#sandoq the shadow

[knightofthenewrepublic]

[twoiafart]

The end of the regency Artwork by Paolo Puggioni

And then came King Aegon’s nameday. A great feast was to be held that night in the throne room, and the ancient Guild of Alchemists had promised displays of pyromancy such as the realm had never seen. It was still morning, though, when King Aegon entered the council chamber, where Lord Torrhen and the regents debated the last details of the progress. With him came four of the knights of the Kingsguard, and the hulking figure of Sandoq the Shadow. Curtly, the king stated his readiness to rule, and had Lord Torrhen remove himself from the head seat at the council table. Then he informed the council that the progress was canceled. Though Lord Torrhen tried to persuade him that it would win him the love of the people, King Aegon stated that he would do that through providing peace, food, and justice. He even called off the nameday feast in his honor, sending the food to the poor instead. “Full bellies and dancing bears shall be my policy,” the king announced, before relieving the regents and the Hand of their offices and granting them leave to return to their seats.

[eschercaine]

It was still morning, though, when King Aegon entered the council chambers where Lord Torrhen and the regents were debating whether or not to include Tumbleton on the progress. Four knights of the Kingsguard accompanied the young king to the council chambers. So did Sandoq the Shadow, veiled and silent, carrying his great sword. His ominous presence cast a pall in the room. For a moment even Torrhen Manderly lost his tongue. “Lord Manderly,” King Aegon said, in the sudden stillness, “pray tell me how old I am, if you would be so good.” “You are ten-and-six today, Your Grace,” Lord Manderly replied. “A man grown. It is time for you to take the governance of the Seven Kingdoms into your own hands.” “I shall,” King Aegon said. “You are sitting in my chair.” The coldness in his tone took every man in the room aback, Grand Maester Munkun would write years later. Confused and shaken, Torrhen Manderly prised his considerable bulk out of the chair at the head of the council table, with an uneasy glance at Sandoq the Shadow. — Fire and Blood, pg. 721-722

Here it is, folks! Aegon III Targaryen, son of Rhaenyra Targaryen, the Realm’s Delight and Daemon Targaryen, the Rogue Prince. King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.

[horizon-verizon]

Sandoq the Shadow had come from Lys with Lady Larra, a gift from her father the Magister Lysandro. Black of skin and black of hair, he stood almost seven feet tall. His face, which he oft kept hidden behind a black silk veil, was a mass of thin white scars, and his lips and tongue had been removed, leaving him both mute and hideous to look upon. It was said of him that he had been the victor of a hundred fights in the death pits of Meereen, that he had once torn out the throat of a foe with his teeth after his sword had shattered, that he drank the blood of the men he killed, that in the pits he had slain lions, bears, wolves, and wyverns with no weapon but the stones he found upon the sands. Such tales grow in the telling, to be sure, and we cannot know how much of this, if any, is to be believed. Though Sandoq could not read or write, Mushroom tells us he was fond of music, and would oft sit in the shadows of Lady Larra’s bedchamber playing sweet sad notes on a queer stringed instrument of goldenheart and ebony that stood near as tall as he did. “I could sometimes make the lady laugh, though she did not understand more than a few words of our tongue,” the fool says, “but the Shadow’s playing always made her weep, and strange to say she liked that better.”

Fire and Blood, by George R.R. Martin, pg 683-684

[gotham-at-nightfall]

A few matters were still under discussion when King Aegon's nameday dawned at last. A great feast was to be held that night in the throne room, and the ancient Guild of Alchemists had promised displays of pyromancy such as the realm had never seen.

It was still morning, though, when King Aegon entered the council chambers where Lord Torrhen and the regents were debating whether or not to include Tumbleton on the progress.

Four knights of the Kingsguard accompanied the young king to council chambers. So did Sandog the Shadow, veiled and silent, carrying his great sword. His ominous presence cast a pall in the room. For a moment even Torrhen Manderly lost his tongue.

"Lord Manderly," King Aegon said, in the sudden stillness, pray tell me how old I am, if you would be so good!"

"You are ten-and-six today, Your Grace," Lord Manderly replied. "A man grown. It is time for you to take the governance of the Seven Kingdoms into your own hands."

"I shall," King Aegon said. "You are sitting in my chair”

King Aegon III ends his regency and takes control of the Seven Kingdoms!

