Captain (Free Company)

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Captain is the highest rank within the free companies of Essos.[1] They are sometimes also called commander.[2][3][N 1]

About

Many sellswords are organized into free companies, where the highest rank is captain, although the highest rank of the Golden Company is captain-general.[3] They are usually led by one captain, but can also have multiple captains, such as Stormcrows, which has three.[1][4] Some captains are alleged to instigate wars during peacetime.[5]

History

The Band of Nine, the group that caused the War of the Ninepenny Kings in 260 AC, included three sellsword captains, Liomond Lashare, Spotted Tom, and Nine Eyes, with the latter being the captain of the Jolly Fellows.[6]

Recent events

A Clash of Kings

The Brave Companions, including its captain Vargo Hoat,[7] are brought across the narrow sea by Lord Tywin Lannister,[8] who employs them as reavers and foragers in the Riverlands.[9] Vargo later betrays the Lannisters, however, and his Bloody Mummers aid in the fall of Harrenhal.[10]

A Storm of Swords

The Mummers abandon the wounded Vargo, allowing Ser Gregor Clegane to easily take Harrenhal and slay him.[11]

Following the fall of Astapor to Daenerys Targaryen, Yunkai hires the Second Sons and the Stormcrows.[4] After arriving in Yunkai, Daenerys meets with the captains from the sellsword companies. Though two of the captains of the Stormcrows, Prendahl na Ghezn and Sallor the Bald, are quick to refuse Daenerys, the third, Daario Naharis, is more polite, while Mero, the captain of the Second Sons, behaves rudely in Daenerys's presence. Later that day, Daario Naharis walks into the Targaryen camp to present Daenerys with the heads of his fellow captains, and pledges the Stormcrows to her service.[4] Ben Plumm is elected as the new captain of the Second Sons after Mero disappears during the battle near Yunkai.[12]

A Dance with Dragons

Ben Plumm leads the Second Sons from Daenerys's service over to the Yunkai'i.[13]

Bloodbeard, the captain of the Company of the Cat, refers to the Windblown as "old grey-beards in rags"[14] and he despises their captain and founder, the Tattered Prince.[3][15] Gylo Rhegan the captain and commander of the Long Lances,[3] accepts Yunkai's contract, but Daenerys secretly sends Ser Barristan Selmy to try and persuade Rhegan to turn his cloak and bring the Long Lances over to her.[16]

After Daenerys disappears from Meereen, Quentyn Martell allies with the Tattered Prince in a failed scheme to claim dragons.[17][18]

Known captains of the Free Companies

Quotes

Daenerys Targaryen loved her captain, but that was the girl in her, not the queen.[19]

—thoughts of Barristan Selmy

See also

Notes

  1. The appendix of A Storm of Swords lists Daario Naharis and Mero as captains;
    The appendix of A Feast for Crows lists Naharis and Ben Plumm (Mero's sucessor) as "commanding";
    And then the appendix of A Dance with Dragons lists Naharis and Plumm first as captains, and then as "captain and commander".

References