Pandsala, Regent of Princemarch, is a fictional character in Melanie Rawn's novel, Dragon Prince, which is the first book in the Dragon Prince Trilogy.
| Dragon Prince Character | |
| Princess Pandsala of Princemarch | |
|---|---|
| Race | diarmadhi |
| Birth | 675, Castle Crag, Princemarch |
| Colors | sapphire, diamond, amethyst, and topaz |
| Rings | five |
| Titles | Regent of Princemarch |
| Princedom | Princemarch |
Biography[]
Pandsala was born in 675 to Roelstra and his wife Lallante. She had been confined to Castle Crag throughout her childhood and youth, until the Rialla of 698. Like all of her sisters, Pandsala was desperate to escape her father's leash. The prime man available on the marriage-mart was Rohan of the Desert, so she set her sights on him. She was clever, but Ianthe more so. As Roelstra despaired of ever fathering a son, his mistress, Palila, grew with yet another child. Ianthe told Pandsala that they would switch Palila's son for a daughter should she bear a male heir; Pandsala expanded on this plan, deciding to switch a daughter for a son should Palila help her win Rohan's hand. At the Rialla Ianthe and Pandsala caught Rohan's attention, though he also seemed oddly disinterested in a Sunrunner witch named Sioned. When Palila went into labor aboard the High Prince's barge, Ianthe watched over the mistress and Pandsala oversaw the four other pregnant women they had brought along - and induced into labor with herbs. Only one of the extra women had borne a child by the time Palila's child came. Pandsala decided to revert to Ianthe's original plan as her bargain with the mistress would be useless if Palila truly had a son. As Pandsala took a baby girl up to Palila's room, she called to Ianthe - who was standing with a suspicious Lady Andrade. Roelstra had been summoned and had been told he at long last had a son - only he found two daughters presented to him instead. Ianthe feined innocence in regards to the whole plan and accused Pandsala of trying to switch the babes on her own. Roelstra, furious, nearly attacked his older daughter, but Andrade convinced him to let her take Pandsala and the new daughter, Chiana, to Goddess Keep.
Pandsala tried to escape the Sunrunners' care many times the last day of the Rialla, and then acted like a woebegotten, captive Princess when she first arrived at Goddess Keep. Pandsala's temperament improved greatly once it was discovered that she could be trained as a Sunrunner. She earned three faradhi rings over the next six years. During this time she also took care of her youngest half-sister.
In 704 a war loomed between Princemarch and the Desert. Andrade was eager to lend her aid the Desert, but Goddess Keep was surrounded by enemy forces kept to keep her 'safe' within. Pandsala volunteered to use her position as the High Prince's daughter to escape the Keep. Disguised, Andrade and Urival followed her as servants. Pandsala left the Lady of Goddess Keep and sought out her father; she offered her sunrunning services to him. While gathering him information and viewing the layout of the Desert troops, she also aided the Desert by passing Sioned information and suggesting her father's troops pass though a dragon feeding ground.
The war ended with Roelstra dead and Rohan becoming High Prince. Instead of claiming Princemarch as his own, he gave it to his newborn son, Pol. As Roelstra's last unmarried, legitimate daughter, and the fact that she had helped him, Rohan named Pandsala Reagent of Princemarch until Pol was of age to rule it. Pandsala was more than grateful and swore fealty to Rohan and utter loyalty to the young Pol. In order to ensure that Pol's claim on Princemarch went unchallenged, Pandsala sought to eliminate others within Roelstra's line. Secretly, she killed (or had killed) five of her half-sisters (Cipris, Nayati, Pavla, Rabia, Rusalka), and also Ajit, Prince of Firon and husband to Pavla, Inoat and Jos, heirs to Ossetia, and Obram, heir to Isel, because she wanted Pol to inherit those princedoms as well.
At the Rialla in 719, she told Rohan all she had done for Pol. She told him that she was glad that his heir, whom she referred to viewing as 'their' son, would rule in Princemarch as High Prince and not one of Roelstra's line. When Rohan discovered what she had done out of her twisted sense of devotion, he was aghast. Laughing bitterly at the horror of it all, he told her the truth of Pol's birth - that Pol was Ianthe's son. Pandsala was horrified. Rohan made sure that Pol did not gain from any of Pandsala's murders. Laric of Dorval became Prince of Firon, Ossetia was Gemma of Syr's dowry, and Arlis later inherited the joined Princedom of Kierst-Isel.
During the challenge between Maarken and the pretender Masul, Pandsala realied that she was a diarmadhi as she could feel sorcery burning the rings on her fingers. Recognizing Ianthe's son at last, Pandsala confronted Segev, only to be struck down by him. She was accorded all the Burning rights as befitted a Princess and Regent of Princemarch.