[Braavos — Locations]
The books go into a little more detail about Daenerys's early life in the Free Cities. Initially, Daenerys lived with Ser Willem and Viserys in Braavos , in a house with a big red door. Ser Willem was old and bedridden and yelled at the servants, but was very kind to Daenerys. After several years, Ser Willem died and the servants drove the Targaryen children from the house, taking what money they had. Daenerys was old enough to remember living in this house and has recurrent dreams about her last sight of the big red door, which came to symbolize the childhood she never had. The house in Braavos was the closest thing to a home Daenerys ever had, but even she never considered herself to be truly home here. Afterward, the Targaryen children bounced around between different patrons, each enjoying having the Targaryen exiles as guests but abandoning them when the novelty wore off. Some briefly entertained the idea of helping them retake the Iron Throne, but as the years passed and Robert Baratheon's rule appeared more and more secure, the number of patrons dwindled and their lives grew meaner. Daenerys grew up living on the sufferance of others, frequently turned out on the street with little warning when their patrons lost interest in them. Viserys was reduced to pathetically begging for support throughout the Free Cities as they moved from patron to patron. In the process, they traveled from Braavos to Myr, then to Tyrosh, then to Qohor, then to Volantis, then to Lys, and ultimately to Pentos (each of the Free Cities except Norvos and Lorath). They never lived in one place for more than a few months, and their stay in Pentos with Illyrio was actually the longest time they had lived in one place since Braavos (for six months in the books, but stated to be over a year in the TV series).
She then expresses her delight by intimately engaging with Jaime, after which she announces that, as Queen, she doesn't care if servants know of their incest. Then, Bernadette arrives, differing from the subject of Jaime, telling Cersei that Tycho Nestoris of the Iron Bank of Braavos has arrived. Following this she forms an alliance with Tycho, hoping that she will gain a loan after Jaime has successfully taken Highgarden . Tycho agrees to this possibility, as Daenerys has cost them many shares in wealth, due to her ending of slavery in Slaver's Bay .
Soon after, Jaime is seen dining in his chambers when Cersei enters the room, and proceeds to disrobe him. They have sex, and then the next morning, they are woken by a servant ringing the doorbell. Jaime urges Cersei to ignore it, and expresses shock when she decides to answer the door, as nobody should see him sleeping in Cersei's bed, but Cersei retorts that she is the Queen and can do whatever she wants. When Cersei opens the door, the servant tells her that the representative from the Iron Bank of Braavos is ready to meet with her, and her eyes catch on to the sight of Jaime in Cersei's bed, before quickly walking away. Cersei smiles as Jaime's concern turns to amusement.
As the trio begin their trek into the Riverlands, they are surprised by Jaqen, who seems to appear from nowhere. Arya approaches him alone and asks how he killed those men, expressing her desire to learn his assassination skills. He offers to take Arya to Braavos (home city of her "dancing" instructor Syrio Forel ) to train with the Faceless Men . She declines, telling him that she needs to find her family first, including Sansa. Jaqen gives Arya a single coin, explaining that should she change her mind, she only needs to give the coin to any man from Braavos and recite the High Valyrian words "Valar Morghulis." Jaqen changes his face to that of another man and bids a stunned Arya farewell.
While traveling on her horse, Arya comes across a ship preparing to leave port. Arya first asks the captain to take her to the Wall , her intent being to meet up with her brother, Jon Snow . When the captain, Ternesio Terys , tells her that he is in fact going home to the Free City of Braavos , Arya shows him the iron coin which Jaqen H'ghar had given her. As Terys looks in awe, she tells him " valar morghulis" . He promptly nods his head and replies " valar dohaeris ", offering her a cabin aboard the Titan's Daughter . Arya is then shown sailing away on the ship, headed to Braavos.
After a long sea voyage, Arya arrives at Braavos. Arya is awestruck by the Titan , which, according to the captain, would wake and protect the city whenever Braavos stood in danger in the old times. Arya replies it's just a statue. Just then, the Titan lets out a loud blast announcing their arrival, startling her, but she convinces herself that she is not afraid. Terys rows Arya to the House of Black and White , where he claims she may find Jaqen , and Arya thanks him for bringing her this far. Arya lingers outside waiting for admittance, but is rejected by an elder man despite showing the coin Jaqen H'ghar had given her and mentioning their prior association.
