The Balarr Family

The Balarr Family are a wealthy and powerful Essosi mercantile family, operating primarily out of Lys as the owners of Silver Lotus Trading Guild.

Lysor Balarr, the Head of the Family and Guildmaster of the Silver Lotus Trading Guild is the current Archon of the Triarchy of the Three Daughters.

## Origins

The first mention of the Balarr Family is the Pentoshi harbour logs in around 145AC, the notation giving mention to Irror Balarr, first-mate upon the vessel *Sable Centaur*, captained by Aeraphos Phassahran. The vessel, having returned from Qarth, came laden with exotic spices and fabrics, yielding enough profit to facilitate the purchase of another vessel. The ship, dubbed *Prospect*, was given to Irror in exchange for his years serving aboard, and the two began business partners. Carrying supplies of greater and greater wealth, Captains Aeraphos and Irror began to grow wealthy, and with their riches worked to expand their fleet and the reach of their fledgling trade network into an organisation owning dozens of vessels.

In 156AC, Captain Aeraphos and the Sable Centaur were lost near the Basilisk Isles, and Irror took the opportunity to reorganise management in the merchant company. He removed nearly fifteen Captains whose loyalty he doubted, replacing them with family members and those others faithful to the Balarr name. This cull is considered by many historians to be the point in time when the Balarr Family Mercantile Company was truly born. After consolidating his fleet, Irror sent them to the corners of the world, and vessels bearing the Balarr crest would be seen from Oldtown and King's Landing to Asshai-by-the-Shadow and Ib, although none more so than between the cities known sometimes as the Daughters - Myr, Tyrosh and Lys.

Irror died in 172AC following near two years of illness after a visit to the Port of Ibben garnered him a stubborn and recurrent chill. The complications had slowed his mind and sapped his body of its energy, prompting his son Lahelos to take over the main operations of the organisation. Whilst it had been Irror’s wish for his four sons to share the efforts between them, Lahelos took the task upon himself exclusively, seeking to replicate the success of his father before him.

Such a decision would spark a deep and bitter conflict that would stunt the growth of the company for years, whilst actively degrading the legacy of the Balarrs all the while.

## Ruin under the Four Brothers

When Lahelos Balarr took over control of the Balarr Family Mercantile Family following his father’s death in 172AC, he granted each of his brothers control of a single trade vessel and commanded them to set out into the world as their father once had to build and develop as he had.

Both Varys and Noro Balarr accepted the offer, agreeing to immediately set sail to expand operations in Braavos and Volantis respectively, but Syreo, the oldest baring Lahelos himself, refused. Accusing his brother of stealing his inheritance, he spat his rejection at the feet of Lahelos, instructing him to instead take the cog offered and sell it or set it ablaze if he did not want it anymore.

When Lahelos returned to the family manse in Pelosse from the harbourside later that day, he found Syreo gone, as well as his own wife and children. Furious, Lahelos had his father’s men, now serving at his command, storm the port in search of them. Each ship in the fleet was searched in turn, the holds cleared of their cargo, every crate prised open and examined. Such an event quickly drew the attention the Warden of Pelosse, Adarano Flaerin, relative of the Balarr brothers by means of marriage to their sole sister, Oranea. Informing Adarano of Syreo’s flight and the kidnapping of his wife Ahreya and children Donario, Jorys and Phenola, Lahelos found his numbers doubled by means of supplementation with the Yellow Hoods of the City Watch at the Warden’s command. Their search expanded further, encompassing the full city, but yet still proved for naught.

Operations of the company were put on hold for the best part of three moons as Lahelos and Warden Adarano’s men continued to scour the city and surrounding countryside. Dutifully do as they were bid, both Varys and Noro arrived at their respective destinations and started to go about their attempts at expansion.

Noro started by selling his solitary trade cog and replacing it with a trio of vessels with shallower hulls more suited for sailing upon the Rhoyne. Providing the service of his ships to the Galtigar family of the Old Blood, he worked moving supplies between Volantis and the city-states they controlled along the Rhoyne. In doing so, he started to build up connections with the minor merchant guilds operating out of Volon Therys, Selhorys and Valysar, as well as those based within the Golden Fields further north. Diligent and deliberate in his approach to trade, contracts and finances, Noro made few friends but soon gathered himself a great number of associates and business partners eager to go about continued trade deals and agreements. Within a year his fleet had doubled in size, within another three years it had doubled once more. A growing presence on the southern Rhoyne, Noro would eventually come to marry a Volantene noblewoman, before settling within the city on a more permanent basis.

