Location: Sunspear, on the beginning of the 3rd week of the 1st month of 21 AC, Event 03, Chapter 3
After having given her guests a couple of days to arrive, settle in and rest after their long and arduous journey, the Ruling Princess of Dorne then assembled everyone in the magnificent throne room housed within the Tower of the Sun. As the hum of whispers and conversation finally quietened down, the highly respected Princess Deria finally arose from her seat of gold inlaid with the Martell spear on its back and addressed the crowd of nobles and Targaryen royals. Sunlight streamed in through the many coloured glasses of the room casting almost an ethereal glow around the Dornish beauty and making the glossy marble floor of the room seem luminescent. Her naturally calm and elegant face uplifted into a beaming smile as she began to speak in her usual regal and warm manner.
"My esteemed guests, it is with great honour and gratitude that my family and I welcome you Sunspear; where the sun never forgets to shine, even after the longest of shadows. We gather not merely for celebration, though there is much to celebrate. Today, we stand at the meeting point of histories long set apart. Of paths that have crossed in fire, in grief, and in pride—and yet, still lead us here.” She paused briefly as she quickly glanced through the assembly, before she continued in her composed tone though there was an unmistakable gentleness now in her gaze and voice.
“There are those among us who remember when our banners faced one another across the field. When loss was counted not in numbers, but in names. Such memories do not vanish simply because we wish them to.”
“Nor should they. For it is only by remembering the cost of division that we may understand the worth of unity.”
She then turned slightly to her firstborn Crown Prince Qoren Martell, and to Princess Viserra Targaryen beside him.
“These two stand before us not as symbols alone, but as a promise. A promise that the future need not be bound to the wounds of the past. That what was forged in conflict may yet be remade in purpose.” Her gaze lifted once more to the gathered court.
“Peace is not the absence of strength. It is the discipline to wield it wisely. And alliance is not born of convenience, but of choice, renewed again and again.” Her hands folded lightly before her. “Let it be known that Dorne does not forget who she is. Nor do we ask any of you to forget who you are. But we ask this—” Deria inclined her head slightly as her voice lifted.
“That you stand here, today, not as remnants of what was… but as stewards of what may yet be.”
“With the union of my son, Qoren Martell, and Princess Viserra Targaryen, we do not simply bind two houses. We lay the foundation for something stronger than either alone: an alliance not easily broken, not lightly shaken. Let the past be honored—but not obeyed.”
“And let the future begin here.”
And with that Deria turned with a loving smile towards her firstborn daughter Arianne who then gracefully got up from her seat before starting to brief the crowd on what festivities they could participate in during the celebrations
Below are the official activities open to attending characters during the third event:
1. The Desert Race
At first light of tenth day, riders will gather beyond Sunspear at the Sandgate Fields, where the desert begins and the race takes form.
Spanning roughly thirty to forty kilometers, the course winds through open sands, towering dunes, rocky crossings, and heat-warped stretches that test both instinct and endurance. This is no simple race of speed: riders must pace themselves beneath the rising sun, navigate treacherous terrain, and choose wisely when to push forward or hold back.
The course moves from the Ember Reach into the Vaith River March, then continues through the Broken Steppe and the Red Dune Expanse, with designated checkpoints marking each stage of the race. Riders are tested at every stop, where pace, endurance, and control are reassessed under increasingly punishing conditions. The route then leads into the Shimmering Hollow before a final return via the Sunline approach to Sunspear, where the last checkpoint transitions into the final sprint home.
Minimal interference are allowed such as bumping, blocking, cutting off paths. No lethal sabotage but clever tricks are admired. Water stations in large tents constructed for a brief rest exist but are limited.
The race is expected to last about three to four hours, with victory awarded not to the swiftest alone, but to the rider who best masters the desert itself. In Dorne, survival is as worthy a triumph as speed, and only those who endure both will cross the line to claim the title of the Sun’s Chosen Rider.
The winner will also be awarded with a prized desert horse and gold.
Participants are encouraged by Princess Deria Martell to make use of their famed and exquisite Dornish sand steeds loaned out for the purpose of the race, though they are also welcomed to use their own horses if so desired.
2. Grand Bazaars:
Bazaars like you've never experienced before would be set up within the Winding Walls. Dornish trade wealth is on full display with silks, spices and gemstones.
Merchants from far and wide have been invited, including several from Essos and some from Yi Ti, to peddle their highly varied range of exotic and extraordinary wares.
