Qarth

Qarth lies southeast of Lhazar and the Red Waste, with Meereen, Yunkai and Astapor spreading out to its west. Its harbor commands the strait between the Summer Sea and the Jade Sea, which makes the city the hinge between Westeros, the Free Cities and Slaver's Bay on one side, and Asshai, Yi Ti or the Shadow Lands on the other.

Three separate walls ring the city. The outer one, red sandstone, ten metres high, is carved with animals in relief; the middle one, grey granite, two metres taller, shows scenes of war; the inner one, black marble, fourteen metres high, carries reliefs of sexual acts. Lomas Longstrider counted them among the nine wonders in his book, Wonders Made by Man.

Inside the walls the houses are painted pink, violet and ochre, with elaborate balconies, and every square has a fountain shaped like a dragon, a griffin or a manticore. Gardens grow on the rooftop terraces, and below them inns, gaming halls, temples and stalls selling everything imaginable crowd together. The harbor is horseshoe-shaped and almost a city of its own, loud and strange-smelling; near it the neighborhoods grow poorer, with plain brick houses that open no windows onto the street.

Qarth's nominal government belongs to the Pureborn, also called the Enthroned, descendants of the city's ancient kings and queens. They meet in the Hall of a Thousand Thrones, a marble-floored chamber under a domed ceiling painted with scenes of Qarth's old glory, where each Pureborn sits the carved throne of their own line. From there they command the Civic Guard and the city's war fleet.

Real power, though, is split between three merchant factions: the Ancient Guild of Spicers, the Tourmaline Brotherhood and the Thirteen. All three want the same thing, control of the city's government, and none has managed to win it outright.

Qarth's war fleet is what holds its grip on the Jade Gates. Through it the city keeps the island of Qal, with two fortified harbors on its coasts, and the port cities of Qarkash and Asta.

The Qartheen are tall and pale-skinned; the Dothraki call them "milk men" for that paleness. They pride themselves on their refinement and hold that weeping at a strong emotion marks a person as civilized. They dress in linen, brocade or tiger skins — women in tunics that bare one breast, men in beaded silk skirts — and sit on cushions rather than chairs.

Their warriors wear armor of copper scales and boar-snouted helms with copper tusks, crowned with black silk plumes; some patrol on camels harnessed in colored blankets with saddles set with rubies and garnets.

They believe the moon is an egg full of dragons, and that there were once two moons; one strayed too close to the sun and cracked open, releasing a thousand thousand dragons that drank its fire, which is why those beasts breathe flame. They expect the remaining moon to crack too, one day, and bring the dragons back.

Qarthene weddings carry their own custom: on the wedding day the groom may ask the bride for one of her possessions, and she may do the same with his. The request cannot be refused, and from that moment the object belongs to whoever asked for it — in Qarth this is taken as a token of devotion between the couple.

Qarth is also known for its warlocks, the Undying of Qarth, feared and respected across the East even though their influence has faded from what it once was; they are sometimes likened to the Alchemists' Guild of the Seven Kingdoms. They drink shade-of-the-evening until their lips turn blue, and gather in a ruined building called the House of the Undying, or Palace of Dust.

It is a low, sprawling structure with a roof of black tile, no towers or windows, coiling through a grove of black-barked, ink-blue-leaved trees like something built of living stone. The entrance is an oval opening set in a wall shaped like a human face, and inside the stairs and chambers multiply in ways no mason seems to have planned. A Qarth saying about its masters runs: "A warlock's house is built of bones and lies."

The city also harbors a very old guild of assassins, the Sorrowful Men, who whisper "I am so sorry" just before they kill. The Atlas catalogue dates an episode inside the House of the Undying to the year 299 after the Conquest — the only dated event this chronicle can hang on that building.