01:05:21):
Unless it actually was magic, ofcourse.
Ruinish water Wizards could supposedly take down Dragons
with waterspouts. I don't know how to explain that
with technology. That sounds like straight up
magic. But again, maybe they just
couldn't do that on the green blood.
Maybe the waters there just aren't as magical.
An example that gives us a clue is language.
Successive Martel rulers post conquest were willing, maybe

(01:05:43):
even eager, to stamp out lingering Ruinous traditions in
some cases, like the Ruinish language.
The Ruinar language is probably still out there, or actually we
know for a fact it is in places like a Bulu and the Stepstones,
and also in secret amongst the orphans of the Green Blood, but
that might be the extent of it. Whatever ways magic existed
among the post Ruin Ruinar may have been discouraged or even

(01:06:06):
outlawed by later Martel Princess and princesses in an
effort to distance the Roynar from their non Dornish origins.
A little more stamping out of the culture.
Perhaps you can look at it that way.
Compare say the practice of blood sacrifice among Old Gods
worshippers, which is also died out as well.
Well almost. To be fair, that's kind of a

(01:06:27):
horrifying thing. And water magic that helps the
desert bloom might not be, but that doesn't mean it wasn't
looked upon with fear. And though Dornish Knights and
warriors have a distinct look tothem, as we saw earlier, this is
rarely credited as a Rynish influence.
Only scholars and the highly educated know the difference.
To most, it's just all Dornish now.

(01:06:48):
The difference between Rynish techniques and Dornish
techniques is no longer perceptible, including by those
who live there. It's just been too long.
Rynish influence isn't distinct anymore to normal folk,
especially elsewhere in the Seven Kingdoms, by those who
largely already see Dorn as exotic, as some kind of
monolith. And we as readers, as obsessed
fans, we don't actually know thedifference that well either.

(01:07:11):
We have very little to go on with regards to what Dorn was
like culturally and technologically before the
Roinar influence. For the most part, we've only
seen Dorn in the post Roinar state.
It is now centuries later, perhaps as much as 1000 years.
The fog of history is thick. Rain Dynasty.

(01:07:31):
Given Nymeria was likely very young when she ascended to
Princess of Nysar, she may have spent more of her life with this
conquest than she had spent as an adult living on Mother Royne.
Certainly by the end of her life, she had spent more time in
Dorn than on the Royne by a widemargin.
We can say this without knowing her age, which again, we don't,
because she definitely lived a long time.

(01:07:53):
Consider the phases of her life.She was first Princess of Nysar
in her late teens or early 20s most likely.
Then there was the Basilisk Isles, then Sithorios, Nathe,
the Summer Owls for a few years,roughly 15 years of war and
Dorn. Then she ruled for almost 27
years we're told. So while we don't have an exact
number, as we said we can narrowit down pretty well.

(01:08:15):
It's pretty likely she made it past the age of 70, probably not
80, but even that's possible. She married again after Mors,
perhaps soon after or not long after the end of the war.
A period of mourning is appropriate, but political
expediency matters too, and it might have taken precedence
given it was still wartime when Moores died.

(01:08:36):
This second husband was the aforementioned Lord Aller.
We don't know much about him, like for example his first name,
but we do know he was a lot older than her.
Remember, the elders were never kings, but they did supplant the
dry land kings as new Lords of the region as we described
earlier. That makes it an interesting
union. It might make more sense for her

(01:08:58):
to marry one of the houses she had just taken a crown from, as
those would be her most powerfulallies.
So this might have been a rewardof sorts to house Allah for
their early support in the conquest.
It is similar to how it made sense for her to uplift the
lordly Martells by joining them rather than one of the kings,
because ruling alongside a king might make Nymeria secondary,

(01:09:18):
even if only through optics. So rather than a husband to help
support her and son Spear, Nymeria may have chosen Lord
Uller to ensure stability in theregion around the Brimstone.
After all, they would be adjusting to a new ruling family
there, and the other houses might resist all the rule.
It's not too hard to see why. I mean, this is the Ullers.
Half the Ullers are mad. The other half are worse.

