☀️ GIRL, UNWITHERING.
*NAME: syrene nymeros martell ( née saan ) *TITLE: ruling princess of dorne *AGE: thirty-six *INSP: here !!
——— golden sands shifting within an ornate hourglass; the lingering scent of a perfume no one can identify, which is, in and of itself, its own kind of allure; silken garments and exposed skin as a form of armor; the delicate legs of a spider as it spins silk; the deflective intrigue of the occult; the equal presence of beauty and terror; a trail of smoke off a freshly-blown match, rising to the ether; a gaze not unlike the moon — cosmic and obscured and unreachable; the bloom that hides its thorns; the price of power; the pain of longing.
DETAILS, HISTORY & WANTED CONNECTIONS UNDER THE CUT!
☀️ BASICS.
full name: syrene aelyx nymeros martell ( née saan. )
familiar name: sy ( pronounced like ‘sigh’, reserved for close friends & family ) and syr ( pronounced like ‘ser’, used teasingly by friends or derogatorily by enemies. )
titles: ruling princess of dorne ( by marriage ), princess of the narrow sea ( by family ), the pearl of lys ( by public declaration. )
age: recently celebrated her thirty-sixth nameday.
gender: cis woman.
pronouns: she / her.
sexual orientation: bisexual.
religion: tbd, but likely a mix of existing religions of lys, and only loosely adhered to.
languages, in order of fluency: several of the dialects of low valyrian spoken in the free cities, the common tongue, high valyrian.
allegiance: house martell, a few of the noble houses of essos ( pending wcs ), herself — but her family, most of all.
☀️ PHYSICALITY.
fc: angela sarafyan.
appearance: with the blood of old valyria still strong amongst the people of lys, syrene’s physical attributes reflect what has been written in the history books of the famed valyrian beauties of old.
hair: a soft honey-brown, with natural silver-gold highlights running throughout. kept waist-length and gently curling, and occasionally adorned with beads and headdresses in the dornish fashion.
eyes: pale periwinkle blue, appearing bluer in some lights and purpler in others.
height: 5′8″
notable features: a markedly expressive brow; large, rounded, half-lidded eyes that seem vacant and incisive all at once; fingers adorned with rings; sharp, angular cheekbones.
scent: cloves, saffron, violet, pepper, leather, sandalwood, and oud.
☀️ PERSONALITY.
positive traits: adventurous, confident, disarming, eloquent, observant, gregarious.
neutral traits: calculating, competitive, creative, enigmatic, proud, skeptical.
negative traits: hedonist, machiavellian, narcissistic, reckless, self-indulgent, vengeful.
archetypes: The Explorer; The Femme Fatale; The Thrill-Seeker; tbd.
alignment: dangerous area between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil.
☀️ RELATIONSHIPS.
husband: prince tbd nymeros martell.
children: tbd.
brother-in-law: prince zakar martell.
sister-in-law: princess allyria martell.
ladies-in-waiting, knights, etc.: tbd.
brother(s): various lords utp saan.
paramours: tbd, open to all genders!
☀️ HISTORY.
[ this is v long bc ... what are editing skills ... so there’s a tldr after this section! ]
i. There was a time when House Saan was known only for their long and distinguished lineage of pirate-lords, roaming the seas and shores in search of opportunities to pillage and plunder upon prey and claim others’ riches as theirs. To this day, some would argue that House Saan’s wealth was gained solely through disreputable means. However, those who know best — meaning, those who find themselves a part of families with fortunes rivaling even crowned royals — understand that wealth, along with power, is something to be seized, taken at every opportunity, and built upon throughout the ages for the generations to come.
ii. It’s true; the Saan family once was no better than self-styled Regents of the Narrow Sea, made of lords and ladies content to live a pirate’s life. However, a century ago, one such pirate king had the good sense to build upon his already impressive fleet of ships, amassing an armada to rival those of the Redwynes and the Greyjoys. Once pirates, the House now stood amongst the Lysene as merchants, bankers, shipmasters, and naval advisors. This transition catapulted House Saan to the league of nobility, with numerous royals from both Essos and Westeros courting the family with offers of marriage, gold, and status in exchange for access to even a fraction of the armada. Through this, the titles of Prince and Princess of the Narrow Sea were bestowed upon the family.
iii. Syrene Saan was born into this title, the firstborn girl in a long lineage of firstborn boys turned men turned lords. In some ways, she was treated no differently — taught the intricacies of seacraft and tutored in economics and diplomacy. Yet, at times, she was treated no different than a maiden in a song, confined to a study with her septa and expected to wed once she was of age. The combination of these aspects of her formative years, even in their juxtaposition, resulted in a woman her family could present to the world as one with the naval knowledge of a pirate king, the business savvy of a merchant, and the manner of a queen hiding her secrets behind a smile.
