The Citadel: Concordance - 12. Other Lands

12. Other Lands

It is well known that the cheapest place to buy slaves is right off the ship (II: 642)
There are cultures in the eastern continent where men are allowed more than one wife (II: 643)
Colloquo Votar’s Jade Compendium, a thick volume of tales and legends from the east (IV: 76)
The Weeping Woman is favored by old women, the Lion of Night is preferred by rich men, the Hooded Wayfarer by poor men. Soldiers light candles for Bakkalon, the Pale Child, while sailors prefer the Moon-Pale Maiden and the Merling King. Even the Stranger has a shrine (IV: 314)
Strange coins from many places: silver and gold, copper and bronze, square and round coins, triangles and rings and bits of bone (IV: 402)
Wine from Yi Ti (V: 22)
Pirates on the Stepstones (V: 71)
Pirates on the Rhoyne river (V: 71)
Talk of "stone men" on the Rhoyne, said to be real but poor damned creatures (V: 71)

Last revised February 19, 2016
PermaLink

12.1. Geography

The continent east of the Seven Kingdoms, called Essos, is separated from it by a narrow sea. It is much larger than the continent of the Seven Kingdoms (I: 23. SSM: 1, 2, 3)
The Jade Sea is far to the east, and the lands there are half-fabled (I: 23)
Vaes Dothrak is east of the Free Cities (I: 23)
Beyond Asshai lie the Shadow Lands (I: 86)
The Dothraki Sea is a huge expanse of plain lands beginning far east of Pentos (I: 190, 193)
Norvos is east of Pentos, a land of rolling hills and terraced farms with small villages sitting behind white stucco walls (I: 192)
Valyria left many roads, as old as a thousand years, that run straight as arrows on the eastern continent. These roads show no sign of wear or tear despite their age. Made of magically fused stone and raised half a foot off the ground to allow rain and snow to melt off their shoulders, the roads are broad enough to allow three wagons to pass abreast. (I: 193. V: 76, 77)
The Forest of Qohor is east of Norvos and takes two weeks to ride through (I: 193)
The Rhoyne is a river on the eastern continent (I: 203. II: 147. SSM: 1)
The lands or cities of Bayasabhad, Shamyriana, and Kayakayanaya are to the northeast of Vaes Dothrak (I: 490. SSM: 1)
There is a river which bounds the Dothraki sea far to the south and west of Vaes Dothrak. South of it live the Lhazreen people (I: 556)
Down river from that border of the Dothraki Sea are the slave markets of Slaver's Bay (I: 557)
Meereen is some unknown distance from the Dothraki Sea (I: 557)
Asshai lies far to the south of the Dothraki sea, at the end of the known world (I: 591)
Due east of the Dothraki sea are the red lands, a desert wasteland (II: 138, 139)
The ports on Slaver's Bay of Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor are downriver to the southeast of the Dothraki sea (II: 138)
The red lands are a trackless wilderness of red clay, sand, and stone. There are no springs or wells, only pools of shallow and stagnant water. In the summers the riverbeds are dry, and only the tough devilgrass grows at the base of rocks and dead tress (II: 140)
Few caravans come through the red lands, but at the end of them are great kingdoms and fabulous cities such as Yi Ti, Qarth, and Asshai by the Shadow (II: 142)
In the red lands there are dead, abandoned cities built of white stone (II: 142, 143, 148)
Due south of one of the dead city that the Dothraki call Vaes Tolorro, the city of bones, the red lands end on the bleak shore of the sea (II: 148)
Southwest of Vaes Tolorro are two other cities, smaller than it (II: 148)
The trader's circle around the Jade Sea is a common route for merchant ships (II: 316)
The Qartheen naval fleet is powerful and rules the straits between the seas (presumably the Jade Sea and the narrow sea) (II: 421)
There is a mention of a place called Faros, which has the Stone Cow of Faros (II: 422)
Yi Ti is on the Jade Sea, and past it somewhere is supposed to be a legendary dreaming city of poets (II: 424)
The Free Cities appear to be almost due east from the end of Crackclaw Point in Westeros (II: 431)
The narrow sea is often stormy (III: 87)
Corsairs and pirates hunt the southern route past Slaver's Bay in the Summer Sea (III: 98)
North of Valyria the Smoking Sea is said to be demon-haunted. The waters of the Smoking Sea boil and smoke. It's claimed that any sailor who glimpsed the fiery mountains of Valyria would soon die (III: 98. IV: 440)
The groundwater beneath Astapor, such as is used in fountains, is sulfurous (III: 257, 266)
Naath is a fabled island populated by the Peaceful People (III: 258, 804)
Astapor is besides the Worm River (III: 265)
The Worm River has little islands in it near to Astapor (III: 265)
The folk of the hinterlands east of Slaver's Bay are all Ghiscari (III: 272)
East beyond the hills about Astapor lies Lhazar (III: 272)
The Dothraki sea lies north of the slave cities (III: 272)
Pentos, Norvos, and Myr are on the continent, rather than islands (III: 272)
The Astapori named the tranquil Worm River a stream. It is wide, slow, and crooked, and some of its tiny wooded islands are decorated with elegant marble statues (III: 312)
There are many small cities between Slaver's Bay and the western coast of the eastern continent (III: 313)
The Disputed Lands, where there's always fighting (III: 433, 756. SSM: 1)
There's a birchwood forest some three leagues south of Yunkai (III: 473, 487)
Meereen sits on the salt coast of Slaver's Bay beside the river Skahazadhan. Its northern wall is against the river and its western on the bay shore (III: 640, 644)
Meereen stands on a jut of sand and stone where the slow brown Skahazadhan river flows into Slaver's Bay (III: 644)
The water of the Skahazadhan is not sanitary near the city. Meereen draws its own water from deep wells instead (III: 645)
The way across the Lands of the Long Summer from Slaver's Bay is long and grueling (III: 645)
Pentos lies westwards of Meereen (III: 645)
There is a city on an island named New Ghis (III: 807)
Volantis is said to be in the west from Slaver's Bay, and may be the nearest of the Free Cities to that place (III: 807)
The journey by galley from Eastwatch to Braavos is said to be a long one (IV: 217)
The narrow sea can be rough in autumn, and autumn storms are common. In winter, the storms are worse but less frequent (IV: 217)
The direction taken in marching from the Disputed Lands to Volantis is the "wrong direction" if one means to cross the narrow sea Westeros (IV: 246)
The continent to the south of the eastern continent is known as Sothoros or Sothoryos. It is rough, plauge-ridden, full of jungles and largely unexplored (IV: 257. SSM: 1)
The Basilisk Isles (IV: 300)
The brackish waters surrounding Braavos are full of fish and shellfish, thanks to the slow, brown river that enters the lagoon from the south and spreads across reeds, tidal pools, and mudflats (IV: 315)
The Stepstones are known for their storms and nests of pirates from Lys and Myr (IV: 440)
It can be inferred that Lys and Volantis seem to be the southernmost of the Free Cities (IV: 440)
It's suggested that a journey from the Shield Islands to the far side of the narrow sea is so hazardous in autumn that two-thirds of a fleet might be lost in the attempt (IV: 440)
Near Meereen are a range of rounded sandstone mountains and the Khyzai Pass, beyond which is Lhazar (V: 34)
A ship sailing from Pentos to Asshai will take at least two years before it returns (V: 71)
The swiftest way from Pentos to Volantis is by sea (V: 71)
The city of Mantarys lies to the west of Meereen, if one follows the old Valyrian roads (V: 73)
The direct distance between Volantis and Meereen is approximately 550 leagues (V: 73)
Andalos, the ancestral land of the Andals, lies to the east of Pentos. It is said the Andals took it from the hairy men who were there before men, cousins to the Ibbense. The heart of that realm lies to the northeast of Pentos, but the southern regions are known as the Flatlands in Pentos (V: 79)
Further east beyond the Flatlands lie the Velvet Hills (V: 79)
The Flatlands contain tillers and toilers bound to the land, and orchards, farms, and mines owned by wealthy individuals in Pentos (V: 80)
The Flatlands are relatively sparsely populated, as the Dothraki occasionally pass through. The ruins of towns are testament to their passage (V: 80)
The Rhoyne lies between the Dothraki Sea and the Flatlands (V: 80)
On leaving the Flatlands, a road leads into the Velvet Hills and to the ruin of the Rhoynish city of Ghoyan Drohe upon the Little Rhoyne (V: 81)
The Velvet Hills are not very impressive. A circle of standing stones found there are said to have been raised by giants, while a deep lake is said to have been a den of robbers who now dwell beneath the water and pull fishermen down to their deaths. Deeper still into the hills one may find a huge Valyrian sphinx with a dragon's body and a woman's face, next to an empty plinth were a second sphinx had once stood; that sphinx was carried away by the Dothraki to Vaes Dothrak (V: 81-82)
The Port of Ibben is on Ibben, a large island nation in the Shivering Sea, which is the polar sea north of the eastern continent. There is nothing but ice north of it (SSM: 1, 2)
The Stepstones are a chain of large islands in the narrow sea east of Dorne and Storm's End (SSM: 1)
Vessels bound for Asshai go east through the Summer Sea and the Jade Sea, which are connected by the straits of Qarth (SSM: 1)
Maps still mark out the lands of the Andals on the eastern continent, but the area has seen so many invasions and migrations that very little of the Andal people remains there (SSM: 1)
The Free Cities are much nearer to the Seven Kingdoms than they are to Qarth (SSM: 1)
There is no connection between Westeros and the eastern continent by way of the far north (SSM: 1)
Yi Ti is to the southeast of Qarth, across of the Jade Sea (SSM: 1)
Westeros is more strongly affected by winters than the eastern continent, because it extends further north while the eastern continent's boundary is the icy polar sea called the Shivering Sea (SSM: 1, 2)
The chief city of Ibben is the Port of Ibben. Ibben is a large island (with several smaller ones around it) in the Shivering Sea (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

12.2. The Nine Free Cities

The Free Cities name the Seven Kingdoms Westeros and the Sunset Kingdoms (I: 24)
Magisters, archons, and merchant princes rule the Free Cities (I: 25)
The Dothraki are always carefully dealt with by the Free Cities, given gifts of all manner and manses to keep them from attacking (I: 28)
Unsullied are eunuchs used as household guards in many of the Free Cities, and can often lose their discipline and go to fat because of such soft service (I: 29. III: 96)
Bravos and sellswords are common from the Free Cities (I: 29)
The bravos of the Free Cities use slender swords, edged and balanced for the thrust (I: 81)
The Free Cities speak a bastard version of Valyrian, as most have their origins as colonies of Valyria. They are nine dialects, each on their way to becoming their own language (I: 84. V: 17. SSM: 1)
The Free Cities produce fine velvets and damasks (I: 86)
Some slavers buy hideous slaves for grotesqueries (I: 103)
Trading galleys sail the narrow sea and trade in the Seven Kingdoms, as well as elsewhere (I: 141)
There are men in the Free Cities with marvellous healing skills (I: 146)
Peoples of the Free Cities speak the Common Tongue of Westeros with a particular lilt, which can further indicate the precise Free City they are from (I: 188)
Bravos fight from a sideways stance, weapon extended (I: 188)
Poisoning is common in the Free Cities (I: 213)
In the Free Cities, towers, manses, hovels, bridges, shops, and halls all crowd in on one another (I: 326)
Caravan guards of the Nine Cities wear copper helmets and knee-length tunics of quilted cotton, with swordbelts of woven leather (I: 490)
Pepperwines, fire wines, smokeberry browns, and blackberry wines are made in some Free Cities (I: 492. V: 72, 75, 76)
The Free Cities raise standing armies of professional soldiers (I: 504)
Sellswords sometimes fight in the Rhoyne (II: 147)
In at least some of the Free Cities, concubines are allowed to married men (II: 147)
The Brave Companions (also known as the Bloody Mummers when they're not around, and the Toes of the Goat) are a mercenary company made up of men from many lands of both Westeros and the eastern continent (II: 337. SSM: 1)
The banner of the Brave Companions is a black goat with bloody horns, although this may be the standard of their Qohorik leader (II: 337. SSM: 1)
Dothraki, Jogos Nhai, Summer Islanders, Ibbenese, and men from the other Free Cities (among others) are part of the Brave Companions. Their leader may be of any nationality (II: 337. SSM: 1)
The Brave Companions uses both horses and zorses (II: 337)
Some followers of the Red God (who may or may not be R'hllor) believe that he must have his due. If a life that should have ended is saved, a death must happen in return. This belief may or may not be related to the Faceless Men or the Lorathi specifically (II: 340)
An apprentice's indentures may be sold to someone else in the Free Cities (II: 473)
Men do not lose their hands for thieving in the Free Cities (III: 5)
The Brave Companions are also known as the Footmen, for their leader's habit of cutting off the hands and feet of those who displeased him (III: 36)
Each Free City appears to have its own distinct accent (III: 87)
The leaders of some Free Cities are named dynasts (III: 96)
The Bright Banners and the Second Sons are sellsword companies who existed at least 400 years ago. They fled when Khal Temmo led the Dothraki out of the east for the first time, rather than standing to defend Qohor as they had been paid to do (III: 96, 97)
Eunuchs seem to be commonly used as stewards and record-keepers (III: 111)
Pentos, Norvos, and Myr are on the continent, rather than islands (III: 272)
Bath tubs in the Free Cities are very large, able to hold six or seven people (III: 416)
At least some of the Free Cities fight over the Stepstones and the Disputed Lands, where there's always fighting (III: 433, 756. SSM: 1)
The Stormcrows are a sellsword company (III: 473)
The Stormcrows and the Second Sons seem to be entirely mounted, using lancers and mounted bowmen with swords and axes for close work. They are each about five hundred men in strength (III: 473)
The Stormcrows wear black feathers on their polished helms (III: 476)
The Second Sons are an old company, and not without valor (III: 479)
The wildlings have contact with smugglers from the Free Cities and perhaps Westeros as well, trading goods in the little coves on the eastern coast along the Shivering Sea. They take steel weapons and armor in return for furs, ivory, amber, and obsidian (III: 608)
There is a haunting ballad about two dying lovers amidst the Doom of Valyria, sung in High Valyrian (III: 676)
The Gallant Men are a sellsword company (III: 756)
In the Free Cities, well spoken and gently born slaves are prized. They will become tutors, scribes, bed slaves, and even healers and priests (III: 809)
It is the custom in the Free Cities to keep whipping boys and girls, to take punishment earned by the sons and daughters of the wealthy (III: 909)
The Golden Company has never broken its contract, boasting that its word is as good as gold since the days of their founder Bittersteel. They were founded approximately 200 AC, and were made up of the hundreds landless knights and lords who followed Bittersteel and the surviving sons of Daemon Blackfyre into exile. Some of these men joined existing sellsword companies, such a the Ragged Standard, the Second sons, or the Maiden's Men, but seeing this Bittersteel formed the Golden Company to bind the majority together. Since then, the Golden Company has spent its career in the Disputed Lands, fighting the wars between the Free Cities and hoping to return to the Seven Kingdoms (IV: 197. V: 78)
The Golden Company is said to command 10,000 men (V: 78)
In the Free Cities, offices of government include justiciar, lord treasurer, and grand admiral (IV: 241)
The motto of the Golden Company is, "Beneath the gold, the bitter steel" (IV: 300)
It can be inferred that Lys and Volantis seem to be the southernmost of the Free Cities (IV: 440)
The swiftest way from Pentos to Volantis is by sea (V: 71)
Volantis is the oldest and proudest of the Nine Free Cities (V: 73)
The Free Cities are said to prefer to fight with coin rather than with swords (V: 80)
The Brave Companions go back further than their current leader but are younger than some other companies of sellswords in the eastern continent (SSM: 1)
There are many sellswords on the eastern continent, especially among the Free Cities who have made heavy use of them for centuries in fighting their endless wars over the Stepstones and the Disputed Lands. There are many sellsword companies, or free companies, such as the Brave Companions, the Second Sons, and the Stormcrows. Some companies are little more than rabbles while others are known for their discipline (SSM: 1, 2)
The largest and most famous sellsword company is the Golden Company, that was founded by one of Aegon the Unworthy's bastards. They are known for their discipline (SSM: 1, 2)
Dragonlore has been accumulated in some of the Free Cities (SSM: 1)
There have been attempts in the past from the Seven Kingdoms to lay claim to the Stepstones, a chain of large islands in the narrow sea east of Dorne and Storm's End (SSM: 1)
There are descendants of the Valyrians scattered across the world. Many are in the Free Cities, most of which had their origins as Valyrian colonies, although they have become intermarried and mixed with other peoples (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