(01:09:40):
They say she might have wanted to avoid favoring one of the
defeated royal houses over the others as well.
Better to pick none of them thanto make one of the other five
jealous, right? And by the same token, since
Lord Uller was an older man, maybe Nymeria was hoping that
this marriage would be the leastthreatening to her own Martel
daughters and her own position. And his age also meant children

(01:10:02):
were less likely. And his house had been recently
elevated, so support for greaterambitions probably wasn't
available for him. He was a less dangerous choice
for a lot of reasons, even though he was an Uller.
Indeed, this Lord Uller and Nymeria had no children, but she
married one last time. This marriage came after the
unification of Dorn, though we don't have any additional

(01:10:23):
specifics as to when. This third husband was in many
ways the reverse of Lord Aller. He was young and dashing and
famous warrior from a highly regarded family rather than one
that flirted with madness. And he wasn't even a Lord.
It was the aforementioned Sir Davos Dane, the Sword of the
Morning. He may have first opposed
Nymeria when the Kingdom of the Torrentine fell, but it's even

(01:10:44):
more likely he supported her in the war against the Ironwoods
because we know the Danes helpedthere.
This is another example of how adeptly Nymeria handled the
surrender of her foes, turning them not just into subjects and
friends, but husbands. Even Robert Baratheon would be
impressed I think, since he wasn't the Lord of Starfall.
Sir Dabos probably brought even less political power and

(01:11:06):
military support than Lord Allerhad.
But there are significant advantages to having the best
knight in the realm at your sideat all times.
Sir Kristen Carl's presence did much to help Queen Allison
Hightower get what she wanted, and the same goes for Cersei
with Sir Robert Strong, the mostfamous sword and darn if not all
Westeros at her side as her husband defending her with his

(01:11:27):
life or attacking her enemies. You can see the value in that
now. During her 27 year reign, she
faced 12, yes, 12 assassination attempts.
So having the Sword of the Morning as the leader of her
personal guard wasn't just aboutstatus or about him being
dashing, but it all helps it. It was about helping keep her
alive. With so many assassination

(01:11:50):
attempts. I'm sure there was a wide
variety of methods, you know, poison, ambush, emerging from
the wall with a crossbow while you're on the Privy, that sort
of thing. Sir Davos may have prevented a
few of those himself. He may have prevented others
from even getting past the planning stage.
They may have thought we even want to try to assassinate
Nymeria with Sir Davos at her side.

(01:12:11):
There were also two rebellions, so some people took the chance
and took on the entire Kingdom. We don't know which houses they
even were, but we'll guess it wasn't ullah Ordain Ironwood
seems pretty likely. As we said earlier, even today
they call themselves the Blood Royals and are the second most
powerful house in Dorne. They participated in three Black
Fire rebellions, so they have both the power and the Pride,

(01:12:34):
and there's other examples of them trying, but whoever it was,
Ironwood and some other. Or maybe it was Ironwood twice.
Anyway, whoever it was, they failed.
There were also two invasions, one each from the traditional
Dornish enemies, the Storm Kingsand the Reach Kings.
There was a Duran from the former and what appears to be
the only Graydon Gardner. Maybe he lost so badly that

(01:12:58):
Gardner boys stopped getting that name.
A unified Dorn was probably quite a threat to both the
Stormlands and the Reach. They had been dealing with raids
and incursions from the individual Dornish kings for
eons, but facing them all at once under a unified leader?
That would not have been a pleasant thought.
She had four daughters with Moors and one son with Davos.

(01:13:21):
She overshadowed them so much that we don't know any of their
names. We do know that Nymeria's eldest
daughter inherited and not her son.
With Davos placing the rights ofwomen is equal to men and
inheritance is not unlikely to be the impetus behind some of
the rebellions and or assassination attempts.
Xenophobia and sexism could easily play a role here, but so

(01:13:42):
could regular old ambition. After all, this is now a unified
Dorn. It's a bigger prize to take away
from somebody like the newly established ruler herself who
happens to come from a foreign country.
The Ironwoods thus might not have wanted independence from
the Martells. Again, assuming it was them who
rebelled, they might have wantedthe whole thing.

(01:14:03):
They might have said, hey, we want the whole crown, we want
this new royal establishment that you've created.
And if they had succeeded, they probably would have re
established the old male primogeniture situation.
In the long term, having the first child inherit regardless
of gender avoids so many problems.

(01:14:23):
It might even have prevented thedance of the Dragons.
But getting over that hump of initial acceptance can be bloody
but clear. That hump they did.
We don't know how long it took, but in current times it seems
well established. Remember that this was a 27 year
reign we're talking about, so a lot of these events could have
been very far apart from each other.
Maybe we had 10 assassination attempts in one year, and then

(01:14:46):
only two the rest of the 26, Or maybe they were roughly every
two years, Something like that. I do suspect her son with Davos
was well over 10 years younger than her eldest daughter, the
one who inherited, so there's something to be said about that
timeline. But other than that, just a lot
of guesswork. I also wonder if her son with
Davos ever married into the mainline, or if perhaps this line,

(01:15:10):
this male line, is the source ofone of the rebellions.
You never know. We do know that as Nymeria aged,
she gave over more and more of the reins of power to her
children. We'd like to think they work
together to build this new Dorn,but that is probably too sunny
of you. The Princess, not the Queen.
The influence of the Roy Noir remains perhaps most prominent.

