The Free Cities
Pentos, Myr, Tyrosh, Lys, Norvos, Qohor and Lorath ÔÇö nine daughters of Valyria who spend most of their history at each other's throats.
The fuller tale
Every one of them except Braavos began as a Valyrian colony, and when the Freehold ended they inherited its trade, its language and its habits, including slavery, which Pentos formally forbids and informally maintains. There is no league and no common government; there is a shifting set of alliances, a great deal of gold, and the standing business of hiring other people to do the fighting.
The Disputed Lands between Myr, Lys and Tyrosh have been fought over for so long that the phrase has become the region's actual name on the maps, and the free companies that grew up to fight there are now the professional armies of half the east.
Their real weapon is money. Pentos buys the Dothraki off; Qohor bought its life with a fortune and three thousand Unsullied; Myr and Lys buy fleets. It is a foreign policy that works until somebody arrives who cannot be paid.
The ground they held
What became of it ÔÇö if an ending is written, it is here. Spoilers.
The chronicle records no ending here ÔÇö or none the maesters have set down.