The Trial of Lorimar Dondarrion

As the dornish war wound down, the sense of elation among the people of the stormlands was palpable. The lords and their armies could return home to celebrate long awaited victories. Three moons after the end of hostilities, another grand feast would be hosted at Storm’s End, as magnificent as Lady Serra’s wedding before the outbreak of war. Some would humorously refer to it as the overdue wedding feast, as two of Lord Roy’s siblings, Cassandra and Devan, had both had their weddings in far more expedient and austere ceremonies during the years of conflict. During the festivities, there was a sense of solidarity among the lords, and of reconciliation in the Baratheon family. Neither was to last long however.
What went unspoken during those happy weeks was that the war had left deeper wounds in men’s hearts than might be apparent at the moment of victory. In truth, the fighting had caused no small amount of resentment within the stormlands themselves. The bloody defeats in the war’s early stages, followed by the harsh conditions of fighting in the mountain passes of Dorne had lead many knights and footmen to resent the men leading them. As celebrations ended, some began to voice their grievances. In time, bitterness simmered, and few names were spared in the taverns and public houses of the Stormlands. Roy Baratheon was criticized for his disastrous attempt at a counter-attack against the invading dornish, and some even questioned his fitness to rule. His brother Devan might have stood to gain from this dissent, if not for the fact that he too stood on the receiving end of it, as even some of the soldiers he’d commanded accused him of losing his temper at the siege of Blackhaven and needlessly assaulting the walls of a castle that was on the verge of surrender, causing heavy and unnecessary casualties. However among the accusations, one stood out as particularly grave.

In the first moon of 104, Ser Guyard Cafferen would approach High Justicar Clyve Caron, alleging that Lord Lorimar Dondarrion had attacked Dorne unprovoked in order to spark war before Lord Roy could meet with Princess Teora Martell to defuse the situation in the red mountains. Roy had come to suspect Lord Lorimar of stoking dissent against him, and summoned him to Storm’s End to explain himself. After refusing to answer one letter and replying only with curt compliance to a second a week later, Lorimar made a belated appearance at Roy’s court, claiming his attack into Dorne had been chasing Dornish raiders who had initiated the conflict, and that Dorne’s seeming acceptance of diplomacy had been a ruse to launch the invasion by surprise. He accused his former retainer Guyard Cafferen of slander and disloyalty, but Cafferen was soon joined by more witnesses. Roy authorized Clyve Caron to make further inquiries. Lorimar protested repeatedly, arguing that Roy was insulting him by giving credence to slander. Meanwhile, dissent and rumors against Roy’s leadership in the first months of the war only seemed to spread. Roy had come to suspect Lorimar of propagating these, and so paid no mind to the lord’s complaints. When Guyard Cafferen was found dead a month into the inquiry, Lorimar was instantly summoned to a trial.
As his fellow judges, Roy appointed Edric Connington and Barristan Buckler, two of his most respected generals. The Storming Trial as it came to be known, would reopen old wounds of war left and right. Several witnesses were called against Lorimar Dondarrion, and most testimonies quickly devolved into arguments, as the Lord of Blackhaven would defend himself fiercely while striking back at his accusers with a tongue of black steel. Roy only grew more aggravated with his bannerman as affairs dragged on, elongated by constant shouts and exchanges of insults. During the trial, Devan Baratheon would speak in his father-in-law’s defense, tearing into his older brother with accusations that seemed to mirror many of those leveled at Roy by disgruntled soldiers and commoners. The marcher lords meanwhile, stood by Lorimar, with one even arguing that even if it were true that Lorimar had started the war, it would only have been a matter of time before the dornish had done so themselves. The rest of the lords were remained unmoved by this argument, and Lorimar did little to endear himself to them with his aggressive arguments.

Finally, sensing the court turn against him, Lorimar demanded trial by combat, only to be denied, with Roy arguing that the weight of evidence against the lord of Blackhaven dispelled any uncertainty, rendering trial by combat unnecessary. When given the choice between the block and the wall, Lorimar was on the verge of choosing death out of spite when his daughter Jena pleaded with him to take the black. Seing his wife so despondent, Devan joined her in trying to convince Lorimar to go to the wall. Lorimar departed for castle black in the sixth moon of 104. His trial had shown that despite standing united against the dornish threat not one year ago, the stormlords were far from united. Devan had made a great effort to fram himself as a popular alternative to Roy, however the trial made him realize his base of support was not large enough for him to challenge his brother. Their conflict would be left to simmer for the remainder of Roy’s reign