The silver haired whore in Selhorys is a slave-whore in a modest Selhorys brothel. Her true name is unknown.
She is younger than the other whores in the brothel and is slim and pretty, with long silvery hair. Tyrion guess to himself that she is Lyseni.
After finishing with the sunset girl in a Selhorys brothel, a drunken Tyrion Lannister stumbles downstairs and is recognized by Ser Jorah Mormont who has engaged the services of the silvery haired whore. Upon seeing the girl squirming in the knight’s lap Tyrion thinks to himself that he never saw her and if he had he would have taken her upstairs instead of freckles. After exchanging words with Tyrion Ser Jorah shoves the silvery haired whore aside and gets to his feet to capture Tyrion.
Silveraxe was the nickname of a member of House Fell during Robert's Rebellion. His given name is not yet known.
Silveraxe participated in the battles at Summerhall as a Targaryen loyalist against Lord Robert Baratheon. Robert slew Silveraxe's father, Lord Fell, in single combat and captured Silveraxe in the battle. It is unknown if Silveraxe was the heir to Felwood. Following Summerhall, Robert won Silveraxe to his cause.
The Silverfin is an ironborn longship owned by House Botley.
Lord Victarion Greyjoy spots the Silverfin at anchor in Nagga's Cradle.
Silverhill
The Westerlands and the location of Silverhill
Silverhill
Queen Alysanne and Silverwing at Queenscrown. © guad
Silverwing was the dragon of Queen Alysanne Targaryen..
Silverwing had bonded with Princess Alysanne Targaryen by 48 AC.
During the reign of her brother-husband, Jaehaerys I, Alysanne and Jaehaerys once visited Winterfell with six dragons. While at Winterfell, Alysanne grew bored and mounted Silverwing, flying further north to see the Wall. They stopped at the village Queenscrown on the way.
At some point, Vermithor and Silverwing became a mated pair. During the Dance of the Dragons, Vermithor and Silverwing were said to often coil about one another in the fields.
Silverwing became riderless when Alysanne died late in the reign of Jaehaerys I. Throughout the reign of Jaehaerys's successor, King Viserys I Targaryen, Silverwing had no new rider.
When King's Landing fell to Rhaenyra Targaryen's supporters, Ulf landed Silverwing upon the Hill of Rhaenys, outside of the Dragonpit. In the Dragonpit, Silverwing made a lair before flying off to battle. Ulf rode Silverwing into battle during the first battle at Tumbleton. Ulf and fellow dragonseed Hugh Hammer, who had claimed Vermithor, changed their allegiance, betraying Rhaenyra in favor of Aegon II Targaryen. Silverwing, Vermithor, and Tessarion, the dragon of Aegon II's brother Prince Daeron, let loose their flames upon Tumbleton, which was savagely sacked.
As the Hightower host remained at Tumbleton, so did Ulf with Silverwing. During this time, Silverwing was kept unchained beyond the town walls, free to fly and hunt. During the Second Battle of Tumbleton, an army of four thousand men strong, led by Addam Velaryon upon the dragon Seasmoke, surprised the Hightower host at Tumbleton with their night-time attack. Ulf slept through the battle, but even without a rider Silverwing took to the sky during the battle. At one point, a crossbowman shot a bolt at the dragon.
Silverwing's rider, Ulf the White, insisted he should become the new king of the Seven Kingdoms, as King Aegon II was missing, Prince Aemond dead, taking over the plan of the newly deceased Hugh Hammer, who had died in the Second Tumbleton as well. Silverwing became riderless when Ser Hobert Hightower, one of the Caltrops, gave Ulf the White poisoned wine. Lord Unwin Peake offered a thousand golden dragons to any knight of noble birth able to ride Silverwing. Out of the three men who came forth, the first had his arm torn off and the second burned to death. The third man then changed his mind.
Silverwing was one of only four dragons still alive at the end of the Dance. Although accustomed to men, Silverwing became wild during the reign of Aegon III Targaryen, and eventually made her lair on an island in Red Lake in the northwest of the Reach.
Bran Stark mentions Silverwing to Meera and Jojen Reed when they arrive at Queenscrown.
While riding in the chain winch at the Wall, Samwell Tarly wonders if Silverwing may have left an egg at the Wall.
Ser Simon Leygood was a knight from House Leygood, during the reign of Aerys I Targaryen.
The bearded Simon was a suitor of Lady Rohanne Webber, attending her at Coldmoat. He was deeply in debt during the reign of Aerys I Targaryen.
Ser Simon Staunton was a knight from House Staunton. He was married to Lady Rohanne Webber becoming her third husband. His brother was Septon Sefton. Simon died choking on a chicken bone.
Ser Simon Strong was a knight of House Strong during the Dance of the Dragons. He was cousin to the ruling Lord Larys Strong and the castellan of Harrenhal.
During the Dance of the Dragons, Simon was an old man. He surrendered Harrenhal at the sight of Caraxes, Prince Daemon Targaryen's dragon. Simon and his grandsons were then held as hostages by Daemon. What happened to them during the remainder of the war is currently unknown.
It is unknown how exactly Simon and his grandsons are related to the main branch of House Strong.
Simon Toyne was the leader of the Kingswood Brotherhood, an outlaw organization that operated during the reign of Aerys II Targaryen.
Simon was a member of House Toyne, a family that had fallen into disgrace after altercations with House Targaryen. Under Simon's leadership, the Kingswood Brotherhood achieved no small measure of infamy as they kidnapped various nobles and evaded capture. At one point Simon entered the tourney at Storm's End as a mystery knight where he was unhorsed by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. Ultimately, Simon was killed by Ser Barristan Selmy after the Kingsguard was sent to crush the Brotherhood.
The Singing Stones are a group of islands in the Summer Islands. They are in the Summer Sea west of Omboru and north of The Three Exiles.
The Sinner's Steps is a massive stone stair which connects the higher and lower cities that make up the Free City of Norvos.
Sister's stew is a thick creamy white seafood stew the is served on the three islands known as the Three Sisters. It can be made with leeks, carrots, barley, turnips white and yellow, pepper, salt, clams, as well as chunks of cod and crabmeat in a stock of heavy cream and butter. Red crabs, spider crabs, and conquerors can be included.
When he is brought before Lord Godric Borrell on Sweetsister, Davos Seaworth is served sister's stew in a trencher hollowed out of a stale loaf. Davos has tasted sister's stew before, as it is served in every inn and tavern of the Three Sisters. Godric insists this stew made by his granddaughter Gella is better. Davos is grateful for the stew, as he should now have guest right.
Davos notes that there are stranger spices than salt in this particular stew. Godric confirms it has saffron from Qarth and cracked black pepper from Volantis. Lord Borrell laughs, explaining he had taken pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and saffron off a sloe-eyed maid.
It was the sort of stew that warmed a man right down to his bones, just the thing for a wet, cold night.
- thoughts of Davos Seaworth
I won't eat spider crab, except in sister's stew. Makes me feel half cannibal.
Sistermen are the inhabitants of the Three Sisters, an archipelago located in the Bite.
Some Sistermen have webbing between their hands and feet, which they call "the mark".
The Sistermen originally worshiped the Lady of the Waves and the Lord of the Skies instead of the old gods adopted by the First Men of the mainland. They would also cast dwarfs into the sea as an offering to the gods, but septons stopped the practice after the Andal invasion.
They were a free people ruled by local kings, who also acted as pirate kings.
Some Sistermen still resent northmen.
Sisterton
The Vale of Arryn and the location of Sisterton
Sisterton is a town
Sisterton is a small, mean town, rank with the odors of pig waste and rotting fish. Its streets are made of mud and planks, while its are houses daub-and-wattle hovels roofed with straw. By the Gallows Gate there are always hanged men with their entrails dangling out., are located at Sisterton.
Prior to becoming a smuggler's den, Sisterton was a pirate's nest.
During the Dance of the Dragons, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon gained Houses Borrell and Sunderland for the blacks during his visit to Sisterton.
Lord Eddard Stark was taken to the Three Sisters by smallfolk near the start of Robert's Rebellion. Against the advice of Breakwater's maester, Lord Borrell allowed Ned Stark to leave Sisterton and continue on to the north.
While serving as the master of ships for King Robert I Baratheon, Lord Stannis Baratheon once sailed to Sisterton with a fleet and made Lord Godric Borrell hang twelve of his friends, probably for smuggling. Stannis threatened to do the same to Godric if any ships were to crash if the Night Lamp ever went dark.
The Frey envoys stop at Sisterton while en route to White Harbor. Davos Seaworth is caught in the Belly of the Whale and brought to Lord Godric Borrell at Breakwater.
"Six Maids in a Pool" is a song about six shy, pretty maids taking a swim. It may have some relation to Florian and Jonquil.
Six maids there were in a spring-fed pool...
When Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth and Ser Cleos Frey pass through Maidenpool they espy the spring-fed pool from which the town took its name, where legend says Florian the Fool had first glimpsed Jonquil bathing with her sisters.
The pool is so choked with rotting corpses that the water had turned into a murky grey-green soup. Jaime takes one look at it and bursts into the song "Six Maids in a Pool", until Brienne tells him to be quiet.
Brienne passes through Maidenpool during the early part of her quest to find Sansa Stark. Brienne finds herself reminiscing,
Jaime sang “Six Maids in a Pool,” and laughed when I begged him to be quiet.
"Six Sorrows" is a sad song.
It is sung by Marillion while he is in his sky cell.
Viserion catches a burning corpse as it is flung from the Wicked Sister.
Art by Ashley Hunter Rice
The six sisters are six huge trebuchets built by the forces of Yunkai for the Second Siege of Meereen.
The trebuchets tower forty feet high above the tents of the Yunkai'i and are the Yunkish siege camp's chief landmarks. They are arrayed on three sides of the city, all but the Skahazadhan riverside, and are surrounded by piles of broken stone and casks of pitch resin just waiting for a torch. They are named:
The Yunkai'i ships bring lumber and hides up from the south, enough to raise six huge trebuchets outside of the city of Meereen. As Queen Daenerys Targaryen's foes gather all about her she can hear the hammers ringing through the warm, dry air.
The enslaved Tyrion Lannister looks upon trebuchets after being purchased in the auction block outside of Meereen. One of the soldiers walking along beside Tyrion’s cart proudly tells him the name of each trebuchet. According to the soldier just the sight of them drove Daenerys Targaryen to her knees and there she will stay sucking Hizdahr zo Loraq’s noble cock, else the Yunkai'i will smash her walls to rubble.
Bloodbeard suggests using the trebuchets to send Meereenese hostages back to Daenerys.
After Daenerys's disappearance from Daznak's Pit, while the Queen's Hand Ser Barristan Selmy is meeting with the Green Grace, Skahaz mo Kandaq bursts in to tell them that the six trebuchets have begun flinging not rocks, but corpses into Meereen.
In the camp of the Second Sons three hundred yards from where Tyrion Lannister stands rises the Wicked Sister, her long arm swinging up with a clutch of corpses. The dragon Viserion catches one burning body just as it began to fall, crunching it between his jaws.
During the meeting in Ben Plumm's tent Ben informs his men that they have been commanded to defend the Wicked Sister by Malazza, the Girl General. As Ser Barristan Selmy is making for the Harridan, Malazza is afraid he will turn toward the Wicked Sister next.
By this point the trebuchet the Ghost of Astapor is already down. The Mother's Men break the Long Lances like a rotten stick and drag the trebuchet over with chains. According to Ben, Malazza figures Selmy means to bring down all the trebuchets. Jorah Mormont replies he would have done it sooner.
