Editing Nymeria

{{See homonyms | Nymeria (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox monarch
| title         = Princess
| nickname      = 
| firstname     = Nymeria
| regnalnumber  = 
| particle      = of
| lastname      = Ny Sar
| epithet       = 
| arms          = Martell
| arms2         = Uller
| arms3         = Dayne
| image         = Nymeria by JK Drummond.jpg
| image_caption = Princess Nymeria, by JK Drummond, for ''[[The World of Ice & Fire]]''
| reign         = 
| coronation    = 
| fullname      = Nymeria of House Nymeros Martell, Princess of Dorne
| othertitles   = [[Prince of Ny Sar|Princess]] of [[Ny Sar]]<br>[[Lord of Sunspear|Lady of Sunspear]]<br>[[Prince of Dorne|Princess of Dorne]]
| allegiance    = [[Rhoynar]]<br>[[House Martell]]
| predecessor   = 
| heir          = Eldest daughter (House Martell)
| successor     = Eldest daughter (House Martell)
| alias         = Nymeria of the Rhoyne
| dateofbirth   = 
| placeofbirth  = 
| dateofdeath   = 
| placeofdeath  = 
| dateofburial  = 
| placeofburial = 
| race          = [[Rhoynar]]
| culture       = [[Rhoynar]]
| royalhouse    = [[House Martell|House Nymeros Martell]]
| queen         = 
| consort       = 1<sup>st</sup>: Prince [[Mors Martell]]<br>2<sup>nd</sup>: [[Lord Uller (husband of Nymeria)|Lord Uller]] of [[Hellholt]]<br>3<sup>rd</sup>: Ser [[Davos Dayne]]
| spouse        = 
| lover         = 
| issue         = With Mors Martell: Four daughters<br>With Davos Dayne: Son
| father        = 
| mother        = 
| coat-of-arms  = the sun of the Rhoyne wedded to the spear of House Martell<br>(A gold spear piercing a red sun on an orange field)<br>''(Tenné, a sun-in-splendour gules transfixed by a spear or)''
| Books         = ''[[The World of Ice & Fire]]'' (mentioned)<br>''[[Fire & Blood]]'' (mentioned)<br>''[[The Rise of the Dragon]]'' (mentioned)<br>''[[The Hedge Knight]]'' (mentioned)<br>''[[A Game of Thrones]]'' (mentioned)<br>''[[A Feast for Crows]]'' (mentioned)<br>''[[A Dance with Dragons]]'' (mentioned)
| Played_by     = 
| TV_series     = 
}}

Princess '''Nymeria''' of [[Ny Sar]] was a [[Prince|princess]] of the [[Rhoynar]]. After the [[Rhoyne]] was conquered by the [[Valyrian Freehold]], Nymeria [[Rhoynar migration|led the Rhoynar]] to [[Dorne]], where she took Lord [[Mors Martell]] of the [[Sandship]] as her husband.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Dorne: The Coming of the Rhoynar}}

After years of war and conquest, [[House Martell|House Nymeros Martell]] established supremacy over Dorne, with Nymeria ruling for well over two decades as the [[Princess of Dorne]]. Through Nymeria's rule, the Dornish adopted many Rhoynish customs and laws that remain to this day.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Dorne: The Coming of the Rhoynar}}

==Appearance and Character==
{{See also|:Category:Images of Nymeria|l1=Images of Nymeria}}

Princess Nymeria was said to be beautiful.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

Described by Maester [[Yandel]] as strong-willed and indomitable, Princess Nymeria was said to have cunning, skill, and wisdom.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Dorne: The Coming of the Rhoynar}} Though Nymeria is remembered as a "warrior queen", that statement is true, as she did not bear arms in battle, Nymeria commanded her armies, leading them on the battlefield.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Dorne: The Coming of the Rhoynar}} Princess Nymeria has been called a "[[witch queen]]",{{ref|AGOT|8}} and is remembered as a [[witch]] in the songs, but that statement is also untrue, as she never practiced [[water magic]] herself.{{ref|TWOIAF|Dorne: The Coming of the Rhoynar}}

==History==
===Rhoynish Wars===
At the time of the [[Rhoynish Wars]], Nymeria ruled in [[Ny Sar]], where she had a palace.{{ref|ADWD|14}}

