Melisandre

From A Wiki of Ice and Fire
Revision as of 20:58, 27 March 2012 by Ran (talk | contribs) (Minor edit to aliases -- the phrase "red lady" is never used in the books, but red woman is.)
Jump to: navigation, search
Melisandre
Melisandre by carriebest.jpg
Melisandre by Carrie Best

Aliases
  • The Red Priestess
  • The Red Woman
  • The King's Red Shadow[1]
Allegiance Faith of R'hllor
Culture Asshai
Born Asshai
Books

Played by Carice van Houten
TV series Season 2

Melisandre is from the distant city of Asshai, she is a Shadowbinder and a priestess of R'hllor, God of Flame and Shadow, Lord of Light. She believes that Stannis is Azor Ahai reborn, a hero destined to defeat the Great Other, the antithesis of her god and thus has become a close advisor of him and his family.[2]

Appearance and Personality

Melisandre is a great beauty, with long hair the color of burnished copper and pale, unblemished skin. She’s slender and graceful, but she’s tall—taller than most knights. She has full breasts, a narrow waist, and a heart-shaped face. Her voice is sonorous, with an exotic accent putting her from some land far from the Westeros. As is the custom by the red priest of her faith, she wears red or crimson clothing, usually long gowns of silk the color of blood. She’s never without the red gold choker that fits snuggly around her neck. When she works magic, some say the ruby setting glows with strange power.[3][4]

Melisandre is a mysterious woman, she is the embodiment of religious fanaticism, trusting completely in the power of her god and the visions he grants her in the flames. Yet, she practice magic as well, there are always numerous powders hidden in the many pockets of her red robes that make smokes with various powers, such as truth, lust, fear, and murder. She learned at an early age that the more effortless the sorcery appears, the more men fear the sorcerer, and so always tries to hide the difficulty of her magic. She keeps guards about her to send the message of power, but does not believe that she needs them, as R'hllor will protect her.[5] Melisandre says she has practiced her art for "years beyond count" and may be very old[5].

Early Life

As a slave called "Melony", Melisandre was sold to the Red Temple at an early age.[5]

Recent Events

A Clash of Kings

Melisandre came to Dragonstone because she believed he is Azor Ahai reborn and destined to defeat the Great Other the antithesis of her god. She has soon turned stannis wife, Lady Selyse Florent and several other members of Stannis’s court from worship of the Seven to her red god. Fearing Melisandre influence and her unnatural power Stannis advisor Maester Cressen, attempt to assassinate her but fails. After surviving the assassination attempt by Melisandre convinces Stannis to embrace her god and burn all the statues of the Seven on Dragonstone.[2] She then proclaims Stannis Azor Ahai reborn and has him pull a sword from the flames, declaring it to be the legendary Lightbringer.[6]

Carice van Houten as Melisandre of Asshai

Stannis then moves against his brother, Renly Baratheon, who, like Stannis, has laid claim to the Iron Throne.[7] Through the aid of her magic, Stannis is able to assassinate Renly after he refuses to bend the knee to his older brother.[8] Following Renly's death, Stannis's army moves to his family's ancient seat, Storm's End, to lay siege to the forces loyal to Renly within. After Ser Cortnay Penrose, who was left charge of the castle, refuses to yield, Melisandre has Davos Seaworth sail her under the stronghold. There she births a shadow creature that slays Penrose. Melisandre is then sent back to Dragonstone and is not present during the Battle of the Blackwater. This is done so no one could say Stannis won his throne via sorcery.[9]

A Storm of Swords

After the failed attack on King's Landing, Stannis retreats to Dragonstone. It is there that Davos hatches a plan to kill Melisandre, believing her to be responsible for the defeat on the Blackwater. Melisandre claims to have learned of this plan through the flames, and has Davos arrested.[10] She also pleads for Stannis to give her Edric Storm, bastard son of Robert Baratheon, as there is power in king's blood and he can be sacrificed to "wake the stone dragon." Stannis refuses, however she is able to leech some of his blood and casts the leeches into the flames while stating the names of the "three false kings:" Balon Greyjoy, Robb Stark, and Joffrey Baratheon.[11] In time, each of the three perish.

Stannis next moves his forces to the Wall, after hearing of their plight through a letter sent by the Night's Watch brought to his attention by Davos.[12] Melisandre accompanies him and is a part of the battle that sees the wildling forces crushed and Mance Rayder captured. During the battle, Melisandre kills the eagle that was once Orell's warg with flames.[13]

A Feast for Crows

Following the battle, Melisandre urges Stannis to let her have Rayder's son since she was unable to get Edric Storm (who had been smuggled away from Dragonstone by Davos to keep him safe from Melisandre). Before she can get to the babe, however, Lord Commander, Jon Snow, secretly switches Mance's child with Gilly's, a wildling girl befriended by Samwell Tarly.[14] Thus the wilding prince is safely spirited to Oldtown and out of the reach of Melisandre.[15]

A Dance with Dragons

Melisandre remains at the Wall when Stannis marches south to face the Boltons.[1] Her powers are much stronger at the Wall. She constantly searches her fires for visions. When she looks into the flames, she sees a “wooden face, corpse white” with a thousand red eyes, accompanied by a boy with a wolf’s face. She assumes that they are servants of the Great Other.[5] She asks to see Azor Ahai, hoping for Stannis, but sees only Jon Snow surrounded by skulls, his face changing between that of a man and that of a wolf. When she sees Jon, she also sees enemies surrounding him, and warns him of daggers in the dark.[16] She also tells him that she sees his sister, Arya Stark, as a girl in grey on a dying horse, fleeing from her marriage toward Castle Black.[17] She continually tries to warn him of these visions, but he refuses to listen. The vision of the girl on the horse comes to pass, but the girl is Alys Karstark, not Arya.

Instead of sacrificing Mance Rayder to the flames, she gave him a ruby that places a glamour over him, making him appear as the wildling, Rattleshirt. Rattleshirt was then made to look like Mance, and killed in his place. When she thinks on the incident, she remembers that her own ruby felt as if it was going to burn through her skin. She was saved from the pain when Jon Snow ordered for the sacrifice to be shot to hasten his death. She eventually reveals Rattleshirt’s true identity to Jon Snow, and sends him to Winterfell to rescue "Arya" (not knowing that it's actually Jeyne Poole) in an attempt to win his trust. She also predicts the deaths of three rangers of the Watch. When they are returned by the Weeper to the Wall as eye-less heads atop spears as she predicted, Jon Snow begins to take her visions more seriously, but is still wary of her.

Melisandre then tells Lord Snow that the wildlings will next attack at Eastwatch, as she has seen in the flames towers by the sea engulfed in a black and bloody tide. She acknowledges, however, that the towers of her vision did not look like those at Eastwatch. When Snow plans to send men to Hardhome on a rescue mission, she urges him not to, claiming it is a lost cause and that she has seen that none of the ships he sent there will return.[18]

References and Notes

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Kingsguard. The list of authors can be seen in the page history of Kingsguard. As with A Wiki of Ice and Fire, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.