Meet Ravella Sand. She is a sixteen year old who remains neutral in the war. She could be the doppelganger of Jessica Kennedy Parker. She is currently taken.
There was no corner of the world that was safe for an orphaned bastard girl. Not even Dorne that prided itself on its progressive views was free of its dangers. That was something Ravella learned very early on out of necessity. She’d been born to a whore in Sunspear and her father remained unknown. When her mother was still alive, Ravella never contemplated who her father might be. To her, their life had been normal and her mother had been a loving woman. The money she made in the brothel had been spent making her sure her daughter was well taken care of, but that only lasted so long.
Ravella was only six when sickness took her mother away leaving the little bastard girl without a place to go. She fled the brothel, but that left her without a home and no money to buy food for herself. Always a sharp child, she learned to get by stealing food and other items she needed to live. At first, she was always getting caught which made the first few weeks without her mother very tiring. Some nights, she was so hungry she thought she might join her mother in one of the seven heavens, but she kept on pushing. She wanted to grow up to be the woman that would make her mother proud. Eventually, she got better with the stealing though she never stole more food than she needed. Ravella was not selfish, she was merely trying to survive in a world that wasn’t designed for her.
Sometimes she would steal food for the other orphaned children of Sunspear living on the streets. They never spoke much, but those children were struggling as she did which made them family in a way. The merchants could live with a little less bread, but the kids like her couldn’t. It was when she was nine that she befriended a little boy named Daryn. An orphan like her, he had learned to fight for himself. It was with him that she began learning how to duel using wooden sticks. She didn’t like the idea of needlessly harming others, but protecting people, herself included, was something she wished to do. Perhaps rape and beating children was frowned upon in Dorne yet there were always exceptions. Ravella had seen first hand the vile things that people could do and she had always felt a sense of guilt for hiding away as it happened. The memory of one of the girls she used to play with being carted away by some wine merchant still haunted her and with the lessons Daryn taught her, perhaps she could save others.
Daryn was no knight and he was no master of swordplay, but Ravella was determined. Eventually, he used what little coin he had to get her a real blade. It was nothing fancy, but it worked just as well. As she grew older, she used it as she had always dreamed she would. She had a natural talent with agility which made her fairly hard to beat, not that she ever attacked without warrant. The only time she ever drew her sword was in practice or to protect innocent people. It was when she was fifteen that Prince Doran had discovered her doing the latter. It was a day that had changed her whole life.
When Prince Doran had found her, she had been dueling with the same wretched wine merchant who had taken her friend Serra away. Infuriated to see him taking off with another little orphan girl, Ravella challenged him to a duel. Doran saw this and stopped the fight, asking what had brought it on. When she explained, Doran seemed to believe her. As it turned out, that very merchant had been suspected of selling orphans as slaves and she had done well in saving the little girl she was fighting for. Impressed with the skills she was able to learn on the streets and her spirit to do what was right, Doran asked if she was interested in taking steps towards becoming a knight. Ravella couldn’t refuse being able to do a job that stood for the things she believed in so she accepted his offer to squire for his brother, Prince Oberyn Martell.
For the most part, she enjoys being Oberyn’s squire though she thinks him to be a bit naive. Dorne is better than most other places in the world, but it has its atrocities just as anywhere would and Ravella is sure to point as much out to Oberyn in hopes he’ll better see the world as it truly is.
blakekathryn
yousharknotpass
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
prguitarman
amandla
