Dothraki

The Dothraki are a race of nomadic horse-mounted warriors in Essos. They inhabite the vast central plains of Essos known as the Dothraki Sea. Their bond with horses is such that Dothraki are said to be born, fight, and die in the saddle.

Dothraki warriors are commonly referred to as horselords. They are also often (and half-derisively) called Dothraki screamers, because of their fierce war cries as they charge into battle and raids.

## Appearance

Dothraki typically have a copper-toned skin and dark almond eyes, black hair, and black eyes. Dothraki men wear their hair in long braids, oiled or greased with fat from the rendering pits. Dothraki warriors carry small bells in their braids, which ring softly when they move. They arre only allowed to braid their hair after they have won a victory. A bell is added to their braid after each victory; the braid only cut when a Dothraki warrior is defeated in battle, an act through which he let the world know his shame. Only few men die with their braids never having been cut off.

Both men and women might wear painted leather vests over bare chests and horsehair leggings cinched by bronze medallion belts, although wealthier Dothraki might also have silver and golden medallions on their belts. Others may have worn sandsilk trousers. For footwear Dothraki wear leather boots, leather sandals which lace up to the knee, or sandals of woven grass.

The Dothraki clean themselves using sand to scrub them.

## Culture and Religion

### Khalasars

Dothraki live in hordes called khalasars. Their chieftains are called khals, while the wife of a khal are known as a khaleesi. Both have their personal guard; A khal is guarded and accompanied in his daily routine by his kos, also called bloodriders. These men fulfil the roles of guards, brothers, shadows, and friends to the khal in ways that run deeper than the oath of the Kingsguard to the king on the Iron Throne. Ancient traditions proclaim that when a *khal* dies, his bloodriders die with him. Should the *khal* die in battle, the bloodriders live only long enough to avenge him and then die shortly after. The *khal* and his bloodriders commonly refer to each other as "blood of my blood". Each Ko has his own khas. The khaleesi is guarded by the young men in her own khas. A khal’s heir is named the khalakka. Another important position is that of the *jaqqa rhan*, the mercy men, who move among the corpses in battle fields, cutting off the heads of the death and dying. When the khalasar is on the move, scouts range ahead while outriders guard the flanks.

Khalasars keep two sorts of healers. The first are barren women who practice their healing with herbs, potions, and spells, and eunuch slaves, who use knives, needles, and fire.

### Social status

The Dothraki consider riding a horse as a basic marker of social status. A *khal* who cannot ride cannot rule. Custom decrees that the *khaleesi* must ride a mount worthy of her place by the side of the *khal*. Pregnant women are expected to ride on horseback almost up to the moment of birth. Doing anything else might be considered weak, however some women give birth riding on a cart. A cart is of less prestige, and is further meant for eunuchs, cripples, the very young, and the very old. A man who does not ride is considered the lowest of the low. He was not even seen as a man, and considered to be without honour or pride.

Although some are respected, women have a lower social status than men. For example, the bloodriders of a khal will not allow themselves to be commanded by his khaleesi. Nonetheless, even the mightiest khal will bow to the wisdom and authority of the *dosh khaleen*, the widowed khaleesis who resided at Vaes Dothrak.

Most of all, the Dothraki follow strength. Should a khal die without an adult heir, his kos (bloodriders) will fight among themselves to take the place of the fallen khal. In the case that the khal does have a child khalakka (heir), the khalakka will be killed so as not to be a rival.

### Religion

The Dothraki worship a horse god. The Dothraki believe that, when someone dies, the horse god parts the grass and claims the deceased for his starry khalasar, so the deceased can ride the nightlands. The Dothraki further believe that the moon is a goddess, and that she was the wife to the sun.

### Language

The Dothraki have their own language, known to be a rough, harsh language. They use descriptive names, e.g. “Rhaesh Andahli”, meaning “the land of the Andals”, for Westeros, or the term “Milk Men” for the Qartheen, pointing towards their paleness.

### Economy

The Dothraki neither buy nor sell and do not really comprehend it. Buying and selling is considered to be unmanly. Instead, the Dothraki use giving and receiving gifts as a common way for doing trade. However, giving a gift in return might not always occur immediately upon receiving a gift. This was exemplified by the Dothraki "selling" their captives on occasion to the Slaver Cities. They call these slaves "gifts", and as payment receive gifts from the slavers.

Trade is allowed in the sacred city Vaes Dothrak, where, by the leave of the *dosh khaleen*, merchants and traders gather to exchange goods and gold, though they mostly trade with each other, and only little with the Dothraki themselves. Two markets exist in Vaes Dothrak; On the Western Market merchants from the Free Cities come to trade, while on the Eastern Market traders from Yi Ti, Asshai, the Shadow Lands, and the lands from beside the Jade Sea place their caravans. The merchants are tolerated provided that they do not break the peace of the city, do not profane the sacred mountain or lake, and honour the *dosh khaleen* with the traditional gifts of salt, silver, and seed.