3. Feasts & Performances:
Every night, the vast feasting hall in the Old Palace would host feasts featuring tropical, native Dornish delicacies many of which are accompanied with well-known Dornish spices.
Guests with different talents are also invited/ encouraged to perform on stage during the feasts as part of their wedding gifts to the betrothed royal couple.
4. Silk-painting
With Dorne famous for painting their own silks and to celebrate their ever-booming silk industry, guests are hence invited to witness silk-painting processes during the 2nd to 4th day of the festivities in the gardens near the Sandship.
Guests are also permitted to try their hand at it under guidance and may take home their creations.
5. Water Gardens:
In celebration of the wedding, the favorite private oasis retreat of the Martells are now fully opened to all guests. The tranquil gardens have been expanded with more pools and new artistic fountains and waterworks have been added to make the experience there even more pleasurable and awe-inspiring.
6. The Sunlit Audience Walk
Held in Throne Room in the Tower of the Sun during mornings of the first few days
Guests form a shifting procession line as each noble house approach the betrothed couple briefly.
They can present wedding gifts in the form of spoken or ritualistic blessings or symbolic tokens ( ring, cloths, spice, coin, etc.)
OOC info:
The festivities would last for 10 days in-character whilst threads can take place till the 30th of May ( extended ) with a major plot drop! Though there will be a couple of mini plot drops happening during the event so keep your eyes peeled for them hehe
The official wedding ceremony and reception will happen on the 7th day but for now please refrain from writing anything to do with the wedding ceremony and reception feast as a few special things might happen on that day! ;)
It has been about 8 months since the last event.
Your threads may take place anywhere and at any one of the mentioned festivities at any time. You don't need to follow day by day.
If you still have old threads/ pre-event threads which you feel are important to your character arc and/or relationship/ individual plot development, you are free to write them alongside your event threads. We highly encourage you to do your best to wrap up your old threads by mid-next week though!
Please tag all starters with the tags of tc.event03 & tc.starter
Most importantly have fun & be inclusive! If you have any questions, at all please do not hesitate to ask the main!
In light of the lingering unexplainable absence of Loras Tyrell, Crown Prince Aenyx Targaryen is hereby appointed by the King as interim Hand till the Ruling Lord Tyrell can be found.
Loras Tyrell, the Hand of the King and Ruling Lord Paramount of the Reach is now officially declared as missing. His chambers were untouched suggesting that he had not been kidnapped, but rather he had left on his own. However, there is not a single note nor letter found so as to inform anyone of his whereabouts and a concerned but also frustrated King Aegon has now sent out a search party for him. A few witnesses state that they had sighted him in Plankytown a day or two before the Desert Race but a couple of others swore that they had seen the Hand nearby Ghost Hill. Ruling Princess Deria Martell has lent her assistance by sending a few men to search both places as well as placing inquires. Loras' wife who has been ruling Highgarden in his stead whenever he was away with duties of the Hand, is besides herself with worry, claiming that he had not uttered a word to her about going away during the earlier part of their stay in Dorne.
Desmond Manderly is reported to still be in a coma.
( this is three weeks after everyone has left Dorne )
The aftermath of the stable incident cast a heavy and bitter shadow across Sunspear. What had first spread through the palace as scandal and outrage soon hardened into genuine horror once the full extent of the damage became known.
Maegor Lannister’s exhausted racehorse, though spared death, had suffered moderately severe injuries from the savage whipping. Stablemasters worked tirelessly through the night to tend the animal’s wounds, and though healers believed the horse would physically recover in time, the creature now recoiled fearfully from human touch. Even the gentlest approach caused it to flinch and tremble visibly, its once spirited temperament replaced with frightened distrust.
The stablehand fared little better. Though his wounds would heal, the young man remained badly shaken both physically and emotionally, reportedly startling violently at raised voices and refusing to return near the same stable row where the attack had occurred.
Yet it was the fate of Lady Yronwood that truly ignited fury throughout the Dornish court.
The injured woman—wife to a cousin of Ruling Lady Sylvenna Yronwood—had secretly been four months with child. The brutal force with which she had struck the stable wall caused her to miscarry later that evening despite every desperate effort from healers and midwives alike.
The grief within House Yronwood swiftly became rage. Ruling Lady Sylvenna herself reportedly stormed through Sunspear scarcely able to contain her fury and demanding justice before the Crown and openly declaring before witnesses:
“A life for a life.”
