Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken: Dorne shall rise again

[Tzippi Longstockings]

(A lot of this is unnecessary flavor text, and contains spoilers for the books up to and through ADWD.  Spoilers will be in white, so just click and drag over them. I'll try to use spoiler-free images, but no guarantees. Follow at your own risk. I may use show images, but going with book continuity. I'm also still figuring out point allocations for these.)

House Shoute is a stony Dornish House. Their seat of Falconscry is located between Blackmont and the High Hermitage, along the Torentine River in Northwest Dorne.  House Shoute is first recorded among the bannermen of the Kings of Blackmont, and therefore is descended from the First Men, but has intermarried with Salty Dornishmen, who claim descent from the Rhoynar.

Falconscry is a small fortress built into the mountainside, overlooking two small valleys to either side. The land is fertile enough to support a few villages, but the Torentine is only navigable to Blackmont upstream and halfway to High Hermitage downstream before rapids and waterfalls render river trade impossible.

Falconscry has remained close to House Blackmont, and therefore shares their unwavering loyalty to House Martell in these difficult times. Therefore, border tensions have been quelled for the present, as Sunspear and Highgarden are allies, as goodbrothers to the ruling Baratheon/Lannister king. However, shields taken from Tarly and Mullendore knights in marcher wars past are proudly displayed in the great hall.

Prince Doran is keeping his cards close to his chest, as to his plans for Dornish involvement in (and victory of) the great game of thrones. However, we know that he left books with Arianna in the tower on three subjects, including Dornish history and Dornish law. As loyal bannermen to House Martell, we will devote ourselves to study of Dornish history and attempting to emulate our Prince’s careful planning for the future.

Dornish History Challenge:

Age of Heroes: House Dayne’s retrieving of the fallen star and carrying it back to create the greatsword Dawn.

3x/week weights. Whether gym, bodyweight, aerial class, or a weight-centric Darebee workout.

Nymeria’s landing: 10,000 ships of Rhoynish refugees travelled all around the Summer Sea to find a new home (and create a new, fused culture) in Dorne.

Run 60 minutes/week.

Dornish Toughness and Baelor’s walk: When Daeron I refused Meria Martell’s offer of cooperation, insisting on total submission, Dorne resisted. While they couldn’t stand long against an onslaught by dragons, the Highgarden governor left to rule was plagued by guerilla attacks, and after Daeron’s death, Dorne successfully threw off Targaryen rule entirely.  His successor, Baelor the Blessed, walked to Dorne through the Boneway as penance. He survived exposure and snakebite, and married his cousin Daeron to a Mariah Martell, princess of Dorne, uniting the kingdoms.

Mediterranean diet. I need to get out of the bad eating habits I’ve gotten into, particularly the heavy, wintry foods I’ve been indulging in. I will carefully log all food and drink for the challenge’s duration, and attempt a Dornish diet, heavy in legumes and fresh vegetables, seasoned with herbs, lemons, and spice rather than salt and creamy sauces.

Planning for Dornish future minigame:

Prince Doran is diversifying, especially through his and his brother’s children, ensuring that The Martells will survive and thrive whatever happens in the War of the (Five? Four? Five? Three?) Kings.

Trystane’s engagement to Myrcella Baratheon: getting cozy with the Lannisters for now is the prudent move, and Prince Doran is nothing if not prudent. Lannister gold is nothing to be sneezed at, plus, free hostage!  Save $____/paycheck.

Arianne’s change of plans, Viserys to Heiress: I’m very lucky to finally have full-time employment, and we are hoping to get a house soon. There are lots of little tasks to complete, such as applying for loans, looking into grants for first-time homeowners, researching, etc. I'm thinking any two completed per week is a completed point.

Quentyn’s Dragon riding aspirations: I’d like a buddy to jog with, but both she and I need to get used to being on a leash. Taking Haruhi out for leash training at least once per week.

Travelling with the Sand Snakes: Whether marching off to war with Obara, travelling to fill a Small council seat in King’s Landing with Lady Nym, infiltrating the Faith by posing as a septa to befriend the High Sparrow with Tyene, or Yentl-ing my way into the Maesters’ Academy at Oldtown with Sarella, you need to take food with you. Prepping food for bento lunches, trying at least one new recipe or formula per week.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Glad to see you back on a challenge thread again. I'll be following.

