Question for Elio & Linda regarding F&B Pentos

[The Dragon Demands]

Jaehaerys I's master of coin Rego Draz was a wealthy Pentoshi magister....shunned by the other magisters for being lowborn, a cutpurse mercenary that rose up from the streets (like Varys).

The text even notes, like AGOT Daenerys I, that Pentoshi are "mongrels" "a mix of Andals and Valyrians, plus old slave stock from all over including nations that don't exist anymore".  

Elio & Linda themselves have stated that they actually came up with the background for Pentos in World of Ice and Fire:  that alone among the (Non-Braavos) Free Cities, it might have been a pre-existing city; some Andal city or town that the Valyrians just absorbed (Lorath doesn't count, it was deserted).  Whatever the case, Pentoshi do look like they visibly have a lot of Andal blood in them (but from slaves or pre-existing local elites who got absorbed is unclear).

World book specifies that the Valyrians who settled in Andals were the lowest sort - working class back when Valyria HAD a working class:  merchants and craftsmen.  Not being nobles, they didn't really care about blood purity, so they freely intermingled with the locals.  

So....reading the text I wondered, why would Pentoshi magisters have an aristocratic bias against Rego Draz for his low birth?  When Pentos not but 150 years before wasn't really that concerned about blood purity?

On the other hand, however....thinking on it, even in the World book and novels, it is said that Pentos isn't just ruled by "magisters" (anyone wealthy enough to afford it) but about forty old-money families of magisters.  Not "Valyrian nobility", but entrenched old money merchant families.

So....at what point did Pentos shift from being a city that didn't really care about blood purity, to having its own entrenched aristocracy?  How?

Just...time?  The entire Century of Blood was between Valyria and Jaehaerys's time - enough time for attitudes in Pentos to shift, and an entrenched aristocracy to form?

I'm interested because it's one of the few cases in which we hear about NON-noble Valyrians, below even the non-dragonlord minor nobles like the Velaryons or Celtigars.  Really just Free Holders, the free land owners out in the provinces.

[AzureOwl]

Classism doesn't take long to develop. 

Referring to it in terms of blood may be Gyldayn's cultural bias shining through.

[Lord Varys]

Yeah, Pentos may simply not be as classist as the other Free Cities. We also learn that Illyrio had major issues after he supposedly married a whore.

[The Dragon Demands]

My progress in the book is a bit slow.....(chuckle) I physically got it only 48 hours ago in the mail Tuesday night, it's Thursday now.  Plus I was at work Wednesday.  Two big factors slowing me down are 1 - I'm slowly taking handwritten notes as I go through, not just skimming, 2 - Thanksgiving holiday in the USA.  You're not all in USA right?  (shrug)

This didn't merit its own thread I just didn't  know where to post....I'll organize my notes better once I've finished and post to one of the compilation threads....

Crud, I'm only up to the year 55 AC or so....

[Hiigara129]

First off, blood purity (LOL having a Harry Potter flashback) has nothing to do with the nobility. Just because Pentos was founded by the lowest of the low doesn't mean that the Pentoshi remained open and welcoming. Look at any self-governing city during the Middle ages; even without a Lord most had city fathers or Patrician Houses that dominated the administration. So its highly likely that WAY before the doom Pentos had developed into a society just as stratified and elitist as any other. Also Rego Draz never served as a Magister, but was a mere merchant and money-lender.

Second, and this is just speculation, but I think I can guess when the attitudes changed back. In 58 AC Jaehaerys I hosted the Prince of Pentos and the Archon of Tyroth, which suggests that the Princes were still powerful enough to represent the city in peace negotiations (perhaps the Princes were in charge of foreign affairs at this time?). But the treaty was unpopular enough to get the Prince sacrificed. So that could be the beginning of the aristocratic decline. Then fast forward to 209 AC, the last Pentoshi-Braavosian war ended with the former's more or less capitulation. This too could have been the start of the aristocratic decline. Or perhaps the 58 AC treaty started the decline and the 209 AC treaty finished it. Either way, it at some point the Pentoshi aristocracy declined in power outside of ceremonial occasions or offices (ie the Prince, though its certainly possible that some aristocrats continue to serve as Magisters) while the city's bourgeoisie and merchant-princes rose to power.