History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireEssosTheFreeCities

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[[folder: Doniphos Paenymion]]

* BaldWomen: Norvoshi women shave their entire bodies, though noblewomen don wigs, specially when in company of foreigners.

* BadassBeard: Has a beard to befit his badassery.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Lys is a beautiful, wealthy city located on a fertile island filled with pillow houses and pleasure gardens, considered a paradise by Valyrian dragonlords. Sounds like a great place to be...just ignore that its wealth comes from buying, training, and breeding sex slaves to be sold to every corner of Essos. Also pay no attention to the pirate ships in the Stepstones, or the magisters' political power struggles that sometimes end in murder.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: With the exception of Braavos, and Pentos ''de jure'', all Free Cities practice and depend on chattel slavery. Braavos being a city founded via a slave rebellion explicitly forbids slavery of all forms inside its domain, and constantly goes to war with other cities to curb its practice.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Loosely based on the medieval Italian city-states (including Italian-sounding names) and some elements of Ancient Greek culture. With the exception of Braavos, they are former colonies of the destroyed Valyrian Empire. They even speak different dialects descended from High Valyrian (the equivalent of Latin) that, according to Tyrion, are on their way to becoming separate languages.

* BreadAndCircuses: The Volantene triarchs turn their elections into festivities with food, entertainment, and beautiful slave girls to lay with voters.

* InSeriesNickname: "Old Volantis" or "the First Daughter", since it is the first of the Free Cities to be founded. More specifically, "Old Volantis" refers to the oldest part of the city, which is inhabited by the pure-blooded Valyrian-descended elite and surrounded by a massive wall. Outsiders may enter this district by invitation only.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Lys is a beautiful, wealthy city located on a fertile island filled with pillow houses and pleasure gardens, considered a paradise by Valyrian dragonlords. Sounds like a great place to be...just ignore that its wealth comes from buying, training, and breeding sex slaves to be sold to every corner of Essos.

* PerfectPoison: The "Tears of Lys", which causes an apparently natural death via a sickness of the stomach and bowels.

* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Applied to a population rather than a single person, but the people of Lys are known to be very beautiful and comely.

* OneManArmy: In a world that normally runs on RealityEnsues, he stands out. When Ser Amaury Peake of the Kingsguard came with a dozen men-at-arms to arrest Prince Viserys's wife, Larra Rogare, Sandoq met them alone. And slaughtered them with, quite literally, contemptuous ease — according to the account of a purported eyewitness, "betwixt every fresh wound he dealt Ser Amaury, he would kill one of his remaining minions".

* BigEater: He gorges himself constantly while traveling with Tyrion. [[RealityEnsues Tyrion notes that he takes very frequent pee breaks, indicating that he may be pre-diabetic.]]

* BoardGames: The chess-like game ''cyvasse'' originated in Volantis.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Is not specified if he survived the battle in the Gullet or was burned by dragonfire, but of the ninety ships that marched into battle, only twenty eight managed to limp home.
** ''Fire and Blood'' revealed he did survive, but was later murdered by a rival for the affections of Johanna Swann.

* ExactWords: What he said about noble Westeros families still loyal to the Targaryens is true but they are mostly petty lords. [[spoiler: The most powerful potential ally, House Martell, are secretly in league with a different Targaryen.]]

* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler: When Jaehaerys learned what had happened to Rego, he personally went to recover his friend's body, then [[BewareTheNiceOnes threatened the occupants of Flea Bottom]] that he [[TongueTrauma would have all their tongues cut out]] unless Rego's killers were handed over to him. When Jaehaerys finally got his hands on the men responsible for Rego's murder, [[PayEvilUntoEvil he had them disembowelled and hung from the walls of the Red Keep]], refusing their desperate pleas to escape execution by joining the Night's Watch]].

* SpannerInTheWorks: Rego was one [[spoiler: for Androw Farmen during his killing spree on Dragonstone; Rego realised the deaths were not being caused by a mystery plague but by someone using the Tears of Lys to poison people, and Androw's wife, Rhaena Targaryen quickly figured out her husband was the culprit]].

* InSeriesNickname: Old Volantis or the First Daughter, since it is the first of the Free Cities to be founded.
** More specifically, Old Volantis refers to the oldest part of the city, which is inhabited by the pure-blooded Valyrian-descended elite and surrounded by a massive wall. Outsiders may enter this district by invitation only.

