High Tide, Chapter 62: The Summer Sea (Patreon)

Third Moon, 122 AC

The Summer Islander

Once he had been Jhallador Zhas, a proud warrior and chief retainer in the service of Prince Xhallabar Xho, the Prince of Lizard Head off the coast of Jhala. But no more. He was nothing now. Just a sad exile drinking away his sorrows in a Lyseni tavern.

He tightened the grip on his cup and took another swill of his wine as his bitterness continued to fester. Exile. The Priests of Love had always insisted that their way of warfare was superior to that of other peoples and lands, that they were civilized and kind. That by conducting warfare only on ritual and consecrated ground, the souls of the deceased may have a safe journey to paradise.

As a testament of their ‘civilized’ society, any prince who lost the challenge to sacred war gave up what was in dispute peacefully, up to and including the entirety of his princedom. He and all the warriors who fought for him that survived the battle would not be exiled or mutilated but must leave the islands immediately once their injuries had recovered, never to see their homeland ever again, and for some, if family and friends were unwilling to follow them into exile, they would never see them again either. If the prince refused to honor the wager of the challenge… well, there were stories of what the priests did to such ‘dishonorable’ princes. Civilized, Jhallador snorted. Was it civilized to be stripped of his home and honor and banished to a foreign land?

He shook his head and took yet another sip of wine, drowning in the memories. For ten long years, Jhallador had served his prince faithfully until that fateful day when Prince Jhallos, their neighbor and a rival of his liege, had challenged them to sacred war with the ultimate wager, offering his own princedom as the prize if they won but only if they did the same in turn. He had advised his prince against accepting it, but Prince Xhallabar had felt he had no choice but to.

Prince Jhallos, his rival, had been growing swiftly in strength and power. He had been consorting with the Westerosi, Lannisters, Hightowers, and Redwynes in their so called South Sea Company. His trade agreements with them had given him plenty of metal tools and weapons and his vast princedom in Golden Head was much larger and more powerful than their own in Lizard Head. If Jhallos had wished to take Lizard Head in war, true war, of the kind the outsiders practiced, he could have done so with ease. His prince had believed he had no other options.

And so they had agreed to sacred war, and they had fought. His prince had died during the battle and once he had, the priests had immediately pronounced victory for Prince Jhallos. Jhallador still believed they could have won the day even after their prince had fallen, but his fellow soldiers had been unwilling to disobey the priests and they had surrendered. Within a week, Lizard Head had been annexed by Prince Jhallos and all of them were on the next swan ship leaving the Summer Isles.

It had been months now that he had been in Lys, wasting away what little money he had been allowed to keep when he was exiled. He had heard that many of his former brethren had already found new employment, and many had even urged him to join them but he had turned them away. There was no use or purpose in his living anymore. His prince was dead, his home was taken from him, and he was an exile.

With no employment, the last of his funds was swiftly running dry. Perhaps he could afford to pay for one last night in a pleasure house before he hung himself in a dark alley on the morrow Jhallador thought darkly to himself.

Thankfully, there would at least be no concern that any woman he bedded would be a slave, she would be there willingly, for the last of his coin, but willing nonetheless. His people might consider prostitution and the art of making love a noble profession fit even for highborn but it meant nothing if it was forced. Even in the pit of despair and melancholy that he had fallen into, Jhallador still despised slavery.

Ever since the Years of Shame when their people were enslaved by raiders from across the world, or sold into slavery by their own people, by the victors of the sacred wars in a perversion of their traditions, the Summer Islanders had learned to despise slavery. The Years of Shame had lasted two centuries, finally ending when Princess Xanda Qo had united them against the slavers and for a generation they had fought to drive them away with goldenheart bows in the Slavers’ War. Xanda’s united kingdom may have splintered since her reign but every Summer Islander still remembered her achievements with pride. It was part of their culture, their heritage.

A culture and heritage that was lost to him, he could never return to the Summer Islands, under pain of death. The priests had made that very clear to him. What use was there taking pride in anything when he was going to be dead on the morrow anyway?

He was so absorbed in his drink that he failed to notice how all noise in the tavern had ceased. “Zaldilaros,” the tavern patrons all chorused at once with a reverent bow.

Jhallador turned his head around finally to see one of the so called Zaldilaros, a tall handsome man with silver-gold hair and purple eyes. He was dressed in a fine and resplendent blue-green doublet and pants. Beside him stood two armored guards in ocean-blue plate and sea-green cloaks.