(01:15:32):
In their highest title, Nymeria crowned Moores Martel as Prince
of Dorn, not King of Dorn. She wasn't made Queen of Dorn,
she was made Princess of Dorn. Everywhere else in Westeros did
the kings and Queens thing. A principality, which is what we
call it in the real world, is a ruinous thing.
The only other principality on planet Host that we know of is
the Summer Islands. Ultimately though, it's just a

(01:15:54):
name for the ruler. It's not really that different.
The much bigger change was of course the end of male
crimagenature that we talked about earlier.
After Nymeria, inheritance went entirely by birth order.
Gender became irrelevant. But not everywhere in Dorn, a
few like the Ironwoods held ontothat male preference
primogeniture. So of all the tangible
influences of the Rhinar culturein Dorne I I would say this is

(01:16:17):
the single biggest change, or the single the most difficult to
accept for a lot. Even after the kings and Queens
of Westeros were defeated by Aegon and his sisters, and after
Dorne married into the Seven Kingdoms, they kept this style.
It's still to this day the Prince of Dorne, Doran Martel is
the Prince of Dorne. He's not the Lord Paramount of
Dorne like the other Great houses.

(01:16:37):
Speaking of Aegon, Raines, and Visenya, Dorn had experience
with Dragons thanks to their rolling our heritage.
That might be part of why they fared so much better than the
rest of Westeros. But looking at what happened, a
lot of that is just Dorn. But this may have given them
more determination as well. Bowing to the Dragons would
dishonor all the suffering and hard laborers of Nymeria and her
people so many years before theyfought so hard to escape the

(01:17:00):
Dragons. It would have been a shame to
find a new home, only for the Dragons to conquer them there as
well. It's not unlikely that the words
of House Martel are ancient, possibly dating back to the time
of the Andahl migration. After all, House words are of
Andahl origin. But it's possible as well that
they change their words to reflect the great evolution of
House Martel into House Nymer. House Martel.

(01:17:22):
Either way, Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken rose alongside their
fortunes to become something of a motto for all of Dorn,
especially when it comes to the attempted conquests by House
Targaryen. Speaking of though, why did this
conquest stick? Aegon the 1st and Deron the
First both claimed victory, but couldn't keep Dorne under their
control. Why did Dorne remain united

(01:17:43):
under House Martel? Why didn't they stubbornly
resist House Martel like they did the Targaryens?
Was it the ancestral memory of Valyria conquering and
destroying the Royner? Was it because Nymeria became
one of them, marrying Dornish and having children who had
Dornish ancestry? Was it because she and her
descendants became Dornish, adapting and adding rather than
changing, while the Targaryens had to create things like the

(01:18:05):
Doctrine of exceptionalism, cajoling the realm into
accepting incest and such? Was it because the Targaryens
kept trying to appoint non Dornish people to rule Dorn,
especially Richmond, spending much of their attention on other
kingdoms while Nymeria was directly focused on nothing but
Dorn? Was it because House Martel
defeated the other houses on fairly even terms, putting their

(01:18:26):
lives on the line time and time again for supremacy rather than
raining down fire from above in relative safety?
Honestly, it was probably all ofthose things, or most of those
things, and probably some other things that we didn't consider
or aren't aware of. Regardless, there seemed to be
quite a few differentiating factors when comparing the
Targaryen conquests of Dorne to Nymerius.

(01:18:50):
That said, she did face quite a bit of resistance to her rule.
Recall the rebellions and assassination attempts.
Some problems continued, but some problems were solved
forever. The Wall after Nymeria's war.
Let's not forget those kings sent to the wall in golden
fetters. It's interesting to consider
their lives and how the wall received them.

(01:19:10):
Many might have risen to positions of authority given
their experience and pride, but thanks to the latter, others
might not have taken to their new surroundings well at all.
It might have been too far of a step down the food, the weather
being less than the low born. What role did blind Garrison
Fowler have? Was the Sword of the Evening a
skilled Ranger or master at arms?

(01:19:31):
Perhaps he didn't acquire the Sword of the Evening until he
got to the Wall or until he was sent there, but more likely the
rest of the world forgot about him and the rest of the kings
when they got to the Wall. That is usually what happens
when people are sent there. And Dorn itself was in the midst
of a great transformation, so a lot else was going on down
there. The Wall is a world apart and a
world of its own. And how on earth would the Lord

(01:19:52):
Commander handle all these Dornish kings?
It's it's a pain probably for such a guy, like the Blood Royal
would refuse to forget who he was.
Albin was mad. That's not ideal for any
commander, and you just need to keep an eye on any guy named
Lucifer. A guy who could turn into a
vulture. OK, that might be useful.
Actually, that might be very useful on the wall.

