#aliandra

I do like your headcanon that Tanselle from The Hedge Knight might be related to the present-day Martells (c.f. the widow’s peak), especially with Rohanne confirmed as having married into the Lannisters. Dunk really gets around, doesn’t he? (We love him so.)

I’d be curious to know if you have any particular headcanons regarding the relationship between the Hightowers and the Citadel, or any things you especially enjoy seeing in fic that features the Citadel.

Hello Aliandra! Very sorry for the delay in replying, between the holidays and my other secret santa responsibilities, I’m afraid I was too swamped to do much else. Hope I can answer you well at least!

Regarding the Hightowers and the Citadel… hmm… I just think it’s super interesting that they founded the whole order back in the distant days of history, when the “pet” alchemists, wizards, healers, teachers, and wise men of a disabled but favored Hightower scion were granted an island by his kingly brother, to continue their quest for knowledge. I think it’s also interesting that they provide the most (though not all) funding for the maesters today, to the point that Lord Hightower is titled “the Defender of the Citadel”. (Among other titles of course.) Like, even in academia with major donors, it’s not usually quite that intense, lol. 

Though I have the feeling today’s Hightowers don’t really influence the direction of the Citadel’s research very much – the way today’s archmaesters are so anti-magic, and yet Lord Leyton is reportedly “consulting books of spells” atop the Hightower, says there’s not that much of a connection. Though maybe it’s possible that Archmaester Marwyn, as an eldritch researcher, was protected from “the grey sheep” by the influence of Lord Leyton? Although of course it’s also very possible Marwyn could protect himself from “poison in his porridge”… but it would be interesting to think that in addition to consorting with all sorts of people down in the depths of the city, Marwyn also spent a lot of time in its greatest heights consulting with the lord of Oldtown.

As for fic that features the Citadel, I’m afraid I haven’t read that much. IIRC I’ve read a minific or two featuring Aemon when he was a student there, but those were more character pieces than anything about the Citadel itself. I tend to avoid speculative/theoretical fics about Sam’s upcoming story there, as I would much rather prefer to read only what GRRM has planned tyvm lolsigh. Though I can at least recommend @poorshadowspaintedqueens​‘s excellent Alleras / House Targaryen history fic, which in addition to the joys of academia, has our favorite undercover Sand Snake maester-in-training researching a journal about the Targaryen queens written by their ladies-in-waiting, filling in so many of the terrible gaps in Fire & Blood.  I love the worldbuilding and history, but I must say the backbiting comments about the archmaesters and their predilections are also a favorite. My own maester OC also has a tendency to go off about his experiences at the Citadel, though his bitching tends to be more about their medical practices and instruction than about their issues with historiography… though he’s not immune to that either. ;)

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken: Magnificent and Dangerous Women of House Nymeros Martell — 12/20.

Aliandra Martell was a ruling Princess of Dorne and head of House Nymeros Martell.

The daughter of Prince Qoren Martell, Aliandra came young into her seat. She was a fiery woman and saw herself as a new Nymeria.

Aliandra was married to Drazenko Rogare. As well, she showed great favor to Lord Alyn Velaryon, when he visited Sunspear. They met during his first great journey, when his campaign to defend the westerlands from Dalton Greyjoy, brought him to Sunspear, and they met again when he returned from the Sunset Sea.

Patreon reward for my friend Gamma of his Starfinder Solarian sullenly participating in this whole Halloween nonsense. 

Hi, Butterfly! I’m looking forward to putting together a gift for you! Sadly I am terrible at art, but I can do fic, meta, or a fanmix.

You mentioned a few different pairings and characters that you were interested in (in addition to SanSan) and I thought I’d ask what kinds of headcanons/ideas you might want to read about for, say, Brynden/Shiera, any of your Dunk ships, House Hightower, and House Blackwood. (Also, I do actually want to know about Loras/Pylos because that had never occurred to me before.)

Cheers,

Aliandra

Hi Aliandra!  I’m looking greatly forward to whatever you can do, no worries, I don’t need art, lol. Let me think… for most of these other ships, I don’t tend to have that many ideas/prompts because they’re not my OTP and therefore I don’t obsess over them (although I do love to see things with them!), so you can be flexible. I generally just enjoy the characters just being with each other, being themselves. If that means Bloodraven and Shiera are being snarky and schemey, that’s fine. If it means Brynden can drop his “I know everything and I plan for everything and I’m nasty and evil and don’t care about anyone’s feelings, fear me” facade around her and she can drop the “I’m the cold ageless beauty who gets off on playing with men’s hearts” facade around him and they can just be nerdy together (and yes, still snarky about those who deserve it), that is also fine. :)

Mind you, “just being around each other” is a bit of a difficulty with Dunk’s ships as he … isn’t with them, so in his case you’d probably need to do either him nostalgizing, or an imagined future reunion (possibly angsty?). Or maybe if you go in the fic direction, something giving their point of view of the events in their original interactions? Or this is possibly where meta or fanmixes would be the best choice, not a fic. You can check out my D&E headcanon post and other tags for the characters/series if you want more inspiration there.

