Because I honestly only got into the Dorne fandom because they don't deserve Dorne or House Martell in general. I have an AO3 account under wingsofthenight if you want to check that out ^^
entranced recently not by “i can fix him” or “i can make him worse” but the “something deeply wrong with him and i want to be around as like a spectator when the car crash inevitably happens” dynamic
break up your paragraphs. big paragraphs are scary, your readers will get scared
fuuuuck epithets. “the other man got up” “the taller woman sat down” “the blonde walked away” nahhh. call them by their names or rework the sentence. you can do so much better than this (exception: if the reader doesn’t know the character(s) you’re referring to yet, it’s a-okay to refer to them by an identifying trait)
blunette is not a thing
new speaker, new paragraph. please.
“said” is such a great word. use it. make sweet love to it. but don’t kill it
use “said” more than you use synonyms for it. that way the use of synonyms gets more exciting. getting a sudden description of how a character is saying something (screaming, mumbling, sighing) is more interesting that way.
if your summary says “I suck at summaries” or “story better than summary” you’re turning off the reader, my dude. your summary is supposed to be your hook. you gotta own it, just like you’re gonna own the story they’re about to read
follow long sentences w short ones and short ones w long ones. same goes for paragraphs
your writing is always better than you think it is. you just think it’s bad because the story’s always gonna be predicable to the one who’s writing it
the ancient greek prostitute phryne was so beautiful that she got out of capital punishment by taking off her clothes and showing off how beautiful her body was- because clearly she had been blessed by the goddess of beauty, aphrodite- and honestly? if i were her i’d abuse the fuck out of that system. like, get a speeding ticket? my boobs say otherwise, officer. don’t want to turn in an assignment? out come the honkers. get taken to court for murdering a man who catcalls me? sorry, your honor, these tiddies are too divine to be held to the lowly laws of mortal men
I love when people try to bag on Meria Martell for not “kneeling” and “letting her people suffer”. If Meria was such a terrible ruler her people could have very easily turned on her and ran into Aegon’s arms if they wanted too. They never did. Not even the small folk. The conflict went on for years after Meria. Dorne never submitted because Dorne never wanted to and as much as it burns your little insides they are the only kingdom to be unconquered.
Even the “conquest of dorne” was a tragic military failure that lasted only what two or three years? With the small folk doing most of the rebelling after the nobles “knelt” and ended up with thousands upon thousands of Daeron’s people dead including himself.
Only for Dorne to continue being independent 😌
Now stop trying to hide your blatant bias and go Stan the king who knelt. Emphasis on kneeler, sorry your favorite self insert’s kingdom didn’t have the energy Dorne did 😌
Stay mad that Dorne never knelt and ONLY joined the Targaryens through marriage 😌.
title:In Your Arms (Tonight)
rating: g
characters/pairings: Ashara Dayne, Elia Martell, Ashara Dayne/Elia Martell
word count: 764
summary: They had been separated once before, and Ashara refused to let it happen again.
When Ashara had received the cipher letter from House Gargalen, she'd left Starfall that very evening, kissing her sweet mother goodbye with tears wetting her face. It had been a strange moment, just before she pulled away from her mama's embrace, when she realized that she might not see them again – her mama, young Allyria sheltered at the Water Gardens, or stern Anwar who was still marching home. There were no thoughts to Arthur – missing since the abduction of the Stark girl, an event he was likely a party in. In truth, at the moment the sadness that should have filled her heart to overflow at such thoughts was eclipsed by a feeling she had thought lost to her – hope. Hope and joy, revived in her the moment she recognized the cipher she and Elia had used, even when written in Elia's off hand there could be no arguments who had written the letter.
Her passage to Salt Shore was easy to gain – almost shockingly so with the war so recently ended... but of course there was still the question in the air if it was truly over, with the new that a Princess of Dorne and her babies were so brutally murdered beyond the Red Mountains. She had never been a lover of sea travel, she was not sickened by the experience but there was no joy in the rocking of waves against the ship. Kaspar Sand – a knight in service to House Dayne and her shield and sword for the journey, with the express orders that he is to leave upon her delivery into the hands of the aged Nymor Gargalen – tried to keep her spirits up through the days, as it was no secret that she had become solemn and withdrawn since her return from Dragonstone but she dared not tell him the truth behind their midnight flight.
