HOUSE MARTELL

House Martell of Sunspear is one of the Great Houses of Westeros. It rules the peninsula of Dorne in the far south of the continent from their castle Sunspear. Though loyal to the Iron Throne, the Martells were never conquered by the Targaryens during the War of Conquest, the only kingdom to achieve and maintain independence for hundreds of years. They instead pursued a more isolated role in wider political events since Robert's Rebellion, led by Robert Baratheon, the usurper king who ended the dynasty of House Targaryen.

Following the assassinations of Prince Doran Martell and his only heir, Prince Trystane, by Ellaria Sand and the three eldest Sand Snakes, the Sand Snakes carried the Martell blood through their late father Prince Oberyn Martell, Doran’s brother. The Sand Snakes also continued to use the Martell sigil to represent themselves and Dorne following their uprising against House Martell. Under the leadership of Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes, the forces of House Martell and Dorne were aligned to support the cause of Daenerys Targaryen against House Lannister after Queen Cersei Lannister declared war against them to take revenge on Ellaria, who murdered her daughter Myrcella Baratheon with poison, who was arranged to marry Prince Trystane before his murder. Following the deaths of the older Sand Snakes and Ellaria's imprisonment and subsequent death in the capital city of King's Landing, an unnamed Martell now acquires the lordship of Dorne, becoming its prince.

House Martell's sigil is a red sun pierced by a golden spear, on an orange field, a combination of the original Martell sigil - a yellow spear - and the emblem of Princess Nymeria - a red sun - to symbolize the marriage of the warrior-queen to Mors Martell. Their house words are "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken."

BACKGROUND

House Martell started out as local kings in Dorne, which was long divided between many petty kings of the First Men and Andals. About a thousand years ago, Rhoynar refugees fleeing conquest by the Valyrian Freehold in Essos migrated across the Narrow Sea to Dorne, led by their warrior-queen Nymeria. Mors Martell was smitten with Nymeria and chose to join forces with her through marriage-alliance. With their combined strength, they conquered and unified the rest of Dorne. To symbolize their union, the original golden spear sigil of Mors Martell was combined with the red sun sigil of Nymeria, creating the red sun pierced by a spear sigil that House Martell has used as a sigil ever since. Like their Rhoynar ancestors, House Martell styled its rulers as "princes" instead of "kings," and kept using the titles, resisting the Targaryen invasion and keeping local laws and traditions even after joining the Seven Kingdoms after a matrimonal alliance.

They have never been successfully conquered by outsiders, making them unique among all of the Great Houses. During the Targaryen Conquest, Dorne was the only region of the Seven Kingdoms to successfully resist the Targaryens and their dragons. Realizing that large armies could not stand against dragons, nor large castles, the Dornish instead resorted to guerrilla warfare, ambushing Targaryen soldiers and harassing their supply lines as soon as their dragons moved on to the next castle, then disappearing back into the harsh deserts when the dragons returned. The Dornish armies took advantage of Dorne's arid climate, which helped adopt attrition warfare against the Targaryens, as the climate and harsh wastelands cannot easily support large invading armies. Losing many men due to attrition, ultimately even Aegon the Conqueror decided to withdraw from Dorne, to focus on reining in the other six newly conquered kingdoms.

A few decades later. King Daeron II the Good managed to finally unite Dorne with the Iron Throne - not through conquest, but by voluntary marriage-alliance on equal terms. Daeron II married the sister of the Prince of Dorne, and the Prince of Dorne married Daeron II's sister. This special, semi-autonomous status allowed Dorne to retain several special privileges, such as the Martells continuing to style themselves as "Prince" or "Princess" instead of "Lord Paramount" and continuing their practice of gender-blind primogeniture. This union did cause several political tensions at the royal court between Daeron II's pro-Martell faction and anti-Martell lords from the Reach, the Stormlands and the Dornish Marches, eventually leading to the Blackfyre Rebellion.

Generations later, King Aerys II Targaryen had no daughters, so he sought a suitable bride for his son, Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, from outside of the family. Aerys chose to snub the offer of Lord Tywin Lannister, his own trusted Hand of the King and dutiful servant, that Rhaegar marry his own young daughter Cersei. Instead, a match was arranged with the then-current Princess of Dorne to wed her daughter Elia Martell to Rhaegar. During Robert's Rebellion, Elia was kept in King's Landing to ensure the continued allegiance of House Martell to the Targaryen's against the rebels. Elia bore Rhaegar two children but all three were later killed during the Sack of King's Landing by Tywin Lannister's army. Elia's brothers Doran and Oberyn were outraged and, while peace was restored, the Martells withdrew from interacting with the royal court. During King Robert Baratheon's subsequent reign, the Martells and Dorne were rarel mentioned at court, except for their notorious Dornish wine.

 MEMBERS and ALLIES

*REPRESENTED IN THE SERIES*