Qarth

Qarth figures in the account of Corlys Velaryon’s voyages as both a familiar limit for Westerosi traders and a destination in a trading venture of extraordinary scale. The Sea Snake’s journeys beyond that limit brought House Velaryon wealth, while the return voyage to Qarth tested how much of a vast fleet and its cargo the sea would allow to reach home.

A Limit of Westerosi Trade

Traders from Oldtown and the Arbor sailed as far as Qarth seeking spice, silk, and other treasures. Corlys Velaryon went farther: in the Sea Snake, which he designed and built, he passed through the Jade Gates to Yi Ti and the isle of Leng. The account presents Qarth as the edge of the route known to those other traders, beyond which Corlys extended Westerosi voyages.

Voyages Beyond Qarth

Corlys’s first voyage in the Sea Snake carried him beyond Qarth to Yi Ti and Leng, and the rich return cargo of silk and spice doubled House Velaryon’s wealth at a stroke. His later voyages ranged farther still: the second reached Asshai-by-the-Shadow, while the third took him across the Shivering Sea to the Thousand Islands and the shores of N’ghai and Mossovy. Together, these journeys place Qarth within a sequence of expanding voyages rather than as the farthest point of Corlys’s own exploration.

The Ninth Voyage and Its Cost

On the Sea Snake’s ninth voyage, Corlys took the ship back to Qarth. The return was laden with enough gold to buy twenty more ships and load them with saffron, pepper, nutmeg, elephants, and fine silk. The homeward outcome was sharply diminished: only fourteen ships in the fleet arrived safely at Driftmark, and every elephant died at sea. Even after those losses, the profits were so vast that House Velaryon briefly became the wealthiest house in the Seven Kingdoms, surpassing the Hightowers and Lannisters. Qarth’s significance in this account thus rests on the reach and hazards of the trade conducted there, and on the riches it helped bring within Corlys’s grasp.