Can The Shadow Lands be conquered?

[The Skinner]

A westerosi army could not do it. The logistics of it prevent that. There's no known way to get to the shadow from the west, so go east. Even if they could pass through the free cities unmolested, they have to pass through the dothraki sea, over the bone mountains (the largest mountain range in the known world) which has 3 roads an army can pass through, each guarded by a fortress city that has stood for at least centuries if no millennia. Then you come to Yi Ti which is huge and controlled by local princes, warlords, and sorcerers. So fuck that, go by sea, that's the way victarion took to slavers bay, however he lost a large portion of his fleet along the way. The casualties could only be higher when trying to transport an entire host that way.

The only power I could see trying to conquer the shadow lands is Yi Ti. Known for large armies and has the proximity.

However as we know from TWOIAF, the YiTish occasionally clash with reavers from the shadow lands so there are people there beyond Asshai there.

Also, while Asshai has food and fresh water imported because of whatever is up with the river Ash, we don't know if the area around the hidden sea is fertile because the city of Carcosa is on its coast.

My point is, it's pretty unlikely for a foreign power to travel across the world to go to war an win in a medevial time period (targaryen conquest excluded, as we all know dragons change the rules and the shadow may have a few of those).

[John Doe]

we dont even know the lands, nobody here can say if they can be conquered or not.

[Lord Hanna]

we dont even know the lands, nobody here can say if they can be conquered or not.

We can say it is unconquerable by Westeros and most of Essos, because the army (well, any army not near Yi Ti) would never even make it there in 1 piece.

That is what most posters have been pointing out in this thread.

[TimJames]

I think it could be possible to conquer it. In fact, there are a few armies I imagine being capable of it.

Old Valyria has the resources to maintain such a supply line, as well as the racial supremacist worldview to want to conquer such a place ("we must bring civilization to these foreigners, for such is the Valyrian Burden"). All I imagine it taking is four dragon riders and 250,000 - 300,000 soldiers.

Apart from Old Valyria, I also imagine the Old Ghiscari Empire being able to pull off the job. Unsullied are immune to fear, and will gladly march into the abyss if their overweight Masters command them to. They could set up Slaver Cities along the Assahi coast, shipping in food and water across the sea and using their Assahi colonies as bases to launch slave raids in Southoryos and Ulthros.

The Dothraki avoid Assahi as a result of fear, but if one Khal could become powerful enough I imagine he could convince his khalasar to overcome their fear and to pillage the shadow lands. He could even sell it as a holy war ("we shall kill the enemies of the Great Stallion, and destroy the ghost grass so it can not destroy us"). Though this wouldn't count as conquest as it would be more like temporary nation-wide sacking.

Finally we have the seven kingdoms. As things stand now, a lengthy invasion is not in the cards. However, if the Seven Kingdoms could become more centralized under an absolute monarch (instead of being a fractured feudal state), then they could potentially conquer Asshai. Though it would not be incorporated into the seven kingdoms so much as it would be made its own independent kingdom and populated with Westerosi Knights (a la The Crusader States).