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Gogossos: The Tenth Free City

The Basilisk Isles are currently a violent centre of piracy, with corsairs taking refuge from the powerful fleets of Volantis and Qarth, to raid trading ships as they swing round Valyria. However, it was not always so. Before the Doom of Valyria, on the Isle of Tears, the city of Gogossos was a penal colony, taking on the “worst criminals” of Valyria. This city, rose in power during the Century of Blood, and was considered to be The Tenth Free City, until it’s entire populace was wiped out by the Red Death.

Gogossos’ has a very small portion dedicated to it in the World of Ice and Fire, but what little that we are told is highly informative.

“On its [The Isle of Tears] southern coasts stand the broken ruins of a city. Founded by the Old Empire of Ghis, it was known as Gorgai for close on two centuries (or perhaps four; there is some dispute), until the dragonlords of Valyria captured it during the Third Ghiscari War and renamed it Gogossos.

By any name, it was an evil place. The dragonlords sent their worst criminals to the Isle of Tears to live out their lives in hard labor. In the dungeons of Gogossos, torturers devised new torments. In the flesh pits, blood sorcery of the darkest sort was practiced, as beasts were mated to slave women to bring forth twisted half-human children.

The infamy of Gogossos outlived even the Doom. During the Century of Blood, this dark city waxed rich and powerful. Some called her the Tenth Free City, but her wealth was built on slaves and sorcery. Her slave markets became as notorious as those of the old Ghiscari cities on Slaver’s Bay. Seven-and-seventy years after the Doom of Valyria, however, it is said their stink reached even the nostrils of the gods, and a terrible plague emerged from the slave pens of Gogossos. The Red Death swept across the Isle of Tears, then the rest of the Basilisk Isles. Nine men of every ten died screaming, bleeding copiously from every orifice, their skin shredding like wet parchment.”

So what immediately leaps off the page here is that is was a hive of warped and disgusting sorcery, its slavery was almost as bad as Slavers Bay, and it was a penal colony. But the first thing we learn about the abandoned city is that it is old. It was already two or four hundred years old by the time Gorgai was wrested from Old Ghis’ control and renamed Gogossos. And that was just the Third Ghiscari War. The Fifth Ghiscari War, the one that finally crushed Old Ghis, ended five thousand years before the events of the books (assuming Daenarys did not get her history wrong “Old Ghis had fallen five thousand years ago, if she remembered true”).

Since Gorgai traded hands, there are two potential hypotheses we can make; either the fighting took place around Gorgai, or at least a portion of it did, or that there was something of value in Gorgai. We can assume these because in general, especially in Medieval and Antiquity conflict, territories exchanged in the aftermath were either explicitly conquered or a valuable target for the winner to claim. Now as to which is most likely, it is probably direct conquest, as we have no reason to believe for certain that there is anything of intrinsic and intimate value in Gorgai. However, there is the possibility that it was claimed because of strategic position for trade, and to allow domination of the southern seas (also interesting side note, in the next Ghiscari war, Zammetar, the city in Sothoryos is claimed by Valyria. Maybe they were sweeping up in that direction?), so we should not rule that option out either.

So the Valyrians now have Gorgai, and need to assert their dominance and control over it. They intend to hold it by ethnically and culturally replacing the Ghiscari settlers with Valyrians. Their decision to use a penal colony to establish a colony and replace the indigenous inhabitants cheaply is not unprecedented. The Portugese, the British, the Argentinians .and the French have all used penal settlements to lay claim to disputed territory, with the British station at Port Arthur in Tasmania being used to prevent potential French claims to the island. However Devil’s Island, settled by the French, is a closer parallel to Gogossos in climate, conditions and cause of settlement.

During France’s repeated attempts to colonise French Guiana, the new settlers would often be driven off, by nearby Portuguese, or the Natives. In one particularly disastrous attempt, launched after the Seven Years War, 12,000 settlers landed, and only several hundred survived, fleeing to the islands off the coast, later called Devil’s Island. From there they eventually made it back to France, and French Guiana remained, well, not French. However, by 1852, Devil’s Island was firmly under French control, and a penal colony was also established on Devil’s Island.

So now we know why Gogossos was settled the way it was; to provide a cheap and effective way of displacing Ghiscari natives and confirming Valyrian hegemony, while also at the same time, ridding Valyria of some of its worst citizens. Win/win.

So what would have Gogossos have been like, as a city? Well, from the little description we have of the city itself, descriptions of the Basilisk Isles as a whole and then comparisons with Devil’s Island, we can make some educated guesses.