12.2.1. Pentos

Important leaders of Pentos are named magisters (I: 23)
Pentos sits on a bay (I: 24)
Pentos has many square, brick towers (I: 24)
There is no slavery in Pentos, but powerful men can flaunt such laws. This prohibition is due to a treaty that the Braavosi imposed on Pentos about a hundred years prior to the novels (I: 26. V: 21)
Pentoshi men wear dyed, forked beards which they oil (I: 27)
Servants in Pentos wear collars of bronze (I: 29)
Beautiful works of art, such as old carved figures of the Seven, could sell handsomely in Pentos (II: 116)
Some Pentoshi vessels have carved figureheads (III: 89)
Pentoshi ships trade in spices such as saffron and pepper (III: 97, 111)
Pentos is more populous than Astapor on Slaver's Bay, and may be one of the most populous of the Free Cities (III: 266)
Sellswords are common in Pentos (III: 267)
Pentoshi, Braavosi, and Lysene are great lovers of song, and generous with those who please them (III: 356)
Troupes of Pentoshi tumblers are sometimes hired for special events, such as great weddings, in Westeros (III: 676)
Lifelike, painted marble statues (V: 20)
Pentos produces a pale, amber wine (V: 22)
A Pentosi meal of hot peppers and pearl onins in a bowl, a broth of crab and monkfish, cold egg lime soup, quails in honey, a saddle of lamb, goose livers in wine, buttered parsnips, suckling pig with a plum sauce, and mushrooms with garlic and butter. This is followed by heron stuffed with figs, veal cutlets blanced with almond milk, creamed herring, candied onion, foul-smelling cheeses, snails and sweetbread, and a black swan in its plumage (V: 25-26, 28)
It is considered a breach of hospitality to poison a guest at supper (V: 27)
A magister poisoned by a mushroom (V: 27)
The Prince of Pentos has a menagerie containing a pride of lions (V: 28)
The prince presides at balls and feasts, and rides through Pentos in a palanquin of ivory and gold with three heralds before him, carrying the golden scales of trade, the iron sword of war, and the silver scourge of justice. On the first day of each new year, he deflowers the maid of the fields and the maid of the seas. But if a crop fails or a war is lost, his throat is slit and a new prince is chosen from among the forty families (V: 30)
The eastern gate of Pentos is called the Sunrise Gate (V: 71)
The swiftest way from Pentos to Volantis is by sea (V: 71)
A magister's meals: spicy sausage in the morning with a dark smokeberry brown, followed by jellied eels and Dornish reds in the afternoon, and then dinner featuring sliced ham, boiled eggs, roasted larks stuffed with garlic and onions washed down with pale ales and Myrish fire wines (V: 72)
Pytho Malanon, a noted sculptor in Pentos (V: 74)
The road east from Pentos is a Valyrian road, described as a broad stone highway straight as a spear passing through ochre fields and groves of elm trees. The stone has been fused and raised half a foot above the ground to allow rain and snow to run off its shoulders. The roads are wide enough for three wagons to pass abreast. Despite four centuries having passed, the road is unmarred by time or use, showing no cracks or ruts (V: 76, 77)
A magister drinks blackberry wine so sweet that it attracts flies, and then eats blackberries in cream (V: 76)
A magister eats roasted chestnuts and garlic snails (V: 77)
Andalos, the ancestral land of the Andals, lies to the east of Pentos. It is said the Andals took it from the hairy men who were there before men, cousins to the Ibbense. The heart of that realm lies to the northeast of Pentos, but the southern regions are known as the Flatlands in Pentos (V: 79)
Further east beyond the Flatlands lie the Velvet Hills (V: 79)
A wealthy magister wedding a former slave could find himself ostracized by the Prince of Pentos (V: 79)
When a Braavosi galley returning from the Jade Sea stopped at Pentos, it brought the grey death -- greyscale -- with it, as well as cloves, saffron, jet, jade, scarlet samite, and green silk. The Pentoshi slew the oarsmen as they came ashore and burned the ship at anchor, but the rats escaped the ship and spread the illness among the populace. Two thousand are said to have died before the plague ran its course (V: 80)
The Flatlands contain tillers and toilers bound to the land, and orchards, farms, and mines owned by wealthy individuals in Pentos (V: 80)
The Flatlands are relatively sparsely populated, as the Dothraki occasionally pass through. The ruins of towns are testament to their passage (V: 80)
Pentos prefers to buy off Dothraki khalsars with gifts rather than risk fighting them (V: 80)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

12.2.2. Braavos

Braavos has a coast (I: 25)
There is no slavery in Pentos (although powerful men often flout this law), due to a treaty that the Braavosi imposed on Pentos about a hundred years prior to the novels (I: 26. V: 21)
It is not unknown for bravos of Braavos, offering to teach students (I: 188, 189. IV: 11)
The ruler of Braavos is the Sealord (I: 189)
The champion of the Sealord of Braavos is his first sword (I: 189)
A water dancer is supposed to be able to stand on a toe for hours on end, and never falls (I: 214)
Braavos is made up of many islands, as many as a hundred. (I: 374. IV: 91)
The ships of Braavos sail to many strange lands, and the captains often fetch strange creatures for the menagerie of the Sealord (I: 444)
When the first sword of the Sealord is slain, he immediately searches for a replacement (I: 444)
The first sword of Braavos does not run (I: 447)
Braavos seems to have its own language, beyond the bastard Valyrian used for trade (I: 603)
Braavos has many moneylenders (II: 146)
Braavosi daggermen (II: 332)
Braavos may be the nearest to Westeros of the Free Cities (II: 431)
Braavos is the greatest and most powerful of the Free Cities (II: 431)
Some homes in Braavos may have wooden beam supports which are decorated with carved animal faces (II: 511)
"Valar morghulis" is a well-known phrase in High Valyrian, and means "All men must die" (III: 308)
Braavosi, Pentoshi, and Lysene are great lovers of song, and generous with those who please them (III: 356)
A towering Braavosi with a bushy red-gold beard reaching nearly to his belt and pale green eyes (III: 477)
The Titan of Braavos is a famous wonder, a great statue of grey stone which may have firey eyes. It does not have a tail, and there are fantastic stories claiming it will wade into the sea fight in the defense of Braavos and that it is fed the flesh of highborn girls (III: 478, 670, 765. IV: 80)
Dwarf jesters can be hired from Braavos (III: 691)
A Braavosi merchant galleas painted purple with three masts carrying purple sails, two banks of oars, and a gilded figurehead (III: 852. IV: 88)
All Braavosi galleys appears to have their hulls painted purple (III: 852. IV: 88, 91)
All gods are honored in Braavos. There is even a sept, the Sept-Beyond-the-Sea (IV: 89)
Braavos was discovered by the Moonsingers, who led refugees there to a place where the dragons of Valyria could not find them. Their temple is the greatest on Braavos (IV: 89)
The Father of Waters is esteemed in Braavos, but his temple is built anew each year when he takes his bride (IV: 89)
Most other temples to gods are located on an isle in the center of the city, including the temple to the Many-Faced God. This isle is known as the Isle of the Gods (IV: 89, 508)
Braavos is a great lagoon with only one outlet into the sea, which the Titan watches and guards as it straddles over it. The steep slopes on which the collosal citadel and lighthouse stands are covered with soldier pine and spruce (IV: 89-90)
The legs of the Titan are of black granite, the same materials as the sea monts on which it stands. It is armored in greenish bronze: a halfhelm with a crest, a breastplate, and an armored skirt. The Titan’s hair is made of hemp ropes dyed green. There are huge fires kept burning in the caves which are its eyes. One of the Titan’s hands rests on a ridge to the Titan’s left, fingers around a knob of stone, while the other is thrust into the air holding a broken sword (IV: 90)
There are arrow slits in the Titan's breastplate, and more slits in its thighs. There are iron-barred murder holes under its skirts, as well. (IV: 90, 91)
There are stains and speckles from where seabirds have nested on it (IV: 90)
The Titan can issue a powerful roaring sound, like a terrible groaning and grinding. This is to warn the Arsenal of the approach of a vessel, or to mark nightfall (IV: 90, 91, 378)
The Arsenal of Braavos is a sea mont like a knob of rock, fortified with stone battlements and bristling with scorpions, trebuchets, and spitfires. It is the first thing seen when one passes the Titan (IV: 91)
Not only is the Arsenal a citadel, but it is also a dock with room for dozens of galleys beneath it, and along its shores are innumerable quays, docks, and wooden sheds holding many more ships (IV: 91)
The Arsenal is the center of shipbuilding in Braavos, and it is said that it a war galley can be built in a day there (IV: 91)
Beyond the Arsenal is an expanse of murky pea-green water and then the city of Braavos proper, a great sprawl of domes and towers and bridges in hues of grey, gold, and red (IV: 91)
The city of Braavos is flat, with its only "hills" man-made structures of brick, granite, bronze, or marble (IV: 91)
The captain of a merchant galleas holds the rank of Tradesman-Captain (IV: 92, 507)
The Chequy Port is where the Sealord's customs officers board merchant galleys to inspect their holds. The inspection can take as much as half a day (IV: 92)
On approaching Braavos, there are two harbors. The nearer one to the right is crowded with whalers from Ibben, swan ships of the Summer Isles, and numerous galleys, while there is a more distant one to the left beyond a point of land that seems to have sunk into the sea with half-drowned buildings poking above the surface (IV: 92-93)
Braavos seems to have a score or more temples, towers, and palaces larger than any of the buildings
The city is many islands linked together by arched stone bridges spanning innumerable canals (IV: 93)
Houses in Braavos look strange to a Westerosi. They are of grey stone with sharp-peaked tile roofs, and are four or five stories tall while remaining slender. They are built to close that they lean upon one another (IV: 93)
There is little or no use of thatching for roofs in Braavos, and buildings constructed of timber are rare because Braavos has little in the way of wood (IV: 93)
North of the nearer of the two harbors is a great canal that goes straight into the heart of the city. There are several bridges that cross it. The first seen is a many-arched stone bridge decorated with carvings featuring half a hundred kinds of fish, crabs, and squids the second is carved with leafy vines, and the third is painted with a thousand eyes. Lesser canals open up along this waterway, and even smaller ones as well. Some of the houses are built above the waterway and turn it into a sort of tunnel (IV: 93)
Huge flat-bottomed barges heaped with crates and barrels pushed along by twenty polemen on a side, fancy floating houses with lanterns of colored glass, velvet drapes, and bronze figureheads, and slender boats shaped like water serpents with painted heads and upraised tails poled alon by men who stand at the sterns in cloaks of grey and brown and deep moss green all travel the waterways of Braavos (IV: 93)
In the distance, towards or beyond the heart of the city, is a massive aqueduct like a grey stone roadway supported by three tiers of arches travelling southwards. It looms above the canals and houses. Called the sweetwater river, it brings fresh water from the mainland across the mudflats and the briny shallows (IV: 93)
Great statues line the great waterway past the third bridge, monuments to past Sealords of Braavos. The statues wear robes of bronze, and hold items such as books, swords, or hammers. One example holds a golden star in an upraised hand, and another upends a jar that pours water into the canal (IV: 93-94)
Six bridges beyond the statues to the Sealords and upon the right bank of the great canal is the Temple of the Moonsingers, a huge snow-white marble building topped by a giant silvered dome whose milk glass windows show all the phases of the moon. A pair of marble maidens flank its gates, tall as the statues of the Sealords, supporting a crescent-shaped lintel (IV: 94)
Beyond the Temple of the Moonsingers is a temple to the Lord of Light, an edifice of red stone that looks as stern as a fortress. At the top of its great square tower is a blazing fire in an iron brazier twenty feet across. Smaller fires flank the bronze doors of the temple (IV: 94)
Beyond the temple of R'hllor is a huge, brick building covered in lichen that could be mistaken for a storehouse. It is the Holy Refuge, sometimes called the Warren, where the small gods forgotten by the world are honored (IV: 94)
A small canal leading to the right from the great canal passes between the looming walls of the Holy Refuge. Taking this canal, one passes through a tunnel and then out into the light again where yet more shrines can be seen (IV: 94)
After passing between the walls of the Warren, a bend and then another bridge brings into view on the left a rocky knoll with a windowless temple of dark grey stone at its top. A flight of steep stone steps leads down to covered docks, where there are stone pilings (IV: 94)
Mummers in Braavos play out written stories, instead of making up farces as they do elsewhere (IV: 217)
The Braavosi diet features fish, eel, and oysters (IV: 217)
There is a saying in Braavos: "The Iron Bank will have its due" (IV: 245)
The brackish waters surrounding Braavos are full of fish and shellfish, thanks to the slow, brown river that enters the lagoon from the south and spreads across reeds, tidal pools, and mudflats (IV: 315)
Braavosi eat a great deal of fish. Dishes might include fish spiced with sea salt and cracked peppercorns, eels with chopped garlics. Saffron might also be used, but it is very costly (IV: 315)
The Faceless Men of Braavos are older than the founding of the Secret City (IV: 321)
The rise of the Titan of Braavos, the Unmasking of Uthero, and the Founding are important events in the past of Braavos (IV: 321)
The Braavosi count their days differently from Westeros (IV: 323)
Beneath the Drowned Town are wharves where fishmongers push their barrows, selling cockles and mussels and clams to the sailors (IV: 326)
The Ragman's Harbor is in the west of Braavos, crowded with ships from the other Free Cities and many other lands (IV: 327, 381)
Many buildings in Braavos have sharp-peaked roofs (IV: 377)
Good citizens of Braavos retreat indoors, closing shutters and barring doors, when night falls. It's said the night belongs to bravos and courtesans (IV: 378)
The House of the Red Hands provides healers to those who can afford to pay. The healers wear robes embroidered in swirls of red and white (IV: 379)
Even in autumn, Braavos is a busy port (IV: 379)
Drinkable water is brought by the sweetriver river, a great brick aqueduct. Rich men pipe it directly into their homes, while the poor fill buckets at public fountains. The water from the canals is not drinkable without safely boiling it (IV: 380)
Trees do not grow in Braavos except in courts and gardens of wealthy Braavosi. Firewood is costly, as is dung since the Braavosi use boats instead of horses, because they must be brought in by barges (IV: 381)
The Braavosi leave pines uncut on the islands surrounding the secret city, to act as windbreaks (IV: 381)
The Purple Harbor is located on the north side of Braavos. Only Braavosi are allowed to use it, mooring their ships beneath the domes and towers of the Sealord's Palace (IV: 381, 508)
There are innumerable small piers and berths in Braavos, used by fishers, crabbers, shrimpers, and more (IV: 381)
Braavos is full of cats (IV: 384)
Bravos swagger through Braavos at night in parti-colored finery, looking to pick fights so that they can prove their skills. Most will fight with little cause, and some with no cause at all (IV: 384)
The best alehouses, inns, and brothels are near the Purple Harbor and the Moon Pool. However, the establishments at the Ragman's Harbor are likelier to draw patrons who speak the Common Tongue of Westeros (IV: 384)
The Inn of the Green Eel, the Black Bargeman, Moroggo's, the Foghouse, the Outcast Inn, the House of Seven Lamps, and the Mummer's Ship are inns near the Ragman's Harbor (IV: 384, 386)
Serpent boats and their pilots tie up near inns, waiting for patrons (IV: 384)
There is a small winesink beneath the second arch of Nabbo's Bridge (IV: 384)
The Cattery is a brothel near the Ragman's Harbor (IV: 384)
Brothels in Braavos hang a red lantern outside their door to mark themselves out (IV: 384)
In Braavos, the nobles wear somber charcoals, purples, blacks, and deep blues while the braavos wear bright, many-colored garments (IV: 384)
The Happy Port is a brothel near the Ragman's Harbor, across from the Mummer's Ship (IV: 385-386)
Wearing a sword at night in Braavos means you are willing to be challenged to duel (IV: 385)
A trader's vessel might journey from Braavos to Duskendale and on to Pentos. Depending on the winds, the journey to Duskendale and the journey on to Pentos might well be completed in the same time (IV: 386)
A broad waterway known as the Long Canal. Travelling south along it towards the fishmarket, one might pass the green copper domes of the Palace of Truth, tall stone towers of the Antaryons and Prestayns, and through the great arches of the sweetwater river to the district called Silty Town where buildings were smaller and less grand (IV: 505)
In the early hours, the Long Canal is almost devoid of traffic, but as the day progresses it is almost choked with serpent boats and barges (IV: 505)
The Titan's roar at sunrise is faint with distance but still audible in Braavos (IV: 505-506)
The fishmarket is filled with many people, haggling over the morning's catch (IV: 506)
Braavos is foggy (IV: 506)
The very existence of Braavos was a secret for a century, and its location was hidden for three centuries more (IV: 506)
Braavos was founded by people from many different lands, with half a hundred different gods between them, who fled there to find safety from the Valyrians. It's said that the Nine Free Cities are the daughters of Valyria, but that Braavos is a bastard (IV: 506-507)
The Blue Lantern is an inn (IV: 507)
Various plays: The Lord of the Woeful Countenance, Seven Drunken Oarsmen, The Song of the Rhoyne, The Conqueror’s Two Wives, and The Merchant’s Lusty Lady are plays (IV: 507, 509)
There are booksellers (IV: 507)
Roof rats are boys and youths who prowl the roofs of Braavos, allegedly practicing thievery (IV: 508)
There are alleys about the Moon Pool (IV: 508)
Ragman's Harbor is the port open to all ships not from Braavos. It is poorer, dirtier, and and noisier than the Purple Harbor (IV: 508)
At Ragman's Harbor, the trade tongue is often spoken, a coarse argot that has developed using words from a dozen languages (many of them insults) and hand gestures (IV: 508)
The fig, a rude gesture (IV: 508)
Many people make their living around Ragman's Harbor, including porters, mummers, ropemakers, sailmenders, taverners, brewers, bakers, beggars, and whores (IV: 509)
The towers of the mightier families have guards at their gates (IV: 509)
Following the sweetwater river will lead to the Moon Pool (IV: 509)
Officials of Braavos, called keyholders and justiciars who wear drab coats of brown or grey (IV: 509)
Eel fights put on for sport at places like the Spotted Eel (IV: 510)
Some dockside whores are vicious, robbing and sometimes killing their customers (IV: 510-511)
The courtesans of Braavos are famed the world over. Singers make songs about them, goldsmiths and jewelers give them gifts, craftsmen pursue their custom, merchant princes pay richly for the privilege of having them on their arm at public events, and bravos fight and die in their name (IV: 511)
Each courtesan has a barge and her own liveried servants. The courtesans are known by names such as the Poetess, the Veiled Lady, the Moonshadow, the Merling Queen, or the Black Pearl (IV: 511, 512)
The Black Pearl, Bellegere Otharys, is allegedly the most famous courtesan of Braavos, and the fourth of her line to carry that name. Her great-grandmother Bellegere was a pirate queen who was taken as a lover by a Targaryen prince, who got a daughter on her. The daughter became a courtesan, and her daughter Bellonara after her. The current Black Pearl is Bellonara's daughter (IV: 512)
A performing seal (IV: 512)
The Sealord is always in need of oarsmen (IV: 513)
The inn and brothel called the Mummer's Ship is a listing hulk (IV: 513)
Bravos wear parti-colored breeches (IV: 514)
Captains and ship owners are higher class clientele for a singer, seeking to rise in fame so he can play at the Purple Harbor and perhaps even the Sealord's Palace (IV: 515)
When a Braavosi galley returning from the Jade Sea stopped at Pentos, it brought the grey death -- greyscale -- with it, as well as cloves, saffron, jet, jade, scarlet samite, and green silk. The Pentoshi slew the oarsmen as they came ashore and burned the ship at anchor, but the rats escaped the ship and spread the illness among the populace. Two thousand are said to have died before the plague ran its course (V: 80)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

