House Uller

**House Uller of Hellholt** is one of the great noble houses in Dorne. Their keep, the Hellholt, is in the middle of the Dornish desert, and they are reputed to be impulsive and unpredictable. A Dornish saying is "Half of the Ullers are half-mad, and the other half are worse."

Their arms are rayonne yellow over crimson.

## History

The Ullers were Andal adventurers who settled along the Brimstone. The Hellholt is named after an event in which rivals were invited to the castle, locked within, and burned to death. This action inspired the Uller's arms.

The Ullers supported House Nymeros Martell against House Yronwood during Nymeria's War. After the death of her first husband, Nymeria was married to Lord Uller and then to Ser Davos Dayne, her final husband.

At the start of the First Dornish War, Lord Harlen Tyrell's army found the Ullers had fled the Hellholt rather than give battle. When the Dornishmen rebelled later in the war, Harlen and his garrison disappeared in the sands after leaving the Hellholt to retake Vaith and Sunspear. Qheen Rhaenys Targaryen and Meraxes were both lost at the Hellholt in 10 AC. The queen's body was never recovered by the Targaryens, however, and some said she was tortured by the Ullers.

## Recent History

When the Third Targaryen Rebellion struck Dorne. House Uller was ready, as it had always been when foreigners invaded the sands. Lord Mors Uller insisted on taking his 16 year old son and heir, Quentyn Uller, along with him to repel the invaders, over the protests of his lady wife. That day, Lord Mors took her down into the bowels of the Hellholt, where she had never set foot before. He walked her past the torture chambers, which were blessedly empty at the time, and showed her the bones of Rhaenys Targaryen, Harlan Tyrell and, lastly, the great dragon Meraxes. "This is who we are, my lady love," he said, "When foreigner's step onto our sands, House Uller meets them. And we bring their bones here, into the bowels of Hell." Lady Uller cried quietly as her husband finished, "The boy is coming with me. He must learn." With that, he left his brother and wife to rule in his name and shelter his two young twins,

And learn Quentyn did. After breaking the Siege of Sunspear along the other great houses of Dorne, Lord Mors taught his son the Uller way of war. They moved in small bands, roaming the sands and the shores of the Greenblood, ambushing the foreign invaders wherever they could be found and then melting into the desert like demons. He taught his son how to hide his troops in the shadows of moving dunes, how to lead a charge of horse archers and command a line of spearmen. And he taught him how to get information from a captive. For the Lords of the Hellholt are not perfumed dandies with professional torturers. Like the Starks of Winterfell, they did their own bloody work. Not for pleasure. For Dorne.

Lord Mors returned from the war with a wound that would sap his strength and a pride that would fill his heart for the remaining 3 years of his life. Quentyn returned with a head full of valuable lessons and hands wet with the blood of Dorne's enemies. He returned an Uller, in truth.

## Timeline of Recent Events

390 AC: Lord Mors and his heir return from war. Wounded and feeling his age, Lord Uller turns command of his spears over to his son and heir, who had proven himself a capable leader while fighting the dragon's men.

393 AC: Lord Mors dies abed, surrounded by his family. His last words are spoken to his son and heir. "Protect Dorne."

394 AC: Lord Quentyn Martell hears reports of bandits raiding along the shores of the Brimstone, likely former men of the Sand King. He takes his brother Gerold out onto the sands, to learn what it is to be an Uller. The gentle boy rides and fights well enough, but when Quentyn tells him to cut into his first captive, to do what is necessary, Gerold retches up his dinner and flees the tent, causing Quentyn to worry about the future of House Uller.