“Jhallador Zhas yes?” the Zaldilaros asked him.

He raised his eyebrow. “That’s me. May I inquire how you learned of my name?”

The man smiled. “I’ve heard much about you from your former comrades Zhas. My name is Daeron Velaryon, and it’s my pleasure to make your acquaintance. Innkeeper, I would like a private table to discuss business with my new friend.”

Jhallador raised his eyebrow again, but he did not protest. He knew better than to do so seeing the two burly armored knights the Velaryon had with him.

The tavern keeper almost tripped over himself to get them a table and the guards waited some distance away from it to deter any eavesdroppers, leaving Jhallador alone with Daeron Velaryon at the table.

“What do you want?” he demanded curtly as he plopped himself down on the chair unceremoniously.

Daeron Velaryon smiled as he took a seat opposite of him. “I want to offer you a job.”

“Not interested,” Jhallador barked out. He had already made it clear before he was uninterested in jobs hadn’t he? Why had his erstwhile friends sent Velaryon chasing him to accept one?

“Just hear me out. I think it will be worth your while,” Daeron continued, not dropping his smile at all.

Jhallador sighed. “Go on.”

“Brilliant. You have heard I am sure of the Basilisk Isles?”

“I have. Used to be corsair territory and now it’s yours. Didn’t you lot wake up a horde of chimeras and an outbreak of the Red Death there a few years back?”

Daeron’s smile faded just a little. “Quite a few years ago. There is no longer a single trace of either the chimeras or the Red Death in the islands. Their removal allowed us to colonize the islands properly, but their climate and conditions has made that… challenging. Many Essosi and Westerosi find the islands unbearable and unfit for living due to their heat, humidity, and diseases, though we have done our absolute best to keep the lattermost under control. We have found however that Summer Islanders and Naathi who come from islands of a similar latitude and climate absolutely thrive in the region.”

“So what? You want to recruit me as a settler for your colony?” Jhallador’s question was snarky.

“For a start yes. And if that is all you desire, then that is all we would ask of you. There is plenty of land, fertile arable land mind you, that is still yet to be claimed and you could make a new life and fortune for yourself raising a lucrative plantation of some sorts if that is all that satisfies you. However, should you desire even more, then that may be arranged as well.” Velaryon’s smile was as bright as ever.

Jhallador leaned in, feeling his curiosity piqued. “Alright then. I’ll bite the bait. What is this ‘more’ that you speak of?”

Daeron’s smile turned into a smirk as he continued. “You strike me as the type of man who is unwilling to let go of his grudges. And you have a very strong grudge don’t you? Against Prince Jhallos who took your home from you, and the Priests of Love who let it happen. What if I offered you vengeance?”

The promise of vengeance sounded sweet. The priests always said that exiles should not return and seek revenge but honestly fuck them. He was under no obligation to follow anything they taught anymore. “I’m listening.”

“You may not be aware of this, but my house has a rivalry of sorts with the South Sea Company and their masters. Trade disputes and the like. We have our own interests in the Summer Islands. Should you accept, you would join the thousands of other exiles who have joined our ranks, all of them seeking out a new life in the Basilisk Isles with the possible hope of vengeance on those who had wronged them. Should the opportunity arise, we would aid you in reclaiming the homelands you were exiled from either by force or the ritual warfare of your people, and we will help you keep them afterward with financial support and metal weaponry.”

It sounded too good to be true. “What’s in it for you lot? It’s a cruel and savage world. No one helps others purely out of the goodness of their bleeding fucking hearts.”

“As I said, my house has a rivalry with the South Sea Company so taking them down a notch will be very amusing. More than that however, we have our own trade interests in the Summer Islands and would hope to mutually profit from the trade agreements we would form with you and the other exiles we return home to your princedoms. And of course, even if the plan to return the exiles to the Summer Islands never materializes, we will have recruited thousands of people to settle our underpopulated territories in the Basilisk Isles and the benefits of that are obvious enough. So what do you say? Yes, or nay?”

Jhallador weighed his options. It was far too late for him to find another job in time before his funds ran out now and he had been one day away from hanging himself just to get out of his misery anyway. The Velaryons definitely had an agenda they hadn’t yet revealed to him but even if it all turned out to be one big fat lie in the end, it wouldn’t really hurt him to accept since he had absolutely nothing to lose. And something told him that he could trust in the Velaryons’ interests to take down the South Sea Company and assert their own interests in the Summer Islands if nothing else.