At the same time, grim news arrived from the chambers of Lord Desmond Manderly. The northern lord had sustained numerous injuries during the beating, but it was the final massive blow to the head that proved most catastrophic. Though the maesters managed to keep him alive, Desmond fell into a deep coma from which he had yet to awaken from. His brother, the furious Ruling Lord Manderly, immediately demanded punishment for Maegor, finding fierce support from his close ally, Ruling Lord Stark.
Pressure upon the Crown mounted rapidly.
King Aegon soon called for a private trial hearing within Sunspear to determine Maegor’s fate. Yet whispers spread almost immediately when the King’s Hand, Loras Tyrell, was nowhere to be found throughout the proceedings. In his absence, Master of Laws Lucifer Massey took charge of overseeing the investigation and hearing witness accounts.
One by one, testimonies were given.
The battered stablehand spoke through swollen lips and still-bleeding gashes across his torso.
Other stable workers recounted the violence in trembling detail.
The atmosphere inside the hearing chamber grew increasingly tense with every account.
Then Maegor Lannister himself was brought forth.
Gone was the furious young lion from the stables. The boy who stood before the Crown appeared pale and subdued, dark circles heavy beneath reddened eyes. When questioned, Maegor admitted he had secretly consumed large amounts of wine before entering the stables and claimed the alcohol had driven him into a drunken rage he barely remembered fully.
For perhaps the first time since arriving in Sunspear, the boy looked his age.
He apologized quietly to those he had harmed and asked the Crown for mercy, insisting that he regretted what he had done and needed guidance rather than destruction.
“I know something is wrong with me,” he reportedly admitted softly.
His mother, Princess Visenya, then stepped forward before the court.
The proud princess appeared visibly shaken as she pleaded directly with her brother, King Aegon, not to condemn her only child too harshly. Visenya took much of the blame upon herself, confessing that years spent ruling the Westerlands and obsessively overseeing construction efforts upon the Red Keep had perhaps caused her to neglect Maegor emotionally.
“He has grown without a father,” she said quietly. “And perhaps without enough of his mother either.”
Her voice reportedly broke when she added:
“He is still only a boy. A difficult boy… but still a boy.”
The King then withdrew with his Small Council for deliberation. For over an hour, tension consumed Sunspear. When King Aegon finally returned, silence fell immediately across the chamber.
The King’s verdict was firm.
Maegor Lannister would not be executed nor sent to the Wall. Instead, he was to be removed entirely from courtly and noble life for the foreseeable future. He would be sent under escort to the Great Sept in King’s Landing where the High Septon himself would oversee his repentance and determine the acts of humility, service, and atonement required for absolution. After a few years, Maegor would then serve quietly within a local septry in the Westerlands until reaching his eighteenth nameday, at which point he would once more stand before the King and Small Council to determine whether he remained fit to someday rule the Westerlands.
The sentence shocked many. Some considered it rather fair. Others considered it outrageously lenient.
Maegor himself reportedly stiffened visibly upon hearing the judgment, displeasure tightening sharply across his face for only a brief moment before he lowered his gaze and silently accepted his punishment.
But for Houses Yronwood and Manderly, the verdict brought little comfort. Their grief remained too fresh. Their fury too deep. Among both families, quiet whispers spread that true justice had not been served.
And in the shadows beyond Sunspear’s bright halls, that anger soon found direction.
Not long after the hearing, a clandestine meeting of the Ashen Promise was held once more in the darkness of the night. There, amidst flickering candlelight and wary voices, the ancient relic discovered by Myrcella Durrandon within Dragonstone the previous year was finally discussed openly in full.
The script accompanying the strange Valryian horn had at last been deciphered. If the translations were true, the relic possessed terrifying potential: the ability to exert influence over dragons themselves and weaken them through specific tones and commands.
The revelation stunned many present.
After long deliberation, it was ultimately decided that Lady Alyssia Lannister would covertly begin attempting to practice the horn’s notes upon Maegor’s own dragon over the coming months in hopes of mastering its power quietly and without suspicion.
By the end of the gathering, Ruling Lady Sylvenna Yronwood too had been quietly drawn into the fold of the Ashen Promise. Yet much like Dowager Lady Hightower before her, she was entrusted with only fragments of the organization’s true scale and purpose.
Still grieving the loss of both unborn kin and justice, Sylvenna accepted eagerly.
