Nymor Martell

Ysilla Martell

Sarella Martell

Prince **Nymor Nymeros Martell** was the Prince of Dorne as the first child of the previous Princess Mara Martell. He became Ruling Prince in 76 AC, when his mother died, and was placed under a regency by his uncle Cletus Martell until he reached majority in 83 AC. He was known for his peaceful solution of the Fourth Dornish War, as well as his support for Rhoynish culture.

## Appearance and Character

Nymor Nymeros Martell has the looks of his Rhoynish ancestors, with dark hair and tan skin, which had been present in both his mother Mara Martell and his father of House Mandragore. He is a cautious, but determined man, much more concerned with cerebral tasks than physical ones, and prefers peaceful and diplomatic solutions to military ones in the matters of politics.

Nymor’s greatest field of interest lies in the culture and religion of the Rhoynar, finding great appeal in exploring the knowledge of his ancestors. He still professes to the Faith of the Seven, although in part, he has adopted teachings of the Rhoynish Faith, seeing it as in part referring to the same divinity as the Faith of the Seven.

## History

Nymor Nymeros Martell was born to Mara Martell, the heiress to the Principality of Dorne, and her husband Mallor Mandragore in 67 AC. They had wed about a year before, when his father settled down from his mercantile travels after meeting the young Princess, and in his father’s vein, Nymor would show a great interest in travelling and foreign cultures, as well, although the calculating nature often seen in the Princes of House Martell made him much less adventurous than Mallor Mandragore.

The first years of his life Nymor spent in Sunspear, where he received lessons from the Maester and Septon, while after some years, his uncle Cletus Martell would instruct him in the matters of statecraft, especially organising the daily schedules of the castle and events held within it. Simultaneously, he learned his first diplomatic skills, preparing him to make compromises and enforce his interests through honesty and good will.

When Nymor was nine years old, in 76 AC, his fourth sibling, Sarella Martell, was born. However, that also meant the death of his mother Princess Mara, who had become ruling Princess six years before, as she was too greatly strained by that pregnancy. Thus, upon young Prince Nymor was laid the duty of ruling the entirety of Dorne. Of course, this did not mean that he would receive all respective duties, but rather he was placed under a regency by his uncle Cletus, while his father Mallor continued to educate him, as well. Meanwhile, his next-oldest sibling, his younger sister Nymella, was sent to Starfall, where she became a ward of Lord Dayne. His other siblings Garibald and newborn Sarella continued to grow up beside Nymor in Sunspear, Garibald receiving martial training, where Nymor now all the more had to focus on governance and diplomacy. Especially, Nymor was taught the means of management his uncle displayed when dealing with the Dragonblight, manoeuvring Dornish trade relations towards the Free Cities, while avoiding contact to the lands of the Iron Throne.

When Nymor became older, reaching the age more martially minded boys became squires, he began to study the culture of his Rhoynish ancestors in greater depth. His father, House Mandragore itself being one of notable Rhoynish descent, taught him stories about the Rhoynish Wars and the heroes of that time, of course including Nymeria of Ny Sar, Nymor’s maternal ancestor. Nymor also often went to Planky Town to meet with the Orphans of the Greenblood, who taught him the language of the Rhoynar, and shared legends and teachings with him that had been forgotten when the new Dornish adopted the Faith of the Seven. After a while, Nymor extended his meetings to journeys alongside the River Greenblood, meeting his subjects that at that point his uncle still ruled, and building a connection to the River as his second home, akin to what the ancient Rhoynar must have felt upon their motherly Rhoyne.

In 83 AC, Nymor came of age, and Cletus Martell handed over governance of Dorne to a well-educated and charismatic young man. Mere weeks later, though, Nymor was faced with the first great challenge in his solitary rule, the Fourth Dornish War, or, as the Dornish called it, the War of Yorick’s Aggression. Raids between the houses of the Red Mountains and the Marcher Lords of the Stormlands were a common occurrence, much to the chagrin of the peaceful Nymor, but this time, Lord Yorick Yronwood had driven his assaults even further and invaded Blackhaven and beyond. Nymor sent letters to Yronwood, calling for a retreat, but when they went unanswered, he marshalled a force of Dornish spearmen from the eastern part of his Principality, and marched them to the Stoneway, while tasking Lord Dayne, with whom he held the most friendly relation among the western houses, due to his sister’s stay at Starfall, with fighting the Reachmen who had come down Prince’s Pass.

Nymor marched at the head of his men to Yronwood and then beyond, to where the forces of the Iron Throne had been halted by Lord Yronwood’s defenders after breaking through Lord Wyl’s lands, and chose not to lead his men into battle, but into negotiations. On the very day after his arrival at the war camps, he sought out King Rhaegar I Targaryen under a peace banner, and after his show of force, as well as the casualties already sustained before, including the King’s cousin Baelon, was able to reach a peace agreement restoring the state before the war, the only concession needed being reparations to be paid from House Yronwood’s coffers to House Dondarrion to ensure the rebuilding of Blackhaven after the fighting.