Three hundred yards away the Wicked Sister swung her arm, chunk-THUMP, and six fresh corpses went dancing through the sky. Up they rose, and up, and up. Then two burst into flame.
- thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
Crossbows is how you hold the Wicked Sister. Scorpions. Mangonels. That's what's needed. You do not use mounted men to defend a fixed position.
- Inkpots to the Second Sons
Skagos
The north and the location of Skagos
Skagos is a large island in the mouth of the Bay of Seals. In theory, the island is part of the north and subject to House Stark of Winterfell. However, the island has little contact with mainland Westeros and the Seven Kingdoms, and in practice they rule themselves.
Maester Balder's *The Edge of the World* is the largest collection of tales regarding the island.
The large island is located in the mouth of the Bay of Seals, off the northeastern coast of Westeros. Nearby is the isle Skane and beyond it is the Shivering Sea. Skagos is mountainous and forbidding with rough and treacherous currents around the isle.
The Skagosi
The people of Skagos are generally despised by the rest of the northmen, who derisively call them "Skaggs".
According to *The Edge of the World* by Maester Balder, in ancient days men of Skagos sailed to the nearby island Skane, seizing all the women, killing all the men, and feasting on their flesh for a fortnight. The smaller isle has reportedly been uninhabited since the Feast of Skane.
The people of Skagos tended to cross the Bay of Seals to trade and raid on the mainland until Brandon IX Stark, King in the North, broke their power, destroying their ships and forbidding them the sea.
According to legend, Bael the Bard entered Winterfell under the guise of a singer named Sygerrik of Skagos; "Sygerrik" means "deceiver" in the Old Tongue.
Some Skagosi have served in the Night's Watch over the past millennia. A Crowl was Lord Commander over a thousand years ago, and, according to the *Annals of the Black Centaur*, a Stane served as First Ranger for a brief time.
With Janos Slynt aboard, the carrack *Summer's Dream* sails from King's Landing for Gulltown, the Three Sisters, Skagos, and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea.
Donal Noye recalls meeting Skagossons at Eastwatch.
Sailing from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea to Braavos, *Blackbird* passes the shores of Skagos. Samwell Tarly sees a wrecked galley on the rocks, with bodies of crewmen being consumed by rooks and crabs.
The galleys *Oledo* and *Old Mother's Son* are driven onto the rocks of Skagos after setting sail from the Wall.
Lord Wyman Manderly learns from Wex Pyke that Rickon Stark is alive and has been taken to Skagos by Osha. Wyman tasks Lord Davos Seaworth with retrieving the boy.
Dareon: If the gods are good, we may catch a glimpse of a unicorn.
Samwell: If the captain is good, we won't come that close. The currents are treacherous around Skagos, and there are rocks that can crack a ship's hull like an egg.
- Dareon and Samwell Tarly
The maesters will tell you that King Jaehaerys abolished the lord's right to the first night to appease his shrewish queen, but where the old gods rule, old customs linger. The Umbers keep the first night too, deny it as they may. Certain of the mountain clans as well, and on Skagos ... well, only heart trees ever see half of what they do on Skagos.
Skahaz mo Kandaq, also known as the Shavepate, is a Ghiscari noble of the city of Meereen.
See also: Images of Skahaz mo Kandaq
Daenerys Targaryen describes Skahaz as having
an odious face— a beetled brow, small eyes with heavy bags beneath them, a big nose dark with blackheads, oily skin that looked more yellow than the usual amber of Ghiscari.
After Daenerys Targaryen takes Meereen, Skahaz becomes one of her councilors and shaves his black and red Ghiscari hair (which is often worn into fanciful shapes by Ghiscari) to show he has abandoned Old Meereen to serve the New Meereen and several of his followers do the same.
Under Daenerys's orders Skahaz creates the Brazen Beasts, an organization composed of Shavepates and freedmen that serves as a city watch to Meereen. The beasts wear brass masks in the shapes of fanciful beasts to protect their identities from the Sons of the Harpy who promised death to the families of any man who serves the Dragon Queen. Skahaz argues with Daenerys on several occasions over her refusal not to harm any of the cupbearer/hostages.
After Daenerys's marriage to Hizdahr zo Loraq,
We will rue your old man’s honor before this game is done.
—Skahaz, to Barristan Selmy
The Shavepate never made a secret of his disdain for my lord husband.
—Daenerys Targaryen's thoughts
The Shavepate would feed them to your dragons, it is said.
—Galazza Galare, to Daenerys Targaryen, on Skahaz's intentions towards the Meereenese child hostages
Skahazadhan
Slaver's Bay and the location of the Skahazadhan
The Skahazadhan is a major river of Essos. It begins in the southeastern Dothraki sea and flows southwest through Meereen into Slaver's Bay. South of the river are Lhazar and the red waste. Cities on its tributaries include Vaes Mejhah, Krazaaj Has, and Kosrak. A tributary also flows through the Khyzai Pass near Meereen.
The Skahazadhan is a slow river with brown water. The Meereenese use it for waste and instead drink from deep wells.
During the second siege of Meereen, galleys from Qarth and New Ghis and a carrack from Tolos seal off the Skahazadhan,
After Daenerys Targaryen disappears from Daznak's Pit, her bloodriders are sent in search of her north of the Skahazadhan.
Skane
The north and the location of Skane.
Skane is an isle in the north, located north of the island of Skagos and the Bay of Seals.
Skane is said to have been raided long ago by the Skagosi in what is known as the Feast of Skane.
Maester Harmune sends a report to Jon Snow, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, that two Lyseni ships under the command of Cotter Pyke have run aground on Skane.
Bran Stark is a skinchanger. Art by TeiIku ©
A skinchanger or beastling.
The interaction between the skinchanger's and animal's minds influence both personalities, with detrimental effects to the human if the animal's influence is not fought. It is much easier for a skinchanger to do so if a bond exists between the two parties.
According to Haggon, dogs are easy to bond with, because they live in close proximity to humans and are trusting; it becomes easier with time to enter a dog. Wolves are harder, as one has to forge a lasting bond, much like a marriage. Birds are tempting, but a skinchanger may soon lose contact to the mundane things of earth and want only to fly. Cats are cruel and vain beasts and cannot be easily controlled, only forced. Elk and deer are prey whose skins can cause a man to become cowardly.
An unwritten code for free folk skinchangers, as told by Haggon, forbids them to eat of human meat and to mate as wolf with wolf. Seizing the body of another man is considered the worst abomination.
A skinchanger can experience many deaths while in another body. It is only when the person's human body dies that the "true death" occurs.
Skinchangers and wargs are feared and honored by free folk, while people of the Seven Kingdoms hunt them.
Wildling skinchanger with his owl. Art by Woodrow Hinton © Fantasy Flight Games
The greenseers of the children of the forest inspired the first legends about skinchangers.
According to ancient ballads, Gaven Greywolf was a skinchanger defeated by the Kings of Winter in the War of the Wolves. House Stark also defeated the Warg King in a war for Sea Dragon Point.
Varamyr slew and devoured his mentor, Haggon, and came to rule a dozen free folk villages as a lord of sorts.
Bran Stark has wolf dreams of his direwolf, Summer.
Robb Stark, the King in the North, avoids the Golden Tooth by following a goat track found by his direwolf, Grey Wind.
During the great ranging, Jon Snow slays the wildling skinchanger Orell
Bran briefly slips into the mind of Hodor when his simple-minded friend is scared by thunder.
Part of Orell lives on in his eagle, which attacks Jon.
Although Arya Stark had chased away her direwolf, Nymeria, the girl dreams of the death of Iggo.
When they are surrounded by wights, Varamyr attempts to take control of Thistle but the spearwife resists. The humans are killed by wights, but Varamyr begins his second life by entering one of his wolves, One Eye.
In order to save his own life and the lives of his companions, Bran enters Hodor so that he can fight wights more effectively.
Jon's wolf dreams intensify,
Ser Jared Frey claims that Robb and his northmen were wargs who turned into wolves during the Red Wedding.
Alysane Mormont tells Asha Greyjoy, perhaps jokingly, that House Mormont women are skinchangers who turn into bears and find mates in the woods.
Having been blinded at the House of Black and White, Arya dreams of being the night wolf and sees through the eyes of a cat.
According to semi-canon sources, the current generation of Stark children are all skinchangers to greater or lesser degrees, but only Bran Stark has been actively training his ability.
Bran: You're a greenseer.
Jojen: No, only a boy who dreams. The greenseers were more than that. They were wargs as well, as you are, and the greatest of them could wear the skins of any beast that flies or swims or crawls, and could look through the eyes of the weirwoods as well, and see the truth that lies beneath the world.
- Bran Stark and Jojen Reed
Can a bird hate? Jon had slain the wilding Orell, but some part of the man remained within the eagle. The golden eyes looked out on him with cold malevolence.
- thoughts of Jon Snow
Orell was withering inside his feathers, so I took the eagle for my own. But the joining works both ways, warg. Orell lives inside me now, whispering how much he hates you. And I can soar above the Wall, and see with eagle eyes.
Look! The beast that tore the life from Halfhand. A warg walks among us, brothers. A WARG! This ... this creature is not fit to lead us! This beastling is not fit to live!
- Janos Slynt to the Night's Watch
They say you forget. When the man's flesh dies, his spirit lives on inside the beast, but every day his memory fades, and the beast becomes a little less a warg, a little more a wolf, until nothing of the man is left and only the beast remains.
Slipping into a dog's skin was like putting on an old boot, its leather softened by wear. As a boot was shaped to accept a foot, a dog was shaped to accept a collar, even a collar no human eye could see. Wolves were harder. A man might befriend a wolf, even break a wolf, but no man could truly tame a wolf.
- thoughts of Varamyr
The free folk fear skinchangers, but they honor us as well. South of the Wall, the kneelers hunt us down and butcher us like pigs.
- Haggon
Only one man in a thousand is born a skinchanger, and only one skinchanger in a thousand can be a greenseer.
- three-eyed crow to Bran Stark
The big stableboy no longer fought him as he had the first time, back in the lake tower during the storm. Like a dog who has had all the fight whipped out of him, Hodor would curl up and hide whenever Bran reached out for him. His hiding place was somewhere deep within him, a pit where not even Bran could touch him.
- thoughts of Bran Stark
Skinner is a man-at-arms sworn to House Bolton. He is one of the Bastard's Boys.
Skinner flayed Theon Greyjoy's fingers for Ramsay Bolton. He is present in the great hall of the Dreadfort when Little Walder and Big Walder Frey bring "Reek" before Ramsay, who is joined by Arnolf Karstark and Hother Whoresbane.
Go away, Reek. The smell of you turns my stomach.
- Skinner to "Reek"
The Skipping Stones is a site on the Red Fork of the Trident.
Husband claimed that outlaws were preying on travelers near the Skipping Stones.
Map - Click to zoom
The Skirling Pass is a path into the Frostfangs, located beyond the Wall. The pass is named for the keening sound the wind makes as it blows through it.
The pass is a long, twisting course between mountain peaks and hidden valleys. There is no grass save a few weeds and pale lichen clinging to life amongst cracks in the rock. dwell in the Frostfangs.
Other paths into the Frostfangs include the Giant's Stair, if it is clear.
The Skirling Pass is considered by the Night's Watch as a probable place to find Mance Rayder's wildlings.
While retreating back to the Fist of the First Men, the scouts are overtaken by Rattleshirt's wildlings, with Jon the only confirmed survivor while Stonesnake is ordered by Qhorin to climb through the Frostfangs on foot to warn the Night's Watch of the wildling invasion.
Stonesnake is lost in the Skirling Pass.