(01:20:13):
This could be a sitcom called 6 Kings on the Wall, right?
We need to come up with a theme song and everything.
One of them may have actually eventually risen to be Lord
Commander. That would be like a season
finale episode, but from Nymeria's side.
This was clever as well. Obviously, Nymeria is physically
removing troublesome potential rivals from Dorne.
In a way that is more honorable.She's not killing them, but

(01:20:37):
they're not going to be a threatever again.
The Wall is so far from Dorne, no overthrown king is going to
mount an effective resistance that far away.
It's just ridiculous to consider.
But Nymeria was also making a strong declaration both within
Dorne and to the rest of Westeros.
She's establishing herself as a true Westerosi ruler, giving

(01:20:58):
prisoners for the good of the realm, sentencing them to the
most ancient and universal of Westerosi punishments.
That's something only a Westerosi ruler can do, and only
a high-ranking one. The elders in a village can't
force someone to the wall. You can't vote it on someone.
Only a Lord or higher can make someone take the black.

(01:21:20):
So by sending kings to the wall,she was doing this all very
loudly. It wouldn't get the same level
of attention if she was just sending common criminals.
So Nymeria also forced the otherkings of Westeros to acknowledge
and support her rule indirectly.It would be the other King's
responsibility, especially say the King in the North, to ensure

(01:21:41):
that her prisoners made it to the Wall.
They'd have to pass through their lands safely or lose honor
and respect from the rest of therealm.
Everyone participates in sendingprisoners to the Wall, and in
turn by those other kings participation, it cements
Nymeria's right to do so in the 1st place.
It affirms her rank. Now they were probably other

(01:22:04):
people sent along with these kings.
They just probably weren't mentioned other members of the
family, certain loyalists or stubborn holdouts.
These in turn might vote for their king as Lord Commander.
Others might just be happy to beout from under that King's yoke.
They might be like, finally, I don't have to listen to you
anymore, You aren't above me anymore.

(01:22:26):
You're not my king anymore. You can't tell me what to do.
These others would not have arrived in golden fetters, of
course, but maybe the regular fetters, you know, iron fetters.
It's also possible that the golden fetters were just a
poetic invention. The burning of the ships
potentially was as well. We like to imagine they were
real, but it's possible they weren't.

(01:22:49):
That's a lot of gold to be giving away.
And Dorne is kind of poor. They might have needed that for
other things, but hey, marketingit, It might have sent a a
powerful gesture. It might have been worth the
expense. If the gold fedders really
happened, the stewards of the Nights Watch would have been
eager to make use of that, melting it down and sending it

(01:23:11):
off for food or something like that.
They wouldn't have kept the gold, that's for sure.
I have a lot of mouths to feed, especially with these kings
showing up. It's almost like Nymeria paid
the wall a dowry. And it's a nice inversion,
really. Usually it's the princesses who
come with a dowry paid by a king.
This time the kings came with a dowry paid by a Princess.

(01:23:31):
Orphans of the green Blood. Some of the Royne armourned the
loss of the ships, and rather than embracing their new land,
they took to plying the waters of the Green Blood, finding it a
pale shadow of Mother Royne, whom they continued to worship.
They still exist to this day, known as the Orphans of the
Green Blood. As we said before, those ships

(01:23:52):
were their homes, and living on the river was the only life many
of them had known. They couldn't go back to Mother
Royne, but they could still livelike river Folk.
The Roy and I were forced to burn their ships and consented
to do it, but Nymeria never saidanything about building new
ones, so they did. Nor did she say anything about
using the leftover bits that didn't burn from the original

(01:24:12):
ships, so they did that too. Large numbers of them banded
together, perhaps using techniques from ancient times or
those learned on their long odyssey, where they were forced
to learn how to adapt to a variety of new challenges.
The result was and remains the Plankey Town, resting at the
mouth of the Green Blood. It is the chief harbor in Dorne,
the most populous settlement in Dorne, and the closest thing to

(01:24:33):
a city now. It wasn't fully formed in
Nymeria's time, but a proto version was likely to have
started. The seed of the Planky Town was
there now. The Red Princess, who were
Nymeria's great grandchildren, tried to suppress the use of the
Ruinar language and maybe other ruinous customs, but they
supported the Planky Town directly.

