If Braavos's manipulation of Westeros was like pulling strings on a puppet, then the Rogare family's involvement was direct and hands-on.
From a long-term perspective, the former method was clearly more stable and reliable. It not only avoided direct resentment and public anger, but also withstood dynastic changes and internal power struggles within House Targaryen. As long as the local powerhouses and core layers of power on the contact list were not wiped out, Braavos could more or less maintain its influence.
Unfortunately, in the short term, the Rogare Bank firmly suppressed the Iron Bank by relying on two divinely arranged marriages, at a time when Westeros was not yet fully unified and still had two major political entities, the North-Targaryens and the South-Martells. By becoming in-laws with both, they became the royal kin of all Westeros.
The reason was simple: whichever bank the royal treasury did business with was decided directly by the owner of the property. It was not up to advisors and strategists to comment on it, and the head of the royal family, the true owner of the kingdom, could not be a puppet of the Iron Bank.
Did the Rogare family proactively and willingly step into the political vortex of Westeros, or were they introduced as a third party by House Targaryen, who, after surviving countless calamities, realized that the Iron Throne was about to fall under the control of the Iron Bank and needed a force to balance and disrupt it? We do not know. But at least the historical records of this period agree on one point: long before the aftershocks of the Blood Dragon Dance had faded, the Rogare Bank was already flourishing under the joint leadership of its ambitious patriarch and his brother, Drazenko Rogare. After Prince Viserys returned to King's Landing with his wife, Lady Lara, and facilitated Westeros's alliance with the Rogare family, that rise became unstoppable.
At first, when the Iron Bank faced this suddenly surging rival, it only used conventional containment methods: spreading rumors to damage the Rogare Bank's reputation, intensifying business competition to squeeze its commercial territory, and skillfully maneuvering to dissolve the Triarchy and ignite wars in order to worsen its financial environment...
This ancient but effective method of muddying the waters initially succeeded in curbing the Rogare Bank's upward momentum. However, with Dorne acting as a wet nurse and providing blood transfusions, the Rogare Bank survived the first round of attacks. As the alliance agreement between the Targaryen royal family and the Rogare Bank was officially signed and put into effect, the Iron Throne began withdrawing deposits from the Iron Bank and transferring them to the Rogare Bank. This astonishing siphon-like shift allowed the Rogare Bank to quickly recover its vitality, and its performance soared. One year after its rise had nearly been strangled, it successfully surpassed the Iron Bank, achieving a tremendous victory and becoming the bank with the greatest cash flow and business volume in the known world, without equal.
These ironclad facts finally crossed the red line in the minds of the Braavosi. The House of Black and White was summoned by the House of Keyholders, and the infamous Faceless Men responded. Just a few months after the Rogare Bank successfully reached the top, its two powerful and shrewd pillars died on the same day, in two "accidents" separated by the Narrow Sea, in an almost inconceivable manner. Both died suddenly.
...
However, unlike what most people imagined or felt intuitively, the Rogare Bank did not collapse with the simultaneous deaths of its two heads. On the contrary, the murder of the two helmsmen was only the beginning of a series of violent, storm-like attacks. The Rogare family itself was a large house, and the former leaders had left behind enough children and descendants. Its bank was also a behemoth, with complete institutions, ample personnel, and unmatched cash flow across the world. With countless lords and nobles under the rule of Dorne and House Targaryen as customers, it could be said that even if ten more Rogares died, it would still continue advancing by sheer inertia, maintaining its status as the number one bank for at least three to five years.
Assassins alone were not enough to overthrow such an existence, so what followed was the rest of the story.
Lysandro Rogare was not only the President of the Rogare Bank, but also the "First Magister for Life" of Lys. His death not only created a vacancy within the family, but also left behind a massive power vacuum in Lys's political arena. The position of family patriarch passed to his eldest son without suspense, but the identity of the most powerful man in Lys was not hereditary. Before his crab-gnawed body had even been salvaged from the sea, a large group of politicians had already begun competing for the status and political legacy he had left behind.
