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Who is the Prosperous Shipowner?


Walda

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It was almost noon before she saw the man she wanted, a prosperous shipowner she had seen doing business with the old man three times before. Big and bald and burly, he wore a heavy cloak of plush brown velvet trimmed with fur and a brown leather belt ornamented with silver moons and stars. Some mishap had left one leg stiff. He walked slowly, leaning on a cane.

(ADwD, Ch.64 The Ugly Little Girl)

This man is from Westeros, or at least, the contents of his velvet purse are

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“The golden dragon of Westeros,” said the kindly man. “And how did you come by this? We are no thieves.”

The ugly girl thinks the old man is the target. She says she has not robbed the prosperous shipowner of his coin but she has robbed him, and all the old man's clients, of the promises in his binder

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 If their ships are lost in a storm or taken by pirates, he promises to pay them for the value of the vessel and all its contents...The seas are dangerous,...No doubt many a captain sinking in a storm has taken some small solace in his binder back in Braavos, knowing that his widow and children will not want.” A sad smile touched his lips. “It is one thing to write such a binder, though, and another to make good on it.”

The Kindly Man knows better, I think.

So, who is the prosperous ship owner?

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He can't be the Hound, but kind of interesting that their descriptions are rather similar. Big may mean bulky or tall, but since he's burly, big must mean tall. So he's burly and tall. He's bald and the Hound just lost a helm. And leg injury? check.

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1 hour ago, Lollygag said:

He can't be the Hound, but kind of interesting that their descriptions are rather similar. Big may mean bulky or tall, but since he's burly, big must mean tall. So he's burly and tall. He's bald and the Hound just lost a helm. And leg injury? check.

It's not much to go on, but as I don't think we'll see the prosperous ship owner again, maybe he does serve to illustrate another character. The Hound looks good.

The belt stands out - a leather belt with silver moons and stars; (very detailed for a background character).

Just spinning a line, but I'm thinking that the belt is a decoration for the belly in the same way that rings are a decoration for the fingers. So - Illyrio the master manipulator has many rings, and his fingers make the gems dance. The Hound says he still has the belly for a fight - maybe then the belt describes what he's facing - the Long Night, a fight under the moon and stars. Matches up nicely with 'hellhounds fighting' at the Wall.

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THM has been done to death... Septa Lemore has been done to death... Daario Naharis has been done to death...  It's about time we had a new character to speculate about.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of Walda comes.... TPS!!!

  Serious though, not the Hound.  Ships are expensive, trade goods are expensive, shipping is dangerous, and seafaring  in general requires a lot of skill and practice to do well enough to become prosperous from it.

 

 With all respect to the OP and the physical description, there is nothing in the Hound's story arc that leads us to believe he would go from hardened killer bodyguard tragic antihero to prosperous shipping magnate and sea captain in a couple of years. It doesn't seem to be in his skill set, nor in his personality.

Gravedigging monk, perhaps. 

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If one considers that someone could take a silver sun for a star, the belt could be related to Houses Tarth, Egen and Sloane.

Physical description combined with being a shipowner fits Meldred Merlyn and Godric Borrell (if one assume they're wearing brown as a disguise).

"Prosperous" eliminates all above.

The most likely is that it is the first time we see him (though not the last).
 

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To me, the attire hints at a bear connection:

". . . a heavy cloak of plush brown velvet trimmed with fur and a brown leather belt ornamented with silver moons and stars."

The brown velvet and fur seems bear-like so I'm thinking possibly a symbolic (not literal) Mormont connection. There are obviously a lot of bear-and-maiden-fair pairings, though, including (duh) The Hound and Sansa. The man is not intended to be the Hound literally transplanted to Braavos, but could be a symbolic representation. Arya intended to kill Sandor Clegane but ended up leaving him and taking his coins. Since the Kindly Man implies that the old man cheats the people who think their ships are insured against loss, the death of the old man could give us additional insight into her decision to spare Sandor but to target someone who cheated Sandor (or some other bear-like character).

The moon belt hints at a character like Moonboy who (I believe) is the symbolic continuation of Hugh of the Vale after his death by Ser Gregor's lance in the Hand's tourney. Rebirth after death. Moons are also associated with the Arryns and the Vale - the moon door, the moon gate, the falcon and moon sigil, etc.

To make things really complicated, GRRM's use of the word "prosperous" could tell us to consider Prospero, the protagonist of Shakespeare's The Tempest. He does suffer a shipwreck and he is cheated. But he uses magic to manipulate people and ends up recovering his throne.

