Essos: Across the Narrow Sea

[00:00:01] Thanks for listening to this episode of The Westerosi Primer. For full show notes and more about all things Westeros, head to thewesterosiprimer.com Before I start playing the intro music, check out this friend of the show.

[00:00:33] Westerosi podcast ranges in a variety of topics, all the way from true crime to reviewing different movies, shows, theater to the hottest pop culture gossip and topics. It just sounds more dramatic that way. Alright, so this week we are going to be talking about...

[00:00:50] You can find us on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Spotify and all other podcast players. New episodes post every Friday. Feel free to also follow us on Instagram and TikTok at 3FatesToSide with the 3 spelled out.

[00:01:09] You can also shoot us an email at 3FatesToSide at gmail.com to send us topics you want us to cover. We want to cover what you want. Want different topics? Well then let the 3FatesToSide podcast. Welcome to another episode of The Westerosi Primer.

[00:02:12] My name is Liz. So before I get started on the main content of this episode, I have some important announcements to make. First thing is that originally this was going to be the season finale of this podcast.

[00:02:24] However, due to various circumstances, I realized that this episode will be released just before House of the Dragons starts again. After a bit of debating, I ultimately decided that rather than end the season here, I will actually change content.

[00:02:39] That's right listeners, I will be doing post episode reactions and share my thoughts with you. So please tune in every Wednesday as usual for the next 8 weeks. I will try to keep the episodes about 15 minutes or less.

[00:02:53] This is both to make it easy for me to produce episodes quickly and so you're not hearing me drone for an hour. Second thing is that I highly encourage all of you listening to this podcast to either follow this show's social media accounts

[00:03:08] or subscribe to the newsletter. Why? Twitter is a pretty great way to reach out and I occasionally post some fandom related content on there. Instagram, I actually share some pictures of past exploits at conventions and other fun stuff.

[00:03:25] The newsletter will have the same content as what I will post on the blog on the website. So it's a convenient way for you listeners to get podcast news, opinion essays and even some behind the scenes content I don't include in this show.

[00:03:42] As a side note, there's bonus content I'm possibly adding to the substack newsletter in the future if there's enough subscribers. You will also have the ability to adjust what content you want to receive in your email on substack.

[00:04:02] The newsletter is free to subscribe and all the text posts will be available to you for free. If you're interested in signing up to the newsletter and or following this show's Twitter and Instagram, just head over to thewesterosiprimer.com for the links and signup form.

[00:04:20] Third thing is that this season of the podcast will end with the season finale of House of the Dragon. I'm planning to start releasing season 2 in October. I'm actually reaching out to you listeners to give me your opinions.

[00:04:34] I decided to create a poll where you listeners can let me know what concept season 2 will be about. If this season is Westeros Info 101, what should I talk about next? The poll will be posted on thewesterosiprimer.com. The poll will have 5 choices to select from.

[00:04:56] They're all themes I'm happy to work on. The point is to let you guys decide which one you're most interested in. By the time you're hearing this episode, I should have the poll up on the website. You have until August 10th to participate in the poll.

[00:05:16] Based on the results, I'll make an announcement on the site, the newsletter and on social media. I'll be spending the rest of August and September doing the research and start recording. Again, please participate in this poll.

[00:05:31] This will make it easier for me to create content you would like to listen to. With that said, let me get started on this episode. This time, I will be talking about some of the notable locations in Essos.

[00:05:44] As some of you may already know from watching Game of Thrones, there are a number of places that Daenerys travels to during much of her storyline. I won't go into as much detail as I've done in previous episodes. Otherwise this episode will be over an hour.

[00:06:01] However, I'll discuss some interesting things that you might not know about these places if you didn't read the novels. If you're interested in me doing more in-depth talk about Essos, reach out and let me know. Before I start the discussion, there are a couple of things to note.

[00:06:19] First, there will be some potential spoilers for people who have not read the novels in the Asong of Ice and Fire saga. There may also be potential spoilers for House of the Dragon and other future shows that may be adapted by Max in the future.

[00:06:31] So if you're okay with this, then please continue listening. Second, this will not be a definitive episode of everything about Essos as there really is a lot of information about all the locations mentioned in the novels.

[00:06:45] And the additional information written by George R.R. Martin and collected by various fans including the contributors of Westeros.org.

