Wyvern

Wyverns are dangerous creatures associated with Sothoryos, and the reports of them expose how easily a supposed dragon could be misidentified. Septon Barth distinguishes a beast in Astapor’s fighting pits from a dragon, while Ser Eustace Hightower’s account places wyverns among the hazards of his year stranded on Sothoryos.

Reports and Identification

An agent of Lord Rego Draz reported that slavers in Astapor, on Slaver’s Bay, displayed a savage beast with shorn wings in the fighting pits. It was set against bulls, cave bears, and human slaves armed with spears and axes before thousands of spectators. Septon Barth dismissed the report of a dragon, identifying the creature instead as a wyvern and noting that people who had never seen a dragon often mistook wyverns for one. His explanation offers a natural alternative to the alarming rumor, though the account does not independently confirm the beast’s identity.

Wyverns on Sothoryos

Ser Eustace Hightower included wyverns among the many dangerous creatures he said he encountered on Sothoryos. His ship, Lady Meredith, had been damaged by a leviathan and put ashore there for repairs; Eustace and his crew remained for a full year amid strange animals, deadly snakes, disease, and other hazards. Wyverns appear in his recollection as one element of this catalogue of peril, rather than as the focus of a separate encounter.

Narrative Significance

The two accounts link wyverns to Sothoryos while giving them different roles in the narrative. Barth invokes them to challenge a report of a dragon and explain how the mistake could arise; Eustace’s tale treats them as part of the island’s real, dangerous wildlife. Together, the reports preserve a distinction between dragons and wyverns without turning the reported fighting-pit creature into a confirmed sighting.