Varys would find Braavos to be an entirely different and more formidable stage than his younger brother. Upon arrival in the Bastard Daughter of Valyria, he and his ship were seized in the Chequy Port by the Reyann family. Whilst the Balarr family had been involved in the trade of slaves within the Daughters, as per the demand within the cities, Irror had been very careful to never sail further north than the Sea of Myrth and Anlos with a cargo hold filled as such, but nonetheless the Braavosi arrested Varys Balarr, declaring him to be a slaver. Dragged before a jury comprised of Keyholders, Merchants, Magisters, Moonsingers and the Sealord himself in the Palace of Truth to speak of his crimes, Varys pleaded his innocence, but was sentenced guilty nonetheless where the court reconvened within the Palace of Justice. He was spared death upon a bravo’s blade only by the words offered by a merchant whose guild had exchanged in favourable contracts with his father during the fledgling days of the company, so instead would spend the remainder of the decade within the Sealord’s prisons, vast floating galleys no longer truly shipworthy for the stormy waves of the Narrow Sea.

Oblivious to the differing fates of his younger brothers, Lahelos instead continued to search for his wayward brother and the rest of his family. While they had been simply adjourned initially, trade operations of the company were now entirely ceased in favour of pouring the resources into the search efforts. Fines and expenses sprung up across the Free Cities as contract terms were breached in masse, but such fees did naught to staunch the determination-come-desparation that drove the firstborn son of Irror Balarr. In turn, Lahelos would be forced to sell warehouses and holdings throughout the Daughters to pay his increasing debts to both those wronged by his disregard for prior contracts, and the Warden’s men that he commanded from port to port.

Three years passed and with it the coffers of the family had grown truly dry, prompting Lahelos to start auctioning off the very fleet with which he scoured Westeros and Essos alike. The funds raised would serve to fund his machinations until the end of the decade before finally the legacy of Irror was naught but dust, and the few ragged clothes that Lahelos still possessed. Begging along the harbourside of Lys, merchants and sailors once heavy of pocket from his father’s efforts now mocked and spat at him, for he had brought the company on which their livelihoods relied to ruin.

Lahelos’ cup would remain empty most days, although occasionally a few Wenches would chime against the pewter goblet to save him the streets that night. Desperate, he turned his remaining strength to mercenary work, although found little talent for it. He sought employment as a messenger, running letters between the manses of the city, but could not keep the pace expected. His first theft was that of bread, the second of a blood-orange. When he had run out of fingers to count his stolen goods on, there was coin and jewellery amongst them too.

His spell as a pickpocket was short-lived when he strayed into a rival gang’s territory and found himself hounded by would-be competitors. When he refused to leave, he was clasped in manacles and delivered to the barracks of the City Watch, a list of his crimes pinned to his chest. Judgement was passed, he was to lose first his fingers, then the hands that had assisted said fingers in their thefts.

The day of punishment came, but Lahelos woke to find himself a freeman, the cost of his stolen goods paid in full, and the value upon his head settled. Lahelos fell at the feet of the one responsible, weeping his thanks, only for his thankfulness to turn to scorn as he looked upon his brother’s face. With a flash of a curved blade, the Summer Islander that stood at Syreo’s side took his right hand in a single strike - payment for what Lahelos had stolen from his family, only to squander.

Syreo offered naught but forgiveness to his elder brother in the moons that followed, providing sustenance and shelter to allow him to regain his strength. Syreo, Ahreya and her children had slipped from the port-town aboard a Lyseni warship captained by a man once in service to Irror Balarr and from Lys had paid another vessel to carry them to the Summer Isles. They had enjoyed the hospitality of the Dols, the Princes and Princesses of the island of Moluu, before pledging to assist them in managing their trade with the other isles and beyond. In the decade that Lahelos had spent all the coin his father had earned, Syreo had been instead doing as Irror had - slow but determined expansion and growth. The Dols had prospered under his guidance, and showered their appreciation and affection upon Syreo in return. Operating as the Silver Lotus Trading Guild, Syreo had started anew as Irror had before him, inevitably evading detection with his endless travelling between the Summer Isles and the continents of Essos and Westeros.

During the time in the Summer Isles, the relationship between Syreo Balarr and his brother’s wife Ahreya had also developed, prompting their eventual marriage during a festival celebrating Sallar and Shanta in 178AC. Syreo would later claim on his deathbed that Lahelos’ children Donario, Jorys and Phenola were truly his, and thus the real reason that Ahreya had opted to flee Pelosse with him, but this detail never reached the ears of Lahelos himself, for he would die but a few years later after his salvation.