[00:06:54] Throughout this season of the Westerosi Primer, I will be using information gathered from the novel series Westeros.org, the world of Ice and Fire, and the lands of Ice and Fire. Check out the full show notes and other links located on this show's website, thewesterosiprimer.com.

[00:07:10] With that said, let's continue. As you would imagine, Essos is a large continent just like Westeros. Also, like Westeros, there are many different groups of people vying with each other.

[00:07:22] In some respects, George could easily do a bunch of novels about the various people and interactions on Essos as well. But as we all know, that's never going to happen. We're all still waiting to see whether Winter really will get here in the novels.

[00:07:38] But you guys aren't here to listen to my grumblings about the winds of Winter. A major region I'll start off with is the Free Cities. The Free Cities are of course some of the places that Daenerys visits.

[00:07:50] There's also references to some of the ones she didn't visit as well. There are nine of them. Braavos, Loroth, Lys, Mir, Norvos, Pentos, Kohor, Tyrosh, and Volantis. In general, these nine Free Cities have trade with Westeros,

[00:08:08] which naturally explains why there are at least references to these places in the novels. I won't be talking about all nine of the Free Cities, but I'll talk about the most important ones. Braavos is arguably one of the most famous cities in this group.

[00:08:23] We actually see the city featured in some episodes of Game of Thrones. It is also known as Braavos of the Hundred Isles and the Secret City. You can see some parallels between Braavos and Renaissance era Venice.

[00:08:38] It is the youngest of the Free Cities and is the wealthiest one in the group. To complete the connection between Braavos and Venice, this is a city of many canals and bridges. Due to the geography, it is a port city and part of the reason for its wealth.

[00:08:54] The other reason, of course, is the Iron Bank, which I'll discuss in a bit. The city of Braavos was started by escaped slaves. The Valyrian Freehold was an empire that needed the labor of slaves. A band of slaves managed to escape on ships and fled from their masters.

[00:09:11] They eventually arrived at the uninhabited islands and settled there. They all made a vow that no one who lives there will be a slave. This is literally the first law of Braavos. Considering that these slaves had many different origins ethnically and culturally, Braavos is a true multicultural city.

[00:09:30] All forms of religion are recognized in the city. Religious buildings of all faiths exist there as a result. It's also because of the diversity of the population that ironically, High Valyrian became the common language. Some of the former slaves had valuable bowls with them.

[00:09:47] The valuable bowls were collected in an abandoned iron mine. Eventually, some of this was lent out and this became the Iron Bank. As we also know from Game of Thrones, the faceless men have their main headquarters in Braavos.

[00:10:02] Another interesting feature of the city is the famous Titan statue. It's the symbol of Braavos that is a literal giant statue in the harbor. It is both a lighthouse and a fortress acting as the first defense of the city. As I mentioned in the Vale episode,

[00:10:19] the sigil of House Baelish actually has an image of the Titan on it as a reminder of the family's origin in Braavos. Another interesting fact was that after Daenerys was born on Dragonstone, she and Viserys were brought to Braavos. This was where they lived during her early years.

[00:10:37] I griped quite a bit in the Dorne episode that there were many plot points related to Dorne that never were included in Game of Thrones. One notable plot point was that while Viserys and Daenerys were in Braavos,

[00:10:52] their guardian Sir Willem Derry signed a betrothal treaty with the Martells. The Seres would marry Princess Arianne Martell in exchange for the Martells supporting Viserys' claim to the throne. We of course know what happens to Viserys later,

[00:11:10] which means the Martells need a plan B for their 20-something year-long revenge plot. What is their alternate plan? Well, that's going to have to wait for another season of this podcast. If you're interested, then you should be voting on the poll. Leroth is an island-free city.

[00:11:27] Some of the descriptions of this particular city are pretty strange. This place only gets a mention in the novels, so I won't spend too much time on this one. I'll leave a link in the show notes for anyone interested in reading the Westeros.org entry for it.

[00:11:43] One thing I will note is that due to their religious beliefs, the people of Leroth refer to themselves and others indirectly and not by name. As an example, instead of I am a podcaster, I would say this woman is a podcaster.

