Unaligned

Daario Naharis

House: the Second Sons (sellsword company); by birth, of Tyrosh

Last confirmed serving Daenerys Targaryen as captain of the Second Sons at Meereen, though the exact terms of his most recent posting into the enemy camp remain unclear from the public record.

A sellsword captain lives or dies by which side he backs at the right moment, and Daario Naharis backed Daenerys at exactly the moment his own captains had decided to sell her to Yunkai instead — a decision he settled by killing two of his three fellow commanders, Prendahl na Ghezn and Sallor the Bald, and laying their heads at her feet as a wedding gift of sorts. He dyes his hair, mustache, and trident beard a violent blue or purple depending on his mood, wears a gold tooth, and fights with a Dothraki arakh and a Myrish stiletto both fitted with hilts carved into naked women, an aesthetic a maester might call excessive and Daario himself would almost certainly call honest advertising.

The arc of Daario Naharis

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

Daario's devotion to Daenerys — genuine, by every indication the text offers, and inconvenient for exactly that reason — makes him equal parts asset and liability to a queen trying to govern a city that does not trust sellswords. His dispatch into the Yunkish camp as an envoy leaves the Second Sons briefly without him at a moment his rival Mero, called the Titan's Bastard, is well placed to exploit.

Where the books leave Daario Naharis: Daario commands the Second Sons in Daenerys's service through the long siege of Meereen and becomes, along the way, her lover — a fact the court around her treats with considerably more alarm than she does. Near the end of the published record he is sent into the Yunkish camp as a hostage of the peace talks, a posting that leaves his company, and his fate, both unsettled.

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

SourcesASOS · DaenerysADWD · DaenerysTWOIAF · Beyond the Free Cities

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How did Daario Naharis join Daenerys Targaryen's service?

He killed his two fellow captains of the Second Sons, Prendahl na Ghezn and Sallor the Bald, rather than let the company betray her to Yunkai, and brought her their heads as proof of the company's new loyalty.

Is Daario Naharis's appearance in the books the same as in the show?

No — the novels give him a dyed blue or purple beard, a gold tooth, and weapons with obscene gilded hilts, a considerably more theatrical figure than his television counterpart.