Alleras the sandsnake - Complete analysis

[Thendel]

Very, very well done, OP.

As for Alleras' motivations: Oberyn was Doran's partner in the plots directed at restoring the Targaeryens and bringing down the Lannisters (he supervised the marriage contract between Viserys and Arianne). Given Doran and Oberyn's tendency of involving their children in their schemes, why wouldn't Oberyn send a daughter that is eager to study to Oldtown?

[Ser Lepus]

I just want to say that, despite how little we know of Sarella/Alleras/The Sphinx, she is one of my favorite characters. Among all the bastards and all the women who struggle with the inequalities of the westerosi society, she is the one who knows how to use effectively what advantages she has instead of obsessing with the privileges she can´t have: She has learned a trade that can let her sustain herself without begging her relatives (she is a sea captain), she has used her inherited gold for something useful and profitable (has her own ship), is giving herself and education (even if she has to dress herself as a man) and has learned to use a weapon to defend herself effectively without being ridiculed (she is a master archer).

I think Tyrion, Jon and Cersei could learn a lot from her; even Brienne and Asha could (Brienne, there are other interesting things you can do besides becoming a knight, those assholes will never accept you as an equal, become a pirate or a sea captain or a businesswoman or something; Asha, your people are a bunch of paleolithic rapists, murderes, slavers and robbers, they are nor ready for a female leader, why don´t you do as Tristifer Botley says, and become a rich merchant?).

[Fire_Kiss]

OP- mad props for such a well-documented theory!

I too think Sarella=Alleras, and have thought that since I learned their names. I believe the Citadell will have a pivotal role to play in the next books, especially looking at what Marwyn and Barbery Dustin have to say about the Maesters.

[The Sleeper]

I don't see why her going to the Citadel with no ulterior motive, other than the desire for an education, would preclude from being involved with Marwyn and play a role in the story once she got there.

[Lord Bear Mormont]

How many links does she have?

[YUNG LYANNA]

ALLERAS = SALLERA! with all my suspicious about both characters, I never realized the blatant clues as to their true identity.

now that i have realized this, i feel stupid BUT i also have this nagging sense... "the sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler." for some reason i think this could mean one of the three heads of the dragon? I'm just speculating here, & wildly, at that, but if Dany is one, Jon as a Stark/Targ could be another & maybe Sallera the third?

I have a reason for suspecting this but as I type it makes less sense... okay. Dany is Rhaegars sister/blood of the dragon/blah, Jon may be his son, & Sallera is the blood (niece) of his Dornish wife. Meh.

[AndySnow]

Alleras, known as The Sphinx, is a novice studying at the Citadel in Oldtown. Alleras is described as having a noble Dornishman for a father and a Summer Islander for a mother. In ‘A Feast for Crows’ we learn that Alleras has been at the Citadel for a year and has forged three links in his Maester's chain. When Samwell Tarly arrives in Oldtown, Alleras seeks him out as soon as he enters the Citadel and instructs him to go to Marwyn. Alleras is believed to be an alias assumed by Sarella Sand, one of Oberyn Martell's bastard daughters known as ‘the Sand Snakes’. There are many indications that this is correct. On their own they would not stand, but seen as a whole, the claim becomes quite plausible.

In ‘A Feast for Crows’, a whole slew of clues were brought to us in the form of a passage between Prince Doran Martell and his captain of guards, Areo Hotah. This exchange happened immediately after Martell ordered Hotah to take the Sand Snakes into custody:

1) The first and most obvious clue is the fact that "Alleras" is "Sarella" spelled backwards.

2) The second clue is that Sarella is presently not in Dorne and far enough away that Doran is forced to leave her alone.

3) We also learn that Sarella is 19 years old, meaning she is about the right age to pass for an acolyte of the Citadel

4) The most intriguing clue this passage provides is that she is engaged in some sort of "game". Since women are not permitted to become maesters, if Sarella is indeed Alleras, her "game" could very well be that she is pretending to be a man and an acolyte of the Citadel.

5) Another clue can be found in Alleras’s physical appearance. In the FFC prologue Alleras’s defining physical features are described in detail as:

When Sam Tarly meets Alleras in the final chapter of AFFC, he also notices the black hair and eyes, and the widow's peak. Matching this with Obyren Martells description shows a startling resemblance. The defining features of Oberyn Martell are the same defining features of Alleras. At the very least, we can say that Alleras looks a great deal like the Red Viper. Additionally, the strange description of his ‘slim arms’ suggests that the Sphinx may, in fact, be female.

