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)
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)
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)
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)