Golden Company

The Golden Company is a sellsword company active in Essos. They are one of the largest and most skilled sellsword companies in the Free Cities, consisting of 10,000 well-trained soldiers at the time of the War of the Five Kings. They have the reputation of never breaking a contract, which is quite uncommon among mercenary organizations.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Golden Company was founded by Aegor Rivers aka "Bittersteel", one of the bastard sons of King Aegon IV Targaryen, after he fled Westeros following the Blackfyre Rebellion. When Aegor, who for a time served with the Second Sons, saw all the exiled lords and knights signing on with other sellsword companies, and saw the support of House Blackfyre ebbing away, he created his own sellsword company.

The Golden Company's reputation was quickly established when Qohor refused to honor the contract it had made. The sellswords of the Golden Company sacked Qohor as an answer to Qohor's refusal.

The company is composed mostly of Westerosi exiles, both fugitives and Their motto is "Our word is as good as gold", while their battle cry is "Beneath the gold, the bitter steel."