Born in the Free City of Norvos, Areo Hotah was the youngest of six children, sold in his boyhood to the Bearded Priests and raised in their cold and rigorous service. Upon the completion of his training he was wedded to his longaxe, a union marked by the brand burned upon his breast, and taught that a guardsman's life belongs wholly to those he is sworn to protect. When the lady Mellario of Norvos crossed the narrow sea to wed Prince Doran Nymeros Martell, Hotah came with her, and there he remained when she did not.
For long years he has stood as Captain of the Guards at Sunspear, the silent shadow at the shoulder of the Prince of Dorne, asking no questions and keeping every confidence. Bound by his oath to serve, obey, and guard, he watched over Doran's household through the unquiet years that followed the deaths of Elia Martell and her children, and bore witness to the prince's patient and secret designs against those who wronged his house.