Located within the waters of the Summer Sea, along the northwestern coast of the continent
of Sothoryos, were the Basilisk Isles, named for the fiersome creatures that once populated
the area.
Although many of the surviving ruins suggest a long lost civilization once inhabited the
islands, a remnant of their people may still exist on the Isle of Toads, where there is
a 40 foot high statue carved into the shape of a toad, made from a mysterious greasy black
stone, similar to other ancient structures found all over the world.
The island is also home to a small native population, said to have an unpleasant fish
like aspect to their faces, where many are born with webbed fingers and toes, that may
suggest some link to a mysterious civilization of the past.
Since those elder days, the Basilisk Isles have become a refuge for pirates, slavers,
sellswords and murderers, where the worst of humanity might find others of their kind.
Earning their coin through raiding and the slave trade, the corsairs of the Basilisk
isles became a source of constant threat for the people of Naath and the Summer Isles,
as well as any ships passing south of the Valyrian Peninsula.
Life on the islands themselves proved harsh and volatile, the hot humid weather a spawning
ground for stinging flies, sand fleas and bloodworms.
Many would perish from wildlife and disease and few settlements were able to survive for
very long, with towns like Black Pudding, Port Plunder, Sty, and Whore's Gash, constantly
being built, abandoned and then rebuilt in another location.
Thousands of years before the Targaryen conquest of Westeros, when the Old Empire of Ghis grew
powerful and sent their ships to explore the world around them, they soon came upon the
Basilisk isles, and settled the city of Gorgai upon the isle of tears.
Occupying the territory for several centuries, they were eventually defeated by the Valyrian
Freehold in the Third Ghiscari War, losing the colony to their dragonlord enemies who
renamed the settlement, Gogossos, using it as a penal colony for the worst of their criminals.
They then allowed sorcerers to torture and practice their blood magic upon the prisoners
with some stories even claiming they forced slave women to breed with savage beasts, producing
twisted half human offspring.
After Valyria completed their conquest of Ghis, they expanded west, and eventually went
to war with the Rhoynar people, defeating their armies and forcing the survivors to
flee aboard 10000 ships, following their leader Princess Nymeria on a journey to find a new
homeland.
Making their way to the Basilisk Isles, they immediately faced difficulties, forced to
contend with raids from the corsair kings of Ax Isle, Talon and the Howling Mountains,
who burned two score of their ships and enslaved hundreds.
The kings then stated that they would allow the Rhoynar to settle on the Isle of Toads,
but in exchange must give up their ships, and pay a tribute of 30 virgin girls and pretty
boys to each of the kings every year.
Refusing, Nymeria led her people away, later trying to settle Sothoryos, Naath and the
Summer Isles until finally finding welcome in Dorne.
The isle of Talon was a popular destination for pirates and slavers, as it’s deep, honeycombed
caves provided a fortified refuge for many of their kind, with Barter Beach becoming
a center of trade.
Many of the corsairs who journeyed through the waters of the Basilisk Isles, were known
to decorate their ships with the bloody heads of their enemies, leaving them until the flesh
rotted away.
Afterwards, the outlaws took the skulls and dumped them on Skull Island, as an offering
to their dark god.
After the Doom of Valyria, when the continent of Essos erupted into chaos and war in a time
known as the century of blood, the settlement of Gogossos became an independent city-state,
much like the 9 free cities of Essos, and as they grew rich from the slave trade, many
soon considered Gogossos as the tenth Free city.
However, their economic success could not protect them from the Red Death, a terrible
plague which tore through the population, killing 9 of every 10 residents.
Those few that survived, largely fled from the islands, abandoning gogossos and leaving
it a desolate ruin for a century.
Eventually, outlaws and slavers returned to the islands, with the Qartheen pirate Xandarro
Xhore building a blackstone fortress on Ax Isle and the Brotherhood of Bones settling
on the Isle of Flies.
As the Basilisk Isles continued to be a refuge for pirates and criminals, various local powers
in Essos, often led by Volantis, grew concerned with the threat they posed to trade and slave
ships, and so would occasionally gather together their naval strength and invade the southern
islands, doing their best to disperse and destroy the corsair threat.
However these assaults were not always successful, like when the city state of Lys sent Saathos
Saan with a fleet of their ships, given orders to destroy the enemy threat.
Yet he instead stole the ships and settled the islands, ruling for 30 years as King of
the Basilisk Isles.