Arya waits outside the House for days, endlessly reciting the names of the people she wants to kill, but eventually tosses away her coin and wanders off into the streets of Braavos. While hunting for pigeons in the city, Arya encounters several boys who intend to take Needle from her. Although she is more than willing to kill them, the boys scatter when the man from the House of Black and White appears again behind her. After following him back to the House, Arya demands to know his identity, and he returns to her the coin she had thrown in the water. His face morphs into the visage Arya had known him as — that of Jaqen H'ghar. However, he insists he's not Jaqen H'ghar, but "no one", as all Faceless Men are, and he tells Arya she must learn to be "no one" as well.
Afterwards, Arya secures passage back to Westeros by bribing a Westerosi trader . However, she is attacked and repeatedly stabbed in the stomach by the Waif, and only barely escapes by jumping into the river. She is left stumbling through the streets of Braavos, critically wounded and extremely paranoid.
Seeking refuge, Arya finds her way to Lady Crane , collapsing from her injuries behind the theater troupe stage. Lady Crane takes her to her living quarters, where she treats Arya's wounds and gives her a new set of clothing. Arya reluctantly accepts a dosage of milk of the poppy to help ease her pain, and soon after falls asleep in Lady Crane's bed. When she wakes up, she finds her dead in the next room, murdered by the Waif. Jumping off the balcony and into the streets of Braavos, Arya manages to escape, though she is pursued by the Waif. After scurrying the back-alleys of the city, Arya finds herself in the Braavosi market. However, the Waif continues to pursue her, forcing her to jump into the commotion of the crowd. Subsequently, Arya's stitches become undone.
In A Feast for Crows , once she arrives in Braavos, Arya is escorted to the House of Black and White, where she searches for Jaqen and a safe place to stay. Instead of another man posing as Jaqen, she is greeted by a figure she can only identify as the "kindly man." The coin she presents gains her entry into initiation training with the Faceless Men .
Sansa enters Arya's quarters and opens a leather case containing several "faces," including the late Walder Frey 's face. Arya catches her sister pilfering through her personal effects. When Sansa tells Arya that her men are loyal to her, Arya mockingly retorts that they are not here. Arya tells Sansa that she obtained the faces from the Faceless Men of Braavos and admits she spent time training to be a Faceless Man. She forces Sansa to play the lying game and begins by asking if she thinks that Jon is the rightful King. Sansa demands that Arya tell her what the "faces" are.
After being granted an audience with the Iron Bank of Braavos , Stannis and Davos travel to Braavos , where they meet with Tycho Nestoris . Although at first dismissive of Stannis's claim due to his inferior army and his lack of resources to repay any debts to the Bank, Davos defends Stannis as the only one able to repay the debts, both that he takes and those of the Iron Throne. Davos's plea insists that Stannis always pays up and that the Lannisters will be faced with a power vacuum when Tywin Lannister (who is 67 years old) dies and that, if such a moment occurred, the Bank wasn't likely to see a return on its investment in Westeros. The bankers decide to grant Stannis his loan and their support, allowing Davos to once again hire Salladhor Saan into their service.
House Baelish had very meager origins and no distinguished lineage: Petyr's great-grandfather was a lowly sellsword from Braavos who came to the Vale at the invitation of House Corbray . Petyr's grandfather was a poor hedge knight , who managed to earn a minor lordship of a few stony acres in the smallest peninsula of the Fingers .
In A Dance with Dragons , Daenerys and Barristan Selmy learn from Oberyn's nephew, Prince Quentyn Martell that shortly after the end of Robert's Rebellion , Oberyn secretly travelled to Braavos at Doran's behest and negotiated with Ser Willem Darry , a Targaryen loyalist acting as her and Viserys 's guardian. Oberyn and Willem signed a pact, witnessed by the Sealord of Braavos, in which Dorne pledged to help Viserys retake the Iron Throne, in return for Viserys taking Oberyn's niece, Princess Arianne Martell as his Queen. Barristan remarks that had Robert learned of the pact, he would have taken Oberyn, Doran and Arianne's heads for it. After a failed attempt (ostensibly) by the Sons of the Harpy to poison Daenerys is made at the Great Pit of Daznak , Barristan urges Quentyn and his companions to leave Meereen before Hizdahr (who needs a scapegoat to pin the poisoning on) blames Quentyn for it, citing Oberyn's tendency to use poison against his enemies.
