The Harpies
While in the lands sworn to the Iron Throne the vile practice of slavery has been eradicated, it unfortunately is still alive and well in other parts of the world. The centre of the known world’s slave trade are the great cities of Slaver’s Bay, where everything from pleasure slaves to the feared eunuch soldiers known as the Unsullied can still be purchased.
More than 600 miles wide, Slaver’s Bay is more of a small sea than just a bay. The far west coast lies against the Valyrian Peninsula. The north coast is bleak and mostly unsettled. The only good harbour is at Bhorash, but that city was destroyed after the Doom of Valyria and the ruins were shunned until very recently. The east coast is home to the great slavers’ cities. To the south, beyond the Isle of Cedars, Slaver’s Bay becomes the Gulf of Grief, a great body of water so-called for the centuries of conflict between Valyria and Old Ghis that raged across its waters. The Doom of Valyria saw a wave of water hundreds of feet high slam across the gulf, destroying every ship in its path and devastating towns all along the coasts, giving the name fresh meaning. To the east the coast turns along the Summer Sea towards the Straits of Qarth.
Slaver’s Bay is dominated by the culture of Old Ghis, the great Ghiscari Empire which ruled this region for over three thousand years before it was laid low by the might of Valyria. Valyria kept a chokehold on Slaver’s Bay for well over four and a half thousand years (according to tradition) before it was destroyed in the Doom. In the four centuries since then, Ghiscari traditions and culture (or a modern version thereof) have reasserted themselves. However, a distinction should be drawn between the spreading power of New Ghis, which claims to be the Old Empire come again, and the cities of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen, which are culturally Ghiscari but wished to maintain their political and economic independence. That wish however is not always respected among the cities, and once in a while the geopolitical landscape of the region shifts one way or another.
Knowledge is Power?
Yunkai, the Yellow City (for the colour of its bricks), is possibly the smallest and most obscure of the three slave cities. Founded in a wave of Ghiscari expansion well over five thousand years ago and built to a similar design as its sister-cities.
Lacking Meereen’s enormous strength and influence or Astapor’s reputation built on its Unsullied slave-soldiers, Yunkai’s rulers, the so-called Wise Masters, seem to compensate for this by giving themselves and their city flamboyant titles, such as the Queen of Cities (a title also claimed by Qarth). Yunkai has a good harbour but is otherwise unremarkable, few of its pyramids approaching the size of Astapor’s and none rival those of Meereen, and its reputation is built on pleasure slaves rather than soldiers like the Unsullied. That left the city vulnerable and saw the city lose its independence during the reign of Wise Master Reznak zo Rhaezn. He was left to govern the main city’s region after its fall, and his eldest son Skahaz now oversees the city proper while the youngest son Morghaz governs Yunkai’s hinterland that runs east to the mountains and south along the coast for a good hundred miles or so.
The governorship of the surrounding region and the ultimate decision-making about it and the city however shifted to High Master Grazdan zo Ahlaq when he was assigned to guard the new border between Yunkai and Astapor after the latter lost some of its territory to the warring neighbour.
Power is Power
The warring neighbour in question was not Yunkai herself, but Meereen - the largest city on Slaver’s Bay and possibly one of the largest cities in the known world, outstripped only by Volantis, Asshai, possibly Qarth and some of the cities of Yi Ti. The better part of a million people live in the city and the surrounding area. Meereen is larger than Astapor and Yunkai combined and its bricks are of many colours, giving the city a more colourful feel than its two smaller sister-cities.
The rulers of Meereen are known as the Great Masters, who rule from the Great Pyramid. Over 800 feet tall and one of the tallest structures in the world (taller than the Wall, rivalled by the High Tower of Oldtown and outstripped only by the Five Forts of Yi Ti), the Great Pyramid dominates the skyline of the city and the surrounding countryside for miles. The next-tallest pyramids in the city are less than half the height. Also imposing is the Temple of Graces, the centre of religion in the city and the surrounding region.
Meereen’s walls are tall, studded with towers and significant bastions. With the Dothraki Sea located just to the north, across the river, and the city being located on the frontier between Old Ghis and Valyria, it has always had a need for a strong defence. The walls have been kept in good order (unlike Astapor and Yunkai’s, which have fallen into disrepair over the years) and the city remains formidable. No outside army has taken the city since Valyria overthrew Old Ghis, and even the Dothraki seem to have been daunted by the city’s sheer size. Until very recently the Great Masters have wisely refrained from giving them cause to try to take the city, instead offering them good prices for slaves herded downriver to the city’s fleshpots.
Meereen sits on bluffs on the south side of the River Skahazadhan where it meets Slaver’s Bay. The Skahazadhan provides rapid travel eastwards towards Lhazar and the Dothraki Sea, but this can also be a weakness. During the ancient wars with Valyria, the Meereenese built immense wells to draw water from sources that could not be easily polluted by besiegers. Meereen’s hinterland extends south and east through the sandstone mountains towards the Lhazareen border. Estates can be found in these hills, although the territory is not as verdant as it once was. History records large numbers of cedar trees and olive groves studding the shores of the bay and extending into the hills, but the Valyrians burned most of these out. Farms, tended to by vast numbers of slaves, are located where the ground is fertile enough to turn a good crop, so to help feed the city. However, the land is harsh and in a prolonged siege, not able to bring in food by road or sea, Meereen would likely starve.
