Lyseni politics:
Lys was never a military outpost therefore its laws and customs reflect not the power of the sword or even directly the coin but the courtier, goblet dagger and word all envenomed, these are the weapons of Lys the Lovely. The the same messure the Lysene are rather obsessed with the physical heritage of Valyria so assassinating any highborn of breeding age is considered crass. Note that this does not include infants as much as the elderly. So if one magister is trying to send a message to another, first he kills a favored slave (or pet), then an important freeman servant, and then a parent or young child... lovely people as you can see.
The fact that its open season on the elderly also means that the leaders of Lys tend to be younger than the norm, which also plays on their adoration of beauty. That said when one does become an old statesman (or stateswoman) and keeps power that is a sign of either deep paranoia, great cleverness or more likely both.
Speaking of the above Lys also maintains perhaps the greatest involvement of women in high politics of any of the free cities, save perhaps Braavos. While women are not technically allowed to hold the position of Archon (unlike in Volantis) powerful female heads of houses have multiple in the past raised a puppet to the Purple (that is the color of the archon's robes).
On that note the current archon is one Luceas Artaris, a man of 45 and nearing the usual retirement age. No that's not code for murder, stepping down, to allow younger more energetic, and less likely to be murdered successors, is an accepted part of the political process. There is talk that Luceas' daughter is planing to put her bother and lover Jaelar on the 'throne'. Jaelar is known to partake of quite of Red Lotus quite a lot, making him far from the sharpest dagger in the drawer, but he is still presentable.
House Artaris are spicers who deal mostly with the east and represent a broader coalition of the Forty Families with similar economic interests. The other two factions at this point in time are
- The slavers (currently going through a bit of a rough spot on account of a mad pirate in the stepstones
) who are struggling to rally behind one leader
- The bankers who are lead by a seemingly unsinspired but still living man of sixty
There was also a third faction, so called Wine and Steel, for their interests in both wines and military industry, but they suffered the most in the failed coup a few weeks ago when the spicers made their move bribing the sellswords to 'clean house' starting with their traditional backers.