Skittrick is a guard sworn to House Stark.
Skittrick is a new recruit, having signed up after the departure of Lords Eddard and Robb Stark.
Skroth is the language used by the White Walkers in the television adaptation *Game of Thrones*. Peter Brown, the sound designer for the show, developed the sound of the language, which resembles the breaking of ice.
David J. Peterson, who developed the Dothraki and High Valyrian languages for the show, also created a spoken version of Skroth, but it was not used.
Skull Island
Northern Sothoryos and the location of Skull Island
Skull Island,
Many of corsairs of the Basilisks decorate the hulls and masts of their ships with severed heads. When the flesh has rotted off them, the corsairs replace the heads with fresh ones, while the bare skulls are delivered to Skull Isle as an offering to some dark god. The shores of the island are lined with skulls.
Arya Stark in a cellar in the Red Keep amongst the dragon skulls - by Michael Komarck ©
Dragon skulls - by Thomas Komarck © FFG
The skulls of the Targaryen dragons are stored in the cellars of the Red Keep..
After the fall of House Targaryen, King Robert I Baratheon replaced the dragon skulls with banners and tapestries.
There are nineteen skulls of various sizes. Some of the skulls have been identified but the identity of most of the dragon skulls are unknown. It is possible that some of the dragon skulls may have been brought to Westeros by the Targaryens when they fled Valyria prior to the Doom. George R. R. Martin has said that there were once dragons all over,.
On the way to the Wall Tyrion Lannister remembers seeking out the dragon skulls in King's Landing the first time he was there. He recalls having a torch with him when he discovered the skulls and having the sensation that they seemed to like it when he put his torch to them. There were three skulls much larger than the others, the ones that belonged to Vhagar, Meraxes and Balerion.
Arya Stark ends up lost in a dark cellar in the Red Keep, and in the gloom she finds the dragon skulls all around her. Initially she is afraid, but she soon overcomes her fear and makes her way over to touch one of the monsters. She can tell it is bone and that it is dead, but has a feeling that it knows she is there and that it does not love her.
In Qarth Daenerys Targaryen sees the dragon skulls in the Red Keep's throne room in one of her visions in the House of the Undying.
Arstan Whitebeard tells Daenerys Targaryen that he served for a time in King's Landing and walked beneath the dragon skulls that looked down from the walls of King Aerys II Targaryen's throne room. Dany tells him that her brother Viserys talked about those skulls. She tells Arstan that Robert I Baratheon took them down and hid them away, as he could not bear them looking down on him upon his stolen throne.
Tyrion Lannister and Shae rendezvous in the cellar amongst the dragon skulls.
The dragon skulls look down upon Ned and Jaime - by Roman Papsuev
I rode the length of the hall in silence, between the long rows of dragon skulls. It felt as though they were watching me, somehow.
- Eddard Stark, recalling entering the throne room, finding Jaime Lannister seated on the Iron Throne and Aerys II Targaryen dead
Finally a great pair of bronze doors appeared to her left, grander than the rest. They swung open as she neared, and she had to stop and look. Beyond loomed a cavernous stone hall, the largest she had ever seen. The skulls of dead dragons looked down from its walls.
- Daenerys Targaryen sees the dragon skulls in one of her visions in the House of the Undying
Beneath the empty eyes of the skulls, Jaime hauled the last dragon king bodily off the steps.
- thoughts of Jaime Lannister
A vague light was leaking through the row of long narrow windows set high in the cellar wall. The skulls of the Targaryen dragons were emerging from the darkness around them, black amidst grey.
- thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
Sky Blue Su is a whore from Mole's Town.
Sky Blue Su evacuated Mole's Town before the wildlings could attack.
Tyrion Lannister in the Eyrie's sky cells - Art by Michael Komarck ©
The sky cells, left open to the cold sky - Art by Thomas Denmark. © Fantasy Flight Games
The sky cells are the Eyrie's dungeons. They are particularly infamous; they are merely shelves on the side of the mountain's sheer cliffs, left open to the cold sky. Mord is a gaoler of House Arryn in charge of the upkeep and maintenance of the sky cells.
The Arryns keep the only dungeon in the Seven Kingdoms where the prisoners are welcome to escape at will – by jumping to their deaths. Many prisoners, driven mad by the cold and howling wind, commit suicide rather than remain imprisoned.
It is cold in the sky cells with the wind screaming night and day, but the only bedding is a thin blanket. The floor slopes slightly, unnerving prisoners. A cell is miserably small; five feet away, where a wall would be in a proper dungeon, the floor ends and sky begins. Six hundred feet below is the waycastle Sky.
Tyrion Lannister is imprisoned in the sky cells by Lysa Arryn. During the first day he cautiously looks around, seeing the waycastle Sky below and other cells to his right and left and above him. Tyrion is afraid he will slide to his death if he rolls over in his sleep.
A previous tenant has written, in what looks suspiciously like blood,
Gods save me, the blue is calling.
To escape the sky cell Tyrion demands trial by combat. Bronn volunteers to champion him in the trial and kills Ser Vardis Egen, saving Tyrion's life and securing Tyrion's freedom.
After he has been arrested Marillion is tortured into falsely confessing that he killed Lysa Arryn. Petyr Baelish has Marillion repeat his confession that he killed Lysa in front of Nestor Royce and then confines him to the sky cells.
He was a bee in a stone honeycomb, and someone had torn off his wings.
- Tyrion Lannister contemplating his imprisonment in the sky cells
Skyreach
Dorne and the location of Skyreach
Skyreach is the seat of House Fowler in Dorne. It is located at the southern end of the Prince's Pass, south of Kingsgrave and near a river that flows east to Yronwood.
The ancient castle of Skyreach was the home to the First Men kings of House Fowler. It was carved into the stone which overlooked the Wide Way, the shortest and easiest route through the Red Mountains from Dorne to the Reach. Skyreach is known for its lofty perch and soaring towers.
When Aegon the Conqueror invaded Dorne during the First Dornish War, Skyreach was among the many Dornish castles that were found abandoned. After Lord Fowler burned Nightsong, the Targaryens retaliated by sending their dragons against Skyreach and other Dornish seats.
While growing up, Tyrion Lannister heard reports of a dwarf jester at Skyreach.
Skyte is an ironborn sailor sworn to Balon Greyjoy.
Skyte and two of his companions, Uller and Qarl, encounter Theon and Asha Greyjoy in Lordsport. There they recount the story of the death of Skyte's brother, Eldiss. Asha believes that Theon should make the companions part of his crew.
A Slave of R'hllor is a man or woman who has been purchased in the Free Cities to serve the temple of R'hllor. In Volantis these slaves have tattooed flames on their cheeks and forehead to display that they are servants of R'hllor. Although to the Red faith, they believe they are all servants or slaves to R'hllor. Even Benerro, the High Priest of R'hllor, counts among his many titles Slave of R'hllor.
The slaves become priests, temple prostitutes, servants or even join the temple guard known as the Fiery Hand. If a Slave of R'hllor is ever captured by slavers, the temple will ransom them back from the slavers.
Slaver's Bay with the city of Yunkai in the background - by Juan Carlos Barquet. © Fantasy Flight Games
The location of Slaver's Bay on the continent of Essos
A port in Slaver's Bay. © Fantasy Flight Games
Slaver's Bay is a cultural and geographical region of central Essos. Built from the ashes of the Old Empire of Ghis, Slaver's Bay became a wealthy hub of the global slave trade. It flows into the Gulf of Grief.
Slaver's Bay is located along the south of central Essos. In the west it reaches the eastern shores of the Valyrian peninsula and contains isle of Elyria. Tolos and the ruins of Bhorash are located along the Black Cliffs in the bay's north. In the east of Slaver's Bay are the isle of Yaros, the hilly peninsula of Ghiscar, and the great slave cities of Astapor, Meereen, and Yunkai. The bay is separated from the Gulf of Grief to its south by the Isle of Cedars.
Main article: Ghiscari
Although little Ghiscari culture survived the Old Empire's collapse, the modern people of Slaver's Bay take great pride in their Ghiscari heritage, referring to themselves as "the sons of the harpy" it is currently unknown what their harpy has in its talons.
The Old Ghiscari tongue has been largely forgotten. Most modern Ghiscari speak in the language of their conquerors, High Valyrian. The dialects of Astapor and Yunkai contain a growl of the old Ghiscari tongue,
Descending from the Ghiscari of old, most Astapori have amber skins, broad noses, dark eyes, and black or dark red hair, or a mixture of red and black hair which is distinctive to the ancient Ghiscari.
In all three of the slaver cities, freeborn men and women wear *tokars*,
Slavery is the dominant industry of Slaver's Bay. Stories told about the flesh marts of the slave cities are dire and frightening. respectively.
The Good Masters are rivals of one another when dealing in bed slaves, fieldhands, scribes, craftsmen, and tutors. However, when dealing in their far-famed eunuch soldier slaves, the Unsullied, they work together as allies..
The Dothraki deliver many of the slaves trained and sold on the slave markets of the slaver cities on Slaver's Bay.
Copper is plentiful in the Ghiscari hills near Meereen.
Main article: Astapor
Ruled by the Good Masters, Astapor is far-famed for its eunuch slave soldiers, the Unsullied. Trained from a young age, these men are trained to be obedient and fearless.
The Astapori emblem is a variation on the harpy of Old Ghis, which shows a chain with open manacles at either end in the harpy's talons.
Main article: Yunkai
Yunkai is ruled by cunning
The Yunkish emblem is a variation on the harpy of Old Ghis, which shows the harpy grasping a whip and an iron collar in its talons.
Main article: Meereen
The largest
Like the other slaver cities of Ghiscari descent, Meereen uses a harpy as its emblem.
The ancient city of Ghis, in Ghiscar along the Gulf of Grief, was one of the oldest known cultures and nations in the world. Its founding and golden age predate that of its successor, Valyria, by thousands of years. The city grew into a military, economic and cultural powerhouse, the Old Empire of Ghis. From Ghiscar, the empire conquered and colonized the east of Slaver's Bay.
At its height, Ghis fielded highly-disciplined lockstep legions reputed to have been nearly unbeatable on the battlefield. The architecture of Ghis was dominated by massive brick towers and pyramids built on the back of slave labor. Its symbol was the harpy, a fanged woman with leathery wings for arms, the legs of an eagle, and the tail of a scorpion, clutching a thunderbolt in her talons.
The Old Empire fell over five thousand years ago after warring with the Valyrian Freehold to the west, losing a series of five wars with Valyria before toppling. Despite its wealth and nearly invincible legions, Ghis could not stand against Valyria's ultimate weapon, dragons.
As the Old Empire collapsed, the city of Ghis toppled into ruin and most Ghiscari bloodlines were extinguished or enslaved. The Ghiscari language was replaced with High Valyrian
The Valyrian peninsula was destroyed in the Doom of Valyria, causing chaos in the rest of the Freehold.
Astapor is conquered by Daenerys Targaryen after she purchases the city's entire population of Unsullied and sends them against the helpless Good Masters.
After the fall of Astapor, Yunkai girds itself with a slave army of approximately four thousand and purchases the services of the Second Sons and Stormcrows, totaling over one thousand sellswords. Daenerys lures the Stormcrows to her service and ambushes the Second Sons, scattering them. The Wise Masters surrender and release all of their slaves.
Meereen utilizes a scorched earth defense against Daenerys, razing the land surrounding the city and nailing slave children onto posts with their fingers pointing to the city. Outside the city's gates, Oznak zo Pahl challenges Daenerys's forces but is slain by Strong Belwas.