Given a replacement of silver for the hand he had lost, Lahelos’ spirits seemed much lifted once he was reunited with what he had lost, the years of turmoil having deeply tempered the blinding arrogance he possessed. Standing shoulder to shoulder with his brother, instead of seeking to hold the power himself, the Silver Lotus Trading Guild would continue to prosper. With growing influence once again and a clean slate readied, they were able to procure the release of Varys from his prison in Braavos, and once again reconnect with Noro, now the proud father of three girls himself.

Irror’s wish had finally been fulfilled, demanding only thousands upon thousands of squandered coins, a decade and a half worth of isolation in prison cell and city alleys, and a great deal of suffering, desperation and despair to come to be.

Unfortunately, the sons of Irror had not tasted the last of their personal sadnesses. The damp confines of the Three Chains had damaged the lungs of Varys beyond the work of healing, resulting in his demise mere moons after their reunion. Noro would eventually return to Volantis with his wife and children, leaving Lahelos and Syreo alone once more. When Lahelos’ ship vanished in an autumn storm a few years later, Syreo would turn to his own sons Donario and Jorys, seeking to pass on his own knowledge should the waves decide to claim him too.

## The Silver Lotus and the Black Dragon

Syreo would continue to lead and teach for some two and a half decades before his own passing during the year of 207AC. Sharing the responsibility between them Donario and Jorys continued as their father had before, investing and expanding in the manner taught. Warehouses sold by Lahelos were reacquired and new contracts negotiated with those carrying the legacy of the scoured during the times of ruin. The acquisitions would not be without hazard however, as Donario was killed during a scouting mission to try and acquire lands on the Orange Shore for production of wine, prompting his own children - sons and daughters alike to take to the waves and assist their uncle Jorys in the general management of the company.

While many suffered throughout the year 219AC as the Third Blackfyre Rebellion stirred into life. With armies of sellswords needing transportation across the Narrow Sea, several merchant cogs owned by the Silver Lotus Trading Guild were promptly made available - for the right price - and served to transport all manner of supplies to the invaders, whilst all the while trading style continued as normal with the merchants of King’s Landing throughout the short-lived conflict. Demanding payment in advance in case of failure, the gold earned through the high price demanded from the Golden Company would allow them to purchase further storehouses throughout the Daughters, as well as a small manse in the Free City of Lys, near the Vineyards of Stone, dubbed Gildstone. Finding themselves among the wealthy and noble Lyseni families, the next conflict for the Balarr family finally started to develop, one that would not truly find resolution for over one hundred and fifty years.

## Blood and Merit

Regardless of their successes and failures, naught could change the cold truth so often cited by the nobility of Lys when dealing with the Balarr family - they were simply merchants, upjumped from a baseborn sailor with a generous captain. Their line was not long and storied, far from stretching back before the Doom of Valyria to the Governors and Archons first instated by the Dragonlords to watch over their outposts. The nobility of the Perfumed Sister gave much distaste for the presence of Gildstone within their district and instead moved to operate exclusively through the Balarr families direct competitors in an effort to stay the flow of their personal funds.

The Tideless Few took over the contract with the Dagaeron family of Centerwatch, the Yellow Sails Trading Group working with the Orthys family of Redgrove and Vhassyl family of the Midnight Spire in the Balarr’s place. Disheartened, Rarjo, youngest son of Donario instead opted for a life selling his blade instead of silks, finding moderate success with a number of sellsword groups, most notable amongst them the Golden Company for a spell.

Aren and Aresso, guided by the fading presence of their uncle Jorys instead opted for an alternative long ploy. Continuing the trade in Lys, they instead opted to expand exclusively elsewise from the Free City, particularly so at Anlos and Pentos - the respective headquarters of the Yellow Sails and Tideless Few. Over half a decade, they slowly acquired storehouses and trade contracts further north, whilst allowing their own to continue to be purchased by their competitors within Lys.

During the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion of 236AC, the Balarrs continued to sell supplies, transportation and information to the supporters of Daemon III Blackfyre and King Aegon V Targaryen alike as they had during Haegon’s own attempt a decade and a half earlier. Prospering once again from the brief conflict, Aren and his brother Aresso, now in full control after the death of their uncle Jorys Balarr in 230AC, used the funds to buy out both the Tideless Few and the Yellows Sails Trading Group, quelling their primary competitors in Lys and depriving the desires of the nobility of the city in a single motion.