House Hightower and House Blackwood… I just think they’re neat. :)  Though note Hightowers in their former (c.Dance) scheming role don’t interest me that much, I much prefer the Hightowers as sponsors of the Citadel, the Old Man of Oldtown Leyton and his daughter Malora the Mad Maid researching spells at the top of the Hightower, and other fun magic things. (Oldtown and the Hightower are very old and very weird and that fascinates me very much.) As for the Blackwoods, they’re so goth they were born black(wood). Their aesthetic is just so… *poetic cinema*. And the giant dead weirwood with all its ravens is just so fucking cool. (My Bloodraven interest overlaps here, for obvious reasons lol.) And Hoster Blackwood is this adorable tall gangly teenage nerd, and his dad Tytos is so… silver fox goth daddy with his amazing armor and “magnificent” raven feather cloak…. and I love the way they stay Old Gods worshippers in the south (do I vaguely identify with this because I’m Jewish? maybe), and them staying Stark loyalists as long as possible was also nice (yeah I know that’s GRRM just setting them up as the faces to the Bracken heels, but still), and I like them very much.

As for Loras/Pylos, I think I started thinking about it around the time Joshua Cairos’s FFG art came out? Maester Pylos is just so soft and thoughtful-looking there… and I added that artwork to the wiki and ended up rewriting and expanding Pylos’s whole article, and was reminded about how he was the one who gave Davos the letter from the Night’s Watch – and note how he knew it was important and serious but when he tried to tell Stannis about it, Alester Florent dismissed it as foolish, so as soon as the opportunity came as part of his teaching Davos to read (:heartkermit: he’s so encouraging and not patronizing or anything about it, too) he tried a different tactic… and Pylos also teaches Shireen and Edric and Devan, treating them equally despite their wildly differing statuses… and also he helped Davos with the plot to send Edric to safety even though he knew he could be executed for it… anyway, I realized Pylos is just so genuinely good, it’s lovely to see in ASOIAF. And then I realized, that since Pylos was left behind on Dragonstone when Stannis left for the Wall (probably technically a punishment for him for being involved in the Edric plot), and when Loras rushed the Dragonstone gate to take the castle for the crown (and free up the Redwyne Fleet to defend the Reach from the Ironborn) he was shot and battered and received hideous burns from boiling oil… he would’ve been brought to the castle maester for treatment. (Like, yeah, there’s Tyrell maesters there too, but they would need all the help they could get.) And so I just sort of got into my head, a sort of hurt/comfort / nurse his wounds / help Loras recover both physically and emotionally from GRRM Bretan Braith’ing him, and heck, from Renly’s death too… complicated by the fact that Loras is technically Pylos’s enemy complicated by the fact that a maester owes fealty to whoever controls his castle… kind of ship. I think someone else thought about it around that time, but it is an exceedingly rare pair. But one I have vague hopes of becoming canon anyway? I suppose we’ll see how things are whenever GRRM shows us Dragonstone again.

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken: Magnificent and Dangerous Women of House Nymeros Martell — 14/20.

Coryanne was the youngest daughter of Prince Qoren Martell and the twin-sister of Prince Qyle. Coryanne became the ruling Princess of Dorne at the age of 25 after the death of her elder sister and ruling Princess of Dorne Aliandra.

She married Quinlan Qorgyle, however Quinlan’s nephew Manfryd was the love of her life. Coryanne gave birth to four children: Marence, Cadan, Rhodry and Ariana. She had numerous descendants, among them Marence’s heirs Princess Myriah who married King Daeron II Targaryen, Prince Maron who married Princess Daenerys Targaryen, Princess Vanora and Prince Malor, Cadan’s children Princess Leyla and Prince Aron, Rhodry’s bastard son Lewyn Sand and bastard twins Oberyn Sand and Roxana Sand, and Ariana’s son Cletus Yronwood.

Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken: Magnificent and Dangerous Women of House Nymeros Martell — 13/20.