A tokar is a long, loose, shapeless sheet, worn as a garment in Ghiscari cities by the slaver class, both men and women. In Astapor, only the freeborn are allowed to wear tokars.[1] The tokar is a sign of the wearer's wealth and power.[2]
Description
[edit]The tokar must be wound around the hips and under an arm and over a shoulder to keep it on. It is wrapped this way to carefully display the dangling fringes, which are usually adorned with some decoration to signify the wearer's status.[1] If wound too loose, the tokar might unravel and fall off. If it is wound too tight, it might tangle and trip the wearer. Even if wound properly, the wearer must hold the tokar in place with their left hand. Walking requires small steps and great balance to prevent tripping and falling on the trailing fringes.[2] A person should not ride a horse while wearing a tokar.[3]
The tokar may be worn over an undertunic, which may be made of linen.[4]
Recent Events
[edit]A Storm of Swords
[edit]
During the fall of Astapor, Daenerys Targaryen orders her Unsullied to slay every man wearing a tokar or holding a whip. Many Good Masters trip over their garments while trying to flee.[1]
The Wise Master Grazdan mo Eraz attempts to bribe Daenerys to prevent her from attacking Yunkai to free its slaves, but she refuses him. After Grazdan insults her, she says "Dracarys", and Drogon sets his tokar ablaze. When Grazdan complains that he was offered safe conduct, Daenerys tells him she will buy him a new tokar after Yunkai delivers its slaves to her.[5]
After her conquest of Meereen, Daenerys has the Great Masters and their women gathered in the plaza before the Great Pyramid, stripped of their jewelry and tokars.[6]
A Dance with Dragons
[edit]In Meereen, Queen Daenerys wants to ban the tokar, but her advisors convince her otherwise. The Green Grace, Galazza Galare, explains that Daenerys must wear the attire of Old Ghis if she wants to be accepted as their ruler. Ben Plumm refers to the tokar as "floppy ears" that a "king o' the rabbits" must wear, and Daenerys adopts that term for her tokars, which she dislikes wearing.[2]
The snappish Viserion burns the tokar of Reznak mo Reznak.[2]
Daenerys dresses in a tokar to hold court in the throne room of the Great Pyramid. One of the petitioners is a Great Master's son dressed in a frayed tokar, who wants his father's former household slaves executed for killing his family. Daenerys has to deny him, as she had declared a blanket pardon for all crimes committed during the sack, and will not punish slaves for rising up against their masters. The boy attempts to attack her, but fails when he trips on his own tokar. Daenerys forgives him and sends him away, and tells him to treasure the tokar that saved his life.[2]
When Hizdahr zo Loraq comes to Daenerys for his seventh petition to re-open the fighting pits of Meereen, he has shaved his beard and cut his hair, and he wears a simple robe instead of a tokar.[7]
A dying Astapori rider arrives in Meereen atop a pale mare, warning that Astapor is burning. Grey Worm informs Daenerys that under the man's tokar he was as thin as a skeleton and burning with fever.[8]
After Daenerys agrees to marry Hizdahr per the advice of Galazza Galare, Reznak informs her of the wedding garb for a bride according to Ghiscari tradition, a tokar of white silk, with dark red veils. The tokar is fringed with baby pearls, which symbolize fertility.[9] Daenerys wears the traditional tokar during her wedding to Hizdahr, though she envies her Dothraki handmaids in their sandsilk trousers and painted vests.[3]
At the ceremony for the re-opening of the fighting pits, after the pit fighter Barsena Blackhair is killed by a boar, Daenerys can no longer stand to wear her tokar and removes it, moments before Drogon arrives in Daznak's Pit.[10]
Tyrion Lannister recalls that when he was performing in Daznak's Pit, all he saw of Daenerys was a slender girl with silvery hair, who was wrapped in a tokar and whose face was veiled.[11]
Styles
[edit]
Known styles include:
- sea-green silk with a gold fringe, owned by Kraznys mo Nakloz[12]
- red silk[12]
- silver fringe[1]
- gold fringe[1]
- white pearl fringe, owned by Grazdan mo Ullhor[1]
- plain fringe[1]
- silk with golden Myrish lace fringe, owned by Grazdan mo Eraz[5]
- sheer white linen with a fringe of golden tassels, owned by Daenerys Targaryen[2]
- maroon silk with a golden fringe, owned by Reznak mo Reznak[2]
- purple with an amethyst and pearl fringe, owned by Hizdahr zo Loraq[2]
- grey with a silver fringe, owned by the son of a Great Master[2]
- violet silk with a gold fringe, owned by Daenerys Targaryen[7]
- yellow silk with a golden fringe, owned by Yezzan zo Qaggaz[13]
- green silk with a Myrish lace fringe, owned by Daenerys Targaryen[9]
