#sarnor

          by Shella Longclaw

 “As Emperor Chai Duq married a Valyrian noblewoman with a dragon, his granddaughter Princess Priti Chai married a Valyrian nobleman without a dragon.”

Valyria made two alliances forged in marriage. One was with the Kingdom of Sarnor, and the other was with Yi Ti. I should say more precisely that Valyria made several little marriage alliances with Sarnor. Since the Kingdom of Sarnor was composed of city-states, Valyria gave low-ranking daughters to the various kings. Yi Ti was a united kingdom under one emperor, so the yellow emperor Chai Zhu had the power to negotiate for a dragonlord’s daughter. Valyria needed the aid of Yi Tish navy for the third and fourth Ghiscari wars, so the bargain was stroke.

This marriage was the first of its kind. Never before had a dragonlord or dragonlady been wedded to someone who wasn’t Valyrian. It had been rumored that most Valyrian didn’t believe the union between Prince Chai Duq and Lady Valaena Belaerys would spire any dragonriders offspring. They were wrong. All three royal children were dragonriders. Nearly all of Dragon Emperor Chai Zi’s children were dragonriders as well. While he wanted a stronger alliance with Valyria, rich House Savyon desired to gain dragons. According to Princess Priti Chai’s letters, Valyrian houses without dragons commonly gave their daughters to dragonlords. Rarely, a dragonlord would give their daughters to such a low-ranking house.

House Savyon gained their dragons, but sadly, Yi Ti never gained a strong alliance with Valyria. The two kingdoms supposedly continued to be on good terms with each other after the alliance ended. It was similar with the Kingdom of Sarnor. Once the war ended, all ties except for trade were broken between the kingdoms. Regardless, of no more marriages into Valyria, Yi Ti maintained their dragons for about two thousand years.

A novice maester had inquired of an archmaester about the reason for Valyria never conquering Yi Ti. The archmaester gave the explanation of the far distance between the two kingdoms and the issue of extending the freehold too big, which I agree with. Though I like to believe that most Valyrians wanted to keep their word of being allies and not enemies of both Yi Ti and Sarnor. Many Yi Tish priests believe otherwise. They say the Valyrian feared the strong Blood of the Dragons in Yi Ti and wouldn’t risk losing all their dragons to the golden kingdom. We may not know the precise reason for Valyria not trying to conquer Yi TI. It is known that Yi Ti almost attacked Valyria.

The sixth yellow emperor was reportedly so livid with Valyria over their slavery practice and the death of his sister that he craved war. Only the entire royal court was able to prevent it and keep the peace. Though official reports stated that both sides were on good terms, actual records show that both kingdoms looked down on each other. It’s surprising during the indigo emperor dynasty that Valyria tolerated Yi Tish pirates attacking their ships and didn’t confront the indigo emperors about it. Yi Tish scholars think that the official decree of the pirates not being supported by the empire was the reason. Because of the Doom of Valyria, little is known about this once great kingdom.

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

    Old Ghis has fallen, conquered by Valyria. The Valyrians looked around and decided that colonization mass slavery were great ideas, ones worthy of emulation. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss?

The Valyrians forced their slaves to mine for ores in the Fourteen Flames: copper, tin, iron, gold, silver, etc.

Thousands upon thousands died mining the Flames. The Valyrian Empire expanded in all directions – to the very shores of Essos – as the need for slaves increased.

The Valyrians raised cities on the shores of Essos, now known as the Free Cities. Valyria dispatched archons (often on dragonback) to oversee the cities.

Religious schisms caused the founding of Qohor and Norvos.

Old Volantis and Lys were trading colonies. The merchants chose to be “clients” of the Valyrian Freehold rather than subjects. Since these cities “purchased” their freedom, they did not have archon overseers.

Pentos and Lorath existed pre-Valyria but submitted and were allowed to retain their native rule. Political marriages were used to bind these cities to Valyria.

Yandel disputes Pentos’s claim to pre-existence as the source of the information is Gessio Haratis’s Before The Dragons. Yandel states Haratis was a native of Pentos and made these claims as a “political convenience” as Volantis was “threatening to restore the Valyrian empire under its control”.

Shouldn’t the native-born Haratis’ writings on Pentos hold more weight than Yandel’s opinions? The Maesters overwhelming belief in their own knowledge (opinions) undercuts their credibility throughout the book. Can you imagine how the maesters would react if a scholar from YI Ti attempted to lecture them on the workings of Oldtown?

Yandel doesn’t dispute Lorath’s claim to pre-dating the Valyrian conquest.

Braavos was founded in the aftermath of a slave uprising while a slaver fleet was collecting “tributes” from the lands of the Summer and Jade Seas. Prisoners rebelled against their captors while at sea and, per moonsinger prophecy, sailed far north “to a forlorn corner of Essos – a place of mudflats and brackish water and frogs”. The slaves laid the foundation of the city and remained hidden from the world for centuries.

Braavos continued to be known as the Secret City even after its discovery by the outside world. The Braavosi consist of “scores of races, a hundred tongues, and hundreds of gods”. The common tongue is Valyrian, as it was the common trade language of Essos.

The moonsingers “were honored for leading them to the city” but the wisest of the freed slaves determined that all religions must be accepted.

No one knows the full extent of the Valyrian conquest as the records were destroyed by the Doom.

The Rhoynar resisted the Valyrians for centuries. They founded great cities along the Rhoyne and were the first to learn the art of iron-making.

The Kingdom of Sarnor, a confederation of cities, held out against the Valyrians only to fall to the Dothraki after the Doom. How do you resist dragons only to succumb to the horse-lords?

Yandel states it was due to the “great plain that separated one from the other…only for that plain and the people who occupied it – the Dothraki horselords -to be the source of Sarnor’s downfall after the Doom”.

Are we supposed to believe a “great plain” – essentially a ginormous field of grass – stopped dragons? And I don’t believe the Valyrians feared the Dothraki – one side has horses, the other has dragons, dragons win. Did the Dothraki not “Dothraki” until after the Doom of Valyria? How did Sarnor not fall sooner?

The most complete history of Valyria is Galendro’s The Fires of the Freehold but it is missing twenty-seven scrolls.

a proud and quarrelsome people, the sarnori were seldom ever united under a single ruler, but their kingdoms dominated the western grasslands, from the forest of qohor to the eastern shores of the vanished silver sea, and fifty leagues beyond. their gleaming cities were strewn across the grasslands like jewels across a green velvet mantle, shining beneath the light of sun and stars. the greatest of these cities was sarnath of the tall towers, where the high king dwelt in his fabled palace with a thousand rooms.

— the world of ice and fire

That’s a big if. A united Sarnor might have the manpower to lure the Dothraki in and then pen them in a region that’s difficult to retreat from, or send assassins to murder key khals and let the Dothraki infighting hamper their strategic goals. But I would need numbers and maps and other stuff to write out a victory for them. The Dothraki seem to be of a higher caliber back then than they are in the current novel series given their victory at Mardoth, so there’s a lot of what if’s there.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

Not fallen for the false retreat, which is the Dothraki specialty. Now, given that the Sarnori are a chariot army, they also depend on flat soil, so the traditional method of how to beat the Mongols, luring them onto broken terrain to curtail their mobility, will not work. I would invest more heavily in ranged weaponry, horse archers typically cannot fire as far as foot archers, and the Dothraki disdain for armor and barding means that they are at risk of a good volley.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

Vaes Tolorro appears to be too far south for that, the Sarnori cities are on the northern half of Essos east of Qohor. If anything, it was probably the Qaathi, the ancestor people of the ones who currently inhabit Qarth.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

KINGDOM OF SARNOR

What would wear a woman of the Old Kingdom of Sarnor.