The deaths of Lysandro the Magnificent and Drazenko Rogare struck House Rogare at the height of its influence and dealt another severe blow to the promise of the Lysene Spring. The brothers died within a day of each other, in separate cities and under suspicious circumstances. Their passing left Lysandro’s nonhereditary offices open to a contest for power, while the question of who had arranged their deaths remained unresolved.

The Brothers’ Deaths

The crisis unfolded far to the south while fighting continued in the Vale of Arryn. Drazenko died first in Sunspear, after choking on a piece of bacon. Lysandro drowned when his opulent barge sank as it carried him from the Perfumed Garden back to his palace in Lys. The narrow sea separated the brothers, but not for long: they died within a day of each other.

Some regarded the deaths as unfortunate accidents. Many others saw their timing and circumstances as evidence of a plot against House Rogare. The deaths thus combined an abrupt personal loss with a political rupture: Lysandro’s dominion had depended on offices that did not pass automatically to an heir.

Suspected Assassins and Possible Patrons

The Faceless Men of Braavos were widely believed to have killed the brothers, since no more subtle assassins were known. Yet belief in their involvement did not answer the more difficult question of who might have hired them. The Iron Bank of Braavos was suspected, as was the Archon of Tyrosh, Racallio Ryndoon, along with merchant princes and magisters of Lys who had chafed under Lysandro’s velvet tyranny.

Suspicion even extended to Lysandro’s own family. He had six trueborn sons, three daughters, and sixteen bastards, and some suggested that his sons had removed him. The range of proposed culprits made the deaths politically legible as an attack on Lysandro’s rule, but it did not establish who had acted. The brothers had been removed so skillfully that not even the fact of murder could be proved.

The Succession Struggle

Lysandro’s offices in Lys were not hereditary, leaving no automatic succession in place after his death. Before his body had even been recovered from the sea, old enemies, false friends, and former allies had begun struggling to succeed him. The speed of that contest shows how quickly the deaths unsettled the order he had maintained: speculation about the killers continued, but the immediate political consequence was a fight over the power left vacant.