(01:24:53):
To this day, the orphans are known for their healing, perhaps
inheriting traditions from theirdays on Mother Royne.
It's said the best midwives comefrom the green blood now.
All the while, the orphans yearnfor a return to Essos.
Of course, as time passed, thoseof future generations wouldn't
lament quite so much because they didn't know what they were

(01:25:13):
missing. They never lived on the Royne,
so it's it's a an idea to them, not something they can miss.
But the call remains strong Despite that.
Usila and Yandry, the pair whosepole boat the Shy Maid took.
John Connington, Young Griff, Tyrion and company along the
Royne. They're orphans of the green
blood. They actually did answer the

(01:25:34):
call. They relocated from Dorn to
Mother Royne, and surely many others do the same now that
Valyria is long gone. But dangers do remain.
The Song of Ice and Fire parallels.
Nymeria is an example to many inWesteros and beyond, but
especially to women, as an example of exemplary leadership

(01:25:54):
in a male dominated world. She was the voice of reason when
the Roynar wanted to take on Valyria.
She was the savior when that conflict went as badly as she
predicted. Nymeria is a symbol of
perseverance through exile, lossof home and loved ones, of
country and even identity, of losing all that and still rising
to the top to establish life anew in an alien realm.

(01:26:17):
These are the qualities to look for in characters and stories
that refer to Nymeria still to come, and on rereads.
Here are some of the best examples so far.
Daenerys. So John Mormont apologized for
his gift. It is a small thing, my
Princess, but all the poor exilecould afford.
He said as he laid a small stackof old books before her.

(01:26:39):
They were histories and songs ofthe seven kingdoms she saw
written in the common tongue. She thanked him with all her
heart. It's funny that Danny has been
criticized quite a few times in the fandom for not spending much
time with these books. To be fair, we are a group of
readers here and we care about such things quite a bit.
And maybe it is yet to come. Maybe this is a long term seed

(01:27:00):
planted by George and Danny willread these books.
Danny has heard of Nymeria, so her curiosity may already be
peaked. She mentions the 10,000 ships
being burned, but maybe she doesn't know much more than
those basics. If she were to read the full
story of Nymeria in full, it might give her chills because
the parallels to her own story are rich and gives us yet

(01:27:20):
another powerful example of why there's so much foreshadowing
for A Song of Ice and Fire in the lore set down in its history
and legends. In particular, she might notice
that Nymeria was married three times, while Danny was
prophesied to have three loves as well, and has so far married
twice, with a third widely predicted to come in Westeros

(01:27:41):
either in the Winds of Winter orthe Dream of Spring or both.
Nymeria and Danny's first husbands were from different
cultures, and their second husband seemed to be political
marriages. Probably the aged Lord and Allah
for Nymeria and his darzo Lorac for Danny, definitely.
Furthermore, Danny wandered withher people, considered settling
in the ruined city of Vasteloro,faced hunger and starvation,

(01:28:02):
assassination attempts, and wentfrom refugee to conqueror.
And of course she will end her story in Westeros as well.
Probably they have a lot in common.
Maybe the reason she hasn't discovered all this about
Nymeria yet is because George wanted these parallels to be
established before Danny noticesthem, rather than something that
she leads up to. You know, Danny, a long boat

(01:28:25):
ride from Essos to Westeros could be a lot of fun if you
have the right books to read. Just saying.
Arya The first character ever associated with Nymeria is Arya
of course, and her direwolf has a story all her own that Arya is
partly aware of through quite a few wolf dreams.
When Arya is masquerading as Weasel and Roose Bolton asks
what her real name is, Arya saysNymeria Nan for short.

(01:28:48):
And another point. She makes up a back story where
the ship she arrived on was called Nymeria.
We see Nymeria and her pack kill4 Brave Companions right after
Arya flees Roose Bolton in Harrenhal, and later Nymeria
tries to pull Catlin's body out of the water in Braavos.
When she is Cat of the Canal. She tells people her father was
ore master on a galley called Nymeria.

(01:29:10):
This ship is made-up, but there surely have been a lot of ships
named Nymeria, especially in Dorne.
As readers, we hear about Nymeria the direwolf through
reports in the Riverlands in various chapters, particularly
Jamie's. We learned that Lannister and
Frey horses are attacked severaltimes by Nymeria and her pack,
usually targeting their horses, that is, but occasionally
killing soldiers. The tacks seem to be getting

(01:29:33):
bolder and the Wolfpack is growing larger.
At one point it occurs to Jamie that the huge wolf leading this
pack might be the same one that bid Joffrey, and he is of course
correct. If she wasn't named Nymeria, she
could be named Karma. Nymeria, the Direwolf of the
Riverlands, is living up to her namesake, Nymeria of the Royner,

(01:29:54):
the Riverlands of Essos. Like her namesake, the direwolf
is a fierce female refugee who became a war leader deadly to
her enemies. In an early partial draft of A
Game of Thrones, George named her Nymerion instead of Nymeria,
and she was meant to be, quote, a warrior witch of Valyria

(01:30:16):
instead of Princess of the Roynar.
Neither witch nor warrior. Nymeria Sand and Aryane Martel.
Like all Martel's, Nim and Arianne are descendants of
Nymeria and Morse. They are nearly the same age,
and in the farmers case, when you're trying to make parallels,
it definitely helps to have the same name as our subject.
Nymeria. Sand is of course the daughter