[Tzippi Longstockings]

Week zero: Setting up my spreadsheet to keep track of food and drink. Also starting a fun little thing: I brew tea at least three times a day while at work. Which means walking to the break room (where the hot water lives), waiting for my tea to brew, adding milk, then walking back. See that wasted time in there, where I'm just standing, waiting?

 

No more! Today I did 20 elevated push-ups (10 elbows in, 10 elbows out) and 10 deep squats. Maybe I can add lunges as well, on a day when my shoes have a little more traction. I'm concerned that my sandals would slip out from under me into a sudden and unpleasant splits.

 

It's a little thing, but makes me feel like this:

 

[Tzippi Longstockings]

Reserved for Weekly Round up 1

[Tzippi Longstockings]

Reserved for Weekly Round up 2

[Tzippi Longstockings]

Reserved for Weekly Round up 3

[Tzippi Longstockings]

Reserved for Weekly Round up 4

[Tzippi Longstockings]

Reserved for Woots and Goals met

[Tzippi Longstockings]

Reserved for Challenge Retrospective and future planning

[Raxie]

Following! I really like how you whited out the spoilers, what a great idea!  You've got awesome goals, and it's really cool how you paired them up with different aspects of the GoT universe!

[Terra]

Loving the layout of your challenge.  And push-ups and squats in the breakroom for the win!!!  

 

What would you recommend the books or the tv show?  I'm feeling very lost with all the Game of Thrones references this challenge cycle and I'll have lots of down time in a few weeks to catch up...  

[Raxie]

2 minutes ago, Terra said:

Loving the layout of your challenge.  And push-ups and squats in the breakroom for the win!!!  

 

What would you recommend the books or the tv show?  I'm feeling very lost with all the Game of Thrones references this challenge cycle and I'll have lots of down time in a few weeks to catch up...  

 

I'd throw my vote in for the books - the show is OK but it doesn't represent all the strong awesome female characters portrayed in the books very well and it irks me.  But that's just me and I'm certainly no expert on the subject  Haha

[Tzippi Longstockings]

3 minutes ago, Terra said:

Loving the layout of your challenge.  And push-ups and squats in the breakroom for the win!!!  

 

What would you recommend the books or the tv show?  I'm feeling very lost with all the Game of Thrones references this challenge cycle and I'll have lots of down time in a few weeks to catch up...  

 Honestly, there's probably no way to catch up all the way. I love both, but the books are SO much richer and more detailed, that I geek the hell out over them. The show is also good, though I have some quibbles with the direction some characters' arcs are going, away from the books. Also, the gratuitous nudity and sex, especially in the background, that serves no character or plot development. I don't mind sex, but it's a little fanservicey.

 

If you don't mind spoilers, there are lots of good videos on youtube that do fan roundups or theories. I may post some of them here. Other than that, if you have any questions, you can message or email me.

[Terra]

2 minutes ago, Tzippi Longstockings said:

 Honestly, there's probably no way to catch up all the way. I love both, but the books are SO much richer and more detailed, that I geek the hell out over them. The show is also good, though I have some quibbles with the direction some characters' arcs are going, away from the books. Also, the gratuitous nudity and sex, especially in the background, that serves no character or plot development. I don't mind sex, but it's a little fanservicey.

 

If you don't mind spoilers, there are lots of good videos on youtube that do fan roundups or theories. I may post some of them here. Other than that, if you have any questions, you can message or email me.

 

11 minutes ago, Raxie said:

 

I'd throw my vote in for the books - the show is OK but it doesn't represent all the strong awesome female characters portrayed in the books very well and it irks me.  But that's just me and I'm certainly no expert on the subject  Haha

 

Thanks to both of you!  I'm huge book reader and this might become that treat to myself while in recovery.  I tried to read the first book once and it didn't grab me...   but maybe I gave up too soon.  I looked and can get books 1-5 kindle versions for $36 so I might do that.   That should keep me entertained for a week...  

[Nymeria]

Following for the ASOIAF awesomeness!  And I'll also vote for the books.  While I enjoy the tv show, it just lacks the richness of character development and the fantastic internal dialogue.  And they completely botched their treatment of Dorne in the show.  

@Terra: Just be patient with the books.  It can take awhile to really get into them, since there are so many characters and there's so much going on.  

[Maigs]

6 minutes ago, Terra said:

 

 

Thanks to both of you!  I'm huge book reader and this might become that treat to myself while in recovery.  I tried to read the first book once and it didn't grab me...   but maybe I gave up too soon.  I looked and can get books 1-5 kindle versions for $36 so I might do that.   That should keep me entertained for a week...  