She chides Tywin that the Tyrells are paying half of the cost of the extravagant wedding and that the Lannisters may need to turn to the Tyrells for financial support again, due to the crown's increasing war debts, particularly to the Iron Bank of Braavos . She later witnesses the poisoning of Joffrey (in actually, she was the one who poisoned him), and is the first among those who call for help, sheltering Margaery from the sight of the dying boy.
Braavos is one of the Free Cities located to the east of Westeros . It is the northern-most, the richest, and arguably the most powerful of the Free Cities. Described as a city of seafarers and master swordsmen, Braavos consists of hundreds of tiny islands connected by stone bridges. Its main landmarks include the Titan of Braavos , the House of Black and White and the city's famed Iron Bank.
Of the nine Free Cities in western Essos , Braavos is unique in that it was not founded as a colony of the Valyrian Freehold . The city was established by a large group of slaves , who overpowered their Valyrian captors and took control of the ships that were transporting them. Knowing they would be severely punished for such an act of rebellion, the slaves sought a refuge as far away from the Freehold as possible. Braavosi histories claim that a group of wise women-priestesses who followed the religion of the Moonsingers -prophesied where they would find sanctuary; in a distant lagoon surrounded by pine-clad slopes, where the thick fog would help conceal the refugees from passing dragonriders. It was to just such a place that the refugees ultimately arrived, and their city began to expand across the many islands and mudflats that dotted the lagoon.
For more than a century, Braavos remained hidden from the world: to disguise their stolen Valyrian ships, the refugees used a dye derived from a local species of snail to stain the hulls and sails of their ships a deep purple (a practice that the Braavosi continue to use on their ships in the present-day). Fearing recapture, the founders of the city took great pains to keep its existence secret, presenting false information to any outsiders when questioned about their homeland. Eventually, the city's elected leader-known as the Sealord -sent ships across the world to proclaim the existence of Braavos, an event known as the Unmasking and celebrated every year since with ten days of feasting and revelry. After the Doom of Valyria , Braavos rose to even greater prominence, becoming a major trade and banking center. The Iron Bank became the greatest single repository of wealth in the known world , and to the present-day everyone from princes to merchants frequent it to request loans of gold.
After his victory over the Triarchy in the War for the Stepstones , Lord Corlys Velaryon begins negotiations to betroth his daughter Laena to the son of the Sealord. A match between Driftmark and Braavos is considered deeply troubling by the Small Council of Viserys I Targaryen , which may need to be countered with an alliance to one of the other Free Cities. The threat from House Velaryon is defused when Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen agrees to marry Ser Laenor Velaryon .
Jaqen H'ghar tells Arya and shows her that he is one of the Faceless Men of Braavos and invites her to follow him back there. When Arya grudgingly declines, Jaqen gives her a coin and tells her to show it to a Braavosi and recite the words valar morghulis should she ever decide to visit Braavos.
Stannis and Davos visit Braavos to treat with the Iron Bank. The Bank initially refuses to financially back Stannis, but eventually agrees to help fund Stannis's war effort. Davos then recruits Salladhor Saan , who is in Braavos at the time.
In a Small Council meeting, Mace Tyrell reveals that the Iron Bank has called in one tenth of the Crown's debts. Cersei tasks Mace to travel to Braavos to negotiate better terms with the Iron Bank. Soon he arrives at Braavos, escorted by Ser Meryn Trant ; he is greeted by Tycho Nestoris , in the name of the Iron Bank.
Braavos is located at the northwestern-most point of the continent of Essos, where the Narrow Sea to the west meets the Shivering Sea to the north. The city is spread across hundreds of tiny islands in the lagoon, connected by stone bridges and a vast network of canals.
More than any of the other Free Cities, Braavos is renowned for its ethnic diversity and religious tolerance. Since the founders of the city came from many different lands and possessed numerous physical appearances, there are no set features that mark a "Braavosi" ethnicity. This is in sharp contrast with some of the more ethnically homogeneous Free Cities, such as Lys (whose inhabitants are fair-skinned, blue, green or violet eyed and blonde) and Myr (where residents are dark-haired and dark-eyed with olive skin). Because the city founders worshiped many different gods, it was decreed that all faiths would be honored and that no one religion would be elevated above any other, although some faiths have more devotees-and thus larger temples-than others (the Moonsingers and the Lord of Light being outstanding examples).
Another defining trait of Braavosi culture is its hatred of slavery, a direct relic of the city's founding. The first law of Braavos-engraved on the arch that rises above the Long Canal-decrees that no man, woman, or child in the city is ever to be made a slave. In fact, Braavos is one of the very few places in Essos where slavery is not practiced (by contrast, the Free City of Volantis contains five slaves for every free man). However, they do sill have ties to it through the Iron Bank, who are financially invested in the slave trade.
