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Court Eunuchs
George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has no shortage of gore. The presence of eunuchs in the saga draws from historical records of royal courts and crimes of war. In ASOIAF the first eunuch the reader is introduced to is Lord Varys - a powerful spymaster; he is a self made man who has risen from the penury to a place in the King's council. Ned Stark interacts with him with caution and his approach reflects a hint of contempt and disdain along with wariness - which is in keeping with Ned's traditional and binary views. Tywin Lannister sees more value in Varys and keeps his personal views (also fiercely traditional) to himself.
Like the court eunuchs of history Varys plays a powerful role in the capital. Eunuchs at court were considered harmless. They had no dynastic motivations of their own. They were dispensable having no progeny to avenge them. They had no loyalties to any civil or military institution. The majority of eunuchs were slaves and servants attending to the king's harem, his bedroom and bath, his messages and other menial services. This physical access and proximity to the king often gave the impression that they were influential and had the king's ear. Varys doesn't have any special access to the kings of Westeros. He is at best part of their inner council and superficially a team player, he weaves his plots for the 'good of the realm' and his loyalty is not to any one sovereign but to the crown and subjects.
Varys' position as spymaster (instead of the traditional role of court eunuch) can be compared to Zheng He who was a 15th century admiral in China's early Ming dynasty. Zheng He was a descendant of a governor of the Mongol Empire. He was taken prisoner at a young age by the Ming army and castrated; he gained the admiration of his captor and rose to become of favorite of the emperor who conferred upon him the adopted surname of Zheng. Other influential court eunuchs were those in the Ptolemic dynasties of ancient Egypt who served as regents to underage kings and Bagoas of Alexander the Great's court in Macedonia. 15th century Imperial China had its own eunuch spymaster in Shang Ming in the court of Emperor Chenghua. However his involvement in espionage is probably an exception as few eunuchs were assigned as spies, though they were widely alleged to be involved in espionage. Most of the use of court eunuchs in Imperial China mirrors the bureaucratic work assigned to celibate clerics of the Middle Ages in Europe.
In George RR Martin's saga the castration of Theon Greyjoy is assumed, at the hands of Ramsay Bolton as a method of torture rather than punishment for crimes. Castration was punishment for crimes of homosexuality among the Assyrians and it was one of the the Five Punishments for crimes like rape around the time of the Qin Dynasty. Theon is psychologically tormented and broken down after his capture by Ramsay Bolton for Ramsay's own sadistic pleasures. Castration as a means of punishment doesn't seem to have any official role is the kingdoms of Westeros, but seems common practice across the Narrow Sea in Essos.
The unsullied are the most professional mercenary army in ASOIAF (followed closely by the Golden Company and far ahead of the Second Sons); their soldiers are gelded at a young age and trained as soulless fighters. For them their master's command is law and they have no moral compass, individuality or empathy to challenge it. Historically Chinese prisoners captured by the Vietnamese army in the 15th century were castrated and used as soldiers in the Vietnamese military. In nature the Unsullied mirror ants who are the most battle-ready and aggressive animals; ant warfare is conducted by specialized warriors who have no capacity for reproduction and loss of soldiers in the course of war doesn't threaten the population of the colony.
References
1. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
2. A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin
3. A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
4. The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty - Shih-shan Henry Tsai
5. Strategy - Lawrence Freedman
Recommended reading
Scattered Starks
Scheming Greyjoys
Consolidating Lannisters
War of the Five Kings
The Red Wedding
Robb Stark has gathered his banners and is marching on Lannister strongholds. His sisters are held captive by Cersei Lannister, but he has Jamie Lannister in his custody. His mother brokers his alliances with the Baratheon's and another wtih the Freys who hold a crucial crossing between the north and the rest of Westeros. In return Robb Stark is betrothed to one of Walder Frey's daughters. The marriage is arranged as a tactical move for Robb but a strategic one for the Freys. But the young wolf falls in love with someone else on his campaigns and marries. Walder Frey nurses the slight and Tywin Lannister finds an angle. A truce is brokered and another marriage is arranged between the Freys and the Starks, and at that celebration as the band start playing the ominous Rains of Castermere the Freys attack their guests and kill Robb, his mother and his pregnant wife. In the aftermath former bannerman of the Starks and their betrayer from within Roose Bolton is appointed warden of the North.
