The Sunset Sea is the western waterway encountered on Alyn Velaryon’s epic voyage around Westeros. In the account of that expedition, it is not merely a distant boundary: it becomes a route along which ships gather, a storm scatters the fleet, and the voyage’s onward progress is tested by the sea.

The Western Route

The narrative returns to Alyn’s voyage after briefly leaving King’s Landing behind. His fleet departed Oldtown and moved down the Whispering Sound; off the singing cliffs of Blackcrown, it turned north into the Sunset Sea and followed the western coast past Bandallon. This sequence places the sea within a coastal passage rather than describing it through precise boundaries or measurements.

Fleet and Storm

As Alyn’s ships passed the mouth of the Mander, vessels from the Shield Islands joined them: three each from Greyshield and Southshield, four from Greenshield, and six from Oakenshield. The reinforcement was followed by another storm. One ship sank, while three others were damaged too badly to continue. Alyn regrouped the fleet off Crakehall, where he first heard of the Maiden’s Day ball. The episode makes the Sunset Sea’s part in the voyage concrete: it is a corridor for assembling ships, but also a maritime hazard that forces the expedition to pause and reorganize.

Narrative Significance

The chronicler introduces the voyage as an account of Alyn’s passage around what he called the “arse of Westeros,” while declining to recount its trials and triumphs in full. The stretch through the Sunset Sea is therefore one of the narrative’s broad strokes: a change of course from Oldtown into the western waters, a gathering of island ships, and a storm-driven interruption before the fleet continues north. The sea marks the outward-facing edge of the voyage without the account defining its limits or offering a general description of its waters.