House Yronwood

The Bloodroyal ÔÇö once kings in their own right, and still the greatest Dornish house after the Martells, with more swords than Sunspear itself.

The fuller tale

Before the Rhoynar came and the Martells united Dorne, the Yronwoods were kings, styled the Bloodroyal, ruling the largest and most fertile part of the land from their castle of Yronwood in the eastern Dornish hills. They never entirely forgot it. Even sworn to Sunspear, the Yronwoods can field more spears than their overlords, and that arithmetic makes every Martell prince careful with them ÔÇö a bannerman who could raise a rebellion is a bannerman you flatter, not one you slight.

The blood between the two houses runs hot as well as proud. It was a Yronwood who killed Prince Oberyn Martell's paramour-in-arms in a duel that began as first blood and did not stop there, a grudge the Red Viper carried for the rest of his short, venomous life. To be fostered at Yronwood is an honour and a hostage-taking both, and the house's loyalty to Dorne has always been a thing measured rather than assumed.