Oberyn Martell

Oberyn was born in 258 AC, the fifth child of the Princess of Dorne. As a boy he was fostered at Starfall, seat of House Dayne, while his mother looked for a good match for him or for his sister Elia.

The search took them across half of Westeros — Campoestrella, el Rejo, Oldtown, the Shield Islands, Refugio Quebrado — and finally to Lannisport and Casterly Rock, in the hope of marrying one of the two to Lord Tywin Lannister's twins. There Oberyn met Cersei and Jaime Lannister, but they arrived too late: Lady Joanna had just died, and Tywin, still grieving, wanted nothing to do with the match. His only answer was to offer his newborn son, Tyrion, instead. Dorne understood it for what it was: an insult.

At sixteen he was found in the bed of Lord Edgar Yronwood's mistress, and the wronged lord challenged him to a duel. Given the prince's youth and blood, it was agreed the fight would end at first blood, and both men were wounded. Edgar's wounds turned foul and killed him. From then on Oberyn was known, by friends and enemies alike, as the Red Viper — word had spread that he fought with poison on his blade.

He crossed the Narrow Sea and travelled the Free Cities, where he is said to have learned of poisons and of darker arts besides. He spent time at the Citadel, forging six links of a maester's chain before growing bored and giving it up. He fought as a soldier with the Second Sons in the Disputed Lands, and eventually raised a mercenary company of his own.

He made a name for himself in the lists too: he unhorsed Prince Rhaegar Targaryen at a tourney in Storm's End, and at another tourney in the same castle it was Ser Barristan Selmy who unhorsed him. At the Tournament at Harrenhal in 281 AC, he danced with Lady Ashara Dayne.

When the Sack of King's Landing left Elia raped and murdered by a knight sworn to House Lannister, Ser Gregor Clegane, Oberyn tried to rouse Dorne to back Viserys Targaryen. He has wanted vengeance ever since.

With his brother Doran, he spent years secretly plotting the end of Robert Baratheon's reign and the fall of House Lannister. He travelled to Braavos, where Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen were being raised under the protection of Ser Willem Darry, and there, with the Sealord as witness, he struck a pact: Arianne Martell's hand for Viserys, in exchange for Dorne's support for his claim to the Iron Throne.

At a tourney he accidentally crippled Willas Tyrell, reviving the old grudge between Dorne and Highgarden — though Willas bears him no ill will, and the two still correspond, bound by a shared love of horses. Oberyn knighted his own squire, Ser Daemon Arena, while his nephew Quentyn chose to be knighted by Lord Anders Yronwood instead. When Doran withdrew to the Water Gardens for his health, he left Sunspear in Oberyn's care, and Oberyn sent him word twice a fortnight.

In 300 AC Oberyn arrived in King's Landing to claim the seat on the small council promised to his brother Doran, determined to finally get justice for Elia. Every time he crossed paths with Tyrion Lannister, the Hand of the King, he asked when that justice would come. Tywin Lannister, for his part, planned to settle the matter with a lie, laying the blame on a knight already dead, Ser Amory Lorch.

When Tyrion stood trial for King Joffrey's murder, Oberyn sat among his judges. The night before the verdict, he offered Tyrion a bargain: he would stand as his champion in a trial by combat against Ser Gregor Clegane if Tyrion told him who had killed Elia. Tyrion denied his father had any part in it, but told him Amory Lorch had killed young Rhaenys and that it was Clegane who killed Elia and the infant Aegon. When the trial turned against him, Tyrion demanded combat, and Oberyn declared himself his champion, to the shock of the whole court.

He fought with a spear and light armor, against Tyrion's advice, who doubted the choice against so large an opponent. He wounded Clegane several times during the fight and finally brought him down; rather than finish him, he tried to force a confession out of him. It cost him: Clegane seized the moment, caught him, and crushed his jaw and skull with a single blow — but not before shouting, loud enough for everyone to hear, that he had killed Elia and Aegon.

Oberyn did not die without exacting some price: he had poisoned the tip of his spear, and Clegane spent days in agony before he died.

His many lovers gave him eight bastard daughters, the Sand Snakes; the four youngest were born to Ellaria Sand, his last companion. Unlike most highborn fathers of bastards, Oberyn took a hand in raising them: he taught them to defend themselves and gave them a freedom rarely allowed to those of their birth.

After his death in the trial by combat, his daughters wanted vengeance. Doran Martell, Lord of Sunspear, ordered Areo Hotah, captain of his guard, to place them under arrest rather than drag Dorne into a war it could not win.