(01:30:38):
of the Red Viper over in Martel,and her mother is a highborn
Lady of Volantis. Volantis is where much of the
trouble between the Roy and Valyria started.
As we covered back in the MotherRoy episode, that conflict isn't
relevant 1000 years later, but Lady Nim is a bit divided with
her loyalties. Like several of her sisters, she
had designs on a whole new cycleof blood and revenge, like those

(01:31:01):
between the Roynair and Valyrians of old, though, Nim
pledged on her father's grave toact with patience and to follow
Doran's plans. We'll see what that actually
means and what actually happens.She's set to take a seat on the
Small Council, where she might easily find herself outnumbered
like her famous ancestor when debating the other Roinar
Princess on whether to support Garen the Great or not.

(01:31:23):
Whatever the debates of this time might be, we're curious as
to what she'll do in the Red Keep and how she and her family
will react to Daenerys and Aegon.
Arianne is not just a descendantof Nymeria, she's a point of
view who grew up at Sunspier as a member of the dynasty Nymeria
established. Nymeria is everywhere in art,
story, and song, and Aryan's upbringing reflects this.

(01:31:43):
When she's locked in the tower, she wishes she had a copy of
10,000 Ships or The Loves of Queen Nymeria.
Clearly she's read these books before and is ready for a
reread. Us, you know.
It's odd though that that book is called The Loves of Queen
Nymeria and not Princess Nymeria, but maybe that's a clue
that it was written by someone outside of Dorn.
Either way, Aryan likes the book.

(01:32:05):
Now, we mentioned earlier that Aryan likened herself to Nymeria
when she at first believed Quentin was coming for her
inheritance. Thus, Aryan is no stranger to
plotting against her family or plotting within her family,
though she seems to have changedher TuneIn that regard.
It's another thing we'll have towait and see on, and it's her
reaction to Aegon that we're even more curious about.

(01:32:26):
And her reaction to Danny, of course, which will come down to
how she and the rest of her family view Quentin's death by
dragon fire. In what light will they take
that? Arianne didn't face being
usurped by her brother as she expected, but in plotting to
stop that which was not coming, she did something worthy of
exile. She was indeed sent away, but
not to exile, actually to dangerous duty in the

(01:32:47):
Stormlands, where she will presumably meet.
This egg on Arianne is not alonehere.
Many, if not all the characters most associated with the name or
story of Nymeria also experiencea form of forced flight or
exile. Danny, of course, from the
moment she's born, is effectively in exile.
Arya in the Riverlands and then overseas to Braavos.

(01:33:08):
Nymeria, the direwolf, is drivenoff by Arya to the sort of exile
only a direwolf can experience. Yet all of them are not just
unbowed, unbent, unbroken, but made stronger by the experience.
They return with followers, powers, ambitions, perhaps all
of the above, and definitely a sense of destiny akin to
Nymerius. The Shrouded Lord.

(01:33:31):
Let's check back in with Garen the Great, who helped start this
whole thing off. The shrouded Lord has Ruth these
myths since Karens day, said Andre.
Some say that he himself is Garen, risen from his watery
grave. The dead do not rise, insisted
Holden. Half mester.
And no man lives 1000 years. Yes, there is a shrouded Lord.

(01:33:51):
There have been a score of them.When one dies, another takes his
place. This one is a Corsair from the
Basilisk Islands, who believed the Royne would offer richer
pickings than the Summer sea. I I've heard that too, said
Duck. But there's another tale I like
better. This one says that he's not like
the other stone men and that he started as a statue till a Gray
woman came out the fog and kissed him with lips as cold as

(01:34:14):
ice. This is a great reminder for us
that Garen's Curse, AKA grayscale, is very much a factor
not just in the world, but in A Song of Ice and Fire.
Jon Connington is carrying it, Val claims Shereen's dormant
case could awaken, and the StoneMen are waiting on the Bridge of
Dream to pass it on to new victims in the future.
It isn't just Nymeria and her descendants and her influence at

(01:34:34):
play in the story. Garen's curse remains, and it
doesn't appear set to target Dorn, but who knows where it
could spread? Let's summarize just how amazing
her accomplishments were. Planetos or Taros or whatever
you want to call it is a world ruled mostly by men.
She didn't overthrow any Queens of Dorn, for example, and
furthermore, Dorne is a country known for extreme independence

(01:34:55):
and stubbornness. Yet she not only conquered it,
but she did so as a refugee and established a dynasty that still
exists. A dynasty that resisted the
Dragons, which is how they began.
She LED her people on their escape from the Dragon Lords and
through that subsequent Odyssey.Truly one of the most
exceptional figures in all the history of Westeros.
The Roynar and the Dornish are ashining example of George RR

