Nymeria Sand

Nymeria is born in the year 275, in Volantis, the Free City her mother comes from, a woman of noble blood. She is the second of the Sand Snakes, the daughters Prince Oberyn Martell acknowledged as his own.

As a girl she plays with her sister Tyene and her cousin, Princess Arianne Martell, in the Water Gardens, alongside other children of the Dornish court such as Garin, Andrey Dalt, and Sylva Santagar, and also with the Fowler twins, with whom she remains close. She gives Arianne a throwing knife that Arianne keeps in her boot ever after.

Nymeria is slender, with black hair braided with copper wire, dark eyes, and pale skin; she is considered the most beautiful of the Sand Snakes, though no less dangerous than her sisters. She wears bright silks and rides a golden sand steed with a white mane, but under her clothes she hides close to a dozen daggers, which she is skilled at handling.

The Fowler twins bring her the news: her father, Prince Oberyn Martell, has died in King's Landing. Soon after, Ser Daemon Sand writes to tell her how Ser Gregor Clegane, poisoned by Oberyn during the combat, is dying too.

Nymeria rides out with a dozen mounted spearmen to meet her uncle, Prince Doran Martell, on his way from the Water Gardens to Sunspear. She demands vengeance and rejects the compensation Lord Tywin Lannister has offered Doran for Gregor's head: to her, only royal blood can wash away her father's death. She proposes killing Tywin, his children, the regent queen Cersei Lannister, Ser Jaime Lannister, and King Tommen himself.

When her other sisters arrive also calling for war, Doran orders the Sand Snakes arrested and confined in the Spear Tower.

Nymeria and her sisters are freed and attend the banquet Dorne holds for Ser Balon Swann when he arrives bearing Gregor Clegane's head. When a toast is raised to King Tommen, Nymeria refuses to drink to it.

Doran then sends her to King's Landing to fill Dorne's seat on the Small Council.