### Culinary customs

The Dothraki eat horseflesh, which they prefer to beef and pork, believing horseflesh makes a man strong. They also have black sausages, blood pies and sweetgrass stews, as well as drinking a mildly alcoholic beverage derived from fermented mare's milk. They also drink pepper beer.

### Structures

The Dothraki do not build. A thousand years before the end of the Century of Blood, to build a house they would dig a hole in the earth and raise a grass roof over it. They could raise 'palaces' of woven grass. In Vaes Dothrak, all buildings have been made by the slaves serving there. Since the slaves all originate from different lands, they would often build after the fashion of their own people. As a result, Vaes Dothrak consists of many different types of buildings, including carved stone pavilions, manses of woven grass as large as castles, rickety wooden towers, stepped pyramids faced with marble, and log halls open to the sky.

### Vaes Dothrak

The sacred city of Vaes Dothrak was the only city the Dothraki have. Here, only the *dosh khaleen* reside permanently, together with their slaves and servants. Regardless, the city is large enough to host all khalasars at one time, as the *dosh khaleen* had prophesised that one day all Dothraki will return to the city at the same time. Within the city, the khalasars are to set their enmities aside. It is death to draw a blade in Vaes Dothrak or to shed a free man’s blood, – although this does not entirely prevent murders within the city.

Vaes Dothrak is located in the shadow of the Mother of Mountains, a mountain which only Dothraki men are allowed to ascend. Residing at the edge of the city is the Womb of the World, a large lake from where, the Dothraki believe the first men emerged a thousand years ago upon the back of the first horse.

### Marriage, sexual relations, and childbirth

Among the Dothraki, weddings occur beneath the open sky. The ceremony might last the entire day, during which the guests feast, drink, dance, and fight. During the wedding feast, women dance to drums, while warriors take them before the watching khalasar freely. If two men take the same woman, they fight to the death. A wedding without at least three deaths is seen as a dull affair. During the feast, each dish is offered first to the newlywed pair; all food they refuse is offered to the rest of the participants at the wedding feast. Towards the end of the ceremony, the bride is presented with her bride gifts. As is tradition, a khaleesi would be presented with a gift from each of her husband’s bloodriders – a whip, a bow, and an *arakh*– which she is to decline and give to her husband instead. Following the receiving of the gifts, the khal and khaleesi will consummate their marriage. After the wedding, the khal is to present his new bride to the *dosh khaleen* at Vaes Dothrak.

### Death

The Dothraki believe that the stars in the sky are horses made of fire, and that the starry sky is a great herd of fiery horses racing across the sky. The Dothraki further believe that these horses of fire are ridden by deceased Dothraki, and that the more fiercely a person burned in life, the brighter said person’s star will be in death, causing maesters to say that the Dothraki believe the stars are the spirits of the valiant dead. When a horselord died, a horse is slain so he could mount it in death. The bodies of deceased Dothraki are next burned beneath the open sky. However, when a child died at an age at which he is too young to ride, the child would not ride in the night lands but instead was reborn to begin life anew.

A khal is given a funeral pyre after he dies. A great square is made from wood, in the middle of which the khal’s slain horse is positioned. Over the horse, the platform was constructed on which the khal will be placed. The wood of the platform is laid east to west, from sunrise to sunset. The platform consists of three levels. The wood of the third of these levels were positioned from north to south. On this level the body of the khal is placed. The khal is placed upon the pyre with his head in the direction of the Mother of Mountains. His treasures are positioned around him. The pyre is only lit after the first star has been seen in the sky.

The Dothraki believe it is bad luck to touch the body of a dead man whom they have not personally killed themselves.

### Military

The Dothraki are nomadic warriors; they ride better than any Westerosi knight. The Dothraki fight from horseback, with warriors wielding *arakh*s, curved bows, and whips. The bows the Dothraki use outrange the bows used in the Seven Kingdoms.

The Dothraki ride on small, flat saddles with short stirrups.

### Miscellaneous beliefs and superstitions

The Dothraki hate and fear the sea and the ships in it, as they mistrust all water their horses did not drink. They refer to the sea as “the poison water" and the “black salt sea”.

Dothraki believe that anything of importance in a man's life must take place beneath the open sky.

The Dothraki believe that someday ghost grass will cover the world, and then all life will end.

Bloodmagic is forbidden amongst the Dothraki. The Dothraki consider a maegi to be a woman who lays with demons and practices the blackest of sorceries. A Maegi is considered to be a vile thing, evil and soulless.

When the gods are gone from a certain place, according to the Dothraki, evil ghosts feast by night. The Dothraki feel it best to shun such places.