(01:35:18):
Martin's world building skills, and Nymeria as founder and
leader is the standout individual who best represents
them. There's perhaps a bigger future
here. ATV adaptation has been an on
and off possibility, which is the nature of that business.
We can say for certainty that itremains a possibility, but even
within the confines of the written Canon, our favorite

(01:35:40):
Canon, quite a bit more could beon the horizon.
As we've noted countless times, George loves to create parallels
between the current story and the histories, and Dorn's story
didn't really get going in full until A Feast for Crows with
expansions from the World of Iceand Fire.
Would Night marry a rollover in her grave if she learned her
descendant Dorian was trying to ally with a dragon Lord

(01:36:00):
descended from her people's ancient enemies?
What about Aryan trying to ally with Aegon?
She might not like either of those things, or she might think
they make total sense. Perhaps getting into bed with
Dragons will prove as big a mistake as getting into bed with
scorpions. But at least Dorne is really far
from the Wall and will feel winter less so than the rest of
the Seven Kingdoms. Thanks to McCall Schick AKA Inc

(01:36:24):
as Rain on Blue Sky or Instagram.
You can also find her on the brand new Nosferatu Tuesday's
podcast where they discuss the world of Nosferatu thanks to
Michael Klarfeld. KLARADO x.de is where you can
find his website thatsclaradox.de.
Print your own copies of his maps like the ones you see

(01:36:46):
behind us. Thanks to Nina Krusling for her
invaluable assistance this episode.
Lots of the writing was done by her.
Once again, check her out at goodqueenalley.tumblr.com. 1L in
alley. Thanks to Joey Townsend for our
intro music and thanks to all ofyou who support us on Patreon or
who support us by spreading the word about History of Westeros

(01:37:09):
podcast. Our peers of the realm.
Patrons include our Hand of the King who is a base born man,
Jack, literally just a drunken Spearman.
God's help us. Lord Giuliano of House U is Hand
of Queen Ashea, known as the Omni Knight.
Lord Jim the Fortuitous of Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire
blog is Warden of the West. Lord George Stormsville the

(01:37:29):
cunning, Lord of the Chilead andWarden of the East.
Kabeth the Unfrozen is Lord of the bricks and castle Crimson
Light. He is Defender of the Old Gods
and Warden of the North. Lord Daenerys Pulars, head of
House Pular, Lord of Amora and Warden of the South.
The elite from outside the realminclude Jenny, the Just Captain
of the ghost ship Liberty, whichvanished on the Shivering Sea

(01:37:50):
over a century ago but has recently been sighted near
Volantis if the tales can be believed.
King Beyond the Wall, Sydney Jesse is the fall born Lord of
Blue Spring in the Haunted Forest, wields a dagger of
dragonglass and the Valyrian steel blade Red Frost.
Sea Lord Sean Gallagher is the Titans Binger, owner of nine
Valyrian steel ears. The Bastard of the Bay of Seals

(01:38:13):
is a friend of the Nights Watch,commanding a ship made entirely
of weirwood. Watch out for when that turns to
stone. Our White Walker patrons include
Alexander Greyblood, first of the first men, now crowned in
ice called Silence Bringer, WoodBlinder and the Snow of Night,
wielder of the ice forged great sword, Pale Frost.
Nevada Pike is 4th of Frost, Frost Kraken, drowned in ice,

(01:38:36):
and commander of cats and krakens.
Our small council includes Lord Taylor of House Lineberry,
Strength of stone, Will of Iron,Master of Coin, Lord Chris B of
House Baelish. Always keep your foes confused.
Master of Whispers, Drowned Dan is Lord of House Windsor, Master
of karate, friendship for everyone and ships.
Lord Goodkill McGee is ruler of Castle over Yonder, Master of

(01:38:59):
Laws, and our Grand Maester is Scotty.
Our Lords and ladies in their castles include Lady Dire Liz of
Castle Naki, the Alpha patron, Lord Dan of the Red Mountains
and Castle Great Bell is Breakerof the second stone.
Lord Gregor the Toasty is Lord of the bread Fort Ashland Winter
is the Hawks Eye lady of Castle Skyfall.
The Lord of the Halls of Castle Hillcrest is wielder of the

(01:39:21):
Valyrian steel machete. Everglazed Lord Bemi
Snugglebunny is Guardian Ranger of the hidden 100 acre weirwood,
dual wielder of Valyrian short swords, Glorious morning and
Little light wise sharpshooter of the weirwood and ironwood
laminated Longbow Todd von Oben.When you fear things cannot get
worse, Snugglebunny enters the fray.
The Bastard of the Wolfswood is First Forester of the Old Gods,