While Daenerys attempts to rule in Meereen, Astapor is conquered by Yunkai and New Ghis..
Victarion Greyjoy leads the Iron Fleet to Slaver's Bay.
The Valyrians enslave the conquered people of Old Ghis - by Marc Simonetti ©
Tyrion Lannister, enslaved - by Marc Fishman ©
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Though slavery is outlawed in Westeros, it is widespread throughout many parts of Essos.
Slavery is mentioned in the earlier novels but it is given more prominence in *A Storm of Swords* and becomes a main plot consideration in *A Dance with Dragons*.
Slavery is abhorred and strictly forbidden on the Westerosi mainland, likely due to the Faith of the Seven brought by the Andals six thousand years ago. The Faith is the dominant religion in the Seven Kingdoms and it forbids the practice of slavery.
The ironborn of the Iron Islands keep thralls and salt wives. Neither are slaves in the literal sense, but are subject to forced labor and low status, and are not far removed from enslavement. Their children, however, are considered free if they are drowned to the Drowned God.
However, the illegal practice does take place in Westeros sometimes. Ser Jorah Mormont once sold a few poachers to some Tyroshii slavers and had to flee to the Free Cities when his crime was discovered by Lord Eddard Stark, who condemned Jorah to death for his crime. It is said that Cersei Lannister had the mother of King Robert I Baratheon's bastard twins sold to a passing slaver, presumably because she could not bear such an affront to her pride that close to home.
According to some such as Tyrion Lannister, however, the smallfolk of Westeros do not live too differently from slaves.
In the Free Cities, well spoken and gently born slaves are prized. They become tutors, scribes, bed slaves, healers, and priests.
In Pentos, slavery is forbidden by law, as part of the terms imposed by the Braavosi on Pentos a hundred years ago., who has a finger in the slave trade, and maybe a whole hand.
Lys has a high slave population. Slaves are used for labor too harsh for Lysene hands, trained to act as guards and soldiers, and even posed for various performances. Lys is well known for its pleasure houses, training slaves in the arts of love and selling them as concubines and bed-slaves.
In Volantis, due to the relative proximity to Slaver's Bay, there is a thriving slave market.
Qohor's city guard is comprised solely of Unsullied eunuch slave soldiers. However, much like in Pentos slaves can be bought by powerful men who flout the laws.
Myr is a hub of trade in slaves.
Tyrosh deals extensively in slaves and Tyroshi slavers are known to be especially aggressive. They even sail north beyond the Wall, in search of wildlings to enslave.
Braavos is an exception among the Free Cities. Descended from escaped slaves, the Braavosi do not permit slavery and they do not trade with Slaver's Bay.
Yunkai, Meereen, and Astapor are the great slaver cities of Slaver's Bay. For centuries, they have been the linchpins of the slave trade, the place where Dothraki *khals* and the corsairs of the Basilisk Isles sell their captives and the rest of the world comes to buy.
Yunkai is known for training bed slaves not warriors. A bed slave in Yunkai learns the way of the seven sighs and the sixteen seats of pleasure.
Unsullied, eunuch slave soldiers, are made in Astapor. The Unsullied learn the way of the three spears.
The Dothraki make slaves by enslaving conquered peoples and selling them, often to the Ghiscari who train them. Dothraki keep slaves from many lands, notably in Vaes Dothrak, which was built by slaves, where they serve the *dosh khaleen. Dothraki also sell their own kind, and when *khalasars battle the defeated Dothraki are enslaved.
The Qartheen trade in slaves.
Old Ghis practised slavery
A dragonlord oversees the sale of conquered peoples in Slaver's Bay
Old Ghis practiced slavery. The Old Empire of Ghis developed into a major power in the east, dominating much of Essos before it eventually fell to Valyria.
At the beginning of its rise to power Valyria had watched the Ghiscari grow rich and powerful off of the backs of conquered peoples. After the fall of Ghis the self-styled freehold wanted its turn, seeking to emulate the success that slavery had brought to Ghis. The Valyrian Freehold made extensive use of thousands of slaves from a hundred different nations from throughout Essos.
In the mines underneath the Fourteen Flames "only the worst" slaves toiled, burned, and died to find gold and silver. Slave revolts were common in the mines, but the Valyrians were strong in sorcery and able to put them down. When there was war, the Valyrians took thousands of slaves, and when there was peace they bred them.
It is 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.
The city of Gogossos on the Isle of Tears outlived the Doom of Valyria and waxed rich and powerful during the Century of Blood, some calling it the "Tenth Free City", thanks to slavery and sorcery. Its slave markets became as notorious as those of the cities of Slaver's Bay. However, seventy seven years after the Doom a terrible plague, the Red Death, emerged from the slave pens of the city and swept across the Isle of Tears and then the rest of the Basilisk Isles.
When talking to Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister reflects that had he been born a peasant he may have been sold to some slaver's grotesquerie on account of his dwarfism.
After Khal Drogo's defeat of Khal Ogo and the Lamb Men, Ser Jorah Mormont advises him to make for Meereen. The city had a plague the previous year so the brothels are paying double for healthy young girls and triple for boys under ten. Jorah tells Daenerys Targaryen that if enough enslaved children survive the journey the gold earned from their sale will buy them all the ships they need to sail for Westeros.*.
Before giving her khalasar the order to enter the red waste, Daenerys contemplates heading downriver with her ragged band to the ports of Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor, but Rakharo warns her that Khal Pono's khalasar had ridden that way, driving thousands of captives before them to sell in the fleshmarts of Slaver's Bay.
In the House of the Undying Daenerys sees a vision of ten thousand slaves lifting bloodstained hands as she races by on her silver, riding like the wind.
Freed slaves lift their hands towards Mhysa. © Josu Hernaiz
Daenerys frees slaves at Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen. She fills the ranks of her army with the slaves she freed, people who are completely loyal to her and who have no aspirations beyond protecting their freedom.
Euron Greyjoy mentioned that the price of slaves is rising since the fall of Astapor and Meereen.
It is revealed that a slave of R'hllor is a man or woman who has been purchased in the Free Cities to serve the temple of R'hllor.
Tyrion Lannister, Penny, and Ser Jorah Mormont are enslaved and become the property of Yezzan zo Qaggaz. Slavers take some of the wildlings at Hardhome.
According to Qavo Nogarys, a customs officer Selhorys, the actions of Daenerys have smashed the slave trade which Volantis and Qarth rely on, making the dragon queen enemies behind the Black Wall and beyond.
A man should be able to do as he likes with his own chattel.
- Illyrio Mopatis regarding Jorah Mormont's slaving past
Lot ninety-seven … A pair of dwarfs, well trained for your amusement.
- Auctioneer, auctioning Tyrion Lannister and Penny
- Melisandre's memory
My queen, there have been no slaves in the Seven Kingdoms for thousands of years. The old gods and the new alike hold slavery to be an abomination. Evil. If you should land in Westeros at the head of a slave army, many good men will oppose you for no other reason than that. You will do great harm to your cause, and to the honor of your House.
- Arstan Whitebeard to Daenerys Targaryen
No man wants to be owned
Slaves perished by the score, but their masters did not care. Red gold and yellow gold and silver were reckoned to be more precious than the lives of slaves, for slaves were cheap in the old Freehold.
- the kindly man to Arya Stark
Take this one as our gift to you, a token of a bargain well struck.
- Kraznys mo Nakloz to Daenerys Targaryen
Taking a man as a thrall or woman as a salt wife, that was right and proper, but men were not goats or fowl to be bought and sold for gold.
- thoughts of Victarion Greyjoy
There have been no slaves in the Seven Kingdoms for thousands of years. The old gods and the new alike hold slavery to be an abomination. Evil. If you should land in Westeros at the head of a slave army, many good men will oppose you for no other reason than that. You will do great harm to your cause, and to the honour of your House.
There was never a slave who did not choose to be a slave. Their choice may be between bondage and death, but the choice is always there.
- thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
This arrogant child has taken it upon herself to smash the slave trade, but that traffic was never confined to Slaver's Bay. It was part of the sea of trade that spanned the world, and the dragon queen has clouded the water.
Xaro: We curse the rain when it falls upon our heads, yet without it we should starve. The world needs rain ... and slaves. You make a face, but it is true. Consider Qarth. In art, music, magic, trade, all that makes us more than beasts, Qarth sits above the rest of mankind as you sit at the summit of this pyramid ... but below, in place of bricks, the magnificence that is the Queen of Cities rests upon the backs of slaves. Ask yourself, if all men must grub in the dirt for food, how shall any man lift his eyes to contemplate the stars? If each of us must break his back to build a hovel, who shall raise the temples to glorify the gods? For some men to be great, others must be enslaved.
Daenerys: Slavery is not the same as rain. I have been rained on and I have been sold. It is not the same. No man wants to be owned.
- Xaro Xhoan Daxos and Daenerys Targaryen
Yezzan's slaves ate better than many peasants back in the Seven Kingdoms and were less likely to starve to death come winter. Slaves were chattel, aye. They could be bought and sold, whipped and branded, used for carnal pleasure of their owners, bred to make more slaves. In that sense they were no more than dogs or horses. But most lords treated their dogs and horses well enough. Proud men might shout that they would sooner die free than live as slaves, but pride was cheap. When the steel struck the flint, such men were as rare as dragon's teeth; elsewise the world would not have been so full of slaves.
- thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
His pets, thought Tyrion. And he loved us so much that he sent us to the pit, to be devoured by lions.
- Tyrion Lannister, during his time as a slave
You could breed the two of them, get good coin for the whelps.
- Auctioneer, auctioning Tyrion Lannister and Penny
Slayne
The stormlands and the location of the Slayne
The Slayne is a river in the stormlands. Known for its rapids, pools, and waterfalls,
In the Battle by the Bloody Pool, King Durran the Young is said to have dammed the Slayne with Dornish corpses.
The Sloe-Eyed Maid is a trading ship.
Daenerys Targaryen finds the Sloe-Eyed Maid in the port of Qarth. She considers the ship too small for her purposes.
Davos Seaworth is served sister's stew while at Breakwater. Lord Godric Borrell tells him the stew's spices were from a sloe-eyed maid. Godric explains a ship sailing to Braavos was blown from the Bite into the rocks of Sweetsister.
While Davos is at the Lazy Eel in White Harbor, a Braavosi oarsman recounts a tale he heard from the captain's steward of the Sloe-Eyed Maid while the ship was in Pentos. The captain of the Sloe-Eyed Maid had refused to transport Daenerys Targaryen from Qarth, claiming that spices were more profitable and less dangerous than dragons..
She was making for Braavos, but a gale swept her into the Bite and she smashed up against some of my rocks. So you see, you are not the only gift the storms have brought me. The sea's a treacherous cruel thing.
- Godric Borrell to Davos Seaworth
When we were down in Pentos we moored beside a trader called the Sloe-Eyed Maid, and I got to drinking with her captain's steward. He told me a pretty tale about some slip of a girl who come aboard in Qarth, to try and book passage back to Westeros for her and three dragons. Silver hair she had, and purple eyes. ‘I took her to the captain my own self,' this steward swore to me, ‘but he wasn't having none of that. There's more profit in cloves and saffron, he tells me, and spices won't set fire to your sails.'
- oarsman to Davos Seaworth
The gods were cruel to let a man sail across half the world, then send him chasing a false light when he was almost home. That captain was a bolder man than me.
- thoughts of Davos Seaworth
Sloey is a mummer of the Ship.
Quence found Allaquo abed with Sloey, which caused a fight and the two of them to leave the Ship.
Sludgy Pond is the site of a sept in the Riverlands.