* WarHawk: The Tiger faction, a political party that favors going to war to gain more power and influence. The Tigers are opposed by the Elephants, who propose peaceful trade and alliances. Until recently, the Tigers have never been able to elect more than one of their own as a triarch in the annual elections, meaning that the elephants have consistently controlled a majority of the triarchs for the past 300 years.
** Several characters note that most citizens are currently in favor of going to war. As of ''A Dance with Dragons'', [[spoiler: Volantis has launched its fleet against Daenerys Targaryen in retaliation for destroying the slave trade]].

* BreakTheCutie: First her brother gets killed, and then she gets enslaved and winds up in the siege lines around Meereen with a dying master. [[spoiler: Then she gets to spend quality time with the Second Sons, none of whom have much time for a none-combat trained dwarf girl.]] It all rather starts to get her down.

!!!Historical Volantene
[[folder:Belicho]]
!!Triarch Belicho
A member of the Tigers whose unbroken succession of conquests and triumphs ended rather abruptly when he was eaten by giants.

* JustSoStory: We don't know exactly when he lived or were did he found giants, but they ate him and that's all that matters.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Named as a TakeThat towards Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots. The Patriots went undefeated in the 2007 regular season, but lost to the New York Giants, Martin's favorite team, in Super Bowl XLII.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Being eaten by giants certainly seems sudden.

[[folder:Horonno]]
!!Triarch Horonno
A Triarch during the Century of Blood. He was much beloved, and reelected time and time again, causing him to rule as one of the three Volantene triarchs for forty years. Eventually, Horonno tired of elections, and named himself triarch for life. The Volantenes, angered by Horonno's attempt to usurp the ancient customs and laws of Volantis, overthrew him. Horonno was tied between two elephants and ripped in half.

* BrokenPedestal: For the people of Volantis, who loved him until he tried to usurp one of their most ancient laws.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: Ripped in half by two elephants.
* RuleOfSymbolism: He was ripped in half by two elephants and his death began the loss of influence for his party, who are currently surpassed by the Elephants two to one.

[[folder:Trianna]]
!!Triarch Trianna
A Triarch who lived 300 years prior. She was one of the elephant party that brought down tiger rule, ending the old wars of the Century of Blood.

* RepetitiveName: Her title was rather repetitive.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only known female Triarch, and the last one in the last 300 years.

[[folder:Tessario the Tiger]]
!!Tessario
!!!The Tiger, the Thumb
A sellsword from Volantis at the service of Lord Unwin Peake, serving as captain of his personal guard the Fingers. When his involvement in the coup against House Rogare and Thaddeus Rowan was exposed, he was captured and tortured to death.

* BodyMotifs: Because he was the right-hand man of the Hand of the King, Mushroom nicknamed him Tessario the Thumb. And the guard he led were named the Fingers.
* ColdBloodedTorture: On the receiving end. He was arrested and tortured until he revealed more names of conspirators, although he did not name Unwin Peake.
* DisproportionateRetribution: He killed Robin Massey over a dispute for a horse they both wanted to purchase.
* EvilVirtues: Loyalty. Even under torture and on the verge of death, he would not reveal who had promised him Roggerio Rogare's brothel, meaning Unwin Peake was never directly implicated in the conspiracy.
* FacialMarkings: He had tiger stripes tattooed on his face and back, indicating he was most likely a former Tiger Cloak.
* WouldHurtAChild: He was considered the most likely suspect for the death of young Queen Jaehaera.

* FictionalPoliticalParty: Two big parties compete for one of the three ruling chairs (Triarchs) of the city. The "Tiger" party pulls for military expansionism, while "Elephants" are mostly moneylenders who want to build trade relationships. The latter has been consistently more popular for quite some time, as the Tigers have never elected more than one of their members as Triarchs for nearly 300 years.

* YourCheatingHeart: Lynesse abandoned her husband Jorah to be with Ormollen.

* PurpleEyes: Lys is one of the few places in the known world that has a significant population of people with Valyrian purple eyes.

* ItWasAGift: Petitioners must bring her something valuable in exchange for advice or assistance, such as a silver goblet, a jade fan, or a bronze dagger.

* SkewedPriorities: After she and Tyrion escape their enslavement by Yezzan, Penny is depressed because they had to leave her performing animals behind. Tyrion thinks she should just be glad they're: A) not enslaved anymore, B) not dead, and C) not "mounting the pale mare"[[note]]that is, suffering from the dysentery-like plague that killed their former master[[/note]].

A beautiful and seemingly cheerful young slave woman who works in Illyrio's manse.