app for scorched

[pyromancy]

information.

character name: Melisandre ( AKA: Melisandre of Asshai, Lady Melisandre, The Red Priestess, The Red Woman )
fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire
timeline: A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 69 — after the gathering in the Shieldhall.
character's age: A specific chronological age is never stated, but Melisandre is said to be a woman in her twenties.

powers, skills, pets and equipment:

Melisandre is no stranger to magic. As a young child in the temples of R'hllor, she learned much about the secrets and perils inherent to the art of divining with fire. Though her ability to foresee the future is limited and her attempts are not always rewarded, she is nevertheless skilled in it, able to catch glimpses of signs and read portents that most other priests of R'hllor cannot. However, her interpretations of those visions are less trustworthy, in that Melisandre is inclined to search for what she wants to see and often bases her insights on assumptions that she may have already made. Even after many years of practice, she still considers this ability among the most difficult to perform in her repertoire, and it even seems to cause her pain when she uses it. Yet regardless of whether she is truly right or wrong, the fact remains that she does see the signs — and is all too quick to use them to further her cause.

According to Melisandre, she has also been gifted with several more powers by R'hllor, including the ability to sense if people are lying to her. With the assistance of her ruby, she can also create and lay glamours over people to change their appearance. Although she has not been seen actually summoning or creating fire out of thin air, her own body does give off a great heat that can slowly melt ice. This warmth seems to be a side-effect of being imbued with R'hllor's power. In addition to that, it appears to have eliminated hunger, as Melisandre does not need eat in order to live.

As a shadowbinder and sorceress, Melisandre also possesses knowledge and power that may be considered far from admirable. She can draw out someone's energy and life-force ( presumably by sleeping with him/her ) and use it to birth a creature of shadow, a deadly manifestation that can be commanded to kill a mortal with ease. It can travel great distances swiftly, but it is unable to pass into areas warded by protective spells. It is presumed that the creation of one such creature requires approximately one-third of a person's life-force, as she has stated in canon that ( after birthing two shadows using the same man ) to do this a third time would most likely kill the person in question. She also has some knowledge of alchemy, in that she knows how to create powders that would imbue the smoke of a fire with different properties — "powders to turn fire green or blue or silver, powders to make a flame roar and hiss and leap up higher than a man is tall, powders to make smoke. A smoke for truth, a smoke for lust, a smoke for fear, and the thick black smoke that could kill a man outright."

Outside of her magic, Melisandre is also a force to be reckoned with due to her intelligence and charisma. She uses her appearance and her magic to great effect, and although some may dislike her due to her aggressive personality, she is very good at persuading other people to see her point of view. She is quite clever and resourceful, managing to portray several situations ( such as the death of Stannis's rivals for the Iron Throne ) in such a way as to make it seem like she was responsible for causing them, when in reality she probably had little to do with it.

Melisandre's ruby appears to be the source for many of her spells. In canon, it seems to grant her the ability to place glamors on people, transforming their appearance. It is also implied that it protects her from the effects of poison.

When Melisandre arrives in Antaole, she will be wearing her red robes, her ruby choker, and she will have a carved wooden chest that contains certain powders as described above.

canon history:

△ Before canon
△ A Clash of Kings
△ A Storm of Swords
△ A Feast for Crows
△ A Dance with Dragons

personality:

In a world where magic is scarce and a thing of legend, those who are able to wield it are spoken of in hushed tones of fear or awe. Melisandre of Asshai, however, is someone who can inspire both. Though she is already said to be beautiful and accomplished, she is well aware of the looks and whispers that describe her as something more, stranger and deadlier — and she does all that she can to encourage them. The air of mystery and mystique is one that she deliberately cultivates, believing as she does that the trappings of power often lend much to the power itself.

In that regard, she frequently hides just how difficult her magic can be for her in order to make it seem effortless. Her efforts are bolstered by the fact that she is not a woman to display her emotions openly. Indeed, she takes great care to appear completely confident and self-assured, as that gives weight to the prophecies that she makes. But this is no mere masquerade that she must struggle to maintain; Melisandre's faith in R'hllor and the visions that he has deigned to show to her is absolute. She knows that she is favored, she knows that her prayers are often answered, and she believes wholeheartedly that R'hllor's cause will triumph. Even when she is caught off-guard, it doesn't take long for her to compose herself, and she hides all such moments of uncertainty as best as she can when she is in front of other people.