After the war, Nymor assembled his bannermen in Yronwood, where he proclaimed his policy of peace, discouraging all martial aggression to any party, promising that he was willing to protect his bannermen from foreign incursion always, but holding out the prospect of replacing Lords who would bring about such situations by their own offensive actions. Nonetheless, for now, all would remain as it was, and Nymor sought to improve relationships to the wayward Lords of the Red Mountains.

After his return to Sunspear, Nymor continued as he had before, showing interest in governance, in which his uncle Cletus assisted him as Steward and Castellan, while showing greater interest in culture and tradition, continuing to travel the Greenblood with the Orphans, while meeting his bannermen at their castles, as well. On one such occasion in the year 85 AC, Nymor combined those pastimes, when he announced a visit to Godsgrace. While his party travelled on land, Nymor made his way there ahead on a pole boat on the Greenblood. When he arrived, he met a young woman that captivated him, as she roamed the docks by the river and shared in the Orphans’ wisdom, as well. Encouraged by the Rhoynar habits, he slept with her the night before he was set to meet Lord Allyrion after his party would have arrived. So, it happened, and in the castle of Godsgrace, he met his night’s companion again, as those who had thought each other to be a merchant girl and an Orphan traveller were revealed to each other as Lady Teora Allyrion and the Prince of Dorne, respectively. Still enamoured with the woman, and also wishing to build closer connections to his vassals, Nymor proposed an alliance in marriage to the Lord’s second daughter, and thus, Lady Teora became the Princess Consort to Dorne upon their return to Sunspear. A year later, Prince Doran Martell was born to Nymor and Teora.

After his son’s birth, Nymor decided to make a great journey, and invited sons of his vassal houses to join him. With him came Daeron Yronwood, healing the rift between the houses that had grown after the Fourth Dornish War, as well as his good-brother Anders Allyrion, and together, they sailed for the Summer Isles to build relations of trade and friendship with their southern neighbours beyond the waves, learn about the foreign cultures, and most of all, to enjoy themselves. On that journey, besides many encounters with the priestesses of the Summer Isles of which none but the companions themselves were to know - especially not Princess Teora - Nymor also came to explore the landscapes of the islands, including the rivers, which the locals held in regard not dissimilar to that of the Rhoynish, as well as to meet outright descendants of the Rhoynar upon the Isle of Women. There it was that he decided he wished for a centre of learning for the Rhoynish Faith and others, built differently from the Septs of the Faith of the Seven.

In 89 AC, Nymor and his companions returned to Dorne, and it was decided that outside of Sunspear the Water Gardens would be built, a palace with beautiful gardens and intricate waterworks, for all to enjoy and spend time of learning in, especially Water Priests, some of whom had followed them from the Isle of Women, while others came from among the Orphans of the Greenblood. To all houses of Dorne, as well as trading partners beyond, an invitation was extended to send their scions to study there, while wards of House Martell were to grow up in that new environment, as well.

Nymor and Teora’s second son Andrey Martell was born in 91 AC, and shortly after, Nymor’s sister Nymella wed Lord Symon Dayne in Starfall, remaining in the home she had acquired during her wardship there. The year after that, an affair moved the court at Sunspear, Cletus Martell’s daughter Ashara giving birth to a bastard claimed by her cousin Prince Garibald. While the Rhoynish court found this not objectionable, at all, when she wed into House Caron later that year, a decision made by Nymor to improve relations with the Stormlands, as well, it was only a younger son the Andals offered in Casper Caron.

All the while, Prince Nymor sought to build trade connections all throughout the Known World, and so it came that aside from houses under the Iron Throne, as well as factions beyond the Narrow Sea, Dorne also struck a trade deal with the Kingdom of the Iron Isles in 93 AC, Urragon Drumm agreeing to a contract trading iron from their mines, as well as many other goods in both directions, while his predecessor had declined offers for foreign trade. One year later, in 94 AC, Ysilla Martell was born to Nymor and Teora, while Sarella Martell decided to convert to the Rhoynish Faith entirely, and to become a Water Priestess, taking permanent residence at the Water Gardens.

## Recent Events

Since then, Nymor has ruled his Principality of Dorne peacefully, furthering relations in trade and encouraging the teaching of knowledge spiritual and secular.

## Household

* Teora Allyrion, Princess Consort
* Cletus Martell, Castellan
* Garibald Martell, Brother
* Sarella Martell, Sister and Water Priestess
* Gwyneth Dayne, Courtier
* Anders Allyrion, Courtier