House Toland

House Toland of Ghost Hill is one of the Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms and the ruling house of Dorne. Princess Ashlynn Toland rules from Ghost Hill in southeastern Dorne.

Their arms depict a green dragon biting its tail on gold, the dragon symbolizing that time has no beginning and no end, and their words are "We endure", a testimony of their resilience in the many conflicts they endured. In appearance they are considered salty Dornishmen, with dark eyes, and olive skin, but with the trait of red hair persistent throughout their line.

## History

### House Toland during the Conquest

The Tolands successfully resisted the dragons of Aegon the Conqueror during the First Dornish War. The Lady Toland at the time sent out her champion to face Aegon. After Aegon slew the man, he learned that the man was her mad fool, and that she and her family had escaped. In later days, the Tolands would take a new banner, showing a dragon biting its own tail, with the colors green in gold in memory of the motley of their brave fool. Prior to the dragon, the Toland banners displayed a ghost. During the Dragon's Wroth, Lady Toland was murdered for the Iron Throne's ransom on her head, and a regency council was established until Lord Garyn came of age.

### House Toland under Lord Garyn

Lord Garyn’s rule was marked by the fragile peace between the first Dornish War and the insurrection of the Vulture King. Under his rule Ghost Hill recovered from the Dragon’s Wroth, and some of the trading routes that had been closed during the Dornish war were reopened, and repairing most of the damage that Vhagar had caused.

### House Toland under Lady Sarella

Garyn was succeeded by his eldest, Sarella, who continued her father’s work. Under her pragmatic, stern leadership, Ghost Hill prospered, and the port of Ghost Hill became an important trading hub until another war with the Iron Throne put an end to that. She also built alliances with many of her neighbors (sometimes at the cost of her family’s happiness), and ruled her lands with an iron fist for more than forty years.

Much to her chagrin, Lady Sarella outlived her heir Valena, who died in childbirth, and Valena’s firstborn Martyn, who died in the war against the Iron Throne. During the later days of her life, she was also witness to the death of her youngest, Yorick, who died in an unfortunate fire.

### House Toland under Lord Doran

After his brother Martyn’s death, Doran was forced to marry his former wife to keep the alliance his mother had worked for. And, after Sarella’s death, he found himself ruling over Ghost Hill. His short rule, like his grandfather’s, was marked by his attempts to rebuild the keep and the docks and reestablishing the old trade routes. In one of those attempts, the ship he and his family were travelling on sank, and only his daughter Ashlynn survived the wreckage.

### House Toland under Lady Ashlynn's regents

Due to Lady Ashlynn’s young age, a regency council was established. Her uncle Maron Toland, who had become the new heir, assembled a regency council, and acted as regent and steward until the young Lady came of age.

### House Toland under Lady Ashlynn

A major success, early in Ashlynn's rule was the broadening of her vineyards. What began as a modest expansion of Toland’s vineyards soon turned into a prosperous one, through the investment of House Yronwood, and the trade connections of the Velaryons. By the end of 100 AC, their enterprise had greatly enriched their coffers, and the future looked bright.

Intrigued by the religion of R'hllor at a young age, Ashlynn brought the red priest, Qhorys, into her service as her spiritual advisor. As the economic success of House Toland grew, the temple of the Lord of Light in Volantis sent more red priests, in hopes of leveraging their favor in spreading the faith of R'hllor.

War broke out in 100 AC, dragging House Toland unwillingly into conflict. For the first couple years of the war, battles were confined to the Red Mountains. However, as the war bled into the Sea of Dorne, House Toland found themselves facing the brunt of the combined forces of the Stormland and Royal Navy, choking off trade and aid. Frustratingly sick and tired of the endless war, Ashlynn reached out to the Iron Throne, as well as the Dornish houses of Jordayne, Santagar, and Dalt, and proposed an alliance.

In early 103 AC, Ashlynn welcomed the clandestine arrival of the Crown's army at Ghost Hill.  A plan was quickly formulated and the surprise attack swiftly launched. The men of Crownlands and the turncloak Dornish attacked Sunspear, and bent the knee of House Martell, whose rulership of the region was brutally ceased, with House Toland put in their place. Ashlynn would be made the first Lady Paramount, Princess of Dorne, and to seal the pact with the Crown, she would marry Aenys Velaryon, her longtime trading partner.

### House Toland under Princess Ashlynn

The first years of the Toland lordship would prove to be peaceful and prosperous. However this would soon change. A group of Dornish smallfolk wanted revenge on the people who sold their kingdom, and ambushed Ashlynn, who was nearly killed if not for the intervention of the High Justicar. Though the attempt failed, several more attempts followed, and Ashlynn quickly fell into a spiral of fear and paranoia, prompting her to begin a reign that was about as cruel as it was short-sighted.

House Toland’s network of carefully placed informants and runners swiftly degraded into little more than groups of hired swords, ready to strike at any perceived enemy. Furthermore she requested additional Justicars to be deployed across the country, to ruthlessly enforce fealty to House Toland.  They became known as the *Sand Judges*. The Crown agreed to such a measure in hopes of keeping the Dornish fighting amongst themselves, instead of coming together to fight to regain their independence.

Ashlynn’s cabal of thugs and ruthless judges grew to vast proportions, leading to disappearances and abuse across the once peaceful lands. The pressure of controlling such a volatile security measure across the domain reached a tipping point, and the juggling act eventually proved too much to maintain.  Dorne became plagued by bandits and small scale rebellions, which crippled Ashlynn’s authority, and destroyed her credibility with the Iron Throne.  In response, in 118 AC, the Crown appointed a new High Justiciar, Lord Martyn Tarbeck, to oversee Ashlynn’s own actions, along with that of the rest of Dorne.

## Recent events

As Princess Ashlyn Toland nears age fifty, she has become deeply indoctrinated within the faith of R’hllor.  Her children begin the herculean task to bridge the rifts that have formed in Dorne, and rebuild Dorne’s defensibility by reinforcing the passes. They hope that a combination of marriage pacts and kingdom-wide feasts will be able to defuse tensions in their country, despite the efforts of the High Justiciar.

The High Justiciar, Lord Martyn Tarbeck, deeply loyal to the Crown, has for the most part ended the unruly and vicious repercussions of Ashlynn's paranoid rule.  At the same time, he is also remains under orders to extinguish any teachings of R’hllor he comes across, through violent means, if necessary.  Some of his men are overzealous with the violence toward the religion, causing much strife in lands committed to the Lord of Light.  Lord Tarbeck recently ordered a culling of the Red Temple in Ghost Hill, in which many helpless followers are injured and slain.  This act of violence is the tipping point for Andrey Toland, who has long resented the High Justiciar's actions, resulting in a duel, which ends with the High Justiciar slain. Andrey is placed under house arrest in King's Landing, and is awaiting trial for his actions.

## Family

The Toland family tree can be checked following this link

**Princess Ashlynn Toland** , b.80

m. Aenys Velaryon, b.80

* Elia Toland, b.105
* m. Benjen Stark, b.97
	+ Vorian Toland b.127
* Andrey Toland, b.105
* m. Rhaella Targaryen b.
* Sarella Toland, b.107
* Quentyn Toland, b.109 d.128
	+ Doran Sand, b.128
* Viserra Toland, b.111
* Aemond Toland, b.111