And so, whilst the rest of the realm outwardly returned to feasts, marriages, and celebrations, something darker continued quietly growing beneath it all.
This hereby marks the end of Chapter 3 and all its plot drops! Members are welcomed to make new threads reacting to all of Chapter 3 plot drops be it the most recent or oldest ones! You all may also start writing of characters leaving Dorne and travelling to wherever they wish to.
Three months after the Red Keep event, ravens come bearing news of the wedding of Lady Alyssia Lannister to Ruling Lord Vaelor Celtigar in Casterly Rock in which is rumored to be a grand affair worthy of well-respected golden lioness. The Celtigar-Lannister wedding will be held 2 months after the letters are sent out , which means it is 5 months between Chapter 3 & Chapter 4. Everyone is invited though attendance is not compulsory by the Crown.
Ooc: Chapter 4 will commence somewhere in the middle of June or earlier, depending on members. To be decided!
Barely two hours after the race’s conclusion, the city still rang with excitement. The victorious were being toasted beneath silk canopies and shaded courtyards whilst exhausted riders bathed away sand from their skin or collapsed gratefully beside wine and food. Servants rushed endlessly through the palace carrying trays of citrus water and strongwine alike. Laughter echoed from open terraces. Stories of daring overtakes and disastrous falls were already growing more exaggerated with every retelling. Liege Heir Rhogar Qoherys’ victory was upon nearly every tongue.
Others, however, nursed bruised pride far less gracefully.
Among them was Maegor Lannister.
Already infamous for his volatile temper and brutal competitiveness despite his young age, the Lannister heir being one of the most humiliating and funniest moments of the race had soured him beyond reason after his disastrous tumble upon the dunes. Witnesses claim the fault largely lay with Maegor himself, who had recklessly driven his mount into a full sprint up one of the steepest slopes of the Red Dune Expanse before horse and rider slid backward in humiliating fashion before much of the crowd. The extremely proud boy himself currently seemed incapable of accepting such embarrassment.
And so the fury followed him back to the stables.
His exhausted horse had merely turned its head away from the boy when he approached. Whether from fear, exhaustion, or simple stubbornness, none could say. But something inside Maegor seemed to snap at the gesture.
In a sudden burst of rage, the young lion seized a whip and in a shocking act of cruelty, he began striking the poor beast repeatedly. The horse’s cries soon drew the attention of stablehands nearby, one of whom attempted to intervene—only for Maegor to turn the whip upon him as well.
The screaming, now a combination of both servant and horse, only worsened.
The situation escalated further when a Lady Yronwood, who had been nearly and close to stablehand, rushed forward in an impulsive attempt to pull the boy away. Witnesses claim Maegor violently flung her aside with enough force to send her crashing painfully against a stable wall and crumpling motionless onto the ground. For one terrible moment, it seemed that either horse or the stablehand might be whipped to death.
Then another voice shouted from the stable entrance.
Lord Desmond Manderly.
The northern lord had been passing nearby when the chaos erupted and immediately rushed forward without hesitation, placing himself into the volatile scene. The interruption gave the injured stablehand just enough opportunity to carry the unconscious Lady Yronwood away from the violence whilst Desmond shouted at the other stablehands to run for help.
However by then, Maegor’s rage had fully turned. Though nearly 18 years separated them in age, the difference mattered little.
Maegor Lannister may have only been twelve, but he was monstrously large for his age and frighteningly well-trained in combat. Years of the finest instructions had made the boy something far more dangerous than his age suggested. Desmond, by contrast, possessed almost no true fighting experience and just a small amount of actual formal training. The fight was thus horrifically one-sided.
Witnesses spoke later of Maegor attacking with terrifying savagery, fists and elbows crashing into Desmond with startling force as the older man struggled desperately merely to shield himself. The stable rang with shouts, crashing wood, panicked horses, and the sickening sound of repeated blows.
By the time guards finally stormed the stables and dragged the young lion away by force, Lord Manderly had been beaten into a near-bloody pulp upon the stable floor, his face barely recognizable beneath bruises and blood.
The news of the incident spread through Sunspear with alarming speed, casting a grim shadow over what had until then been a triumphant day of festivities.
Whispers now follow House Lannister through the palace halls and market streets alike.
At first they spoke only of Maegor’s temper. However by nightfall, others had begun whispering something far more unsettling: that there was something deeply wrong with the boy.
