Lys sits on a scatter of islands off the western coast, its climate mild, its gardens scented, and its people bred — deliberately, over centuries, by houses that treat lineage as a commodity — for a beauty that has become the city's chief export alongside silk and perfume. Lysene courtesans and bed slaves are prized from Volantis to Pentos, trained from childhood in arts a maester need not enumerate; the city's magisters see no more shame in this trade than a Myrish guildsman sees in selling glass.
The Free Cities
Lys
The pleasure city, which trades in beauty the way other cities trade in grain
- Region
- The Free Cities
- Kind
- city
An island city cultivated for comeliness across generations, whose perfumers, courtesans, and pirate-lords are equally famous across the narrow sea.
Trade, faith, and rule
Lys quarrels endlessly with Tyrosh and Myr over the Disputed Lands and the wreck-strewn Stepstones, a rivalry old enough that none of the three cities can quite recall which insult started it. Its harbor also shelters pirates and sellsails of a more freelance stripe, men who call themselves princes of the narrow sea and answer to no triarch, magister, or prince but their own profit.
Lys in the novels
This carries the place's part in the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.
SourcesACOKASOS
Where is Lys?
An island city cultivated for comeliness across generations, whose perfumers, courtesans, and pirate-lords are equally famous across the narrow sea.
Is Lys from the books or the show?
Book canon. This entry follows George R. R. Martin's novels and histories, and notes where the television series diverges rather than following it.