Braavos
Braavos is the wealthiest and most powerful of the Free Cities, located
near the center of the Stepstones, north of the unclaimed islands of that
chain. It is spread across not one island but dozens—if not a hundred or
more—all connected by bridges, canals, and walkways. Trees and wood
are rare and almost always used to build ships, making Braavos a city
of stone architecture and granite monuments. It has its own language,
common throughout the rest of the Free Cities as well, and it uses a bastardized
version of Valyrian for trade with foreigners. It is a city where
life is lived fullest but is known to be cheap. Many Braavosi know the
High Valyrian saying valar morghulis, “all men must die.”
The ruler of Braavos is known as the Sealord, and it is from the sea
the city’s power and wealth flows. Braavos captains sail their purplehulled
ships to ports further than any other dare and bring the trade and
wealth of a dozen unknown lands back to their home. The city is awash in
pepperwines, strange creatures for menageries, and ancient relics of lost
Valyria. Flat-bottomed barges of foods, arts, and treasures from around
the world are poled through waterways, between great stone statues and
homes with peaked, rock roofs to warehouses, where merchant princes
accumulate wealth that would shock many Westerosi noble houses. Such
is the wealth of Braavos that it is fecund with moneylenders, happy to
give coin to a sailor or a king, as long as a good rate of return is promised.
And since assassins and poisons are common within the city, borrowers
know it is unwise to default on such promises.
Much of the city’s economic power comes from its role as the link
between the Seven Kingdoms and the rest of the known world, and even
those who have never seen its canals have heard something of it. Its main
harbor is watched over by the Titan of Braavos, a massive stone statue
so tall ships can sail between its legs. With eyes lit like great bonfires,
the Titan can be seen at a great distance. It is a source of many legends,
including claims that in times of war it wades into the sea to destroy the
city’s enemies. Though most likely a child’s tale, the Titan is replete with
arrowslits and murder-holes facing out to sea, with wide arcs of fire encompassing
those ships that must sail under it. Foreigners are often told
that maidens of noble houses must be sacrificed to the fires of the Titan
periodically, a claim Braavosi make with a straight face. Certainly, the
grinding bellow the Titan makes when ships approach lends weight to its
legend, as well as serving as a practical warning to the city.
To protect its sea superiority and defend it from any who might
threaten that position, the main harbor of Braavos is protected by the
Arsenal, a seaborne fortress and shipyard found just beyond the Titan.
Mounted with dozens of catapults and scorpions, the Arsenal is also
lined with docks and boathouses as well as building quays. It is said the
Arsenal can produce a new war galley every day, allowing it to replace
any losses it would suffer in battle.
Although it has no knights or peasant levies, Braavos is far from undefended.
It can raise a standing army of professional sellswords any time
one is needed, and every noble and major merchant has a house guard,
though such guards sometimes grow soft from their lack of fighting. Unsullied
eunuch warriors are common, as are eunuch servants of all types.
Most famously, the bravos of Braavos are lightly armed swordsmen who
fight with light, thrusting weapons and take a side-on fighting stance unfamiliar
to the knights of the western “Sunset Kingdoms” across the sea.
Indeed, the skills of the various fighting men of Braavos are a point
of great pride within the city. Bravos often teach those with the coin
to buy lessons, and some have schools of fighting styles with a constant
line of soldiers, young nobles, and foreign adventurers seeking to
gain entry. Known as water dancers, daggermen, or velvet blades, these
skilled fencers fight among themselves for glory, fame, or money. They
also gather in fighting companies, common throughout the Free Cities.
Among the best-known companies are the Stormcrows, Second Sons,
and Gallant Men. Each takes any able to prove their worth and numbers
around five hundred able-bodied warriors for hire. Among the warriors
native to Braavos, the greatest achievement is to be named First Sword
of the Sealord, a position of such importance it is immediately filled if
the First Sword is killed or goes missing.
Although masters of practical matters of coin and blade, the Braavosi
do not ignore spiritual concerns. Indeed, all gods are honored and welcome
in Braavos, which even includes the Sept-beyond-the-Sea. Most gods are
given temples on an island in the center of the city, where they may follow
their own tenants as long as they do not put the people or wealth of Braavos
at risk. Of particular popularity is the Father of Waters, whose temple is
rebuilt every year as a mark of his constant change and renewal.
Of course, in Braavos matters of religion often mix with the practical.
There exists the Temple of the Many-Faced God, where it is possible
to contact the assassins known as the Faceless Men. Killers for hire, the
Faceless Men demand great prices, the equivalent of the salary of a full
company of fighting men to kill a merchant, many times that for a king or
princess. The Faceless Men seem able to change their appearance, making
them experts at entering places unobserved and their capture afterward
very difficult. The Temple also grants a quiet death to those who seek it,
allowing the worn or ill to die with painless dignity rather than starve or
suffer some terrible deadly affliction. This option is not seen as cowardly
by the Braavosi, who take their independent spirit to the extreme of respecting
those who choose their own manner of death.