Second siege of Meereen

From A Wiki of Ice and Fire
Revision as of 21:12, 29 January 2016 by Nittanian (talk | contribs) (Nittanian moved page Second Siege of Meereen to Second siege of Meereen: no formal name yet)
Jump to: navigation, search
Content.png
This article or section is a stub. You can help "A Wiki Of Ice And Fire" by expanding it and/or improving existing text.

Not to be confused with the Siege of Meereen, taking place in 299 AC
Second Siege of Meereen
Mike Capprotti Ser Barristan.jpg
Ser Barristan Selmy commands his queen's forces as Hand of the Queen © FFG
Place Meereen
Result to be decided
Combatants
Targaryen host

Windblown Second Sons

House Greyjoy
Slaver Alliance
Commanders
* Ser Barristan Selmy, Hand of the Queen and leader of the ruling council of Meereen
  • Tattered Prince
  • Ben Plumm
  • Victarion Greyjoy
  • Slaver Alliance
    Strength
    Meereen
  • ~10,600 Unsullied, including 2000 who had not earned their spiked caps
  • 2,000 Windblown (turned on the slavers at the beginning of the battle)[1]
  • ~4000 Brazen Beasts city watch
  • ~6,000 Freedmen divided into 3 companies
  • 500 Stormcrows[2]
  • ~200 Pit Fighters
  • 26 squires of Ser Barristan
  • ~20 of Daenerys Targaryen's Dothraki warriors
  • ~unknown number of elephants
  • Viserion
  • Rhaegal
  • House Greyjoy: half of the Iron Fleet

    • 4,400+ reavers
    • 44 war galleys
    • 17 captured slaver ships (merchant ships, cogs, war galleys)
    New Ghis
    • 36,000 men divided into 6 legions
    • 100 armored and towered war elephants
    • 3 war galleys

    Yunkai

    Qarth

    Other

    Casualties
    unknown Little Pigeon
    Pudding Face
    Clanker Lords (possibly)
    Likely several thousands of slave-soldiers/Ghiscari/Qartheen
    Ser Barristan looks at a smouldering Meereen - by Marc Fishman ©

    The Second Siege of Meereen is takes place following the coup against Hizdahr zo Loraq.

    Prelude

    Yunkai and her allies march on Meereen in order to cast down Queen Daenerys Targaryen and reinstall the government of the Great Masters as well as slavery.

    Daenerys marries Hizdahr zo Loraq, a Ghiscari noble of the city of Meereen, in order to broker peace. Daenerys holds the wedding feast in the Great Pyramid, with the Yunkish lords and sellsword captains in attendance. An exchange of seven hostages is arranged in order to ensure the peace.[2] The Yunkai remain encamped outside of Meereen and the peace does not last long after Daenerys goes missing on her dragon Drogon and King Hizdahr is removed from power and imprisoned on the grounds of attempting to murder her. Daenerys' new Hand of the Queen, Ser Barristan Selmy takes command of the city in her stead along with the ruling council of Meereen.[5] In the meantime the bloody flux, brought by runaway Astapori freedmen, begins to spread among the Yunkish army and their allies.

    Meanwhile Tyrion Lannister and Ser Jorah Mormont escape slavery and join the Second Sons encamped outside the city.[6] Both Tyrion and Ser Jorah have surmised that the Second Sons are fighting for the wrong side and they need to go over to Daenerys Targaryen.[4] Ser Jorah says,

    We are all like to be feeding worms by the time this battle is done. The Yunkai'i have lost this war, though it may take them some time to know it. Meereen has an army of Unsullied infantry, the finest in the world. And Meereen has dragons. Three of them, once the Queen returns. She will. She must. Our side consists of two score Yunkish lordlings, each with his own half-trained monkey men. Slaves on stilts, slaves in chains… they may have troops of blind men and palsied children too, I would not put it past them.

    Out in Slaver's Bay the Iron Fleet finally arrives. Wulfe on the Noble Lady and part of the fleet depart from the Iron Victory when the sky is still dark. The troops they carry are relatively few in number compared to the Essos troops involved in the battle, but far superior in training and equipment. They are commanded to strike the first blow by Victarion Greyjoy. On the Iron Victory Victarion has in his possession the dragon horn named Dragonbinder and he plans on using it on Dany's three dragons.[7]

    Battle

    The battle begins shortly before dawn. Dead men and dragons move through the sky, whilst warships crash and clash on Slaver's Bay and Ironborn are swarming ashore. The battle is split in two, one out on the bay, another one beneath the city. The Brazen Beasts man the city walls to replace as many Unsullied as possible. They will serve as the city’s last line of protection should Ser Barristan's attack fail and Dany has not returned.

