Of all the characters on Game of Thrones, the mysterious Red Priestess Melisandre has certainly been the most difficult to pinpoint. She gave birth to a shadow baby! Remember that? She took off that necklace and turned into an old hag! Yeah, that was just a continuity error! She literally killed a child. Oh, and she resurrected our hero Jon Snow. She's all over the place. And when we last saw her in Season Seven, she shot a not-so-subtle threat at Varys before announcing that she was going to sail across the Narrow Sea to Volantis, which is one of the Free Cities of Essos. But that's not the last we'll see of her—she told us as much. "I will return, dear Spider, one last time," she said to Varys. "I have to die in this strange country, just like you."
Ohhhh, ominous. So what's going to happen when Melisandre is back in town, besides die? Well, she has a pretty major role to play.
As we know, she's a Red Priestess in the religion of R'hllor, the Lord of Light, which has played a supporting role throughout the series, but has never been fully explained. Volantis is home to one of the largest Red Temples in the religion of R'hllor, and also happens to be where Kinvara—the Red Priestess we met in Season Six—is from. If you'll recall, Kinvara met with Tyrion and told him she believed that Daenerys is the Princess That Was Promised. She also agreed to convince her people to follow Daenerys, which is great news, because she's kind of a big deal where she's from (her full title is High Priestess of the Red Temple of Volantis, the Flame of Truth, the Light of Wisdom, and First Servant of the Lord of Light). Considering they're both going to converge in Volantis and they're both part of the same crew and they both believe in Daenerys' cause—it's safe to assume Melisandre and Kinvara will team up.
And that's a good group to have on their side! As fans have pointed out, Volantis is guarded by a massive army called the Fiery Hand, which Tyrion sees in A Dance With Dragons. The army is described as such:
The Fiery Hand is a group of slave soldiers employed as guards for the red temple of R'hllor in the Free City of Volantis. The Fiery Hand are all Slaves of R'hllor and wear ornate armor over orange robes. They wield spears whose points are shaped as writhing flames. Their faces are branded with tattoos of flames.Their number is one thousand; never more, never less.
Sounds pretty awesome, except for the whole slave part. But, if the followers of the religion of R'hllor are the crazed zealots we've come to know, they'll certainly travel across the sea to fight for someone they believe is the Princess That Was Promised.
Plus, wouldn't it all-around be a pretty good thing to have a group of magic people who worship fire fight a group of ice zombies who are vulnerable to fire? Also, remember they can resurrect people? Also, remember the shadow baby Melisandre used to kill a king? Yeah, do that again please. Problem solved.