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3 hours ago, Reekazoid said:

 With all respect to the OP and the physical description, there is nothing in the Hound's story arc that leads us to believe he would go from hardened killer bodyguard tragic antihero to prosperous shipping magnate and sea captain in a couple of years. 

I almost did a spit take while reading this part. 

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I was thinking maybe Bronze Yohn, with a shaved head.

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"His armor is bronze, thousands and thousands of years old, engraved with magic runes that ward him against harm,”

(AGoT, Ch.29 Sansa II)
Bronze is very close to brown, and the ancient runes might look like suns and stars. (Suns and Stars that hark back to the shared roots of the Andals and the Dothraki, whose culture is imbued with references to celestial phenomena, as befits a people for whom all things of record take place under an open sky)

Bronze Yohn is a descendant of Robar Royce, king of the Mountains of the Moon, brought low at the Battle of the Seven Stars, his house motto is 'we remember', so perhaps the belt is about that, and to his mind the muted colour and lack of sigil in his attire and the bald head is sufficient disguise.

His second son is

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 comely in a rough-hewn way, a tourney warrior of some renown.

(ACoK, Ch.31 Catelyn III) and his cousin is

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a massive, barrel-chested man

(AGoT, Ch.34 Catelyn VI) so there is a fair chance Bronze Yohn is burly, although that word isn't used to describe him specifically. We know from Sansa he is big

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The Lord of Runestone stood as tall as the Hound. Though his hair was grey

(AFfC, Ch.23 Alayne I) which is a problem: the prosperous shipowner is bald.

The baldness might be temporary, likewise the gammy leg. When Sansa saw him at the Eyrie, Bronze Yohn took the stairs from Sky, and had no limp or cane.  However, a man that is still active in the tourney-yard, and indeed, the tourney, could easily sustain a recent injury that left him with a limp, and might get himself a cane to assist him during his recovery. His behaviour after Arya kicked him shows the weak leg was genuine, not part of a disguise.

Runestone lies opposite Gulltown, and would be more likely to have trade with Braavos than most parts of Westeros.

Spoiler

 

From the Winds of Winter, we know Bronze Yohn is prospering, is at least a dock-owner, and very likely a ship owner as well.

Spoiler

”The merchants are clamoring to buy, and the lords are clamoring to sell,” the Gulltowner was saying when she found them.  Though not a tall man, Grafton was wide, with thick arms and shoulders.  His hair was a dirty blond mop.  “How am I to stop that, my lord?”

     “Post guardsmen on the docks. If need be, seize the ships. How does not matter, so long as no food leaves the Vale. “

     “These prices, though,”  protested fat Lord Belmore,”  these prices are more than fair.”

     “You say more than fair, my lord.  I say less than we would wish.  Wait.  If need be, buy the food yourself and keep it stored.  Winter is coming.  Prices must go higher.”

     “Perhaps,”  said Belmore, doubtfully.

     “Bronze Yohn will not wait, ”  Grafton complained.  “He need not ship through Gulltown, he has his own ports.  Whilst we are hoarding our harvest, Royce and the other Lords Declarant will turn theirs into silver, you may be sure of that.”

     “Let us hope so,”  said Petyr.  “When their granaries are empty, they will need every scrap of that silver to buy sustenance from us."

(Winds of Winter, Alyane)

 

Another point against Lord Yohn is that Arya would have recognised him from when he and Waymar visited Winterfell on their way to the Wall. It's not as if Winterfell had so many noble comers and goers in her short life that she could easily have forgotten him. Although maybe her scant attention for noble families combined with the shaved head and unlikely context put her off, the way Bronze Yohn himself was put off by Sansa's chestnut hair and bastard status.

I'm not wedded to the idea that the prosperous shipowner is Bronze Yohn in disguise. Especially because he is attempting to form a contract that has identify at the centre of it. Why would Bronze Yohn feel the need for disguise, where verifying his identity is key to his getting paid? He seems like someone who would find dishonour in disguise, as well.

But none of the prosperous ship owners of Westeros seem to be a better match.

Randyll Tarly has a bald head, and is burly, and might have ships, thanks to Duskendale, and Dickon's marriage. In every other respect he isn't a good match for the prosperous ship owner.

Lame Lothar Frey and Willas Tyrell are both lame.

The Freys are as prone to balding as to chinlessness, but Lothar has disappointed us in this respect:
 

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A plump man in his middle thirties, Lothar Frey had close-set eyes, a pointed beard, and dark hair that fell to his shoulders in ringlets. A leg twisted at birth had earned him the name Lame Lothar. He had served as his father’s steward for the past dozen years.