If he was being honest, he respected the Velaryons a lot. He had spent enough time in Lys to learn the full list of their accomplishments and if even half of it was true they had done a lot of good for the world. Whether it was for altruistic reasons or not, the Velaryons hated slavery and had done the most out of anyone in the world to bring an end to it and they were definitely the kind of people he could work with. And they promised him not only a new purpose in life and free lands in the Basilisk Isles but also the potential for vengeance on his enemies back home to boot? He’d have to be a fool to refuse an offer like that.

“Alright. I accept, on one condition,” Jhallador said, making his decision.

Daeron raised an eyebrow. “Name it.”

“I need some funds to last me until I can get my own footing in the Basilisk Isles. The little I was exiled with has all but run out.”

Daeron nodded. “Fair enough. That can be arranged. We take care of our own Jhallador, and now that you’ve joined us, you are part of that group. Welcome aboard,” he said as he offered his hand to Jhallador.

Jhallador grinned toothily and took his hand, shaking it firmly.

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-The Summer Sea and House Velaryon: circa 114-132 AC

The Basilisk Isles are an archipelago of islands located directly south of the former Valyrian peninsula across the Summer Sea and north of the mainland of the continent of Sothoryos. In ancient times the islands were colonized by the Ghiscari Empire who built the city of Gorgai on the Isle of Tears as a penal colony. During the Ghiscari Wars, the Valyrian Freehold conquered Gorgai and renamed it Gogossos, a name that would later go down in history as one of dread and infamy.

Gogossos would eventually become a center of slavery and sorcery infamous even in Valyria and there are some unconfirmed sources that indicate that even the dragonlords of old found the twisted experiments the Gogossi bloodmages conducted to be unsavory. Perhaps as a sign of this, Gogossos was never allowed self-rule as a true Free City in its own right despite its numerous petitions and attempts to buy a charter of self-rule from Valyria.

At the time of the Doom, the city was still ruled by an archon dispatched from Valyria. An archon that was summarily arrested and executed by the power hungry blood mages following the Doom who had then created a conclave to rule the city together. For the next seventy-seven years, the city grew mighty and cruel, spreading its power over the entire archipelago, over all the Valyrian settlements and corsair lairs that had sprung up, growing more and more corrupt and decadent until it all came crashing down.

It is now believed that in their pursuit of the dark art of blood magic, the bloodmages pushed too greedily and too far, creating a disease that they could not control. The Red Death spread like wildfire, ravaging the islands and killing nine out of every ten men. The few survivors fled the islands for more hospitable lands, carrying tales of the disease, causing them to be shunned for a century.

When the corsairs returned seventy-five years after Aegon’s Conquest, they rapidly began growing in strength and numbers, predating on the shipping lanes that passed along the Summer Sea. This state of affairs continued until House Velaryon led an invasion of the islands in 114 AC. After a series of events that have been related in other texts involving the destruction of all the corsair clans and the pacification of the islands as well as the eradication of a resurgent outbreak of Red Death from a hidden cache of chimeras in Gogossos, the islands were declared free of any threats and ready for colonization by House Velaryon’s people in 115 AC.

The city of Gogossos was renamed Corlantis in honor of Lord Corlys the Sea Snake and Lord Corlys’ nephew Rhogar, was named the Governor of the Basilisk Isles. After the Triunification in 120 AC, he was raised to the peerage as the Protector of Talon and his appointed position as governor was renamed as Magister of Corlantis.

Under Magister Rhogar’s oversight, the Basilisk Isles would develop exceedingly well. The islands were very well placed strategically for control of the shipping lanes that passed through the Summer Sea to their north, skirting south of the Doom. Alongside Viserria to the northwest, the Basilisk Isles gave the Velaryons full control over which ships could pass along the Summer Sea to trade. The Velaryon annexation of the Basilisk Isles dramatically cut down on piracy in the Summer Sea and provided yet another waystation for their own ships on their trade routes leading east.

This allowed them to further develop and strengthen their overseas trading empire and also their exploration efforts, building trading outposts across the Summer and Jade Seas from the Summer Islands all the way to the isles of the Jade Sea and pushing their knowledge of the regions further as Velaryon ships explored down the coast of Sothoryos south from the Summer Islands or south from Leng and the Cinnamon Straits to find the southern coasts and islands of the Jade Sea.