[00:12:00] If this speech pattern sounds familiar, this is exactly how Jaken Hagar spoke. It's not really all that clear if this confirms his ethnic origins or it's just a way to disguise himself. Lys was originally a Valyrian colony,

[00:12:17] so it shouldn't surprise you that many people in Lys claim Valyrian ancestry. They look pretty similar to the Targaryens for this exact reason. Interestingly enough, Lys is rather infamous for being a place of hedonism.

[00:12:31] It's pretty well known for the many pleasure houses and pleasure gardens in the city. Aegon IV's mother is from a wealthy banking family in Lys. His last mistress was Sirene of Lys, who gives birth to a daughter, the famed beauty Shiaera Seastar.

[00:12:48] If you listeners recall listening to the earlier episode about the Riverlands, I mentioned that Aegor and Brynden Rivers were rivals with personal beef with each other. One of those things they had beef over was their half-sister, Shiaera. As a reminder, they have Targaryen blood in their veins.

[00:13:09] They both were in love with Shiaera. And well, it turns out she liked one of them in return while the other brother was pretty bitter about it. Another notable thing I'll mention is that Lys is the origin of a really expensive poison known as the Tears of Lys.

[00:13:28] Lord Jon Arryn certainly had a first-hand experience of this particular poison, as we found out in Season 4 of Game of Thrones. Myr is another famous free city mentioned quite a bit in the novels. The citizens of Myr appear to be descendants of people from the Valyrian Freehold.

[00:13:46] Like with Lys, this city does practice slavery. Myr is particularly famous for completed goods like glass and lace. In fact, when you read the novels on many occasions, there are mentions of Myr-ish eyes. This refers to telescopes. Myr has a real monopoly over good quality glass.

[00:14:06] Similar to Braavos, Myr likes to describe itself as being more advanced than Westeros. It's another city that does have some similarity to Renaissance Italy like Braavos does. Of course, we shouldn't forget that the Red Priest Thoros is from Myr.

[00:14:22] In case you forgot who he is, he's the one who kept resurrecting Barak Dondarion. Pentos is another major port city. As you would imagine, the people here make their fortunes on trade. This used to be another Valyrian colony before the Doom happened.

[00:14:38] Officially, slavery is illegal, but the servants in this city are pretty much slaves in truth. What wasn't depicted in Game of Thrones is that the people here like dyeing their hair. There are some really amusing descriptions of men with bright blue beards.

[00:14:54] That certainly would have been interesting to see visually in the show. Another interesting thing to mention is that if you recall in the very first episode of Game of Thrones, we are introduced to Daenerys and Viserys. They were living with Magister Illyrio in Pentos.

[00:15:11] There are some interesting fan theories about Illyrio and his co-conspirator Varys. This is a plot point dropped in the TV show, but Illyrio has more to him in the novels. Definitely participate in the poll on the website if you want me to explore this.

[00:15:29] Tyrosh is also pretty similar to Pentos. I will mention that Dario Naharis, who was Daenerys' lover, was from Tyrosh. Also, he was described as having a blue-dyed beard in the novels. That would have been an interesting look for McKeel Houseman.

[00:15:50] Cahor was a colony formed by religious dissidents from the Valyrian Freehold. They have a belief in a dark god called the Black Goat of Cahor, which requires daily blood sacrifices.

[00:16:03] One interesting thing to note is that the blacksmiths in this city are the only ones who know how to rework Valyrian steel. Gendry's former master Tobo Mott in King's Landing was a Cahoric blacksmith. Volantis is a major city that was also previously a Valyrian colony.

[00:16:23] In fact, the Volentines refer to their home as Valyria's first daughter. The city also has a really large temple to the Lord of Light. I wouldn't be too surprised if Volantis makes more appearances in the Winds of Winter. Volantis is a major slave market city.

[00:16:40] Actually, in the novels, Jorah doesn't directly take Tyrion to Maureen. They actually wound up in Volantis in order to get to Maureen because the TV show doesn't acknowledge the distance of places. The two cities are pretty far apart.

[00:16:56] The Dothraki Sea is a large section of Essos that is also known as the Great Grass Sea. It's called this because all the past kingdoms and cities in this area have been conquered and destroyed by the Dothraki over the previous centuries.