12.2.2.1. The Faceless Men

On Braavos there is a society of assassins called the Faceless Men. One could hire an army of sellswords for half the price they demand, and that for a merchant. The cost for killing a princess would be huge. Fees for assassinations are negotiated with the Guild of the Faceless Men, and are determined by such factors as the prominence and the difficulty to kill the target (1: 297. SSM: 1)
The Faceless Men of Braavos are known to use the poison called "the strangler" amongst the maesters of Westeros (II: 15)
A man (possibly a Faceless Man of Braavos) literally changes his face and other features. His long straight hair of red and white turns to a dark cap of curls, his cheeks grow fuller, his nose hooks, a scar appears on his cheek, and a gold tooth appears in his mouth. His manner of speaking changes as well (II: 505)
A Faceless Man gives a small, worn iron coin to someone. It meant to be given to any man of Braavos accompanied by the words, "valar morghulis". The man it is given to will respond "valar dohaeris" and touch his brow with two fingers before setting out to take the coin bearer to Braavos (II: 505. III: 854)
"Valar morghulis" is a well-known phrase in High Valyrian, and means "All men must die" (III: 308)
The iron coin meant to be given to a man of Braavos with the words "valar morghulis" is an old with queer words on one side and a man’s head on the other side that is so worn no features can be made out (II: 650)
Braavosi who know that someone is to be taken to the temple of the Many-Faced God act in two ways: some will shun them, and others will give them gifts and make sure that they are aware of their names (IV: 88)
Most other temples to gods are located on an isle in the center of the city, including the temple to the Many-Faced God (IV: 89)
A small canal leading to the right from the great canal passes between the looming walls of the Holy Refuge. Taking this canal, one passes through a tunnel and then out into the light again where yet more shrines can be seen (IV: 94)
After passing between the walls of the Warren, a bend and then another bridge brings into view on the left a rocky knoll with a windowless temple of dark grey stone at its top. A flight of steep stone steps leads down to covered docks, where there are stone pilings (IV: 94)
The temple of the Many-Faced God has a sharply peaked black tile roof, similar to the houses of Braavos. At the top of its steep steps is a set of carved wooden doors twelve feet high. The left-hand door is made of pale weirwood, the right-hand door of ebony, though the carved moon face at the point where the doors join reverses this (IV: 94-95, 97)
The doors of the temple can open without any apparent human agency (IV: 95)
The temple can seem larger on the inside than it did from the outside. It is dark and gloomy, and contains massive statues of many more than seven gods, with red candles lit about their feet. The floor is made of rough stone (IV: 95, 96)
The nearest statues after passing through the temple doors is that of a woman twelve feet tall, with tears apparently streaming down her face to collect in a bowl she cradles in her arms. Beyond her is a lion-headed man seated on an ebony throne. On the other side of the doors is a huge rearing horse of bronze and iron. Farther on one can see a great stone face, a pale infant with a sword, a shaggy black goat as big as an aurochs, a hooded man leaning on a staff, and many more. Between the statues are shadowy hidden alcoves or the occasional burning candle (IV: 95-96)
The air in the temple is warm and heavy, and can contain smells both familiar and unfamiliar (IV: 96)
In the center of the temple is an inky black pool of water ten feet across. It is lit by red candles. There are stone cups all along its rim, and it seems that the water is poisoned (IV: 96)
Around the pool are alcoves with hard stone beds, where those who have come to die can lay themselves down (IV: 96)
Priests of the Many-Faced God wear cowled robes that are black on one side and white on the other (IV: 96-97)
The temple is called the House of Black and White by a priest (IV: 97)
The Many-Faced God grants the mercy of death in his embrace. The priests believe that he is the face behind all the myriad gods, and call him Him of Many Faces (IV: 97)
The priest is able to create an illusion to make his face look like a yellowed skull with a few scraps of skin clinging to its cheek and a worm wriggling in its empty eye socket. When touched, however, it melts away like a shadow (IV: 97-98)
It's said no whisper is too faint to be heard in the House of Black and White (IV: 312)
Many prayers wishing the deaths of others are heard in the House of Black and White (IV: 312)
The Faceless Men see themselves as the servants of Him of Many Faces, and have no say in who lives or dies (IV: 313)
Besides the two priests, the House of Black and White maintains several acolytes, two servants, and a cook (IV: 313)
Acolytes of the House of Black and White wear black and white robes, but without cowls and with the black on the left side and the white on the right. Priests wear the colors reversed (IV: 313)
The staff of the House of Black and White pray each dawn before breaking their fast. The prayers are in the Braavosi dialect of Valyrian (IV: 314)
The temple is never full and there are no paeans or hymns sung (IV: 314)
The House of Black and White has altars to some thirty different gods. The Weeping Woman is favored by old women, the Lion of Night is preferred by rich men, the Hooded Wayfarer by poor men. Soldiers light candles for Bakkalon, the Pale Child, while sailors prefer the Moon-Pale Maiden and the Merling King. Even the Stranger has a shrine (IV: 314)
The temple stands on a knoll which has many passageways hewn into it. Priests and acolytes sleep in the first level, servants in the second level, and the third level is holy sanctum forbidden to all but the priests and those they bring with them (IV: 314)
Vaults in the House of Black and White contain great arrays of weapons as well as clothing from the richest silks to the foulest rags (IV: 314)
The priests believe that the Many-Faced God sends a dark angel to walk beside a person through their life. When the sins and suffering come to be too much, the dark angel takes them to the nightlands, where the stars always burn bright (IV: 316)
The candles in the House of Black and White have a soothing scent that smells like those things a person best loves (IV: 316)
The dead are carried to the second level by servants, and then their bodies are stripped and washed by acolytes before being taken down to the holy sanctum. Servants sort through the clothing of those who die at the temple, counting out the coins in their purses and gathering the other belongings they left with them (IV: 316-317)
Shutters provide some privacy at each alcove with an altar (IV: 316)
Those who choose to die and drink from the black pool will then stretch themselves out on one of the stone beds in the alcoves behind the various gods (IV: 316)
When a body is found, a priest says a prayer over them and makes sure that they are dead (IV: 317)
Those who wish to become Faceless Men must give everything over to the Many-Faced God. It is a hard life. Those who cannot make that choice are offered the opportunity to do whatever they please. A girl is told she could become apprenticed to one of the famed courtesans, or married to any kind of man she wished, or provided a place as a servant in some merchant's house (IV: 318-319)
There have been many Faceless Men over the centuries, serving the Many-Faced God, but very few of them have been women because women are said to be made to bring life into the world, while the Faceless Men bring death, and no one is able to do both (IV: 318)
The Faceless Men of Braavos are older than the founding of the Secret City (IV: 321)
It's said the first Faceless Man existed in Valyria. There he brought death to the slaves who lived horrid lives toiling in the heat of the Fourteen Flames, praying for an end. He came to realize that the many gods they prayed to were one god, and that he was an instrument of the gods (IV: 321-322)
The Faceless Men may have had a role in the Doom of Valyria (IV: 322)
The Faceless Men have made an art of reading faces and body language, which allows them to know when someone is speaking truth or a lie (IV: 322)
Beneath an acolytes robes are small clothes of fine linen and a black undertunic reaching to the knees (IV: 323)
Acolytes play a lying game, attempting to determine what is a lie and what is a truth based on observing their opponent's face and body (IV: 323)
The poisons used by the House of Black and White can stunt growth (IV: 324)
Meetings are held in the House of Black and White with various men who seem to come from different places and classes. One man has a different beard and nose every time he visits (IV: 324)
Years of education and sacrifice are required to learn how to make a proper glamor, such as the Faceless Men do (IV: 325)
The Faceless Men will use mummer's tricks to change their faces as well. They learn to rule the muscles of their faces to this end (IV: 325)
An apprentice of the Faceless Men may be sent out to spend most of their time in Braavos, working in some menial labor so that they can observe the world about them and learn new things. Each black moon might mark their return to the temple for a time (IV: 326, 507)
The Lion of the Night is a god of Yi Ti (IV: 507)
The Faceless Men make use of many poisons: sweetsleep, the tears of Lys, pastes spiced with basilisk blood, and more (IV: 516-517)
A man whose daughter was nearly poisoned to death by her step-mother gave up two-thirds of his wealth and his daughter to the Many-Faced God to have his revenge on her (IV: 517)
The knowledge of the Faceless Men is passed down, but not through families (SSM: 1)
The Faceless Men are by and large to be found on Braavos (SSM: 1)
The Faceless Men and the Sorrowful Men have very different outlooks and approaches to what they do (SSM: 1)

Last revised November 17, 2009
PermaLink

12.2.3. Lys

Many Lyseni have blue eyes, and not a few have blond hair (I: 85, 492. III: 109)
Lys has access to the sea (I: 141)
Lys makes fine tapestries (I: 161)
Lys makes use of slaves (I: 213)
Lys is a group of islands (I: 488)
Lys is known for sweet, heady perfumes (I: 490)
Sweet red wines from Lys (I: 492)
White wines from Lys (I: 492)
Hair is worn curled and perfumed (I: 492)
The alchemists of Lys know how to make poisons, such as one consisting of a crystalized potion known as 'the strangler' among the maesters of Westeros (II: 15)
The poisoners of Lys are said to favor hollow rings filled with poisons (II: 16)
The red priests have a great temple on Lys (II: 113)
A Lyseni might eat a roasted gull stuffed with mushrooms, fennel, and onion (II: 115)
Lyseni relish rich foods such as snails and lampreys (III: 110)
Some Lyseni galleys have bronze figureheads (III: 110)
A very tall Lyseni youth (III: 261)
Lys is more populous than Astapor on Slaver's Bay, and may be one of the most populous of the Free Cities (III: 266)
Lyseni lancers (III: 347)
Lyseni, Braavosi, and Pentosihi are great lovers of song, and generous with those who please them (III: 356)
Lys fights over the Stepstones and the Disputed Lands (III: 433, 756. SSM: 1)
There are pleasure houses in Lys and Tyrosh (III: 479)
There may exist a love goddess peculiar to Lys (III: 664)
Lys appears to be a good market to sell slaves to (III: 809)
Lysene pirates can be found on and around the Stepstones (IV: 440)
It can be inferred that Lys is one of the southernmost Free Cities, along with Volantis (IV: 440)
Lyseni often haggle over prices (IV: 508)
Tales claim that half the whores in Lys have the silver-gold hair of the Valyrians (IV: 531)
Lys has a warm climate (V: 20)
There are Targaryen descendants probably existing in Lys, descendants of bastards of Prince Aerion Brightflame when he was exiled there by his father (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

