THE GHISCARI EMPIRE

Established: Pre-history, before written records existed.

TL;DR:

Founded By:

Pre-history, before written records existed.
Emblem: The Ghiscari Empire used the harpy emblem of Old Ghis. It depicted a fanged woman with leathery wings for arms, the legs of an eagle, and the tail of a scorpion, clutching a thunderbolt in her talons.

Conquered by:

Valyrians after the Ghiscari defeat in the Fifth Ghiscari War.
Aftermath - The Doom, and Century of Blood: After the fall of the Freehold, what remained of the Ghiscari cities in Slaver's Bay took control of the slave trade and overthrew Valyrian control.

Trade and Economy:

The Ghiscari economy was built on conquest and slavery.

Surviving Cities:

Astapor, Meereen, New Ghis, Yunkai

GHISCARI EMPIRE, GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY:

The Empire of Ghis was among the most ancient powers known to the histories of Essos. Long before Valyria rose to prominence, the Ghiscari held dominion over vast reaches of the eastern continent, their influence extending across land and sea. The founding of their realm and the height of their power are placed thousands of years before the rise of the Valyrian Freehold. Rich copper deposits in the Ghiscari hills sustained a civilization built upon bronze, shaping both their tools of war and the character of their society.

From the city of Old Ghis, set within the fertile lands of Ghiscar, the empire took form. Tradition names Grazdan the Great as its founder, though whether he was king, conqueror, or symbol is a matter of dispute. Old Ghis was renowned for its immense brick towers and stepped pyramids, monuments raised by the labor of countless slaves. As Ghiscari control spread across the surrounding regions, the city became the heart of an expanding imperial system that bound conquest, architecture, and forced labor into a single expression of power.

The Ghiscari armies were famed for their discipline. Organized into lockstep legions, they relied upon drilled cohesion and numerical strength rather than speed or maneuver. These formations, composed of free soldiers supported by vast slave populations, earned a reputation for reliability and endurance in battle. Through such means, the empire extended its reach southward into Sothoryos and outward across the Basilisk Isles. There, the Ghiscari established distant holdings, including the penal settlement at Wyvern Point, the fortified port of Zamettar at the mouth of the Zamoyos, and the colony of Gorgai upon the Isle of Tears. These outposts marked the furthest edges of Ghiscari ambition, and foreshadowed both the scale of their power and the limits that would one day undo it.

THE GHISCARI PEOPLE:

The modern Ghiscari are a people of mixed descent, shaped by the long decline and fragmentation of the ancient empire from which they sprang. Most Astapori are described as having amber skin, broad noses, dark eyes, and black or dark red hair, or a mingling of the two, a coloration long associated with the old Ghiscari stock. These people are now spread across the lands surrounding Slaver’s Bay and west of the Gulf of Grief, bound less by a unified identity than by the shared inheritance of Ghiscari institutions, customs, and memory, which endure unevenly across the region.

GHISCARI LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

The Ghiscari tongue has largely faded from use, its place taken by the language of their Valyrian conquerors. In the present age, most Ghiscari speak regional dialects of High Valyrian, though older words and ritual phrases persist in law, prayer, and insult. Men of the Slaver Cities are known for elaborate modes of dress and grooming: hair teased, oiled, and twisted into intricate forms; yellow cloaks sewn with copper disks; embroidered linen tunics; pleated skirts and sandals. Among the wealthiest classes, particularly nobles and slavers, the tokar remains a mark of status, worn alongside indulgent tastes in food and ceremony. The honored dead are interred in crypts beneath family manses, while others are remembered in the Temples of the Graces, where candles are lit for the departed.

Ghiscari marriage customs vary by city in fashion and feast, but adhere to shared ritual forms. On the day before the wedding, the female kin of both houses gather for the Sealing of the Betrothal, overseen by three Graces of the local temple. The bride is ritually examined and blessed to ensure fertility and favor, after which prayers and offerings are made for the union. During the wedding itself, the bride and groom wear their finest garments, with noble tokars sometimes fringed in pearls or banded in white samite. The rite traditionally includes the washing of the groom’s feet by the bride as a sign of submission, though in rare cases this is reversed to reflect status. The ceremony is accompanied by song and may last for hours, ending with the couple emerging bound together by chains of yellow gold, a public sign that the marriage is sealed and witnessed by gods and men alike.

CHARACTERISTICS

HEIGHT (feet/inches):

Average: 5'4" to 6'2"

COMPLEXION AND FEATURES:

Sun-kissed, amber-hued skin and broad noses.

HAIR:

Natural shades of black or dark red, or a mixture of both red and black hair.

EYES:

Range from shades of brown to black

SIZE:

Average

LIFESPAN:

70 - 80 years

COMMON RELIGIONS:

GHISCARI CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BY CITY:

ASTAPORI LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

The language of Astapor is High Valyrian spoken with a harsh inflection and guttural undertone drawn from the old Ghiscari tongue, closely resembling the dialect of Yunkai. The gods once worshiped by the Ghiscari Empire have largely vanished from living memory, their names and rites surviving only in fragmentary references and neglected temples. Ghiscari glyphs, however, remain in common use, carved into brick, stamped upon coins, and inscribed upon public monuments, a visual inheritance outlasting belief.

Astapor is ruled by the Good Masters, a class of wealthy slavers whose power rests upon spectacle, indulgence, and control. They host lavish feasts of duck eggs, spiced stews, and rich wines, and parade prized slaves through the streets as living proof of their wealth. Through the exchange of costly gifts and carefully cultivated flattery, they maintain alliances with Dothraki khals, securing Astapor’s place as both supplier and appeaser of the horselords. At dusk, silk lanterns are lit across the terraces of the pyramids, bathing the city in shifting colors that mask decay beneath ceremony.

Public life in Astapor is closely bound to the training and display of the Unsullied. Festivals are timed to demonstrations of discipline, during which mock wars are staged, and eunuch soldiers perform drills for foreign buyers. Though the city’s defenses are poor and its walls neglected, no khalasar dares attack, for all know that to face the Unsullied in formation is to court annihilation.

In dress and bearing, the Astapori mark status through excess and ornament. Men oil and sculpt their hair and beards, while women wear veils and adorn their hair with ivory combs and carved pins to shield themselves from the ever-present red dust. The wealthiest wear the tokar, an ornate garment of embroidered linen whose fringes denote rank. Among the poor, linen skirts and sandals are common, though even the lowborn favor bronze clasps or shells as modest adornments. Sweet perfumes and oiled skin permeate the city, blurring the distinction between slave and master in scent if not in station.

Mounted guards of Astapor wear embroidered linen tunics, pleated skirts, sandals, and cloaks of yellow silk sewn with copper disks. They go bareheaded, their hair twisted and oiled into elaborate shapes resembling horns, wings, blades, or grasping hands, lending them a deliberately fearsome aspect. These young men, wealthy and well-born, dress themselves as echoes of a vanished empire, pretending at mastery through pageantry. On feast days, they fight mock wars in the pits, reenacting conquest as theater long after true dominion has passed.

MEEREEN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

The Meereenese speak a hybrid tongue, a debased form of High Valyrian heavily inflected with Old Ghiscari. Formal address is elaborate and hierarchical, with styles such as “Your Worship,” “Magnificence,” and “His Radiance” reserved for those of rank. Within the city, the Meereenese seldom ride horses, favoring palanquins, litters, and sedan chairs borne by slaves, a custom that reinforces both status and separation from the common street.

Combat in Meereen is deeply entwined with religion and takes place in the city’s fighting pits, where bloodshed is offered as sacrifice to the gods of Ghis. These contests are viewed as displays of courage, skill, and strength, qualities believed to please the divine. Victorious fighters are celebrated and indulged, while those who perish are honored, their names carved upon the Gates of Fate among the valiant dead. Criminals may also be condemned to the pits, where combat serves as a form of judgment, granting a final chance to prove innocence through survival.

Within the pits, contests are staged between men, women, children, and wild animals, interspersed with follies meant to amuse the crowds. All animals slain during these spectacles are rendered into stew, which is distributed to the poor. Any man who presents himself at the Gates of Fate is entitled to a bowl, binding cruelty and charity together within the same ritual space.

NOBILITY:

Meereen is ruled by the Great Masters, members of the old slaving families who dwell within the city’s formidable pyramids. Among these are the Houses of Dhazak, Galare, Ghazeen, Hazkar, Kandaq, Loraq, Merreq, Naqqan, Pahl, Quazzar, Reznak, Rhazdar, Uhlez, Yherizan, and Zhak. The wealthiest man in Meereen belongs to House Pahl, and another of that line commands the city guard. Some noble families, including Zhak and Merreq, maintain estates in the surrounding hills.

The Meereenese nobility distinguish themselves through dress and display. The Ghiscari tokar remains the primary mark of wealth and authority, with certain ancient houses favoring specific colors. Members of House Loraq traditionally wear tokars of purple, indigo, and lilac, while House Pahl favors pink and white, echoing the hues of their pyramid. Women commonly paint their nails, while men, like other Ghiscari nobles, sculpt their hair into horns, spikes, and wings using combs, wax, and heated irons, cultivating a deliberate and intimidating appearance.

