The Free Cities

"The Night's Watch" is a short video in the "Histories & Lore" feature of the Season 2 Blu-ray set. It features Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont, who provides a description of the Free Cities of Essos.

Summary
Ser Jorah opens his narration noting that, at its height, the Valyrian Freehold ruled over half of the Known World. Not bad for former shepherds, he adds sarcastically, but the Doom fell on them and sent their capital into the sea.

Now Volantis is the ember of Old Valyria, ensuring its flame does not go out of this world, as any Volantene will tell. He adds that Pentoshi say the same about Pentos, Lysenes about Lys and so on. But after enough time in the nine Free Cities, for Jorah it is hard to see them as anything but ashes of glory.

Volantis is the oldest, the first colony of Valyria. After the Doom, the Volantenes tried to rebuild the empire under their rule. They failed. Not least because the last Valyrian with dragons, Aegon Targaryen, entered the war against them. Now Volantenes are content with dominate only the lower classes. Or so they say.

Braavos is the strangest, a city erected not by the Freehold but against it. Jorah calls it a labyrinth of illusion and deceit to hide the refugees from Valyrian slave lords. After the Doom, the city emerged from the shadows to become one of the greatest banking centres in the world. Jorah adds that a man can get anything in Braavos... for a price. Especially death. A man's own if one offends one of the swaggering swordsmen that pollute the city. Or, if one is very rich or very desperate, anyone else's.

Lys is, according to Jorah, the "easiest" of the Free Cities, full of pleasure houses catering to every taste, no matter how peculiar. Many men lose themselves in Lys and never found... at least alive. When a man runs out of coin, the Lysenes may grant him their other speciality on the house. Poison.

Pentos is the most ruthless. The Magisters make a great show of choosing the Prince of Pentos from the Great Families, and granting him the powers of trade, justice and war. As long as he checks with them first, he snarks. On the New Year, to bring good fortune to Pentos, this Prince must deflower the Maid of the Field and the Maid of the Seas. Jorah ignores how each is chosen, or what becomes of them after serving their purpose. But, if a crop should fail or a war be lost, the Magisters will slit the Prince’s throat and choose another.

The other Free Cities are known for what they make. Myr, has its lenses and finery; Norvos, its axes; Qohor, its smiths who can reforge Valyrian steel; Tyrosh, its colours, Jorah wonders. He is also sure Lorath had something to the world but can’t think of it.

Jorah concludes that the nine of them are more alike than they would care to admit. They hire the same soldiers, to fight the same wars, for the same rulers: the rich, be they called Magisters, Archons, etc.; when a Dothraki khalasar approaches, they give the same tribute to avoid the same sacking.

For thousands of years, the disgraced of Westeros have rained east to pool in the Free Cities, for a man of honor counts for less than nothing, unless it raises his price. Jorah closes by saying that better men than him have learned that what a man sells for gold, he can never buy back. He must earn it, by fire and blood.

Appearances

 * Ser Jorah Mormont

Locations

 * Valyrian Freehold
 * Old Valyria
 * Volantis
 * Braavos
 * Lys
 * Pentos

Events

 * Doom of Valyria

Titles

 * Magister
 * Prince of Pentos
 * Maid of the Field
 * Maid of the Seas
 * Archon

Races

 * Dothraki

Miscelaneous

 * Tears of Lys
 * Myrish lens