Sludgy Pond is attacked by the forces of House Lannister during the War of the Five Kings, and the septons are killed.
Small Paul is a steward of the Night's Watch. Although he is a simpleton, he is the strongest man on the Wall, once breaking the back of a wildling with a hug.
Small Paul has brown whiskers that cover most of his face. He is a large man, although he weighs less then Samwell Tarly.
Small Paul is part of the great ranging which leaves Castle Black in search of the wildlings. His part in Chett's conspiracy is to kill Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, with the help of Softfoot. Paul plans to take Mormont's raven for his own.
After the fight at the Fist, the remnant of the Night's Watch retreat in disorder to the Wall. During the retreat Samwell Tarly tires and wants to be left behind, but Paul carries him. Paul asks Sam for a raven as a pet, but all were released at the Fist. A tiring Paul, Sam, and Grenn are eventually overtaken by an Other who rides a dead horse that belonged to a man of the Night's Watch. Grenn and Paul attack the Other, which breaks Grenn's sword and then kills Paul. As he dies Paul crashes into the Other, tearing the sword from its hands. This allows Sam to stab the Other with his obsidian dagger. The Other melts in seconds from contact with the dagger. Grenn checks if Small Paul is really dead and closes his eyes. He and Samwell then travel on to Craster's Keep.
At Craster's Keep, Craster and Jeor Mormont are killed in a mutiny. Samwell flees again with Gilly, a daughter of Craster's, and her infant son. While making their way to the Wall, Paul, who has been turned into a wight, comes after them. According to Gilly, the wight has come for the baby. Sam tries to talk with the wight, partly because he hopes that the undead Small Paul can remember his life, partly so Gilly has time to flee. The wight does not respond, however, and walks to Gilly and her baby. Sam then uses the obsidian dagger, but it has no effect. The wight begins to strangle Sam, but at the last moment he smashes Paul with a chunk of smoldering wood. The flames burn the wight and, after escaping, Sam notices that the blue glow of a wight has left the eyes of Paul's corpse.
Small Council Chamber. © Fantasy Flight Games
King Robert I Baratheon's small council - by Thomas Denmark. © FFG
The small council chamber flanked by a pair of Valyrian sphinxes. © FFG
The small council is a small group of advisers which advises the king of the Seven Kingdoms on matters of policy and their areas of expertise. Aegon I Targaryen relied on councillors after being crowned, but it was not until the reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen that the small council was formalized.
The council is headed by the king, the only one who can make the council's decisions into law. In his absence the role falls to the Hand of the King or the regent if the king is too young.
Some council members are called "lords" even if not members of nobility., with reserved positions for:
Although a council seems to always have these seven members, it may include additional members as advisors.
Although the official small council would only be formed during the reign of Aegon's grandson Jaehaerys I, Aegon had established his councillors early on. The following men are known to have filled the various offices:
King Maegor I Targaryen is the first Targaryen monarch to have been known to have a spymistress in his employment.
King Jaehaerys I Targaryen officially established the small council. Lord Lyman Beesbury is known to have served in the small council of Jaehaerys I, although it is unknown what office he held and during which period he served.
The small council of King Viserys I Targaryen had the following members:
During the reign of King Aegon II Targaryen (called the "green council" in opposition to Rhaenyra Targaryen's black council), the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Aegon III Targaryen the small council held the following members:
In addition to his small council, King Aegon III had a council of regents during his minority, who ruled the Seven Kingdoms in his stead:
During the reign of King Daeron I Targaryen the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Baelor I Targaryen the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Aegon VI Targaryen the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Daeron II Targaryen the small coucil held the following members:
During the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Maekar I Targaryen the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Aegon V Targaryen the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Jaehaerys II Targaryen the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Aerys II Targaryen the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Robert I Baratheon the small council held the following members:
During the reign of King Joffrey I Baratheon the small council holds the following members:
During the reign of King Tommen I Baratheon the small council holds the following members:
Smallfolk near the Red Keep in *Game of Thrones*
Smallfolk or lowborn are the common people of the known world at the bottom of the social ladder. Most are peasants who have to obey their local lord, even though they may never catch a glimpse of him during their life. The nobility of Westeros have great power over their smallfolk, whom they are expected to protect.
Most smallfolk are poor, illiterate people living provincial, humble, and simple lives. Most do not have surnames. They use roads which are crooked muddy tracks that do not appear on parchment maps.
In Westeros the smallfolk often dress in raw wool and dull brown roughspun, while nobles wear colored velvets, silks, and samites.
Some among the smallfolk may believe the world to be flat.
Even though they are born in the lowest social status in Westeros, it is possible for smallfolk to rise in social status.
During the Century of Blood, many smallfolk in Essos fled before the Dothraki.
Harren Hoare beggared lords and smallfolk during the construction of Harrenhal.
Queen Rhaenys Targaryen was concerned for smallfolk and aided her brother, King Aegon I Targaryen, in gaining their allegiance.
Thousands of smallfolk streamed out the city gates, carrying their children and worldly possessions on their backs, to seek safety in the countryside. Others dug pits and tunnels under their hovels, dark dank holes where they hoped to hide whilst the city burned.
- writings of Gyldayn
A man has his pride, no matter how lowborn he may be.
- Duncan the Tall to Aegon Targaryen
The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace. They never are.
- Jorah Mormont to Daenerys Targaryen
That was the way of war. The smallfolk were slaughtered, while the highborn were held for ransom.
- thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
Stannis: What do the smallfolk say of Renly's death?
Davos: They grieve. Your brother was well loved.
Stannis: Fools love a fool, but I grieve for him as well.
- Stannis Baratheon and Davos Seaworth
I'm too bloody lowborn to be kin to m'lady high.
- Gendry to Arya Stark
Keep your eyes down and your tone respectful and say ser a lot, and most knights will never see you. They pay more mind to horses than to smallfolk.
- Sandor Clegane to Arya Stark
They are born, they live, they love, they die.
- Meribald to Brienne of Tarth
If we mingle with the commons, they will love us better.
- Tommen Baratheon to Cersei Lannister
It is being common-born that is dangerous, when the great lords play their game of thrones.
Smiler is a warhorse purchased by Theon Greyjoy in Lordsport.
See also: Images of Smiler (horse)
Smiler is a stallion, smaller than a destrier, but larger than a courser.
Lord Sawane Botley sells him to Theon only if Theon takes Wex Pyke as his squire. He names it Smiler because someone Theon once knew said he smiled at all the wrong things..
During the sack of Winterfell, after coming to from having his cheekbone shattered by Ramsay Snow, the last thing Theon sees is Smiler, kicking free of the burning stables with his mane ablaze, screaming and rearing.
In Moat Cailin, before killing Ralf Kenning, Theon remembers he once had a horse. He remembers that Smiler's screams had sounded almost human. His mane afire, he had reared up on his hind legs, blind with pain, lashing out with his hooves. Theon thinks to himself, "No, no. Not mine he was not mine. Reek never had a horse."
Much later in Winterfell's yard Theon remembers the day that Ramsay had set his horse afire, recalling again the manner of Smiler's death, and noting that the horse burning was the last sight he had seen on the day the castle fell.
The Smiling Knight was an infamous outlaw of the Kingswood Brotherhood. He was thought to be insane, but was also a deadly swordsman. The Smiling Knight's given name has not been published.
See also: Images of the Smiling Knight
Ser Jaime Lannister recalls that the Smiling Knight was his generation's Ser Gregor Clegane in terms of men's eagerness to best him in combat.
During the time of the Kingswood Brotherhood, the Smiling Knight killed Ser Victor Tyrell - cousin of Lord Mace Tyrell of Highgarden.
Ultimately the Smiling Knight was killed in a clash with the Kingsguard. During the combat, he briefly crossed swords with Jaime Lannister, but the squire held off the Smiling Knight. Ser Arthur Dayne next fought an extended exchange with him until the Smiling Knight's sword broke. Arthur paused the fight and allowed the outlaw to take a fresh sword. The Smiling Knight did so, but remarked that it was Arthur's famous sword Dawn that he truly desired. Arthur replied "Then you shall have it, ser." In their second exchange, the Smiling Knight was slain by the Sword of the Morning.
And me, that boy I was ... when did he die, I wonder? When I donned the white cloak? When I opened Aerys's throat? That boy had wanted to be Ser Arthur Dayne, but someplace along the way he had become the Smiling Knight instead.
- thoughts of Jaime Lannister
The Mountain of my boyhood. Half as big but twice as mad.
The Smiling Sea is a body of water in the Summer Isles. It separates the islands of Walano, to the north, from Omboru, to the south and east. In its center is the Isle of Birds, that is south of Tall Trees Town. The island of Koj separates it from the Summer Sea on the west.
The Smith - by mustamirri ©
The Smith is one of the seven aspects of a single deity. Believers of the Faith of the Seven consider their god to be one with seven aspects, as the sept is a single building, with seven walls.
See also: Images of the Smith
The Smith represents crafts and labour. He is usually prayed to when work needs to be done, for strength. He carries a hammer. The Faith believes that the Smith gave the horse to man to aid him.
During Baelor I Targaryen’s reign he had a stonemason named as the High Septon, a man that could carve stonework so beautifully that Baelor believed him to be the Smith in human form. While a fantastic stonecarver, the new High Septon could not read, write or recite any prayers.
The red wanderer is associated with the Smith.
Catelyn Stark prays in a nameless village’s sept. The sept is modest and has no statues of the Seven, only rough charcoal drawings to represent them. She kneels before the Smith, who fixes things that are broken, and asks that he give her sweet Bran his protection.
While traveling the riverlands Septon Meribald tells Podrick Payne that he has never known a boy who did not love the Warrior. He remarks that he is old though, and he loves the Smith. He expounds to Brienne and her companions,
Without his labour, what would the Warrior defend? Every town has a smith, and every castle. They make the plows we need to plant our crops, the nails we use to build our ships, iron shoes to save the hooves of our faithful horses, the bright swords of our lords. No one could doubt the value of a smith, and so we name one of the Seven in his honour, but we might as easily have called him the Farmer or the Fisherman, the Carpenter or the Cobbler. What he works at makes no matter. What matters is, he works. The Father rules, the Warrior fights, the Smith labours, and together they perform all that is rightful for a man. Just as the Smith is one aspect of the godhead, the Cobbler is one aspect of the Smith.
Work is a form of prayer, most pleasing to the Smith.
– the High Sparrow
The Smith gave men horses to help them in their labors.
– Narbert
The Smith, he labors day and night,
to put the world of men to right.
With hammer, plow, and fire bright,
he builds for little children.
The smokeberry is a species of plant that grows on a vine and is found in Westeros. The oak heart tree in the Red Keep's godswood in King's Landing is overgrown with smokeberry vines.
The Smoking Log is an inn and alehouse in the winter town outside of Winterfell.
A Bolton man stabs a Cerwyn man in the Smoking Log after Robb Stark calls his banners.
The Smoking Sea is the place where the sea flooded into the shattered remnant of the Valyrian peninsula after the Doom of Valyria.
According to semi-canon sources it was once only a strait, but with the Doom of Valyria, the peninsula was subsumed and the strait was enlarged becoming the Smoking Sea.
At some point the tigers, a political party in Volantis, sent a fleet to reclaim Valyria but the ships vanished in the Smoking Sea.
King Euron Greyjoy claims to have sailed the Smoking Sea and seen Valyria, but Lord Rodrik Harlaw is skeptical.
In Meereen Daenerys Targaryen examines Xaro Xhoan Daxos's old tapestry, which was made before the Doom that took Valyria. Dany notices that there is no Smoking Sea depicted, and that Valyria is not yet an island.
