The Iron Throne Hall of Conqueror's Holdfast brought together faces from across the known world.
The long tables in the hall were laden with delicacies and wines of every kind, amid a weave of conversation in over a hundred languages.
Merchants and nobles from all over the world gathered for one purpose: to witness the wedding of the king who had risen swiftly through his Great Dragons and armies,
and ruled the Narrow Sea and the Three Daughters' Lands.
Their clothing came in all manner of strange styles.
There were merchant magnates from the Free Cities, dressed in splendid brocade robes with enormous gemstone rings on their fingers.
Princes from the Summer Isles wore multicolored feather mantles over their gleaming dark skin.
Tribal chiefs from the Basilisk Isles were covered in tattoos.
And there were slave masters from Slaver's Bay, glittering with jewels that could not conceal their ingrained cruelty and arrogance.
Even more striking were the faces from the Far East.
A group of black-haired, black-eyed people from Yidi stood nervously to one side, wearing monkey-tail crowns.
On the other side, several exceptionally tall, honey-skinned women drew particular attention. They wore long silk skirts that bared their midriffs and bandeau tops, exposing gracefully contoured waists and pale, flat bellies, while gold and silver ornaments jingled on their arms and ankles.
These were the people of Thunder Island, famed in legend for its gemstones and beautiful women.
Throughout the hall, conversations in Valyrian and the Yidi language could also be heard in great numbers.
These were descendants of Valyria who had immigrated from Lys, and immigrants from Yidi who shared Liu Qian's origins. Through the king's favorable policies and their own shrewd minds, they had amassed astonishing wealth in Crown Town in a short time, swiftly joining the new kingdom's