12.2.4. Qohor

Qohor makes fine tapestries (I: 161)
The Forest of Qohor takes two weeks to ride through. The leaves of the trees are golden and their trunks are as wide as city gates (I: 193)
Qohorik smiths know how to put color directly in metal, getting very deep colors (I: 235)
A claim that a smith can learn how to reforge Valyrian steel at the forges of Qohor (I: 235)
Reference to the Black Goat, the chief god of Qohor (I: 530. IV: 507. SSM: 1)
Slaves can be bought in Qohor, although it might be done only by powerful men who can flaunt the laws (II: 646)
The tale of the Three Thousand of Qohor begins four hundred or more years ago, when the Dothraki first came out of the east to sack and burn every town and city in their path. The khal who led them was named Temmo, and his khalasar numbered 50,000 at least, half of them braided warriors with bells in their hair (III: 96)
The Qohorik knew that Temmo came and strengthened their walls, doubled their guard, hired two free companies (the Bright Banners and the Second Sons), and bought 3,000 Unsullied. As the Three Thousand came to Qohor after their long march from Astapor, they saw that a battle had ended and the Dothraki had sent the sellsword companies to flight and defeated much of the Qohorik army. The horselords feasted to sack the city on the morrow, but when morning came the 3,000 Unsullied were drawn up before the gates with the Black Goat standard flying over them (III: 96, 97)
Temmo, disdaining his foes on foot, charged the Three Thousand eighteen times. The Unsullied locked their shields, lowered their spears, and stood firm against the 20,000 Dothraki screamers. Three times the khal sent his archers past, arrows raining down on the Unsullied, but they only lifted their shields. In the end only 600 Unsullied remained, but more than 12,000 Dothraki were dead upon the field, including Khal Temmo, his bloodriders, his kos, and all his sons (III: 97)
After the battle of the Three Thousand, on the fourth day as morning broke, the new khal led a procession of the survivors past the gates. One by one, each man cut off his braid and threw it down before the feet of the Three Thousand. Since then, the city guard of Qohor has been made solely of Unsullied, every one of whom carries a tall spear from which hangs a braid of human hair (III: 97)

Last revised July 29, 2009
PermaLink

12.2.5. Norvos

Norvos makes fine tapestries (I: 161)
A land of rolling hills and terraced farms with small villages sitting behind white stucco walls (I: 192)
Norvoshi wear upswept, long dyed mustaches (I: 494)
Norvos has magisters (III: 272)
Norvos gives lavishly to passing khals (III: 272)
There are bearded priests in Norvos who train men to the use and keeping of the longaxe (IV: 32)
Unwanted boys can sold by Norvoshi families to the bearded priests (IV: 35)
Those trained by the bearded priests "wed their axes" around the age of sixteen, swearing vows which are said to be simple for the simple men who swear them: "Serve. Obey. Protect." They brand the men on the chest with a brand shaped like an axe, and remind them to keep their longaxes sharp (IV: 36-37)
Norvos has two distinct quarters, the high city on the hill and the low city by the river (IV: 36)
There are three great bells in the city which have names. Noom has a deep peal, Narrah has a proud and strong peal, and Nyel's peal is said to sound like laughter (IV: 36, 597)
A yearly festival features the eating of wintercake (made of ginger, pine nuts, and bits of cherry) and the drinking of nahsa, a drink of fermented goat's milk laced with honey. During the festival, bears dance down the Sinner's Steps (IV: 36-37, 597)
Men trained by the bearded priests might wear heavy horsehair capes and studded leather tunics, along with iron halfhelms crested by iron spikes (IV: 37)
Norvos is sometimes called Great Norvos, at least by Norvoshi (IV: 40)
Norvos is far larger than the shadow city of Sunspear (IV: 40)
The Norvoshi do not foster out children (IV: 301)

Last revised July 16, 2009
PermaLink

12.2.6. Myr

The lenscrafters of Myr are unsurpassed (I: 51)
Myr has fine carpets (I: 161)
A locket with a miniature painted in the vivid Myrish style (I: 233)
There is a Myrish song called "The Seasons of My Love" (I: 382. II: 292, 467, 576)
Myr makes intricate lace (I: 490)
Pale green nectar wines of Myr (I: 492. V: 22)
Myr has its own dialect of bastard Valyrian, separate from the other dialects of the Free Cities (I: 603)
Men of Myr are known as Myrmen (II: 12, 109)
Beautiful works of art, such as old carved figures of the Seven, could sell handsomely in Myr (II: 116)
Myrish also produces ornate carved screens depicting flowers and fancies and dreaming maidens (II: 174)
There are ungainly crossbows from Myr that can throw three quarrels at a time (II: 297)
People of the city seem to be dark-eyed, dark-haired, and olive skinned (III: 65. IV: 106)
Myr touches the sea (III: 113)
Sellswords are common in Tyrosh (III: 267)
Myr has magisters (III: 272)
Myr gives lavishly to passing khals (III: 272)
Ornate Myrish lace is sometimes used to decorate clothing, such as the deep vee of a bodice, in the Seven Kingdoms (III: 316)
Dove-grey Myrish lace (III: 316)
Myrish tend to have black hair and dark eyes (III: 321)
Myrish carpets are valuable (III: 408)
Myrish crossbowmen seem common (III: 440, 441)
Myrich lace the color of butter (III: 316)
A Myrish stilleto worn opposite an arakh with matching hilts shaped like naked and wanton golden women (III: 482)
Myrish lace used in a wedding gown (III: 667)
A far-eye from Myr can be called a Myrish eye (III: 779)
A splendid Myrish blanket (IV: 37)
Myr is far larger than the shadow city of Sunspear (IV: 40)
Myrish pirates can be found on and around the Stepstones (IV: 440)
Myr may have swamps (IV: 486)
Myr has a warm climate (V: 20)
Myrish fire wine (V: 72)

Last revised February 19, 2016
PermaLink

12.2.7. Tyrosh

Tyroshi men wear brightly dyed forked beards (I: 30, 140)
The ruler of Tyrosh is called the Archon (I: 30)
The Tyroshi keep slaves (I: 30)
There is a particular Tyroshi accent, that can be heard in Tyroshi who speak the Common Tongue of Westeros (I: 139)
The Tyroshi are infamous for their avarice (I: 139)
Tyrosh appears to have access to the sea (I: 139)
In Tyrosh a kind of cake is baked named honeyfingers (I: 490)
Tyroshi pear brandy (I: 492)
Tyroshi armorsmiths can make fantastic helmets shaped like birds and animals, chased with precious metals (THK: 466)
The Tyroshi make a device with which a wet leather cord can be securely looped around the neck of a person. As they struggle to move forward (perhaps to reach a means of freeing themselves only a little out of their reach), the cord tightens so that eventually they strangle themselves (II: 583)
Sellswords are common in Tyrosh (III: 267)
Tyrosh fights over the Stepstones and the Disputed Lands (III: 433, 756. SSM: 1)
There are blue-eyed Tyroshi (III: 476)
Some Tyroshi wear pointed mustachios that they can paint to various hues, such as gold (III: 476)
There are pleasure houses in Tyrosh and Lys (III: 479)
Roro Uhoris was a smuggler, known up and down the narrow sea as the Blind Bastard even though he was neither blind nor a baseborn. He was executed by the Night's Watch after being caught in the Bay of Seals after having traded weapons to the wildlings (III: 608)
Vermillion-dyed beards (III: 676)
Following the failure of Daemon Blackfyre's rebellion in 196, Bittersteel and Daemon Blackfyre's surviving sons fled to Tyrosh where they plotted their return (TSS: 121. TMK: 650, 664)
Tyrosh is far larger than the shadow city of Sunspear (IV: 40)
Tyroshi are described as being boisterous and loud (IV: 508)
Ships pass the Bleeding Tower when entering Tyrosh harbor (IV: 521)

Last revised September 04, 2012
PermaLink

12.2.8. Volantis

Sweet red wines from Volantis (I: 492)
It is the fashion to tattoo the faces of slaves and servants. A fool might be patterned in tattooed motley from neck to scalp (II: 6)
Volantis touches the sea (III: 113)
Volantene glass is valuable (III: 408)
Volantene sellswords cover themselves with fierce tattoos (III: 440)
Volantis is said to be in the west from Slaver's Bay, and may be the nearest of the Free Cities to that place (III: 807)
Volantis appears to be a good market to sell slaves to (III: 809)
There is noble blood in "old Volantis" (IV: 38)
Colloquo Votar was a Volantene adventurer who visited all the lands of the Jade Sea and wrote the Jade Compendium, a thick volume of tales and legends from the east (IV: 76, 85)
The game of cyvasse spread to Dorne from Volantis (IV: 186-187)
The direction taken in marching from the Disputed Lands to Volantis is the "wrong direction" if one means to cross the narrow sea Westeros (IV: 246)
Pieces in the game of cyvasse include elephants and dragons. Players arrange their squares, including mountains, at the beginning of the game (IV: 307, 590)
It can be inferred that Volatnis is one of the southernmost Free Cities, along with Lys (IV: 440. V: 20)
Lean, green galleys (IV: 510)
The Targaryens had been happy to sit on Dragonstone until Aegon developed his ambitions. There had also been pressure for Aegon to go east instead of west, with the Volantenes trying to convince Aegon and his sisters to join a grand alliance against other Free Cities (SSM: 1, 2)
Volantis has a warm climate (V: 20)
A Volantene coin is described as having a face on one side and a death's-head on the other (V: 29)
Fair hair and blue eyes are common in Volantis (V: 32)
The swiftest way from Pentos to Volantis is by sea (V: 71)
The direct distance between Volantis and Meereen is approximately 550 leagues (V: 73)
Volantis is the oldest and proudest of the Nine Free Cities (V: 73)

It is said there are five slaves to every free man in Volantis (V: 73)

Volantis is ruled by triarchs (V: 73)

Last revised February 19, 2016
PermaLink

12.2.9. Lorath

Lorath is a group of islands in the sea (I: 488)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.3. The Lord of Light

The religious followers of the Lord of Light are called red priests, for their garb (I: 24)
The red priests light fires and sing as the sun sets (I: 24)
The red priests promise that the Lord of Light could hold off a million Dothraki from the walls of the Free Cities (I: 28)
Red priests wear loose red robes (I: 247. II: 116)
"The night is dark and full of terrors" is a phrase from a prayer (II: 17)
R'hllor is the Lord of Light, the Heart of Fire, the God of Flame and Shadow (II: 19)
The red priests speak of Lightbringer, the Red Sword of Heroes, and the hero Azor Ahai, Warrior of Light, Son of Fire. There is a prophecy in ancient books of Asshai that after a long summer an evil, cold darkness shall fall on the world to be combated by Azor Ahai reborn wielding Lightbringer (II: 110)
The red priests have a great temple on Lys and they are always burning one thing or another, calling out to R'hllor (II: 113)
It is said by the red priests that sometimes R'hllor permits his servants to glimpse the future in flames. These visions are said to be never wrong, but those who see them are mortal and can err in their interpretations (II: 117. V: 58)
'Done in the Light of the Lord' is a common way to end letters (II: 117)
The red priesthood sect is numerous and powerful in the Free Cities and the distant east, but there are few who follow R'hllor in the Seven Kingdoms (II: 346)
Red priests wear only red (II: 346)
The Lord of Light is said to have a fiery heart (II: 347)
Followers of the Lord of Light pray before nightfires, beseeching the Lord of Light to bring the dawn (II: 443)
Believers in the Lord of Light seem to believe in a god of darkness as well (II: 454)
Shadows are supposedly the servants of light and the children of fire, creations of the Lord of Light (II: 455)
Followers of R'hllor believe that an eternal battle is being waged between the Lord of Light and the Great Other whose name may not be spoken. He is known as the Lord of Darkness, the Soul of Ice, the God of Night and Terror (III: 288, 803)
R'hllor is called the God of Flame and Shadow (III: 288)
It's said that R'hllor gives his priests the ability to see through falsehoods so that they may battle the servants of the Other (III: 288)
A prayer before a trial by combat, with sentences in parenthesis mark responses from witnesses: "Lord of Light, look down upon us. (Lord of Light, defend us.) Lord of Light, protect us in the darkness. (Lord of Light, shine your face upon us.) Light your flame among us, R'hllor. Show us the truth or falseness of this man. Strike him down if he is guilty, and give strength to his sword if he is true. Lord of Light, give us wisdom. (For the night is dark and full of terrors)" (III: 388)
The death rite administered by the red priests is called the last kiss, as it symbolizes the god's own kiss to send a man on his journey. The priest fills his mouth with fire and breathes the flames inside the person, down his throat to his lungs and heart and soul (III: 444)
"Life is warmth, and warmth is fire, and fire is God's and God's alone" (III: 444)
Some red priests are trained to see things in fires, such as the past, the future, or things present but far away. It takes many years of training to see the shapes beyond the flames, and more years still to learn to tell the shapes of what will be from what may be or what was. Even then it comes hard (III: 489, 490, 706, 707)
Younger children are sometimes given to the Red Temple to become priests. They are taught prayers and spells, and how to look into flames and see visions, though only a few are capable of doing this last (III: 490)
Thoros of Myr was sent to the Seven Kingdoms because of his gift of tongues and his ability to sometimes see visions in flame. It was hoped that he might convert King Aerys, with his love fire, but he preferred his pyromancers and their tricks (III: 490)
It's said that the Lord of Light cherishes the innocent, and that there is no sacrifice more precious (III: 599)
There is a suggestion that kinslaying is accursed in the eyes of R'hllor (III: 600)
The old gods are said to still linger at High Heart, keeping a red priest from looking into his flames and seeing visions (III: 492)
A typical prayer sequence at the nightfire. "Lead us from the darkness, O my Lord. Fill our hearts with fire, so we may walk your shining path . . . R'hllor, your are the light in our eyes, the fire in our hearts, the heat in our loins. Yours is the sun that warms our days, yours the stars that guard us in the dark of night. (Lord of Light, defend us. The night is dark and full of terrors. Lord of Light, protect us.) R'hllor who gave us breath, we thank you. R'hllor who gave us day, we thank you. (We thank you for the sun that warms us. We thank you for the stars that watch us. We thank you for our hearths and for our torches, that keep the savage dark at bay.)" After this follow prayers of thanks and blessing (III: 705, 706)
The prayers at the nightfires go on for more than an hour after they are lit at sunset (III: 706)
Prophecy by fire seems to work best when the visions have to do with danger to the seer (III: 707, 712)
There is a suggestion that the Others are creatures of the God of Night and Terror who wars eternal against R'hllor (III: 868)
There are red priests in Dorne (IV: 31)

Last revised March 21, 2013
PermaLink

12.3.1. Legends

There is a prophecy in ancient books of Asshai that after a long summer an evil, cold darkness shall fall on the world to be combated by Azor Ahai reborn wielding Lightbringer (II: 110)
The legend of Azor Ahai in which the hero forged the sword Lightbringer to combat evil. To complete it he sacrificed his wife Nissa Nissa (II: 115)
It is said that at her death Nissa Nissa's cry of agony and ecstasy was said to have made a crack in the face of the moon (II: 115)
A prophecy says that when the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone (III: 289)
Azor Ahai reborn is said to be the prince that was promised, prophesised some 5,000 years ago. He is supposed to stand against the Other and if he fails, the world fails with him (III: 711)
It is said that Azor Ahai did not win his war alone (III: 869)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.4. The Dothraki

