The Bay of Dragons, formerly known as Slaver's Bay, is the area on the southern coast of Essos, located to the southeast of Westeros and the Free Cities and to the west of Qarth. The name can refer to the bay itself or the entire region. As the name implies, the cities of the Slaver's Bay were the hub of the international slave trade for millennia, since the days of the old Ghiscari Empire. Before her assassination, Queen Daenerys Targaryen and her followers renamed the region from Slaver's Bay to the Bay of Dragons before departing it, having put an end to slavery.

The region later known as Slaver's Bay was once the heartland of the great Ghiscari Empire, which flourished well over five thousand years ago, and was one of the earliest civilizations in the known world. About five thousand years ago, the new power of the Valyrian Freehold began to rise to the west, across the Gulf of Grief. Valyrian expansion was driven by their discovery of dragons in the volcanic mountains of the Valyrian Peninsula, which they mastered and rode as weapons of war. The two great empires developed an intense rivalry, and clashed in a series of five massive wars, but the vast slave-legions of the ancient Ghiscari could not withstand Valyrian dragonfire. Five thousand years ago, the Valyrians finally succeeded in destroying the Ghiscari Empire, burning its capital city Old Ghis to the ground, conquering its surrounding lands and colonies, and enslaving the survivors. Five thousand years of Valyrian mastery obliterated much of the original Ghiscari culture. Four hundred years before the War of the Five Kings, the Doom of Valyria destroyed the great civilization within a single cataclysmic day - after which Valyria's outlying colonies and conquests reasserted their independence. While their colonies to the west of Valyria developed into the Free Cities, in a parallel development, their colonies to the east overthrew their Valyrian overlords and became the independent city-states of Slaver's Bay. The three most powerful of these cities became Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen.

Slaver's Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Grief, which is itself a gulf of the vast Summer Sea. On the opposite southern side of the Summer Sea is the separate continent of Sothoryos, therefore a frequent target for slaving raids. In Essos itself, Slaver's Bay is located south of the Dothraki Sea, and west of the Red Waste. Lhazar, a land of peaceful shepherds, is located to the northeast, between the Dothraki and the Red Waste. The Skahazadhan River that runs through Lhazar passes through the mountains and finds its way to the sea in Slaver's Bay itself. The largest former slaver-city, Meereen, is located at the mouth of the Skahazadhan.

Settlements include:

• Tolos and Elyria - city-states on the north-western coast of the Slaver's Bay, former Valyrian colonies.

• Bhorash - a ruined city on the north coast of Slaver's Bay, east of Tolos.

• Ghiscar - a region which once formed the core territory of the now fallen Ghiscari Empire and its ruined capital of Old Ghis. Located south of Astapor.

• New Ghis: an expansionist city-state located on an island south of the Ghiscari Strait, off the south coast from Ghiscar in the Gulf of Grief.

Notable places shown in the series are: