Velvet Hills

The Velvet Hills are a range of low, rolling hills in the hinterland of the Free City of Pentos, lying east of the Flatlands and west of the Little Rhoyne. They form part of the ancient realm of Andalos, the legendary homeland of the Andals before their migration to Westeros. The Faith of the Seven teaches that the gods themselves once walked these hills in human form, and Tyrion Lannister, recalling a passage from The Seven-Pointed Star, muses on the story of Hugor of the Hill, to whom the Father gave a crown of seven stars. The hills thus carry a weight of religious and historical significance that stands in stark contrast to their modest physical appearance.

Geography and Appearance

Illyrio Mopatis describes the Velvet Hills as the destination of their eastward journey from Pentos, noting that the road passes through them on its climb toward Ghoyan Drohe upon the Little Rhoyne. When Tyrion finally sees them, however, he is unimpressed. He quips to Illyrio that "Half the whores in Lannisport have breasts bigger than these hills" and suggests they be renamed "the Velvet Teats." This sardonic dismissal is characteristic of Tyrion's voice throughout the journey, deflating the grand historical and religious aura that Illyrio has attached to the landscape. The hills are also the site of a circle of standing stones that Illyrio claims were raised by giants, and a deep lake said to be haunted by robbers who pull fishermen under the water, adding a layer of folkloric menace to the region.

Narrative Significance

The crossing of the Velvet Hills is part of the slow, comfortable overland journey Tyrion shares with Illyrio in the magister's luxurious litter. The pace is so leisurely that Tyrion chafes with impatience, complaining that at this rate Daenerys Targaryen's dragons will be larger than Aegon the Conqueror's before he can lay eyes on them. The hills themselves are a waypoint on the road to the Rhoyne, where Tyrion will be handed off to Griff and the company of the Shy Maid. The journey through the hills is also marked by Tyrion's drunken singing of the song about the Dornishman's wife and his recurring, haunted question, "Where do whores go?" — a refrain that ties the physical landscape to his internal torment over Tysha and his murdered father. The Velvet Hills, for all their legendary associations, become in Tyrion's experience a place of anticlimax, dark humor, and the slow, grinding passage of time toward an uncertain fate.