During the [[Second Spice War]], Prince [[Garin the Great|Garin of Chroyane]] united the [[Rhoynar]] nobility in a grand alliance against the [[Valyrian Freehold]]. Only Princess Nymeria spoke against him, warning the other princes that they could not win the war. However, the other princes shouted her down and joined their strength to Prince Garin, and even Nymeria's own warriors were eager to join his cause. Despite her own reluctance, Nymeria found herself forced to join the great alliance.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

Despite Prince Garin's initial success against the Freehold, the Valyrians responded by sending three hundred [[dragon]]s against the Rhoynar. Garin's host was shattered and the prince was captured. Upriver at Ny Sar, Princess Nymeria learned of Garin's defeat and the enslavement of her people, and she knew that her city awaited the same fate. In response, she gathered every ship that remained upon the Rhoyne and filled them with as many women and children as they could carry—most of the men had perished alongside Garin's host.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

===Ten Thousand Ships===
[[File:Rhoynar invasion.jpeg|350px|thumb|Nymeria [[Rhoynar migration|leads her army]] to [[Dorne]].<br>Art by Roman Papsuev]]
While legends often claim that Nymeria commanded a fleet of [[ten thousand ships]], [[Beldecar]] argues in his ''[[History of the Rhoynish Wars]]'' that the number was inflated, perhaps by tenfold. While other chroniclers offer other numbers, in truth no count was ever made. Maester [[Yandel]] agrees that Nymeria led a great many ships, mostly river craft, skiffs, poleboats, trading galleys, fishing boats, rafts, and pleasure barges, crammed with women, children, and old men. Only one in ten was seaworthy, Beldecar insists.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

Nymeria led her ragged fleet down the Rhoyne, past ruined towns and fields of corpses. To avoid [[Volantis]] and the [[dragonlord]]s, Nymeria chose an older channel and emerged into the [[Summer Sea]] where the city of [[Sarhoy]] once stood. The following voyage was long and terrible, and more than a hundred ships sank in the first storm they encountered. As many or more were taken by fear and turned back, only to be captured by slavers out of Volantis. Others fell behind or drifted away, and were never seen again.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

Nymeria's fleet first limped to the [[Basilisk Isles]], where they paused to take on fresh water and provisions, only to be descended upon by local pirate kings. The corsairs offered to allow the Rhoynar to settle on the [[Isle of Toads]] in exchange for their ships and thirty virgins each year for each king as tribute, Nymeria refused this offer. She took her fleet to sea again, hoping to find refuge on [[Sothoryos]]. Nymeria settled at [[Zamettar]], while others settled at [[Yeen]] or founded new towns. However, the Rhoynar did not thrive, succumbing to disease, the dangers of the jungles, attacks from slavers, and the [[Sothoryi|native population]]. After two new towns were sacked by slavers and the Rhoynar settled in Yeen vanished, Nymeria summoned her people back to their ships and they set sail once again.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

For three years, Nymeria's fleet wandered the southern seas. The Rhoynar attempted to settle in [[Naath]] where they were welcomed by its peaceful people, but they were soon driven off by [[butterfly fever|disease]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}} In the [[Summer Isles]], the Rhoynar settled on the uninhabited so-called "[[Isle of Women]]" for more than two years.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}{{Ref|TWOIAF|Beyond the Free Cities: The Summer Isles}}{{Ref|AWOIAF|Isle of Women}} The princes of the isles refused to allow them to settle on the larger islands, fearing the wrath of the Freehold.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Beyond the Free Cities: The Summer Isles}} However, many soon starved for the island was poorly soiled and yielded little food,{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}} and disease and slavers took their toll.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Beyond the Free Cities: The Summer Isles}} Some of the Rhoynar abandoned Nymeria to follow a priestess named [[Druselka]] to return to their cities along the Rhoyne, only to be enslaved or slain by their enemies. Finally, Nymeria and the remnants of her fleet turned towards [[Westeros]]; although the less seaworthy ships settled the [[Stepstones]], or were blown off course to [[Lys]] and [[Tyrosh]] and gave themselves up to the slavers of the [[Free Cities]] rather than die at sea. Nymeria and her ships finally made landfall on the coast of [[Dorne]], near the mouth of the river [[Greenblood]], not far from the [[Sandship]], the ancient seat of [[House Martell]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}{{Ref|AGOT|7}}

