Ashira Yronwood

Ashira Yronwood is the second child of Lord Ormond Yronwood and his wife, Ysilla Dayne. The Lady of Yronwood, styled the Bloodroyal, Ashira is the the only surviving of House Yronwood outside of several bastards fathered by Clayton Yronwood.

Appearance and Character
Ashira is every bit the picture of beauty and grace, inheriting from her mother, Ysilla Dayne, a mop of honey-gold hair that falls in wide curls about her shoulders, full crimson lips, and tired blue eyes. Curves are emphasized primarily about the waist, but she seems to lack for a bosom - though that rarely stops her.

Standing just short of her brother at 5’10, Ashira is graceful in her stride, preferring lighter colors that emphasize the pale of her skin, or her neck. Confident in her beauty, it is one of the few things that Ashira is certain of.

Ashira is demure and shy, spiteful despite her outward melancholy. She holds a great respect for Eliane Martell, but has come to revile the names of many Dornish Houses.

She keeps to herself, sharing fewer and fewer details of her past. She can be hostile when pressed, and has a small ring of friends.

History
Born in the year 390 AC, the second child of the impetuous Lord Ormond Yronwood and his wife, Ysilla Dayne, Ashira Yronwood might’ve been an aside were it not for the insistence of her mother to properly educate her daughter, and offer her the best that Dorne had. Lord Ormond was a legendary man, but none disliked him more than his own wife, the Lady Ysilla, who herself had once been a lover of the Bastard of Dragonstone, having borne him a single child – Aelor Sand.

Though her connections with the Bastard of Dragonstone had all but evaporated, Lady Ysilla would regale her daughter in sleepless nights in Yronwood, speaking of his valor, of his determination and speed. So too would she speak of a brother of hers, far away, hidden from the world. In this, Ysilla made her promise to keep a secret, and though Ashira could not have been any younger than seven at the time, she would hold it until the words were pried from her tongue.

Afforded the best and most luxurious Yronwood and House Dayne had to offer, Ashira was taught the ways of High Valyrian; a Lysene tutor taught her to dance, a Pentoshi magister taught her the ways of commerce. Ashira was nothing if not bright, and this shone in her texts from her youth, writing down the events of each day in a book she called, ''The Chronicles of Yronwood. ''

Her father proved to be less than enthused on all the money being spent on their daughter. We have a child, he was reported to have said to his wife. ''Let us not waste our money on a second. ''

Ashira’s relationship with her brother, Nymor, was strained at best. Though Ashira strove to be much and more than her brother, Nymor proved a capable fighter, a capable man, with charismatic tendencies and a particular knack for deflowering Ashira’s favorite serving girls. This only proved to deepen the enmity between Ashira and her sibling, but Nymor seemed not to care.

It was for these reasons that Ysilla returned briefly to Starfall with her daughter. With child at the time, Ysilla would fall into childbed three months later. An especially difficult birth, especially for a child so meek and small, Ysilla would never truly recover from such, despite her living to present day. The child, named Trebor, and taking greatly after his mother, would not survive the week.

This event proved to shape the young Ashira as the years grew old, holding a bitter resentment for her father, and an extreme dislike for Nymor. After her father’s death in 401 AC, Ashira returned to Yronwood, leaving her mother in Starfall to be carefully tended to by the Maesters there. She had taken to a wheelchair, her back in excruciating agony after the birth. It’d proved a tumultuous affair, snapping her spine, and in such a terrible stroke of events, she would never learn to walk again.

Though her relationship with her brother was far from grand, the two would spend time with one another at Yronwood after their father’s passing. With Lord Ormond gone, it seemed almost a balm to their relationship, but it proved short-lived.

Conflagration
The year 407 AC proved to be one of the worst years for House Yronwood in living history. Nymor Yronwood, having taken to bride Lysa Lannister, was returning from Casterly Rock when their uncle, Ser Brynden, worked against the interests of Dorne. In a feast where he summoned all the lords of Dorne, he suggested that they rebel, and was rebuffed immediately.

The Lords of Dorne all answered with a strong no, and Laenor Targaryen even more. Recently wed to the Princess of Dorne, Meria, the Prince-Consort sent a threatening letter to Yronwood detailing his plans for dealing with his treason.

Though Nymor had Ser Brynden executed, the wroth of dragons is not so easily quenched. In the tenth moon of 407 AC, Laenor Targaryen arrived on dragonback to bring Fire and Blood to House Yronwood. Ashira was present during the battle, hiding in some far-flung corner of the castle with Lysa Lannister.

Her brother was slain during the battle, his remains scorched and never to be found again. Laenor departed the castle, leaving a scorching ruin behind, and only few alive. Ashira, amongst the survivors, quickly found herself starving, without a place to go, when Lord Wyl arrived at the back of a thousand men.

Him and his armies escorted her and the Lady Lysa to Sunspear to await judgement for her brother’s treasons. Though Meria was merciful, granting her the titles of Bloodroyal and Lady of Yronwood, she would remain at Sunspear until the Prince-Consort and Princess found that she was ready to take up her brother’s old position.

Escalation
There were few in Sunspear who did not understand nor know what it was Ashira Yronwood was subject to during the durations of her stay in Sunspear. Under the watchful eyes of Meria, Nymeria Uller, and Laenor, Ashira became a favorite at court, made to dress scandalously, and dance alongside the other girls at feasts. It was behind closed doors that these most cruel of fates were subjected upon her, however.

