Sibella Sand

Sibella Sand is the bastard daughter of Doran Santagar and his paramour, Sarya Sand. The eldest sister of the Lord of Spottswood, Sibella is the first of three bastard bastards and the lover of Ulwyck Toland.

Appearance
Gifted with speed, alacrity and grace and beauty, Sibella Sand is as unimposing as it comes. The truth is more apparent as the details pass the fine lines of her face. Calloused hands and feet have spent many years in the sands of Dorne. Fine lines stretch at her waist, the undying reminder of three children carried. Her muscles are thin and slender, her body warm to the touch. Her skin is as dark as the walls of Sandstone, tanned from days under the excruciating sun of Dorne.

She is not taller than any average woman, but she makes up for it in her long, confident strides. Her hair is a deep black, her brows matching, framing golden-brown eyes that watch the world like a hawk. Unpresuming even so, she is often hidden underneath a veil and thick layers of cloth that hide her from the world. There are only a few people in the world that would ever  deserve  to look upon her face.

History
House Santagar of Spottswood is not a prestigious house in the annals of Westeros, but no one denies the leopards blood that runs through their veins. Born in the waning moons of 411 AC, Sibella Sand was born the first of three bastards siblings sired by Lord Doran Santagar on his then-paramour, Sarya. A woman without ambition, though a woman whose temper burned as bright as the Dornish sun, was a formidable woman, and where Sibella’s father neglected her, Sarya gave her all that the child desired, and more.

She was – by all means – a rambunctious, and sometimes cruel child, prone to her mother’s outbursts and long fits. Such hours screaming did not suit her well, however. A child’s misgivings are visited upon the adult, it seems; at least, in her. Though Maesters could not speak to what ailment truly caused it, the wretched singing at all times in Spottswood was a good enough reason to label it the reason for her low, throaty voice.

Though hardly a precocious child, she was not without areas of excellence. Strong-willed and unforgiving, she was once caught having fought a girl of her own age… and having nearly strangled her to death. Punished fiercely, the light in her eyes never wavered, it was said. At the age of seven, she demanded her mother put a spear in her hand. It wouldn’t be for another three years that she was indulged in this, as in so many other desires. She was put to her pens first, then made to expert riding; swimming in the little streams outside of Spottswood, picking blood oranges like commoners and making a lay of the land on her own.

When Sibella was finally granted her wish, she found that such a gift came with a price. Humiliation. Time and time and time again; it seemed without end, as she fought men thrice as large and thrice as experienced as her. Sibella strove for more, and more and more, and would exert herself far beyond her capabilities. Finally, at ten and three, she had enough of it. “I will not sit her and train day in and day out,” she had said, “I would sooner make a life on my own.”

That night, Sibella slipped from Spottswood unbeknownst to her kin, and disappeared into the sands.

Where she went is only hearsay, but Sibella claimed to survive for three weeks drinking the blood of snakes and roasting in the various oasis’ surrounding Spottswood before her father’s men found her. Furious and bitter, her father cast her from Spottswood and denounced her. Her exile would not last long, however.

A bastard’s work and a bastard’s pay. Sibella found work in the Planky Town with the Orphans of the Greenblood. They taught her much in that small time, and she used what experience she had to further her efforts at surviving in the sands. Foremost among them was the teachings of the stars, and always knowing where you were. Learn the stars and you will never get lost, they said.

Her next excursion into the sands happened alone, and lasted this time three months. When she returned she was all the darker for it; her skin had tanned in the light of the sun, and her clothes were in tatters. Impeccably, she’d managed to be bit only twice, and claimed five kills for every time she’d been bitten.

It was not to the sands that she returned immediately after. Her father’s death in 425 AC was a shock to all, and though given a chilling welcome, her brother Jordan took her in as his own. A bastard she might be, but she had learned much in her years, and she respected her brother greatly for it. She would not remain in Spottswood for long, however.

Shortly after her father’s funeral, Sibella traveled to Ghost Hill and made contact with Ulwyck Toland, the son of the old Lord Toland who’d a penchant for all things terrible. A brief friendship they had captured in their youth; a friendship turned venomous and harrowing and… loving. Theirs was a physical relationship, it need be said, and Sibella would oft take a toll for each time Ulwyck loved her – a toll he paid in full, and eagerly.

Their scathing relationship turned hot and cold overnight; Sib returned to the sands whilst Ulwyck toyed with his princes in Sunspear, but when he returned, he would always find her, and they would always love – with or without abandon, without caring for who saw, who might dare to interrupt them.

She spent her next years in the sands, returning only for the occasional bout with Ulwyck. In 431 AC, when she found she was with child, Sibella was neither excited nor eager – she counted it a blessing that her child emerged stillborn, for all the damage it had done to her. She hated it; hated pregnancy and motherhood, but that did not stop her from coupling with Ulwyck again, and getting with child, again.

Two years later, Sibella gave birth to their next child – a bastard boy she named Loren. She did not show much interest in the child, it was said, and she returned to the sands as quick as she could, to be away from the ordeals of motherhood.

She had grown neither fat nor lazy during her pregnancies. Despite two childbirths, Sibella remained slight and slender as ever, and counted it a blessing that her feet still worked as they used to. When the Vulture King rose, so too did she.

She fought with Ulwyck, remaining with him for the duration of the war. The conflict amused her, if truth be told, but the passion on Ulwyck’s face had her fighting with him tooth-and-nail, biting hard against a series of setbacks that eventually saw Aerion Targaryen brought to Dorne. She was among the first to meet him, but they spoke no words, exchanged no glances.

Under that shadow, Sibella fought. She watched as the flames wreaked havoc upon their enemies, and as the smoke grew hotter in the air.

They returned to Ghost Hill post-war, and Sibella did not remain resting for long. She returned to her home, and made another bastard with Ulwyck – Silvianna, this one, dead within three months of her birth.

439AC
Their fourth would follow not soon after – this one survived, birthed in the early moons of 439 AC. A child, like the rest, that Sibella could not hope to care for.

The Great Council of 439 AC was to be her first time leaving Dorne, and so it would be. Ulwyck and her departed Ghost Hill not long after the events began. If it was to be the event of a lifetime, she would not waste her time in the sands.

Family

 * Doran Santagar, Lord of Spottswood, d. 425 AC,
 * his paramour, Sarya Sand,
 * Sibella Sand, b. 411 AC
 * Andrey Sand, b. 414 AC
 * Bors Sand, b. 418 AC
 * m. Elayne of Tyrosh
 * Jordan Santagar, Lord of Spottswood, b. 407 AC