## The Ninepenny Kings

In 258AC, war spiralled from the Disputed Lands to consume the Stepstones and the Free City of Tyrosh. Whilst initially finding value in the blood-soaked ambition of others as they had before, when the forces of King Jaehaerys II Targaryen landed in the Stepstones, the conflict stunted trade through the isles heavily, cutting off holdings split by the fighting. With the Disputed Lands Ninepenny territory, the family was forced to shift their focus - vessels from Volantis and Lys now targeting Oldtown and Lannisport contracts, whereas those north of the Stepstones in the cities of Myr and Pentos focused on King’s Landing, Gulltown, White Harbor and Braavos. In the sack of Tyrosh by the forces of Alequo Adarys, the Balarrs lost some half dozen ships, and a third again as many storehouses to the flames that ravaged the harbour.

They would lose twice that number by the time that the Ninepenny Kings were finally removed from their Essosi holdings some six years after Maelys I Blackfyre was cut down in the Stepstones by the young Stormlander knight Barristan Selmy.

Nonetheless, the conflict did generate opportunities for the family when the dust finally settled. Under the rule of the Tyrant of Tyrosh many businesses had faltered, providing a wealth of investment opportunities and inexpensive buildings within the Free City, now hotly contested by those with wealth to purchase them. Once again the Balarr found themselves scorned by those nobleborn when they were provided with preferential deals by the people of Tyroshi instead of those that felt they were most equipped to bring success from the assets available.

## Another Century, Another Generation

When the brothers Aren and Aresso too passed, the running of the now storied business passed to their children. Aren’s Varqo, Tychor and Minylea worked closely with their cousin Marys, Aresso’s sole child by his wife Laena. Between them they would bring a number of changes on both sides of the turning century in an attempt to further future-proof the Silver Lotus Trading Guild.

* Varqo -  Captain of the Balarr Fleet, Varqo doubled the number of cogs at their disposal, allowing for greater and more profitable trade across all of the known world. He also began to militarisation of some of the vessels in order to protect the valuable supplies transported, particularly so when passing through the Stepstones.
* Minylea - Seeking to expand influence beyond that of the waves, Minylea started purchasing and investing in quarries of stone and ore across Essos, particularly so in the mountains to the east of Myr and Pentos.
* Marys - Meeting with Archons, Magisters and Triarchs alike, Marys sought counsel with the leaders of many of the Free Cities, seeking to lower tariffs and taxation on products brought into the city by Balarr vessels.
* Tychor - Working closely with his brother, Varqo, Tychor set to obtaining and fortifying warehouses, recruiting men to guard them in return for payments of food and silver.

## Hellfire in Pentos

In 301AC the descent of the High Sparrow and his Faith Militant caused great disruption to the Free City of Pentos and its place in the trade routes along the western coast of Essos. Whilst initially the theocracy occupied itself with other concerns - primarily that of installing order and control in the name of the Seven within the city, within a few years their attention turned outward, to the sins of sailors and merchants alike. The burning of the Spice District in 301AC provided more loss to the Balarr family, are they were not even permitted to retrieve the ashes left in the wake of the Sparrow.

Two years after the Roughspun Conflict of 302AC, plans were drawn up by Myrish Guild known as the Orange League to wrench control of the city of Anlos from the grasp of the Theocracy of Pentos, an operation also funded by the Balarr family and several other minor guilds and organisations. With an army of sellswords, the city was liberated, although no response came from the city of Pentos and the seemingly appropriately named Quiet One that now ruled as Archsepton. Anlos, positioned as it was on the Trader Road that connects Pentos and Myr, allowed for further dissemination of goods to Norvos via the roads through the Velvet Hills - roads that once were cut off to those unwelcome in Pentos.

## The Formation of the Triarchy

The actions of the Archon Morosh Adarys irrevocably changed the standing of the family and the Silver Lotus Trading Guild. Seeking to profit as they had before from the toils and turmoil of others seeking success through conquest, the family worked to help supply the Archon’s incursions in the Disputed Lands, operated alongside others to purchase Qohorik timber from the Eranels for his new fleet and otherwise ally themselves to his calls for unity - in truth a hopeful ploy that Myr, Tyrosh and Lys being united would significantly reduce the tariffs and docking fees associated with trading between them. Nonetheless, Vargen, Vyrio, Daario and Serenei - the children of Captain Varqo by way of a Lyseni merchant’s daughter - found themselves suffering the same prejudice as their grandparents had at the hands of the Dagaerons, Orthyses and Vhassyls. To the nobleborn that rallied to the Archon in Tyrosh, Lys and eventually Myr too, they were simply vessels for their own purposes, instead of true equals. Even with comparable wealth and power, the matter of blood would remain, with marriage offers refused and all but the most profitable trade deals studied with deep scrutiny.

