Golden Company

The Golden Company is a company of sellswords founded by Ser Aegor Rivers, a Great Bastard known as "Bittersteel". The current captain-general is Aegor Blackfyre.
The Golden Company is considered the finest and most powerful company of the Free Cities, with some considering them the most honourable. Despite the notorious unreliability of sellswords, the Golden Company is reputed to have never broken a contract. Their motto is "Our word is good as gold", while their war cry, "Beneath the gold, the bitter steel", pays homage to their founder.
== Culture ==
The men of the Golden Company prefer to call themselves a free brotherhood of exiles, rather than sellswords. Unlike most hosts of household knights and feudal levies, the Golden Company are highly disciplined soldiers able to quickly establish orderly camps.
The high officers display a rude splendour. Like many in their trade they keep their worldly wealth upon their person, including jewelled swords, inlaid armour, heavy torcs, and fine silks. Many wear a lord's ransom in golden arm rings, with each ring signifying one year's service with the Golden Company.
The captain-general's tent, made of cloth-of-gold, is surrounded by a ring of pikes topped with the gilded skulls of previous captains-general.
While the core of the Golden Company is still made up of descendants of men who fought for the Blackfyres, over the past century a steady trickle of outlaws or men from the losing side of other wars has joined their ranks. It has also been joined by other sellswords simply seeking better opportunities whose ancestors were never from Westeros, so that soldiers from a dozen different lands can now be found in the Golden Company. This trend has only increased since the fifth and last Blackfyre Rebellion, over 40 years ago. In the present day, even several of the high-ranking officers do not descend from Blackfyre supporters (including the paymaster, spymaster, and commander of the company's archers), though all of the known captains-general are descended from Blackfyre loyalists.
== History ==
=== Foundation ===
The Golden Company was founded by Ser Aegor Rivers, called "Bittersteel", a legitimized bastard of King Aegon IV Targaryen. Aegor had fled Westeros with the younger sons of Daemon I Blackfyre at the end of the First Blackfyre Rebellion. When Bittersteel saw the support of House Blackfyre ebb away as exiled lords and knights signed on with sellsword companies, such as the Ragged Standard or the Maiden's Men, he decided to create his own sellsword company in 212 AC in order to bind the exiles together.
The Golden Company's reputation was quickly established when Qohor refused to honour the contract it had made. The sellswords sacked Qohor as an answer to the Free City's refusal. The Golden Company has mainly fought in the Disputed Lands for Lys, Myr, or Tyrosh.
== Composition ==
The Golden Company consist of ten thousand men. These include five hundred knights, each with three horses, and a similar number of squires, each having one horse. The company has two dozen elephants, the pride of Harry Strickland.
Black Balaq commands a thousand bows, with a third using crossbows and another third wielding double-curved horn-and-sinew bows common to Essos. The archers with Westerosi blood use big yew longbows, while fifty Summer Islanders use great bows of famed goldenheart.
== Notable Members ==
=== Captains-general ===
* Aegor Rivers, called Bittersteel, founder and first captain-general
* Daemon Blackfyre, killed by his cousin Maelys Blackfyre for command of company
* Maelys I Blackfyre, one of the Nine Penny Kings
* Myles Toyne, called Blackheart
* Harry Strickland, called Homeless Harry
== Members ==
Category:Golden Company
Category:Mercanaries
Category:Military organisations