The Flowering of the Summer Isles

South of Westeros across the Summer Sea lie the fifty islands of the Summer Isles, greatest among them Walano, Omboru, and Jhala, where a tall, dark, and comely people built one of the world's oldest and gentlest civilizations. Their princes wear cloaks of brilliant feathers, their wines and spices travel the world, and their great swan ships — the finest vessels afloat — trade from Oldtown to the Jade Sea. Their gods teach that love is the surest gift, and in their temples highborn men and women serve for a season as sacred servants of love, a duty counted among the holiest; war they hold in abhorrence, and killing an abomination, though their goldenheart bows can put a shaft through a breastplate at two hundred paces when pirates or slavers force the lesson. From Lotus Point and Tall Trees Town their captains and princes range across every sea of the known world.