Tyrosh

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Tyrosh
City state, one of the Free Cities
Free Cities.png
Location Essos, Free Cities, Stepstones
Government Archon
Religion Mixed religions
Founded Approx 1,000 years ago
Notable places Fountain of the Drunken God, Temple of Trios

Tyrosh is a harbor city and one of the Free Cities. It sits on an island to the north of the Stepstones, just off the coast of the Disputed Lands of Essos.[1] The ruler of Tyrosh is called the Archon.[2] He is chosen from among the members of a convlace of the wealthiest and noblest of the city.[3]

City

Tyrosh is a fortress city, protected by high walls, located on the northernmost and eastermost of the Stepstones. It originally began as a military outpost for Old Valyria, to control shipping that passed through the Stepstones. Its inner walls are fused black dragonstone.[3] Tyrosh is far larger than the shadow ciy of Sunspear.[4] Tyrosh has a large fleet.[3] At the mouth of its harbor lies the Bleeding Tower.[5] In the city lies a fountain called the Fountain of the Drunken God. There is no established faith in Tyrosh. Temples and shrines in honor of many different gods line the streets and waterfronts of the city.[3] One of such temples is the temple in honor of the god Trios, called the Temple of Trios, with a big statue of the three-headed Trios beside the temple's doors.[6]

Slaves outnumber the freeborn three to one.[3]

People

Tyroshi are renowned for their greed.[7] They constantly fight to gain control of the Stepstones and Disputed Lands.[8][9][10]

They love bright colors, even coloring their hair brightly.[7][3] Their inventors are known for creating ornate helmets and ingenious torture devices. Their dialect is a corrupted form of High Valyrian.[11]

Economy

A coin of Tyrosh, as depicted by Nutchapol Thitinunthakorn in The World of Ice and Fire

Slaves and sellswords are common in Tyrosh. It is renowned for its pear brandy,[12] and Tyroshi armorsmiths can make fantastic helmets shaped like birds and animals, chased with precious metals.[13]

Tyrosh is a merchantile city, where trade is considered a much more honorable profession than arms. Shortly after its founding, Tyrosh quickly grew out into a rich city, due to the discovery of a certain variety of sea snail.[3]

Tyrosh is deeply involved in the slave trade, and Tyroshi slavers are known to be especially agressive. They ever sail north beyond the Wall, in search of wildlings to enslave.[3]

History

Origin

Though Tyrosh began as a military outpost, a unique variety of sea snail was discovered not long after the city was founded. These snails secreted a substance that, when properly treated, yielded a dye that soon became wildly fashionable among the nobility of Valyria. This led to merchants traveling to Tyrosh by the thousands. Within a single generation, Tyrosh grew out into a major city. Soon, Tyroshi dyers learned to produce different colors of dyes by varying the diet of the snails.[3]

Decades after the Doom of Valyria, the Free City of Volantis thought to add Tyrosh to her conquests, after they had conquered Myr and Lys. Their attempt to take Tyrosh, however, made their empire collapse. Pentos came to the aid of the Tyroshi, as well as King Argilac Durrandon from the Stormlands of Westeros, and Aegon Targaryen of Dragonstone. Lys and Myr both rose in rebellion against Volantis.[14][3]

The Triarchy

Tyrosh would be involved in others wars against Volantis over the years. During one of such conflicts, Tyrosh joined forces with Lys and Myr to defeat Volantis in the Battle of the Borderland. Their remained united, although briefly. They pledged eternal friendship, and formed the Triarchy in 96 AC. In Westeros, this union became known under another name: the Kingdom of the Three Daughters.[3]

The Triarchy would exist until the reign of King Aegon II Targaryen. Their original stated aim was to cleanse the Stepstones of pirates and corsairs, which was welcomed in Westeros and elsewhere. The Triarchy won swift victory over the pirates, but began to demand tolls of passing ships, once they had gained control of the islands and the waters. It did not take long for their greed to exceed that of the pirates they had replaced.[3]