First of all, the city had horrific slave markets. This is not surprising considering that it is a penal colony, Valyrian slavery and the comparative proximity to Slavers Bay. However, the description of the blood-pits, with the most perverse and cruel blood magic being carried out. The description of forced bestiality is despicable, and the description of ‘the darkest blood sorcery’ is not exactly ringing endorsement. It is not hard to see how this place could really be considered the ‘Dark Daughter of Valyria’, the one that has the worst aspects of Ghiscari and Valyiran culture. In an interesting sidenote, it could be seen that Gogossos and Asshai are foils for eachother, both being cities of dark magic, but with one eternal and one comparatively short, one being secretive, other spreading its vileness out (more on that later.)

Devil’s Island had, frankly, horrific conditions. Each prisoner was shackled at night, and kept in astonishingly cramped cells, with no windows. At night, they would be plagued by vampire bats, mosquitoes and a whole variety of other mind destroying creatures moving and screeching and waiting for them to fall asleep. They worked in waist deep water, cutting a cubic metre of wood for food (failing to cut the wood would result in literally only dry bread for the day) while completely naked, bar hats. The standard day was constant, back and mind breaking work, as they were humiliated but their menial and often pointless work (sometimes they would lay the stones for Route Zero, a road that literally led nowhere). Two hundred men were kept in bear pit standards, 12 feet long, 12 feet deep trenches for prisoners.

One of the most effective ways of destroying the prisoners morale was the sheer impossibility of escape.

“Death was the only escape. The surrounding sea was infested with sharks, the rivers with piranha. The jungled teemed with army ants and alligators. It was a wildlife roll call of the planet’s most threatening animal.”

The remoteness of the island, and its inhospitable environs was just as effective at breaking the prisoners resolve as the demeaning work and the creatures at night.

So what does this mean for Gogossos? Well, it means that, most likely, the convicts sent here had a short, brutal and soul destroying experience. The need for guards would have been limited, as a combination of the black magic, the natural environment of the Isle of Tears and then the creatures would have been incredibly effective at breaking such little morale left. Guards would have been saddled largely with guarding prisoners during work, escorting them into their cells, and then preventing them from reaching the port itself. The Guards then would have been bored most of the time, resulting in either greater violence against the inmates, or other activities. These activities would have probably been a major piece of Gogossos ‘conventional’ economy. Ports as a whole create employment, and in this instance it is easy to see how people would flock to Gogossos on the chance of making some money from bored guards, and maybe even witness some depraved, Coluseum-esque, fighting between human-beast hybrids.

Another thing about Gogossos’ economy would be the blood-mages; these individuals would clearly by highly specialised, like the warlocks, dedicating themselves to their twisted work, and so would be utterly dependent on either the prison labour, or services provided by people willingly going to Gogossos.

After the Doom of Valyria, Gogossos would have found itself short of constant access to prisoners/experiments. Yet it also would have found itself in a commanding position in the Southern Seas. With Valyria no longer being safe to sail around, the majority of ships going from the Free Cities and Westeros to Qarth, Slavers Bay and Asshai and other cities of the East, would need to pass through the region of Sea that would fall under Gogossi influence. This would allow Gogossos to either tax, or be used as a port for resupply, a further source of income.

However Gogossos would never truly be able to escape its purpose (probably) and would still be a city, maybe no longer of criminals, but still of blood-magic and slavery. The logical step from there is that the Gogossi ships turned to the nearest targets for slaves; Naath.

We are given descriptions in The World of Ice and Fire of how Naath is largely undefended, and how the Corsairs of the Basilisk Isles often raid Naath (probably the fate of Missandei.) However, one thing that is made very clear in TWOIAF is that the Basilisk Isles, since Gogossos’ fall, have been disunited and violent, uncoordinated. Basically, not as big a threat as it could be. However, with Gogossos hungry for victims, it is hard not see Naath falling under constant assault from Gogossi pirates.

However, another place the Gogossi could have obtained slaves would have been in Volantis. Considering the two cities proximity and links to Valyria, it is likely that the two were allies during the Century of Blood; in fact, I always found it puzzling that Volantis was able to, on its own, conquer Lys and Myr, launch fleets up the River Rhoyne to Qohor and Norvos, assault Tyrosh, struggle against Pentos, and then be invaded by the Dothraki, all without utterly collapsing. And that’s not even to mention Westerosi/Targaryen interference that came later. So I feel that odds are, Gogossos was a valuable ally to Volantis during the Century of Blood, supporting the Tigers, assisting in the conquest of Lys, in the wars against Pentos and Tyrosh, and maybe even sending a portion of their strength north up the Rhoyne.

The two cities would have gained much from this alliance; Gogossos would have gained slaves for the blood-markets, Volantis military aid. It is even possible that Volantis sent their criminals to Gogossos again, and Gogossos allowed Volantene ships to pass unharried, as Volantis tried to claim Valyrias mantle. The Blood markets would have been a place for the more depraved Volantene Tigers to buy potential soldiers/fodder. The economic and military ties between the two would have benefitted both of them.

