Triarchy

The Triarchy was an alliance of the Free Cities of Myr, Lys and Tyrosh, three colonial daughters of the Valyrian Freehold. In Westeros, the Triarchy was known as the Kingdom of the Three Daughters, or more rudely, the Kingdom of the Three Whores. The Triarchy existed from 96 AC until its dissolution from a civil war which began in 130 AC named *The Dance of the Dragons,* fought between King Aegon II Targaryen and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen.

## History

### Origin

In 96 AC, Tyrosh, Lys, and Myr ended their strife and drove Volantis from the Disputed Lands, defeating the Volantenes in the Battle of the Borderland and forging the "eternal alliance" of the Triarchy. The Myrish prince-admiral Craghas Drahar then led an invasion of the Stepstones, clearing out the pirate dens of the islands and making safe the trade lanes of the narrow sea.

The Seven Kingdoms initially approved of the Triarchy's actions, but Craghas and his co-admirals became greedy with their tolls. The Lyseni enslaved women, girls, and comely boys to bring back to their pillow houses, including Lady Johanna Swann, niece to the Lord of Stonehelm.

### War for the Stepstones

In 106 AC, Westerosi forces led by Lord Corlys Velaryon and Prince Daemon Targaryen began the war for the Stepstones, Daemon hoping to make himself a kingdom. Despite inferior numbers, they inflicted a string of defeats on the Triarchy for two years before Daemon slew Craghas Drahar in single combat. By 109 AC, Daemon's armies controlled all but two of the Stepstones, and the Sea Snake's fleets had naval supremacy. Corlys crowned Daemon the King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea.

In 110 AC, the Triarchy dispatched a counterattack led by Racallio Ryndoon, supported by newly-acquired Dornish allies, who were wary of the new Targaryen-backed sellsword kingdom controlling the narrow sea. Fighting continued in 111 AC, when Daemon withdrew to court at King's Landing for several months, and raged beyond 115 AC, when Daemon returned to the Vale of Arryn after the death of his first wife, Lady Rhea Royce. Five other men followed him as Kings of the Narrow Sea before the sellsword kingdom ended.

Pentos, bordering Myr to the north and wary of the rising power to their south, often welcomed Daemon as an ally. Volantis similarly welcomed Daemon warmly when he visited, though it was in less of a position to fight back against its rivals to the west. The Three Daughters were not, however, so powerful that their influence spread to the northeast, where Norvos and Qohor remained little concerned about them.

### Dance of the Dragons

In the Westerosi civil war called the Dance of the Dragons (129–131 AC), Prince Daemon Targaryen and Lord Corlys Velaryon supported the blacks of Rhaenyra Targaryen. Early in the fighting, the Velaryon fleet blockaded the Gullet and Blackwater Bay. Ser Otto Hightower, Hand of the King to Aegon II Targaryen and a leader of the greens, reached across the narrow sea to the Triarchy, which he knew to be an enemy of Daemon. Otto hoped to persuade them to move against Corlys the Sea Snake and break his blockade. The High Council of the Triarchy eventually met in Tyrosh and chose to accept Otto's offer of alliance.

A combined fleet of ninety Myrish, Lysene and Tyroshi warships under the banners of the Three Daughters, commanded by the Triarchy's admiral Sharako Lohar of Lys, swept from the Stepstones, bending their oars for the Gullet. En route they intercepted the *Gay Abandon*, which was carrying two of Rhaenyra Targaryen's sons, Princes Aegon and Viserys. Aegon escaped atop Stormcloud, but Viserys was taken as a captive to Sharako.

Once the news of the fleet's presence in the Gullet reached Dragonstone, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon swept down on Vermax and was soon joined by four other dragons. The resulting Battle of the Gullet in early 130 AC eventually ended in defeat for the blacks, however. The victorious fleet of the Three Daughters avoided Dragonstone and sacked Spicetown and High Tide on the Velaryon isle of Driftmark. Although the Triarchy had won the battle, they too suffered tremendous losses. Only twenty-eight of Sharako's ships, most of them Lysene, returned home. The widows of the fallen Myrmen and Tyroshi accused Sharako of having held back his own Lysene ships.

### Daughters' War

The Triarchy began to tear itself to pieces in 130 AC, and the following year Ser Marston Waters reported that it had collapsed. Sharako Lohar was killed by a rival for the affections of the Black Swan, Johanna Swann, but at the time Tyrosh suspected it was an assassination arranged by Myr. A series of retaliatory murders followed, and the Daughters' War broke out two years after the Gullet. A rival alliance formed between Pentos, Braavos, and the normally-isolationist Lorath which helped bring down the Triarchy.

Grand Maester Greydon wrote a comprehensive history of the Kingdom of the Three Daughters.

## Government

The relatively short-lived union of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh was amorphously defined, intended to be an "eternal alliance" between the former rivals. It was not quite a new political entity formed from these three constituents, but all three acting collectively. This alliance was governed by the High Council of the Triarchy, a group of thirty-three magisters with eleven from each city.

This triple alliance was known by several names, all of which were actually inaccurate. Its official name was simply "the Triarchy", but this was inaccurate for two reasons: Volantis was already famously ruled by three Triarchs (so the union of the three cities was not the only Triarchy in the world), and in truth, no officials in this alliance held the title of "Triarch" like in Volantis. Men in Westeros took to calling it the "Kingdom of the Three Daughters", referring to the fact that the three Valyrian colony-cities were all considered to be "daughters of Valyria" - yet this was also inaccurate, because it was not a "kingdom" and had no "king".