Sandoq the Shadow

Sandoq, also known as Sandoq the Shadow or just The Shadow is a supporting character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series. Originating from the Free City of Lys, he is a former (but also a veteran) pit fighter who served Lady Larra Rogare and her family of House Rogare during the regency of King Aegon III Targaryen. Sandoq also served as a loyal bodyguard to the latter and House Targaryen.
==Appearance==
Sandoq is a black-skinned and black-haired man who stood at nearly seven feet tall. His face is horribly disfigured; it bore numerous white scars and his lips and tongue are removed, leaving him mute and hideous. As a result, Sandoq would hide his disfigurement with a black silk veil.
In battle, Sandoq wielded a great curved sword made of Valyrian steel with a hilt made of dragonbone. He also carried a tall black shield of nightwood, boiled hide, and iron.
==Personality==
Sandoq is a simple-minded individual who is illiterate, meaning it is impossible for him to read or write and even communicate complex messages. While he looks menacing in appearance, he displays strong loyalty towards House Rogare, most importantly Lady Larra. This obedience even extended towards the Targaryens, especially King Aegon III, as his brother Prince Viserys was wed to Larra, meaning the Rogares are now part of the royal family.
While he acts as a loyal guardian, he was claimed to have a fond of music, as he was a skilled musician, being able to play sweet sad songs with a stringed instrument made of ebony and goldenheart.
==Biography==
Sandoq's history prior to his service to House Rogare is uncertain but it is said that he was a veteran pit fighter in Meereen who won a hundred victories and is believed to have once torn out the throat of one of his foes with his own teeth, after his sword had shattered. Sandoq is claimed to have drank the blood of the men he had killed. During his time in the fighting pits, he is said to have slain lions, wolves, bears, and wyverns with no weapons but stones he had found upon the sands. At an unknown point, he entered the service of the Rogares and was given to Lady Larra Rogare by her father Lysandro as a gift.
===Lysene Spring===
In 135 AC, during the Lysene Spring and during the plot against the once-powerful Rogare Family, Kingsguard Ser Amaury Peake and a dozen guardsmen were sent by the newly-made Hand of the King Ser Marston Waters to seize Maegor's Holdfast and arrest Lady Larra Rogare, as her family was falsely accused of attempting to overthrow King Aegon III. Upon approaching the holdfast, Ser Amaury and the guardsmen found the King's brother Prince Viserys on the drawbridge with a battleaxe.
When he defiantly forbade Ser Amaury from taking Larra, the Kingsguard knight was only amused by this and he tells Prince Viserys that Lady Larra is wanted for questioning with the treachery of her brothers. When demanded on who wants her, Amaury Peake reveals that the Hand of the King wants Larra, which confused Viserys, as he still believed that Lord Thaddeus Rowan is the Hand only for Ser Amaury to reveal that Thaddeus has been removed from office and is replaced by Marston Waters.
At this, King Aegon III steps onto the drawbridge to intervene and he reminds Amaury of his status as king and that he never chose Ser Marston as his Hand. Aegon's intervention shocked Ser Amaury, who reminds him that his leal lords are the ones making all the decisions until he comes of age and that his regents were the ones who chose Ser Marston Waters. When King Aegon insisted that Thaddeus Rowan is his regent Amaury tells him that he is no longer the king's regent as he has "betrayed" the king's trust and his regency is at an end.
Upon being demanded on by whose authority, Ser Amaury answered that it was the authority of the Hand of the King. This caused Prince Viserys to burst out laughing and he tells him, "The Hand names the regent and the regent names the Hand, and round and round and round we dance...but you shall not pass, ser, nor shall you touch my wife. Begone, or I promise you, every man of you shall die here."
Enraged and losing patience, Ser Amaury Peake orders his men to gently move Aegon and Viserys aside and to ensure that they'll not be harmed. This caused Prince Viserys to warn him saying, "This is on your head, ser" before driving his battleaxe deep into the drawbridge and scampering back. He then gives a final warning to Amaury and his men to go no further than the axe or they'll die. After King Aegon drew his brother back into the safety of Maegor's Holdfast, Sandoq the Shadow emerges and steps onto the drawbridge.
When Amaury's men charged at him, thus going pass the axe, Sandoq successfully fends them off. While he slew them with his Valrian steel curved sword, he also used his black shield to shove several guardsmen backward, causing them to fall onto the spikes below the bridge. After killing nearly all of them, Sandoq engages in a duel with Ser Amaury. During the battle, he managed to wound his opponent, though the latter refused to yield and stubbornly continued fighting until the last of his guardsmen snatched Sandoq's sword from his hand before falling off the bridge.
As the wounded Amaury charged at Sandoq, the latter tore Prince Viserys' battleaxe from the drawbridge and used it to split Ser Amaury's head and helm in half, killing him instantly. His body then fell onto the spikes below the bridge. After shoving the dead and the dying men from the drawbridge, Sandoq retreats back into Maegor's Holdfast and on the command of King Aegon III, the drawbridge was raised while the portcullis is lowered.
This began an eight-day standoff that would be known as the secret siege until the plot against House Rogare is unravelled and Lord Thaddeus Rowan was reinstalled as Hand of the King but had to be dismissed due to his now-poor mental condition, as he had suffered brutal torture, and he would be succeeded by Grand Maester Munkun. 
A year later, on the morning of 136 AC, when King Aegon's sixteenth nameday came around, which made him old enough to now rule Westeros on his own, Sandoq the Shadow and four knights of the Kingsguard accompanied the young king as he entered the council chambers, where Sandoq's ominous presence unnerves all the regents and even the new Hand of the King Lord Torrhen Manderly, who had succeeded Munkun. During the small council meeting, Torrhen and the regents are all dismissed by King Aegon, who also cancelled their plans to have him go on a royal progress.
==Gallery==
Sandoq the Shadow with Lady Larra Rogare.jpg|Sandoq the Shadow with Larra Rogare.
Sandoq the Shadow with King Aegon III Targaryen.webp|Sandoq with Aegon III as the regents and Hand of the King are about to be dismissed.
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