Dorne

Dorne is the southernmost of the Seven Kingdoms, a harsh land of red mountains, deep sands, and hot sun, whose people are set apart from the rest of Westeros by custom, law, and blood. Conquered last and never fully subdued, Dorne was brought into the realm through marriage rather than submission, and its princes have always maintained a degree of independence and a long memory for old wrongs. In A Dance with Dragons, Dorne emerges from the shadows of the War of the Five Kings as a kingdom playing a deep, patient game, its moves guided by the ailing Prince Doran Martell and shadowed by the vengeful ghosts of his brother Oberyn and his sister Elia.

Geography and Character

Dorne is a land of extremes: "sand and scorpions, and bleak red mountains baking in the sun," as the seneschal Reznak mo Reznak dismissively describes it . Its defining geographical features include the Boneway and the Prince's Pass, the two narrow routes through the Red Mountains that have historically made Dorne defensible against invasion. The Greenblood river winds through the southern deserts, and along its banks lie the Water Gardens, a palace of pink marble with pools and fountains built by a Targaryen princess for her Dornish prince. The climate is fierce—hot, dry, and unforgiving—and the Dornish are known for their spicy cuisine, their love of strongwine, and their casual attitude toward paramours and bastards, which scandalizes the rest of the Seven Kingdoms. Dorne's military strength is said to be "fifty thousand spears and swords," though in practice its forces are scattered and its lords quarrelsome.

The Long Game: Prince Doran's Strategy

Prince Doran Martell, Lord of Sunspear, is a man crippled by gout and consumed by patience. Throughout the novel, he is portrayed as a ruler who has spent years concealing his true intentions behind a mask of weakness. "I am not blind, nor deaf. I know that you all believe me weak, frightened, feeble," he tells the Sand Snakes. "Your father knew me better. Oberyn was ever the viper. Deadly, dangerous, unpredictable. No man dared tread on him. I was the grass. Pleasant, complaisant, sweet-smelling, swaying with every breeze. Who fears to walk upon the grass? But it is the grass that hides the viper from his enemies and shelters him until he strikes" . This metaphor—the viper hidden in the grass—is the key to understanding Dorne's role in the novel: a kingdom that appears passive and accommodating while secretly preparing a devastating strike.

Doran's long game is revealed to have multiple layers. The first is the secret marriage pact made in Braavos when Daenerys Targaryen was still a child, signed by Ser Willem Darry for the exiled Targaryens and by Prince Oberyn Martell for Dorne, with the Sealord of Braavos as witness. The pact promised the hand of Doran's daughter Arianne to Daenerys's brother Viserys in exchange for Dornish support in overthrowing the Usurper Robert Baratheon. When Viserys died, the pact was amended: Doran sent his own son Quentyn to seek Daenerys's hand instead. Quentyn carries the original parchment across half the world, only to arrive in Meereen after Daenerys has married Hizdahr zo Loraq. "Would that you had come a year ago," Daenerys tells him . The prince's quest ends in tragedy when he attempts to steal one of her dragons and is burned to death.

The Sand Snakes and the Demand for Vengeance

The most immediate pressure on Doran's strategy comes from his own nieces, the Sand Snakes—the eight bastard daughters of his late brother Oberyn. Three of them—Obara, Nymeria, and Tyene—are released from captivity in the Spear Tower at the beginning of the novel and immediately demand war against the Lannisters. Obara, the eldest, is blunt and angry: "It ends in blood, as it began. It ends when Casterly Rock is cracked open, so the sun can shine on the maggots and the worms within. It ends with the utter ruin of Tywin Lannister and all his works" . Nymeria, elegant and deadly, echoes the sentiment: "I could wish that he died at my hand." Tyene, who looks like a sweet septa but is as poisonous as her father, adds that the Mountain's skull "would like some company."

Ellaria Sand, Oberyn's paramour, argues against this endless cycle of vengeance. "Oberyn wanted vengeance for Elia. Now the three of you want vengeance for him. I have four daughters, I remind you. Your sisters. My Elia is fourteen, almost a woman. Obella is twelve, on the brink of maidenhood. They worship you, as Dorea and Loreza worship them. If you should die, must El and Obella seek vengeance for you, then Dorea and Loree for them? Is that how it goes, round and round forever?" . Her plea for an end to the bloodshed is heartfelt but ultimately ignored by the younger generation.

The Skull of the Mountain and the Dornish Response

The novel's Dornish plotline reaches a dramatic peak when Ser Balon Swann of the Kingsguard arrives at Sunspear bearing a chest containing the skull of Ser Gregor Clegane, the Mountain, who killed Oberyn in a trial by combat. The skull is placed on a pedestal of black marble, and Prince Doran declares, "The Mountain rides no more" . The skull is enormous, with a thick brow and massive jaw, and it grins in the candlelight. The Dornish court drinks a toast to King Tommen, but the atmosphere is thick with suspicion and barely concealed hostility.

Doran reveals that he knows the invitation to King's Landing is a trap: Trystane is meant to be killed on the road by outlaws shouting the Imp's name, so that Cersei can blame Tyrion. "The woman must be mad," Obara says. "He's just a boy" . Instead of falling into the trap, Doran sends his own agents to King's Landing: Nymeria to take a seat on the small council, and Tyene to infiltrate the Faith and get close to the new High Septon. Obara is sent to hunt down the rogue knight Darkstar, who maimed Myrcella. The prince's plan is to place Dornish eyes and ears at the very heart of Lannister power, waiting for the right moment to strike.

The Sun's Son: Quentyn's Failed Quest

Quentyn Martell's journey to Meereen is the most tragic expression of Dorne's long game. He travels with six companions, loses three to corsairs, and arrives in Volantis to find that no captain will take him to war-torn Slaver's Bay. He and his remaining friends—Gerris Drinkwater and Archibald Yronwood—sign on with the Windblown sellsword company under false names, hoping to desert and reach Daenerys. When they finally present themselves to the queen, she is already married. Quentyn offers her the marriage pact, but she laughs: "They call him frog," she says, "and we have just learned why. In the Seven Kingdoms there are children's tales of frogs who turn into enchanted princes when kissed by their true love" .

Desperate to prove himself, Quentyn makes a deal with the Tattered Prince of the Windblown: help him steal a dragon, and Dorne will pay the price—including the city of Pentos. The attempt ends in catastrophe. When Quentyn and his sellswords enter the dragon pit beneath the Great Pyramid, the two dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion, are too wild to control. A crossbow bolt wounds Viserion, and Rhaegal turns on the intruders. Quentyn is caught in a blast of dragonfire. He dies three days later, his flesh sloughed away, his eyes "pools of pus" . His last words are a scream. Ser Barristan Selmy, who witnesses the aftermath, reflects: "He should have stayed in Dorne. He should have stayed a frog. Not all men are meant to dance with dragons" .

Narrative Role and Significance

Dorne's role in A Dance with Dragons is that of a slow-burning fuse. While the rest of Westeros tears itself apart in open war, Dorne waits, plots, and positions its pieces. The kingdom's story is one of patience tested by hot blood, of a father's long-laid plans undone by a son's impatience, and of a people who remember every wrong done to them. The arrival of the Golden Company and the revelation that Aegon Targaryen may still be alive—news that reaches Doran through a fleet sighted at Lys, carrying elephants—suggests that Dorne's moment may finally be at hand. But the novel ends before that moment arrives, leaving Dorne poised on the edge of war, its viper still hidden in the grass.