Day 16: Favorite Free City
My favorite free city is Bravos. Bravos is a more recent city in the history of the world, having been founded by escaped slaves and hidden by magic while Valyria stood. Bravos looks and feels a lot like Venice, as it is full of statues and canals and places of worship. It also had a very strong connection to what is happening in the Seven Kingdoms, actually making it tie in closer to the main story than even Dany does so far.
The Iron Bank of Bravos is shaping up to be a possible player in what is happening to secure the Iron Throne of Westeros. The bank has been lending money to the kingdom for a while now, an arrangement made by Littlefinger (who is only a couple of generations removed from Bravos) and as it stands, the royal debt is significant. Cersei ignored the bank representatives so long that they finally decided to back Stannis's claim to the throne. Stannis was given a nice loan, once he promised to pay back not only that loan but also the ones currently connected to the throne. It's really the first bit of support Stannis has gotten from anyone recently, so he jumped on the chance without really considering the consequences. We'll see how that works out for him.
Bravos is also the home of the Temple of Black and White, where Arya is training to be an assassin. Arya found refuge in Bravos after leaving her homeland when she felt like everyone she loved was dead or in a place where she had no way to get to them. Through her eyes, we have seen the city come to life, as she worked selling fish to actors, sailors, and whores. Even though Arya is somewhat forgetting herself while she is there, she's also healing from all the trauma she's experienced in the last several years. It's been good for her and that makes me very happy.
Most importantly, Bravos doesn't seem to have this undercurrent of horribleness that a lot of other cities tend to possess. There is no open slave market. There is no crazy laws where you kill the city princes. There isn't a caste system so severe that people really can't move out of the place they're currently in. It is a stable city and seems to be ample in supplies and abundance. It seems like a rather wonderful place to be.
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