(ASoS, Ch.35 Catelyn IV)

The Tyrell siblings we know are light and lithe, Garlan is only stockier than Loras, who isn't stocky at all. The closest they get to burly is their father; Mace Tyrell has gone to fat, his mother calls his 'an oaf'.  Olenna assures us Willas is ' Not the least bit oafish”(ASoS, Ch.06 Sansa I),  which hints he is not the least bit burly, either. According to Tywin, he is fond of looking at the stars, and according to Petyr Baelish (who is, however, likely to casually lie about stuff like this) he is pious, so astrology might explain the belt.

Both Willas and Randyl would be clad in green, if they were not in disguise. And if they were in disguise, they would wear something less expensive, less distinctive than the furs and fancy belt. I can see Willas disguised as the Blue Bard, but not really as the prosperous ship owner.

The other known prosperous ship owners of Westeros have distinctive familial characteristics that this prosperous ship owner is without. The Redwynes:

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Arya had seen them in the bailey a hundred times; the Redwyne twins, Ser Horas and Ser Hobber, homely youths with orange hair and square, freckled faces.

(AGoT, Ch.65 Arya V)

The Manderlys of White Harbour are equally distinctive in their bulk, and Arya knows what they look like, too.

It is hard to imagine the Prosperous Ship Owner could be Ironborn. It is hard to imagine an Ironborn ship owner taking an interest in establishing fiduciary trust. It is a bit like imagining bikies getting life insurance. There is no reason why not, just... on the other hand, the idea of taking out insurance on ships you intend to raid and then collecting on them after you have raided them seems so diabolical, I can almost imagine Euron doing it, if he was sane. Which he is not.

Sallador Saan, on the other hand, seems exactly the kind of pirate to do such a thing. However

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The Lyseni was a sleek, smiling man whose flamboyance was a byword on both sides of the narrow sea. Today he wore flashing cloth-of-silver, with dagged sleeves so long the ends of them pooled on the floor. His buttons were carved jade monkeys, and atop his wispy white curls perched a jaunty green cap decorated with a fan of peacock feathers.

(ACoK, Ch.10 Davos I)

So while the plush brown fur cloak and belt of stars and moons might be a toned down disguise for Sallador Saan, it is unlikely to fool anyone dockside in Braavos.

The only other person I'd expect to set up some dead peasant insurance, as an incentive for a Zong massacare situation, or to financially exploit or destroy a rival, is Petyr Baelish. He gets his underlings to do a lot of the administrative work for him. So the brown bear with the plush pelt could be the newly knighted Ser Lothar Brune, on his master's service. He would have to have found himself a sigil, as the Brunes of Brown Hollow, with their brown and bear paw sigil, don't own him as a blood relation. Maybe he has chosen stars and moons and gold for his personal sigil, and Braavos is his first opportunity to show off his new glad rags. At Kings Landing Sansa observed

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"no proper knight would wear those patched brown breeches and scuffed boots, nor that cracked and water-stained leather jerkin. A square-faced stocky man with a squashed nose and a mat of nappy grey hair"

(ACoK, Ch.67 Tyrion XV)
She is so good at observing hair! The other logical Baelish factotum would be Kettleblack

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an old man, tall and gangling, with long white hair and a great hooked nose, with eyes shaded by a cowl...She studied the old man’s lined windburnt face, hook nose, white hair, and huge knuckly hands.

(ASoS, Ch.68 Sansa VI)

So not Oswell, either.

Hence I keep coming back to the idea that the prosperous ship owner is Bronze Yohn, or his man Strong Sam Stone.

Even if the prosperous shipowner isn't anyone in particular, the death of the old man has consequences for everyone with a binder to the old man, not just him. Someone in particular paid the faceless men to kill that particular merchant.

Bronze Yohn is much more a military man than a trader. He knows his history and was not fooled by the tricks Petyr Baelish used to win himself a year as Lord Protector. He left knowing he had less than a year to prepare to oust the usurper of the Vale. If he is selling, apparently prospering, it is most probably because he is buying up an army. I don't think that is a trick Petyr Baelish would miss, either. 

Petyr has clearly had dealings with the Faceless Men before he became King Robert's Master of Coin:

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“On Braavos there is a society called the Faceless Men,” Grand Maester Pycelle offered.
“Do you have any idea how costly they are?” Littlefinger complained. “You could hire an army of common sellswords for half the price, and that’s for a merchant.”

(AGoT, Ch.33 Eddard VIII)

As Eddard pointed out, Petyr doesn't baulk at the cost of the tourney of the Hand, but does at the thought of adding fifty men to the goldcloaks when the crowds heading to the tourney make the city less orderly. He could afford the expense of sending a faceless man to kill a princess if it suited him. Instead, he suggested they send someone with a bladed weapon to kill her - did he know that bearing a blade at Vaes Dothrak was death?

