Ghiscari nobility traditionally style their hair into elaborate, fanciful shapes, a fashion Skahaz mo Kandaq abandoned entirely the day he threw his lot in with Daenerys Targaryen, shaving his head bare to mark, as plainly as a man can, that he has abandoned old Meereen along with its hairstyles. Enough of his kin and followers did the same to earn the whole faction a nickname — the shavepates — and Skahaz has spent his position as the Shavepate building and commanding the Brazen Beasts, a new city watch of freedmen and shavepates who patrol Meereen behind brass masks shaped like animal faces, answerable to the queen rather than to any of the Great Masters they were recruited, in no small part, to police.
Unaligned
Skahaz mo Kandaq
the Shavepate
- House
- a Ghiscari noble of Meereen, of the pyramid of Kandaq
- Titles
- the Shavepate · commander of the Brazen Beasts (formerly)
- Seat
- his own pyramid in Meereen, of the Kandaq line
- Culture
- Ghiscari (Meereen)
- Religion
- unspecified
- Weapon
- unspecified
- Notable for
- Shaved his head to reject Ghiscari tradition; commands Meereen's freedman city watch
A Meereenese noble who commands the Brazen Beasts, the city's new watch, and has served as one of Queen Daenerys Targaryen's more forceful councilors since the city's fall.
Appearances
In the novels
- A Dance with Dragons
Key events
- unknownBorn a Ghiscari noble of Meereen's pyramid of Kandaq.
- 300 ACShaves his head to reject the elaborate hairstyles of Ghiscari nobility, marking his break from old Meereen; his followers, the shavepates, do the same.
- 300 ACBuilds and commands the Brazen Beasts, a new city watch of freedmen and shavepates answerable to Daenerys.
- 300 ACPushes Daenerys toward collective punishment of the Great Masters for the Sons of the Harpy's killings, and names King Hizdahr the Harpy outright.
- 300 ACLoses command of the Brazen Beasts to Hizdahr's cousin after the king's ascension, and declines the lesser post offered in its place.
- 300 ACMoves with Barristan Selmy to secure Meereen after Daenerys's disappearance, taking both Hizdahr and Reznak into custody.
Reading the character
Skahaz mo Kandaq's shaved head is one of the story's most literal pieces of political symbolism — a physical, permanent rejection of Ghiscari tradition that turns his own body into a walking manifesto and gathers a faction around him almost by visual shorthand alone. He represents the harshest, least compromising strand of Daenerys's Meereenese revolution, the counterargument to every gentler path Hizdahr or Reznak might offer.
That hardness is also his limitation. Skahaz's push for collective punishment of the Great Masters is the position Daenerys keeps resisting even as events seem to keep proving him right, and his loss of the Brazen Beasts' command under Hizdahr reads as the cost of being correct too early and too bluntly for a queen still trying to rule through persuasion rather than force. When the city needs someone capable of holding it together through crisis, it's tellingly the Shavepate it turns back to.
The arc of Skahaz mo Kandaq
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.
In the timeline
SourcesADWD · DaenerysADWD · The Queen's HandTWOIAF · Beyond the Free Cities
Why is Skahaz mo Kandaq called the Shavepate?
He shaves his head to reject the elaborate hairstyles favored by Meereen's Ghiscari nobility, a gesture of loyalty to Daenerys's new order that his followers — the shavepates — have adopted alongside him.
Does Skahaz mo Kandaq lose command of the Brazen Beasts?
Yes — after Daenerys marries Hizdahr zo Loraq, the new king replaces him as commander with his own cousin, Marghaz zo Loraq, offering Skahaz a lesser post he declines to accept.