The Dothraki name the Seven Kingdoms Rhaesh Andahli, the Land of the Andals (I: 24)
The Dothraki keep slaves (I: 26)
Vaes Dothrak is the heart of the Dothraki sea and culture (I: 26, etc.)
The Dothraki are always carefully dealt with by the Free Cities, given gifts of all manner and manses to keep them from attacking. (I: 28. V: 80)
The Dothraki are copper-skinned and have dark almond eyes, with black hair. Dothraki lords wear thick mustachios (bound by rings), their hair oiled and braided and hung with bells. (I: 29)
The Dothraki are a large people (I: 29)
The great bands of Dothraki are called khalasars, and their chieftains are khals, whose wives are named khaleesi. (I: 24, 31, 87)
The Dothraki can swiftly raise 'palaces' of woven grass for special occasions (I: 82)
The Dothraki may wear rich fabrics and perfumes in the Free Cities, but among their own people men and women garb themselves in painted leather vests over bare chests and horsehair leggings cinched with belts of bronze medallions (I: 83)
Dothraki warriors grease their long braids with fat (I: 83)
The Dothraki eat horseflesh and drink fermented mare's milk. They also have black sausages, blood pies, and sweetgrass stews (I: 84)
The Dothraki have their own language (I: 84)
The Dothraki mate like the animals in their heads. There is no privacy in the khalasar, and their sense of sin and shame is different than that of the Free Cities and the Seven Kingdoms (I: 85)
Dothraki use double-curved bows (I: 86)
The wealthier Dothraki wear garb of sandsilk (I: 87, etc.)
The Dothraki use saddles smaller and flatter than those used in the Free Cities (I: 87, 191)
The Dothraki hate and fear the salt ocean, believing no horse can cross what they call the black salt sea and poison water (I: 94, 487)
Khals spend their days and evenings with their warriors and bloodriders, racing prize horses, watching women dance and men die (I: 191)
A khaleesi has khas named to her, a personal guard (I: 193)
Scouts range far ahead of a khalasar when it is on the move, looking for prey or enemies. Outriders guard the flanks (I: 195)
The Dothraki prefer horsemeat to pork and beef (I: 272)
Feral packs of dogs are never far behind a khalasar (I: 272, 555)
Rhae Mhar means sore foot (I: 323)
Rhaggat is the word for cart (I: 323)
The Dothraki ride better than any knight (I: 325)
The Dothraki do not build. A thousand years before, to build a house they would dig a hole in the earth and raise a grass roof over it (I: 327)
The heir to a khalasar is named the khalakka (I: 327)
The Dothraki wear open-toed riding sandals that lace up to the knees (I: 329, 589, 590)
The dosh khaleen wear the same garb as the rest of the Dothraki (I: 410)
Dothraki women might wear robes of painted sandilk (I: 412)
Among the Dothraki women ride almost to the moment of birth (I: 489)
The jaqqa rhan, the mercy men, move among corpses in battle fields and use heavy axes to take the heads of the dead and dying alike (I: 555)
After a battle, small girls with baskets will go about pulling arrows from bodies to be re-used later (I: 555)
The Dothraki do not wear armor, considering it craven (I: 556)
When a Dothraki lord is slain, the lord who has slain him has the right to add his bells to his own braid (I: 556)
Important men under a khal are named ko, and they have their own khas within the khalasar (I: 559)
Khalasars keep two sorts of healers. Barren women practice with herbs and potions and spells, and eunuch slaves use knife, needle, and fire (I: 560)
The bias against women is such that the bloodriders of a khal will not allow themselves to be commanded by his khaleesi (I: 588)
A khal who cannot ride cannot rule (I: 589)
The Dothraki will not follow a child khalakka. Instead the kos will fight among themselves to take the place of the fallen khal and the khalakka will be killed so as not to be a rival (I: 591)
The bloodriders of a khal will take his wife or wives to Vaes Dothrak to join the crones, before they join him in death. It is their last duty to him (I: 591)
Sandsilk might be used for tents of khals (I: 595)
"Shierak qiya" means bleeding star (comet). The Dothraki see such signs as ill omens (II: 138)
"Vaes Tolorro" means city of bones (II: 148)
The Dothraki call the Qartheen Milk Men, for their paleness (II: 311)
The Dothraki sometimes wear sandals of woven grass (II: 637)
The Dothraki use curved daggers (II: 637)
There have been Dothraki warriors; possibly slaves; who have fought in the fighting pits of Meereen (II: 646)
Four hundred or more years ago, the Dothraki first came out of the east to sack and burn every town and city in their path. The khal who led them was named Temmo, and his khalasar numbered 50,000 at least, half of them braided warriors with bells in their hair (III: 96)
The Qohorik knew that Temmo came and strengthened their walls, doubled their guard, hired two free companies (the Bright Banners and the Second Sons), and bought 3,000 Unsullied. As the Three Thousand came to Qohor after their long march from Astapor, they saw that a battle had ended and the Dothraki had sent the sellsword companies to flight and defeated much of the Qohorik army. The horselords feasted to sack the city on the morrow, but when morning came the 3,000 Unsullied were drawn up before the gates with the Black Goat standard flying over them (III: 96, 97)
Temmo, disdaining his foes on foot, charged the Three Thousand eighteen times. The Unsullied locked their shields, lowered their spears, and stood firm against the 20,000 Dothraki screamers. Three times the khal sent his archers past, arrows raining down on the Unsullied, but they only lifted their shields. In the end only 600 Unsullied remained, but more than 12,000 Dothraki were dead upon the field, including Khal Temmo, his bloodriders, his kos, and all his sons (III: 97)
After the battle of the Three Thousand, on the fourth day as morning broke, the new khal led a procession of the survivors past the gates. One by one, each man cut off his braid and threw it down before the feet of the Three Thousand. Since then, the city guard of Qohor has been made solely of Unsullied, every one of whom carries a tall spear from which hangs a braid of human hair (III: 97)
Dothraki warriors affect a swagger when they are forced to walk on the ground (III: 265)
The Dothraki think of oarless ships as water carts (III: 270)
Even a modest khalasar could take Astapor, but none ever has because of the Unsullied (III: 271, 272)
The Dothraki have not ridden against the Unsullied since they left their braids in Qohor (III: 272)
The Dothraki sea lies north of Slaver's Bay (III: 272)
There are two dozen or more khalasars on the Dothraki sea (III: 272)
The Dothraki have not attacked the slave cities in part because they are the readiest market for buying the slaves they take in their warring (III: 272)
Dothraki sometimes wear medallion belts crossed across their chests (III: 311)
The Flatlands are relatively sparsely populated, as the Dothraki occasionally pass through, as when a khal decides he will gaze upon the sea. The ruins of towns are testament to their passage (V: 80)
In the Velvet Hills one may find a huge Valyrian sphinx with a dragon's body and a woman's face, next to an empty plinth were a second sphinx had once stood; that sphinx was carried away by the Dothraki to Vaes Dothrak (V: 81-82)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

12.4.1. Customs

Dothraki men only cut their braids when they are defeated in battle, to show their shame. Each time they kill someone of note, they add a bell of gold or silver or bronze (I: 30, 670)
The Dothraki believe that everything important in a man's life should be done under the open sky (I: 82)
When a khal marries, he most present his new bride to the dosh khaleen at Vaes Dothrak (I: 83)
Weddings begin at dawn and end at dusk, an endless day of drinking and feasting and fighting (I: 83)
Sitting beneath the khal's bloodriders is a place of honor (I: 84)
All dishes are served first to the newlywed pair, and then whatever they refuse is offered to the rest of the participants at the wedding feast (I: 84)
Women with veils of crimson and yellow and orange dance to drums at wedding feasts, and warriors may take them before the watching khalasar freely. If two men take the same woman, they fight to the death (I: 84, 85, 672)
A Dothraki wedding without at least three deaths is seen as a dull affair (I: 85)
After bride gifts are given, and the sun has gone down, the marriage is consummated (I: 85)
The bride receives three traditional gifts: whip, bow, and arakh. She refuses them with traditional words, and the husband takes them (I: 86)
A khaleesi must ride a horse worthy of her place by her khal (I: 87)
It is the Dothraki fashion to use sand to cleanse oneself clean (I: 144. III: 649)
The Dothraki are unsentimental. They do not name their animals (I: 192)
A man who does not ride is no man at all, honorless and without pride (I: 194)
Khalasars leave deformed newborns behind them for feral dogs to eat (I: 272)
Carts are used only by eunuchs, cripples, women giving birth, the very young, and the very old (I: 323)
The horselords do not trade. They accepts gifts, and give gifts in return, but they do so in their own time (I: 325)
Shedding blood or drawing a blade is forbidden in Vaes Dothrak (I: 327)
Even warring khalasars put aside their feuds and share meat and mead together when in sight of the Mother of Mountains (I: 327)
Every khal has bloodriders, men who are guards, brothers, shadows, and friends to him in ways that run deeper than the oath of the Kingsguard to the king (I: 328)
Bloodriders and their khal name each other "blood of my blood" (I: 328)
Tradition holds that bloodriders die with their khal to ride at his side in the night lands. If he died at the hands of enemies, they live only long enough to avenge his death and then follow him joyfully into the grave (I: 328)
In some khalasars, the bloodriders share the khal's wine, tent, and even his wives, but never his horse. A man's mount is his own (I: 328)
Men may have more than one wife (I: 328, 411)
A man does not braid his hair until he has won a victory (I: 330)
When a khal dies, his khaleesi joins the dosh khaleen to rule the Dothraki nation with them. Even the mightiest khals bow down before the authority and wisdom of the dosh khaleen (I: 411)
Near the walls of a feasting place are those with short braids, men who have only recently done anything of merit (I: 413)
The seat near the center of a feasting hall, close to a firepit, is a place of respect if not high honor (I: 413)
In the corner of a feasting hall, the furthest place from the seat of khals so that better men need not look on them, sit the lowest of the low: raw unblooded boys, old men who cannot fight, the dim-witted, and the maimed (I: 416)
The Eastern Market is used largely by the caravans from the east (I: 490)
Bloodmagic is forbidden amongst the Dothraki, although the bloody rituals of the dosh khaleen are seen as different (I: 594)
When a man dies, his mount is kill and placed beneath him to burn with him on his funeral pyre, to carry him to the night lands (I: 595)
A funeral pyre is laid out in a great square, with a dead horse to be placed beneath the platform on which the dead man will be placed. The wood of the platform is laid east to west, from sunrise to sunset (I: 667)
The personal valuables of a man are placed on his pyre (I: 667)
The third level of a funeral pyre is made of thin branches laid north to south, from ice to fire (I: 668)
Only a khal can ask a man to become his bloodrider, by saying "I ask your oath, that will live and die as blood of my blood, riding at my side to keep me safe from harm." (I: 669)
Only a man can name a ko (I: 669)
When a body is laid on its funeral pyre, the head is turned in the direction of the Mother of Mountains (I: 670)
The burning of a funeral pyre does not begin until the first star is seen (I: 671)
The funeral pyre with slain horse is done only for the khals of the Dothraki (I: 671)
The response of a man who would be bloodrider to a khal who asks him to be one is simply, "Blood of my blood" (I: 674)
Few men have the honor to die with their hair never having been cut in shame and defeat (II: 144)
Handmaidens share beds with their khaleesis and it is not unknown for them to help relieve sexual tension as part of their duties (III: 268, 270)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.4.2. Vaes Dothrak

The Horse Gate of Vaes Dothrak are two gigantic bronze stallions, hooves meeting a hundred feet above the road way to form a pointed arch, but Vaes Dothrak has no walls. (I: 323)
The Horse Gate, when seen directly and from a distance, frame the great purple mountain which the Dothraki name the Mother of Mountains (I: 323, 327)
The path beneath the Horse Gate is the godsway (I: 323)
The godsway is decorated with plunder from many lands'; statues of dead cities brandishing thunderbolts, stone kings, young maidens on marble plinths, monsters of all sorts (I: 324)
The Western Market of Vaes Dothrak is where the merchants from the Free Cities, and even those of the Seven Kingdoms, come to trade (I: 325)
Entering Vaes Dothrak from the godsway means starting at the Western Market (I: 326)
Vaes Dothrak is at least ten times larger than Pentos, its streets paved with grass and mud and carpeted in wildflowers. Vaes Dothrak sprawls languorously and its buildings are well-separated (I: 326)
The households are strange; pavilions of carved stone, manses of woven grass as large as castles, rickety wooden towers, stepped pyramids faced with marble, log halls open to the sky, and some palaces are surrounded by thorny hedges (I: 327)
The buildings of Vaes Dothrak have been built by slaves from many lands, so they built after their own fashion (I: 327)
Only the crones of the dosh khaleen live permanently in Vaes Dothrak, with their slaves and servants (I: 327)
Vaes Dothrak is so large out of the belief that one day all the Dothraki will die and return to the holy city. It must be ready to receive them all (I: 237)
The Eastern Market is filled with caravans from Yi Ti, Asshai, the Shadow Lands, and the lands from beside the Jade Sea (I: 327)
From the pit where important ceremonies are done in Vaes Dothrak, processions move along the godsway which runs through the center of Vaes Dothrak, from the Horse Gate to the Mother of Mountains (I: 411)
The lake along the godsway is named the Womb of the World (I: 412)
Some traders at Vaes Dothrak have huge eunuchs as guards, who strangle thieves with strips of silk so as not to break the laws of Vaes Dothrak and spill blood (I: 414)
The Western Market of Vaes Dothrak is a great square of beaten earth surrounded by warrens of mud-baked brick, animal pens, and whitewashed drinking halls. The square itself is a maze of stalls and aisles shaded by awnings of woven grass (I: 489)
The caravans that come to Vaes Dothrak come more to trade with one another rather than with the Dothraki. The Dothraki tolerate them so long as they do not break the peace of the sacred city, do not profane the Mother of Mountains or the Womb of the World, and honor the dosh khaleen with the traditional gifts of salt, silver, and seed (I: 490)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.4.3. Religion

Vaes Dothrak is the heart of the Dothraki sea and culture (I: 26, etc.)
When a khal marries, he most present his new bride to the dosh khaleen at Vaes Dothrak (I: 83)
The Dothraki believe that the moon is a goddess, wife to the sun (I: 198)
It is death to draw a blade in Vaes Dothrak (I: 296)
Only the crones of the dosh khaleen live permanently in Vaes Dothrak with their slaves and servants (I: 327)
The dosh khaleen have prophesized that one day all the Dothraki would die and return to the Mother, so the city must be ready to receive all its children (I: 327)
Shedding blood or drawing a blade is forbidden in Vaes Dothrak (I: 327)
In Vaes Dothrak, all Dothraki are of one great khalasar (I: 327)
A khal will ascend the Mother of Mountains to sacrifice to the gods for his safe return (I: 328)
Only men can set foot on the Mother of Mountains (I: 328)
In the heart-eating ceremony, a khal's bloodriders will kill a stallion and cut out its heart with stone knives. The khal will sit it before the khaleesi (I: 409)
When a khaleesi is pregnant, she must eat the entirety of the heart of a stallion before the crones of the dosh khaleen, to make her child a strong and fearless son. If she chokes or retches up the flesh, the child might be stillborn, weak, deformed, or female (I: 409)
No steel is allowed in sacred Vaes Dothrak, beneath the shadow of the Mother of Mountains (I: 410)
When the khaleesi successfully completes the eating of the heart, ritual phrases are said: "Khalakka dothrae mr'anha"(a prince rides inside of me), the response being "Khalakka dothrae" (the prince is riding) from the eldest of the dosh khaleen. The rest repeat that he rides and exclaim "Rakh! Rakh! Rakh haj!" (A boy, a boy, a strong boy) (I: 410)
Bells ring, warhorns sound, and the crones chant after the ritual phrases (I: 410)
The dosh khaleen read prophecies in the rising of smoke from the burning of dried grass (I: 411)
When a khal dies, his khaleesi joins the dosh khaleen to rule the Dothraki nation with them. Even the mightiest khals bow down before the authority and wisdom of the dosh khaleen (I: 411)
After the ceremony, the khaleesi will cleanse herself in the Womb of the World (I: 411)
Only those some may watch the heart-eating ceremony: the khal and his blood riders, the crones of the dosh khaleen, other khals of import and their wives, the chief men of the khalasar of the khaleesi, the handmaids of the khaleesi, and the servants and slaves of the khals (I: 411, 413)
The dosh khaleen is traditionally honored by newcomers to Vaes Dothrak with the traditional gifts of salt, silver, and seed (I: 490)
The Dothraki believe that the horses of fire that make up stars are ridden by dead Dothraki warriors. The more fiercely the man burned in life, the brighter his star would be in death (I: 671)
If a young child too young to ride should die, he will not ride in the nightlands but instead be reborn to begin life anew (II: 140)
The Dothraki believe in hell (II: 637)
The Dothraki pray (III: 86)
The Dothraki believe in a horse-god (SSM: 1)