(01:39:43):
sworn to House Ironwarewood. Listen for the silence.
Casey Stark is of House Acres. Peter Rivers is the Pale Dragon
and heir to Bloodraven. Lady Maura is of House Stark,
arch mistress of apothecaries and woods, which her castle
features weirwood doors with painted moons.
Lena Snow is the Twilight Star bastard, daughter of Dane, wife

(01:40:04):
of the Trickster and Lady of Castle Rivia.
Jason Stark is second son of theNorth wielder of the Valyrian
steel sword Bloodbath, Lord of Castle Whitewood.
The chill is real suck ass Gameris master of soap and clay.
Aminda Pink Wolf is lady and ruler of Castle Whitefast.
The ice emboldens. Lord Benjen is of House

(01:40:26):
Hornwood. Lady Rebecca Stark of Castle
Aurora is wielder of a weirwood bow with Valyrian steel tip
arrows and friend of Short Round.
The direwolf Aurelian Matheus Rhesius is Lord of House
Aurelian, ruler of Domus Aurelianus and the Valley of
Tennessee, wielder of Soul Invictus.
It might be Valyrian steel, but he's definitely keeper of the

(01:40:46):
largest collection of books outside the Citadel.
We restore the world. Lord Guerin is of Devil's Hand
keep. Lady Jane is of Helseltigar,
wielder of the Valyrian steel axe Painkiller.
Lord Darien the Daring is wielder of the Valyrian steel
sword Wisdom. He's Lord of House Hollingsworth
and the Holly Hold and Dorn Power and Knowledge.

(01:41:07):
Sir Garrett Gabehart is Lord of the Bluegrass, Gabe the Jade
Blade, whose foes are skewered and grilled and it's kind of
hard to say. Lady Maria of House High Tree is
Lady of the Castle. Fair Oak on the Crooked Lake
Sigil is a long Grapevine with dark green leaves and purple
grapes winding around a greystone pillar on a white
field bordered by gold. Their motto is Ever Watchful and

(01:41:31):
Lord Abelard of House Harkonnen.The Queen's High Council Grand
Archmaester Rennie, whose rod and ring and mask are quartz
Crystal, wielder of the Valyriansteel pen, fire and ink.
The Purple Lord Leo Anansi, Master of Whisperers.
Lady Wolf Bird, Mistress of the Eastern Rivers, Gatekeeper of

(01:41:55):
the Northern Skies, daughter of the Silver Sea, and Master of
Coin. Devorahlynn Blackwood, maker of
the Frozen Fury Muscle bomb. Eucalyptus and mint leaves
washed with Dornish Peppers and sealed by fire ants.
Master of Laws. Lady Jane of Driftmark, Guardian
of Dragonstone. The circling flame burns.

(01:42:17):
Master of ships, Lady Sonia of Sunspear, Keeper of the Martel
Menagerie. Master of Castle Tormira,
Topanga. Tame and keep well.
Master of Whisperers. Our Kingsguard includes Lord
Commander Lady Megan of House Yinzer, Sir Dean the White
Knight of the Black Star, Sir Bateman The Dark Knight, Lady

(01:42:39):
Ani, Bringer of Winter's Warning.
Watch her in the Weirwood and Bearer of Wrist Wolves, Lord
Jonathan of House Tanner, Lord Ray Detto of House Avocado,
Protector of the Royal Kitchens.Green in the morning, dark by
evening. The Queen's Guard is led by Lord
Captain Commander Hema Helmuth, the Self Sword Sentinel, James

(01:43:01):
the Green, Lord of the Meadows, Keeper of the Trial of Grasses,
Amber the Adamant, the Knight ofthe Mist, and Mother of Squids,
the Wintry Wolverine. We finish what you begin Nora,
Nico, Archmaester Vena, whose ring, rod and mask are made of
steel, not pudding, and Laura Boros, the Lady of Infinity.

(01:43:26):
Our beer guard is led by Lord Commander George, the Golden
Lady. Rita of the Copper Maine is the
Unbound dance, the fervor. Sir Jeff Wharton of the AC is
wielder of Triad. The multi faceted beard of
platinum, red and brown Stay frosty bloody Ben Blackwood and
Big Brian Blackwood and Davin Mack.
Night of the Reeds. The bog night.

(01:43:48):
Last but not least, Sir Kobe of House Stonesmith returns.
Words are wind, deeds of stone. Legitimate grandson of the
bastard of Runestone. First builder Megor Snow AKA
Megor the Cool says the fire in the snow. 1st Ranger Liam AKA
Sir Waiting on a Nickname and finally first Steward Sir Zach

(01:44:10):
of House Wild Lord, Shredder of the Spiral and wielder of the
Valyrian Steel axe Grail. Until next time you know what to
do my friends. Valar re Ridis.

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Nymeria: The Sun and the Spear (Part 3)

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