A Wedding in Sunspear
is an A Song of Ice and Fire fanfic. It follows eight POV characters — four canon characters, and four original characters.
The story is set five decades before the main series, and revolves around the wedding of Doran Martell's parents, Princess Loreza Martell and Ser Eliott Rowan.
The fic is written by Julia_Martell. Began in October 2015 and published on Archive of Our Own.
This fan fiction provides examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: The premise of the fanfic is the arranged marriage between Loreza Martell and Eliott Rowan.
- Awful Wedded Life: Alysanne and Tybot Sarsfield.
- Quite a few of the Dornish couples have separated once the wife has given the husband a few children. Most seem to be more Amicable Exes though, understanding to go their own ways and find other paramours.
- Prince Arion Martell and Lady Rebanna Wyl are rumoured to have had a particularly bad marriage, with the rumour that he cheated on her with Lady Qorgyle when they were still living together.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Shaera, who in Targaryen fashion are both siblings and spouses, although they don't appear in the main story.
- Butch Lesbian: Joleta Gargalen is very sporty and in a committed relationship with Lady Deneza Dalt.
- Culture Clash: Almost every chapter involves a good few clashes between Dornish culture and that of the Reach/Stormlands/Crownlands/Westerlands/Riverlands/Vale.
- Dead Guy Junior:
- Loreza Sand from the main series becomes this, as Oberyn's mother's name is also Loreza.
- Daenerys Gargalen, named for her maternal grandmother, Daenerys Targaryen (daughter of Aegon IV).
- Maron Wyl, named for his paternal grandfather, Maron Martell.
- Ellaria Sand from the main series becomes this, seemingly named for her legitimate aunt, Ellaria Uller.
- Trystana Martell, named for her grandmother, Tristana Jordayne, from Blood of Dragons MUSH.
- Joleta Gargalen, named for her great-grandmother from Blood of Dragons MUSH.
- Brienne of Tarth has a very similar name to her grandmother in the fanfic, Brianna of Tarth.
- Quite a few of the Martells from the main series have names that sound similar (if not identical) with those in the fanfic. To give a few examples: Loreza's aunt Trystana and her grandson Trystane, Loreza's uncle Arion and her granddaughter Arianne, and her husband Eliott and her daughter Elia.
- Death by Childbirth: Prince Rhodryn Martell's first wife, Robarra Baratheon, who died after three stillbirths and three miscarriages.
- Dirty Old Man: Lord Jothor Florent. His mistress, Daisy, is younger than his granddaughter.
- Doting Parent: Played for Drama with Alysanne Sarsfield — her life is so devoid of love and caring that her daughter Tyia is her only outlet.
- Externally Validated Prophecy: Jenny of Oldstones's "grandmother" and her visions, validated by the War of the Ninepenny Kings and Daenerys hatching her dragons in the future of the series.
- Heir Club for Men:
- Played straight with the northern nobles, who tend to be very concerned with producing sons to inherit their titles and seats. Tybot Sarsfield isn't close to inheriting his house, but still expects a son from his wife, Alysanne Mooton.
- This is averted with all of the Dornish characters, since Dorne follows simple primogeniture where titles pass to the oldest child regardless of gender.
- Henpecked Husband: Some of the northern characters think Eliott might end up as this, since the concept of a man being consort to a female ruler seems inherently demeaning to them.
- Hide Your Gays: Prince Daeron Targaryen and Ser Jeremy Norridge's relationship is an open secret for everyone, but they still have to pretend that they're merely good friends. It causes friction when the Dornish give Jeremy the usual treatment for a highborn's paramour.
- Innocently Insensitive: Daenerys Gargalen almost reduces Olenna Redwyne to tears by claiming Prince Daeron Targaryen was a better man for merely breaking his betrothal than marrying his own sister. She immediately realizes how crass it was to discuss the subject in front of the spurned fiancee.
- Identical Grandson: Lady Brianna of Tarth is considered hulking and ugly by the northerners, the same as her granddaughter Brienne in A Song of Ice and Fire.
- Kissing Cousins: Maron Wyl and Daenerys Gargalen. Their parents are Martell siblings.
- Lady-In-Waiting: Loreza's ladies-in-waiting, naturally: Emlyn Wells, Joleta Gargalen, Rhona Santagar, Elda Toland, Genna Sand.
- May–December Romance:
- The middle-aged Lady Ariandra Fowler is paramour to the much older Lord Allyster Wyl.
- The fifteen-year-old Daenerys Gargalen and the thirty-year-old Maron Wyl have a considerable age gap for Dorne.
- Missing Mom: Olenna Redwyne's mother. She claims not to have a mother, implying she died when Olenna was too young to remember. In her place there is Olenna's overbearing chaperone, Unelletine.
- My Girl Is a Slut: Implied for the Dornish, who assume a woman isn't a maiden when she finally marries. If she's still virgin, they outright wonder about her temperament.
- Morning Sickness: Tybot Sarsfield thinks his wife is experiencing this. She's actually just seasick.
- Old Maid: Olenna Redwyne is starting to be considered this. She's nineteen.
- Megga Darry, still unmarried at thirty.
- Old Man Marrying a Child: Not "old man" exactly, but the eleven-year-old Lady Serrett has been married off to the older Steffon Farman.
- Original Character: Many, many characters. Most notably four of the POVs: Eliott Rowan, Daenerys Gargalen, Corret Rowan, and Alysanne Mooton/Sarsfield.
- Spanner in the Works: The wedding is thrown into jeopardy when Eliott finds out that Loreza isn't a virgin.
- Stepford Smiler: Olenna pretends she's not bothered at all by Prince Daeron spurning her. She actually feels deeply ashamed and humiliated.
- The Maiden Name Debate: Averted with the Dornish, where couples keep their birth names, but Played With for the northerners. Quite a few believe it will be Eliott running things in Sunspear once Loreza takes the throne.
- Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Aegon the Unlikely blatantly disapproves his son cavorting with another man. Poor Jeremy Norridge has to plead the Dornish to not accidentally fan the flames by acknowledging him as Daeron's paramour.
