#hellholt

[atopvisenyashill]

Dorne in the ASOIAF Calendar

March 2025 -> the Hellholt by Eddie Mendoza

Hellholt, a string castle in the river Brimstone, was thought to be well situated to deal with any revolts. But the river was sulfurous, and the fish taken from it made the Highgardeners sick.

[sebeth]

TWOIAF/Fire & Blood: The End Of The First Dornish War

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

  The last installment ended with the Dornish War’s most famous fatalities: Queen Rhaenys and Meraxes.

10 to 12 AC are referred to as the Dragon’s Wroth. Every castle in Dorne, except Sunspear, were burned thrice over by Balerion and Vhagar. The sands around the Hellholt (the site of Rhaenys’ death) were fused into glass.

Why was Sunspear spared the repeated destruction? Was it an attempt to turn the Dornish against the Martells ala “see how you suffer while your lords do nothing”?

The Dornish lords went into hiding but were still pursued by Targaryen forces. Aegon the Conquerer had offered a “lord’s ransom in gold for the head of any Dornish lord, leading to the deaths of Lord Fowler, Lady Vaith, Lady Toland, and four successive Lords of the Hellholt.

Only two of the killers lived to collect their rewards and the Dornish repaid blood with blood: “Lord Connington of Griffin’s Roost was killed while hunting, Lord Mertyns of Mistwood poisoned with his whole household by a cask of Dornish wine, Lord Fell smothered in a brothel in King’s Landing.

Dornish assassins attacked Aegon thrice and he “would have fallen on two of those occasions but for his guards. They also attacked Visenya and her escorts – two were slain before Visenya killed the last attacker with Dark Sister.

The “infamous act of that bloody age” occurred in 12 AC, when Wyl of Wyl, the Widow-lover, crashed the wedding of Ser Jon Cafferen, heir to Fawntown, to Alys Oakheart, daughter of the Lord of Old Oak. Admitted into the area by a treacherous servant, Wyl and his forces “slew Lord Oakheart and most of the wedding guests, then made the bride look on as they gelded her husband. Afterward they took turns raping Lady Alys and her handmaids, then carried them off and sold them to a Myrish slaver.”

I would have used “disgusting” instead of “Infamous”. The Oakheart-Cafferen wedding is as horrifying as the Red Wedding. Worse in many aspects. In the Red Wedding, the Freys, Lannisters, Boltons, and Starks were active participants in the War of the Five Kings. The attack during the wedding was treacherous, cowardly, and terrible but the Northern and Riverlands lords did have targets on their back.

The attack on the Cafferen-Oakheart wedding seemed to be picking a random Stormlands and Reach family and deciding to unleash hell for kicks.

Did Tywin Lannister read about the Cafferen-Oakheart wedding in a history book and think to himself: “I can top that”.

By the way, Dorne is now a “smoking desert, beset by famine, plague, and blight – referred to as a “blasted land” by traders from the Free Cities.

The book states that the Martells remained “Unbowed, Unbent, and Unbroken”. It might be true for the Martells but their land has been annihilated.

In 13 AC, Meria Martell died (while having sex with a stallion, according to her enemies). How very Catherine the Great of her!

Meria’s son, Nymor, becomes the Prince of Dorne. Nymor is tired of war and sends his Deria, his daughter, to King’s Landing, to propose peace terms.

Deria and her fellow Dornish didn’t receive a warm welcome. Queen Visenya declared “No peace without submission” and Orys Baratheon suggested removing a hand from Deria before sending her back to Dorne. Lord Oakheart, father of Alys, wanted her sold to the “meanest brothel in King’s Landing”.

Aegon rejected all the proposals by stating that an “envoy under a banner of peace would suffer no harm under his roof.”

Grand Maester Lucan wrote Aegon was weary of war but couldn’t see a way to end the war due to the following reasons:

·         Queen Rhaenys’ death would have been in vain

·         It could inspire rebellions from other regions

·         The Reach, the Stormlands, and the Marches had suffered horrendously would neither forgive or forget

Aegon almost refused the peace terms when Deria handed him a letter from her father.  Aegon read the letter while gripping the Iron Throne so hard he cut himself open. He left for Dragonstone and returned the next day, accepting the peace terms. He signed a treaty of eternal peace with Dorne. Aegon must have forgotten to explain the “eternal” part to his descendants as this is the end of the First Dornish War.

