Unaligned

Hizdahr zo Loraq

King of Meereen (by marriage)

House: one of the Great Masters of Meereen, of the ancient line of Loraq
Titles: King of Meereen (by marriage) · Great Master of the ancient line of Loraq
Allegiance: Great Master of Meereen, of the pyramid of Loraq; later king-consort of Meereen
Seat: the pyramid of Loraq, Meereen
Culture: Ghiscari (Meereen)
Religion: the Ghiscari faith of Meereen
Weapon: none recorded; a negotiator rather than a warrior
Notable for: Negotiated peace with Yunkai and married Daenerys Targaryen, becoming king-consort of Meereen

King-consort of Meereen by his marriage to Queen Daenerys Targaryen, a Great Master known for negotiating peace with Yunkai.

A Great Master of one of Meereen's oldest pyramids, Hizdahr zo Loraq built his standing with Daenerys Targaryen not through force but through patient negotiation — brokering the peace with Yunkai that ended a costly siege and persuading the queen, against her own instincts, to reopen the city's fighting pits as the price of that peace and, not incidentally, of his own hand in marriage. He got both: Daenerys wed him and crowned him her king, a match the text presents less as romance than as statecraft on both sides, useful to a queen trying to hold an increasingly ungovernable city and to a nobleman with every reason to want a Great Master's name attached to hers rather than opposed to it.

Appearances

In the novels

A Dance with Dragons

On screen

HBO's Game of Thrones — Seasons 5

Key events

unknownBorn to one of Meereen's oldest Great Master lines, the pyramid of Loraq.
300 ACBrokers a negotiated peace with Yunkai that ends a costly siege of Meereen.
300 ACPersuades Daenerys, against her own instincts, to reopen the city's fighting pits as part of that peace.
300 ACMarries Daenerys Targaryen and is crowned her king-consort, a match built on statecraft as much as affection.
300 ACInsists on holding the feast celebrating the pits' reopening at which poisoned locusts nearly kill his new queen.
300 ACIs arrested and held on suspicion of ordering the poisoning after his own confectioner confesses under duress.

Reading the character

Hizdahr zo Loraq is one of the story's better illustrations of how peace can be just as morally compromising as war. Everything he achieves — ending the Yunkai siege, reopening the pits, marrying the queen — is a genuine political accomplishment that also happens to serve his own standing among Meereen's Great Masters, and the text is careful never to let the reader fully separate his statesmanship from his self-interest.

That ambiguity runs through his whole arc: a character whose true motives are as hard to read as anyone else's in a city built on masks, both literal and political.

The arc of Hizdahr zo Loraq

This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.

When poisoned locusts nearly kill Daenerys at the very feast celebrating the pits' reopening — a feast held, and insisted upon, at Hizdahr's own urging — suspicion falls hard on the new king. Skahaz mo Kandaq names him outright as the Harpy behind the killings, and Hizdahr's own confectioner, under duress, confesses to poisoning the dish, though the confession comes wrapped in a claim that the Sons of the Harpy had taken his daughter hostage to force his hand. Skahaz and Ser Barristan Selmy take Hizdahr into custody rather than harm him outright, pending proof neither the confession nor anything else in the published record quite manages to supply — and the Sons of the Harpy's killings, notably, do not stop after his arrest.

Where the books leave Hizdahr zo Loraq: Hizdahr zo Loraq's marriage to Daenerys bought Meereen a peace of sorts and himself a crown, and then bought him a cell — arrested on suspicion of ordering the poison that nearly killed her, and left, by the last published word, still unproven guilty of anything beyond very poor timing.

These partings name deaths, endings, and roads not yet ridden in the books. Unveil them only if both roads are known to you — or if you do not fear to know.

In the timeline

SourcesADWD · DaenerysADWD · The Queen's HandTWOIAF · Beyond the Free Cities

Did Hizdahr zo Loraq try to poison Daenerys Targaryen?

The books never settle it. He is arrested and held on suspicion after his confectioner confesses to poisoning the locusts, but the confession is coerced and the Sons of the Harpy's killings continue after Hizdahr's arrest — evidence the text lets the reader weigh either way.

Why did Daenerys marry Hizdahr zo Loraq?

His negotiated peace with Yunkai, and his insistence on reopening Meereen's fighting pits to satisfy the city's Great Masters, made the marriage a political necessity for holding a city she had conquered but not yet secured.