Hizdahr zo Loraq

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Meereen.png King
Hizdahr zo Loraq
House Targaryen.svg
Borja Pindado hizdahrzoloraq.jpg
Hizdahr zo Loraq, by Borja Pindado © Fantasy Flight Games
Monarch
Reign 300 AC
Coronation 300 AC
Full name Hizdahr zo Loraq, Fourteenth of That Noble Name[1]
Titles
Predecessor Daenerys Targaryen
Personal Information
Aliases
  • Hizdak
  • King Harzoo
Born At Meereen[2]
Culture Ghiscari
Family
Dynasty House of Loraq
Queen Daenerys Targaryen
Issue Bastard daughter
Bastard son
References
Books
Played by Joel Fry
TV series Game of Thrones:
Season 4 | 5

Hizdahr zo Loraq, Fourteenth of That Noble Name, is a Ghiscari noble of the city of Meereen. He is extremely wealthy, and can trace his descent from several notable Ghiscari citizens, such as Mazdhan the Magnificent, Hazrak the Handsome and Zharaq the Liberator.[3] In the television adaptation Game of Thrones, he is portrayed by Joel Fry.

Appearance and Character

Hizdahr zo Loraq, by TheMico ©

Hizdahr is a tall and very slender man,[4] with long legs.[5] He has gentle hands,[6] placid eyes,[7] and a long face.[4] His amber skin, typical of Ghiscari, is flawless,[4] and is sometimes described as pale.[7][1] Hizdahr has the Ghiscari wiry red-black hair, which he originally twisted into the shape of wings sprouting from his temples, making it appear as if his head was about to take flight.[4] He eventually shaves off the wings.[8] Hizdahr also initially has a beard, which makes his long face appear even longer, with golden rings bound into it.[4] When he cuts his hair, he shaves his beard off as well.[8] Daenerys Targaryen considers Hizdahr to be a handsome man.[4] He is also very limber.[4]

Hizdahr is a cunning[8] and persuasive man, with many friends.[9] Ser Barristan Selmy believes Hizdahr does not seem to be of a jealous nature.[10] Overall, Hizdahr is well respected within Meereen.[3] Hizdahr's favorite meal is dog in honey, stuffed with prunes and peppers.[5]

As befits his status of birth, Hizdahr often dresses in a tokar.[4][5] He has several tokars, including a purple tokar fringed with amethysts and pearls,[4] and a burgundy tokar with a golden stripe and a fringe of golden beads.[5] On some occasions, Hizdahr dresses more plainly, in a robe,[8][3] sometimes with a quilted vest.[3]

History

Hizdahr is a Meereenese merchant who has become famously and fabulously rich.[4] He has visited Volantis, Lys, and Qarth.[4] He has many friends[9] and wields significant influence, both within Meereen and outside,[3] stretching as far as New Ghis.[4]

Hizdahr has fathered two bastard children, a boy and a girl.[3]

Recent Events

A Dance with Dragons

After Daenerys Targaryen takes Meereen and frees its slaves, she has the city's fighting pits closed. Hizdahr buys the pits at a reduced price, and makes multiple petitions to Daenerys to reopen them, but each time she refuses him.[4] For his seventh petition, Hizdahr arrives with cut hair and shaved beard, in a simple robe rather than a tokar. He brings the former pit fighters Khrazz, Barsena Blackhair, Camarron of the Count, Goghor the Giant, Spotted Cat, Fearless Ithoke, and Belaquo Bonebreaker, who also beg Daenerys to reopen the pits. Faced with her people's wishes, Daenerys decides to think over Hizdahr's petition.[8]

With the Sons of the Harpy continuing to cause trouble in the streets, the Green Grace Galazza Galare, High Priestess of Meereen, advises Daenerys to take a husband of Ghiscari blood to placate the Meereenese, and recommends Hizdahr.[3] Though Daenerys is reluctant, she asks Hizdahr to bring her ninety days of peace with no more Sons of the Harpy killings before she will consider marrying him, and he agrees.[3]

He lives up to his end of the bargain, and brings Daenerys the peace she desires. However, Skahaz mo Kandaq advises Daenerys that Hizdahr must be the Harpy, the one who had given the Sons their orders in the first place, which would explain why the killings stopped.[9] Daenerys dismisses this, however, and marries Hizdahr. Although Daenerys has no desire for him, she is desperate for peace in Meereen.[9][6] As soon as Hizdahr is crowned, he removes Skahaz from command of the Brazen Beasts, and appoints his cousin Marghaz zo Loraq over them.[10]

The pits are reopened for a series of bloodsports held in Daznak's Pit to celebrate the wedding. Daenerys does not like this, but Hizdahr insists the fighters volunteered for the arena in a chance to win glory. At the reopening event, Hizdahr offers Daenerys spiced locusts, but she refuses them, and Strong Belwas eagerly eats them instead. During Barsena Blackhair's fight with a boar, Daenerys's fugitive dragon Drogon appears over the arena, drawn by the stench of blood and the noise of the crowd. Once provoked, Drogon sets much of the arena ablaze, and causes chaos and carnage as the citizens flee and trample one another. Hizdahr shouts for his men to kill Drogon, and Daenerys leaps into the pit, running to her "child". When Daenerys flees Daznak's Pit on Drogon's back, Hizdahr becomes a king without his queen.[7]

