Volantis

Volantis is one of the Free Cities located on the western coast of Essos. It is the southern and eastern-most of the Free Cities, located on the Summer Sea at the mouth of the vast River Rhoyne. It is famed for its wines.

You Win or You Die
The wineseller in the market at Vaes Dothrak boasts of his fine wine from Volantis, the Arbor and Dorne.

In the books
In the Song of Ice and Fire novels, Volantis is the largest and possibly the most populous of the Free Cities. Its vast, crescent-shaped harbour could contain the entirety of Braavos within it. The city is located on the western side of the River Rhoyne, but does not extend east of the river, which is held by the Dothraki.

Volantis is known as the Bastard Child of Valyria. Of the colony-states that eventually became the Free Cities, Volantis maintained the closest ties to Valyria and carried on its traditions the most stringently. After the Doom of Valyria, the rulers of Volantis petitioned the Targaryens on Dragonstone to help them in subduing the other cities and forging a new Valyrian Empire on the mainland, but the Targaryens refused, later instead preferring to mount an invasion of Westeros.

Volantis remains the centre of the slave-trading industry in the Free Cities, and maintains sea and land links with Slaver's Bay many hundreds of miles to the south-east. Volantis prefers a policy of neutrality and getting rich on its slave trading, but its location on the south-eastern edge of the Disputed Lands sees it sometimes drawn into warfare with Lys, Myr and Tyrosh for control of the region.