When the Dutch Republic achieved independence after the Eighty Years War ended, the resulting government was a non-hereditary general assembly, at least in theory; in practice it was dominated by oligarchical merchant families. In any case, this led to a strong anti-monarchist sentiment during the Dutch Golden Age, a time espousing egalitarian values. Architectural designs from the period have a marked emphasis on sobriety and restraint - in contrast with wealthy kings and nobles who were each trying to outdo each other with increasingly opulent displays of grandeur. In many ways this matches how Braavosi society is described in the novels: founded by a diverse mixture of escaped slaves from the Valyrian Freehold, Braavos is strongly opposed to the slave trade, and has no hereditary nobles or kings. Like the Dutch Republic, Braavosi politics are largely dominated by wealthy merchant-princes and bankers.
Physically, due to its many canals and romance culture vaguely similar to medieval Italian city-states, Braavos in the novels is vaguely similar to real-life Venice . However, in terms of climate and weather, it is the northernmost of the Free Cities (at the same latitude as the Eyrie in Westeros), and is noted for having cooler temperatures with mists rolling in off the water - more akin to northern European cities like Amsterdam (which itself contains many canals and is known as the "Venice of the North"). The giant statue known as the Titan of Braavos is analogous to that of the ancient Greek Colossus of Rhodes, which was located in a Mediterranean climate.
Indeed, Production Designer Deborah Riley said in a Season 4 featurette: "David and Dan had always said that perhaps an inspiration for Braavos could be Venice. And the thing that I think was quite exciting about Braavos (in " The Laws of Gods and Men ") was being able to show wealth, but being able to show it through an austerity, through the notion that less is more."
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Braavos lies at the northwestern-most point of the continent of Essos , roughly due east of the Vale of Arryn in Westeros . Braavos is the only one of the nine Free Cities which is not a former colony of the Valyrian Freehold . The city was founded by galley slaves after they staged a mutiny and killed their Valyrian overseers. Directed by the Moonsingers , they sailed as far north as they could in the Narrow Sea in search of a refuge. They established Braavos and kept its location secret for over four centuries, accepting other refugees and escaped slaves in the process. Because of the nature of its founding, Braavos does not keep slaves, does not like to do business with those who keep slaves, and frequently uses its military and economic power to encourage other states to give up slavery. Although the novels imply that Braavos revealed itself to the world after the Doom of Valyria four hundred years ago, World of Ice and Fire suggests this occurred further in the past than that. The Braavosi apparently revealed their existence to the Freehold and the Iron Bank offered the dragonlords reparations (with interest) for their lost ships and material goods-but not the slaves. The Valyrians apparently didn't care enough to seek revenge on the city and those that did were mollified by the Iron Bank's bribe.
Whatever the case, Braavos was in an advantageous position when the Doom struck, and as the other Free Cities were left in chaos for decades after the Doom, Braavos rose to become the most powerful of the Free Cities. Due to its unique origin, Braavos is sometimes referred to as the Bastard Daughter of Valyria.
The city sprawls across a hundred islands in a vast lagoon. The nearby mainland is mostly marshland, while the seaward sides of the city are protected by tall, mountainous islands which form a semi-circle around the city. There is only one channel large and deep enough to accommodate ocean-going ships. This channel is defended by a massive statue called the Titan of Braavos , which serves as landmark, lighthouse and defensive fortification. Just beyond the Titan lies a vast shipyard called the Arsenal , which is capable of assembling a war galley out of local materials in just a day. The city proper lies beyond.