No one knows the content of the letter but a few possibilities are put forth:

·         A simple plea from one father to another

·         A list of all the lords and noble knights who lost their lives during the war

·         Septons suggest in was an ensorcelled missive, using Meria’s blood, and Aegon was unable to resist its “malign magic”

·         The threat of hiring a Faceless Men of Braavos to kill Aenys, Aegon’s heir

It’s not mentioned in the books but fans have theorized the letter could have contained an offer to end a still-alive Rhaeny’s suffering or that her bones had been returned to Dragonstone.

I’m not sure why Aegon would keep the return of Rhaenys’s bones a secret. Wouldn’t he want a state funeral for his beloved sister-wife? If the offer was the return of Rhaneys’s bones did Aegon ever tell Visenya, Orys, and Rhaenys about it? Surely they would have the right to know.

I doubt the letter contained magic. The Faceless Man threat is a possibility. It would explain why Aegon never told Visenya the contents of the letter. I could see her going nuclear on Dorne if she knew of the threat – and Sunspear would no longer be spared.

So what did the two idiots (Aegon & Meria) achieve during this decade-long pissing match:

On Aegon’s side we have:

·         The death of a sister-wife and mother of his heir

·         The death of a dragon – one of the weapons that made the Conquest possible

·         The mutilation of a brother – one who underwent a marked personality change as a result of his captivity

·         Thousands dead, and the suffering and mutilation of thousands more

 On Meria’s side we have:

·         Dorne turned into a “blasted land”  of plague, famine, and desolation

·         Thousands dead, and the suffering of thousands more

 Both sides are idiots and I’m equally disgusted with the Targaryens and Meria Martell.

Aegon’s obsession with unifying the Seven Kingdoms (and satisfying his own ego) led to a brutal war that he justified by his “dragon dream” of an unknown threat from the North.

The only finished product in the ASOIAF-verse is the show and what was Dorne’s contribution to the Long Night, round 2? Nothing! Maybe there was an unnamed Dornish in the Night’s Watch.  If I had to guess, it won’t be much different in the books. Oberyn and Quentyn took themselves out due to ego and stupidity. The rest of House Martell will be wiped out in the upcoming Dany-Faegon confrontation. Dorne’s forces will suffer in that same confrontation so we’re not going to see them in the North fighting wights.

Meria’s refusal to negotiate with Aegon due to her own ego led to thousands of Dornish deaths. Harrenhal and the Field of Fire had happened by this death. She refused to treat with Aegon, knowing it would result in thousands of Dornish deaths, and she did not care as she had to remain “unbowed, unbent, unbroken”. Horrible woman. And if your country has undergone such destruction, they gossip over it on another continent, you are in fact “broken”.

The aftermath of the war led to the normally tense relations between the Stormlands/the Reach and Dorne to escalate to intense hatred – which would cause issues for generations to come.

Dorne’s reputation would suffer – they would be known as treacherous, untrustworthy cowards. Not to mention the years/decades it took to fully recover from the Dragon’s Wroth.

Up next, Aegon has accomplishments that don’t involve mass-killings.

[cotton-candy-merc]

Impact Over Hellholt

But as Meraxes banked above the Hellholt, a defender atop the castle's highest tower triggered a scorpion, and a yard-long iron bolt caught the queen's dragon in the right eye. Meraxes did not die at once, but came crashing to earth in mortal agony, destroying the tower and a large section of the Hellholt's curtain wall in her death throes. -- Fire and Blood, George R.R. Martin

[dornedaily]

Sand and scorpions, and bleak red mountains baking in the sun... This is Dorne.

[lostchildofthenewworld]

The Ullers when they first saw Meraxes circling the skies over Hellholt

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Do you have any speculation about the relationship of Ellaria Sand and her father? I'm curious of her situation in WoW beeing "retired to her father's seat". Is it common for bastards to be raised by their highborn family in Dorne, than in the rest of Westeros? Or could it be that Ellaria's situation is rare? Thank you very much for your blog, it's a treasure!

Dorne has different customs and attitudes towards bastards than the rest of Westeros.

They are not greatly concerned if a child is born in wedlock or out of it, especially if the child is born to a paramour. Many lords—and even some ladies—have paramours, chosen for love and lust rather than for breeding or alliance. –The World of Ice and Fire

I figure Ellaria’s mother was probably Harmen Uller’s paramour, his official mistress. I don’t know if she was raised at Hellholt, though the fact that she’s “returning to her father’s seat” does suggest she lived there, and I really don’t see any reason to think otherwise. Especially since we have the example of Daemon Sand, the Bastard of Godsgrace, who Oberyn introduces to Tyrion in the same sentence as his father, Ryon Allyrion. And though Shae says Ellaria was “almost a whore” when she met Oberyn, I figure that’s probably just wishful thinking on her behalf. (As Ellaria’s position – the publicly acknowledged paramour of a wealthy, handsome, and powerful man – would have been Shae’s dream job.)