EDINBURGH CASTLE, 1440
In 1437 members of the Douglas clan assassinate King James I of Scotland, and a 7 year old James III accedes the throne. In 1439 the 5th Earl of Douglas - Archibald passes away and his 15 year old son William becomes Earl. The Black Douglases were a powerful clan in Scotland with powers of regency to rule until the king gains majority. The king's self appointed chancellor - William Crichton and his legal guardian Alexander Livingston see the Douglas clan as an existential threat to their monarch and the monarchy.
In November 1440 Crichton and Livingston orchestrate a dinner between the King, then 10, and the 16 year old Earl to get better acquainted. Guest and host were enjoying the food, entertainment and each other's company when towards the end of the meal the chancellor's men begin to pound a drum and present the guests with the ancient Scottish symbol of death - a boar's head. William Douglas and his brother David were seized from the dinner table, lead outside the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle, found guilty at a mock trial and massacred. King James II pleaded for mercy for his guests lives but he was convinced that the Douglas brothers were plotting against the crown. The Earl is said to have asked for his brother David to be killed first so that the young boy wouldn't have to witness his brother's beheading. The Black Dinner is part of legend and may have happened differently, but the Douglases were ended in dark circumstances. It is also speculated the Earl William's uncle James the Gross was in on the plot as he was made the 7th Earl of Douglas despite his failed attempt at laying siege to Edinburgh Castle. Twelve years later King James III invited another William, this time the 8th Earl of Douglas - to pledge allegiance. William refused and was stabbed in the throat and choked. He was then beheaded and his skull was flung out of Sterling Castle.
AFGHANISTAN, 1800
Another story of a deadly dinner comes from William Dalrymple's Return of a King, where he narrates how blood feuds were something of a national pastime in Afghanistan. The ruling dynast of the Durrani Empire had a chief who invited several dozens of his feuding family members to a dinner in a room rigged with explosives. During the course of the evening the chief excused himself from the room under some pretext and proceeded to blow up his guests.
The Molten Crown
PERSIA, 1749
A drunk Viserys Targaryen storms into Khal Drogo's hall on the day of a ritual ceremony for Daenerys' unborn child. Viserys wields a sword and offends the Dothraki as blades are forbidden in the sacred city of Vaes Dothrak, as is spilling blood. Viserys demands that Khal Drogo gives him his promised crown and threatens the unborn child of the Khal and Daenerys. Drogo has his bloodriders seize Viserys and melts down his own belt of golden medallions. The molten gold is poured on Viserys as Khal Drogo bloodlessly crowns the beggar king.
There are legends surrounding the genesis of the infamous Kohinoor diamond. The established myth is that it was extracted from the mines of Kollur. It appears in the 5000 year old Hindu Purana scriptures as the Syamantaka diamond. As a warning most of the early Hindu texts consider diamonds ominous and a source of impending violence. Historically India was the world's only source of diamonds till the discovery of diamond mines in Brazil in 1725.
The earliest historical reference to the Kohinoor appears around 1739 when the Persian megalomaniacal war-monger Nader Shah invaded Delhi, ransacked the Mughal treasury, burnt the city to the ground and helped himself to the Peacock Throne which was originally built in 1628 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jehan. The throne - the construction of which took 7 years and cost more than 4 times that of building the Taj Mahal - is dismantled and sent back to Persia and as a symbol of his kingship Nadir Shah wears two diamonds on his arms. One if the Timur Ruby and the other is a massive uncut stone called the 'mountain of light' or the Kohinoor. It is on this occasion that the Kohinoor is first mentioned in recorded history.
Ten years later Nader Shah is assassinated by his own soldiers; and in one of the subsequent battles for succession his grandson Shahrokh Shah is blinded and loses the throne. He reclaims it but his rule is circumscribed to the province of Khorasan in Persia. The Qajar ruler Agha Mohammed Shah then forces Shahrokh Shah to give up his grandfather's riches. Shahrokh is tortured by having molten gold poured over his head; he eventually confesses. Unfortunately by then the Kohinoor had been commandeered by one Ahmed Shah Durrani who had left Persia. Ahmed Shah Durrani would go on to establish his own empire and he is regarded as the founder of modern Afghanistan.
References
1. A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
2. A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin
3. A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
4. Kohinoor - William Dalrymple & Anita Anand