Golden Company

The Golden Company is the most celebrated and feared sellsword company in the known world, a brotherhood of exiles bound by a century of shared defeat and a single, unbroken dream of returning home. Founded by Bittersteel, a bastard son of King Aegon the Unworthy, the company was forged in the aftermath of the Blackfyre Rebellion, when the followers of the Black Dragon who refused to bend the knee fled across the narrow sea. Bittersteel saw the strength of House Blackfyre scattering to the four winds, so he formed the Golden Company to bind the exiles together. From that day to this, the men of the Golden Company had lived and died in the Disputed Lands, fighting for Myr or Lys or Tyrosh in their pointless little wars, and dreaming of the land their fathers had lost. They were exiles and sons of exiles, dispossessed and unforgiven, yet formidable fighters still.

Structure, Discipline, and Ethos

The Golden Company fields ten thousand swords, making it the largest and most disciplined free company in existence. Its camp is a model of military order: a deep ditch dug around it, sharpened stakes inside, tents arranged in rows with broad avenues between them, latrines placed beside the river so the current washes away the wastes, and horse lines to the north. Beyond the horse lines, two dozen elephants graze beside the water, pulling up reeds with their trunks—war beasts that no warhorse in Westeros can stand against. Tall battle standards of cloth-of-gold flap atop lofty poles along the perimeters, and armed and armored sentries walk their rounds with spears and crossbows, watching every approach. The company's officers wear their worldly wealth upon their persons: jeweled swords, inlaid armor, heavy torcs, and fine silks, and every man wears a lord's ransom in golden arm rings, each ring signifying one year's service. The company's captains bear bastard names—Flowers, Rivers, Hill, Stone—or claim names that once loomed large in the histories of the Seven Kingdoms: Strong, Peake, Mudd, Mandrake, Lothston, Cole. Not all are genuine; in the free companies, a man can call himself whatever he chooses. The company's archers are commanded by Black Balaq, a white-haired Summer Islander with skin dark as soot, who wears a feathered cloak of green and orange. The cadaverous Volantene Gorys Edoryen serves as paymaster, and the spymaster is Lysono Maar, a Lyseni with lilac eyes and white-gold hair whose fingernails are painted purple and whose earlobes drip with pearls and amethysts.

The Pact with Illyrio and the Secret Prince

For years, the Golden Company's true purpose has been hidden behind a web of secrecy spun by Magister Illyrio Mopatis and Lord Varys. The company's captain-general, Myles Toyne—called Blackheart—put his seal to a secret pact with Illyrio and Varys, agreeing to support the restoration of House Targaryen. After Toyne's death four years before the events of the novel, Homeless Harry Strickland succeeded him as captain-general. Strickland is a portly, cautious man with a big round head, mild grey eyes, and thinning hair that he brushes sideways to conceal a bald spot; he sits in a camp chair soaking his feet in a tub of salt water, complaining of blisters. He is better at hammering out contracts than at hammering on foes, and has a nose for gold but a questionable belly for battle. The company marches toward Volantis, ostensibly to await the coming of Daenerys Targaryen out of the east, but the plan is thrown into disarray when news arrives that Daenerys has not started for the west, remaining instead in Meereen.

The Council at Volon Therys and the Decision to Sail West

At Volon Therys, Jon Connington—the exiled Lord of Griffin's Roost and former Hand of the King, disguised as the sellsword Griff—reveals the company's true purpose to its high officers. He presents Aegon Targaryen, the firstborn son of Prince Rhaegar and Princess Elia of Dorne, whom Varys smuggled away from the Sack of King's Landing and raised in secret. The captains of the Golden Company rise from their stools and camp chairs as they enter; old friends greet Griff with smiles and embraces, the new men more formally. Not all are as glad to see them as they would have the prince believe; knives lurk behind some of the smiles, for until recently most had believed that Lord Jon Connington was safely in his grave. The company is restless, having walked away from an easy campaign in the Disputed Lands for what seems like nothing. Strickland reveals that the Yunkishmen have offered twice what Myr was paying, plus a slave for every man in the company, ten for every officer, and a hundred choice maidens for himself. The captains debate whether to accept the Yunkish offer, march overland on the demon road, or sail west to Westeros. Prince Aegon himself speaks, declaring that he is the only dragon they need, and that he will claim the Iron Throne by himself with their swords. The captains are swayed: Tristan Rivers declares he has had enough of Illyrio's plans, which change every time the moon turns; Laswell Peake says he would sooner die in Westeros than on the demon road; Marq Mandrake says he would sooner live, win lands and some great castle; Franklyn Flowers slaps his sword hilt and says so long as he can kill some Fossoways, he is for it. One by one, the men of the Golden Company rise, kneel, and lay their swords at the feet of the young prince. The last to do so is Homeless Harry Strickland, blistered feet and all.

The Invasion of Westeros

The Golden Company lands on Cape Wrath, its ships scattered by storms but its discipline intact. The company seizes Griffin's Roost with astonishing speed, losing only four men; the gate is found closed but not barred, and the defenders are taken completely unawares. Black Balaq's archers bring down every raven that tries to leave the castle, preventing word of the attack from reaching King's Landing. Connington, now revealed as the true lord of the castle, takes command and plans to march on Storm's End, using guile to take the nigh-impregnable fortress. The company's numbers continue to swell as more ships straggle in, though the elephants have not yet arrived. The invasion sends shockwaves through the Seven Kingdoms; in King's Landing, the small council debates whether the reports are true, with Randyll Tarly dismissing the invaders as mere adventurers and Kevan Lannister insisting that they must be destroyed before Daenerys Targaryen can join her strength to theirs. The Golden Company, once a band of exiles dreaming of a lost homeland, has at last returned to Westeros to claim it by fire and sword.