Hellholt

A grim seat on the Brimstone, half of whose lords are said to be mad.

The fuller tale

The Hellholt squats on the Brimstone in the deep Dornish desert, a grim strong castle on a sulfurous river, and House Uller wears its reputation like armor: half the Ullers are half-mad, the Dornish saying runs, and the other half are worse. The saying is affectionate, mostly. The Ullers are fierce, loyal to Sunspear beyond question, and famous for a hospitality no one with a grievance against them should accept ÔÇö their history includes at least one feast that ended with the doors barred and the hall burning, which is why Dornishmen decline invitations to the Hellholt politely and from a distance.

The castle's great day is Dorne's greatest: during the Conqueror's Dornish war, it was above the Hellholt that a defender's iron scorpion bolt found the eye of the dragon Meraxes, and queen and dragon came down together in ruin ÔÇö the only dragon the Targaryens lost in all their conquests, and proof written in the sand that Dorne could kill gods. What became of Queen Rhaenys herself the accounts refuse to settle, and the darker versions are told, naturally, about the Hellholt. In the tale's present the house's fire burns in Ellaria Sand, an Uller lord's natural daughter, paramour of the Red Viper and ÔÇö after the Mountain's hands close that story ÔÇö the voice demanding Dorne answer blood with blood. The Brimstone runs yellow and stinking past the walls; nobody at the Hellholt has ever pretended the water was sweet.

Born here

The fallen of this place ÔÇö if any, they are named here. Spoilers.

No death the chronicle records has come to this ground ÔÇö or none the maesters have set down.