While the butterfly fever prevented the Velaryons from truly annexing the island or building any permanent outposts on it, Naath would become a protectorate of House Velaryon by 120 AC, giving the Velaryons tribute in the form of silk, spiced wine, handcrafts, and other goods, in exchange for protection from any slavers and pirates that remained in the region. This tribute would be given at night when the butterflies were less active and the Velaryons would invest in developing Naathi port infrastructure for the collection of their tribute.

Meanwhile back in the Basilisk Isles, the same reason that had them such a hub for piracy, their strategic positioning along the Summer Sea shipping lanes, now made them a hub of trade, and the city of Corlantis and the other settlements in the region would be rapidly rebuilt, repaired, and redeveloped into bustling centers of civilization once more.

It certainly helped that the islands had a lot to trade in their own right. In the more mountainous islands, mineral wealth in metals, gemstones, and other resources was plentiful, but the main exports of the Basilisk Isles would in time prove to be the fruit of its fertile and tropical lands, quite literally.

The Basilisk Isles being the latitudinal equivalent of the Summer Isles and Naath, were ideal for growing many crops, fruits, and trees that grew in those regions or in other tropical regions of the world.  Fruits such as lychees, tamarinds, durians, dragonfruits, guavas, bananas, pineapples, oranges, mangos, lemons, coconuts, and many more were grown in great plantations in the Basilisk Isles.

Of course, keeping these fruits fresh for shipment out of the Basilisk Isles was difficult in large quantities as bringing ice down from the North in Westeros to keep fruits cool and fresh for transport out of the Basilisk Isles was a long and tedious process. Fresh fruits from the Basilisk Isles would remain a luxury good in Tyrosh and the other cities of the Triarchy as a result but dried and preserved fruits would eventually become affordable to the average citizen. Fresh fruits would also be kept in the Basilisk Isles for local consumption or sold to passing ships on trade routes for them to prevent scurvy among their sailors. These fruits would also be used in the production of many exotic wines.

Other crops like manioc, taro, onion, ginger, garlic, chili, curry, yam and beans would all be grown as well as herbs such as basil and coriander. The Basilisk Isles were also well suited to growing spices including nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, saffron, and pepper. Cocoa, coffee, and tea were also grown and used to make beverages or chocolate.

Silk would also become a major industry in the region. With Naath nearby, it was perhaps ideal for it, with many silkworm farms and mulberry plantations founded for the production of silk, staffed by Naathi immigrants or freed slaves for the Velaryons to produce their own Naathi-style silks.

Trees were also another product. Goldenheart seeds were smuggled out from the Summer Islands and grown in great plantations, as were other valuable hardwood trees such as bloodwood, ebony, mahogany, purpleheart, blue mahoe, burl, tigerwood, and pink ivory, among others. Coconut palm trees were also a very prominent tree grown for their fruits, wood, and sugar.

Coconut sugar was produced by tapping the flower bud stems of coconut trees to collect sap and the sap was then heated in large woks to evaporate away the water, leaving a syrup that could be further reduced into sugar crystals or soft paste. Sugarcane was also cultivated, though minimally due to the back-breaking work and high labor cost making it largely unprofitable without slavery despite the lucrative profits of the sugar trade. Coconut and beet sugar were the preferred crops to farm sugar in the Velaryon State.

Various species of palm trees apart from coconuts were also cultivated, either for their wood, their fruits, or their oil. A few species in particular were cultivated for a resin called ‘dragon’s blood’ made from their sap which could be used to make dyes, varnish, or other products.

The Velaryons conducted a great deal of espionage on Naath, the Summer Isles, and other tropical regions in the world to collect seeds or saplings of any crop, fruit, spice, or tree that could be grown in the Basilisk Isles that they deemed remotely interesting and potentially profitable. This was evident in their collection of goldenheart and other hardwood seeds and saplings and it would make the islands vastly profitable in the future with a very diversified agriculture and plantation sector.

And of course, there were the other more typical trades and industries, such as mining, fishing, and the farming of food crops such as rice. Given that the Basilisk Isles were only estimated to be around one and a half to two times the size of the Stepstones (if with much more arable land due to being less mountainous) it is truly quite impressive how the Velaryons maximized the region’s economic potential from every inch of its territory.

