Wise Masters

Wise Masters
Information
Type	Former ruling power Slavers
Center	Yunkai

"The Wise Masters of Yunkai have sent a gift for the Silver Queen."

―Razdal mo Eraz to Daenerys Targaryen

The Wise Masters, also known as the Wise Masters of Yunkai, are the ruling elite of the city of Yunkai, one of the three cities of eastern shores of Slaver's Bay, composed of slave-traders.

History

Game of Thrones: Season 3

After hearing about what Daenerys did to Astapor's Good Masters during the fall of Astapor, the Wise Masters of Yunkai sent an envoy to her army, which had camped just outside the city, offering gold so that she would agree to abandon Essos and leave the slavers in peace to continue with their affairs. She rebuffed their offer, although she kept the gold. After Daario Naharis betrayed his commanders, breached the contract the Second Sons had with Yunkai and put the two thousand mercenaries at the service of Daenerys, the Wise Masters were overthrown during the battle in Yunkai. Soon after, many of the newly freed slaves vacated the city and proclaimed Daenerys as their "mother."

Game of Thrones: Season 4

However, eventually the Wise Masters regained control of the city and re-enslaved the inhabiting freedmen. Daenerys, now ruler of Meereen, sent Daario Naharis and his Second Sons back to Yunkai alongside Hizdahr zo Loraq, a Meereenese Great Master at her service, so that he could offer the Wise Masters the option of abandoning slavery once and for all, or else they would be put to the sword.

Game of Thrones: Season 5

The Wise Masters agreed to renounce slavery, with the proposal that the fighting pits be reopened, though only with willing participants using them now. Daenerys initially rejected this, but later reconsidered after Daario relates to her winning in the pits had helped him make his fortune, join the Second Sons and thus meet her.

Razdal mo Eraz, one of Yunkai's Wise Masters.

Game of Thrones: Season 6

The Wise Masters launch an attack on Astapor, overthrowing King Cleon's junta and restore slavery to the city, reinstating the Good Masters.

Known Wise Masters

• The House of Eraz
  • {Razdal mo Eraz}, a Wise Master who is sent as Yunkai's representative to treat with Daenerys Targaryen. He later treats with Tyrion Lannister, the provisional governor of Meereen in Queen Daenerys's absence. Killed by Grey Worm.
• Yezzan zo Qaggaz - after the Siege of Astapor, and the re-constituting of the slave-masters there, Yezzan represents Astapor at diplomatic meetings.

In the books

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Wise Masters manage to reassert themselves as best they can in Yunkai after Daenerys leaves, and continue to politically threaten her new rule over Meereen.

Known Wise Masters

• {Yurkhaz zo Yunzak}, Supreme Commander of the Armies and Allies of Yunkai. Trampled to death during the commotion caused by Drogon at the fighting pits.
• Grazdan mo Eraz
• {Yezzan zo Qaggaz}, also known as "Yellow Whale" and "Lord Yellowbelly". Purchased Tyrion, Jorah and their dwarf companion. Died as a result of bloody flux during the second siege of Meereen.
• Malazza, also known as "the Girl General"
• {Paezhar zo Myraq}, also known as "the Little Pigeon" for his short size. Killed by the Red Lamb during the battle of Meereen.
• The brothers Chezdhar zo Rhaezn, Maezon zo Rhaezn and Grazdhan zo Rhaezn, also known as "the Clanker Lords"
• Ghazdor zo Ahlaq, also known as "Lord Wobblecheeks"
• Morghaz zo Zherzyn, also known as "the Drunken Conqueror" for his alcoholism
• {Gorzhak zo Eraz}, also known as "Pudding Face". Killed by the Tattered Prince, the commander of the Windblown sellsword company during the battle of Meereen.
• Faezhar zo Faez, also known as "the Rabbit" for his two massive front teeth and his receding chin
• The Charioteer
• The Beastmaster
• The Perfumed Hero

Each of the Wise Masters has a private army. Those armies are no more than jokes: for instance, the Clanker Lords have chained their troops together in groups of ten, wrist to wrist and ankle to ankle.

The members of Windblown sellsword company, which was hired by Yunkai, have a very low opinion about the Wise Masters and their private "armies". They take delight in inventing ridiculous nicknames for the Wise Masters, as written above, and mocking them at every opportunity (not in their presence, of course).

Razdal mo Eraz is named "Grazdan mo Eraz" in the novels; the TV series apparently changed his name to avoid confusion, as "Grazdan" is a very common name in Slaver's Bay held by multiple characters.

In the novels, Yezzan zo Qaggaz is actually one of the Wise Masters from Yunkai, morbidly obese and one of the leading slave-masters. The TV series heavily condensed the role so when he appears in Season 5, he is just a slender, normal-looking slave-trader who purchases Tyrion and Jorah at auction when they arrive in Meereen - without specifying if he is actually one of the Great Masters "from" Meereen, or if he is a Yunkish slaver-master who just happens to be in Meereen for the Great Games.

The Wise Masters endlessly bicker among themselves over who has precedence, both in terms of raw power and more arcane and complex principles of peerage which are confusing and inscrutable to outsiders. When their armies march out against Daenerys there are a disproportionately large number of "captains" and "commanders", about forty, because any slave-master who can muster up a two hundred poorly trained slaves considers himself the equal of one of the more powerful ones who actually possesses two thousand well-trained footsoldiers. The Wise Masters heavily rely upon hired sellsword companies and slave-soldiers: even the sellswords that accept their contracts for good payment consider the slave-masters themselves to generally be foppish aristocrats playing at politics and war.

Yurkhaz zo Yunzak is the most prominent of the Wise Masters and the Supreme Commander of the Armies and Allies of Yunkai. Grazdan mo Eraz and Yezzan zo Qaggaz are two of the most capable of the Wise Masters.

Eraz is a skilled diplomat, first attempting to simply bribe Daenerys to leave, and later he seeks to make common cause with the slaver-masters in Volantis, deftly flattering them with gifts and propaganda about what a tyrant Daenerys has become - and succeeds.

Yezzan, however, stands foremost amongst the Yunkish lords who favor honoring the peace with Meereen. He objects to those who want to assault the city immediately, nor does he consent to return the hostages Daenerys has delivered them (Daario, Jhogo, Hero, Groleo and three of Hizdahr's kin) by way of trebuchet, as the evil sellsword Bloodbeard has proposed. Yezzan, more intelligently, urges caution and diplomacy - saying that fighting Daenerys's Unsullied and her growing dragons is more trouble than it is worth, and if they start fighting her again they might lose and end up being overthrown. However, Yurkhaz zo Yunzak is the one who makes the decisions for Yunkai, and he leads the Yunkai army to fight Daenerys.

Following Yurkhaz's death, Yezzan had the most support to replace him, but he has contracted the bloody flux and died. The rest of the Yunkish lords are no more than incompetent fools, and are unable to agree who should take charge. They have been rotating the supreme command amongst themselves; naturally, that adds to the chaos that erupted in their ranks - what works in favor of Daenerys's loyalists.

Unlike the Great Masters of Meereen, of which six slaver families were identifies as the major ones (alongside other smaller ones), the leading families of Wise Masters haven't been clearly identified. The family names of some of the Wise Masters leading Yunkai's army against Daenerys are Qaggaz, Eraz, Myraq, Rhaezn, Ahlaq, Zerzyn, and Faez - but it wasn't clarified if all of these are "major" families, given the direct complaint that less powerful slave-masters were claiming equal right to command over their combined forces, etc.

External links

• Wise Masters on A Wiki of Ice and Fire