Furthermore, what we know of Harmen Uller suggests he and Ellaria get along well:

I have a raven, Arianne thought, triumphantly, but who to send her to?[…] Arianne finally decided that she had but two real hopes: Harmen Uller, Lord of Hellholt, and Franklyn Fowler, Lord of Skyreach and Warden of the Prince’s Pass.Half of the Ullers are half-mad, the saying went, and the other half are worse. Ellaria Sand was Lord Harmen’s natural daughter. She and her little ones had been locked away with the rest of the Sand Snakes. That would have made Lord Harmen wroth, and the Ullers were dangerous when wroth. Too dangerous, perhaps. The princess did not want to put any more lives in danger.

–AFFC, The Princess in the Tower

So, Arianne thinks that Harmen would be angered at the imprisonment of his bastard daughter and grandchildren. Harmen was also present among Oberyn’s group of Dornish lords that went to King’s Landing, with no mention of any unease he’d have with Ellaria… and he was also present at the welcoming dinner for Balon Swann in Sunspear, again with no problems. It’s very likely that Ellaria and her daughter Loreza accompanied her father on his trip back to the Hellholt.

So, Ellaria is probably going home – that is, where she was born as Harmen Uller’s natural daughter, and where she was raised. (Hopefully TWOW will give us a few more details.) It is an unusual situation for the rest of Westeros, but not for Dorne. I hope that helps!

[pre-gameofthrones]

FFG: Game of Thrones - Hellholt by Hieronymus7Z

It was at Hellholt where the Dornish had their greatest success against the Targaryens. A bolt from a scorpion pierced the eye of Meraxes, and the great dragon and the queen who rode upon it fell from the sky. In her death throes, the dragon destroyed the castle's highest tower and part of the curtain wall. Queen Rhaenys's body was never returned to King's Landing.

[sebeth]

TWOIAF/Fire & Blood: The Beginning of the Dornish War

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

 Aegon Targaryen has one more item to mark off his conquering checklist: Dorne.

Aegon tries a soft approach for nearly a year: he sent septons, maesters, and high lords to treat with Princess Meria Martell. She wasn’t interested. In 4 AC, the first Dornish War begun.

Rhaenys descended unto Planky Town and set the floating town ablaze. Meanwhile, Orys Baratheon led a thousand knights up the Boneway while Aegon marched through the Prince’s Pass with an army of 30,000. Lord Harlan Tyrell, Warden of the South, accompanied Aegon’s Army.

No word on Visenya – she must have stayed behind to govern the realm. Personally, I would have switched Rhaenys for Visenya.  No offense to Rhaenys – she’s a skilled dragonrider and participated in the Field of Fire and the Last Storm, so she has the Targaryen ruthlessness in her but her strengths seemed to be in the diplomatic/”soft power” areas and Visenya is the more vicious, highly skilled warrior. Was this personal for Rhaenys? Did she feel she failed in her initial visit to Dorne while her siblings/spouses succeeded in their visits to Westeros? Was this return to Dorne a chance to redeem herself?

Aegon’s armies marched into Dorne and found the watchtowers deserted, the fields burned, the livestock destroyed, and the wells poisoned. His forces were running short of food well before they reached the Dornish sands.

The Dornish are vicious – even to themselves. They are destroying their own lands to repel invaders but it’s at a great cost to themselves – Dorne isn’t known for its vast resources.

Thus begins a pattern of invade-retreat-guerrilla warfare-war crimes that would last for the next nine years!

A few highlights (lowlights?) of round one (4 AC to 6 AC) of the near-decade long war:

·         Lord Tyrell lost a quarter of his men and almost all his horses to the Dornish sands

·         Orys Baratheon’s forces were wiped out except for a dozen lords and himself – they became captives of the “Widow-lover” Wyl of Wyl

·         Rhaenys took Lemonwood, Spottswood, and Stinkwater but only found old women and children

·         Aegon took Skyreach, Yronwood, and the Tor; he also engaged in a one on one duel with the Champion of Ghost Hill only to discover it was Lord Toland’s fool

·         Aegon and Rhaenys descended on Sunspear only to discover no one was home – Aegon declared victory by default.