Meereen saw a major and rapid expansion under its previous Great master, Reznak mo Reznak, for his exploits known as the Conqueror. He subjugated Yunkai to the south and began the war between the Slaver’s Bay and the Dothraki, the first real one in centuries. He was unfortunately captured by his nemesis, the grandiose Drogo the Khal of Khals, and was tortured to death by the raging Dothraki at the very impressive age of seven-and-seventy.
After the Conqueror’s death his son Krazdan was deemed unworthy to step into his father’s shoes and promptly relocated to Khyzai Pass, a mountainous pass linking the coast of Slaver’s Bay to the kingdom of Lhazar further inland. The Khyzai Pass has been hewn out of the sandstone mountains by the passage of the Khyzai River, a tributary of the Skahazadhan. The pass permits relatively easy travel between Meereen and central and southern Lhazar. There is a road that outflanks the mountains to the north, following the Skahazadhan more closely, but this road also passes through regions that the Dothraki raid on a fairly frequent basis. The pass is a safer and more secure route.
The man deemed worthy to follow the Conqueror is the current Great Master of Meereen and Yunkai, Bhakaz zo Loraq, now known as Tenacious for his firm rule and his aid to the victory in his predecessor’s war.
Warden of the River
After Reznak the Conqueror was captured, his banner was unexpectedly picked up by a man who was supposed to oversee the logistics of the Conqueror’s army but in the ensuing chaos found himself among the thick of the battle. His screams of rage inspired the men around him, and with the very timely arrival of Great Master Bhakaz’s reinforcement the day was won, and the Dothraki finally abandoned the fertile lands further along the Skahazadhan river east of Meereen.
The steward that picked up the banner (named Zhezzan zo Pahl) quickly named himself the new Master of the Skahazadhan, later going even farther and calling himself a King, even donning a crown in a pompous ceremony. He also quickly married one of the captured Dothraki women named Zhavvi who turned out to be The Drogo’s own granddaughter. She later took to the teachings about the great harpy very seriously and became a Green Grace after the death of her husband.
Zhezzan’s death brought turmoil to the region. His older brother Grozlal usurped the crown from Zhezzan son, in a twist of cruel irony named Grozlal in honour of his now-usurping uncle.
Grozlal the usurper ruled for mere four years and died from a festering wound. His son Barghaz lost his throne to his nephew, Grozlal the heir, and is currently held under constant guard in his own palace.
It is interesting to note that the usurper’s second son was given some land to call his own by his cousin and not held accountable for his father’s actions.
The rightful Grozlal is married to Lady Lempi, a woman of very interesting background. She was born a daughter to one of the Great Fathers of Yinishar in the Bone Mountains to the east and his wife Maelerys, a woman of suspected Valyrian descent. Their first son Zhezzan, Grozlal’s heir at that time, was unfortunately and very suspiciously found dead at the age of just five years.
Grozlal’s current heir is his brother Miklaz. He governs the southern bank of the Skahazadhan river with his wife, Lady Gorgazza, granddaughter of the current Great Master of Meereen.
Ozzan, the youngest of the three brothers of Skahazadhan, helps his middle brother. He is unmarried, but holds a Lhazareen girl as his bedwarmer. Curiously enough, his son by her is recognized as his official heir.
Going Down All the Way on the Demon Road
While the newly-acquired lands along the Skahazadhan river are nominally independent from other slavers’ cities, new colonies along the Demon Road are under a tenacious grasp of Meereen.
The first man to lead an expedition and establish a foothold in Bhorash was Harghaz zo Pahl, kinsman to the Skahazadhan’s brothers. Unfortunately his prolonged stay and apparently the things he saw there led to his horrible demise (or maybe a tumour of the brain made him see these things in the first place). Rule of the land did not go to any of his son’s however.
Instead it unexpectedly went to Harghaz’s cousin Shakhar, probably due to the fact that the man is very easy to control as he almost never leaves his chambers ever since the unexplainable death of his beloved young wife. He usually just lays down on his enormous bed and tries to eat away his endless sorrow.
Shakhar (for his eating habits known as the Gross) refuses to have any relations with any women, free or enslaved, and does not have any offspring. His heir is his kinsman Gazhaq (that first bewitched Harghaz’s nephew) who oversees the reconstruction of the Bhorash’s harbour. Gazhaq’s own heir is also not one of his children but his other kin, bewitched Harghaz’s youngest son Shakhar (not to be confused with Shakhar the Gross).
Another interesting development in the region is the incorporation of the fertile plains and the valley north of the Demon Road, a piece of land also seized from the Dothraki in the Conqueror’s war.
The first overseer of the region, a young man named Razdar zo Merreq, died less than a year into his new position. His second wife and the mother of his two children oversaw the land with her new husband until it was time for her son Yazzak to take the reins.
There are rumours that deep in the valley the Meereenese found a ruined city of black stone with an old black stepped pyramid in its centre, but the sources from that region are unfortunately sparse and often unreliable.
