application: somarium

[redpriestess]

[Player name] Allie
[Age] 20
[Personal Journal] lelait
[Other characters currently played]
Seishirou Sakurazuka / X / desecrates
Tomoyo Daidouji / Cardcaptor Sakura / recordings




[Character name] Melisandre
[Age] Undetermined. Implied to be much older than she looks.
[Canon] A Song of Ice and Fire
[Point in time taken from canon] Post A Dance With Dragons




[Background]

Not much is known about Melisandre’s past—but we are given a brief glimpse into it. She was born with the name ‘Melony,’ a slave in Asshai. She distinctly remembers that she was ‘Lot Seven.’ She, like many other slaves, was sold to Red Temple—the church of R’hllor—when she was a young child. There she was no doubt taught to worship the Lord of Light fervently, and given schooling, taught divination, and eventually chosen to be a red priestess.

A summary of her part in more current events can be found here.




[Personality]

Melisandre is mysterious. Tall, terrible, beautiful, clad from head to toe in red, she is dynamic and memorable. To the people of Westeros, for whom magic is all but a myth, this red priestess from across the sea who sees visions in the flames and frequently performs sorcery for all to see inspires both fear and awe. This is no mere coincidence. It is precisely the image that Melisandre seeks to cultivate for herself on purpose. Fear and awe are her greatest tools. Her displays of power draw people to her; her charisma and obvious unwavering faith cause them to follow her. She is a leader in the guise of a follower, capable of turning men from the gods they have worshipped all of their lives into devout disciples of her own god. She is a convincing and passionate speaker, given conviction by her absolute faith. Her presence is powerful.

However, she is careful not to allow others to see just how much her sorcery taxes her, both mentally and physically. She knows she must appear constantly strong, confident, and aloof, so that she may keep her followers in thrall with both fear and respect. Everything depends on the image that she presents. “The more effortless the sorcery appears, the more men fear the sorcerer.” And the more she is both feared and revered, the more weight her visions and prophecies hold in the eyes of others, and the more sway she has.

But she needs no help in believing in these things herself, of course. The faith that she has in her god—R’hllor, the Lord of Light, the Red God—is the most integral part of Melisandre, which is fitting, as the symbol of R’hllor is a flaming heart. She was raised by the Red Temple, and she truly and completely believes its teachings. She knows that she is blessed by R’hllor: not only do her visions come to pass, but some have even saved her from death. The Lord of Light allows her to see things in the flames, and that it is her duty to interpret them and do his will. She gazes into the flames each day, hoping to catch a glimpse of the path that she must take—or, in some cases, the path that she must avoid.

That is not to say that she does not have her moments of doubt. Never does she doubt in R’hllor, of course—her god cannot be questioned; her belief is unshakable. But rather, she sometimes second-guesses herself, wondering whether she has interpreted her visions correctly. When these uncertainties plague her, however, she takes care that no one knows of them, in order to maintain her image and the power it brings her. She confides in no one, keeping her private thoughts strictly to herself. She’s lived most of her life like this, fighting for her god’s cause alone and constantly wary of those who may seek to do her harm. Yet she remains committed, and certain that no harm will come to her while she is in R’hllor’s grace.

As is only to be expected of such a determined and cunning woman as Melisandre, she is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her goals—even things that most people would consider ‘evil,’ such as burning a man to death in order to conjure fair winds to send ships north (or at least, the men said that it was her sacrifice that brought the winds; whether it really was or not, Melisandre allowed them to think so), slaying her king’s brother with a shadowy monster born of her own body, or wanting to burn a child for his king’s blood to fulfill a prophecy. But to her, as these things are done in service to R’hllor—and in the interest of helping him to triumph over the Great Other, and therefore saving the world from the darkness and cold of a second Long Night—they are merely necessary sacrifices. She is well aware that the path to salvation will not be without hardship, and she is willing to do whatever it takes in order to ensure victory for Stannis as Azor Ahai, and for the Lord of Light. She firmly believes that she is on the side of what is good and right. In fact, she once describes herself as “something of a knight [her]self, a champion of light and life.”

Her view of the world is very black and white. As demonstrated by a conversation with Davos, Melisandre believes that a man is either good, or he is evil, with no grey area in between. The analogy she uses is that of a rotting onion—an obvious jab at Davos himself. “If half of an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion,” she says, as unwavering as she is in all of her convictions. She subscribes heavily to the belief that ‘if you are not with us, you are against us.’ She firmly believes that if one is not on the side of light and life—that is, if they are not on her side, on Stannis’ side, or on R’hllor’s side—then they are on the side of darkness and death, and therefore an enemy. But she does not treat non-beleivers abrasively, outwardly. She merely smiles her secretive smiles, holds her night fires, praises the Lord of Light for each victory, warns that his warmth and light will be the only salvation in the face of the coming cold and dark, and draws more to her cause.




[Abilities]
Melisandre’s varied powers were granted to her by R’hllor—or so she claims. The foremost of these is, of course, her ability to see visions in the flames. She considers this the most difficult to use of all of her abilities, though she does it every day. It takes a toll on her each time. Whatever its source—R’hllor or otherwise—her foresight is legitimate, and all of her visions come to pass in one way or another; it is merely her interpretation of the things that she sees which is sometimes incorrect. Melisandre tends to search for things that she wants to see, and her interpretations often reflect that.