6) The next clue is also derived from Alleras’s physical resemblance to Oberyn. The eyes in particular draw the reader's attention, due to the manner in which they are described. Oberyn's eyes are "black and shiny as pools of coal oil" and Alleras has "eyes of onyx." This becomes more interesting when referenced with something that Areo Hotah thinks to himself upon viewing one of the other Sand Snakes, Tyene, in ‘A Feast for Crows’

7) Another indication that Sarella might be the acolyte in Oldtown can be found by learning about Sarella’s personality. She loves knowledge and Oldtown. This is strongly indicated in the following two passages made respectively by Nymeria Sand and Arianne Martell in AFFC:

Additionally, Alleras had only been at the Citadel for a year, yet already he had forged three links of his maester's chain. We know that Oberyn also demonstrated a thirst for knowledge at the Citadel, going so far as to forge six links of a maester's chain before he grew bored. Combine the previous quotes with the fact that Alleras seems to be an exceptionally gifted acolyte and that too will form an indication.

8) A second Arianne quote strengthens the previously discussed aspect of Sarella's personality:

Someone who is "forever pushing in where she doesn't belong" is admirably suited to be the type of person who would infiltrate the Citadel.

9) Leo Tyrell makes a point of Alleras possessing more silver than the other acolytes and notes that, despite his mixed parentage, Alleras speaks in a "soft Dornish drawl". This indicates that he was raised in Dorne (speech patterns are a reflection of childhood environment rather than birth).

10) A final piece of information that links Sarella and Alleras concerns the Summer Isles part of their ancestry. We're told that Sarella's mother is a trader captain of the ship Feathered Kiss from the Summer Isles. In the prologue of AFFC, Alleras is wielding a bow (along with arrows) of goldenheart, a wood native to the Summer Isles and used by its inhabitants to make their famous bows. It's not often seen in Westeros. (Credit to Sevumar for providing this clue)

............................

Conclusion: Perhaps giving a name to one character that happens to be the exact backwards reading of the name of another could be construed as coincidence, but when the characters in question appear to have so much in common, and when there is so much evidence linking the pair of them, it becomes increasingly unlikely that the hints and clues given throughout ‘A Feast For Crows’ are there for some other purpose. If we are to assume that Sarella was sent to the citadel in order to complete a specific mission or accomplish a specific goal, it would be hardly inconceivable that such a girl, raised by the Red Viper and so curious about history and culture, would be chosen to infiltrate the Citadel. So with this, we can conclude that the theory claiming Alleras ‘the Sphinx’ is actually Oberyn Martells daughter, the sandsnake Sarella, in disguise is one that can be believed.

Naw, I just don`t see it. ;)

[BrojenReed]

Awesome, awesome OP! I knew about the theory but couldn't remember all the links between the two from the books, so it was great to have them drawn out so clearly.

As to why she was sent to the Citadel, I'm assuming Oberyn sent her there in disguise to just generally learn as much as possible about dragons, and gain some insight into all the mysetrious happenings across the realm.

Someone suggested earlier that she was there to learn how to kill a dragon, but I don't think this is the case- I believe Oberyn was genuinely still a Targ supporter, like his brother.

[Bushido]

@JFDluci: There's also the fact that Aemon tells Sam that "the Sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler", which draws the reader's (our) attention to him/her more closely.

The Sphinx is The Citadel.

[mythsandstuff]

. Among all the bastards and all the women who struggle with the inequalities of the westerosi society, she is the one who knows how to use effectively what advantages she has instead of obsessing with the privileges she can´t have

This. Sarella is the character I keep wondering about - we've been given clues about other women who disguised themselves, only to have their stories end tragically (Danny Flint, and depending about what you believe re: Knight of the Laughing Tree and "a sadder story"). Surely being in Oldtown is a risk for her, and I have to wonder if other women haven't tried it before. This disguise/tragedy pattern also makes me worry for Sansa and Arya (Arya more than Sansa - the pattern seems to fit women who choose disguise, and Sansa this far has _so_ little agency).

And the thing about women using their advantages rather than obsessing re: lack of privilege brought Cersei to mind, but I won't go into my issues with her characterization (which are legion) here.

[hyperbion]

Two more clues:

-re: the Summer Isles ancestry, it is mentioned that Alleras is half Dornish and half Summer Islander, just like Sarella

-when accused of being of noble birth, Alleras curiously says "I am no lord's son" - as if to avoid lying about having noble birth ('he' is a lord's daughter)

[Ser Lepus]

Sarellas ultimate goal is to kill a dragon...