The Red Sister
Astapor, the Red City, is the southernmost of the three slave sister-cities. Its rooftops and many of its buildings are red in colour, derived from the crumbling old red bricks that the city was built from, giving the city its name. The air is also often heavy in red dust.
Like most cities of Ghiscari origin, its ruling class (the so-called Good Masters) lives in great stepped pyramids. The tallest in Astapor, located along the waterfront, is about 400 feet tall. Its current occupants are Good Master Haznak zo Mazlaq and his rather large family. After the death of his first wife, the daughter of one of the previous Good Masters, Haznak married his wife’s niece, who might be familiar to my dear readers that had familiarised themselves with the Chapter on The Sisters between the coasts of the North and the Vale.
Further down the coast is the port and the mouth of the Worm River where the current true powerhouse resided. High Master Faezdhar mo Ullhor controls all the land along the river while the Good Master of the region in reality directly controls only the city proper.
The city’s elite are often found taking their ease on the pleasure barges gliding up and down the river, fanned and attended by their well-fed slaves.
Elsewhere in the city are far darker sights: the fighting pits where slaves battle one another to the death for the entertainment of the rich, and the Plaza of Pride and Plaza of Punishment where slaves are put on display.
Astapor is famed as the home of the Unsullied, warrior-eunuchs trained from birth to fight and die for their owners. The Unsullied are utterly formidable in battle and a popular choice for bodyguards and household guards. Until relatively recent events, Astapor had a long-standing contract with the Free City of Qohor, which had exclusively used Unsullied as its front-line troops since defeating the Dothraki in the Battle of Qohor over three centuries ago.
Beyond the city lies its hinterland, which runs along the coast for a hundred leagues to the west and south and half that to the north. There are tall hills, more like low mountains, to the south, where the Worm River is born and flows down to the sea. Beyond these mountains lies the resurgent power of the Ghiscari Empire, which Astapor regards warily.
Sons of Harpy Come Again
The region of Ghiscar is large, spreading for well over 300 miles to the north and east to the sandstone mountains, as well as along the coast of the Summer Sea.
This was the old heartland and core territory of the Old Ghiscari Empire, its breadbasket and the location of its major cities. Almost five thousand years ago, Valyria devastated this region with dragonfire on an epic scale. So complete was the destruction that most of the Ghiscari towns and villages that once dotted this landscape have simply vanished, with nothing left standing above ground to indicate they were ever there.
An exception are the ruins of Old Ghis, the ancient capital of the Ghiscari Empire. Once one of the greatest cities in the world, Old Ghis spread for miles along the coast of the Summer Sea, along a fine harbour and sheltered from the storms and harsher tides of the open sea by a series of offshore islands. The city was obliterated at the end of the Fifth Ghiscari War, the Valyrians destroying the city in detail and salting the earth. However, the tallest buildings of Old Ghis, the pyramids, were too difficult to destroy altogether and so were simply abandoned. Over millennia they have started to fall back into the ground, but the ruined Great Pyramid of Old Ghis (the inspiration for the near-identical Great Pyramid of Meereen, some 700 miles to the north) still stands, over 800 feet tall.
Located just over a hundred miles off the coast, the island of Ghaen was a Ghiscari stronghold for millennia, and latterly an annexed Valyrian colony. The island’s geography protected it during the Doom of Valyria, preventing its population from being wiped out like the Isle of Cedars. Subsequent to the Doom, the people of Ghaen broke away from Valyrian control and declared themselves the true heirs of Old Ghis, the sons of the harpy come again.
The city of New Ghis rose on an island off the coast of Ghaen. Smaller than Astapor, Yunkai or Meereen, but far newer and more dynamic, New Ghis has established itself as a vital waystop and trading centre.
The city is strategically located on the main sealanes leading west to new Valyria, the Free Cities, Summer Isles and Westeros, north to Slaver’s Bay and east to Qarth and the Jade Sea. A boom town, New Ghis has increased in size, power and population quite remarkably in the last four centuries. Its location renders it vulnerable to attack by corsairs out of the Basilisk Isles to the south, but the Ghiscari have struck both alliances with the pirates (some say paying them off to seek prey elsewhere) and also trained their own formidable military, spearheaded by the Iron Legions, to defend themselves. The power of New Ghis has spread to the mainland nearby, the territory of old Ghiscar, and continues to grow, to the disquiet of Astapor to the north.
The current King of New Ghis is Ozdhan zo Grazdan, a great swordsman in his younger days and even now, despite being enormously fat and at the age of sixty, still a very formidable opponent (some say his prowess is due to his meddlings with the arcane, but the truth of the claims is yet to be proven). He is married to the sister of the two first kings of Skahazadhan.
The pairs first son and Ozdhan’s heir apparent, Ozzan, is married to Immissi, called the Princess due to her being the granddaughter of The Drogo of the Dothraki. She was sent to Ghis by Ozzan’s uncle Zhezzan, who was married to Immissi’s sister Zhavvi. Immissi also learned and embraced the ways of her captors and is highly regarded at the court of New Ghis.