in the night;

[voktys]

PLAYER INFO

Player Name: Mina
Player Contact: nehelenia | dracula#1035
Character(s) In-Game: -/-

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Melisandre of Asshai
Age: ??? At least in the books, she doesn't seem to know, either, but we're definitely well into the triple digits. She looks to be about 30.
Canon: A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones book land

World Description: Westeros Fun Facts & Where The Fuck Is Essos & assorted fun facts about the Faith of R'hllor & Asshai – The Worst Place to Live

History: Here we go!


Death: In canon, she has a vision of 'daggers in the night'. While this relates to Jon Snow, in this case, we can happily apply it to Mel as well: I'd say she got stabbed to death at the Wall after Stannis left, possibly by people who weren't comfortable with her magical, human-sacrificing ways.

What are your plans for this character in-game? Make some friends, make some enemies, find some terrors in the night. I would very much like for her to confront some of her beliefs – she very much thinks people are either good or evil, which is a bit of a stretch, and she also thinks that all she's ever done is 'good'. Removing her from canon would definitely challenge her point of view, especially when it's done in an afterlife type of context. In the same vein, while she does face some pushback now and again in canon, she never actually has to fully engage with someone else's perception of certain events – a situation where she has to cooperate with people who won't cower, back off, be arrested, or die in an unrelated fashion would definitely be very interesting.

What aspects of this game and/or its setting are you most interested in having this character engage with? In her faith, good people who die go to the Hall of Light. The Hall of Light is definitely not a place of permanent night with few sources of light and... things lurking. So this is a bunch of her worst fears (darkness, terrors, the night) bunched into one place Melisandre cannot leave. Aside from the damper it might do to her religious zeal, it's definitely a challenge for her to be once again in a place where there's more darkness than light, this time without certain powers to help her cope.

How does your character generally get along with other people? Alright, so this a person who casually uses phrases like "death by fire is the purest death" and "the Lord of Light blessed us with heat in our loins" in casual conversation, so to say that she is a little bit awkward at best and somewhat unnerving at worst would be an understatement. That being said, she is a priestess, and she is no longer in direct service to a king at war (much as she'd like to be back), and she has grown up in a truly destitute situation in canon. She knows suffering, and she also knows that there is benefit in cooperation. She is, frankly, not unkind, perfectly able to care about others, and she is quite firm in her idea of good (which does feature helping others).

While she sacrifices others (both literally and metaphorically) in canon, this is not done out of cruelty or for her own fun and pleasure. When she puts others in harm's way, it's usually for what she perceives to be the greater good of all. Doesn't mean she won't gloat when it's someone she truly dislikes, but again, there needs to be a bigger gain to it than just personal feelings.

What is your character's mental state upon entering the game? Ah, a mixed bag, I would say. Most of all, she is going to grapple with the fact that this is not the afterlife she thought she would get – she thought, being a generally 'good' person (by her definition) and a devout red priestess would earn her a spot in the Hall of Light (the heaven-equivalent of her faith). Instead, she is stuck in a place of permanent night, which is basically her own personal nightmare, her access to fire is severely limited, and she has, in no uncertain terms, failed her mission to help defeat the Night King.

So there will be a good mixture of guilt, frustration, denial – she is definitely going to try and find a way to come back to life, as it is possible in her canon. However, she's also generally shown to be a lot more hardy than she looks, and she will soon enough try to make the best she can of the situation.

Skills/Abilities:

- Fire: as a priestess of the Red God, she is normally able to set things on fire with her mind. Considering the premise, that one is going to be severely nerved. The FAQ said she might still be able to inflict damage and heat in some fashion, so I'd like to keep that part, but she's definitely not able to do her usual fire shtick.

- Shadowbinding: she can weave things from shadows and control them. This is very difficult for her to do, it's painful, it falls under the broader category of blood magic (so she needs blood, or seed (yes, that kind seed), or death to make anything of significance happen). She can probably conjure up a shadow knife without assistance, but anything bigger is going Cost.

- Clairvoyance: she can see visions of the past, the present, and the future in the flames. This one is more like than not just going to get nerfed for fairness sake.

- Alchemy: oh look, a non-magic skill! She can make poisons and powders from plants, bones, and whatever else is available. Most of this is time consuming and not very specific in canon, so before I have her do any of this, I'd usually check back in with the mods to see what she'd be able to find and how/if she could make something happen from it within the game.

- Poison immunity: this might get nerfed, especially if the plot calls for it, but in canon, she can drink a whole cup of poisoned wine and be completely okay.

- Body... temperature...: this is less of a skill and more of A Thing, but she's usually perceived to be almost uncomfortably warm to the touch, and is generally not affected at all by the cold.


Flaws/Weaknesses: While she values honestly, she likes to play it a bit lose with the truth herself. While she rarely lies outright, she often lies by omission, or simply chooses to withhold information from one person or another, doling it out when she considers it appropriate, regardless of what said other person might think.

In that vein, her own powers are a bit of a weakness – magic in the ASOIAF universe isn't fun. It's incredibly painful to use, it's extremely draining, and while she pretends it's neither of those things, it's exactly that pretence that could cost her dearly now and again. While she is mentally very strong, physically, she's neither a trained fighter nor noted to be an especially fast runner or anything like that.

She doesn't have... much of a self-image. At the end of the day, she considers herself a vessel for her god, and will do whatever it takes to appease him – which means that here is where all her loyalties lie, but it's also where her relationships to real, actual people fail and falter. Being confronted with her own wants and desires could very much lead to complications.

In terms of fears: as already mentioned, above all, she fears the darkness. This is partly stemming from her faith: the night is dark and full of terrors is not just a saying, to her, but a fact – even before she arrives in the game's world. In canon, she doesn't ever not surround herself with candles, having multiple burning in whatever place she inhabits at that time.

The other thing she is terrified of are her own dreams: she was born into slavery, separated from her mother, and sold to one of the Red Temples. This happened decades ago, and still, in her point-of-view chapter, she is haunted by nightmares of it. While she doesn't keep her origins particularly close to her, she does hide her birth name as well as the number she'd received on the auction block. To be confronted with either of those would be quite shocking, to her.

Personality: Melisandre appears calm and all-knowing more often than not, hiding genuine feelings, especially personal ones, beneath a layer of priestly serenity. That doesn't mean she doesn't feel stress or fear, she just keeps it close to her chest and aims for the best. Good intentions she does have, but they come with heavy overtones of the ends justifying the means, and if it's for good or for god, she will do whatever it takes, no matter what it costs herself or someone else.

She has no sense of grey morality. Good people are inherently good, bad people are are doomed to be nothing but bad, and this is how she justifies some of the horrifying things she has done and/or will do. After all, she is a good person. Yep. While she is aware that priests and priestesses have been severely wrong before, and while she is aware that this could happen to her, she is fiercely in denial about it.

All that is topped off by the fact that she is deeply used to hardships. This has made her very resilient, but it has also devolved into coping techniques (like some level of abandon for her own self) that aren't necessarily healthy.

Items:

- one set of red robes she wore while being stabbed to death
- one scarf, also red, likely also bloody
- one priestess gold-and-ruby collar
- riding boots
- a small knife with a red handle
- her ruby-and-gold choker

various powders:
- one to instantly choke and kill a man
- one to light fire with (made non-functional by the setting)
- one to snuff out fire with
- one that causes intense amounts of fear in whoever breathes it in

SAMPLES

Log Sample: TDM
Network Sample: TDM