Aboard the *Selaesori Qhoran* Tyrion Lannister remembers his Uncle Gerion Lannister's quest, recalling that Gerion had bought slaves to crew his ship as his intent to sail the Smoking Sea had caused half his original crew to desert him.
No free man would willingly sign aboard a ship whose captain spoke so openly of his intent to sail into the Smoking Sea.
Tyrion Lannister's thoughts
Snakewood
The Vale and the location of Snakewood
Snakewood
Snakewood
The Vale and the location of the snakewood
The snakewood is a forest in the north of the Vale of Arryn. According to semi-canon sources,
*The Lands of Ice and Fire* depicts a forest in the vicinity of Heart's Home, although it does not extend as far as the castles of Snakewood, Coldwater, or Strongsong.
The Snapper is part of the mummer's troupe at the Gate in Braavos. might be the King of the Mummers, but the Snapper is the one that they all fear.
As the mummers prepare to perform *The Bloody Hand* the Snapper assists them with their wardrobe.
Snarks are creatures of folklore in the Seven Kingdoms. The snarks are supposed to live beyond the Wall with grumkins, monsters used in nursery tales to frighten children.
Adults no longer believe in snarks and consider them imaginary beings, which the speaker implies are similarly non-existent.
Snatch is a sellsword of the Second Sons. His rank is serjeant. He is one handed and chews sourleaf.
He is skinny and stubble-jawed, with teeth and fingers stained red from sourleaf. He has a hook where his right hand should be.
He, along with the rest of the Second Sons, went over to the Yunkai'i when Brown Ben Plumm thought Daenerys Targaryen's cause was lost.
Runaway slaves Tyrion and Penny make Snatch's acquaintance when they arrive to join up with the company. Snatch immediately recognizes them as the dwarfs that Ben tried to buy on the auction block. He notices the big man with them (but fails to recognize that it is Ser Jorah Mormont). Snatch allows the three of them through to see Ben.
After Tyrion joins the Second Sons, he and Penny meet Snatch by the cook tent. He asks them if they’ve ever killed a man. Tyrion volunteers that he has, he swats them down like flies. When Snatch asks with what Tyrion replies, *"An axe, a dagger, a choice remark. Though I'm deadliest with my crossbow"*.
When Snatch asks how many men he’s killed with a crossbow Tyrion tells him *"Nine"* - as surely his father counts for a least that many. Snatch snorts “Nine” and spits out a mouthful of red slime. It lands on Tyrion’s knee. He whistles for Kem who comes running. He tells Kem to take Lord and Lady Imp to the wagons to have Hammer fix them up with some company steel. He then turns back to Tyrion and Penny, mocks the "nine", shakes his head, and walks away.
As the Second Siege of Meereen commences Tyrion steps out of his tent and observes the scene before him. He spies Snatch chewing his sourleaf, making japes and scratching at his balls with his hook hand. Again something about his manner reminds Tyrion of Bronn.
A Yunkish messenger arrives with orders from Gorzhak zo Eraz that the Second Sons are to go to the bay shore to defend against the ironborn. Snatch spits out a wad of well-chewed sourleaf out of the left side of his mouth. When Inkpots refuses the order as Brown Ben Plumm is absent the messenger is enraged. Snatch then explains to the Yunkish rider that he's never once seen any horse could run on water.
When Brown Ben Plumm returns from visiting Malazza, the Girl General, he tells Snatch to summon his captains.
Nasty thing, a crossbow.
- Snatch, to Tyrion Lannister
Now, a good trained warhorse, he'll charge a wall o' spears. Some will leap a fire ditch. But I never once seen any horse could run on water.
- Snatch, to the Yunkish messenger
Bronn's meaner bastard shadow, or I'm Baelor the Beloved.
– Tyrion Lannister's first impression of Snatch
Sniff was a dog that was owned by the family of Varamyr Sixskins.
Varamyr, known as Lump at the time, used one of Loptail, Sniff or the Growler to kill his younger brother, Bump. When Varamyr's father came upon Bump's body, the dogs were sniffing around it. Not knowing which one had done the act, he put all three to death. However, before Loptail died, Varamyr slipped inside his skin and felt Loptail's death. His reaction, a scream, informed Varamyr's parents that he was a warg.
Snow is the surname borne by bastard children in the North.
It may refer to:
Snow is the second waycastle defending the Eyrie, the seat of House Arryn, and the third line of castle's defense following the Gates of the Moon and Stone.
The trail to Snow is steeper than that of Stone. It consists of a single fortified tower, a timber keep, and a stable placed behind a low wall of unmortared rock. It is nestled into the Giant's Lance so as to command the entire pathway from Stone to Snow. The trail then continues up the mountain to Sky.
Catelyn Stark and Tyrion Lannister stop at Snow while traveling to the Eyrie. The waycastle is commanded by a young knight with a pockmarked face.
Sansa Stark and Lord Robert Arryn use fresh mules from Snow while descending to the Gates of the Moon.
Varamyr riding his snow bear
by Marc Fishman
The snow bear is a species of bear similar to real-world polar bears.
See also: Images of Snow Bears
Snow bears are white and massive, with one being described as thirteen feet tall.
The skins of snow bears are very warm. Mance Rayder's tent is made of the shaggy white pelts of snow bears, fit for a king.
The greenseers of the children of the forest are said to have called upon snow bears to fight on their behalf.
One of the animals controlled by the skinchanger Varamyr is a female snow bear which he rides into battle.
Varamyr Sixskins's steed is a savage white female snow bear that stands 13 feet tall on its hind legs. Varamyr rides past Jon Snow on her, and Jon's direwolf Ghost is bothered by the presence of the bear.
During the battle beneath the Wall, Varamyr loses control over his beasts while in agony from the death of Orell's eagle.
After being defeated at the battle beneath the Wall, a ruined Varamyr Sixskins rues to himself that it was Mance Rayder who brought him to this place and that he should not have listened to him. Before Mance he had been a lord of sorts; he thinks that he should have slipped inside his snow bear and torn Mance to pieces.
Outside the cave of the last greenseer, Bran Stark sees a snow bear crash through the brush, huge and skeletal, half its head sloughed away to reveal the skull beneath. Summer and his pack fall upon it and tear it into pieces. Afterwards they gorge, though the meat is rotten, half-frozen, and moves even as they eat it.
Snow shrikes are birds most commonly found in the North, although they have also been observed in the riverlands. They are more easily seen in the deep of winter when woods are stilled by snow.
Catelyn Tully hears the high, sharp trilling of snow shrikes while she awaits the outcome of the Battle of the Whispering Wood.
Snowylocks is one of the children of the forest in service to the last greenseer. She does not speak the Common Tongue. Her true name is too long for the human tongue according to Leaf.
She is white-haired, which is why Meera Reed names her Snowylocks.
When beckoned by Leaf Snowylocks brings forth a weirwood bowl carved with a dozen faces, like the ones the heart trees wear. Inside the bowl is a white weirwood seed paste, thick and heavy, with dark red veins running through it. Snowylocks hands the bowl to Leaf to give to Bran Stark to eat.
So Spake Martin is an unpublished collection of George R. R. Martin's correspondence maintained by Westeros.org. Its sources include, but are not limited to, emails with fans, webchats, conventions, and interviews. Information from the archive is considered semi-canon in canonicity.
I would have no problem with you collecting my "words" (by which I assume you mean interviews, public comments, letters, etc, rather than fiction), provided that I could ask you to pull down anything I decided I did not want up there -- misquotes, outdated info, slips of the tongue, etc.
Softfoot is a ranger of the Night's Watch.
Softfoot is a little, grey man. He claims to have raped a hundred women in his youth.
Softfoot is part of the great ranging, the force that leaves Castle Black to search for wildlings. Softfoot is one of the conspirators who intend to murder Lord Commander Jeor Mormont. His part in the conspiracy is to kill the lord commander, with the help of Small Paul.
At some point Softfoot dies and is turned into a wight who attacks Gilly and Samwell Tarly at an abandoned wildling village. They are only able to get away with the help of Coldhands.
A solar refers to a loft, upper room, or upper part of a medieval house, often used as the lord's private chamber.
Many castles and towers in Westeros have a solar. These include:
In King's Landing, Eddard Stark and his daughters Sansa and Arya usually eat meals in the solar of the Tower of the Hand.
The wight Othor attacks Lord Commander of the Night's Watch Jeor Mormont in his solar, but Jon Snow defeats it by setting it and the room on fire.
Acting Hand of the King Tyrion Lannister frequently does business in the solar of the Tower of the Hand.
Tywin Lannister has come to King's Landing and taken up the position of Hand of the King, and Tyrion is reluctant to consider the Hand's solar as no longer his.
Jon Snow is accused of treachery by Ser Alliser Thorne in the solar in King's Tower of Castle Black.
Petyr Baelish meets with Nestor Royce and the Lords Declarant in the Eyrie's solar.
This was my father's solar. He ruled the riverlands from here, wisely and well. He liked to sit beside that window. The light was good there, and whenever he looked up from his work he could see the river. When his eyes were tired he would have Cat read to him. Littlefinger and I built a castle out of wooden blocks once, there beside the door. You will never know how sick it makes me to see you in this room, Kingslayer. You will never know how much I despise you.
Soldier pine is a type of pine tree found in much of Westeros. The tall, green pine
Green soldier pines grow in the Whispering Wood in the northern riverlands,
Soldier pines also grow along the steep ridges guarding the lagoon of Braavos in Essos,.
Son of the Sea Wind is one of the self-fashioned titles of Balon Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands and Lord Reaper of Pyke, who had risen in rebellion against the Iron Throne in 289 AC, declaring himself King of the Iron Islands.
Euron Greyjoy, who succeeded Balon as King of the Isles and the North during the War of the Five Kings, also declared himself Son of the Sea Wind.
Song of the Sea: How the Lands Were Severed is a book written by Archmaester Cassander. In the book, Cassander argues that the Arm of Dorne was not shattered by the children of the forest's greenseers with the Hammer of the Waters, but rather covered by the Song of the Sea, a slow rising of the oceans over centuries, caused by a series of long, hot summers and short, warm winters that melted the ice in the frozen lands north of the Shivering Sea.
Songs the Drowned Men Sing is a book written by Maester Kirth. It discusses ironborn legends.
This article is about the Meereenese organisation. For the general usage of the term, see Modern Ghiscari
For the fourth episode of the fifth season of HBO's Game of Thrones, see Sons of the Harpy (TV).
The Sons of the Harpy, also referred to as the Harpy's Sons, is a resistance group of Ghiscari noblemen from the city of Meereen, who defy the reign of Queen Daenerys Targaryen. The name is a reference to the way the Ghiscari noblemen refer to themselves.
The Sons of the Harpy have begun a shadow war against Queen Daenerys Targaryen, following her occupation of the city of Meereen. They slay freedmen, Unsullied and shavepates. They kill during the night, and leave a mark over the body of their victim, a harpy, drawn in blood.
The Sons of the Harpy offer a reward: they promise wealth and glory to the man who slays Queen Daenerys, as well as a hundred virgin slave girls.
Daenerys demands hostages from the noble families of Meereen.
Following ninety days of peace, Daenerys and Hizdahr are wed.
Following Hizdahr's arrest,
"Sons of the Harpy" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of HBO's fantasy television series *Game of Thrones*, and the 44rd overall. The episode was written by Dave Hill and directed by Mark Mylod. It aired on May 4th, 2015.