In Qarth, someone had been willing to shell out for a Sorry Man, who would have been effective if Barristan had not arrived at just the right time. The Lyseni wine seller was probably paid - it seems unlikely that he craved a Westerosi Lordship. The Titan's Bastard makes me suspect the Daenarys assassination attempts and the successful Viserys assassination were arranged by Jorah Mormont. Why would Mero be hanging around the freed slaves in disguise, waiting for an opportunity to assassinate Dany, rather than regrouping a sellsword company for the wealthy Yunkai,  if he was not in the pay of his old mate Jorah?

Jorah's reaction to the news his queen was nearly killed by Mero fits - his focused suspicion on Arstan, certain no ordinary man could have stopped Mero. And while thinking so highly of Mero as a threat, he casually claims he 'saw no need to frighten' Dany about his own failure to find Mero in the weeks since they had sacked Yunkai.

Jorah wanted Dany to have nothing to do with Illyrio's men or Illyrio's ships, and Jorah suggested they turn their course to slavers bay. Jorah knew about the daemon road and the hostility they would encounter from every town between there and Pentos. Quick to point out the demon-haunted seas she would have to sail through to Pentos, but "continue on to Pentos overland. It will take longer, yes … but when you break bread with Magister Illyrio, you will have a thousand swords behind you, not just four." He does't mention that she would be taking the  demon road. But his estimate that Illyrio's ships and trade goods all up would buy about 996 unsullied was nice - hasn't lost touch with the current rates. He knew she would need more than a couple of handsful of centuries, and he knew that better than to suggest that she would sell her dragons. He would, though. Even though he sees himself as a dragon rider, and her as a little fool that he can easily compromise. First, at his urging, a slave owner. Finally, his slave, that he can sell for a nice price after he has tired of her.

Now I think of it, Illyrio is a prosperous ship owner. Ser Rolly is burly enough and in his employ, sort of, but he has red hair and is currently heading Aegon's Kingsguard in Westeros. The bear is running from Illyrio, I think, as much as he is from Eddard, or Lynesse. Lynesse is another possible prosperous shipowner: perhaps the bear-cloaked man is Humpfrey Hightower, or the cheery Tregar Ormollon, limiting his liability in the ships he is sending to Westeros at her request, or on the ones her brothers are building at Oldtown.  

Mostly though, this plot smells like Petyr Baelish. If there was a way that killing a merchant could forestall the embarkation of an army of common sellswords,  giving Petyr Baelish a gain in the loss of  his rival's financial prosperity in the bargain, he could afford faceless men. So maybe the Prosperous Ship Owner is one of Petyr's new hires.

It isn't the first time Arya has given a westerosi gold dragon to her masters at the House of Black and White, either.

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On the handsome man she found four golden dragons out of Westeros. She was running the ball of her thumb across the most worn of them, trying to decide which king it showed, when she heard the door opening softly behind her.

(ADwD, Ch.45 The Blind Girl)

This handsome man is not The Handsome Man but the corpse that:

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had died at the feet of the Stranger, a single candle flickering above him...Before summoning the serving men to carry him away, she knelt and felt his face, tracing the line of his jaw, brushing her fingers across his cheeks and nose, touching his hair. Curly hair, and thick. A handsome face, unlined. He was young. She wondered what had brought him here to seek the gift of death. Dying bravos oft found their way to the House of Black and White, to hasten their ends, but this man had no wounds that she could find.

(ADwD, Ch.45 The Blind Girl)
Incidentally, who in Westeros prays to the Stranger? Even after passing through death's door, the stranger seems a creepy vengeful choice of god to pray to. (With the father, you could imagine they were praying for Justice on their own behalf, as well as on their enemies. With the mother it is about mercy, although in GRRM's world, where things can always be worse, that word can encompass its opposite. Maiden - gentleness or purity, Crone - wisdom, Smith - earthly works, all blessings too late for urgent last prayers. The Warrior might cut down a foe or welcome one of his own into the some kind of Valhalla, although there is no sign this man died in battle. I guess praying to the stranger is like praying to death itself, and nearly all the people who enter the house of black and white are looking for death - thinking it through, its not such a weird choice.)

If Petyr Baelish is far-sighted and canny enough to employ the Faceless men to destroy the Lords Declarant before they have even got together to attack him, he would probably pay the faceless men to take care of a princess, too. It is possible he has not only Sansa, but Arya under his protection/ in play on his cyvasse board.

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