Last revised July 29, 2009
PermaLink

12.4.4. Legends and Beliefs

The Dothraki believe that someday ghost grass will cover the world, and then all life will end (I: 190)
It is believed that a woman able to eat the entire heart of a stallion without retching or choking will have a strong, fearless son; if she cannot, the child will be weak, deformed, stillborn, or female (I: 409)
The Dothraki believe that the stars are horses of fire, a great herd racing across the sky (I: 410)
The Dothraki believe that the first man came out of the waters of the Womb of the World (I: 412)
The Dothraki believe that one day the dosh khaleen will pronounce that the khal of khals, the stallion that mounts the world, will be carried in the womb of a khaleesi. He will unite the Dothraki people and conquer all the world (I: 415)
The Dothraki have a word, maegi, applied to women who they believe lay with demons and practice the blackest of sorceries, evil and soulless creatures who visit men in the dark of night and take their strength and life (I: 560)
The Dothraki believe in magics involving grass, corn, and horses (I: 561)
The Dothraki believe that the horses of fire that make up stars are ridden by dead Dothraki warriors. The more fiercely the man burned in life, the brighter his star would be in death (I: 671)
If a young child too young to ride should die, he will not ride in the nightlands but instead be reborn to begin life anew (II: 140)
The Dothraki believe that when the gods are gone from places, evil ghosts feast by night. Such places should be shunned (II: 143)
The Dothraki say that the people from the Shadow are spawn of shadows (II: 426)
The Dothraki believe it is bad luck to touch a dead man, unless you are the person who killed them (V: 31)

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

12.5. Asshai and the Shadow

Ships from many lands come to Asshai (I: 561)
Asshai lies far to the south of the Dothraki sea, at the end of the known world (I: 591)
Asshai is said to be a great port (I: 591)
In ancient books of Asshai it is written that there will be a day after a long summer when the stars bleed and the cold breath of darkness falls on the world. In that hour a warrior will draw from the fire a burning sword, which will be Lightbringer wielded by Azor Ahai again (II: 110)
Asshai by the Shadow is in the far east of the continent, past the wastelands which separate the east from the Dothraki sea and the Nine Free Cities (II: 142)
A person from the Shadow wears a red lacquered wooden mask (II: 149, 313)
Amber and dragonglass comes from Asshai (II: 422)
The Dothraki say that the people from the Shadow are spawn of shadows (II: 426)
Wine from Asshai (V: 22)
Dragonlore has perhaps been accumulated in Asshai (SSM: 1)
Vessels bound for Asshai go east through the Summer Sea and the Jade Sea, which are connected by the straits of Qarth (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

12.6. The Summer Isles

The people of the Summer Isles have ebony skin (I: 29)
The Summer Isles makes a rare, sweet amber wine (I: 101)
High-masted swan ships with white sails, described as magnificent (I: 142. IV: 508)
The folk of the Summer Isles have princes (I: 247)
The people of the Summer Isles wear fantastic capes made out of colorful feathers (I: 247. II: 315)
The Summer Isles has a golden wood (I: 261)
Women wear feathered gowns (I: 317)
Certain rare spices from the Summer Isles are used in the making of poisons (II: 15)
A white bird from the Summer Isles given as a gift (II: 96)
Feathers from the Summer Isles are sold by Westerosi merchants (II: 127)
The accent that those of the Summer Isles speak with is flowing and liquid (II: 174)
The people of the Summer Isles consider their blood to be that of summer (II: 175)
Tall Trees Town is a place in the Summer Isles (II: 315)
Summer Islanders kiss lightly on the fingers as either a sign of respect or farewell (II: 316)
The Red Flower Vale has a prince (III: 432)
Dancers from the Summer Isles in robes of bright feathers and silk are sometimes hired for special events in Westeros, such as royal weddings (III: 678)
The Summer Isles produce strange, sweet wines. Even in Oldtown, they are very expensive (IV: 6)
Summer Islanders are unafraid to sail out of sight of land (IV: 520)
Barrels of spiced rum (IV: 520)
Swan ships have high forecastles (IV: 520)
Blackbelly rum (IV: 523)
Women serve on swan ships, and can even lead the red archers that help defend the vessel from attack (IV: 523-524)
The double-curved goldenheart bows used by Summer Islanders can send a shaft four hundred yards. Goldenheart is the best wood for making bows, and the Summer Islanders are probably the finest archers in the world (IV: 523. SSM: 1)
Men and women have separate cabins on swan ships (IV: 526)
Menial tasks on a swan ship: scrubbing descks, smoothing descks with stones, hauling anchor chains, coiling rope, hunting rats, sewing sails, patching leaks with hot tar, boning fish and chopping fruit for meals (IV: 526)
Swan ships, as they're called in the Seven Kingdoms for their great white sails and figureheads which are often carved in the shape of birds, are very large and with a good wind behind them can outrun any galley. However, they are helpless when becalmed (IV: 527)

Last revised August 01, 2009
PermaLink

12.6.1. Customs

The inhabitants of the isles find no shame in serving in a brothel. In the Summer Isles, those who are skilled in the arts of pleasure are valued. Many highborn youths and maidens serve for a few years after their flowerings, to honor the gods (II: 175)
The deceased at a funeral is commemorated by drinking rum in memory of his life (IV: 520)
Summer Islanders revere the elderly and celebrate the dead (IV: 520)
The Summer Islanders answer death with life, and a crew will mourn the death of one of their own with an orgy (IV: 525)

Last revised July 07, 2009
PermaLink

12.6.2. Religion

It is said that the gods made bodies and souls. They gave people voices to worship them with song, hands to build temples to them, and they gave desire so that people might mate and worship in that way (II: 175)
The deceased at a funeral is commemorated by drinking rum in memory of his life (IV: 520)
Summer Islanders revere the elderly and celebrate the dead (IV: 520)
The Summer Islanders answer death with life, and a crew will mourn the death of one of their own with an orgy (IV: 525)
Summer Islanders believe in demons (IV: 527)

Last revised July 07, 2009
PermaLink

12.7. Ibben

The men of the Port of Ibben are hairy and squat, with rasping voices (I: 29. IV: 508)
Fat-bellied whaling ships, hulls black with tar, sometimes trade at King's Landing (I: 142)
Ships from the Port of Ibben trade at the Iron Islands (II: 126)
Some Ibbenese are described as foulsmelling, and it seems homosexuality is not uncommon (II: 332. IV: 366)
Ibbenese are fond of axes (II: 332)
The Port of Ibben may also be known simply as Ib (III: 42)
Ibbenese carry shaggy brown shields (III: 440)
Ibbenese may practice slavery. (IV: 366)
An Ibbenese woman with a mustache (IV: 511)
It's said that Andalos was inhabited by hairy men who were cousins of the Ibbenese, but the Andals came and took the land from them (V: 79)
The Port of Ibben is on Ibben, a large island nation in the Shivering Sea, which is the polar sea north of the eastern continent (SSM: 1)
The Port of Ibben is the chief city of Ibben (SSM: 1)
The Ibbenese have colonies on the eastern continent, but most of them live on a large island (and several smaller ones) in the Shivering Sea (SSM: 1)
The Port of Ibben is lit with lamps of whale oil, and the Ibbenese chew blubber (SSM: 1)

Last revised February 21, 2016
PermaLink

12.8. Qarth

Warlocks from Qarth have white, pale skins and pale blue lips (I: 225. II: 149)
The Qartheen are tall and pale (I: 490)
Qarth is in the far east (II: 142)
A wealthy merchant of Qarth with jewels in his nose (II: 149)
Camels are ridden by Qartheen guards (II: 310)
Warriors of Qarth wear scaled, copper armor and snouted-helms with copper tusks and long, black silk plumes (II: 310)
A Qartheen honor guard would have rich saddles for their camels, inlaid with rubies and garnets (or other gems), and their camels would wear blankets of a hundred different hues (II: 310)
Qartheens claim that Qarth is the greatest city that ever was or will be, saying that it is the center of the world, the gate between north and south and the bridge between east and west (II: 310)
Qarth is said to be ancient beyond the memory of man (II: 310)
Saathos the Wise is said to have put his eyes out after gazing on Qarth for the first time because he knew that all that he saw afterwards would be ugly in comparison (II: 310)
Three thick walls encircle Qarth, carved elaborately. The outer wall is of red sandstone and thirty feet high, decorated with animals. The next wall is forty feet high and made of grey granite, carved with scenes of war. The innermost wall is fifty feet high and made of black marble, carved with explicit sexual depictions (II: 310)
The outer gates are banded with copper, the middle gates with iron, and the inner studded with golden eyes (II: 311)
The buildings in Qarth are fantastical, painted in shades of rose, violet, and umber (II: 311)
A bronze arch, fashioned in the shape of two mating snakes with scales of delicate jade, obsidian, and lapis lazuli, stands over one of the streets from the gates of Qarth (II: 311)
Qartheen towers are slim and higher than those of Pentos and some of the other Free Cities (II: 311)
Elaborate fountains fill every square, wrought as griffins, manticores, and dragons (II: 311)
Qartheen homes have delicate balconies, seeming to frail to hold the weight of any person who should stand on them (II: 311)
The Qartheen are tall and pale and wear linen, samite, and tiger fur. The women wear gowns leaving a breast bare, while men favor beaded silk skirts (II: 311)
The Dothraki call the Qartheen Milk Men for their paleness (II: 311)
A great arcade holds the cities ancient heroes, immortalized in statues thrice life-size that stand on columns of white and green marble (II: 311)
A cavernous building holds a bazaar, its latticework ceiling holding a thousand brightly colored birds. Trees and flowers bloom on the terraced walls of the building, while below them it seems that everything that can be bought is for sale (II: 311)
The Qartheen can boast of having access to black jade and fire opals (II: 311)
The Qartheen wear perfumes (II: 312)
A merchant prince's palace might be larger than many a market town. A single wing would have (amongst other things) gardens, a marble bathing pool (that might be stocked with tiny golden fish), a scrying tower, and a warlock's maze. Slaves attend to every need of guests (II: 312-314)
A private chamber in a palace might have green marble floors and walls draped with colorful silk hangings (II: 313)
Fragrant gardens are full of lavender and mint (II: 314)
Silk curtains divide rooms, rather than doors (II: 315)
The Qartheen seat themselves on cushions on the floor (II: 315)
The Pureborn are descendants of the ancient kings and queens of Qarth. They command the Civic Guard and the fleet or ornate war galleys which rule the straits between the seas (II: 421)
The Temple of Memory is used for sacrifices which may have political ends (II: 421)
The Pureborn sit in the Hall of the Thousand Thrones on great wooden seats that their ancestors used. The seats are on curved tiers that rise from the marble floor to a high domed ceiling painted with scenes of Qarth's past glory (II: 421)
The thrones of the Pureborn are immense and carved fantastically, bright with goldwork and studded with amber, onyx, lapis, and jade. Each seat is different from the last, striving to be the most magnificent of them all (II: 421)
The Sorrowful Men are an ancient and sacred guild of assassins. They are named so because they always whisper, "I am so sorry," to their victims before killing them (II: 422)
There is a saying: "It is easier to milk the Stone Cow of Faros than to wring gold from the Pureborn" (II: 422)
The Qartheen are vastly rich from the trade between the seas (II: 422)
It is said that blue lips speak only lies (II: 424)
The Qartheen eat cold shrimp-and-persimmon soup (II: 637)
The poorer areas of Qarth have modest brick houses which have no windows towards the streets (II: 637)
The Garden of Gehane is mentioned, as are the windowless houses on Warlock's Way (II: 638)
Qarth is one of the world's great ports, given its great sheltered harbor. Winesinks, warehouses, gaming dens, cheap brothels, and temples to peculiar gods all cluster together. All manner of people from cutpurses and cutthroats to spellsellers and momeychangers mingle amongst folk hawking their wares at the waterfront that acts like a massive never-closing marketplace where goods (usually stolen) can be had at a fraction of what they cost at a bazaar (II: 641)
Flavored water and goat's milk are sold from ceramic jars strapped to the backs of old women and stalls sell spiced liquors, fried fish, honey, incense, oil, sperm, and other such goods (II: 641)
The Qarthites eat honey-roasted mice which can be bought at the waterfront for a copper (II: 642)
Other items sold at the Qartheen waterfront: bronze daggers, dried squid, carved onyx, magical elixirs, rocks painted to look like dragon's eggs, chests of saffron, frankincense, pepper, wine, bales of sourleaf, striped hides, slaves, and items of brass (II: 642-643)
The Qartheen use coins called honors (II: 643)
At Qarth, many goods can be found, among them: bolts of silk, bales of tiger skin, amber and jade carvings, saffron, and myrrh (III: 97)
Qarth is more populous than Astapor on Slaver's Bay (III: 266)
Wine from Qarth (V: 22)
Vessels bound for Asshai go east through the Summer Sea and the Jade Sea, which are connected by the straits of Qarth (SSM: 1)
The Faceless Men and the Sorrowful Men have very different outlooks and approaches to what they do (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

12.8.1. Customs

For important events, gongs and strange horns that encircle the bodies of their users are sounded from the walls (II: 310)
Small children are used to greet important guests, scattering flowers in their path and wearing nothing but golden sandals and bright paint (II: 311)
The Qartheen eat such things as peacock and lark's tongue (II: 313)
The Pureborn are notorious for giving poisoned wine to those they deem dangerous (II: 420)
To receive an audience with the Pureborn, one should make a traditional sacrifice in the Temple of Memory, offer a traditional bribe to the Keeper of the Long List, and send a traditional persimmon to the Opener of the Door (II: 421)
When a person receives blue silk slippers, it announces that they are summoned to the Hall of the Thousand Thrones, where the Pureborn hear petitioners (II: 421)
The Qartheen weep often and easily, considering it a mark of the civilized person (II: 421)
When a man and woman marry, they each retain their property (II: 427)
The Qartheen have a wedding custom which holds that, on the day of the wedding, a wife may ask for a token of love from her husband, and the husband may ask the same of his wife. This gift cannot be denied (II: 427)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.8.2. Politics