When she's alone, though... that's a different matter. Melisandre never sleeps long, and she fears dreaming. With dreams come memories of the past, memories that she would prefer to forget. Not for her the dark oblivion of sleep — she would much prefer to remain awake, basking in the light of R'hllor's fire. Even so, some of her doubt from those earlier days seems to seep into her waking days. Whenever she manages to see something in the flames, she always tries to make certain that it is a true seeing. And every day, she always gazes into the fire and looks for signs of anything that would put her in peril. A poisoned cup of wine, a dirk unsheathed — by forewarning her through the flames, R'hllor, she believes, saved her from both. Because of this ability to see harm before it comes to her, Melisandre is at the same time confident... and insecure. As a servant of the Lord of Light, she knows that she has enemies, and it is also why she keeps her doubts and worries to herself, taking no one into her confidence. She is no longer that frightened slave girl of her dreams, but Melisandre, the red priestess and the one who will witness Azor Ahai's rebirth and his victory over the Great Other. She cannot appear weak.

Her sense of morality is extremely monochromatic: a man is good, or else he is evil. There are no gray areas where Melisandre is concerned. It is either the light and life, or darkness and death. But unlike Stannis, she does not present herself as a stern dispenser of justice. Rather, her usual demeanor might be almost considered friendly, albeit shrouded with secrecy. She can be sympathetic, she can tease... she can even be kind towards those that she feels are allies of R'hllor and herself. Placed on her mettle, she is passionate and intense, and in those moments it is easy to see that she truly does believe that she is a champion of all that is right in the world — and that what she does is for the greater good. In a less agreeable situation, however... Melisandre can become hard and unyielding, and if her threats are subtle, they are nevertheless forceful in their own menacing way. However she chooses to act, it cannot be denied that she is ruthless, and ready and willing to do anything — up to and including the murder of an innocent child — in order to reach her goals. While Melisandre is generally a person who stands firm by her beliefs and actions, she can also adapt to change. If it serves her ends, she won't hesitate to twist a new situation to her advantage.

why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting?

Melisandre is a very adapatable person, and she comes from a setting that is war-torn and almost constantly fraught with danger. Although she does not wield a sword, she has survived several attempts on her life by virtue of her mastery over her magic. She is also cunning, and — in contrast to many women in her canon — far less dependent on the idea of having a specific place to call home, both of which will ease her transition into this new world. It also helps that's there's already a sizable ASOIAF cast here too 8)

Network Post Sample:

[ when the Forge clicks on, there is only a lengthy silence, as if the person using it was not completely certain of its functions.

( Yet, when compared to deciphering what the flames say, was it so difficult? )

When a voice speaks, it is feminine, with a peculiar accent that makes the words almost songlike. ]

This city is a strange one.

A Door with neither door nor key, a fog that is said to kill if one ventures too far into it... and the word "Scorched" spoken with mistrust and suspicion, though to be touched by fire and light is to be cleansed.

Riddles upon riddles, all of great interest — to a newly shackled maester from Oldtown, perhaps.

[ it could be a jest, if she did not sound so displeased.

But not to me, her tone implies. This is not where I am meant to be. ]

I have duties that I must attend to. Tell me true, all you who dwell here: is it as they say, that there is no way to leave?

Third Person Sample:

You look to the east when the sun rises, to the west when it sets... but where do you look if the darkness should swallow its fire forever?

The question would visit her day after day, dawn and dusk... but here, at the Wall, standing upon the one of the great hinges of the world, it was always in her thoughts. It came when she watched the men of the Night's Watch at their duties, when the vastness of snow and ruins seemed to completely overwhelm their tiny numbers until they resembled ants. It came whenever she spoke to Jon Snow and listened to his objections and refusals. It came when she walked on top of the Wall itself at night, gazing out over the forest as its black depths merged with the lightless sky.

It was a question that she considered, but never answered. When a certain answer is found, it will have been too late. In the east, in Asshai, they called the seven kingdoms of Westeros the "sunset lands." Even when she was young and blind, Melisandre had known that much — but it hadn't been until she stepped upon its shores that she truly grasped its meaning.

She could not say the same for these men, though they shivered at the end of the world and looked out at the darkness every single day. Oh, to be sure, they must have felt that the cold winds were rising, that the long night which would never end was even now slowly descending upon the land. Anyone with a heart would feel fear at such... but even though they lived and breathed far closer to danger than anyone else in Westeros, they still did not see. When they spoke of battling the cold, their eyes betrayed their lack of conviction.

Yet...

Melisandre would not laugh at the sad irony of it. She would not despair at what tools R'hllor had given her. No, she would act. Act, and believe.

Even Azor Ahai did not win his war alone.

Anything else? All is good ♥