NEW GHISCARI LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

The language of New Ghis is a hybrid form of High Valyrian heavily inflected with Old Ghiscari. Relations with the other Slaver Cities are marked by deliberate distance. The High Masters regard Meereen’s pageantry as undisciplined excess, Yunkai’s trade diplomacy as softness, and Astapor’s reliance on engineered eunuchs as a corruption of proper martial tradition. In the civic philosophy of New Ghis, these cities are seen as derivatives rather than true descendants. They may share a past, but only New Ghis is believed to carry the imperial seed.

Governance rests with the High Masters, a narrow circle of noble houses that claim descent, sometimes tenuously, from the priest-kings and warlords of ancient Ghis. Power is hereditary and reinforced through control of slave holdings, shipyards, and standing legions. Valyrian customs and bloodlines were never fully incorporated into New Ghiscari society, having been rejected as contaminations rather than inheritances. Magic is officially forbidden, though persistent rumors speak of older blood cults and clandestine rites practiced in forgotten chambers beneath ziggurats and lower temples.

In personal bearing, the New Ghiscari culture favors restraint and symbolism over display. Men twist their red-streaked hair into tight braids or short crested ridges, lacquered with black oil and bound with bronze cuffs signifying household and civic duty. Beards are cropped close or shaped into squared military styles. Women wear their hair in three- or five-strand wraps, tied with leather cords or hammered copper rings, and favor scentless resins or dry powders rather than perfumes. Tokars are woven from matte linen or wool blends in muted copper, ochre, or storm-gray, with fringe patterns indicating military rank and household lineage. Jewelry is modest but meaningful, with bone discs, stamped bronze brooches, and obsidian ear spines common among the freeborn.

YUNKISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE:

The Yunkish are a people of mixed descent, tracing their ancestry to the Ghiscari of old. Most are described as having amber skin, broad noses, dark eyes, and hair that is black, dark red, or a blend of the two, features long associated with ancient Ghiscari stock. Though shaped by centuries of conquest and cultural adaptation, these traits remain common and are often cited by Yunkish chroniclers as visible markers of continuity.

The Yunkish speak a distinct dialect of High Valyrian, differing from that of Astapor but close enough to remain mutually intelligible. The city is ruled by the Wise Masters, slavers known for their cunning, wealth, and political calculation. Highborn warriors wear linen tunics and skirts dyed deep yellow, with cloaks sewn with copper disks, and ride horses or camels. The city’s defenses rely on crossbowmen and slingers, and in times of need, Yunkai can field an army of roughly five thousand men, all of them slaves.

Yunkish fashion emphasizes controlled ostentation as a marker of power. Men sculpt their hair into winged curls or rippling waves, dusted with gold powder or scented chalk, while beards are worn long and carefully teased, adorned with beads or enamel combs. Women favor high-piled hairstyles set with lacquered ivory combs and small glass bells that chime softly as they walk. Skin is anointed with clove, myrrh, and rosewater oils, and painted fingertips, a custom borrowed from Meereen, are popular among the upper classes.

Tokars in Yunkai are lightweight and flowing, commonly pale yellow or seafoam green, embroidered with copper-threaded birds, harpies, or scriptural glyphs. Fringes are longer and more decorative than those worn in New Ghis, with rank and status expressed through length, layering, and complexity of design.

SURVIVING GHISCARI CITIES:

ASTAPOR, THE RED CITY:

Astapor is a port-city at the mouth of a meandering stream that the Astapori call the Worm, which flows in from the east. To the south are the Ghiscari hills, with the ruins of Old Ghis..

NEW GHIS:

New Ghis was founded by the Old Empire of Ghis during its decline, likely in the lull between the First and Third Ghiscari Wars, when the growing threat of Valyria made mainland security increasingly tenuous...

MEEREEN:

Meereen, the northernmost of the slaver cities of Slaver's Bay, is located on the northeast coast at the mouth of the Skahazadhan. The Dothraki sea lies to the north, beyond the river...

YUNKAI, THE YELLOW CITY:

Yunkai sits on the eastern edge of Slaver’s Bay. One hundred leagues to the south is Astapor, and about fifty leagues away lies Meereen; to the southwest is the island of Yaros. Well-mounted travellers riding hard can reach Yunkai from Astapor in six days...

VEIL OF FIRE GAME OF THRONES INSPIRED ROLEPLAY ​