To make matters worse, his son, Lysandro Rogare, who was widely considered to have "twice his father's ambition and only half his ability," was unwilling to be outdone and was determined to reclaim the dominance that "belonged" to his father, though no such claim actually existed. The result of ambition exceeding ability was that he became one of the most famous wastrel sons in the history of the world of Ice and Fire. After successfully winning election as an administrative officer, he hosted lavish entertainments to please the common people, then used unprecedented sums of gold to bribe other governors, trying to "buy back" his late father's supremacy in Lys with money instead of prestige. When he found this method ineffective, he planned to provoke a short war against the formerly friendly cities of Tyrosh or Myr in his capacity as administrative officer, hoping to gild himself with the glory of victory and conquest, and thereby reclaim the title of "First Magister."
After spending money like water and emptying his personal fortune, he began embezzling bank funds.
For bankers to use their customers' deposits was practically taken for granted in the industry and hardly worth criticizing. But Lysandro Rogare's greatest problem was that he should never have taken such risky actions while powerful enemies lurked in the shadows and countless eyes were fixed on him. The Iron Bank, which had already planted spies inside and outside the Rogare Bank, naturally would not miss such a chance to destroy its rival. Never before had Braavos's propaganda apparatus operated at such full force. Rumors that the Rogare Bank's vaults were about to be drained by embezzlement spread like wildfire in an instant, and there were even credible, seemingly concrete pieces of evidence circulating. Thus broke out the most astonishing bank run in the history of the Free Cities. Governors and wealthy merchants rushed to withdraw their funds, and gold poured out of Lysandro Rogare's cellars, sending the Rogare Bank from heaven to hell in just a few days.
The bank collapsed, and Lysandro Rogare was forced to flee, but failed and was killed. The downfall of the Rogare family had become inevitable, but the Iron Bank still refused to let go. The House of Keyholders was determined to utterly destroy this audacious challenger as a warning to others. Not only were the Rogares in Lys reduced to slavery, but even the royal kin who had married into King's Landing and lived in the Red Keep were not to be spared.
Under the Iron Bank's secret instigation and provocation, politicians who had long disliked the Rogares took advantage of their downfall, fabricating far more crimes for these Lyseni than they had actually committed, and used those charges as grounds to launch a coup against the Rogare princess. After arresting Lady Lara's brothers, they even sought to arrest the princess herself. Fortunately, King Aegon III and Prince Viserys, who were still children at the time, bravely stood up and took up arms to protect her. Only after paying the price of being besieged in Maegor's Holdfast for eighteen days did they preserve the last trace of dignity for the Rogare family and dispel the Iron Bank's intention of continuing to pour resources into a relentless pursuit.
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"The overthrow of the Rogare Bank was an unprecedented, large-scale collaboration across multiple departments in Braavosi history. The Sealord's fleet, the intelligence services, the propaganda agencies, and even the House of Black and White, everyone worked together around the Iron Bank to resist the foreign enemy, demonstrating our nation's astonishing unity and organizational capacity when faced with a threat." The current President of the House of Keyholders, having finished recounting this history, was clearly inspired by the deeds of his forebears, and even his tone became lighter and more confident. "Today, Braavos is far stronger than it was in the past, but the threats we face are equally great, perhaps even greater. As for how to deal with them, now that I have finished telling this story, everyone should already have some idea based on history, correct?"
"First, we must 'assassinate the brothers Lysandro Rogare and Drazenko Rogare.' If we do not eliminate leaders and helmsmen who possess both prestige and ability, then trying to contain the Seven Kingdoms, which are far larger than Braavos, through conventional means is nothing but wishful thinking!" Less than a second later, the answer emerged. "The only question is, who, or rather who and who, are the 'Lysandro Rogare and Drazenko Rogare' of the Westeros Bank?"
(To be continued.)