It was in the dark that was the hardest times. Lying awake in bed, Ashara found she could not sleep. Her heart hadn't calmed since she'd broken the cockatrice seal and even re-reading the words by candle did nothing to stop the thrumming of the blood in her veins.
Never before had she visited Salt Shore. She knew that Elia's grandmother had been a Gargalen, that Prince Doran had squired for Lord Nymor. And then, of course, there was the legend of the house's formation. The patterns within within the walls of the castle are breathtaking, red and yellow tiles telling the story of Calor the Tracker's journey to avenge his father's murder at the hand of The Black Snake – which lead him all the way to the Summer Sea, to Dorne. Salt Shore stood where The Black Snake fell, so Calor's descendants – who went on to form House Gargalen using Calor's own cockatrice sigil clutching the serpent who had brought them there – would be ready if he rose again.
So it must have been the gods will that it is in Salt Shore that Ashara is led through the labyrinthine passageways Calor's sons had designed so his foe might never see the light of the sun again – to the sight of her sun.
The first time Ashara had seen Elia Martell, Princess of Dorne, the sun itself had been behind her and cast her beauty into an ethereal image that would forever be painted into her mind. Now, her face is illuminated by candlelight. She gasps softly before she rises from the bed where – gods above – little Rhae sits up sleepily. Aeg is nestled beside his sister but stays on sleeping, despite the movement. Elia's smile is radiant, her black eyes tired but so soft still that Ashara can feel the love she feared cold and dead forever in her heart spread down to the tips of her toes.
“I thought, maybe, you would not come.”
“Always, El,” it's barely a whisper but Elia's smile widens, and Ashara glides past Tremond Gargalen to wrap her arms aroung her sun, who would never burn her, who had not scorned her love but nurtured it gently with love of her own. She is thinner than she was, which should not be possible but Ashara refuses to let her mind linger on that. Elia and her children are here, her arms are full of love and hope.
Elia returns her embrace with her all, leaning into her and holding her so tightly that even if Ashara were to break she would keep Elia in her arms. They had been separated once before, and Ashara refused to let it happen again.
she's left handed, 5'0 feet tall, and she started greying by the age of 25 and she didn't bother to dye her hair to hide it
though she became the princess of dorne at 17, aliandra's father's failing health meant that she did not come into the role unexpectedly. she had a strong rapport with all the ladies and lords in dorne as heir so the transition to her rule was quite smooth.
she had every reason to believe that she was nymeria 2.0. her actions brought great prosperity and wealth to dorne as well as new connections
like nymeria, aliandra never actually fought battles but she convinced her lords to do it for her. raiding the dornish marches might have soured dorne's relationship with the other kingdoms but aliandra was far more interested in essos as she should be since westeros was recovering from the dance of dragons
she never had any sexual or romantic relationships with alyn. instead she sort to form a bond with the man in order to gain a foothold in king's landing with its ever revolving politics. her brother almost became princess baela's husband so aliandra had an interest in gaining influence in the red keep
dorne experienced a surge in trading through her marriage to drazenko. unlike the targaryens, aliandra made sure to treat her rogare husband right which gave her access to the banking family's wealthy clientele
after her husband's assassination, aliandra made sure to marry two of her children to essosi noble families while the rest of her children had dornish consorts
these connections that she made are what ultimately helped the unnamed prince of dorne and maron martell rebuild after the failed conquest of dorne by daeron i
she is one of the most revered rulers of dorne, for not only expanding the terrority but expanding dorne's trade ties to the east
personally i think she functions as foreshadowing for arianne's role as the future princess of dorne (after aegon dies)
To end Summer is For Dorne in style, we're organising an Elia Martell mini event starting from August 28th- August 31st. With @blind4lcve organising a Rhaenys and Aegon week at the end of July, I figured it would be fitting if we celebrated their mother exactly a month later.
I'll be posting the prompts soon. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with.
I would’ve finished this ages ago but I was being silly and left it… ANYWAYS HOOOOO both Oberyn and Ellaria are my one true love- like literally, they’re Gomez and Morticia just in a different font (I won’t listen to any arguments on that).
Dorne hiding the number of soldiers it can field and letting the other kingdoms think it can bring 50,000 soldiers to any battle is so funny to me because every single time there’s a huge war and everyone is calling their banners and bringing every soldier they can but Dorne shows up with like 10-20,000 soldiers and everyone else seething because they’re so committed but Dorne is only using a fraction of its army what the hell
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
2087
baratheonpilled
jacobvanloon
theartofmadeline