A wealthy merchant from Qarth calls himself a member of the Thirteen (II: 149)
The Thirteen are wealthy (II: 311)
The Pureborn are notorious for giving poisoned wine to those they deem dangerous (II: 420)
The Pureborn are also named the Enthroned (II: 421)
The Pureborn are descendants of the ancient kings and queens of Qarth. They command the Civic Guard and the fleet or ornate war galleys which rule the straits between the seas (II: 421)
To receive an audience with the Pureborn, one should make a traditional sacrifice in the Temple of Memory, offer a traditional bribe to the Keeper of the Long List, and send a traditional persimmon to the Opener of the Door (II: 421)
When a person receives blue silk slippers, it announces that they are summoned to the Hall of the Thousand Thrones, where the Pureborn hear petitioners (II: 421)
There is a saying: "It is easier to milk the Stone Cow of Faros than to wring gold from the Pureborn" (II: 422)
There are three factions of merchants: the Ancient Guild of Spicers, the Tourmaline Brotherhood, and the Thirteen. Each fights the others for dominance, and they all struggle against the Pureborn (II: 422)
The Thirteen control about 1,000 ships, the Ancient Guild of Spicers own about 1,200 or 1,300, and the Tourmaline Brotherhood has about eight hundred (II: 639-640)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.8.3. Warlocks

Warlocks have white skin and blue lips (I: 225)
Warlocks have come to the Seven Kingdoms before (I: 225)
The warlocks believing bathing a man in the blood of a bull auroch will make him brave (I: 225)
The House of the Undying reputedly holds truth and wisdom, but some Qartheen call it the Palace of Dust (II: 311)
Warlocks dress in long, beaded robes (II: 312)
There is a saying in Qarth: "A warlocks house is built of bones and lies" (II: 312)
Men lower their voices when speaking of the warlocks of Qarth, and along across the east they're power and wisdom is held in reverence (II: 312)
Some claim that the warlocks were mightier in the past, but now they are but a shadow of what they once were (II: 312)
Warlocks read ancient scrolls and drink shade-of-the-evening until their lips turns blue (II: 312)
Warlocks can make an ointment which they claim can reveal the spirits of the air (II: 313)
The warlocks are seldom seen but much feared in Qarth (II: 422)
It is said that blue lips speak only lies (II: 424)
The House of the Undying is a grey and ancient ruin. It is long and low, without towers or windows, and is coiled through a grove of black-barked trees with inky blue leaves which are used to make the drink that the Qartheen call, "shade of the evening." Black tiles are on the roof, many of them fallen or broken. The mortar between stones is dry and crumbling (II: 508)
It is said that many people enter the Palace of Dust, but few come out (II: 508)
A person who would seek audience with the Undying Ones must enter their House alone or not at all (II: 509)
There is a path that leads directly between the street and the front entrance of the House of the Undying. However, a person who enters by the front way never leaves again (II: 509)
To navigate the House of the Undying, one must always take the first door on the right and always takes stairs up (II: 509)
To leave the audience chamber, a person must follow the same path; always up and always the first door to the right (II: 509)
The rooms of the House of the Undying are sometimes open to sight, and are filled with strange visions of many sorts; days that were, days that will be, days that never shall be, and visions of surpassing beauty or horror (II: 509)
The lives of the living are but the flicker of a moth's wing to the Undying (II: 509)
There is a door like a tall oval mouth set in a wall shaped like a human face outside of the building (II: 510)
Small dwarves no more than knee high with snoutish faces, garbed in purple and blue livery, act as servants in the House of the Undying (II: 510)
Before entering, a person seeking audience with the Undying must drink shade of the evening so that they may "hear and see the truths" that will be laid before them. It does not turn lips blue with just one dose; many must be taken (II: 510)
Shade of the evening tastes like all the tastes a person has ever tasted, and some that a person hasn't (II: 510)
There are all manners and styles of rooms and furnishings inside the House of the Undying (II: 510)
The chamber of the Undying is gloomy. A long stone table fills the room, above which floats a heart swollen and blue with corruption. It beats with a deep throbbing sound and each pulse sends out indigo light (II: 514)
Around the table are figures. They speak with voices that are part whisper and part moan, some male and some female (and one seems to speak with the sound of a child) (II: 514)
It is difficult to summon the will to speak in the chamber of the Undying (II: 514)
The Undying Ones are incredibly aged, their flesh a ripe violet blue, their lips and nails so blue that they are nearly black. Even the whites of their eyes are blue. They stare unseeing, and do not breathe or move (II: 514)
The Undying Ones speak strange, riddle-like prophecy. The whispers turn into a rhythmic song while a listener's heart starts to beat in time with the floating heart and then slow (along with breathing) more and more while the whispers seem to gain strength (II: 515)
The Undying Ones can send indigo phantasms into a room, showing scenes of the past and perhaps scenes of the future (II: 515-516)
The Undying Ones try to draw the life from a person tricked into their chamber (II: 516)
There are descriptions of rumored magical events in Qarth, some having to do with warlocks (II: 638)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.9. The Ghiscari Cities

Yunkai, Meereen, and Astapor are great slaver cities on Slaver's Bay (II: 138. III: 96)
The cities of Slaver's Bay are descended from Old Ghis, which was destroyed by the might of young Valyria 5,000 years ago. Its legions were shattered, its brick walls were pulled down, its streets and buildings turned to ash and cinder by dragonflame, its fields sown with salt, sulfur, and skulls (III: 257)
The gods of Ghis were destroyed with its fall, and so were its people. The inhabitants of the slaver cities are mongrels, and the Ghiscari tongue is largely forgotten; the slave cities speak the High Valyrian of their conquerors, or what they made of it (III: 257)
The harpy was the symbol of the Old Empire of Ghis, though the harpy of Ghis had a thunderbolt in her claws, unlike the harpies of the modern slavery cities (III: 257, 473)
The High Valyrian of the slavers twisted and thickened by the growl of Ghis, and flavored with words of slaver argot (III: 258)
The slavers of Astapor name themselves the Good Masters (III: 258, 262)
The slavers of Slaver's Bay wear oiled beards and hair (III: 258, 314)
Slavers wear tokars, some of them of silk fringed with gold. It is wound about the body and over a shoulder, but the left hand is used to hold it in place as one walks. It is cumbersome, its fringes carefully layered so as to be displayed. If it is wound too loose, it falls off, and if too tight, the wearer will be tangled and tripped. Walking in it requires careful, mincing steps (III: 258. V: 35)
Dogs and horses are favorite meats in the slaver cities. Beef is seen as a food for unwashed savages (III: 259)
Slaves hold up striped silk awnings to ward off the sun from their masters (III: 260)
The Ghiscari use their own glyphs (III: 262)
Old Ghis ruled an empire while the Valyrians were still savage, or so it's said (III: 265, 479)
Slavers consider jellied dog brains a delicacy, and eat rich stews of red octopus and unborn puppy, and honeyed dormice as well (III: 265, 649)
Astapor is beside the Worm River (III: 265)
Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen are rivals but not enemies (III: 272)
The Dothraki sea lies north of the slave cities (III: 272)
The slave cities are protected from attack by the Dothraki in part because they are a ready market for the slaves the Dothraki take in their wars (III: 272)
The sons of the harpy give lavishly to every passing khal (III: 272)
Slaves do not refer to themselves in the first person (III: 304)
Grazdan is a common name in the slave cities, after Grazdan the Great who founded Old Ghis at the dawn of days (III: 305)
Ghiscari tend to be fleshy. They have amber skin, broad noses, and dark eyes. Their wiry hair is black or dark red, or a curious mixture of red and black that is peculiar to them (III: 305)
Tokars are only permitted to freeborn men and women of the cities (III: 305, 311)
The fringe on a man's tokar proclaims a man's status. Silver, gold, and fat white pearls are among those used (III: 305, 479)
The Ghiscari lust for dragons. Five times had Old Ghis fought with Valyria when the world was young, and five times it lost because the Freehold of Valyria had dragons and the Empire had none (III: 307)
Ghiscari, the old pure tongue, is still spoken by some. "Mhysa" means mother in it (III: 487)
The Ghiscari inter their honored dead in crypts below their manses (III: 806)
There is a city on an island named New Ghis (III: 807)
In the Free Cities, well spoken and gently born slaves are prized. They will become tutors, scribes, bed slaves, and even healers and priests (III: 809)
Gorghan of Old Ghis once compared prophecy to a treacherous woman, so sweet when pleasuring a man with her mouth, until she bites down on his member (IV: 682-683)
A tokar of sheer white linen with a golden fringe (V: 36)
A tokar of maroon silk with a golden fringe (V: 37)
A very wealthy man's purple tokar fringed with amethysts and pearls (V: 40)
Men can set aside their wives in Ghis (V: 41)
The work of a famous weaver in one city might be highly sought in New Ghis, Astapor, and Qarth (V: 41)
A Ghiscari repast of flatbread, olives, figs, and cheese served with Ghiscari wine made from small, pale yellow grapes that make an inferior vintage and leave behind a metallic taste (V: 43)

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

12.9.1. Astapor

In the center of the Plaza of Pride stands a red brick fountain whose waters smell of brimstone. In the center of the fountain stands a monstrous harpy twenty feet tall made of hammered bronze, with a woman's face, gilded hair, ivory eyes, and pointed ivory teeth. Water gushes yellow from her heavy breasts. In the place of arms she had the wings of a bat or a dragon, her legs are the legs of an eagle, and behind she has a scorpion's curled tail. A heavy chain dangles from her talons, an open manacle at either end (III: 257)
Slaver's Bay is very hot, even in the early autumn (III: 258)
The Plaza of Pride is made of red brick (III: 258)
Astapor has stepped pyramids that have sloping triangular walls and diamond-shaped panes of colored glass for windows (III: 258, 304)
Astapor has fighting pits where all manner of entertainments are held, including putting girls up against bulls and small boys rolled in honey and other foods against a bear so that viewers may wager on which child the bear will eat first. The pits are named after their owners (III: 260, 265)
The lockstep legions of Old Ghis were disciplined (III: 260)
Astapori use silver coins called marks (III: 263)
The Astapori make use of scribes (III: 264, 269)
Astapor is most beautiful at dusk. The Good Masters light silk lanterns on every terrace so all the pyramdis glow with colored lights. Pleasure barges ply the river Worm, playing soft music and calling at the little islands for food and wine and other delights (III: 265)
All the streets, stepped pyramids, deep-dug fighting pits with their rings of descending seats, the sulfurous fountains and gloomy wine caves, and the ancient walls are made of the same red brick, old and crumbling. There is red dust everywhere, dancing down the gutters at each gust of wind (III: 266)
Astapori women veil their faces to keep the brick dust from their eyes, as it stings worse than sand (III: 266)
Astapor's streets are largely deserted in the heat of day (III: 266)
Elephants with latticework litters on their backs lumber about in the streets of Astapor (III: 266)
Wealthy young men with old names and fat purses, sons of the harpy, play at being guards, dressing up as Ghiscari scourges to pretend they still rule an empire. They wear their hairs teased, oiled, and twisted into fantastic shapes, and they have copper disks sewn to their cloaks of yellow silk. Their tunics are embroidered linen and below the waist they wear sandals and pleated linen skirts (III: 266, 271, 272)
Astapor is an ancient city, but not so populous as it was in its glory nor as crowded as Qarth or Pentos or Lys (III: 266)
Astapori slavers ride on white asses (III: 267)
Women wear gowns of sheer linen, sometimes decorated with things such as flakes of lapiz lazuli, and wear ivory combs in their hair (III: 267)
The overseers of slaves are slaves themselves, and at least some are tattooed with the harpy and chains across their chests (III: 267)
There is an old rhyme known to the maesters in Westeros and perhaps elsewhere that goes, "Bricks and blood built Astapor, and bricks and blood her people" (III: 267)
The bricks of Astapor are said to be red with the blood of the slaves who made them (III: 267)
Closer to the bay the city is fairer. The great brick pyramids line the shore, the largest of them some four hundred feet high (III: 268)
All manner of trees and vines and flowers grow on the broad terraces of the stepped pyramids (III: 268)
A gigantic harpy stands atop the harbor gate, made of crumbling baked red clay with no more than a stub of her scorpion's tail remaining and the chain in her hands old and rotten with rust (III: 269, 311)
Astapor is poorly defended, with no guards on the towers. Even a modest khalasar could take the city, but none has ever tried because of the Unsullied (III: 271, 272)
Every son of the harpy plays at being a high officer. On feast days they fight mock wars in the pits to demonstrate what brilliant commanders they are, but it's the eunuchs who do the dying (III: 272)
The folk of the hinterlands east of Astapor are all Ghiscari (III: 272)
East beyond the hills about Astapor lies Lhazar (III: 272)
Astapor has over a hundred slave traders, but the greatest are those who sell Unsullied. They work as one when it comes to those eunuch soldiers, because in ancient times their eight families had allied in the process of making and selling them (III: 305)
Astapor has thousands of eunuchs (III: 307)
The Astapori named the tranquil Worm River a stream. It is wide, slow, and crooked, and some of its tiny wooded islands are decorated with elegant marble statues (III: 312)
The Plaza of Pride is not large enough to contain more than 13,000 Unsullied and trainees arrayed in their ranks (III: 312)
The Plaza of Punishment fronts on Astapor's main gate, and is large enough for more than 13,000 Unsullied and trainees arrayed in their ranks. There are no bronze statues there, only a wooden platform where rebellious slaves are racked, flayed, and hanged. The Good Masters place them so they will be the first thing a new slave sees upon entering the city (III: 312)
The slavers flay rebellious slaves, peeling them as a man might peel an apple (III: 312)
Flaying is the punishment for a slave who raises a hand to his onwer (III: 312)
In Astapor, the city takes a tenth part of the price whenever a slave changes hands (III: 809)
Astapor is said to be ancient (V: 26)
An Astapori envoy's gift of gilded leather slippers decorated with green freshwater pearls (V: 38)

