The Volantene fleet is the fleet of the Free City of Volantis. While Volantis is powerful at sea,[1] the city's greatest might is on land.[2]
Three triarchs are elected annually to command the fleets and armies of Volantis.[2] Often green in color,[3][1] Volantene galleys are rowed by slaves.[4]
History
At the start of the Century of Blood, Volantene fleets and armies gained control of Lys, Myr, and the southern reaches of the Rhoyne. The imperialist tigers overreached by attacking Tyrosh, however, and Volantis was pushed back by a coalition of Free Cities and Westerosi. Aegon Targaryen, Lord of Dragonstone, burned a Volantene fleet preparing to recapture Lys with the dragonflame of Balerion the Black Dread, and fire galleys from Qohor and Norvos destroyed much of a Volantene fleet at Dagger Lake.[5] A Volantene fleet also attempted to reclaim the Valyrian peninsula, but it vanished in the Smoking Sea.[5]
Triarch Marqelo Tagaros dispatched a squadron of ships toward Valyria to search for the golden fleet of Tommen II Lannister, King of the Rock, but the Volantenes returned having found no trace of the missing westermen.[6]
The triarchs of Volantis have sent fleets to clear out pirate dens from the Stepstones[7] and corsairs from the Basilisk Isles.[8]
Recent Events
A Dance with Dragons
Amid the Targaryen campaign in Slaver's Bay, envoys from Yunkai travel to Volantis to hire swords against Daenerys Targaryen, Queen of Meereen.[9] Tyrion Lannister learns that Volantis is preparing for war against the dragon queen.[10][4] Prince Quentyn Martell sees the harbor of Volantis crowded with warships, trading ships, and foreign vessels.[11]
When the Golden Company nears Volantis, Lysono Maar sneaks into the city and sees teeming with galleys, cogs, and carracks. Lord Jon Connington believes the triarchs of Volantis would be willing to help transport the sellswords to Westeros to remove them from their city's vicinity.[12] A great Volantene fleet stops at Lys[13] while transporting the mercenaries to the Seven Kingdoms, but the landing of the Golden Company in the stormlands is disrupted by storms in the narrow sea.[14]
Lord Captain Victarion Greyjoy leads the Iron Fleet toward Slaver's Bay to find Daenerys. When the ironborn briefly stop in Volantis for food and water, Victarion sees numerous Volantene galleys taking on provisions. The Volantenes have at least three hundred ships and possibly up to five hundred, including large dromonds of war. Victarion wants his smaller fleet to take Daenerys from Meereen before the Volantenes reach Slaver's Bay.[1]
Daenerys disappears from Daznak's Pit on the back of Drogon.[15] According to Skahaz mo Kandaq, Daenerys's new husband, King Hizdahr zo Loraq, is conspiring with the Wise Masters of Yunkai. The plotters want to kill Rhaegal and Viserion before the Volantene fleet arrives,[16] and they would then open the gates of Meereen to the Volantene soldiers.[17]
Quotes
Braavos, Pentos, and Volantis are all coastal cities blessed with great harbors. Trade is their life's blood, and their ships travel to the far ends of the earth, from Yi Ti and Leng and Asshai-by-the-Shadow in the far east, to Lannisport and Oldtown on Westeros.[7]
—writings of Yandel
Harry: We came to raise up a king and queen who would lead us home to Westeros, but this Targaryen girl seems more intent on planting olive trees than in reclaiming her father's throne. Meanwhile, her foes gather. Yunkai, New Ghis, Tolos. Bloodbeard and the Tattered Prince will both be in the field against her ... and soon enough the fleets of Old Volantis will descend on her as well. What does she have? Bedslaves with sticks?
Jon: Unsullied. And dragons.[12]
Skahaz: The pit changed all. Daenerys gone, Yurkhaz dead. In place of one old lion, a pack of jackals. Bloodbeard ... that one has no taste for peace. And there is more. Worse. Volantis has launched its fleet against us.
Barristan: Volantis. You are certain?
Skahaz: Certain. The Wise Masters know. So do their friends. The Harpy, Reznak, Hizdahr. This king will open the city gates to the Volantenes when they arrive.[17]
The storms would have scattered and delayed the Volantenes, even as they had his own ships. If fortune smiled, many of their warships might have sunk or run aground. But not all. No god was that good, and those green galleys that survived by now could well have sailed around Valyria. They will be sweeping north toward Meereen and Yunkai, great dromonds of war teeming with slave soldiers. If the Storm God spared them, by now they could be in the Gulf of Grief. Three hundred ships, perhaps as many as five hundred.[1]
—thoughts of Victarion Greyjoy
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 56, The Iron Suitor.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: Volantis.
- ↑ A Feast for Crows, Chapter 34, Cat Of The Canals.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 22, Tyrion VI.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The World of Ice & Fire, Ancient History: The Doom of Valyria.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, The Westerlands.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: The Quarrelsome Daughters: Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh.
- ↑ The World of Ice & Fire, Beyond the Free Cities: The Basilisk Isles.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 16, Daenerys III.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 18, Tyrion V.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 6, The Merchant's Man.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 24, The Lost Lord.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 38, The Watcher.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 61, The Griffin Reborn.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 52, Daenerys IX.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 67, The Kingbreaker.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 55, The Queensguard.