#norvos

"Norvos is a theocracy. While it has a council of magisters, its members are chosen by the bearded priests, who speak for their god and wield the true power in the Free City. The magisters give lavishly to passing Dothraki khals, so their khalasars will not savage the city. Among the Norvoshi only the priests are allowed beards. The priests wear hair shirts and untanned hides. Once initiated, these men are forbidden to cut or shave their hair. They practice ritual flagellation as part of their worship. The name of the god worshipped by the Norvoshi is known only to initiates. The freeborn of the city, both noble and lowborn, favor long mustachios; Byan Votyris, for instance, dyes his mustachio blue and sweeps it to his ears. Norvoshi women shave off all of their hair, though noblewomen don wigs, especially when in the company of men from other lands and cities.  Some Norvoshi women wear dresses with squirrel collars. The Norvoshi do not foster children. Slaves are also shaved bare. There are whispers of torchlit cellars where slave women mate with wolves. Norvoshi enjoy wintercakes and nahsa, a drink of fermented goat's milk which can be laced with honey.  Once a year, there is a festival in Norvos that features bears dancing down the Sinner's Steps. Doro Golathis is a historian from Norvos. Like the tongues of all Free Cities, the Norvoshi language is a form of bastard Valyrian "

💜02: Top | Skirt | Headpiece | Hair | Shawl

with Charlie Murphy as Mellario of Norvos

The Free City of Norvos stands upon the eastern banks of the river Noyne, one of the greatest of the vassal streams of the Rhoyne. The high city, ringed about by mighty stone walls, looms above high, stony bluffs. Three hundred feet below, the lower city spreads along the muddy shores, defended by moats, ditches, and a timber palisade much overgrown with moss. The ancient nobility of Norvos lives in the upper city, dominated by the great fortress-temple of the bearded priests; the poor huddle below amongst the wharves, brothels, and beer halls that line the riverfront. The two parts of the city are joined only by a massive stone stair, called the Sinner’s Steps. Great Norvos, as the Norvoshi name their city, is surrounded by rugged limestone hills and dense, dark forests of oak and pine and beech, home to bears and boars and wolves, and game of all sorts. The city’s domains stretch as far as the western bank of the Darkwash to the east and the Upper Rhoyne to the west. Norvoshi river galleys rule the Noyne as far south as the ruins of Ny Sar, where she joins the Rhoyne. Great Norvos even claims dominion over the Axe upon the Shivering Sea, though this claim is disputed, often bloodily, by the Ibbenese.

From Pentos, Laena traveled to Volantis, up the Rhoyne to Qohor and Norvos.

The Norvoshi are governed by three bells: Noom, Narrah, and Nyel. When it comes to fashion, the women shave bare and freeborn men grow long mustachios, but only priests can grow beards.

One of the peculiarities of the Norvoshi is the look adopted by their women: they shave their heads and wear wigs in the presence of strangers. Norvos is also the birthplace of Doran Martell's estranged wife, Mellario.

Mellario of Norvos, mom of Arianne & Quentyn Martell