Jorah Mormont sets sail alongside his prisoner, Tyrion. Cersei makes a move against the Tyrells. Jaime and Bronn sneak into Dorne. Ellaria and the Sand Snakes make their plans. Melisandre tempts Jon. The Harpies attack.
"Sons of the Harpy" was written by Dave Hill, based on the original series by George R. R. Martin.
The episode is adapted from the following chapters from the *A Song of Ice and Fire* series: Eddard XV from *A Game of Thrones, Daenerys IV from *A Storm of Swords, The Captain of Guards, Cersei III, The Soiled Knight, Cersei VI and Cersei VII from *A Feast for Crows, Jon I, Jon II, Tyrion III, Daenerys II, Tyrion VII, Tyrion VII and Epilogue from *A Dance with Dragons, and Alayne I from *The Winds of Winter*.
The following regular cast members appeared in this episode:
Seventeen out of twenty-seven members for the fifth season appeared in this episode. Alfie Allen (Reek), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Conleth Hill (Varys), Kristofer Hivju (Tormund), Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton), Hannah Murray (Gilly), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) and Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H'ghar) are not credited and do not appear in this episode.
The following guest appearances were made in this episode:
The Sons of the Mist
© Fantasy Flight Games
The Sons of the Mist are one of the Vale mountain clans of the Mountains of the Moon, according to Archmaester Arnel's *Mountain and Vale*.
The Sons of the Tree are one of the Vale mountain clans of the Mountains of the Moon, according to Archmaester Arnel's *Mountain and Vale*.
An exile sorcerer lord, who claims to be the sixty-ninth yellow God-Emperor of Yi Ti, rules the city of Carcosa in the Further East of Essos.
The yellow emperor in Carcosa is a reference by George R. R. Martin to *The King in Yellow* and Carcosa.
As exemplified by the names of the scarlet emperors and the sea-green emperors, and the fact that the fourth yellow emperor was Chai Duq, the family name of the sorcerer lord is "Chai".
Soren Shieldbreaker is a free folk leader and a famed warrior.
Soren Shieldbreaker is among the wildling leaders who accompany Tormund Giantsbane to the Wall in declaring a truce with the Night's Watch. His son is a hostage of the Night's Watch.
Soren is given the abandoned castle Stonedoor by Jon Snow, the new Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, to garrison and settle his own people.
Soren's axe is yours, Jon Snow, if ever you have need of such.
- Soren to Jon Snow
© Fantasy Flight Games
The Sorrowful Men are an ancient guild of assassins operating on the city of Qarth. Each one whispers *"I am so sorry"* to their victims before they kill them.
In Qarth a member of the Sorrowful Men makes an attempt on Daenerys Targaryen's life using a manticore, only to be thwarted by Arstan Whitebeard.
Aboard the *Balerion* Daenerys Targaryen dwells upon her enemies and remembers that the warlock Pyat Pree had sent a Sorrowful Man after her to avenge the Undying she had burned in their House of Dust. She remembers that it is said that Sorrowful Men never failed to kill.
Sorrows
Western Essos and the location of the Sorrows
The Sorrows is a stretch of the Rhoyne from south of Dagger Lake to beyond the ruins of Chroyane..
The *Shy Maid* passing through the Sorrows - by Marc Simonetti ©
See also: Images of the Sorrows
The fog of the Sorrows is attributed to the fall of Chroyane and Garin's Curse upon the Valyrians during the Second Spice War.
Tyrion Lannister travels with the crew and passengers of the *Shy Maid* through the Sorrows. In Chroyane they are attacked by stone men.
There is no law above the Sorrows, not for a thousand years.
– Yandry to tyrion Lannister
Sothoryi, also known as the Brindled Men, are the native inhabitants of the continent of Sothoryos.
Maester Yandel describes the Sothoryi as massively muscled, big-boned creatures—not men—with long arms, sloped foreheads, huge square teeth, heavy jaws, coarse black hair, flat noses that suggest snouts, and thick skins brindled in patterns of brown and white, making them seem more hoglike than human.
Sothoryi women cannot breed with any save their own males; when mated with men from Essos or Westeros, they bring forth only stilbirths, many of which are hideously deformed.
The Sothoryi that dwell closest to the sea have learned the Trade Talk. The Ghiscari considered them too slow of wit to make good slaves, but they remain fierce fighters nonetheless.
Farther south the Brindled Men become ever more savage and barbaric. They worship dark gods and perform obscene rites. Many are cannibals and some are ghouls, devouring their own dead when they cannot feast on the flesh of foes or strangers.
There are reports of other races and forgotten peoples in Sothoryos that were driven out, destroyed, or devoured by the Brindled Men. There are also tales of lizard men and eyeless cave-dwellers.
The Brindled Men destroyed the first colony of the Valyrian Freehold in Basilisk Point. Similarly, during their occupation of Yeen, the Rhoynar had to face attacks from "brindled ghouls" of the jungle deeps.
Sothoryi are among those who are set to fight when Daznak's Pit in Meereen is reopened.
The Brindled Butcher is among the Meereenese pit fighters who participate in Barristan Selmy's attack on the Yunkish army besieging Meereen.
Sothoryos's location on the map of the known world
Sothoryos or Sothoros is one of the four known continents in the world. It lies to the southeast of Westeros and is south of Essos across the Summer Sea. East of Sothoryos is the southern Jade Sea.
Sothoryos is a large continent, covered in jungles, plague-ridden, and largely unexplored. The northern coast has been mapped, with the ruined cities of Zamettar, Yeen, Gogossos and Gorosh noted, but little else is known of them. Wyvern Point is in northeastern Sothoryos near Lesser Moraq.
The north coast has many islands along its length such the Basilisk Isles.
Ghiscari believed the continent to be as large as Westeros. Qartheen maps showed the continent as an island twice the size of Great Moraq, but their ships never managed to find the bottom of the continent. Jaenara Belaerys flew her dragon Terrax farther south than any person ever and found only jungle, deserts, and mountains. After three years she returned to the Freehold to report the continent was as large as Essos, a "land without end."
On the northern coast of the continent lie a score of small trade towns of mud, described as wet, humid, and full of misery, where adventurers, rogues, and whores from the Free Cities and the Seven Kingdoms go seeking fortune. Corsairs prey on these settlements, carrying off captives to their holding pens on Talon and the Isle of Tears before selling them to the flesh markets of Slaver's Bay or the pleasure houses of Lys.
Sothoryos men are described as brindle-skinned half-men by Daenerys Targaryen.
The Sothoryi mostly known to the corsairs of the neighbouring Basilisk Isles are those who dwell closest to the sea on the Northern shore, who have learned the Trade Talk. The Ghiscari consider them to be slow of wit but fierce fighters that make good slaves. Farther south, the Sothoryi from these regions are more savage, known for cannibalism and worshiping dark gods with obscene rites. There are also unproven reports of other races and forgotten peoples that were driven out, destroyed, or devoured by the Brindled Men, as well as lizard men and eyeless cave-dwellers.
The continent is home to a variety of unique animals, among them hairy apes that are found in the jungles.
Besides the savage Brindled Men, particularly the ghouls and cannibals from the deep jungles, Sothoryos is home to many fatal diseases, including blood boils, green fever, dancing plague, sweetrot, bronze pate, the Red Death, greyscale, brownleg, wormbone, sailor's bane, pus-eye, and yellowgum.
The Zamoyos and other streams are home to crocodiles and swarms of carnivorous fish capable of stripping a man's flesh in minutes. The continent is also swarming with stinging flies, venomous snakes, wasps and worms that lay their eggs beneath the skins of horses, hogs, and men alike. Basilisk Point is full of the eponymous animals, some of which are twice the size of lions. The forests south of Yeen are also said to be the home of apes that dwarf the largest giants, capable of killing elephants with a single blow.
White vampire bats are said to dwell in the Green Hell, art by Kevin Catalan ©
Farther south, in the Green Hell there are reports of white vampire bats that can drain the blood of a man in minutes, tattooed lizards that run down their preys and rip them apart with long curved claws on their hind legs, snakes fifty feet long, spotted spiders, and the most terrible of all predators: wyverns.
The origins of the city of Yeen are an enigma, though it is built of the same black stone as the idol in the Isle of Toads.
The Ghiscari Empire established outposts on the northern shores of the continent and raised the walled city of Zamettar at the mouth of the Zamoyos and the grim penal colony of Gorosh on Wyvern Point.
The Valyrian Freehold established three colonies on Basilisk Point, the first was destroyed by Brindled Men, the second was lost to plague, and the third was abandoned when the dragonlords took Zamettar during the Fourth Ghiscari War.
During their migration, the Rhoynar settled on Sothoryos, mainly on Zamettar, which was found deserted, established towns on Basilisk Point and even settled on the ruins of Yeen. However, weather, disease, parasites, and predators took their toll on them. Two towns on Basilisk Point were raided, their populations carried off in chains or put to the sword whilst those in Yeen had to face attacks from "brindled ghouls" from the jungle's depths. The Rhoynar struggled to survive for more than a year, until a boat sent from Zamettar to Yeen found that all of its inhabitants - men, women, and children - had vanished overnight. Afterward the Rhoynar abandoned Sothoryos entirely.
Yezzan zo Qaggaz contracted an unidentified disease while in Sothoryos.
Brindle-skinned half-men from the jungles of Sothoryos are among those who come to Meereen to battle in Daznak's Pit.
In the books the continent is named "Sothoros" and "Sothoryos". In *The Lands of Ice and Fire* and the correspondence of George R. R. Martin with fans the version "Sothoryos" is used.
Alyn, known as Sour Alyn, is a man-at-arms sworn to House Bolton. He is one of the Bastard's Boys.
Alyn has rotten teeth and foul breath.
Alyn is present in the great hall of the Dreadfort when Little Walder and Big Walder Frey bring "Reek" before Ramsay Bolton, who is joined by Arnolf Karstark and Hother Umber.".
Try a wash yourself, Reek, you smell like horse piss.
- Sour Alyn to Reek
Sourleaf is a foul tasting plant that's leaves are chewed in a similar fashion to chewing tobacco. It is generally transported in bales.
Southron Stronghold - Illustrated by Lino Drieghe. © Fantasy Flight Games.
Southron Vessel - Illustrated by Igor Kieryluk. © Fantasy Flight Games.
Southron is a northern Westerosi name for the southern Westerosi that come from below the Neck. It can also be a patronising name at times.
The free folk refer to all Westerosi south of the Wall as southron.
There’s much and more you southrons do not know about the north.
- Bartimus to Davos Seaworth
Everything below the Wall's south to us.
If Your Grace wishes to lose all of my lord father's bannermen, there is no more certain a way than by giving northern halls to southron lords.
– Jon Snow to Stannis Baratheon
And I am no southron lady but a woman of the free folk.
Ned's girl ... And we would have had her and the castle both if you prancing southron jackanapes didn’t piss your satin breeches at a little snow.
- Hugo Wull to Robin Peasebury
Another bloody southron fool.
- Jon Snow's thoughts on Patrek of King's Mountain
Southshield
The Reach and the location of Southshield
Southshield is an island of the Shield Islands in the Reach. The southernmost of the isles, it lies near the mouth of the river Mander. It is the seat of House Serry.
Southshield is conquered by the ironborn at the Battle of the Shield Islands. After the battle, King Euron Greyjoy raises Andrik the Unsmiling to the lordship of Southshield.
Sow's Horn is the seat of House Hogg in the crownlands. It consists of a towerhouse made of stone whose walls are eight feet thick. It stands over land sworn to House Hayford. Sow's Horn sits near the border between the crownlands and the riverlands and is near the lands of House Wode.