===Nymeria's War===
[[File:Nymeriaandmors Karla Ortiz.jpg|thumb|350px|Princess Nymeria and Prince [[Mors Martell]], by Karla Ortiz for ''[[The World of Ice & Fire]]'']]
At the time of Nymeria's arrival, Dorne was a poor land where a score of lords and petty kings quarreled over rivers, wells, and fertile water. Many viewed the Rhoynar as unwelcome invaders who should be driven back into the sea. However, Lord [[Mors Martell]] of the Sandship saw an opportunity in the Rhoynar—and singers claim that Lord Martell also lost his heart to the beautiful princess. With many trained in warfare, the Rhoynar added their strength to Lord Martell's own, increasing his host by tenfold. Mors married Nymeria, and hundreds of his [[knight]]s, squires, and bannermen wed Rhoynish women, uniting the two people by blood. The Rhoynar also brought considerable wealth with them and their artisans and armorers' skills were far more advanced than those of their Westerosi counterparts.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

To celebrate these unions and to ensure that her people could not retreat to the sea again, Nymeria burned her fleet, declaring her wanderings to be at an end,{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}{{Ref|ADWD|6}}{{Ref|ADWD|50}} though [[orphans of the Greenblood|some of her people]] mourned the loss of their ships.{{Ref|AFFC|21}} Nymeria named her husband Mors Martell "the Prince of Dorne", declaring his dominion over all of Dorne. However, such supremacy was not an easy feat, and years of war followed, called [[Nymeria's War]]. The Rhoynar and the Martells subdued one petty king after another, and no fewer than six kings were sent to the [[Wall]] to join the [[Night's Watch]] by Nymeria and her husband.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}{{Ref|AFFC|15}} Soon, only King [[Yorick V Yronwood]] remained, the greatest of the Dornish kings.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

For nine years, Nymeria and the Martells battled against Yronwood and his bannermen. When Mors Martell fell to Yronwood's sword in the [[Third Battle of the Boneway]], Nymeria assumed sole command of the Martell armies. Two more years of battle followed, but Nymeria eventually defeated Yorick V and he bent the knee to her, ensuring Martell supremacy. Nymeria ruled thereafter from [[Sunspear]], the new seat of House Martell built around Sandship.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}{{Ref|AGOT|Appendix}}

===Princess of Dorne===
As the Princess of Dorne, Nymeria remained the unquestioned ruler of Dorne for almost twenty-seven years.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}} Dorne was established as a principality, not a kingdom, for Nymeria preferred the Rhoynish style of prince and princess.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Dorne: The Coming of the Rhoynar}} Though she remarried twice to [[Lord Uller (husband of Nymeria)|Lord Uller]] of [[Hellholt]] and Ser [[Davos Dayne]] of [[Starfall]], her husbands served only as counselors and consorts.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

Over the course of her long reign, Nymeria survived a dozen assassination attempts, quelled two rebellions, and threw back two invasions by the [[Storm King]], [[Durran the Third]], and one by King [[Greydon Gardener]] of the [[Reach]].{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}} As Nymeria grew aged and infirm, the armies of House Martell were commanded by her heirs.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Dorne: The Coming of the Rhoynar}} When she at last died, Nymeria was succeeded as Princess of Dorne by her eldest daughter by Lord Mors, not by her only son by Ser Davos, for Dorne had come to adopt many of the laws and customs of the Rhoynar.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

Nymeria's life inspired the books ''[[Ten Thousand Ships]]'' and ''[[The Loves of Queen Nymeria]]''.{{ref|AFFC|40}}

==Recent Events==
===''A Game of Thrones''===
[[File:Arianne Martell and Princess Nymeria by Samantha Altarozzi.jpg|thumb|350px|Princess [[Arianne Martell]] views a mosaic of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships, by Samantha Altarozzi ©]]
[[Arya Stark]] names her [[direwolf]] "[[Nymeria (direwolf)|Nymeria]]" after the legendary queen.{{Ref|aGoT|7}}

===''A Clash of Kings''===
When taken into the service of Lord [[Roose Bolton]] at [[Harrenhal]], Arya claims her name is "Nymeria", shortened to "Nan".{{Ref|acok|47}}

