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
Notable places Fountain of the Drunken God, Temple of Trios, Bleeding Tower

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 an archon[2] chosen from among the members of a conclave of the wealthiest and noblest of the city.[3]

City

Location and Layout

Tyrosh is a fortress city, protected by high walls, located on the northernmost and easternmost of the Stepstones. Its inner walls are fused black dragonstone.[3] Tyrosh is far larger than the shadow city of Sunspear.[4]

Tyrosh has a large fleet.[3] At the mouth of its harbor lies the Bleeding Tower.[5]

In the city lies the Fountain of the Drunken God. There is no established faith in Tyrosh, and temples and shrines in honor of many different gods line the streets and waterfronts of the city.[3] The Temple of Trios has a large statue of the three-headed Trios beside the temple's doors.[6] R'hllor is worshipped in Tyrosh as well.[3]

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

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

Tyrosh 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 aggressive. They even sail north beyond the Wall, in search of wildlings to enslave. Slaves outnumber freeborn in Tyrosh three to one.[3] Sellswords are also common in the city.

History

Foundation

Tyrosh began as a military outpost of the Valyrian Freehold on a bleak, stony isle to control shipping through the Stepstones. They soon discovered in the nearby waters a unique variety of sea snail whose secretions were used to create a dye popular with Valyrian nobles. Thousands of merchants developed Tyrosh into a major city within a generation. Tyroshi dyers learned to produce different colors of dyes by varying the diet of the snails.[3]

Some dragonlords in Tyrosh survived the Doom of Valyria, but the citizens killed the dragons and their dragonriders.[14] During the Century of Blood, 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 two Westerosi, the Storm King Argilac Durrandon of Storm's End and Aegon Targaryen of Dragonstone. Lys and Myr both rose in rebellion against Volantis.[14][3]

The Triarchy

Along with Lys and Myr, Tyrosh was part of the Triarchy, also known as the Kingdom of the Three Daughters. The Triarchy fought with Prince Daemon Targaryen over the Stepstones and supported the greens during the Dance of the Dragons. The Triarchy eventually fell apart over internal squabbles, however.[15][16][3]

Targaryen and Blackfyre involvement

King Aegon IV Targaryen arranged the betrothal of his bastard son Daemon Blackfyre with Rohanne of Tyrosh. Aegon died before the marriage could take place, so his successor, King Daeron II Targaryen, paid the dowry to the Archon of Tyrosh and saw Daemon and Rohanne wed.[17] Daemon and Rohanne had seven sons (including Aegon, Aemon, Daemon, Haegon and Aenys), and at least two daughters.[18][19][20]

After the First Blackfyre Rebellion led to the defeat and death of Daemon and his eldest two sons, Aegon and Aemon, Daemon's half-brother Aegor Rivers gathered Daemon's surviving sons, daughters, and wife and fled to Tyrosh, where they remained for years.[19][21] Haegon was eventually crowned in Tyrosh as a rival to Aerys I Targaryen, the king on the Iron Throne.[21]

Kiera of Tyrosh married Prince Valarr Targaryen in Westeros,[22] with whom she had several stillborn sons.[19] Valarr died in 209 AC, and Kiera eventually remarried, this time to Prince Daeron Targaryen, Valarr's cousin.[22] Both Valarr and Daeron had been directly in line for the Iron Throne at the time of their marriages, respectively, as their fathers were crown princes at the time. With Daeron, Kiera had one child, Princess Vaella.[20][22]

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 lasted only another half year, Alequo remained in charge of Tyrosh for another six years. In the end, he was poisoned by his queen, and the archon was restored.[23]

Recent History

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] She thus speaks High Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent.[12]

Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne, had planned to sent his daughter, Princess Arianne, to Tyrosh to serve as the cupbearer of the archon, so she could secretly meet the exiled Viserys Targaryen, to whom she had been secretly betrothed. When his wife, Mellario of Norvos, threatened to kill herself if Arianne was sent away, Doran kept his daughter in Dorne. The daughter of the Archon of Tyrosh, however, spent some years in the Water Gardens of House Martell.[24]

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]

In the Western Market of Vaes Dothrak, Daenerys smells garlic and roast pepper in the air and is reminded of days long gone in the alleys of Tyrosh and Myr, which brings a fond smile to her face.[25]

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.[26]

A Storm of Swords

Tyrosh is on the verge of going to war with Lys.[27]

A Feast for Crows

Tyrosh and Lys are now on the verge of war with Myr.[28] It is later rumored that the archon had offered terms to Lys to end the trade war.[29]

In Dorne, Prince Doran Martell reveals to his daughter, Princess Arianne, that she would have been sent to Tyrosh to meet her betrothed, Viserys Targaryen, and serve as the archon's cupbearer, if not for the objections of her mother, Mellario.[24] As punishment for his involvement in Arianne's plot to crown Myrcella Baratheon, Garin from the Greenblood is to spend the next two years in exile in Tyrosh.[24]

Upon entering the Stinking Goose in Maidenpool, 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.[30] In the Happy Port in Braavos, Samwell Tarly sees a Tyroshi sailor passed out in a corner, snoring into his huge scarlet beard.[31]

The Cinnamon Wind stops at Tyrosh's harbor during its journey to Oldtown.[5] Near Oldtown, the captain of the Huntress tells Sam Tarly that ironborn captured 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.[32]

A Dance with Dragons

Queen Daenerys Targaryen takes a Tyroshi sellsword, Daario Naharis, as her paramour.[33]

Blue-bearded fighters from Tyrosh are among those who come to Meereen to battle in Daznak's Pit.[34]

References

  1. A Dance with Dragons, Map of the Free Cities
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 3, Daenerys I.
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: The Quarrelsome Daughters: Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh.
  4. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 2, The Captain Of Guards.
  5. 5.0 5.1 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 35, Samwell IV.
  6. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII.
  7. 7.0 7.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 18, Catelyn IV.
  8. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 38, Tyrion V.
  9. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 67, Jaime VIII.
  10. So Spake Martin: Mercenaries (May 13, 2000)
  11. A Game of Thrones RPG and Resource Book, Guardians of Order
  12. 12.0 12.1 A Game of Thrones, Chapter 54, Daenerys VI.
  13. The Hedge Knight.
  14. 14.0 14.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Doom of Valyria.
  15. The Rogue Prince.
  16. The Princess and the Queen.
  17. The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Daeron II.
  18. The Sworn Sword.
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 The Mystery Knight.
  20. 20.0 20.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Maekar I.
  21. 21.0 21.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Aerys I.
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 The World of Ice & Fire, Appendix: Targaryen Lineage.
  23. The World of Ice & Fire, The Targaryen Kings: Jaehaerys II.
  24. 24.0 24.1 24.2 A Feast for Crows, Chapter 40, Princess In The Tower.
  25. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 36, Daenerys IV.
  26. A Game of Thrones, Chapter 69, Tyrion IX.
  27. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 19, Tyrion III.
  28. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 13, The Soiled Knight.
  29. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 24, Cersei V.
  30. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 14, Brienne III.
  31. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 26, Samwell III.
  32. A Feast for Crows, Chapter 45, Samwell V.
  33. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 43, Daenerys VII.
  34. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 52, Daenerys IX.