Origins of a Legend

Fragment of "Origins of a Legend" -By Dr. Daniel Black, Professor of History at Sunspear University, written in the year 501 AD.

Doran Nymeros Martell, a name that inspires many to this day. It is rare to find someone who has not heard of the legendary Prince of Dorne, the greatest pioneer this world has ever seen.

All those who know his history are amazed by everything he achieved in his life, many dream of being explorers, knights or scholars but Prince Doran decided that he did not have to choose; He became all that and more.

It's really incredible all that he achieved in his life, how he took House Nymeros Martell to the height of its power, becoming the most powerful House in the world.

All the great men and women of history had to start somewhere, this is the story of the man who changed Planetos.

Prince Doran was born in the year 247 in the old Westerosi calendar, son of the Morning Star of his generation Prince Trystanne Dayne and the great politician Princess Obella Martell.

His father was the greatest swordsman in Westeros and a great Dornish hero, born as the second son of Lord Dayne, the young Trystanne grew up with much more freedom than his older twin, bold and fearless, the young Dayne left Starfall to forge his own destiny after an argument with his father. His story was one worthy of legends, inspiration for many songs.

The young Trystanne traveled throughout Westeros in the company of a wandering knight and shortly after earning his title as a knight he met the then heiress of Dorne, Princess Obella, it was love at first sight for both but it would not be for several years that young lovers could join in holy matrimony.

To be worthy of the hand of a princess, the young knight had to earn the approval of the Princess of Dorne, Princess Dorna Martell, and for that he traveled throughout the Known World forging a great fame. After several years of adventures, the young lovers were finally able to marry, and a year after they married, their firstborn was born.

The mother of the legendary prince is a legend herself, Princess Obella is remembered as one of the greatest rulers in the history of Dorne. She was born into an era filled with conflict, a time when the Blackfyre kept invading Westeros every chance they got. The princess's childhood was marked by these wars, at an early age she lived in constant fear of losing her relatives in those bloody wars, and if that was not enough, the fear of losing her home accompanied her every day and night.

Dorne was the so-called "South Gate to Westeros" and all invasions of the southern part of Essos passed through the Kingdom of the Desert. During her lifetime, Princess Obella faced many invasions. The Invasion of the Nine Bastards was the worst of all, at that time the power of Dorne was nothing more than a shadow of what it would be in a few decades, the Great Fleet that conquered half the world was nothing more than a few ships and their High Admiral was just a child.

That war was a key point in the life of the young Prince, that war would change everything for him and would be the fire that drove him in many of his conquests. The witty but naive prince-boy died, and a new man was born.

Princess Obella, like her son, changed a lot as a result of that war. Before it, the princess was quite a traditionalist, a woman loyal to the Targaryen dynasty despite the many difficulties her mother and her kingdom went through because of the red dragons. But after the war all loyalty disappeared, the Targaryens were the main culprits of the many hardships that her family went through in those grim times and princess Obella Nymeros Martell never forgave them.

I have to mention that despite her hatred and resentment towards the older generation of Targaryens, the Princess of Dorne had no grudge against the youngest Targaryens, not much can be said about her relationship with the then crown prince Aerys, quite the opposite of her relationship with the young princess Rhaella, whom she already loved as one of her own.

After the war, Princess Obella spent less time in the training camps and much more at court, in the library, or on her solar; the princess was said to work even in her sleep. There was a time when not even her children could see her for more than a few minutes, it would not be until the intervention of her father that the princess slowed down her pace and became part of her children's lives again

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NOTE: This chapter is something like the trailer for the next part of the story, the war that changed Doran's life: the last Blackfyre rebellion. Is a shorter chapter cause I wrote it after finishing the Long Night Part III, I was exhausted, but worry not the next chaps are gonna be quite long.