Targaryen campaign in Slaver's Bay

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Targaryen campaign in Slaver's Bay
Queen Daenerys - by Mario Teodosio ©
Daenerys Targaryen with her dragons - by Mario Teodosio

Date 299 AC-Present
Location Slaver's Bay, Essos
Battles Fall of Astapor, Battle near Yunkai, Siege of Meereen, Siege of Astapor, Second siege of Meereen
Result Ongoing
Belligerents
House Targaryen
Meereen (seat)

Iron Fleet


Astapor (briefly)
Astapor (pre-sack)
Meereen (pre-conquest)
Yunkai and allies
Notable commanders
Queen Daenerys Targaryen
Ser Jorah Mormont
Ser Barristan Selmy
Daario Naharis
Ben Plumm
Tattered Prince
Victarion Greyjoy
Cleon the Great
Cleon II
King Cutthroat
Queen Whore
The Green Grace of Astapor†
Good Masters
Wise Masters
Great Masters
Sallor the Bald
Prendahl na Ghezn
Daario Naharis (switches sides)
Mero
Ben Plumm (switches sides thrice)
Tattered Prince (switches sides)
Bloodbeard
Gylo Rhegan

The Targaryen campaign in Slaver's Bay is an ongoing conflict in Essos, mainly in the Slaver's Bay region. Daenerys Targaryen's main goal is to free the slaves in Slaver's Bay and abolish all slavery. This conflict is a primary military conflict depicted in A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons, and it continues into the unreleased sixth novel, The Winds of Winter.

Causes

Daenerys Targaryen wants to travel to Pentos after leaving Qarth, but Ser Jorah Mormont convinces her to travel to Astapor instead and buy Unsullied.[1] Though sickened by the idea of buying slaves, she agrees since she needs an army. Daenerys arrives at Astapor and is immediately sickened by the misery of the slave trade,[2] but she agrees to acquire from the slave masters all the Unsullied available for sale in Astapor—8,000, another 600 guarding the city, and 5,000 boys still in training—in exchange for her ships, the trading goods on board, and one of her dragons, Drogon.[3]

Factions

Seat: Meereen
Allies: Lhazareen, Iron Fleet
Mercenaries: Second Sons (switches sides then switches back), Stormcrows (switches sides), Windblown (switches sides)
Freedmen companies: Mother's Men, Stalwart Shields
Combined strength: 25,000-30,000 all free men, Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion

Seat: Yunkai
Allies: New Ghis, Volantis, Qarth, Tolos, Mantarys, Elyria, Meereenese fleet
Mercenaries: Company of the Cat, Long Lances
Combined strength: 75,000-100,000 mostly slave soldiers

Seat: Astapor
Allies: none
Mercenaries: none
Strength: about 3,000

The War

Fall of Astapor

Daenerys Targaryen vs. the Good Masters of Astapor

Result
Targaryen victory, Astapor sacked

Other than the Unsullied, Astapor is poorly defended; its walls are old and crumbling, with no guards in the towers.[2] At the Plaza of Punishment, Daenerys betrays the terms of the deal and unleashes her dragons on the Good Masters and the few remaining soldiers in the plaza, ordering the Unsullied to kill the remaining masters of the city and free all of the slaves.[3]

Daenerys leaves a ruling council of three men, a healer, a scholar and a priest. They are later deposed by Cleon, a former butcher, who leads the people to believe that the three intended to return the Good Masters to their positions of power. Naming himself king after having the council executed, Cleon has all highborn boys seized to begin training new Unsullied. Each pyramid within Astapor becomes an armed camp, the dead lie in the streets, and the markets are devoid of food and slaves.

Battle near Yunkai

Daenerys Targaryen vs. Yunkai

Result
Targaryen victory, liberation of Yunkai

Yunkai commands 5,000 men, holding the middle with a 4,000 strong infantry slave army, supported by two mounted sellsword companies, the Stormcrows on the left and the Second Sons on the right.[4]

Daario Naharis of the Stormcrows kills his fellows captains, Sallor the Bald and Prendahl na Ghezn, and he surrenders the Stormcrows to Daenerys. The attack is launched a few hours after midnight, and the Stormcrows attack the enemy in the rear, as promised. The Second Sons are too drunk to fight and are unable to support the slave army. Surrounded from all directions, the Yunkish troops break and throw down their weapons, while the sellswords yield.[4]

Yunkai surrenders and gives in to Daenerys's demands, freeing all the slaves. In return they are allowed to remain in control of the city. The freed slaves swelled the ranks of Daenerys's freedmen and cemented her reputation as the "Mother" among her followers.[4]

Fighting on the Khyzai Pass

Stormcrows vs. Long Lances

Result
Stormcrows victory.

Daario and the Stormcrows are sent to Lhazar to secure an alliance between the Lamb Men and Meereen to ensure trade through the land route of the Khyzai Pass.[5]

The Long Lances, which have been contracted by Yunkai,[6] attempt to close the Khyzai Pass. The Stormcrows descend on them in the night and defeat them. Nine Stormcrows die in the process but twelve Long Lances defect to the Stormcrows.[7]

Siege of Meereen

Daenerys Targaryen vs. Meereen

Result
Targaryen victory, occupation of Meereen

The Meereenese, warned by the fate of Astapor and Yunkai, retreat behind the formidable defense of Meereen after mutilating slave children. Daenerys, followed by 20,000 soldiers and 60,000 refugees from Astapor and Yunkai, is starved of supplies and cannot afford a prolonged siege. She has her fleet dismantled to construct battering rams, mantlets, turtles, catapults, and ladders.[8]

The fighting is bitter and bloody for most of a day and well into the night. At nightfall Daenerys sends a small force to infiltrate the city sewers, under the cover of darkness. Once they find their way into the city, they release the slaves in the nearest fighting pit. Within an hour, half the fighting slaves in Meereen are released, and soon after a ram broke through the eastern gate and the defenders broke.[8][9]

Having learned of Astapor's troubles, Daenerys chooses to remain in Meereen and installs herself as queen and taking the Great Pyramid as her seat.[9]

Siege of Astapor

Yunkai and allies vs. Astapor

Result
Yunkish victory, Astapor falls

Battle begins when the new Unsullied of Astapor march out the city's gates on the sortie against the forces of Yunkai and its allies and sellswords. The Unsullied try to flee after the death of Cleon, but the gates of Astapor are shut behind them and they are slaughtered by the Windblown.[10]

Many of the surviving Astapori have the bloody flux. The Yunkish command the sellswords to hunt them down and turn them, driving them back to Astapor or north to Meereen to prevent the Astapori from going near Yunkai. Daenerys receives the news of the fall from three escaped Astapori, a brickmaker, a weaver, and a cobbler.

Second Siege of Meereen

Daenerys's host vs. Yunkai and allies

Result
to be decided

Yunkai and her allies march on Meereen in order to cast down Daenerys and retake Meereen. Brown Ben Plumm brings the Second Sons to the Yunkish alliance once the queen cannot control her dragons. Daenerys marries Hizdahr zo Loraq to broker peace and exchanges hostages with the Yunkai'i. Daenerys goes missing on her dragon, Drogon, however, and her Hand, Ser Barristan Selmy, takes command with the ruling council of Meereen. The Yunkish resume the siege, although Barristan gains the support of the Windblown for Meereen.

While Barristan leads a sortie from Meereen against the Yunkish lines, the Iron Fleet unexpectedly arrives and attacks the Yunkish coalition in Slaver's Bay. The dragons Rhaegal and Viserion fly overhead and the Second Sons return to Daenerys's cause.

References and Notes