Iron Lances

Iron Lances is a free company of mounted sellswords, eight hundred strong, that fought for Yunkai in the war against Daenerys Targaryen. They are one of four sellsword companies the Wise Masters hired to augment their slave soldiers and Ghiscari legions, alongside the Windblown, the Company of the Cat, and the Golden Company. Their captain is Gylo Rhegan, a man who looks more like a shoemaker than a soldier and speaks in murmurs, but whose competence is not openly questioned by the men who serve under him.

Role in the Siege of Meereen

The Iron Lances were deployed to close the Khyzai Pass, the overland route between Lhazar and Meereen, in an attempt to cut Daenerys off from potential trade and reinforcements. Daario Naharis and his Stormcrows descended on them in a night attack, killing several and persuading a dozen survivors to change sides. Those defectors were absorbed into the Stormcrows, though Daenerys remained wary that they might be spies. The Iron Lances also fought at the Horns of Hazzat, where they helped break the Astapori sortie led by the corpse of Cleon the Great. After that battle they remained in the field, harrying the hills north of Astapor alongside the other sellsword companies.

Reputation and Significance

Among the Yunkish host, the Iron Lances are regarded as a competent but unremarkable force, neither as savage as Bloodbeard's Company of the Cat nor as enigmatic as the Tattered Prince's Windblown. Their presence in the coalition, however, is a measure of the resources Yunkai was willing to commit: four free companies, each with its own traditions and commanders, all bound by gold and the promise of plunder. The Iron Lances' willingness to serve Yunkai, and their vulnerability to defection when the tide of battle shifted, exemplifies the fragile loyalty that characterized the entire sellsword army arrayed against Meereen.