Moqorro

Moqorro is a red priest of R’hllor from the Temple of the Lord of the Light in Volantis. He joined Victarion Greyjoy, who was traveling to Meereen, and became a part of the mission to reach Queen Daenerys Targaryen. On the journey, Victarion showed him a horn claimed to be from the Valyrian Freehold by Euron Greyjoy, and on examining it, the priest realized the device was one of the most magically potent tools left in human history.

Moqorro Details

• Name: Moqorro.
• Title: Slave of R’hllor.
• Alias: Black Flame.
• Hair Color: White.
• Religion: Faith of R’hllor.

Appearance and Personality

Moqorro is a monster of a man, standing over six feet tall and broader than two men. He has pitch-black skin, and his belly is as hard as a boulder. The priest has long white hair and a beard that appears like the mane of a lion, and his voice is deep and resonates like a bass drum. He also has tattoos on his face. According to Tyrion Lannister, the yellow and orange flame tattoos of Moqorro are inked to his cheeks and forehead. However, Victarion claims they are red and orange.

Moqorro uses an iron staff with a dragon’s head that spews green flames when struck on the ground. He wears a scarlet robe with hems, sleeves, and collars adorned with orange flames embroidery. He also speaks the common tongue of Westeros and claims to see the future through fire.

Relevance in A Song of Ice and Fire

A Dance with Dragons

After the High Priest Benerro learns of Daenerys’s dragons, he tasks Moqorro with traveling to Meereen and converting the Queen as Melisandre did with Stannis Baratheon. Moqorro joins the Selaesori Qhoran heading for Qarth, and when Ser Jorah Mormont learns of his plan, he joins the ship with his prisoner, Tyrion Lannister. 

Aboard the ship, Moqorro tells Tyrion he sees a vision of dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark, and a small man with a big shadow at the epicenter of everything that will occur. Later, he learns that the ship will not reach its destination. The vessel then gets hit by a storm and gets captured by slavers. Having vanished during the storm, a crew of Rodrik Sparr’s ship, Grief, finds the priest of R’hllor. He meets Victarion Greyjoy near the Isle of Cedars.

On reaching Victarion, Moqorro appears unfazed when he gets sentenced to death, and his demeanor frightens the ironborn. The Red Priest tells Victarion he knows of his voyage to meet Daenerys and tells him he will die if his wounded hand remains unhealed. He treats Victarion’s wound with magic and agrees to aid him in the quest to meet the Queen of Meereen. He makes the ironborn captain kill the ship’s maester, Kerwin, to bring favorable winds.

Victarion orders his men to make new clothes for Moqorro, as his former robe got ruined while lost at sea. Steffar Stammerer nicknames the Red Priest Black Flame as he cannot pronounce his name. On the journey, Victarion shows the priest the dragon horn that can bind Dany’s dragons. On studying the glyphs around the device, Moqorro tells him he must claim it with blood to control the dragons.

Moqorro: In Glory to the Red God

Moqorro is one of the most potent priests of R’hllor in A Song of Ice and Fire. He possesses incredible powers of foresight and healing and can change people’s perception of reality to his wishes. Like other priests of the Red God, his abilities are unique and make one wonder if R’hllor is the only real God left in the known world. 

Other religions have their deities, and though some of them have magical abilities, like the Many-Faced God, the priests of R’hllor seem to be on another level concerning their abilities; this creates a bit of friction in George R. R. Martin’s world as there is doubt about who possesses absolute power. Is A Song of Ice and Fire about R’hllor and his antithesis, the Great Other? Or is it between the dragons and the Others from the Land of Always Winter? The answers will come when priests like Moqorro reach their limits.

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