That being said, the development of the Basilisk Isles would take decades to achieve and would not be anywhere near completed until years after the Dance of the Dragons. A number of challenges had to be rooted out before they could even begin, such as the eradication of dangerous local wildlife such as the wyverns and the eponymous basilisks, and the draining of many wetlands and the construction of hospitals and the propagation of medical knowledge to reduce outbreaks of disease and parasites. And of course, all of these trades and industries and farming required people as labor. The Basilisk Isles would prove to be as diverse in their demographics as the goods the produced.

There was firstly a small tribe of people living on the Isle of Toads with webbed hands and feet and fishlike aspects to their faces. Most scholars believe these to be the remnants of the indigenous people of the isles. The Toad Stone on the Isle of Toads was believed to be a monument made by their ancient civilization though the Velaryons found it unpleasant and had attempted to destroy it with dragonfire. However, when that failed due to the structure being made of an indestructible greasy black stone substance, they ordered it buried under concrete and soil instead.

Next there was a hodge-podge mix of peoples from all over the world that came to form the corsair clans or were enslaved by them, populating the villages and corsair towns of the region. Brindled Men, Ghiscari, Westerosi, Naathi, Summer Islanders, Qartheen, Essosi, and many more. One of the most notable and largest subgroups in this population were the Lyseni led by Saathos Saan who had fled the fall of the first slaver Triarchy in 90 AC.

Both of these local population groups were pacified by the Velaryons, with the defiant destroyed and the submissive allowed to remain unmolested under Velaryon rule. The Velaryons however did not trust the local populations to serve reliably as labor in all of their projects and plans for the islands, and neither were they populous enough anyway. As a result, settlers and colonists were brought in by the Velaryons from Tyrosh, Velos, and Viserria, and later from the rest of the Triarchy.

These Velaryon colonists were primarily Naathi or Summer Islander in origin, having been deemed by the Velaryons to be suitable for the climate. They came from populations of freed slaves of these ethnicities in the cities the Velaryons had liberated from slavery and they were all deeply devoted to the Velaryons. In addition to these settlers, there were also Tyroshi, Lyseni, Myrish, Velosi, and Viserrians, though in much smaller numbers.

Still the population influx was not deemed large enough so the Velaryons reached out to their protectorate in Naath and offered Naathi immigrants land and jobs in the Basilisk Isles. They did the same with the Summer Islander princedoms they were friendly and trading with. They also took it upon themselves to recruit as many exiles of Summer Islander ritual warfare as they could, acquiring thousands of trained warriors and administrators.

The Velaryons also used these exiles as part of their plans to contest the influence of the South Sea Company in the Summer Islands, planning to help some of the exiles reclaim their homelands and expand the influence and reach of their trading posts in the region in the process. Though this particular endeavor would no longer be possible after the Targaryen’s swift conquest of the Summer Islands in 126 AC, it did not dissuade the Velaryons from continuing to try and increase the influence of their traders in the region or from defending them from the unfair conditions imposed upon them by the Targaryens and their appointed governor in the Summer Isles.

The blatant favoritism showed by the Targaryens and their governor to the South Sea Company would raise tensions in the entire region in the lead-up to the Dance of the Dragons and the Basilisk Isles would prove to be the main stronghold for the Velaryons in the area, hosting more and more squadrons of the Velaryon Navy with each passing year. Eventually skirmishes were even breaking out between the South Sea Company and the Velaryon traders and this eventually escalated into involving the respective war fleets of the Summer Isles Governorship and the Velaryon Navy Basilisk Fleet respectively.

When the Dance finally broke out in Westeros and the Narrow Sea between House Targaryen and House Velaryon in 132 AC, it was no surprise to the vassals, servants, and forces of both houses in the Summer Sea region. While the tensions in the distant southern region were hardly the sole factor in causing the Dance, they certainly played a significant part in the overall deterioration of the relationship between the two dragonlord families. A deterioration that inevitably led to war.

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Author’s Note: A shorter chapter but I hoped you guys enjoyed it nonetheless, especially the confirmation of the date for the Summer Isles Conquest and the Dance! Lmk your thoughts in the comments below or over on the patron channels in the Discord! https://discord.com/invite/NSEwuzpcWm

Next week, timeskip to 126 AC for Rhaenys’ Conquest of the Summer Isles and the first Viserra POV since Ch54! Stay tuned!