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Although this page is based on canonical information, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.
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- "Āeksios aōhos oñoso īlōn jehikās kesrio syt bantis zōbrie issa se ossȳngnoti lēdys! Hae jeme istin. Sindity se liorty, qilonty se ozbārty.
(Lord cast your light upon us for the night is dark and full of terrors! I was once as you are now. Bought and sold, scourged and branded.)" - ―The red priestess preaches to a group of slaves in Volantis
A red priestess is based in Volantis.
Biography[]
Background[]
This woman was originally a slave. According to the Volantene tattoo on her face, she was trained as a prostitute. It seems that she was eventually bought by the Red Temple of Volantis, or was freed by some other means and joined the Red Temple thereafter. She was eventually ordained as a red priestess.[1]
Game of Thrones: Season 5[]
At the Long Bridge in Volantis, Essos, she preaches to the slaves gathered around her there that Daenerys Targaryen is a prophesied savior sent by the Lord of Light. Tyrion Lannister and Varys watch and listen from a distance; Tyrion mocks her until she turns to face him, seemingly knowing his words despite the distance. She stares at him intently, forcing the two to leave the scene in unease.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
The red priestess's necklace, belt and chest piece clearly displays a motif of elongated hexagons, a shape associated with Asshai and featuring prominently in the wardrobes of the red priestess's fellow missionary, Melisandre, the Asshai'i expatriate Quaithe, and the red priestess's own superior, Kinvara. See "Costumes/Essos - Asshai".[2]
Rila Fukushima is the first East Asian actor to appear as a character with speaking lines in the TV series. There are people in the known world of the novels who are ethnically East Asian in appearance, but they live in the far east of Essos, far east of Qarth and the Dothraki Sea, in the great empire of Yi Ti (the narrative's analogue to ancient China). As George R.R. Martin has explained, Yi Ti is so far away from Westeros that encountering Yi Tish people in King's Landing is as unlikely as encountering people from China in Medieval England - medieval long-distance travel was quite limited. Further east in Essos, it becomes slightly more probable to encounter travelers from Yi Ti, though it is still quite rare (i.e., a Yi Tish from the east preaching as a missionary in Volantis would be rare, but not implausible). In the novels, the only time Yi Tish people ever appear is when Daenerys Targaryen is even further east at the Dothraki city Vaes Dothrak, and mentions in passing that several of the merchants at the city's market are from Yi Ti.
In the books[]
In the books, a male red priest in Selhorys, a town under Volantene rule, plays the same role. Benerro, the High Priest of the Red Temple in Volantis, preaches a similar message in Volantis itself, very much like the red priestess.
In the novels, all slaves bought by the Red Temple of Volantis are branded with tattoos in the shape of flames, be they red priests, temple guards (known as the Fiery Hand) or temple prostitutes. The red priestess implies that she was a conventional bed-slave rather than a temple prostitute, however.
Appearances[]
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– "High Sparrow"
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 3: "High Sparrow" (2015).
- ↑ "A Man Without Honor" HBO featurette
