Ser Donnel of Duskendale

A knight of the Kingsguard under King Daeron the Good — his white cloak claimed for Aerion's seven, whatever his own heart thought of it.

The fuller tale

Another of King Daeron the Good’s Kingsguard knights, Ser Donnel of Duskendale carries the same white cloak and the same uncomfortable obligations that come with it — sworn to protect and serve the royal blood regardless of which particular member of that blood happens to need defending on a given day.

When Aerion’s champions are needed for the trial of seven, Donnel’s cloak is claimed for that side without much regard for whatever his own conscience might have preferred, a reminder that the Kingsguard’s oath, taken in the abstract to the crown itself, does not come with any provision for choosing which prince’s cause is actually the just one.

The page and the screen

Ser Donnel of Duskendale’s role, where the show adapts it, tracks the novella’s spare treatment — a name and a white cloak standing for the institutional bind the Kingsguard finds itself in throughout the trial, more than a fully drawn individual character.

Where they stand, season by season

Their fate — if death has found them, it is written here. Open at your peril.

The chronicle records no death for this soul — they are living when the tale leaves them, or their ending is a page the maesters have yet to turn.