But then we get to the Red Death. Personally I think that the Red Death has a strong chance of being artificial, and not a natural disease. First of all, the Basilisk Isles are already infested with diseases, so I think that it’s unlikely that this disease randomly started and disappeared. It appears to have vanished because despite being a particularly vivid description of what is a violent disease, resulting in the peeling off of the skin of the victim, and constant bleeding from any and all orifices. The only other case we have of the Red Death being mentioned is referring to a list of diseases in Sothyros;

“The Red Death swept across the Isle of Tears, then the rest of the Basilisk Isles. Nine men of every ten died screaming, bleeding copiously from every orifice, their skin shredding like wet parchment.”

“Blood boils, green fever, sweetrot, bronze pate, the Red Death, greyscale, brownleg, wormbone, sailor’s bane, pus-eye, and yellowgum are only a few of the diseases found here.”

Now, the one thing I should point out is that, while all the diseases mentioned from Sothyros sound nasty, the capitalisation of the Red Death seems to put greater emphasis on it, making it stand out more that the others.

Second reason why I think it was artificially created is the fact that its symptoms are so violent and extreme, that they do not match any other potential disease. Agreed, neither does Greyscale, but Greyscale has a definite feeling of a creation by Garn the Greats curse, which is anything makes me more inclined to believe that the Red Death was an artificial creation.

Then there is the fact that Gogossos was the epicentre of the largest focus of blood magic and slavery since Valyria, meaning it is quite likely that something would go wrong, that somebody would get their runes wrong or experiment badly, and then the disease spread. Since one of the prevailing theories for the Doom of Valyria is that the sorcery in Valyria resulted in the magic to spiral out of control and wipe them out, it is not hard to see how that could have happened Gogossos; with Gogossos possessing the worst traits of Valyrian blood magic combined with Ghiscari slave practices, it is not hard to see how reckless ambition to outdo eachother in the horrors of the beastmen pits could result in a disease, decimating the slaves nearby and spreading throughout the city.

But then there is the question of what happened to the survivors? According to TWOIAF “nine out of every ten men died screaming.” But then that leaves the question, what about the survivors? Well, when you consider the political and military situation of Essos in the Century of Blood, there were a lot of burgeoning powers, be they Volantis or the Dothraki. However, one region appears to have just magically recovered from millenia of Valyrian dominance; Slaver’s Bay.

If we examine Slaver’s Bay at the time of the novels, they are, well, not in the best shape. Astapor is considered to be empty, and Meereen is crumbling. However, New Ghis is vibrant and energetic as a city, with its own military, not merely relying on slave soldiers or sellswords, but is still an outlier.

But I am getting off topic. Despite the fact that Slaver’s Bay is definitely past its heyday, the fact is that that the cities of Slaver’s Bay are a significant regional powers, possessing economic, political and military power to ensure that nobody (until Dany) arrives to conquer them. But why? Ghiscari cities had been under the heel of Valyrians for at least two millenia and so should have suffered greatly for it, unable to ever survive a wrathful conqueror, like Dothraki hordes or future Volantene ambitions. And why the hell does a new, energetic city like New Ghis exist? The general theme of Ghiscari cities is that they are all in decay. They are all bygone powers, still clinging to dreams. But then why is New Ghis powerful, albeit small?

And why do Slaver’s Bay cities have the reputation for training slaves? Lys is famous for the sex-slaves, and Volantis has tattoos for its respective slave specialities, clearly pointing out that it trains/ed slaves. So why does Slaver’s Bay have the reputation, and why is New Ghis vibrant and growing?

I think the fate of the survivors of the Red Death is the answer. With Gogossi power utterly broken by such a plague, it is hard to imagine a softer target to potential slavers. With Volantene power distracted (it is around this time that the invasion or Tyrosh took place), the survivors would have been largely undefended. Naathi or Summer Islanders were unlikely to defend the city that had, for about seventy years, preyed on them. So, the Ghiscari sweep up, and ransack the entire population, or enough so that the population is doomed to die out after a few years due to disease and lack of food. With this sudden influx of slaves, the Ghiscari cities would now have to train (or retrain) so that they could be sold off for profit. Sudden, mass training would have quickly earned a positive reputation for Ghiscari trading practices. The Battle of Qohor probably took place after the Fall of Gogossos, and the Unsullied’s reputation would have been made there, at Qohor. such a rapid influx of capital would have as well energised the economy, and so the city of New Ghis may have been founded (note this is all speculation with regards to New Ghis, but it may be the case).

Either way, Gogossos is a small footnote in the grand scheme of A Song of Ice and Fire, yet it was something that, reading into it carefully, could reveal an awful lot.

Thank you for reading.

#asoiaf meta #asoiaf history #gogossos #valyria #volantis #century of blood #slavers bay #new ghis #astapor #meereen

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