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

12.9.1.1. The Unsullied

Unsullied are eunuchs used as household guards in many of the Free Cities, and can often lose their discipline and go to fat because of such soft service (I: 29. III: 96)
The Unsullied wear spiked bronze caps. One spike indicates a low rank, while three spikes going from front to back represent an officer (I: 29. III: 96. SSM: 1)
In Astapor one can buy Unsuilled, eunuch slave footsoldiers, absolutely fearless and incredibly disciplined (III: 96, 97)
The tale of the Three Thousand of Qohor begins four hundred or more years ago, when the Dothraki first came out of the east to sack and burn every town and city in their path. The khal who led them was named Temmo, and his khalasar numbered 50,000 at least, half of them braided warriors with bells in their hair (III: 96)
The Qohorik knew that Temmo came and strengthened their walls, doubled their guard, hired two free companies (the Bright Banners and the Second Sons), and bought 3,000 Unsullied. As the Three Thousand came to Qohor after their long march from Astapor, they saw that a battle had ended and the Dothraki had sent the sellsword companies to flight and defeated much of the Qohorik army. The horselords feasted to sack the city on the morrow, but when morning came the 3,000 Unsullied were drawn up before the gates with the Black Goat standard flying over them (III: 96, 97)
Temmo, disdaining his foes on foot, charged the Three Thousand eighteen times. The Unsullied locked their shields, lowered their spears, and stood firm against the 20,000 Dothraki screamers. Three times the khal sent his archers past, arrows raining down on the Unsullied, but they only lifted their shields. In the end only 600 Unsullied remained, but more than 12,000 Dothraki were dead upon the field, including Khal Temmo, his bloodriders, his kos, and all his sons (III: 97)
After the battle of the Three Thousand, on the fourth day as morning broke, the new khal led a procession of the survivors past the gates. One by one, each man cut off his braid and threw it down before the feet of the Three Thousand. Since then, the city guard of Qohor has been made solely of Unsilled, every one of whom carries a tall spear from which hangs a braid of human hair (III: 97)
The Unsullied are masters of spear, shield, and shortsword (III: 258)
The Unsullied do not feel any discomfort or pain, whether from heat or from wounds. They will stand a day and a night and more in terrible heat, with neither food nor water, and will remain so until every one of them has dropped dead if they are so commanded (III: 258-261)
For inspection, the Unsullied wear nothing but white linen clouts and conical bronze helms topped with a sharpened spike a foot tall (III: 258)
The Unsullied also wear quilted tunics (III: 258)
Unsullied are chosen young, for size and speed and strength. They begin their training at five, practicing every day from dawn to dusk until they have mastered the shortsword, the shield, and the three spears (III: 259)
The training is very rigorous. Only one boy in three survives (III: 259)
Among the Unsullied it is said that on the day they win their spiked cap, the worst is done with, for no duty that will ever fall to them could be as hard as their training (III: 259)
Others may be stronger, quicker, or larger, and some few may be as skiled with sword and spear and shield, but nowhere are their warriors more disciplined or obedient (III: 259)
The Unsullied come in all sorts. Some are tall and some are short, ranging in ages from perhaps fourteen to twenty when they are ready for sale. More than half have the copper skin and almond eyes of Dothrak and Lhazerene, but there are men from the Free Cities among them, as well as Qartheen, Summer Islanders, and others from more far-flung places (III: 260)
All the Unsullied have eyes that seem dead of all emotion (III: 260, 269)
A eunuch who is cut young will never be as strong as an uncut man, but the cutting of the Unsullied is believed to make them more loyal, obedient, disciplined, and fearless (III: 260)
The Unsullied fight in the manner of the Old Empire and are considered the lockstep legions of Old Ghis come again (III: 260)
Death means nothing to the Unsullied, and maiming less than nothing (III: 260)
The shortswords othe Unsullied are made more for stabbing than for slashing, but the edge is razor-sharp nonetheless (III: 261)
The wine of courage, a potion made of nightshade, bloodfly larva, black lotus root, and many secret things, is the secret to the Unsullied. They drink with every meal from the day they are cut, and with each passing year feel less and less. It makes them fearless, and they cannot be tortured (III: 261)
The Unsullied have the entirety of their genitals removed, leaving nothing (III: 261)
The Unsullied are not interested in wealth or plunder. They own nothing but their weapons, and are not even permited names. Each dawn bronze name disks, engraved with Ghiscari glyphs, are pulled at random from an empty cask by the Unsullied. From dawn to dusk, the name that disk bears will be the name of the Unsullied. At dusk they replace the disks. (III: 262)
The names are meant to remind them that they are vermin, with colors such as Black, Red, Blue, and Brown appended to words such as Toad, Rat, Flea, and Worm (III: 262)
The young eunuchs training to become Unsullied are culled if they cannot remember a new name each day, run all day in a full pack, scale a mountain in the black of night, walk across a bed of coals, or slay an infant (III: 262)
To win his spiked cap, an Unsullied most go to the slave marts with a silver mark, find a wailing newborn, and kill it before its mother's eyes. In this way do the Astapori slavers make certain that there is no weakness left in them. Few ever fail the test The silver mark is for the owner of the slaves, and not for the mother of the slain newborn (III: 262, 263)
The Unsullied are not permitted to steal (III: 263)
A harder test than the final one for the Unsullied has to do with dogs. Each boy is given a puppy the day he is cut. At the end of the first year, he is required to strangle it. Any who cannot do so are killed and fed to the surviving dogs, making a strong lesson (III: 263)
If any enemy offered the Unsullied freedom from their owner, they would kill him out of hand and bring their master his head. Other slaves may steal and hoard up silver in hopes of buying their freedom, but an Unsullied would not take it if it were offered it as a gift (III: 263)
Unsullied are sold only by the unit, either by the thousand or the century. Once they sold by the ten, as household guards, but that proved unsound as they mingled with over slaves and even freemen, and forgot who and what they were (III: 263)
The Unsullied are not cheap. They are the finest foot in all the world and each represents many years of training (III: 263)
The Unsullied do not have any officers in their ranks. They are trained to obey, not to think (III: 264)
Sword, shield, spear, sandals, quilted tunic, and spiked caps are all of the equipment that comes with each Unsullied. They will wear other armor as their owner desires, but they must be provided with it (III: 264)
Unsullied do not put cities to the sword or plunder save at the express command of those who lead them (III: 271)
On feastdays, the sons of the harpy command Unsullied in the fighting pits to show how brilliant they are as commanders (III: 272)
It takes at least ten years to make Unsullied (III: 305)
Eight great slaver families, allied from ancient times, are the only ones who produce and sell Unsullied (III: 305)
Three ships full of costly goods are enough to be a thousand of Unsullied. A rich and elaborate crown may be enough to buy two more centuries. Three vessels, a cog and two galleys, could suffice for another thousand or two (III: 306)
The Unsullied do not question orders, for all the questions have been culled from them. They will even fall upon their swords, if they are so commanded (III: 309)
The ownership of Unsullied is signified by a whip, sometimes very elaborate with a handle of dragonbone, carved and inlaid, with nine long thing leather lashes tipped with gilded claws and a golden pommel that's shaped as a woman's head with pointed ivory teeth. The slavers call such whips the harpy's fingers (III: 313)
The Unsullied will not sleep in an unfortified camp if they fear danger. They will use earthworks, such as ditches and stakes, to strengthen it (III: 474)
The Unsullied say they learn the way of the three spears, in contrast to the ways of pleasure of bed slaves in Yunkai and elsewhere (III: 474)
Some say that boiling oil feels like no more than a warm bath to the Unsullied, but it is false. The Unsullied do not feel burns as men do, but oil blinds and kills (III: 645)
The Unsullied are fastidious about cleanliness. They will bathe every evening garbed only in their white breechclouts even if they have marched all day, and if there is no water available they will use sand after the Dothraki fashion (III: 649)
The Unsullied salute their leaders, kneeling and raising clenched fists to their breasts (III: 649)

Last revised August 05, 2009
PermaLink

12.9.2. Yunkai

In Yunkai, eunuchs are often made by removing a boy's testicles, leaving the penis. This leaves them infertile, but some remain capable of erection (III: 261)
In Yunkai, slave swordsmen can be had for less than the price of their swords (III: 263)
There's a birchwood forest some three leagues south of Yunkai (III: 473, 487)
Yunkai can field an army of at least 4,000 men, and a 1,000 more of sellswords (III: 473)
Yunkai's harpy grasps a whipe and an iron collar in her talons (III: 473)
Yunkai has slave soldiers, but they are not equal to the Unsullied. The city is better known for training bed slaves than warriors (III: 473)
A slave in Yunkai learns the way of seven sighs and the sixteen seats of pleasure (III: 474)
The Yunkai'i speak Valyrian, but in a dialect somewhat different from that of Astapor (III: 476)
The slavers of Yunkai name themselves the Wise Masters (III: 476)
An envoy on a great white camel, escorted by fifty men on magnificent black horses (III: 479)
The Yunkai'i have helms twice as tall as their heads, so as not to crush the bizzar twists and towers and shapes of their oiled hair. They dye their linen skirts and tunics a deep yellow, and sew copper disks to their cloaks (III: 479)
Yunkish golden marks stamped with a stepped pyramid on one side and the harpy of Ghis on the other (III: 480)
Yunkai is made of yellow bricks, but otherwise it is very similar to Astapor with the same crumbling walls and high stepped pyramids, and a great harpy mounted above its gates (III: 487)
The Yunkai'i use slingers (III: 487)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.9.3. Meereen

Healthy young girls and boys under ten are especially sought after as slaves to be used in brothels (I: 557)
One can buy hundreds of slaves from the fighting pits (II: 645. III: 96)
Eunuchs are often made by removing a boy's testicles, leaving the penis. This leaves them infertile, but some remain capable of erection (III: 261)
Slave swordsmen can be had for less than the price of their swords (III: 263)
Meereen is as large as Astapor and Yunkai combined. The bricks the city are made of are of many colors, and her walls are higher and in better repair than Yunkai's, studded with bastions and anchored by great towers at every angle (III: 639)
The Great Pyramid is huge, 800 feet tall with a towering bronze harpy at its top. There are a score of lesser pyramids in the city, but none stand even half as high (III: 639, 803)
A hero of Meereen is armored in scales of copper and jet, mounted on a white charger in striped barding matching the flowing silk cloak he wears (III: 639)
The Meereenese have lances fourteen feet long (III: 639)
The slavers of Meereen call themselves the Great Masters (III: 640)
Meereen sits on the salt coast of Slaver's Bay beside the river Skahazadhan. Its northern wall is against the river and its western on the bay shore (III: 640, 644)
Armor is not worn in the fighting pits, for the crowds come to see blood (III: 642)
The Meereenese have crossbows (III: 643)
Figs, dates, and olives grow on the terraces of the city's pyramids (III: 644)
Meereen stands on a jut of sand and stone where the slow brown Skahazadhan river flows into Slaver's Bay (III: 644)
Meereen has brone heads above its gates, harpy heads with open mouths. The Meereenese can squirt boiling oil from those mouths to deter attackers (III: 644)
The water of the Skahazadhan is not sanitary near the city. Meereen draws its own water from deep wells instead (III: 645)
Great brick sewers right below the walls empty into the Skahazadhan, carrying the city's wastes. They are closed with iron grates, though some of them have rusted through. Once inside it's a long, foul climb in pitch-dark through a maze of brick. The filth is never lower than waist high, and can rise over one's head. There are huge rats there, and worse things (III: 646)
Near the apex of the Great Pyramid is a terrace garden with a persimmon tree growing in it, and a little bathing pool as well. A sleeping chamber with a marble floor is next to it with doors leading out. On the level below is an audience chamber, a high-ceilinged room with walls of purple marble and a fantastic throne of carved and gilded wood shaped as a savage harpy (III: 803, 805, 815, 816)
From the Great Pyramid much of the city of Meereen can be seen, from its twisting alleys to its wide brick streets, its temples and granaries, it hovels and palaces, its brothels and baths, its gardens and fountains, the great red circles of the fighting pits, and more (III: 803)
There is a plaza before the Great Pyramid (III: 805)
Huge rats and monstrous, man-eating pale lizards lurk in the sewers of the city (III: 810)
The Temple of Graces has golden domes (III: 816. V: 35)
Meereen is said to be ancient (V: 26)
There are vast estates in the hills beyond Meereen, where thousands of slaves toil at growing wheat and olives, herding sheeps and goats, and mining salt and copper (V: 34)
Near Meereen are a range of rounded sandstone mountains and the Khyzai Pass, beyond which is Lhazar. The Lhazarene have traded in the past with Meereen, but have no particular love of the place (V: 34)
The Zhak, Hazkar, Ghazeen, Merreq, Loraq, and Pahl are among the chief slaver families in Meereen (V: 37)
There are blood ties between some slaver families and Tolos and Elyria (V: 39)
The fighting pits of Meereen are privately owned (V: 39)
Fighting pits are said to have been a part of the slaver cities since they were founded, with the combats being profoundly religious, representing blood sacrifices to the gods. It is called the mortal art of Ghis by some, and it pleases the gods to see valor, skill, and strength. Great fighters are acclaimed and the slain are honored. The pits are famous across the world and draw trade to Meereen (V: 40)
Criminals are sometimes condemned to the pits, a judgment by battle and a chance to prove their innocence (V: 40)
It is the custom for the city to claim one-tenth of all profits from the pits, after expenses, as a tax (V: 40)
Large pike can be caught in the Skahazadhan (V: 43)
Men wishing to prove their claims may go to the Temple of Graces to swear oaths before the gods of Ghis (V: 44)
The city of Mantarys lies to the west of Meereen, if one follows the old Valyrian roads (V: 73)
The direct distance between Volantis and Meereen is approximately 550 leagues (V: 73)

Last revised February 20, 2016
PermaLink

12.9.4. Legends and Beliefs

Meereen, at least, has many temples, including the golden domed Temple of Graces (III: 803, 816)

Last revised February 28, 2007
PermaLink

12.10. Other Peoples

The east has many strange foods; tree eggs, locust pies, and green noodles among them (I: 490)
The Jogos Nhai live in an area where there are great grey elephants and striped black-and-white horses (zebras) (I: 490)
Dark solemn Asshai'i (I: 490)
Tall pale Qartheen (I: 490)
Bright-eyed men of Yi Ti in monkeytail hats (I: 490)
Warrior maids from Bayasabhad, Shamyriana, and Kayakayanaya with iron rings in their nipples and rubies in their cheeks. Their lands are to the northeast of Vaes Dothrak (I: 490. SSM: 1)
Dour and frightening Shadow Men who cover their arms, legs, and chests with tattoos and cover their faces behind masks (I: 490)
Townsfolk of the Lhazreen, whom the Dothraki call the haesh rakhi (Lamb Men), live in tows and houses made of dried mud. They have similar complexions and eyes to the Dothraki, but they are squat and flat-faced and their black hair is cropped short. They are herders and farmers (I: 555, 556)
In the city of Meereen, where slavery is a major trade, healthy young girls and boys under ten are especially sought after as slaves to be used in brothels (I: 557)
The tongue of the Lhazreen is described as singsong (I: 557)
The Lhazreen keep square, windowless temples with thick mud walls and massive domes like onions (I: 558)
The Lhazreen use short bows and arrows (I: 558)
The priestesses of the Lhazreen temples are named godswives (I: 560)
The Lhazreen religion has the godswife sing songs and use spells most pleasing to their god, the Great Shepherd (I: 560)
The Jogos Nhai have moonsingers who know birthing magics (I: 561)
The Lhazreen temples are made up of series of anterooms leading to a blue-veined stone altar carved with images of shepherds and sheep beneath the great dome. Sheepskins are scattered about the mud floor (I: 561, 562)
Lhazreen arrows are barbed (I: 562)
Those from the area of the Jade Sea speak the Common Tongue of Westeros with a certain musical flavor (II: 17)
Yi Ti is known for its saffron (II: 422)
It is said that across the Jade Sea there is a golden wine that is so fine that all others wines taste like vinegar after sipping it (II: 423)
Yi Ti is on the Jade Sea, and past it somewhere is supposed to be a legendary dreaming city of poets (II: 424)
Beldecar's History of the Rhoynish Wars makes mention of elephants (III: 136)
The people of the fabled island of Naath, who name themselves the Peaceful People, have round flat faces, dusky skin, and golden eyes. All agree they make the best slaves (III: 258, 804)
The land of the Lhazerene is named Lhazar (III: 260)
The Peaceful People of Naath worship the Lord of Harmony, the only true god, the one who always was and always would be that made the moon and stars and earth, and all the creatures that dwelt upon them. He is attended by butterfly women (III: 803)
The Peaceful People of Naath make music rather than war and kill nothing, not even animals, eating only fruit and never flesh. The butterfly spirits sacred to the Lord of Harmony protect their isle against those who would do them harm. Many conquerors have saild to Naath, but all of them sicken and die if they stay overlong. On the other hand, the slavers in their raids seem unaffected (III: 804)
Braavos was discovered by the Moonsingers, who led refugees there to a place where the dragons of Valyria could not find them. Their temple is the greatest on Braavos (IV: 89)
Six bridges beyond the statues to the Sealords and upon the right bank of the great canal is the Temple of the Moonsingers, a huge snow-white marble building topped by a giant silvered dome whose milk glass windows show all the phases of the moon. A pair of marble maidens flank its gates, tall as the statues of the Sealords, supporting a crescent-shaped lintel (IV: 94)
The Lion of the Night is a god of Yi Ti (IV: 507)
The Moon Mother (IV: 507)
Near Meereen are a range of rounded sandstone mountains and the Khyzai Pass, beyond which is Lhazar. The Lhazarene have traded in the past with Meereen, but have no particular love of the city (V: 34)
Yi Ti is to the southeast of Qarth, across of the Jade Sea (SSM: 1)

Last revised March 15, 2013
PermaLink

The Citadel

The Archive of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Lore

Concordance