Much of the Stepstones was lost in a war against Lord Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, and Prince Daemon Targaryen, though once Westeros became distracted with its own quarrels, the Triarchy reasserted its power.[3]

In 129 AC, a High Council of the Triarchy accepted the offer of Hand of the King Otto Hightower for an alliance. The Triarchy supported King Aegon II Targaryen against his half-sister, Rhaenyra. A fleet of ninety ships fell upon the Gay Abandon, the ship carrying Princes Aegon and Viserys. While Prince Aegon managed to escape, Prince Viserys was taken into custody by a Tyroshi captain, though his admiral, a Lyseni, took Viserys from him.[15]

The Triarchy did not survive for much longer, as internal conflicts brought them down, when a Lyseni admiral was murdered by a rival for the affections of the courtesan known as the Black Swan. An alliance between Braavos, Pentos, and Lorath helped bring an end to the Kingdom of the Three Daughters.[3]

War of the Ninepenny Kings

The Band of Nine, a group of sellswords, pirates and merchants who had conquered the Disputed Lands, sacked Tyrosh and continued on to the Stepstones. The wealthy merchant Alequo Adarys was placed in charge of Tyrosh, replacing the Archon. While the Band of Nine was defeated in late 260 AC, and the fighting against the Band of Nine in the Stepstones and the Disputed Lands would last only another half year, Alequo would remain in charge of Tyrosh for another six years. In the end, he was poisoned by his Queen, and the Archon was restored.[16]

When Daenerys Targaryen was a girl, she and her brother Viserys spent some time in Tyrosh when they were wandering from place to place.[2] Prince Doran Martell had planned to sent his daughter, Princess Arianne, to Tyrosh to serve as the cupbearer of the Archon, so she could secretly meet Prince Viserys Targaryen, to whom she had been secretly betrothed. When his wife threatened to kill herself if Arianne was sent away, Prince Doran gave up on the plan and kept his daughter in Dorne. The daughter of the Archon of Tyrosh, however, did spent some years in the Water Gardens of House Martell.[17]

Recent Events

A Tyroshi merchant - by Magali Villeneuve ©

A Game of Thrones

The green-bearded brother of the Archon of Tyrosh attends the introduction of Daenerys Targaryen to her future husband Khal Drogo hosted in Drogo’s nine-towered manse in Pentos.[2]

During the Battle of the Camps, a Tyroshi sellsword leading Ser Forley Prester's freeriders strikes his banners and goes over to Robb Stark. Ser Kevan Lannister had warned Ser Jaime Lannister not to trust him. [18]

A Storm of Swords

Tyrosh is on the verge of going to war with Lys.[19]

A Feast for Crows

Tyrosh and Lys are now on the verge of war with Myr.[20] It is later rumored that the Archon had offered terms to Lys to end the trade war.[21]

In Dorne, Prince Doran Martell reveals to his daughter, Princess Arianne, that at one point she was to have been sent to Tyrosh to serve as the Archon's cupbearer, where she could have met her betrothed in secret. When her mother threatened to kill herself if Doran sent another one of her children awar from home, Doran decided to have Arianne remain in Dorne.[17]

Upon entering the Stinking Goose, Brienne of Tarth notes that the only drinkers there are three Tyroshi seamen in a corner, growling at each other through green and purple beards.[22] In the Happy Port, Samwell Tarly sees a Tyroshi sailor passed out in a corner, snoring into his huge scarlet beard.[23]

As punishment for his involvement in Arianne Martell's plots, Garin from the Greenblood is to spend the next two years in exile in Tyrosh.[17]

The captain of the Huntress tells Samwell Tarly that the ironmen had managed to capture a Tyroshi merchantman in the Redwyne Straits. They killed the ship's crew and disguised themselves as Tyroshi sailors intending to sneak into Oldtown. Their plot was foiled when the Lady of the Tower's oarsmaster hailed the ironmen in the Tyrohi language and they failed to reply to his greeting.[24]

A Dance with Dragons

Blue-bearded fighters from Tyrosh are among those who come to Meereen to battle in Daznak's Pit.[25]

References and Notes