Pentos sits closest of all the Free Cities to Westeros, its fertile plain worked by tenant farmers under the eyes of magisters grown fat on trade. The Prince of Pentos wears fine chains of office and lives in the grandest of its many grand houses, but rules almost nothing; treaty and custom hold that when the crops wither or a war is lost, the blame — and on the old, uglier reckoning, the prince's own throat — is forfeit. It is an arrangement the magisters find eminently practical, having no wish to bleed for the city's mistakes themselves.
The Free Cities
Pentos
The nearest of the Nine, and the one that pays for its peace
- Region
- The Free Cities
- Kind
- city
A wealthy, unwalled-by-sword-alone city on Essos's western coast, ruled in name by a prince who exists chiefly to be blamed when the harvest fails.
Trade, faith, and rule
Lacking any army worth the name, Pentos buys its safety twice over: with tribute paid to the horselords of the Dothraki sea to keep their khalasars from its gates, and with the coin of magisters like Illyrio Mopatis, whose fortune and whose guests reach further than the city's own soldiers ever could. Pentosi wealth runs to spice, cheese, and the quiet financing of enterprises its principal citizens would rather not have their names attached to.
Pentos in the novels
This carries the place's part in the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
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.
SourcesAGOTADWD
Where is Pentos?
A wealthy, unwalled-by-sword-alone city on Essos's western coast, ruled in name by a prince who exists chiefly to be blamed when the harvest fails.
Is Pentos from the books or the show?
Book canon. This entry follows George R. R. Martin's novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.