Lys

Lys, one of the Nine Free Cities of Essos, is a city whose name is synonymous with pleasure, beauty, and the commerce of the flesh. Its reputation is built upon its famed pleasure houses, where slaves are trained in the arts of love from a young age, and its pillow houses, which cater to a wide variety of tastes. The city's influence and its products—both human and material—are woven into the fabric of the narrative, serving as a benchmark for beauty, a source of characters, and a symbol of the slave trade that Daenerys Targaryen seeks to destroy.

Reputation and the Pleasure Trade

Lys is most frequently invoked as a place of exquisite and decadent pleasure. Tyrion Lannister, during his journey, asks a cabin boy if he has ever visited the pleasure houses of Lys, a question that underscores the city's primary fame. The city is also the source of highly trained bedslaves; Illyrio Mopatis tells Tyrion that a girl sent to warm his bed was trained in Lys, where they "make an art of love," and that she had been bought to please a king. This reputation for producing the most desirable and skilled companions makes Lys a key node in the slave trade of the Free Cities. The city's association with beauty is so strong that it is used as a point of comparison; the dead man presented to Daenerys Targaryen is described as a "child of Lys or Old Volantis," snatched from a ship and sold into bondage, his fair face marking him as a product of that region.

A Source of Characters and Conflict

Lys is the origin of several characters who play significant roles in the story. Salladhor Saan, the Lysene pirate prince who serves Stannis Baratheon, is a prominent figure, and his fleet is described as having "Lysene warships" with bright, colorful hulls. The city is also the home of the Lyseni sailors who prey on the desperate wildlings at Hardhome, capturing women and children to sell as slaves. The narrative mentions a Lysene pillow house as the origin of Illyrio Mopatis's wife, Serra, whom he found there and later wed. Furthermore, the city is a destination for the slave trade; the Lyseni pirates who captured wildlings from Hardhome planned to sell them in Lys, and the price of slaves there is said to be rising. The city's connection to the slave trade makes it a natural enemy of Daenerys Targaryen's cause, as her abolitionist stance threatens the economic foundation of Lys and other slaving cities.

A Symbol of Beauty and Corruption

Lys functions as a symbol of both alluring beauty and deep corruption. Its name is used to describe a certain type of fair, comely person, such as the dead man presented to Daenerys, who is identified as a "child of Lys." The city's products—its wines, its trained slaves, its perfumes—are associated with luxury and pleasure. However, this beauty is inextricably linked to the brutal reality of the slave trade. The Lyseni sailors who exploit the desperate wildlings at Hardhome are a stark example of this corruption. The city's pleasure houses, while producing beautiful and skilled companions, are also places where human beings are bought, sold, and trained for the gratification of others. This duality makes Lys a potent symbol of the world Daenerys seeks to overturn, a world where beauty and cruelty are two sides of the same coin.