- blue, owned by Daenerys Targaryen[9]
- white silk with a baby pearl fringe and red veils, owned by Daenerys Targaryen[9]
- burgundy, with a golden stripe and a fringe of golden beads, owned by Hizdahr zo Loraq[9]
- maroon samite with a golden fringe, owned by Reznak mo Reznak[3]
- violet, owned by Zahrina[14]
- green and gold stripes, owned by a Wise Master[14]
- blue with a fringe of tiger's eyes, owned by a Wise Master[14]
- vermillion, owned by Daenerys Targaryen[15]
- yellow silk with pearls, owned by Daenerys Targaryen[10]
- purple, owned by the House of Loraq[10]
- indigo, owned by the House of Loraq[10]
- lilac, owned by the House of Loraq[10]
- pink and white stripes, owned by the House of Pahl[10]
- blue and gold[16]
- maroon silk with a gold fringe, owned by a Wise Master[16]
- teal and orange stripes, owned by a Wise Master[16]
- dark red with a fringe of tiny golden skulls, owned by Zahrina[17]
- green[4]
Quotes
[edit]
It was the fringe on the tokar that proclaimed a man's status, Dany had been told by Captain Groleo. In this cool green room atop the pyramid, two of the slavers wore tokars fringed in silver, five had gold fringes, and one, the oldest Grazdan, displayed a fringe of fat white pearls that clacked together softly when he shifted in his seat or moved an arm.[1]
—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen
It was not a garment meant for any man who had to work. The tokar was a master's garment, a sign of wealth and power.[2]
—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen
The Mother of Dragons must don the tokar or be forever hated. In the wools of Westeros or a gown of Myrish lace, Your Radiance shall forever remain a stranger amongst us, a grotesque outlander, a barbarian conqueror. Meereen's queen must be a lady of Old Ghis.[2]
Man wants to be the king o' the rabbits, he best wear a pair o' floppy ears.[2]
The petitioners will soon be at my gates. I must don my floppy ears and become their queen again.[2]
The bidders sat on wooden benches sipping fruit drinks. A few were being fanned by slaves. Many wore tokars, that peculiar garment beloved by the old blood of Slaver's Bay, as elegant as it was impractical.[14]
—thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
Daenerys sat silent through the meal, wrapped in a vermilion tokar and black thoughts, speaking only when spoken to, brooding on the men and women being bought and sold outside her walls, even as they feasted here within the city.[15]
—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen
Hizdahr: Magnificence, the people of Meereen have come to celebrate our union. You heard them cheering you. Do not cast away their love.
Daenerys: It was my floppy ears they cheered, not me. Take me from this abbatoir, husband.[10]
Behind the Scenes
[edit]The tokar is likely inspired by the real-world toga, the distinctive garment of the aristocratic class of Ancient Rome, which was difficult to put on and challenging to wear correctly. The toga, a long length of woven fabric, typically white wool, was wrapped around the body and draped over the left shoulder; as no pins or ties were allowed to be used, the left arm had to hold the toga in place. The wearer had to walk carefully, in a dignified manner, to avoid disarrangement of the toga's folds. The toga was forbidden to be worn by non-citizens, foreigners, freedmen, and slaves. The tokar may also be inspired by the sari, a women's garment of the Indian subcontinent, that is similarly a long length of woven fabric wrapped about the body, but typically made in more opulent textiles and colors.
References
[edit]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 27, Daenerys III.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 2, Daenerys I.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 43, Daenerys VII.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 71, Daenerys X.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 42, Daenerys IV.
- ↑ A Storm of Swords, Chapter 71, Daenerys VI.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 11, Daenerys II.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 30, Daenerys V.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 36, Daenerys VI.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 52, Daenerys IX.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 57, Tyrion XI.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 A Storm of Swords, Chapter 23, Daenerys II.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 25, The Windblown.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 47, Tyrion X.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 50, Daenerys VIII.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 59, The Discarded Knight.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 60, The Spurned Suitor.