Ser Jaime Lannister leads his force past Sow's Horn. He meets with Ser Roger Hogg, the head of the household, who tells him that during the War of the Five Kings he was attacked by lions (Lannister men under the command of Ser Amory Lorch) who attempted to burn Sow's Horn. There was further fighting at Sow's Horn when the Hoggs were attacked by white star wolves (Karstark men in search of Jaime). Roger shelters six men-at-arms, four crossbowmen, and a score of peasants in his towerhouse.
Sow's Horn may be a reference by George R. R. Martin to the story Three Little Pigs. The earth and timber halls of the brothers Wode are burned down by raiders, but the stout stone of Sow's Horn resists Amory Lorch.
Spare Boot is a builder of the Night's Watch.
Spare Boot only has one leg, and his other leg is made of carved wood.
Spare Boot is one of the men that Bowen Marsh leaves behind to defend Castle Black.
The bloody buggers got my leg. The wooden one!
- Spare Boot to Jon Snow
Sparrowhawk is an ironborn longship and a member of the Iron Fleet.
The Sparrowhawk is part of the Iron Fleet contingent dispatched to Slaver's Bay. Sparrowhawk, *Iron Wing,* and *Kraken's Kiss* are the three fastest ships in Victarion Greyjoy's fleet and are tasked with running down and capturing two unladen Ghiscari galleys. The captured ships are subsequently renamed Ghost and Shade.
Sparrows with a septon - by Marc Simonetti ©
Sparrows are the poorest of those sworn to the Faith of the Seven during and after the War of the Five Kings. They take the name "sparrow" after the common bird.
During the War of the Five Kings, septs are despoiled and men and women sworn to the Faith of the Seven are killed, mutilated, and injured. While traveling to Duskendale, Brienne of Tarth encounters self-proclaimed sparrows and begging brothers who are marching to King's Landing with the bones of martyrs, hoping to lay them before King Tommen I Baratheon and plead for protection.
Ser Harys Swyft warns the small council that there are already two thousand sparrows in the capital, with the number rising each day. These faithful are especially furious about the Red Wedding.
Ser Jaime Lannister observes two sparrows preaching to a crowd of hundreds of smallfolk at Cobbler's Square.
Queen Regent Cersei Lannister observes hundreds of sparrows in the plaza and gardens of the Great Sept, and bones and skulls are piled about the statue of King Baelor I Targaryen.
Jaime observes sparrows at Darry, the seat of his cousin, Lord Lancel Lannister. Lancel decides to join the Warrior's Sons.
Some orphans are brought to the crossroads inn by sparrows so they can be protected by the brotherhood without banners.
Septon: Sparrows need no gold.
Creighton: Sparrows?
Septon: The sparrow is the humblest and most common of birds, as we are the humblest and most common of men.
- traveling septon and Creighton Longbough
Taena: I have had a most wicked thought, Your Grace.
Cersei: Best keep it to yourself. The hill is thick with sparrows, and we all know how sparrows abhor wickedness.
Taena: I have heard they abhor soap and water too, Your Grace.Cersei: Perhaps too much prayer robs a man of his sense of smell.
- Taena Merryweather and Cersei Lannister
What have we become, when kings and high lords must dance to the twittering of sparrows?
The spears of the merling king, a deity revered by sailors. Barren sea monts rise from the floor of the bay and form spear-like rock formations that can rise above the surface of the water for up to a hundred feet. For every spear that breaks the surface a dozen more lie just beneath.
It is considered treacherous for any ship to sail into the spears, as the hidden monts will rip the bottom of any passing vessel.
The Spearshaker was a cog captained by Bryan of Oldtown, who sailed the ship through the Shivering Sea.
A spearwife is a wildling woman who is also a warrior.
A spearwife, Ygritte, is among the first wildlings to make contact with the Night's Watch members in patrol beyond the Wall; she meets Jon Snow and Qhorin Halfhand.
A significant number of Mance Rayder's troops is composed of spearwives, Ygritte among them.
A small group of spearwives - Holly, Rowan, Squirrel, Frenya, Myrtle and Willow Witch-eye - plays an important role in the events happening around Winterfell.
Sphinx At the Gates. © Fantasy Flight Games
A sphinx is a mythical creature, made up of a bit of this, and a bit of that: a human face, the body of a lion, the wings of a hawk.
In our world, and most likely George R. R. Martin’s, some traditions believe that sphinxes take away the sins of devotees when they enter a temple and ward off evil in general. A sphinx or sphinxes are therefore often found in a strategic position, for example, near entrances or a temple gateway. Often they are found as female-male pairs. Here, too, the sphinx serves a protective function. Sphinxes always speak in riddles in the tales.
The Valyrians had their own sphinxes, referred to as Valyrian sphinxes.
The council chamber door of the Red Keep is flanked by Valyrian sphinxes with eyes of polished garnets smoldering in black marble faces.
Euron Greyjoy uses plunder from half a hundred distant lands to bind the ironmen to him. Among the plunder are ancient Valyrian sphinxes.
Samwell Tarly recalls some of Maester Aemon's words during the sea voyage from Braavos, remembering that he said to Sam that,
The sphinx was the riddle, not the riddler.
Once in Oldtown Sam enters the gates of the Citadel, which are flanked by a pair of towering green sphinxes. They have the bodies of lions, the wings of eagles, and the tails of serpents. One has a man’s face and the other a woman’s.
Alleras, also called The Sphinx,
While traveling Tyrion Lannister and Illyrio Mopatis come across a huge Valyrian sphinx crouched beside the road. It has a dragon's body and a woman’s face. However her king is missing, dragged off by the Dothraki back to Vaes Dothrak on wooden wheels. There is a smooth stone plinth where he once stood, grown over with moss and flowering vines. Tyrion considers the queen sphinx a pleasant omen and her missing king an omen too, but not as hopeful.
The Long Bridge, which joins the two halves of Volantis across the mouth of the Rhoyne, has a gateway that is an arch of black stone carved with sphinxes, manticores, dragons and other strange beasts.
Tyrion mentions to Brown Ben Plumm most of the stories heard about dragons are fodder for fools - one of which is dragons riddling with sphinxes.
The sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler. Do you know what that means?
- Samwell Tarly to Alleras
The Spice King is an extremely rich merchant in Qarth and a member of the Thirteen. The character was created specifically for the TV series and is played by Nicholas Blane. However in the books, there is an Ancient Guild of Spicers in the city of Qarth, that does not appear in the TV Series. Thus the Spice King is a composite character.
Daenerys Targaryen and her ragged khalasar reach the gates of Qarth. They are met by The Thirteen with a company of spearmen. The Spice King steps forward and she begins to introduce herself. He cuts her off to say that he knows who she is. She asks his name and he says that foreigners find it too difficult to pronounce. He says that he is simply a trader of spices and introduces the rest of his part as the Thirteen, the rulers “of the greatest city that ever was or will be.” Daenerys claims to have heard of the beauty of the city but mispronounces the name and is corrected by the merchant. He asks to see her dragons and she asks to be admitted first. He says that the more sceptical members of the Thirteen do not believe in the existence of the dragons. Daenerys says that she is not a liar. He unctuously claims to believe her but says that his opinion is of little value. Daenerys says that guests are afforded respect where she comes from. He suggests that she return to where she has come from and turns away. Daenerys steps forward and reminds them of their promise to receive her. He says that they have received her already. She says that they will die if refused entry and he claims that they will regret her death but that Qarth did not achieve greatness by allowing Dothraki savages through its gates. The Thirteen turn back to their city. She steps forward and the spearmen present their arms. She calls to the Thirteen and they turn back to her. She says that when her dragons are grown they will lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground and threatens to burn them first if they are turned away. The spice merchant says that she is a true Targaryen. Xaro Xhoan Daxos says that it is unbecoming for them to fear a little girl. He says that they can let a few Dothraki through the gates without endangering the city and points out that he arrived in Qarth as a savage from the summer isles. He invokes a custom called Sumai to vouch for them and allow them entry to the city. The gates are opened and Daenerys leads her people into the city with Xaro at her side.
Daenerys paces in a courtyard of the Spice King’s mansion. The Spice King descends the stairs and loudly greets Daenerys as the mother of dragons. He asks for forgiveness, blaming his terrible dreams for his lateness. He says that he could not sleep until the sun was shining and the birds were singing. He says that he can see Daenerys true beauty now that the Red Waste has been washed from her and flippantly apologizes for his behaviour at the gates of Qarth. He goes on to say that she has the silver hair of a true Targaryen. He then tells Xaro that Daenerys is too lovely for him because he is a glorified dock worker. Xaro agrees and then points out that the Spice King’s grandfather was a lowly pepper salesman and married far above his status. The Spice King says that every lady alive was lovelier and higher born than his grandfather. His entourage laugh at the exchange and Daenerys clears her throat to regain her host’s attention. The Spice King wonders if his servants failed to offer Daenerys refreshment and threatens to have them flogged. Daenerys thanks him for being a gracious host and directs the discussion to her purpose by saying that there is no servant alive who can bring her what she wants. The Spice King says that Daenerys has a talent for drama and asks what she wants, calling her a “Little Princess.” She says that she wants her birthright, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. The Spice King says that he is no better than a servant in that case because he cannot give her what he does not have. She elucidates that she wants the use of his ships to reach Westeros. He sarcastically says that he needs his ships to move spices from port to port. Daenerys offers to triple any investment he makes in her retaking the Iron Throne. He objects to her saying retake because she has not sat the throne before. She counters that she did not come to argue grammar. He says that she has come to take his ships and offers to explain his position. He says that he applies logic to his business investments and sees her as a poor proposition because she lacks an army or support in Westeros. Daenerys insists that the people will rise to fight for their rightful queen. He counters that he will not make an investment based on wishes and dreams. He asks her to excuse him but she halts him by asking if he knows Illyrio Mopatis, the Magister of Pentos. The Spice King says that Illyrio is a shrewd man. Daenerys tells him that Illyrio gave her the dragon eggs that she hatched by walking into a fire, based on her dreams. She says that she is no ordinary woman because her dreams come true. He says that he admires her passion but trusts in logic. He dismisses her as a little princess and she asserts her heritage and vows to take what is hers. He says that she might but not with his ships.
When Daenerys's dragons are stolen Xaro calls a meeting of the Thirteen at his home. The Spice King takes umbrage with Daenerys, claiming that she called him a thief. He says that he would not tell her if he knew where they were. Pyat Pree reveals that he has taken the dragons to the House of the Undying and claims to be working with the King of Qarth. The Spice king mocks Xaro for thinking he can proclaim himself king with the aid of three cat sized dragons and a charlatan, Xaro counters that empires have been made with less. Pyat uses his magic to kill the Spice King and the other ten of the thirteen.
The Spice War is one of the Rhoynish Wars, fought between the Valyrians and the Rhoynar.
The spiceflower is a scented flower found in the Dothraki sea that is used in perfumes.
An older servant at Illyrio's manse anoints Daenerys Targaryen with spiceflower perfume prior to her introduction as a prospective bride to Khal Drogo.
Spicetown was a town on the island of Driftmark in the Crownlands.
In 120 AC, Ser Qarl Correy slew his alleged lover, Ser Laenor Velaryon, over an unknown quarrel at a fair in the town.
Lord Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, launched his ships from Hull and Spicetown to close the Gullet at the start of the Dance of the Dragons. The people of Spicetown heard the shriek of Vermax when the dragon was wounded during the Battle in the Gullet. The victorious greens sacked the town, butchering its populace and burning its buildings. Spicetown was not rebuilt after the civil war, at least by the time Archmaester Gyldayn wrote *The Princess and the Queen*.