Because the Valyrians took slaves from across the vast reaches of Essos and beyond, its slave population consisted of a wide range of ethnicities. The World of Ice & Fire sourcebook mentions that the convoy of slaves who founded Braavos included Andals , Summer Islanders , Ghiscari , Naathi , Rhoynar , Ibbenese and Sarnori , as well as pure-blooded Valyrians. Subsequently, Braavos is ethnically and culturally very diverse, with much more of a "cosmopolitan" and polyglot society than even the other Free Cities. There is no set "Braavosi ethnicity", or any prominent physical features that distinguish them from other peoples. This is in contrast with some of the more ethnically uniform of the Free Cities, such as Myr (whose inhabitants tend to have dark features and olive skin) or Lys (whose inhabitants have classic Valyrian looks of pale skin, blue eyes, and blonde to white hair). By the same token, there is also no one majority religion in Braavos: one of the first dictates that the city's founders put into action was that no god would be more honored than any other. Worshipers of all major religions may be found in Braavos, as well as numerous minor local religions, though the number of worshipers directly effects the grandeur and prominence of their temples: the Temple of the Moonsingers, the faith of the women who led the escaped slaves to freedom, is the largest in the city. Over the past century, the number of followers of the Lord of Light has grown significantly in Braavos, resulting in a sizable Red Temple . For traders and travelers from Westeros, the Sept-beyond-the-Sea offers worship of the Faith of the Seven and maintains its own community of septons and septas . Additionally, the Isle of the Gods hold numerous shires to the many deities from across the known world, including the Weeping Lady of Lys , the Great Shepherd of the Lhazareen , and the Lord of Harmony, worshiped by the Naathi.
At the time of the War of the Five Kings , Braavos is more or less the most powerful of the Free Cities. The Free City with the largest population is Volantis , the first colony of Valyria which used to be the most powerful. However, Volantis entered into a decline three hundred years ago after attempting and failing to conquer all of the other Free Cities. While still one of the more powerful of the group, due to its decline and internal problems supporting its large population, Volantis was edged out by Braavos as the most powerful overall. This is despite the fact that Braavos actually has a relatively small population, and physically all of Braavos could easily fit within Volantis's harbor.
Braavos has a sizable navy. In a great battle at Bitterweed Bay, the Braavosi fleet destroyed the last great fleet of the Kingdom of Sarnor, securing its eastern frontier. Braavos opposed Volantis in the Century of Blood , its most direct involvement in the war being the deployment of a hundred warships to the aid of Lys. During Aegon's Conquest , a dozen Braavosi ships helped House Arryn fend off the initial Targaryen assault on the Kingdom of the Mountain and the Vale , destroying the Targaryen fleet in the process. The Braavosi fleet also deployed to suppress a rebellion on the Three Sisters on behalf of House Stark , a task it achieved peacefully when the Sistermen surrendered without a fight.
After the Targaryen conquest of Westeros, Braavos joined forces with Pentos and Lorath and defeated a Myr-Lys- Tyrosh alliance. Braavos fought six wars with Pentos over slavery, emerging victorious in four of these (including the last one, which left Pentos utterly stripped of its former power). Pentos was subsequently forced to abolish slavery, though very wealthy Pentoshi like Illyrio Mopatis privately flout this with their "servants". Aerys II Targaryen almost went to war with Braavos in 276 AC over a dispute with the Iron Bank, but Tywin Lannister solved the crisis by paying off the loans with his own money. Braavos is currently the most powerful of the Free Cities, and the Iron Throne is in massive debt to the Iron Bank. That is, the crown WAS in massive debt until Cersei Lannister raids the homeland and vaults of House Tyrell to repay the crown's debt to the Iron Bank.
Braavos sprawls across a hundred small islands in the lagoon, connected by numerous bridges, while the larger islands are criss-crossed by networks of smaller canals. For this reason horses are a rare sight in the city, and small boats are the fastest means of travel from one point in the city to another. There are also few trees in the city (except in gardens of the wealthy), nor is there brush and thatch to weave into roof coverings, so buildings in Braavos are typically made entirely of stone.
The only opening in the lagoon large enough for sea-going ships to enter is defended by the Titan of Braavos, to the northwest of the city. Ships that sail under the Titan and continue in a straight line will reach the main waterway through Braavos, the Long Canal , which roughly divides the city in half. The Long Canal widens out when it reaches the heart of the city, forming its own interior artificial harbor, dotted with a few smaller islands which numerous temples are located on (due to their central location), among them the House of Black and White . Large ocean-going ships cannot sail onto the Long Canal itself, due to the shallow water and numerous bridges.
Instead, two major harbors along the outer edges of Braavos service ocean-going ships: the Purple Harbor on the northern side (proceeding left after passing the Titan), and Ragman's Harbor on the western side (to the right side after passing the Titan). Only Braavosi ships are allowed to use the Purple Harbor, while foreign ships have to use Ragman's Harbor (making the latter a much more rough and dirty neighborhood).
The dozens of islets in Braavos (some natural, other made by canals) are generally gathered into four major clumps or districts, three of which touch the Long Canal. Generally, the northeast of the city near the Purple Harbor is richer, while the northwestern of the city near Ragman's Harbor is more working-class: