Bayasabhad

Bayasabhad was not founded as a city so much as left behind by one: it is what remains of the Heritage of Hyrkoon, a civilisation whose only surviving echoes are strongholds like this one. Its purpose has not changed in centuries — watching over the Sand Road, the route that crosses this part of Essos and links Qarth to the lands beyond.

Near its walls stand Kayakayanaya and Shamyriana, places it shares more than proximity with: a common thread of customs, people, and the memory of a world that no longer exists.

In A Game of Thrones, as Daenerys Targaryen walks through the Eastern Market of Vaes Dothrak, she passes warrior maidens from Bayasabhad, alongside others from Shamyriana and Kayakayanaya. Neither side speaks to the other; she simply sees them, one more sight among the merchants and oddities of a bazaar that draws in half the known world.

What is known of these women — the iron rings through their nipples, the rubies set into their cheeks — comes filtered through that same outsider's gaze. A maester named Naylin devoted a separate work, Iron and Rubies, to accounting for the custom.