Daario would try and curry flavour with the nobility of Tyrosh by pledging his blade to their cause during the war, naming his firstborn son after the Archon himself. Morosh would be his only child after his demise in the sacking of Lys when sellswords hired by the noble families to coup control from their rivals sought to sack Gildstone. Rushing to stand guard at the gates, he cut down those he had fought side by side with for the past moons as they pushed to pillage the riches of his family’s manse.

## An Archon Laid Low

Having drawn the Daughters together beneath his banner to create the Triarchy, the legacy of Morosh Adarys seemed undeniably placed amongst the great and grandiose of the Free Cities and by extension the Known World. As the years continued to pass, both his mind and reputation started to tire and deteriorate. Plagued by paranoia from the merchants operating within his cities, particularly those of non-noble birth and with operations extending outside of the Triarchy, his fears spiralled to violence in 326AC.

A dozen prominent merchants were gathered on the black-stone steps leading up to the Archon’s Palace, Vargen and Vyrio Balarr amongst them. The Archon’s commands to have them drawn and quartered would be answered with fury from those kin of the lost, as well as the wider merchant community now fearful for their own lives. None shouted louder than the sons of the fallen and when the merchants of the Triarchy rose against the Archon during the coming moons, Lygo, Vaario and Ballys were at the forefront of the war. Pledging supplies, transportation and support to those that rose their banners, they also financed the hiring of half a dozen minor sellsword companies from the Disputed Lands to assist in the fighting.

Lygo would be chosen to serve on the High Council, but eventually grew disillusioned with the arrangement, finding the balance between noble and merchant to be disproportionately weighted and the meetings ponderous, laggard and without significant value in terms of legislation creation and general decision making.

## The War Against the Tyranny of the High Council

Lygo Balarr resigned from his position upon the High Council in 351AC, having served upon it for five-and-twenty years. With his departure, he bid his cousin Vaario and son Vyros to refuse the place offered to them and instead sail for Lys and Volantis respectively to hire sellswords for the moons to come. Doing as bid, they set sail within the week, awaiting further guidance.

Along with a dozen other major merchant guilds dotted throughout the Triarchy, Lygo Balarr declared war on the nobles of the High Council, backed by the full might of the Silver Lotus Trading Guild and the score of minor mercenary companies paid for with Balarr coin by Vaario and Vyros. What would become the Fishers, Smiths, Artisans and Spicers Guilds stood side by side, joined also by the eminent slaving families of Myr.

The Balarrs were no more so involved than in the fighting that consumed the island of Lys and the Lysene Straits to the north. Serving to assist the Burning Fleet as they clashed with the fleet of the Nahohr noble family of the Free City, the Battle of the Dolphin would prove a devastating encounter for all involved. At the Battle for Canahs, ships flying Silver Lotus banners landed the Guild of the Blue in the port town, allowing them to surround Vhassyl-commanded forces.

With their primary army and fleets smashed, the merchant guilds settled into a siege of the city of Lys in response to the nobles within closing the gates in hope of assistance from Tyrosh and Myr - both of which were involved in their own fighting as the merchants continued to wage their war.

By now, the purpose of the conflict had changed. No longer did the Guilds fight for equality with the nobility, they did so to abolish the power of the nobles altogether. When the city finally fell in 356AC, their manses were sacked by the sellswords, their wealth and assets taken in payment by the Guilds for the cost of the conquest. Claimed by the Balarr family were the assets of the Rogare and Othrys family - amongst them the Rogare Bank and the Orthys Mint. Highly coveted amongst the merchants, Lygo would be later poisoned by a rival hoping to seize the bank for himself, only to be outed by agents working for the brothers Vaario and Vyros. The Silver Lotus Trading Guild had become one of the most powerful organisations in the Triarchy by the time the war drew to a close in 357AC, and has remained one of the primary eight ever since.

Vaario Balarr was the second man to claim the title of Archon of the Triarchy, serving in the position for two half-decade terms before being succeeded by another Head of the Smiths Guild. Vaario would not serve in the position again, following his death after contracting greyscale travelling through Chroyane and the Sorrows on a visit to Qohor.

Instead, the next Balarr to serve as Archon of the Triarchy would be his son Lysor, who would strike down his banner further afield than even Morosh Adarys before him.