She also apparently has other fire-based abilities. Though we have not actually seen her produce fire from nothing first-hand, it is known that it was she who killed the eagle which had been Orell’s warg by making it burst into flame.

Some of her powers are not flame-based, however. Melisandre is also a shadowbinder, giving her a set of far more questionable abilities—including the power to use part of a person’s life-force (obtained through intercourse) in order to birth a deadly shadow assassin, commanded to do her bidding, and unstoppable by mortal men, though it cannot enter areas surrounded by protective wards. Such creatures cannot be birthed using the same person’s life energy more than twice, however; a third time would likely kill the person in question. 

Using another of her sorceries, she can change people’s appearances by placing a glamor—an illusion—over them to make them look like someone else. She describes it by saying, “R’hllor is the Lord of Light, Jon Snow, and it is given to his servants to weave with it, as others weave with thread.” This power is bolstered by the use of an item belonging to the person that the one having the glamor cast on them is supposed to look like—bones, hair, or even clothing can assist.

In addition to her more obvious abilities, her god has apparently also enhanced her physical body in several ways. Melisandre does not, in fact, require food in order to sustain herself at all. She also seems to need far less sleep than most, doing so very little. Her body also gives off an unusual amount of heat. Even at the Wall, she does not wear any winter clothing—in fact, she dresses the same way she had at Dragonstone, the vast change in temperature a non-issue for her. Her skin is very warm to the touch, and she can even melt ice, albeit fairly slowly. Lastly, she purports that R’hllor has also given her the ability to tell when someone is lying. This does, in fact, actually seem to be true—though it is unclear whether the ability is actually magical, or Melisandre is simply very good at reading others.

It is notable that whenever Melisandre uses her powers, the large ruby set in a choker at her neck glows; it seems that she channels her magic through this ruby.




[Other important stuff]
While it is not a magical ability, Melisandre has a rudimentary knowledge of alchemy. She makes and uses various powders stored in the sleeves of her gowns to give her fires different properties; to make it roar or subside, to change its color, and even to change the scent and texture of its smoke in order to produce a desired effect.



[Sample post] 
[First Person]
- What do you think of your home world?
That it is in grave peril, which most are too blind to see. The never-ending night is upon us, and none but my King and those who have felt the dead cold beyond the Wall recognize it.


- If you could go back home, would you? Why or why not?
I would. It is there that I am needed to do R’hllor’s work.


- What were you doing before now?
I was aiding my King, though I remained far from him. I was strongest at the Wall, and most needed there.


- Would you consider yourself a power hungry individual?
No. My only desire is that light triumph over darkness. I wish nothing for myself but that I may live or die in service to the Lord of Light, doing what he intends for me.


- Would you consider yourself a hero or a villain? Why? Neither is an option as well, but still tell why.
I am a hero, for one must be either hero or villain—‘neither’ is a falsehood, as is ‘both.’ All those fighting for light are heroes. All those fighting against it are villains. R’hllor makes his judgments as such.


- Your country is in the middle of a war. What do you think of it? Do you support it or try to solve it yourself by going on an epic quest? Explain.
Every country in my world is in the midst of a war—a war against the Great Other, and the coming night. I do what I may to ensure Azor Ahai’s victory.


- Can you surpass God?
No. One can merely hope to do what he requires of them, and do it well.




[Third Person]

Soon comes the cold, and the night that never ends.

It is hard for most to remember the cold in the heat of summer. Not for her. There is ice and snow on her mind yet, even after the days of sweltering warmth since her arrival. When she closes her eyes, the dark is there, too. The battle still rages in her mind—the constant battle, the war of the true god and the false.

Lady Melisandre—‘Lady’ only because that is what most Westerosi have deemed it proper to call her—is visiting the oasis, kneeling beside a pool of clear water. The sand is hot beneath her knees, and the midday sun beats down over her, but she hardly feels either. Her body is constantly warm, and she finds a little extra heat pleasant rather than taxing--yet still she wears a shroud wrapped about her head, to keep the sun from her hair.

In contrast, cool water runs through her fingers. The sleeves of her simple red gown are trailing in the water, becoming soaked through, but that is no matter. They will soon dry.

But rather than raising her cupped hands to her lips, as might be expected, she simply lets the water drain slowly through her fingers. It has been years since she has lived in a place so warm and arid; she left Asshai so long ago, the land where she had grown from a scared little slave girl into a favored servant of R’hllor; but she cannot help but bring her youth there to mind now.

Even she thinks of inane things like childhood, once in every while—the very first time she dressed head-to-toe in red, the first time R’hllor granted her a glimpse of the future. The first time she knew that she was blessed.

It is then that she decides that she will make a fire tonight—a true one, bigger than the ones she has gazed into in a hearth these last nights past. Perhaps the Lord of Light would be more pleased by larger flames, and allow her to see.

 

[Why do you want to play this character in Somarium?] Because Somarium has been dark and full of terrors lately, and it needs fire to burn them all away.
[Which rule was your favorite and why?] Staying in character. It’s no fun to play with a character to acts nothing like they’re supposed to!
[Where did you hear about Somarium?] I play here!
[Any questions?] None at all.