Victarion Greyjoy seeks to marry Daenerys

Victarion Greyjoy, Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet, is a man forged by the sea and driven by a singular, burning purpose: to claim Daenerys Targaryen as his wife and queen. His quest is not merely a voyage across the world but a collision of ironborn ambition, Drowned God piety, and the red sorcery of R'hllor. He sails not as a supplicant but as a conqueror, believing that the most beautiful woman in the world has urgent need of his axe. His journey transforms him from a brutal but straightforward reaver into a figure wielding the power of two gods, a man who will burn captives as offerings and command a dragon-binding horn, all in service of his goal.

The Voyage and the Iron Fleet

Victarion set sail from the Shields with ninety-three ships of the Iron Fleet, a force belonging to the Seastone Chair itself. The voyage was a trial of storms and attrition; by the time he reached the Isle of Cedars, only fifty-four ships remained, with more straggling in later. He split his fleet into three squadrons to navigate different routes, a decision that cost him many vessels but also allowed him to gather prizes. The storms were so fierce that Victarion saw two of his own ships, Dagon's Feast and Red Tide, smashed together and explode into splinters. He brooded that the gods hated kinslayers, suspecting his brother Euron's hand in the calamities. Despite the losses, Victarion's fleet grew stronger through capture, taking ships like the Ghiscari Dawn, the Dove, and the Willing Maiden, renaming them and pressing their crews into service. By the time he neared Meereen, his fleet numbered one-and-sixty ships, a testament to his relentless will.

The Red Priest and the Healed Hand

Victarion's fortunes changed when his ship Grief fished a survivor from the sea: Moqorro, a red priest of R'hllor. The priest, a monstrous black man with a face tattooed in flames, claimed to have seen Victarion in the nightfires. He offered to heal the captain's festering hand, a wound from a knight named Serry that had turned green and black. Moqorro warned of terrible pain, but Victarion, declaring himself ironborn, laughed at pain. The healing ritual involved a silver blade, a brazier, and a fire; afterward, Victarion's arm was hideous, like pork crackling from elbow to fingertips, but stronger than ever. When he closed his hand, the skin would split and smoke. Victarion declared, "Two gods are with me now. No foe can stand before two gods." Moqorro became his wizard, interpreting prophecies and guiding the fleet, though the crew feared him as the Black Flame.

The Dragon Horn and the Claim

Victarion possessed the dragon horn that Euron had found in the smoking wastes of Valyria, a twisted thing six feet long, black and banded with red gold and Valyrian steel. Moqorro read the Valyrian glyphs on the horn, naming it "Dragonbinder" and warning that "No mortal man shall sound me and live." The horn's power was to bind dragons to its master, but the price was the life of the one who blew it. Victarion understood his brother's treachery: Euron's gifts were always poisoned. Moqorro explained that the horn's master need not sound it himself; he must claim it with blood. Victarion, having already sacrificed to the Drowned God, now prepared to feed the red god as well, believing that the dragon queen would be his.

The Approach to Meereen

As the Iron Fleet approached Slaver's Bay, Victarion's actions grew more brutal and ritualistic. He interrogated captured captains, and when they lied, claiming Daenerys was dead, he had their tongues torn out and threw them overboard as sacrifices to the Drowned God. He freed the slaves chained to the oars of captured ships, proclaiming, "The dragon queen frees slaves and so do I." In a grand gesture to honor both gods, he took the seven loveliest girls from the Willing Maiden, kissed them, put them aboard a fishing ketch, and set it afire, declaring the gift of innocence and beauty. As the ship burned, he imagined their cries turned to joyous song, and a great wind filled his sails, sweeping him toward Meereen. He was convinced that the dragon queen awaited him, and he would claim her for his own, making her his wife and the mother of his mighty sons.

The Iron Captain's Transformation

Victarion's quest fundamentally alters him. He begins as a straightforward, brutal iron captain, but the voyage forces him to embrace sorcery and a dual faith. He accepts Moqorro's power, even as his crew mutters about demons. He learns to wield the dragon horn, a weapon of ultimate power and ultimate risk. His final act before reaching Meereen—the burning of the seven girls—is a fusion of ironborn sacrifice and red god worship, a testament to his new, terrible synthesis. He is no longer just a reaver; he is a man who believes he is destined to ride a dragon and claim a queen, a man who has seen his own glory in the flames and is willing to burn the world to achieve it.