Definitely the books over the show. The first season followed the first book amazingly well, but then it kinda went downhill in my opinion.

As for actually reading them, first check out your local library. I can get all books as ebooks on my kindle app for free. Second, I think your underestimating the enormity of these books. Even as a fast reader it'll keep you busy more than a week. I think the audiobooks of them are over 40 hours each

[Raxie]

6 minutes ago, Maigahane said:

Definitely the books over the show. The first season followed the first book amazingly well, but then it kinda went downhill in my opinion.

As for actually reading them, first check out your local library. I can get all books as ebooks on my kindle app for free. Second, I think your underestimating the enormity of these books. Even as a fast reader it'll keep you busy more than a week. I think the audiobooks of them are over 40 hours each

 

Yeah I audiobooked them and they on average were about 42 hours each.  Though I must say doing the audiobooks REALLY helped with keeping track of all the characters because of the different voices and stuff.

[Terra]

5 minutes ago, Maigahane said:

Second, I think your underestimating the enormity of these books. Even as a fast reader it'll keep you busy more than a week. I think the audiobooks of them are over 40 hours each

I'll be so excited if it takes longer than a week!!!  I am a very fast reader and it sucks trying to keep me in books!!!   Challenge accepted!  

[Maigs]

5 minutes ago, Raxie said:

 

Yeah I audiobooked them and they on average were about 42 hours each.  Though I must say doing the audiobooks REALLY helped with keeping track of all the characters because of the different voices and stuff.

I had the reverse experience! I was getting Petyr and Pycelle confused in the first book. Probably because the guy was pronouncing Petyr as pe-TIRE instead of Peter.

[Terra]

@Tzippi Longstockings Sorry for the thread hijack!  I just wanted to ask about GoT... 

 

Thanks for the info!  I'll let you know how the reading goes...  

[Tzippi Longstockings]

I'm rereading them now, or rather, listening to the audiobooks! A few of the accents and pronunciations are a bit weird (Petyr is pronounced pe-TIRE? Why does Davos sound like a cartoon pirate?), but I like them anyway.

 

 

 

And yeah. So much Dorne. We don't get into it much for the first few books, but the Dornish character POVs are SO COOL! Hence, I made up a minor house and am essentially "OFC" LARPing this entire challenge.

 

suchadork

 

 

[Raxie]

3 minutes ago, Tzippi Longstockings said:

I'm rereading them now, or rather, listening to the audiobooks! A few of the accents and pronunciations are a bit weird (Petyr is pronounced pe-TIRE? Why does Davos sound like a cartoon pirate?), but I like them anyway.

 

They were my first impressions of the characters so I had no idea what I thought they would sound like or how the names may or may not be spelled/supposed to be pronounced so I didn't really have that issue.  Though once I got to know the characters a bit I did start to question some of the accent choices.  However, having the different voices for each character is so helpful.  One thing to watch out for though, I think it's in the fourth book one of the semi-recurring characters the reader randomly changes accents for.  I think there was a big gap between when he read the books and forgot what he had done for this not-too-commonly-appearing character.

[Tzippi Longstockings]

Stayed up late doing character generation, so I didn't get to work out this morning, but I'm feeling genki and strong today, so I'll keep doing mini-bodyweight when tea is steeping, and try to get farther on my lunch walk than yesterday. I'm listening to a strange mix of belly dance music and 90's hip-hop, but somehow Katy Perry keeps interrupting.

 

Stop interrupting, Katy Perry, I'm trying to listen to Warren G and Jeff Beal.

 

Heh. Game of Thrones connection:

[Raxie]

I really like your tea brewing mini body weight work - all that extra movement throughout the day is really going to add up methinks

[Tzippi Longstockings]

For the "Westeros Gonna Ranger" minichallenge:

 

Lannister Goal: Household expenses budgeting – track all expenditures, build a grocery budget for this week. (To serve as a model for the future).

 

Baratheon Goal: The proper Baratheons are mostly crowfood at this point, so I will try a Crow pose challenge every day this week.  

Tully Goal: Seafood challenge. New fish recipe that I can take to lunch with minimal smell, seaweed every day.

Martell Goal: Like the tower at Sunspear, like the palms at the Water Gardens, Like Dornish pride. Stand tall and strong. Handstand training daily.