A magister of Pentos grows fat on trade — spices, gemstones, dragonbone, and less savory cargo besides — and Illyrio Mopatis has grown fatter than most, a mountain of a man in cloth-of-gold with a beard oiled and forked and dyed a bright, improbable yellow. He was, in his leaner and more violent youth, a sellsword and the close friend of a eunuch named Varys, and the two of them have spent the decades since quietly funding an ambition most of Westeros assumes died with House Targaryen at the Trident. Illyrio married twice; his first match, to a cousin of Pentos's reigning prince, bought him standing and little else, but his second wife, Serra — a former pillow-house girl of Lys whom he loved without apparent embarrassment at the mismatch, and whose match cost him the prince's palace forever — seems to have mattered to him. Her death in a plague left him keeping her portrait and her embalmed hands rather than remarrying again.
Illyrio Mopatis
Magister of Pentos
- House
- no house; a magister of the Free City of Pentos
- Titles
- Magister of Pentos
- Seat
- His manse in Pentos
- Culture
- Pentoshi
- Notable for
- Wealthy Pentoshi magister who brokered Daenerys Targaryen's marriage to Khal Drogo and has quietly funded a Targaryen restoration for decades
Last confirmed at his manse in Pentos, hosting travelers of considerably more consequence than his cheese-and-spice fortune would suggest he has any business entertaining.
Where they appear
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.
Key events
- unspecifiedServes as a sellsword in his leaner years, forming a close friendship with a eunuch named Varys
- unspecifiedMarries twice — first for standing, to a cousin of Pentos's reigning prince, and later for love, to a former pillow-house girl named Serra
- unspecifiedLoses Serra to plague, and keeps her portrait and embalmed hands rather than remarrying again
- ~298 ACHosts the exiled Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen at his Pentos manse, brokering Daenerys's marriage to Khal Drogo
- ~298 ACGifts Daenerys three petrified dragon eggs whose true nature few in Pentos credit
- 300 ACHosts Tyrion Lannister on his flight from Westeros and sends him east toward Daenerys
- 300 ACIs revealed to be sheltering a second Targaryen claimant within his own household in Pentos
Reading the character
Illyrio Mopatis is the story's clearest embodiment of how much of Westeros's fate is actually being decided in rooms the Iron Throne never sees — a Pentoshi cheesemonger with no crown, no army, and no obvious stake in the Seven Kingdoms turns out to be one of the more consequential kingmakers in the entire narrative, simply by being patient, wealthy, and willing to fund a decades-long bet.
He also complicates the easy assumption that the Free Cities exist mostly as scenery for Westerosi characters passing through. Illyrio's decades of coordination with Varys, and his own private history — two marriages of very different character, a grief he still visibly carries — give Pentos's magister class a texture of ambition and personal loss the wider Essos chapters don't always bother to grant.
The arc of Illyrio Mopatis
This carries the character’s road through 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.
What is Illyrio Mopatis's role in Daenerys Targaryen's story?
He hosted her and her brother Viserys in exile, brokered her marriage to Khal Drogo in exchange for Dothraki support, and gave her the three dragon eggs that later hatched into her dragons.
Is Illyrio Mopatis connected to Varys?
Yes — the two have been close friends since youth and appear, across the published books, to be running a long, coordinated plan neither man has fully explained on the page.