Unaligned

Xaro Xhoan Daxos

a merchant prince of Qarth

House: no house; one of the Thirteen of Qarth

Last confirmed acting as Qarth's official envoy to Meereen, where his dealings with Daenerys Targaryen have grown considerably less friendly than their history in Qarth might suggest.

Membership among the Thirteen who rule Qarth's trade is not inherited so much as amassed, one fortune at a time, and Xaro Xhoan Daxos has amassed more than most — a merchant prince with a mansion of purple marble and an appetite for influence that outran even his considerable wealth when Daenerys Targaryen and her three infant dragons arrived in his city. He offered her his fortune, his fleet, and eventually his hand in marriage, all in service of an ambition to sit among Qarth's ruling council that had nothing whatever to do with affection; Daenerys, not nearly so easily flattered as he assumed, declined all three.

The arc of Xaro Xhoan Daxos

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

Rebuffed in Qarth, Xaro reappears in Meereen years later as his city's official envoy — no longer a suitor but an adversary, delivering Qarth's grievances over Daenerys's closure of Slaver's Bay to trade in terms that leave the two of them, by the record's last account, on the edge of open war.

Where the books leave Xaro Xhoan Daxos: Xaro's courtship of Daenerys in Qarth — a proposal of marriage he dressed as generosity — earned him nothing but her refusal, and by the time the two cross paths again at Meereen, courtesy has curdled into open hostility. He arrives as Qarth's envoy and leaves having delivered, on his city's behalf, a declaration of war.

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.

SourcesACOK · DaenerysADWD · DaenerysTWOIAF · Beyond the Free Cities

Did Xaro Xhoan Daxos try to marry Daenerys Targaryen?

Yes — in Qarth he proposed marriage as part of a broader courtship meant to win her dragons and her favor; she refused him.

Is Xaro Xhoan Daxos part of the House of the Undying plot in the books?

No — that conspiracy belongs to the warlock Pyat Pree in the novels. Xaro's schemes in the books are commercial and political rather than sorcerous.