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LChris24

Why isn't anyone in Dorne worried about Edric Dayne? (Spoilers Extended)

EXTENDED

It is wartime in Westeros and the Lord of one of the greatest houses in Dorne is "presumed missing or dead" and was last seen as a squire for a Lord turned outlaw.

Why isn't there a single mention of Ned Dayne in any of the Dornish chapters? By all accounts he's a good natured guy who seems likeable and is the Lord of Starfall at 12 years old.

"He is my milk brother."

"Brother?" Arya did not understand. "But you're from Dorne. How could you and Jon be blood?" -ASOS, Arya VIII

Background

We meet Edric (aka Ned) Dayne, the Lord of Starfall (and potential candidate to become a Sword of the Morning if the 5 year gap wasn't removed) in A Storm of Swords when he is squiring for Lord Beric as part of the Brotherhood without Banners.

Ned, help me remove my breastplate."

Arya got goosebumps when Lord Beric said her father's name, but this Ned was only a boy, a fair-haired squire no more than ten or twelve. He stepped up quickly to undo the clasps that fastened the battered steel about the Marcher lord. -ASOS, Arya VI

and:

She spied Ned too, fighting at the lightning lord's side. It's not fair, he's only a little older than me, they should have let me fight. -ASOS, Arya VII

but he later seems to go his separate way from the Brotherhood after Lady Stoneheart takes over. This is only as far as we know, as he isn't listed with her anywhere in the series and in the Appendix of AFFC, he is listed under Beric and not Lady Stoneheart.

So we know that going into the series, he was a page then squire for Beric, up until AGOT, then a member of the Brotherhood, and now his location is unknown..

Dornish Chapters

We get POV chapters from:

  • Areo Hotah
  • Arianne Martell
  • Arys Oakheart
  • Quentyn Martell

And not once is Edric Dayne (or the status of the current House Dayne in Starfall). The only mentions are of Arthur Dayne and Darkstar besides a reference to the House as a whole here:

As it happens, I agree. Aside from Darkstar, your fellow plotters were no more than foolish children. Still, this was no harmless game of cyvasse. You and your friends were playing at treason. I might have had their heads off."

"You might have, but you didn't. Dayne, Dalt, Santagar . . . no, you would never dare make enemies of such Houses." -AFFC, The Princess in the Tower

We also get pretty good encounters with Oberyn Martell in Tyrion's chapters and not once is he mentioned there either.

Which begs the question: "Why?" Why isn't Edric mentioned, even once?

Even a throwaway line of worry, especially due to how good of a person he seems to be.

A few options came to mind:

The POVs we get are quite limited:

None of the Dornish POVs have all the info available in Dorne. As GRRM put it Doran Martell knows too much (like Howland and Varys and Littlefinger) to be a POV, so we only get information from a lovestruck member of the Kingsguard (Arys), a camera that rides (Areo Hotah), a plotting princess (Arianne) and a prince on a quest (Quentyn). So none of them are probably focused on Edric.

That said we do get plenty of info on how the rest of Dorne feels about certain things (Oberyn's death, etc.). Its still weird that when discussing "news", its never mentioned once like "Young Ned is still missing".

Edric is going to reenter the story soon and GRRM didn't want to give it away:

Edric could show up in so many place (attacking Ser Forley Prester's party in the Prologue, to taking part in the Red Wedding 2.0, to showing up at the showdown between Lady Stoneheart, BWB, Brienne and Jaime or even in Dorne with Darkstar, Obara Sand and Areo Hotah.

GRRM just didn't want to give anything about House Dayne away:

Its quite possible that GRRM just didn't want to give anything about House Dayne away as they could potentially be featured heavily in TWOW. Elio Garcia mentioned that GRRM has a Dayne family tree that could be revealed in TWOW.

Along with that, revealing who is ruling in Starfall, etc. etc. might give away his plans for what happens in TWOW.

GRRM just forgot: The is a large expansive world with a massive cast of characters. With the abandonment of the 5 year gap, its possible that there isn't a place for him exactly in the story anymore. He could obviously reappear, but due to this change in plot structure, GRRM might have just forgot to include a reference as the plotline shifted to Darkstar.

It should also be noted how ancient/respected of a House that House Dayne is:

"My House goes back ten thousand years, unto the dawn of days,"

and:

Other small kingdoms existed elsewhere in Dorne, in the deep sands, amongst the high peaks, along the salt shore, and on the isles and the Broken Arm, but few of these ever approached the power and prestige of the Daynes of Starfall, the Fowlers of Skyreach and the Wide Way, and the Yronwoods of Yronwood. -TWOIAF, Dorne: Kingdoms of the First Men

Im sure there some other good (and some foily) ideas as to what some other options are, but these are what I came up with off the top of my head. Let me know any other ideas you might have.

TLDR: The fact that the missing/possibly dead, young lord of a major Dornish house is not mentioned once in a single one of the Dornish chapters is quite odd.

Posted Mar 21, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC · edited

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