iv. In private, however, her interests were more common. Like her early ancestors, she developed a penchant for gambling games and cultivated a more-than-recreational pastime of palm-reading and other occult practices. Syrene was well-suited to the mystical, not because she was easy to trick into belief, but because she held skepticism and intrigue in equal measure. Once she came of age, she explored her share of Lys’ famed pleasure houses, half for education and half for exploration; her family was called a worldly one, and she only wanted to carry on the tradition.
v. Called the ‘Pearl of Lys’ by the Lysene commonfolk and Essosi nobles alike, her family quickly sought to fashion the pearl into a diamond by way of a marriage alliance with a great house of Westeros. Syrene had little interest in the matter, believing that no person could excite her the way that her own desires did. Love might have been the death of duty, but marriage was the death of adventure.
vi. ( Syrene’s relationship with her husband and his family is tbd, pending plotting with their writers <3 ) Given that Lys was in such close proximity to Dorne, it was only expected that Syrene was soon introduced to the Dornish Prince. The principality was known for its well-trained armies of men and their spears, but what they had long lacked — despite their nearness to the seas — was a proper fleet, one which could rival the royal naval armada should the swirling rumors of Dorne fighting for its independence from the Seven Kingdoms come to fruition. After a long courtship, she married the firstborn Prince of House Martell, and assumed the title of Ruling Princess of Dorne.
vii. With him ( and the role she now played ) came a greater sense of maturity and incisiveness, the kind necessary to sit at the seat of Sunspear alongside her lord husband and be taken seriously at court despite being a foreign bride. Long gone were the days of wild youth, and in their place, a love she never expected and enough responsibility to restrain her most hedonistic impulses — at least, early on. Now, to counteract this price for power, Syrene has taken to indulging once more, again exploring as she can within the bounds placed on those of nobility. There’s a cognitive dissonance at bay, a continuous attempt a balancing the demands of her husband’s political world with the thrill of excitement she’s long pursued. And so, the result is a woman well trained for her station, yet prone to bouts of recklessness when she’s hungry for something the game of thrones cannot provide.
☀️ TLDR.
The firstborn daughter of the newly-noble House Saan, who originated as pirate lords but have become shipcrafters and the owners of one of the world’s largest armadas. In youth, Trained in youth for her eventual station as a ruling lady, but also took to adventuring and exploring to her heart’s content — the byproduct of a wild streak which she has still maintained, though it was subdued for the earlier part of her marriage into House Martell. A known lover of a gambling games, the occult ( namely, palm- and card-reading ), and a supporter of the independence of each of the Seven Kingdoms. Kind of lives by the motto ‘A Little Party Never Killed Nobody’. Gets reckless when she’s bored — meaning she’s forever in search of playthings, puppets, and prey.
☀️ TRAJECTORY.
Right now, I think of Syrene as someone who has one foot firmly planted in the game of thrones and the other in her own desires ( think, Margaery’s political aptitude + Arya’s sense of adventure. ) I personally would like to see something that makes Syrene decisively land in the world of the former and use the training of her formative years and the very real power that is the combined force of her husband’s army and her own family’s armada to see Dorne ( and the other kingdoms ) achieve independence. An ideal trajectory that I’d like to work towards for Syrene is having her penchant for hedonism and such causing certain irreparable mistakes to be made, and a quite serious reckoning to happen as a result — all so that a true player in the game of thrones can emerge from the wreckage of her own, self-wrought chaos.
☀️ WANTED CONNECTIONS.
[ i have several ideas for specific wcs, but it’s late and i have a super early day tomorrow, so I’ll make a more detailed list of wcs very soon! ]
some quick lil generic wcs:
- friends ( i imagine there’s only ... a handful lmao ) - enemies ( probably far more ) - paramours / lovers - current wards of house martell - essosi nobility now in westeros who might view the saan armada as a threat - conversely, essosi nobility with positive relationships to house saan - fellow gamblers / party people - the almost betrothals - members of house saan ( i hc that she has several younger brothers ) - manipulators ( failed or successful ) - fellow occultists - brothel workers / owners ( tbh, i have a hc that syrene financially supports a number of pleasurehouses ) - little birds bc girly loves her gossip okay - advisors / similar roles who would petition her to engage in more charitable efforts - those whose families had connections with hers over the past century ( perhaps a saan relative was their master of ships, that sort of thing ) - anything and everything!! i can’t wait to write with everyone <333