·         Aegon offered rewards for the heads of the missing Dornish lords and ladies; he also named castellans and stewards for the newly won Dornish castles – the most important nomination being the naming of Lord Rosby as the Castellan of Sunspear and Warden of the Sands

·         Aegon then gave the “good job, team. Let’s go home” speech and he and his forces returned to King’s Landing

·         The missing Dornish returned with a vengeance as soon as the Targaryen forces left Dorne

·         The Dornish recaptured their castle within a fortnight and slaughtered the royal garrisons.

·         Stewards and castellans were “allowed to die only after a long torment. It was said that the Dornish lords had a wager over who could keep their captives alive the longest while dismembering them.”

·         Lord Rosby was dragged to the top of the Spear Tower and then thrown from a window by Princess Meria Martell.

·         King Aegon had left Lord Tyrell and his forces to hold Hellholt and he had to deal with constant attacks from House Qorgyle of Sandstone and House Vaith of Vaith.

·         Lord Tyrell gathered his forces to march on Sunspear once he learned of Lord Rosby’s defenestration of Sunpear.  Somewhere east of Hellholt, Lord Tyrell and his entire army disappeared.

Aegon had his brother/best friend/Hand of the King taken hostage, his Warden of the South killed, a lord of the Crownlands executed, and lost thousands of men in the attack. Meria had multiple towns burned and lost hundreds/thousands of Dornish lives. Do Aegon and Meria attempt to make a compromise? No! The degenerate into “an endless bloody series of atrocities, raids, and retaliations, broken up by long periods of inactivity, a dozen short truces, and numerous murders and assassinations.

More year-by-year lowlights:

7 AC:

·         Orys Baratheon and the other captive lords were returned after being ransomed for their weight in gold. The Widow-lover lopped off each man’s sword hand before releasing his hostages. King Aegon retaliated by unleashing Balerion on the mountain fortresses of the Wyls. I wonder if Argella Durandon missed her husband while he was held captive or if it was more of a case “hope he’s dead”?

8 AC:

·         Dornish raiders attack towns and villages along the south shore of Cape Wrath, and set fires through half the rainwood.

·         Visenya Targaryen burns Lemonwood, Ghost Hill, and the Tor.

9 AC:

·         Visenya and Aegon return to Dorne and burn Sandstone, Vaith, and the Hellholt.

10 AC

·         Lord Fowler of Dorne leads and army through the Prince’s Pass and into the Reach, capturing Nightsong and burning a dozen villages. Lord ManfredHightower sent his son Addam with a strong force to retake Nightsong,

·         A second Dornish army under Ser Joffrey Dayne attacked Oldtown. The Dornish were unable to take Oldtown but burned fields, farms, and villages for twenty leagues around the city. Joffrey Dayne kills Garmon Hightower, Lord Hightower’s younger son.

·         Ser Addam Hightower reached Nightsong only to discover that Lord Fowler had torched the castle and executed the garrison. Lord Caron, his wife, and children were taken back to Dorne as captives.

·         Addam returned to Oldtown to relieve the city but the Dornish had retreated to Dorne.

·         Lord Manfred Hightower dies and Addam succeeds him as the Lord of Oldtown.

·         Aegon approaches Theo Tyrell over a 2nd Dornish invasion but he is hesitant considering the fate of his father in the previous war.

·         The three Targaryens unleash their dragons on Dorne: Aegon attacked Skyreach “vowing to make the Fowler seat a second Harrenhal”, Visenya brought fire and blood to Starfall, and Rhaenys returned to Hellholt only for Meraxes to be shot down by a scorpion bolt. Rhaneys and Meraxes die on impact. The three Targaryens unleashed their dragons on Dorne: Aegon attacked Skyreach “vowing to make the Fowler seat a second Harrenhal”, Visenya brought fire and blood to Starfall, and Rhaenys returned to Hellholt only for Meraxes to be shot down by a scorpion bolt.

·         Meraxes died shortly after impact but no one knows the exact time of Rhaeny’s death: “Some say she lost her seat and fell to her death, others that she was crushed beneath Meraxes in the castle yard. A few accounts claim the queen survived her dragon’s fall, only to die a slow death by torment in the dungeons of the Ullers.” I hope for Rhaenys’s sake that she died upon/shortly after attack because life under Dornish captors would make life under Ramsay Bolton look pleasant.

Three more years into this stupid war and what has Aegon or Meria gained? Nothing beneficial! More destruction of towns and farms on both sides. The Caron family has been taken captive/killed, and the Hightowers lost a father and a son. On a personal level, Aegon and Visenya lost their sister-wife and had a brother mutilated. Aenys lost his mother at three-years old! All this violence and bloodshed because of two vindictive egos!

Up next, the Dragon’s Wroth, the atrocities continue, and a tenuous cease-fire.