House Of The Dragon: What Are The Free Cities?

The second episode of House of the Dragon brings up the issue of Free Cities, which are apparently funding The Crabfeeder with men and ships. These cities also made it possible for the Crabfeeder to have his base in the Stepstones. Over the years, these realms have created a lot of problems for Westeros, but the Seven Kingdoms – despite being incredibly powerful – refused to wage war against these cities.

It isn’t the first time that we are hearing about Free Cities, as the term was mentioned several times in Game of Thrones. These independent cities played an important role in GOT, and they’ll surely be significant to House of the Dragon’s story as well.

Like Westeros is made of seven kingdoms, a group of nine large states forms Free Cities. These nine states are, Braavos, Lorath, Lys, Myr, Norvos, Pentos, Qohor, Tyrosh, and Volantis. The Iron Throne doesn’t govern these Free Cities, but every person who ruled the Seven Kingdoms has feared or respected these states. No Free City is powerful enough to battle Westeros individually, but if all the cities come together, their strength would be unrivaled. But unfortunately, most of these states spend their resources fighting each other.

The nine states are located across the narrow sea east of Westeros. The combined area of all the cities could match Westeros’s territorial size on the south of the neck. Braavos, among all the states, is the most powerful one and is also the home to the Faceless Man. On the opposite side, Lorath is the weakest of all the nine states, located on the southeast side of Braavos.

Why Viserys Can’t Wage A War Against Crabfeeder

As we saw in the second episode, Lord Corlys and many other pirates and merchants are losing their men and ships to the Crabfeeder. He is a pirate with his base of operation in the Stepstones. Frustrated by Crabfeeder’s actions, Corlys asks Viserys to do something about the situation. But, there’s a reason why Viserys can’t announce an open war with him.

The Crabfeeder is backed by three Free Cities (Tyrish, Myr, and Lys), which are collectively called the Triarchy. So, waging war against these three cities might anger other independent states, which could lead all of them against Westeros. Secondly, Free Cities hold a special place in Westoros’ worldwide trade. So, declaring war against Crabfeeder will drastically hit their economy. Therefore, despite Crabfeeder’s drastic actions against Westeros, Viserys finds his hand tied on the matter.