Pentos

Pentos is one of the Free Cities, the nine great cities of western Essos. It is a port-city, found on the eastern coast of the Bay of Pentos.

Also considered within Pentosi territory are the ruined city of Ghoyan Drohe, to the northeast, and the town of Mantalos, to the south.

Given the city's long history as a centre of trade, the wealthy and powerful of the city are often heavily involved in mercantile actions.

## Layout

### The Port

Surrounded on three sides by massive stone walls populated by tall square towers, nearly all visitors to Pentos do so via the four main harbours.

* The Magister's Harbour - Named for its close proximity to the most affluent part of the city, in which the manses of nearly all the magisters and wealthy merchants may be found, the Magister's Harbour is by far the most lavish, but not the largest. Maintained by an army of freebond servants and guarded by Unsullied Warriors, its boardwalks are carved from marble and populated with statues of gods and kings.
* Singer's Wharf - The largest of the four harbours, Singer's Wharf is the main harbour used by merchants and travellers alike, and is capable of holding near three hundred vessels at full capacity. Located nearby are a great number of taverns and brothels, as well as the Prince's Market.
* The Bronze Harbour - Home of the twenty warship-strong Pentosi fleet permitted in their agreements with the city of Braavos, the Bronze Harbour is the smallest of the four main harbours.
* Irror's Dock - Built and owned by the wealthy and powerful Balarr Family, Irror's Dock is outstripped in opulence by only the Magister's Harbour, although is dwarfed in size by its rival. Serving as a private harbour for the merchant vessels of the Balarr Family, minimising the distance travelled between ship and their storerooms and headquarters. Any ship is welcome to utilise the dock, but unless they fly the Balarr sigil atop their mast, they find themselves subject to a fee for docking.

### The City

The Free City of Pentos is home to merchants and traders both great and small, seafarers and sailors, mummers and whores, and each are represented in some way within most of the city's many districts. Districts of particular note include:

* The Golden District - Stretching across much of the northern and western parts of the city, the Golden District is home to the majority of the manses and solars of the Magisters of Pentos. Filled with sprawling gardens containing colourful flowers and shrubs from across the known world, and host to a melange of exotic fruit-trees the Golden District is a lavish display of the mercantile wealth of the Free City. Guards heralding from dozens of sellsword companies, now committed in service to a more stable, less cut-throat profession, patrol the marble streets, scrutinising those whom they believe do not belong in the District. Despite this apparent safety, nearly every manse is surrounded by walls of its own, though this may be to keep away prying eyes as much as keeping its contents and owners secure.
* The Spice District - Containing the storehouses and merchant premises largely responsible for lifting the Free City from its days as a Valyrian outpost tended to primarily by farmers, the Spice District is located between Singer's Wharf and Irror's Dock, and has served the latter for near half a century, and the former for substantially longer. Contained within the Spice District the remnants of the long *officially* outlawed slave trade still persists, and the associates and assistants of the city's magisters will often return, bringing with them freebond servants acquired from within.
* The Merchant's Quarters - Whilst the Spice District is built upon history and tradition, the Merchant's Quarters changes with the turn of the months and years. Every moon a new trading organisation sets up headquarters within the district, only to depart the next, driving new construction and renovation at a rate unparalleled anywhere in the city. At its eastern edge, the Merchant's Quarters gives way to the sprawling Prince's Market.
* The Plaza of Fountains - Overlooked by the looming palace in which the Prince of Pentos resides, the Plaza of Fountains is located roughly in the centre of the city. Some three-dozen pools and statues can be found within the square, of varying size and form. Amongst the fountains mummers perform shows in motley and costume, seeking the attention and coin of passersby.
* The Prince's Market - According to citizens of Pentos, the Prince's Market is the largest and greatest singular market in the Known World and offers near everything to a visitors with the coinage. Spices from Qarth and the Far East, cages filled with deadly manticores, butterflies the size of a man's palm and small queer looking monkeys from the forested Kingdom of the Ifeqevron, bronze and iron helmets chased with precious stones, Myrish lens and fish caught fresh from the Bay, all can be found upon merchant stalls within the Prince's Market.
* The Sunrise Town and Gate - On the eastern wall closest to the Rhoyne, the Sunrise Gate can be found, and serves as the primary land-based route for entrance into the city. Around the gate a number of shanties and huts have been built, stretching far from the walls themselves. Besides the occasional intervention to ensure the Sunrise Road remains unencumbered, the town has been largely allowed to proliferate out of control, and is now considered by many to be a district in its own right.

## The Prince

The Prince of Pentos is a title bestowed to an individual chosen from the forty families of Pentos. At the start of each New Year, the Prince is responsible for deflowering the maidens of Sea and Field during the Festival of Prosperity. The role of Prince is bestowed upon the chosen individual without much autonomy, and carries a heavy cost. If the city finds itself in hard times, the Prince is executed as an appeasement to the gods, and a new one chosen in their place.

A full account of the Princes of Pentos since the turn of the century can be found on the page, Princes and Archons, Magisters and Triarchs.

## Recent Events

Following the war with the Pentosi around the turn of the second century since Aegon's Conquest of Westeros, Braavosi relations with the merchant Free City have been tenuous at best. Restricted to a fleet of twenty warships and prohibited from hiring sellsword and sellsail companies, Pentos finds itself under regular inspections from Braavosi officials. Serving as a subsidiary department of the Palace of Justice, those who are responsible for such investigations are given the title of Peacekeeper. The present Sealord of Braavos, Maelok Otherys, served as a Peacekeeper for nearly thirty years before being chosen by the Keyholders and Magisters of the city to fulfil the role. As such, it is uncommon for sellsword companies to approach the Free City of Pentos, knowing that finding meaningful contracts are unlikely in the area. Despite this, ever since the Clash of Fire and Stars, in 232AC, in which Volantis sent a force to burn the town of Mantalos to the ground, claiming it an affront to R'hllor, sellswords have lingered around Mantalos, hoping to seek the fame and wealth showered onto the Brazen Titans for their role in the town's defence.

Much as is the case further to the north, in Braavos, the Free City of Pentos has been subjected to a great influx of refugees over the past moons, largely due to the presence of a large Dothraki horde riding throughout Andalos. The population of the Sunrise Town, a collection of crude buildings nestled against the eastern walls of Pentos, has swelled with those fleeing from the north, and new constructions of tents and huts continue to hinder the passage of trade caravans through the Sunrise Gate. Many of the magisters of the city have noted that if the growth is allowed to continue uninhibited, the road may be blocked off in its entirety by the mass of people and the possessions they managed to bring with them.

The town of Mantalos has also been affected by the increased movement of people from Andalos, but also those coming from across the Known World as pilgrimage to the Church located at the town's centre. This influx of people has resulted in further spreading of the faith, and as such those that continue further south still, towards Myr and the Disputed Lands bring with them the beliefs of Pentos and its vassal states.

The Festival of Prosperity is an annual event that takes place in the Free City of Pentos, and is intended to bring prosperity to the city for another year by the ritual deflowering of the Maidens of Sea and Field by the Prince of Pentos, as well as a series of celebrations. It runs for the duration of the first moon each year, and the upcoming celebrations will be the first over which the new Prince, Joronos Essatis has presided.