Unaligned

Daario Naharis

House: the Second Sons (sellsword company); by birth, of Tyrosh
Titles: Captain of the Second Sons
Allegiance: The Second Sons, in Daenerys Targaryen's service
Culture: Tyroshi by birth
Weapon: Dothraki arakh and a Myrish stiletto
Notable for: Sellsword captain who defected to Daenerys Targaryen's service with the Second Sons and became her lover

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 that ended his company's old leadership and won him command of the Second Sons in its place. 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.

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

unspecifiedBorn in Tyrosh and takes up the sellsword trade, rising within the Second Sons company
300 ACIs one of three captains of the Second Sons contracted to Yunkai against Daenerys during the siege of Meereen
300 ACKills fellow captains Prendahl na Ghezn and Sallor the Bald rather than betray Daenerys, delivering their heads to her
300 ACLeads the Second Sons into Daenerys's service and becomes her lover
300 ACIs sent into the Yunkish camp as a hostage of the peace talks, leaving his company briefly without him

Reading the character

Daario Naharis is the story's most flamboyant test of how much loyalty a paid sword can actually be trusted to give, and the text lets his devotion to Daenerys read as genuine specifically because it costs him something concrete — his standing among his own company, and a command he risks every time he prioritizes her interests over the Second Sons'.

He also complicates Daenerys's own political position more than his charm might initially suggest: a queen trying to govern a wary Meereen while visibly involved with a foreign sellsword captain is managing a very different set of court anxieties than a queen with a more conventional consort, and the story is fairly clear-eyed about the cost of that complication.

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. He won his captaincy by killing his two fellow commanders, Prendahl na Ghezn and Sallor the Bald, rather than let them sell Daenerys to Yunkai, and delivered their heads to her as proof of the company's new loyalty. 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

Explore further

Sworn bands

How did Daario Naharis become captain of the Second Sons?

He seized command from his two fellow captains after they moved to sell Daenerys's company out to Yunkai — a defection that put the Second Sons firmly, and permanently, in her service instead.

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.