- "The Golden Company: 20,000 men, horses, elephants, I believe."
- ―Cersei Lannister to Jaime Lannister
Elephants are very large mammals native to Essos. They are commonly used for carrying goods and people over great distances. In Volantis, slaves who are tasked with collecting the dung of elephants and horses have flies tattooed on their faces. There is a similar but smaller species known as dwarf elephants.[1]
The Golden Company, the largest and best sellsword company in the Free Cities, fields several war elephants.[2]
History
Season 7
Cersei mentions that the Golden Company, in addition to infantry and cavalry, also uses several war elephants.[2]
Season 8
Upon arriving in King's Landing, Harry Strickland reports to Cersei that the Golden Company's war elephants could not be transported across the Narrow Sea, much to Cersei's disappointment.[3]
In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, elephants are found throughout the Free Cities and are not native to Westeros. They inspired the names of the Isle of Elephants in the Jade Sea and a party of the triarchs.
It is unclear where wild elephants are found, but for centuries they have been imported across Essos as beasts of burden. They tend to be more commonly used in the southern Free Cities, particularly Volantis. They are not described as present in locations farther north such as Braavos, Pentos, or the Dothraki Sea.
Elephants are commonly seen in Astapor carrying latticework litters on the backs. Daenerys acquires three of them when she takes the Great Pyramid and they remind her of hairless mammoths, though with bobbed and guilded tusks and sad-looking eyes. She later sees one kill a pack of six red wolves in Daznak's Pit. In Volantis, they have the names of would-be triarchs painted on their sides during elections. Tyrion sees one for the first time in Old Volantis and cannot help but stare at it. The armies of New Ghis makes use of elephants, as do the Golden Company. They are also a game piece in cyvasse.
See also
References
- ↑ "Volantis"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The Dragon and the Wolf"
- ↑ "Winterfell"
Animals and Plants of the Known World | |
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Basilisks · Bears · Cats · Dogs · Direwolves · Dragons · Horses (Dornish sand steed) · Lions · |
Legendary and magical creatures: |
Grumkins and Snarks · Harpies · Ice spiders · Krakens · Macumber the blue-eyed giant · Mermaids · Nagga the Sea-Dragon · Sphinxes · Ice dragons |
Plants: |
Weirwood · Ironwood · Milk of the poppy · Blue winter rose · Ghost grass · Dusk Rose · Lady's Lace · Harpy's Gold |