Sellsword Companies Asoiaf

[Olivie Inoue]

ASellsword is a mercenary who hires out his services to the highest bidder. Inevitably, this sort of lifestyle involves a great deal of violence and physical exertion. Many sellswords are organized into companies. Some of the sellsword companies are very disciplined (such as the Silver Guild or Onyx Company), and some are nothing but rabble joined together in search of loot (like the Brave Companions); the Second Sons and the Stormcrows are in the middle. Most tend to be experienced professional soldiers, as it is a profession a man tends to chose after he's tasted a few battles and learned that he's good at fighting.

The Free Cities have made heavy use of mercenaries for centuries, to fight their endless wars in the Stepstones and the Disputed Lands; as such there are more sellswords in Essos than in Westeros. Many of the mercenary soldiers of the east are organized into long-established sellsword companies, or "free companies". During the War of Unification, both the armies of the Kingdom of the Three Daughters and Blackfyre-backed Lys utilised a number of sellsword companies.

You will need to pay a hefty sum of stags before these sellswords serve under your banner and you must have room for them; often requiring a charismatic or renowned individual to accommodate entire armies! if you can, however, slave eunuchs and free-rider can win wars...

With a requirement of being in the religion Faith of the Seven with 90 relation with them and a cost of 100,000 stags you can recruit the Holy Hundred from Ser Bonifer Hasty in the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing.

Golden Company units can be recruited without end as well from this location Golden Company Camp. However you need between at least 500-750 (or more) renown to recruit from them. There is a delay in between recruiting probably 7 in-game days.

The Second Sons are one of the oldest sellsword companies and the largest within AWOIAF. Led by Mero and his two lieutenants, Ben Plum and Kasporio, they lead 500 veterans mounted freedriders.

The unsullied is a unique company that's available for hire but do not roam the map like the others or aligned to any faction. They are an elite spearmen which can be upgraded to Veteran Unsullied.

The Ragged Standard is led by Austin Oak and are comprised of 300 Ragged Standard Swordsman, 120 Ragged Standard Veteran Swordsman, 40 Ragged Standard Elite Guard, and 1 Ragged Standard Captain.

The Moonbrothers are a tribe of the Vale, selling the bravery, axes and bows of their: 207 Moonbrothers, 1 Tribe Horman and the leader, Ulf. They may can often be found raiding villages.

They are found around the mountains of the Vale, often roaming towards Moat Cailin and cost 50,000 to hire.

The First Flints are a minor Northern tribe found in the North. These bold and fierce warriors are selling their axes. Comprised of: 1 Northern Clansman Chief, 19 Northern Clansman and 6 Northern Clansman Champions.

Yeah overall the sellsword market in westeros isnt huge vs essos. Tywin sends out for banners and sellswords but he has a week or so at most. We know later on stannis begins gathering sellswords and sellsails too.

Now time is a constraint but also we know yi-ti is at civil war, the dothraki are imtimidatingly coallesing into one giant khalassar and the 3 sisters war is heating hence most of the sellswords.will be posdibly signed up already.

For numbers we know Tywin assembles one wing of 1000(300 are valeclansmen so 700ish left ) of the rest some are concripts the rest are mercs described as horse archers,hedgeknights and freeriders etc on top of the brave companions. Later bronn manages to.recruit like 800 or so more for blackwater.

small sellsword companies who are affordable by most mid-ranked lords are going to have work most of the time, either due to feuds or trade protection, gold and food alone are going to provide a lot of work

I'm honestly wondering how the Sellsword companies survive in Essos. Is that area just always in war and the Free Cities would rather pay outsides of uncertain loyalty to fight for them, in place of using their own armies?

we know that many sellswords are employed in westeros during the war, the Freys and Stannis among others are noted as gathering in large numbers but even there no company names are given, they appear to be gathered the same as other fighters are by sending out the call.

I'm honestly wondering how the Sellsword companies survive in Essos. Is that area just always in war and the Free Cities would rather pay outsides or uncertain loyalty to fight for them, in place of using their own armies?

Well theres the constant flaring up of the 3 cities disputed lands , norvos apparently bloodily contests the axe region with the ibbenese , unknown length of time for massive yi-ti civil wars and their wars with jogos nhai .

The free cities , quarth and slavers may want a minimum amount of merc muscle in/near their cities to help supress any slave uprising (in case the slave troops in the city join in) not to mention some cities probably get nervous and hire some just when khalassars get close. In peacetime many will probably be broken up to protect merchant convoys on land and sea. A brave talented few may even get into mereens fighting pits!!!

On top.of that theres the self inicted wound of patrolling ravenous slavers (dothraki and costal pirates) picking off people so anyone wealthy will want some hired muscle with their merchant convoys as they travel ! Not to mention agressive internal political power fueds [like in quarth] and rival merchants as powerful as minor westerosi lords wanting to wipe each other out!

The offical wiki also says theres constant fighting in the disputed lands (we can assume these flare up from small scall skirmishing to full blown w0t5k scale wars!). It says 2 score companies are active in the region !!!! and worse sometimes captains can ignite wars themselves outside of free city orders (as we see there are bitter personal rivalries between captains!)

Add in various companies will have various levels of quality! We can assume the golden companys officers may pay out of their own pocket to keep the company largely together for large scale drills and high levels of training if theres 0 work or not enough for the whole force whereas lesser companies will release large numbers of infantry men in peacetime and expand again in wartime!

Just as in medieval times companies can be pretty loyal as future work depends on their reputations and sticking to contracts, like so.much of asoiaf everything is based on your pov....the lords of westeros as we see are utterly delusional to think their bonds of feudalism/vassals are any way more dependable than professional merc companies!

Theres also the fact we see the stormcrows former captain (prendahl something) refuses danys offer to betray yunkai and break their contract as he is ghiscari, so there is some element of statehood/kinship involved too. It also reinforces the idea that breaking a contract even for a promised vast fortune is a big deal needing talked over among the captains!

Also the slavery aspect means large standing forces outside the city states for hire sorta fits as a natural element in case any slave uprising movement sways the slave city guard troops to their side!

Finaly between the slavery and capitalism the free cities have most things sorted withtrade so it makes sense military issues would also be sorted with such forces but without the nationhood or sense of unity needed for large standing forces outside city guards.

Most of Westeros has armies of feudal levies composed of soldiers, knights, bannerman and lords who are bound by oaths, lands, titles and the desire to protect and defend their lands against enemies. Sellswords are not bound by these ties but they will fight, die and kill as an army for hire. Varying on discipline and organization they may include a system of proper rankings and a steady system of payment and their duties extend from serving as an army outfit to serving as the city watch. Sellsword companies may include, in addition to soldiers and commanders, treasurers, strategists and other subsidiary roles that serve any new function or purpose as to when the need arises.

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