    The battle fought beneath the city

    Ser Barristan leads the charge on the Harridan with all available cavalry fighters, over 500 in total, while all of the Unsullied he could replace with the Brazen Beasts to defend the walls - 5,000 in total - pour out the city gates to form a shield wall and face the most dangerous of the enemy force, which he believes are the sellsword companies. A number of Meereen's pit fighters also join the attack, they are instructed to follow into the breach and cause as much mayhem in the slavers' tents and the enemy rear as possible. The Harridan itself is being defended by a Ghiscari legion, six thousand strong and six ranks deep, and several of the Yunkai slave-soldier companies.

    Ser Barristan is making a feint at the defense lines of the trebuchet, turning away from the spearwall of the legion guarding the trebuchet at the last minute and attacking the Yunkai slaves defending the Harridan, particularly Paezhar zo Myraq's Herons. The Unsullied finish lining up outside the gates as the Yunkai and their allies missed their chance to counterattack them. In the air Viserion is snatching and devouring corpses being thrown by the Wicked Sister while some corpses set fire by his flame mid-air land and indiscriminately set fire to men and horses below. Rhaegal himself is flying over the bay and circling the clashing ships of the Iron Fleet and the Qartheen Fleet.

    A messenger from the Yunkish high command orders the Second Sons to attack the Ironborn who are landing on the shores, but since Ben Plumm is away with Girl General, neither Inkpots nor any of the mercenary leaders present are willing to do anything.

    Next, Brown Ben Plumm returns and explains that the Second Sons are commanded by the Girl General to defend the Wicked Sister in the fear that Ser Barristan might attack it after he has dealt with the Harridan. The closest fighting is a good league (3½ miles) off from their encampment. They have a meeting in Brown Ben's tent. By this point the trebuchet the Ghost of Astapor is already down. The Mother's Men broke the Long Lances like a rotten stick and dragged the trebuchet over with chains. Viserion has now flown back to his lair in the Pyramid of Uhlez while Rhaegal still circles the bay. A Yunkish nobleman then comes to the tent to inform them that Morghaz zo Zherzyn, Supreme Commander of the Yunkai'i, wants them to attack the Unsullied in the rear while they advance on the Harpy's Daughter, defended by Bloodbeard and two Ghiscari legions.

    The Second Sons are then informed that Gorzhak zo Eraz has been slain, cut down by the Tattered Prince - meaning that the Windblown have gone over to Daenerys Targaryen and the Drunken Conqueor is now supreme commander. The Yunkish noble envoy suddenly recognizes Tyrion as an escaped slave of Yezzan zo Qaggaz and demands he be turned over. Ser Jorah Mormont answers the nobleman by killing him with his sword. Brown Ben Plumm then announces that the Second Sons have always been Queen's Men and that rejoining the Yunkai'i was just a ploy.

    Meanwhile Ser Barristan's attention has been drawn to the bay, he recognizes the banners of House Greyjoy but he is not sure what is going on, he sees that ironmen are coming ashore, fighting the Yunkish, and says, surprised, “They are on our side!”

    The battle fought out on the bay

    Warships crash and clash on Slaver's Bay. The ironborn have blocked the mouth of the Skahazadhan with a fireship. Rhaegal circles above the bay banking and turning. The ships of the Yunkai and her allies are are sinking, burning, fleeing, being taken, and their men put to the sword. The ironborn are swarming ashore.

    Result

    To be decided.

    Quotes

    Dragons wheeled overhead, their shadows sweeping across the upturned faces of friend and foe alike.


    We have ironborn swarming ashore and Ser Barristan and his Unsullied pouring out the city gates, with us between them, fighting on the wrong bloody side. I am terrified myself.

    Tyrion Lannister, to Penny


    We do not want to be fighting for the slavers when Daenerys returns… and she will, make no mistake. Strike now and strike hard, and the queen will not forget it. Find her hostages and free them. And I will swear on the honor of my house and home that this was Brown Ben's plan from the beginning.

    Jorah Mormont, to Inkpots


    The Second Sons were ripe for another change of masters, Tyrion was almost certain of that… though there was a great abyss between "certain" and "almost certain." If I have misjudged my man, all of us are lost.

    References and Notes