Melisandre arrived at Stannis Baratheon's court a red priestess of a foreign god, and left the stormlands' faith of the Seven all but abandoned within his household by the time she was done. She preaches a war between light and darkness that she insists is imminent and cosmic, casts visions in flame that read more like riddles than prophecy, and has convinced a notoriously skeptical king that he is a chosen champion in that war — no small feat of persuasion, whatever else one makes of her methods. Her powers are real and considerable, which makes her claims harder to dismiss than a court full of septons would prefer, and considerably more dangerous when she is wrong. A maester records, in the cautious language his order reserves for magic it cannot yet measure, that whatever Melisandre truly is, she is not a charlatan — which is, in its way, the more unsettling possibility.
Unaligned
Melisandre
the Red Woman
- Life
- the books give no year, and Melisandre's own age is left deliberately uncertain
- House
- none — a priestess of R'hllor, said to be of Asshai
Alive, keeping her red god's fires lit at Castle Black.
The arc of Melisandre
This carries the character’s road through the published novels. Read on only if you do not fear to know.
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
Theories about Melisandre
SourcesACOK · DavosASOS · DavosADWD · MelisandreTWOIAF · The Red Temple of R'hllor
Is Melisandre alive?
Yes, alive as of A Dance with Dragons, at the Wall — what she does there in the book's final pages the chronicle keeps veiled.
Who is Melisandre?
A red priestess of R'hllor from Asshai who became Stannis Baratheon's closest and most controversial counselor, wielding fire magic the Citadel's maesters still cannot fully explain.