Not only was she made to dance, but she was made to dance in the nude for the pleasure of the three onlookers. Laenor once took to a comment of her Lysene dancing teacher, suggesting that her mother, Ysilla, knew she might be more a ''whore than a lady, ''in her age. Though this infuriated Ashira, Laenor seemed content to delight in her embarrassment and suffering. She was made to watch them couple; made to perform and to serve. Sometimes, they forgot she was there, but others, they made certain she was there.

Had it not been for the Lady Nymeria Uller, if truth be told, there Ashira might not have lived to see the year 410. Her steady, calm hand, and kind nature, proved just enough to keep Ashira from teetering to the brink. Ashira had few friends, but among those few she did possess were the Lady Eliane of House Martell.

The Spectre of Sunspear
As the months passed, and Ashira grew more accustomed to her position in Sunspear, she began to learn how to slip in and out of the shadows as if a mouse. Melding into the background was her forte, her capabilities at stealth surprising for one so tall. Ashira would host late-night meetings with Eliane as she snuck around the palace, avoiding the detection of both guards and servants.

Those meetings – though initially friendly – turned to plotting and intrigue as Ashira and Eliane both continued to grow discontent with their positions. When the woman left for the Free Cities, Ashira was afforded naught but free time, when not occupied by the man and women that so wished for her company.

Meria Martell died in 411 AC, three years after Ashira arrived at Sunspear. It left Laenor a darkened, harder man, and he would take to Ashira more as the months continued on. She would dance, dance, and dance, and when she was tired, she would dance some more, all at his command.

When Eliane returned in 412 AC, the two continued their evening bouts, but Laenor would have none of it. He took Eliane to bride late the year, and would get a child with her shortly before he himself departed to Essos in 413. Laenor would return with something akin to a sickness sometime later.

Though his fever looked mild at first, it only got worse as the days continued on. Eliane and Ashira met in secret often, discussing what might happen should he die. They devised a plan, and set about making sure everything that needed happen ''did ''happen.

Laenor’s struggles ended in the Seventh Moon of 413 AC. His sickness took him, and for the first time in over five years, Ashira was free. With the end of his struggles so too would Eliane's, who passed from the mortal coil just four months after her husband in childbed. It seemed that the Gods had played a cruel trick, and ruined her all the more.

Run Girl Run
Ashira returned home to Yronwood in 414 AC. Few efforts had been made to repay it; reparations had been made to Lord Uller of Hellhot, who amongst many Dornish nobility demanded payment for the crimes of her uncle, Brynden. It wasn’t until 416 that these payments were made in full, and when they were cleared, House Yronwood was once again on the path to rise up in Dorne once again.

This was not the end of her struggles, however. Ashira experienced frequent nightmares of her time in Sunspear. Though a friendship between her and Eliane had begun, and a fierce sense of loyalty had instilled instead in the Bloodroyal, the crimes of her sister were never forgotten upon her.

She avoided balls and feasts from there on, remembering that there were many a Dornish lord who had seen her displayed in such a vulgar manner. Meeting once again with her mother in Starfall, who had become fat in her age, the beauty of years all but gone, the woman instilled grand advice in her, and told her of the path she now must walk.

Despite being the last trueborn Yronwood, Ashira elected not to take a husband. Laenor had reminded her of the cruelty of man, and Ashira had taken to the company of women instead, enjoying her time amidst the company of handmaids, daughters of her old friends of youth.

Ashira rarely avoided visits from the Lady Nymeria Uller as well, though their relationship was strained at best, and with her new-found independence, began the reconstruction of Yronwood.

It would prove a long process – longer than the span of a decade, or so some said. Since the beginning of such construction, Ashira has been between Sunspear and Yronwood frequently, visiting with her old friend. Though, if truth be told, those visits might yet be inciting those vicious nightmares that Ashira so terribly hates.

418 -
As of 418 AC, Ysilla Dayne has once again taken ill. She has come to Yronwood to live out the remainder of her years, and with her has come a new vigor to restore House Yronwood to it’s former, shining glory.

Family

 * Lord Ormond Yronwood, b. 362 AC, d. 401 AC,
 * m. Ysilla Dayne,
 * Lord Nymor Yronwood b. 386 AC, d. 407 AC,
 * Lady Ashira Yronwood, b. 390 AC,

Past Members

 * Lord Anders Yronwood b. 268 AC, d. 305 AC,


 * Lord Mors Yronwood, b. 287 AC, d. 315 AC, acting Master of Law from 305-312, nephew of Lord Anders, died to a stroke in Yronwood.


 * Lord Yoren Yronwood, b. 305 AC, d. 357 AC, son of the youngest brother of Lord Anders, cousin of Lord Mors, died of old age in Yronwood
 * Lord Edgar b. 338 AC, d. 368 AC, eldest son of Lord Yoren, died to shock in Yronwood
 * Lord Yorick, b. 340 AC, d. 399 AC, second son of Lord Yoren, died of old age in Yronwood, married to Lady Tylla Redwyn
 * Ser Clayton Yronwood, youngest son of Lord Yoren, half-mad