Temple of the Lord of Light

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The Temple of the Lord of Light is a red temple in Volantis dedicated to the god R'hllor, the Lord of Light. The temple is protected by a private army of slave soldiers known as the Fiery Hand, and its High Priest is Benerro.[1]

Layout

The Temple of the Lord of Light is found along the river road on the eastern shore of the Rhoyne, beneath the Black Walls. The enormous temple has numerous pillars, steps, buttresses, bridges, domes, and towers which flow into one another, and its walls are colored in hues of red, yellow, gold, and orange.[1] According to Archmaester Gramyon in Remnants of the Dragonlords, the temple is three times the size of the Great Sept of Baelor in King's Landing.[2]

The High Priest preaches from a red stone pillar in the great plaza found before the temple. A slender stone bridge connects the pillar to a lofty terrace of the temple. Huge nightfires burn besides the temple's steps, with the pillar standing between them. Crowds can gather in the torchlit plaza to listen to the priests.[1]

History

Triarch Malaquo Maegyr tried to hire the Golden Company to clean out the red temple and have Benerro put to the sword, but the sellswords refused.[1]

Recent Events

A Dance with Dragons

In Volantis, thousands of slaves and freedmen crowd the temple plaza to hear Benerro shriek of bleeding stars and a sword of fire that will cleanse the world.[3]

Tyrion Lannister and Ser Jorah Mormont pass through the crowded temple plaza as Benerro preaches one night. Shouts erupt from the crowd as Benerro speaks, with women weeping and men shaking their fists. The atmosphere reminds Tyrion of the day his niece, Princess Myrcella Baratheon, sailed for Dorne and the riot that boiled up as the royal retinue made their way back to the Red Keep.[1]

Quotes

Seven save me, that's got to be three times the size of the Great Sept of Baelor.[1]

—thoughts of Tyrion Lannister

An enormity of pillars, steps, buttresses, bridges, domes, and towers flowing into one another as if they had all been chiseled from one collossal rock, the Temple of the Lord of Light loomed like Aegon's High Hill. A hundred hues of red, yellow, gold, and orange met and melded in the temple walls, dissolving one into the other like clouds at sunset. Its slender towers twisted ever upward, frozen flames dancing as they reached for the sky.[1]

—thoughts of Tyrion Lannister

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 27, Tyrion VII.
  2. The World of Ice & Fire, The Free Cities: Volantis.
  3. A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 22, Tyrion VI.