[00:17:12] We did get some glimpses of the areas in the Dothraki Sea in Season 1 with Daenerys' storyline. We also saw it again in Season 6 as Daenerys is forced to return to the only city in the sea, Vaze Dothrake. Vaze Dothrake is a sparsely populated city.

[00:17:33] The only permanent residents are widows of Pascals and the slaves who serve them. The population temporarily increases when wandering Colossars camp there. We saw Vaze Dothrake in Season 1 when Daenerys had to perform the Horse Heart Eating Ceremony.

[00:17:52] And then we saw it again in Season 6 when she is brought there to live her days as Drogo's Widow. Of course, she turns things around by burning down their Great Temple and awing the gathered Dothraki into following her.

[00:18:05] The Valyrian Peninsula is, as the name tells you, a peninsula that was the heart of the Valyrian Freehold. As has been stated a few times in the saga, the Valyrian Freehold was the Great Empire created by dragonriding clans in Valyria.

[00:18:22] It's not 100% clear what caused the Doom of Valyria but the description implies some kind of volcanic explosion. Whether this is natural or magic in origin will never truly know.

[00:18:36] The spooky stories about people disappearing in the ruins and other suspicious things has convinced a lot of book readers that the Doom is possibly connected to magic. Slaver's Bay is, as the name tells you, a region where slavery is a heavy part of the economy.

[00:18:56] Unlike the other cities I just discussed earlier, the people in this region aren't Valyrian in origin. They are the descendants of the old Ghiscari Empire. The Ghiscari went to war with the Valyrians and as you imagine they lost.

[00:19:12] After the Doom of Valyria, the Ghiscari regained control of their territory. Harpies are the emblems of the Ghiscari Empire and their culture, which would explain why in the set designs in Game of Thrones we saw harpies a lot.

[00:19:27] There are a lot of interesting connections between the history of this region to the rebellion against Daenerys and Maureen. I won't be discussing this here but again you'll need to participate in the poll and see if I'll talk about it in season 2 or in a later season.

[00:19:45] We saw plenty of Slaver's Bay as they were featured heavily in Daenerys' storylines in seasons 3 to 6. The three main cities of note are Astapor, Yunkai and Maureen. We are first introduced to Astapor in the beginning episodes of season 3. It is the city famous for the Unsolied.

[00:20:05] What's not mentioned in the TV show is that after Daenerys leaves with the Unsolied, she created a council of three men to act as the new rulers. Not long afterwards, a formerly enslaved butcher manages to convince people that this council was going to bring back the good masters.

[00:20:23] They overthrow her council and this butcher declares himself king. He actually sends a message to Daenerys offering a marriage pact to maintain his power. She has no interest in any such thing. Cleon the Butcher King eventually is overthrown by others and it's just chaos.

[00:20:41] There's civil war and soon there's a city epidemic of dysentery running rampant. It's so bad that refugees are refused entry into Yunkai and Maureen in fear they'll spread the disease in their cities too. Unfortunately, it's too late. Yunkai was the next city that Daenerys attacked after Astapor.

[00:21:04] Of course, after she leaves they resume slavery and start their conquest of the weakened Astapor. They of course discover the dysentery epidemic and try to seal the city to prevent its spreading elsewhere. Of course like I said earlier it doesn't fully work.

[00:21:20] At the end of book 5, Yunkai is actually besieging Maureen along with providing support to the sons of the heartbeat. Unlike in the TV show, the person in charge of Maureen when Daenerys rode off on Drogon was actually Cerberus and Selmy rather than Tyrion.

[00:21:37] Tyrion was actually among the besieging Yunkai with Jorah because they were both slaves. So they actually missed seeing Daenerys in the books. Maureen in the novels is more or less what we saw in the TV show.

[00:21:51] The only things I will note is that some things are different in the storylines of the TV show versus the novels. I already mentioned the fact Baristyn is still alive in the novels while he was killed off in season 5 of the show for some strange reason.

[00:22:05] I also mentioned in the Dorn episode that Quentin Martel goes to Maureen to find Daenerys, but that doesn't go well. You can listen to that episode if you haven't already. And that is my brief audio tour of Essos.

[00:22:19] If you enjoyed this episode, feel free to reach out on social media, send an email or leave reviews where you can. Next we meet. I'll give you my silver stag thoughts about House of the Dragons season 2. So, the larm mortgulis.

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