===''A Feast for Crows''===
In the [[shadow city]] of [[Sunspear]], Ser [[Arys Oakheart]] observes a picture of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships on a tapestry in the room where he meets Princess [[Arianne Martell]].{{Ref|AFFC|13}}

Looking into the night sky at [[Shandystone]], Arianne thinks of a bright white star as Nymeria's star and a milky band behind it as her [[ten thousand ships]].{{Ref|AFFC|21}}

When [[Arya Stark]] and the [[kindly man]] devise an origin for her new identity "Cat", Arya chooses the name ''Nymeria'' for the ship that allegedly brought Cat to [[Braavos]].{{ref|AFFC|22}}

==Family==
Nymeria was first married to Lord [[Mors Martell]] of the [[Sandship]], whom she styled as the [[Prince of Dorne]]. By Lord Martell, Nymeria had four daughters. After his death in battle, Nymeria remarried to the aged [[Lord Uller (husband of Nymeria)|Lord Uller]] of [[Hellholt]], though the marriage was childless. After Lord Uller passed away, she remarried again to the dashing Ser [[Davos Dayne]], the [[Sword of the Morning]]. By him, she had one son.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}

As the Dornish adopted the succession customs of the [[Rhoynar]], Nymeria was succeeded as Princess of Dorne by her eldest daughter by Lord Mors, rather than her son by Ser Davos.{{Ref|TWOIAF|Ancient History: Ten Thousand Ships}}
{{Nymeria tree}}

==Quotes by Nymeria==
{{Quote|This is a war we cannot hope to win.{{ref|twoiaf|2|8}}| Nymeria to [[Garin the Great]]}}

{{Quote|Our wanderings are at an end. We have found a new home, and here we shall live and die.{{ref|twoiaf|2|8}}|Nymeria}}

==Quotes about Nymeria==
{{Quote|That is Nymeria's star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are [[ten thousand ships]]. She burned as bright as any man, and so shall I.{{ref|AFFC|21}}| [[Arianne Martell]]'s thoughts}}

{{Quote|'''Myrcella''': I thought you were the [[Rhoynar]]. You [[Dornishmen]], I mean.<br>
'''Arianne''': We are in part, Your Grace. Nymeria's blood is in me, along with that of [[Mors Martell]], the Dornish lord she married. On the day they wed, Nymeria fired her ships, so her people would understand that there could be no going back.{{ref|AFFC|21}}| [[Myrcella Baratheon]] and [[Arianne Martell]]}}

{{Quote|We will build [[ten thousand ships]] as Nymeria once did and take sail with [[ironborn|all our people]] to the land beyond [[Sunset Sea|the sunset]].{{ref|AFFC|19}}| [[Gylbert Farwynd]] at the [[kingsmoot on Old Wyk]]}}

==Behind the Scenes==
The character of Nymeria is a development of Nymerion, a [[Valyrians|Valyrian]] warrior-witch mentioned in an early draft of ''[[A Game of Thrones]]''. In said draft, [[Arya Stark|Arya]] names [[Nymeria (direwolf)|her direwolf]] "Nymerion" instead of Nymeria.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/1belw08/spoilers_extended_secrets_of_the_cushing_library/ Secrets of the Cushing Library: A Game of Thrones] - gsteff on Reddit</ref>

==References==
{{References}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-vac|unknown|parameter=before|unknlast=[[Garris the Grey]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Prince of Ny Sar|Princess of Ny Sar]]}}
{{S-non|reason=Last ruler}}
{{S-break}}
{{S-new}}
{{S-ttl|order=1st<br>|title=[[Prince of Dorne|Princess of Dorne]]<br>[[Lord of Sunspear|Lady of Sunspear]]|with=[[Mors Martell]]}}
{{S-aft|after=Unnamed daughter|after2=then [[Mors II Martell]]}}
{{S-end}}

[[Category:House Martell]]
[[Category:Rhoynar]]
[[Category:Characters from the Rhoyne]]
[[Category:Characters from Dorne]]
[[Category:House founders]]
[[Category:Legendary Heroes]]
[[Category:Monarchs]]
[[Category:Noblewomen]]
[[Category:Ruling ladies]]
[[Category:Warrior Women]]
[[Category:Lords of Sunspear]]
[[Category:Princes of Dorne]]
[[Category:House founders|Martell]]

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