Oldtown

Oldtown is the oldest city in Westeros and the second largest after King's Landing. It stands in the southwest of the Reach, at the mouth of the river Honeywine on the shores of the Sunset Sea. A great center of learning, faith, and trade, Oldtown is home to the Citadel of the maesters and was for centuries the seat of the Faith of the Seven.

Oldtown is ruled by House Hightower from the Hightower, a colossal stepped lighthouse-fortress crowned by a beacon whose flame guides ships into the harbor. The city predates the coming of the Andals and has been a hub of civilization in Westeros since the Dawn Age.

Geography

Oldtown is a city of stone, far older and more orderly than the sprawling chaos of King's Landing, with cobbled streets, fine buildings, and many septs and guildhalls. The Honeywine winds through it to the sea. Two great institutions dominate it: the Citadel, where the maesters are trained and forge their chains of knowledge, and the Starry Sept, which was the seat of the High Septon and the heart of the Faith before that honor passed to King's Landing and the Great Sept of Baelor.

Above all rises the Hightower, an immense tiered tower of pale stone topped by its ever-burning beacon, the seat of House Hightower and one of the tallest structures in the world.

History

Oldtown was founded in the deep past, long before the Andals or the Targaryens, and was the greatest city of Westeros for thousands of years. It was here that the Faith of the Seven first took root in Westeros, and here that the maesters established the Citadel. When Aegon the Conqueror came, the High Septon in the Starry Sept and Lord Hightower yielded to him rather than see the city burned, sparing Oldtown the fate of Harrenhal.

In the story

Samwell Tarly is sent to Oldtown to train as a maester and to research the threat gathering beyond the Wall. Through his eyes the reader sees the Citadel, with its archmaesters, its ravenry, and its hidden knowledge, and the strange currents stirring in the city as portents multiply. Oldtown's role as the seat of learning makes it central to the unraveling of the story's deeper mysteries.

Rulers

Oldtown is held by House Hightower, whose words are "We Light the Way," one of the oldest, richest, and most powerful houses of the Reach, sworn to House Tyrell of Highgarden.