You know, at the beginning, when I read how the only vulnerable point of dragons are the eyes, I thought that was bullshit, because there is bone behind the eyes, and dragonbone is as hard as iron, but then I searched an image of a reptilian skull, and their eyes are like big holes in their skull without bone behind; the arrow may not reach the brain (there is still a braincase back there, I think), but it may provoke an hemorrage big enough to kill the beast...

Is there any biologist or zoologist around who could tell me if the brain of reptiles is completely encased in bone or not?

[WinterWarrior]

Wow, I have read AFFC three times and never made the Sarella = Alleras connection but your argument has convinced me. Great post, now I wonder where GRRM is going to go with it if you are correct.

This is the thing about aSOIaF - you never catch everything so it never gets old. There is always something new to consider....

[Janicia]

Sarella might be learning about how to kill dragons in order to protect them. You have to understand a threat to be able to act against it.

Eyeballs and other sensory organs have nerve "tubing" that connects the organ to the brain. The brain case has to have holes to let the tubing through.

[franko99]

On the dragonslayer angle; it would be a cool destiny for her (nice theory Elfangle!). Although, as others have said, I don't see at this point why the Martells would want to slay a dragon. What was Quentyn's mission again? oh right, to win over a dragon, not to kill it.Maybe she gains knowledge about the dragons that leads her to stray from the family alliance with the Targs. Maybe she finds out that Dragon's are too uncontrollable and decides to take matters in her own hands. Just spitballing.

Maybe she's trained to be a dragons slayer just in case. They're suporting the Targs because of vengance, not because they love dragons, If said Targaryens turns out to be mad, or somehow not useful anymore for the Dornish they have a way to deal with them.

I mean I wouldn't unleash a weapon if I have no idea of how to stop it :dunno:

[Theda Baratheon]

Oooh, definitely. This has to be true and only enhances my love for the Sand Snakes.

[Pod The Impaler]

The Citadel seems to be quite anti-magic, and it's strongly indicated (by Marwyn?) they are the ones killed the dragons. A motive could be because dragons (and other such magical creatures) are tied to magic, which means it they stand in the way of the world of scientific reason the maesters think they can build (and control). In their view, for civilization to advance, magic itself must be culled from the world.

Remember what Marwyn said - that if certain things Sam knew were found out by the other elders of the Citadel, Sam would be assasinated to cover these things up.

Oberyn was training to be a maester, once. We also know that for all his impetuous nature, he did create some long term plans (along with Doran). After all the secret pact to marry Viserys to Arianne was one.

However, it could be that years before Oberyn himself was mentored by Marwyn while at the Citadel. Oberyn and Marwyn may have been allies for a long time already, and if Alleras / Sarella was sent to the Citadel to carry one this alliance, it stands to the most studious and capable of his children would go to the Citadel to assist Marwyn (in his de facto undermining of the Citadel's planned order). Marwyn likely knows Alleras is Sarella, and always has. Remember also that mixed up in these dragon / Targ plans and connections, that Marwyn has long has connections to magic. He knew (and taught) Mirri Maaz Duur at one point, and others.

Obara hates Oldtown, but it could be that Sarella is an enemy of the elders of the Citadel, and is doing her part in a long-term plan to undermine their work, something her father and Marwyn (and maybe Doran) began. IF a Targ was involved in that too, who would you guess would be the most likely as candidate? Maester Aemon ? Bloodraven ?

And then complicating things is whatever Jaqen / The Alchemist / Pate and what the House of Black & White wants.

Anyway, this is getting a bit crackpot, but my main point in mentioning it is to point out that we do not fully know the intentions of Sarella, Oberyn, Marwyn, the Citadel, nor anyone else connected to this weirdness. The threads connect it to many big-picture things.

[Ser Lepus]

Sarella might be learning about how to kill dragons in order to protect them. You have to understand a threat to be able to act against it.

Eyeballs and other sensory organs have nerve "tubing" that connects the organ to the brain. The brain case has to have holes to let the tubing through.

Optical neves are thin, and you can't see where they are from the outside. Putting an arrow through them would be almost impossible, but maybe an arrow through the eye and into the head (without penetrating the braincase) could provoke an hemorrage severe enough to kill the beast.

[cortchuzska]

When you think about it, it's passing strange Mirri Maz Durr was there when the Dragon Eggs hatched

[eggs]

embarrassingly, i never made the connection on my own despite all of the obvious evidence.