The Wise Masters

The Wise Masters are the collective name for the wealthy, slave-owning nobility who govern the city of Yunkai, known as the Yellow City. They are the chief architects of the war against Daenerys Targaryen, whom they view as a mortal threat to their economic and social order, which is built entirely upon the institution of slavery. Their opposition is the central engine of the conflict in Slaver's Bay throughout the novel.

Nature and Structure

The Wise Masters are not a single ruler but an oligarchic council of the city's most powerful slaver families. They style themselves with the honorific "Wise" to project an image of cultivated authority, but their governance is fundamentally driven by profit and the preservation of their power. They command vast wealth, which they use to hire mercenary armies and bribe potential allies. Their society is rigidly hierarchical, with the Wise Masters at the top, a class of free citizens beneath them, and a vast population of slaves at the bottom. The slave trade is the lifeblood of their economy, and they are deeply invested in maintaining the status quo that Daenerys seeks to destroy.

Aims and Methods

The Wise Masters' primary aim is to crush Daenerys Targaryen's rebellion against the slave trade and restore the old order in Slaver's Bay. To this end, they employ a multi-pronged strategy. Militarily, they raise large armies of slave soldiers and hire numerous free companies, such as the Windblown, the Long Lances, and the Company of the Cat, to besiege Meereen. Politically, they send envoys to other cities like Volantis and New Ghis to build a broad coalition against the dragon queen. They also engage in subterfuge, supporting the Sons of the Harpy, a terrorist organization within Meereen that murders Daenerys's freedmen supporters. Their methods are ruthless and pragmatic, prioritizing the destruction of their enemy over any code of honor.

Key Actions and Opposition to Daenerys

The Wise Masters are directly responsible for the siege of Meereen that dominates the latter half of the novel. After Daenerys conquers Astapor and Yunkai, the Wise Masters regroup and hire a formidable host of sellswords to lay siege to her new capital. They also instigate the war that leads to the fall of Astapor, which they then allow to be sacked and burned. Their envoy, Grazdan mo Eraz, is active in Volantis, attempting to bring that city's might into the war against Daenerys. The Wise Masters are also the ones who demand the reopening of the fighting pits as a condition for peace, a demand that Daenerys ultimately concedes to by marrying Hizdahr zo Loraq. Their relentless pressure forces Daenerys into a series of difficult compromises that undermine her own principles.

Development and Significance

Throughout A Dance with Dragons, the Wise Masters are portrayed as a formidable and persistent enemy. They are not a monolithic force, however; their council is shown to be fractious and prone to internal squabbling, with different lords vying for influence. Their supreme commander, Yurkhaz zo Yunzak, is an old and frail figure, and his death during the chaos of Daznak's Pit leaves the Yunkish command in disarray. Despite their internal divisions, their collective wealth and determination make them a constant threat. They represent the systemic evil of slavery that Daenerys has sworn to destroy, and their resilience highlights the immense difficulty of her mission. The Wise Masters are the embodiment of the old world fighting desperately against the new, and their conflict with Daenerys forms the core political struggle of the novel's eastern narrative.