[fortunate-hal]

A sketch of an illustration of Sandoq the Shadow fighting Amaury Peake’s guardsmen from the Subterranean Press edition of Fire and Blood, as reproduced in Art of Gary Gianni for George R. R. Martin’s Seven Kingdoms      

[manfrommars2049]

Sandoq the Shadow Meets Ser Amaury Peake by Ertaç Altinöz via ImaginaryWarriors

[istumpysk]

I think someone made a post on Sandoq the Shadow has similarities with Hound. Sandoq protecting Larra has apparently same vibes as Hound protecting Sansa. So it's foreshadowing for Sansan which doesn't make any sense.🙄

Not familiar with the character, but after glancing over his wiki, he seems like an amalgamation of the Mountain and the Hound.

The funniest part is that he appears to be largely inconsequential. Great comparison.

[sweetestpopcorn]

Do you think Larra Rogare cheated on Viserys with Sandoq the Shadow?

Anon,

Look at my face. Look at my f-cking face.

[elegantwoes]

The way people see Joffrey Dogget and Sandoq the Shadow in service to Alysanne and Larra Rogare respectively and come out believing it is foreshadowing for san/san and rather than Queen Sansa, even though there is no indication these men had any romantic relationships with the queens lmfao

Some people don’t want to see what is right in front of them, dear anon.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Rise of the Dragon - Sandoq the Shadow Meets Ser Amaury Peake by Ertaç Altinöz

[twoiafart]

Sandoq the Shadow meets Ser Amaury Peake Artwork by Ertaç Altinöz  

Awaiting him was Prince Viserys, carrying a heavy axe, and King Aegon. When they asked who had commanded her arrest, Ser Amaury revealed it was the new Hand of the King: Ser Marston Waters, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Ser Amaury even claimed that Ser Marston had been appointed by the regents, though only two of those regents remained and one of them—Lord Thaddeus—had just been removed from that position at Ser Marston’s command. Viserys warned them not to cross the drawbridge, driving his axe into the wood to mark the line they must not pass. As the prince and the king withdrew, Sandoq the Shadow stepped forward. Huge and powerful, black of hair and skin, he was a mute pit fighter from Meereen who had survived a thousand fights. He had been sent by Lysandro Rogare to act as Larra’s defender, and now he proved his skill, carrying a black shield of nightwood and a curved sword with a dragonbone hilt and a Valyrian steel blade. Ser Amaury and the dozen men-at-arms he had brought all died, cut down like so much wheat at harvest.

[kellyvela]

Sansan shippers think Sandoq the shadow and Larra is foreshadowing for their ship. But forgetting that Larra married to a Targ. Unlike Sandoq, Hound wasn't guardsman to Sansa and loyal to Lannisters. Also Sandoq knew to play music which would made Larra cry unlike Hound who forced Sansa to sing. Sandoq the shadow was loyal, fierce and mute guard to Larra which could mirror Ghost(white shadow).

I know about that anon....

He reminds me a lot of Areo Hotah to be honest. But the mute part and the association with Ghost is really good.

Thanks for your message :)

[thehightower]

Though the court and city still doted on the king’s brother, that clever, gallant boy Viserys, the same could not be said for his Lysene wife. Larra Rogare had taken up residence in the Red Keep with her husband, yet in her heart she remained a lady of Lys. Though fluent in High Valyrian and the dialects of Myr, Tyrosh, and Old Volantis in addition to her own Lysene tongue, Lady Larra made no effort to learn the Common Tongue, preferring to rely upon translators to make her wishes known. Her ladies were all Lyseni, as were her servants. The gowns she wore all came from Lys, even her smallclothes; her father’s ships delivered the latest Lysene fashions to her thrice a year. She even had her own protectors. Lysene swords guarded her night and day, under the command of her brother Moredo and a towering mute from the fighting pits of Meereen called Sandoq the Shadow. [...] Sandoq the Shadow had come from Lys with Lady Larra, a gift from her father the Magister Lysandro. Black of skin and black of hair, he stood almost seven feet tall. His face, which he oft kept hidden behind a black silk veil, was a mass of thin white scars, and his lips and tongue had been removed, leaving him both mute and hideous to look upon. It was said of him that he had been the victor of a hundred fights in the death pits of Meereen, that he had once torn out the throat of a foe with his teeth after his sword had shattered, that he drank the blood of the men he killed, that in the pits he had slain lions, bears, wolves, and wyverns with no weapon but the stones he found upon the sands. Such tales grow in the telling, to be sure, and we cannot know how much of this, if any, is to be believed. Though Sandoq could not read or write, Mushroom tells us he was fond of music, and would oft sit in the shadows of Lady Larra’s bedchamber playing sweet sad notes on a queer stringed instrument of goldenheart and ebony that stood near as tall as he did. “I could sometimes make the lady laugh, though she did not understand more than a few words of our tongue,” the fool says, “but the Shadow’s playing always made her weep, and strange to say she liked that better.” — Fire & Blood