Belwas becomes very ill, as the spiced locusts were laced with poison, but survives due to his strength and bulk.[11][12]

Hizdahr takes up residence in the heart of the Great Pyramid during Daenerys's absence. He tries to gain control of Meereen after the disappearance of Daenerys, but Grey Worm and his Unsullied refuse to obey him, and Ser Barristan Selmy considers Hizdahr vain and weak.[11] When the Yunkai lords, along with Bloodbeard, present Hizdahr with the head of Groleo and demand the deaths of the dragons in return for the Meereen hostages, Hizdahr states he must ponder their request. Ser Barristan, who is present at this parley and had served three kings (Jaehaerys II Targaryen, Aerys II Targaryen, and Robert Baratheon), thinks that none of them would have acted as meekly as Hizdahr when presented with such a threat.[1]

Several of Daenerys's supporters, such as Ser Barristan and Skahaz mo Kandaq, suspect Hizdahr of poisoning the locusts in hopes of getting rid of Daenerys, since he had offered her the delicacy but did not touch it himself.[11] The delicate political situation leads Ser Barristan to talk with Skahaz[1][13] and later with Grey Worm.[12] They capture Hizdahr, but Barristan refuses to kill him until he is sure Hizdahr is guilty. After Hizdahr's capture, the Sons of the Harpy resume their shadow war, and Yunkai continues their siege of Meereen.[12]

Family

 
 
 
 
 
 
Unknown
zo Loraq
 
Unknown
wife
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unknown
woman
 
Hizdahr
 
Daenerys
Targaryen
 
Daughters
 
Marghaz
 
Cousins
[Note 1]
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bastard
son
 
Bastard
daughter
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bhakaz
 
Notes:
  1. Hizdahr is known to have at least three cousins: Marghaz and two unnamed cousins (one male and one female).


Quotes by Hizdahr zo Loraq

Daenerys: I have refused you six times.
Hizdahr: Your Radiance has seven gods, so perhaps she will look upon my seventh plea with favor.[8]

Daenerys Targaryen and Hizdahr

Men are born to strive and suffer. Our woes only vanish when we die.[3]

—Hizdahr, to Daenerys Targaryen

Daenerys: Why should the Sons of the Harpy lay down their knives for you? Are you one of them?

Hizdahr: No.
Daenerys: Would you tell me if you were?
Hizdahr: No.
Daenerys: The Shavepate has ways of finding the truth.

Hizdahr: I do not doubt that Skahaz would soon have me confessing. A day with him, and I will be one of the Harpy's Sons. Two days, and I will be the Harpy. Three, and it will turn out I slew your father too, back in the Sunset Kingdoms when I was yet a boy. Then he will impale me on a stake and you can watch me die... but afterward the killings will go on. Or you can marry me and let me try to stop them.[3]

Daenerys Targaryen and Hizdahr

Before you came Meereen was dying. Our rulers were old men with withered cocks and crones whose puckered cunts were dry as dust. They sat atop their pyramids sipping apricot wine and talking of the glories of the Old Empire whilst the centuries slipped by and the very bricks of the city crumbled all around them. Custom and caution had an iron grip upon us till you awakened us with fire and blood. A new time has come, and new things are possible.[3]

—Hizdahr, to Daenerys Targaryen

One day all men must die, but it serves no good to dwell on death. I prefer to take each day as it comes.[3]

—Hizdahr, to Daenerys Targaryen

All men must die, but not all can die in glory, with the cheers of the city ringing in their ears.[7]

—Hizdahr, to Daenerys Targaryen

Quotes about Hizdahr zo Loraq

Hizdahr, if you could marshal armies as you marshal arguments, you could conquer the world.[4]

Wed Hizdahr zo Loraq and make a son with him, a son whose father is the harpy, whose mother is the dragon. In him the prophecies shall be fulfilled, and your enemies will melt away like snow.[3]

He is not hard to look at, and he has a king's tongue.[3]

—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen

On her terrace, in her bathing pool, the little fish would nibble at her legs as she soaked. Even they kissed with more fervor than Hizdahr zo Loraq.[3]

—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen

I have to trust in Hizdahr. I have to hope for peace.[9]

Hizdahr zo Loraq might be his queen's consort, but he would never be his king.[11]

—thoughts of Barristan Selmy

Naked men felt vulnerable and were less inclined to acts of suicidal heroism.[13]

—thoughts of Barristan Selmy, prior to capturing Hizdahr

Hizdahr, of the tepid kisses.[14]

—thoughts of Daenerys Targaryen

References

Preceded by King of Meereen
300 AC
Succeeded byas leader of the ruling council of Meereen