Sister to Ser Arthur Dayne the Sword of the Morning, and reckoned among the great beauties of her age, with the violet eyes and dark hair of her house. As a maid she served the Princess Elia Martell at court, and was present at the great tourney at Harrenhal in 281 AC, where she is said to have danced with Lord Eddard Stark, his elder brother Brandon, Oberyn Martell of Dorne, and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen himself in turn beneath the high vaults of Harren the Black's ruin.
In the year that followed she bore a stillborn daughter at Starfall, the father never named in any chronicle, though the singers would set the child's getting at Harrenhal and the father variously at Brandon Stark, Eddard Stark, or another of that company. Word of Ser Arthur's death at the tower of joy and the wreck of her own hopes reached Starfall together at the end of the rebellion, and not long after Lord Eddard rode back northward bearing Dawn home to her brother's house, the Lady Ashara cast herself from the white tower of Palestone Sword into the sea, and was lost.