Larra Rogare and Sandoq the Shadow, by Doug Wheatley, for Fire & Blood (paperback edition) by George R.R. Martin

[horizon-verizon]

It was a different sort of music that Sandoq the Shadow played at the gates of Maegor’s Holdfast, as Ser Amaury’s guardsmen rushed at him with sword and spear. That night his chosen instruments were a tall black shield of nightwood, boiled hide, and iron, and a great curved sword with a dragonbone hilt whose dark blade shone in the torchlight with the distinctive ripples of Valyrian steel. His foes howled and cursed and shouted as they came at him, but the Shadow made no sound save with his steel, sliding through them silent as a cat, his blade whistling left and right and up and down, drawing blood with every cut, slashing through their mail as if they had been clad in parchment. Mushroom, who claims to have seen the battle from the roof above, testifies that “it did not look so much like a swordfight as like a farmer reaping grain. With every stroke more stalks would topple, but these stalks were living men who screamed and cursed as they fell.” Ser Amaury’s men did not lack for courage, and some lived long enough to strike blows of their own, but the Shadow, always moving, caught their blades upon his shield, then used that shield to  shove them backward, off the bridge onto the hungry iron spikes below.   Let this be said of Ser Amaury Peake: his dying did not disgrace the Kingsguard. Three of his men were dead upon the drawbridge and two more were twisting on the spikes below by the time Peake slid his own blade from its scabbard. “He was clad in white scale armor under his white cloak,” Mushroom tells us, “but his helm was openface and he had not brought a shield, and sorely did Sandoq make him answer for these lacks.” The Shadow made a dance of it, the fool says; betwixt each fresh wound he dealt Ser Amaury, he would kill one of his remaining minions before turning back to the white knight. Yet Peake fought on with stubborn valor, and near the end, for half a heartbeat, the gods gave him his chance when the last of the guards somehow got his hand around Sandoq’s sword, and ripped it from the Shadow’s grasp before he went tumbling off the bridge. From his knees, Ser Amaury staggered back to his feet and charged his unarmed foe. Sandoq tore Viserys’s battleaxe from the wood where the prince had buried it and split Ser Amaury’s head and helm in half from crest to gorget. Leaving the corpse to topple onto the spikes, the Shadow paused long enough to shove the dead and dying from the drawbridge before retreating inside Maegor’s Holdfast, whereupon the king commanded the bridge to be raised, the portcullis lowered, and the gates barred. The castle-within-the-castle stood secure.

Fire and Blood, by George R.R. Martin, pg 684-685

[asongofsilks]

Random fancasting --> The Free Cities: Peter Mensah as Sandoq the Shadow

“It was said of him that he had been the victor of a hundred fights in the death pits of Meereen, that he had once torn out the throat of a foe with his teeth after his sword had shattered, that he drank the blood of the men he killed. Though Sandoq could not read or write, Mushroom tells us he was fond of music, and would oft sit in the shadows of Lady Larra’s bedchamber playing sweet sad notes on a queer stringed instrument of goldenheart and ebony that stood near as tall as he did. ‘I could sometimes make the lady laugh, though she did not understand more than a few words of our tongue,’ the fool says, ‘but the Shadow’s playing always made her weep, and strange to say she liked that better.’

It was a different sort of music that Sandoq the Shadow played at the gates of Maegor’s Holdfast, as Ser Amaury’s guardsmen rushed at him with sword and spear. That night his chosen instruments were a tall black shield of nightwood, boiled hide, and iron, and a great curved sword with a dragonbone hilt whose dark blade shone in the torchlight with the distinctive ripples of Valyrian steel. His foes howled and cursed and shouted as they came at him, but the Shadow made no sound save with his steel, sliding through them silent as a cat, his blade whistling left and right and up and down, drawing blood with every cut, slashing through their mail as if they had been clad in parchment.”

The master in one of the coolest and most cinematic scenes in Fire & Blood, this is one character who may not have the best spoken part, but will certainly impress with his grace and skill at bloodshed.

House Targaryen fancasts here

Main series era House Martell here