Marei

"Now, as it happens, Marei... is quite the spear-handler herself. She's here to thank you for staying by my side as the battle raged all around me."

- Tyrion Lannister to Podrick Payne

Marei is a recurring character in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons. She is a prostitute in the King's Landing brothel owned by Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish.

Season 2
She is a new prostitute in the brothel owned by Lord Petyr Baelish. She is training with a male prostitute and receives instructions on how to act aroused by the veteran Ros.

Later, a customer of the brothel watches Marei having sex with the same male prostitute through a spy-hole in the wall of one of the brothel's rooms.

Season 3
Along with Kayla and Genna, she is one of the three prostitutes hired by Tyrion Lannister to service Podrick Payne as a reward for saving his life in the Battle of the Blackwater. Marei and her colleagues are apparently so satisfied with Podrick that they decline payment, much to the astonishment of Tyrion, Bronn, Ros, and even Varys.

Season 4
Marei is the second of three prostitutes being offered to Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand by Olyvar (the first prostitute was dismissed as too timid). Ellaria is delighted to see that Marei is "not timid". When Oberyn asks her if she likes women, Marei says that she does, as long as they look like Ellaria, prompting the Dornish paramour to compliment Marei's good taste. She begins kissing Ellaria, but they are interrupted when Oberyn storms out of the room to confront two Lannister soldiers.

Marei later indeed services Ellaria during a private orgy also involving Oberyn, Olyvar, and a third prostitute, possibly to celebrate the recent assassination of King Joffrey Baratheon at his own wedding. Lord Tywin Lannister then interrupts, entering the room and saying he wants to discuss political matters with Prince Oberyn in private - particularly, that he wants Oberyn to be a judge at his son Tyrion's trial, and will give him a seat on the Small Council to ensure that Dorne continues to support Joffrey's younger brother Tommen. Marei and the other prostitutes quickly leave, along with Ellaria.

Season 5
When the Faith Militant is rearmed, they storm Littlefinger's brothel, driving out all of the prostitutes and clients. Marei is interrupted while in the middle of having sex with a man, and they drag her out of the brothel by her hair while she screams in terror. Olyvar tries to intervene with the man hauling her out but he simply gets hit in the face.

Season 6
Marei apparently managed to survive any rough treatment by the Faith Militant. Months later she is shown naked in Grand Maester Pycelle's chambers after a night of sex (much as he earlier had sex with Ros and Daisy). As he gets ready to head out for the day, she gets annoyed and asks him where her money is. He waves her aside and says he'll pay later, at which she leaves. Pycelle did not live to pay her, however, as he was subsequently assassinated by the Little birds at the order of Cersei Lannister and Qyburn.

Quotes
"He's handsome. You didn't tell me he was handsome."

- Marei to Tyrion Lannister, regarding Podrick Payne

Behind the scenes
Marei first appeared in the Season 2 premiere, but wasn't formally introduced and given a name until the third episode of Season 3. As of Season 6, following the death of Ros in Season 3, Marei is the longest recurring prostitute character in the series, both in total number of seasons and continuous seasons in a row. By this point she has appeared in seven episodes across five seasons starting with Season 2.

Ros did appear in more episodes overall (fourteen) and had more screentime, but she only appeared in three seasons (in a row). Marei surpassed Ros as the longest recurring prostitute character in Season 5 - arguably Shae might be counted as recurring longer than Ros, with four continuous seasons, but she wasn't a character invented for the TV series. Either way, Marei's return in Season 6 means she has appeared in five continuous seasons of the TV series, also surpassing Shae's record.

Even if Marei didn't reappear in Season 7, with the TV series slated to last through Season 8, the only possible way that another character could match her record of five continuous seasons is if they first appeared in Season 3. None of the other minor prostitute characters introduced in Seasons 1 or 2 reappeared afterwards (save for Ros and Shae who are now dead), and as it turned out, the only other prostitutes introduced in Season 3 who returned in Season 4 were Kayla the contortionist and Olyvar, the male prostitute who worked as a spy for Littlefinger. Marei and Olyvar returned in Season 5, but Kyra did not, then even Olyvar didn't reappear in Season 6. Thus it is now mathematically impossible for any other prostitute character to appear in more seasons than Marei already has, and Gillan has also confirmed that she in fact will be reappearing in Season 7.

Josephine Gillan explained in an interview after Season 5 that for the episode "Sons of the Harpy", when the Faith Militant storm Littlefinger's brothel and drag Marei out of the building, it was originally planned that they would punch Marei in the face, so hard (possibly breaking Marei's nose or jaw) that Gillan was going to need to have a large amount of fake blood continuing to pour out of her mouth as she is dragged away. The production team later decided, however, that seeing a woman beaten up like this was too dark and violent for the needs of the scene, and just had her dragged away by her hair.


 * This wiki article does not contain many images of Marei, because she hasn't worn clothes in nearly all scenes she has appeared in - save briefly in the Season 4 premiere, before she again disrobes. The Wikia organization has staunch guidelines against posting images which feature nudity - Game of Thrones Wiki was contacted by Wikia Staff officers to enforce this policy. As a result, this article is mostly limited to headshots of Marei.

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, there is a prostitute named Marei at Chataya's establishment. She is a fairly minor character, and apart from the name and the general fact that she is a prostitute in King's Landing, Marei in the TV series isn't particularly based on Marei from the books (in fact, the TV character was only given the name the season after she was introduced). Most of Marei's scenes so far in the TV series have no direct counterpart in the narrative of the novels. Nonetheless she is not, strictly speaking, a character entirely "invented" for the TV series the way Ros or Armeca were.

Marei in the books has green eyes, porcelain skin, and silvery hair, but is also very solemn. She is also literate. While in the TV series Bronn celebrated being knighted by having sex with Mirelle, in the books he celebrated by having sex with Marei and another prostitute named Alayaya, simultaneously. This occurred at the beginning of the third novel, and correspondingly, Bronn celebrated his knighthood by going to the brothel at the beginning of Season 3. Marei has not been mentioned in the novels afterwards.

In the TV series, Tyrion pronounces her name "Muh-ray" (with a short A), as opposed to "Mare-ay" (that is, with a long A).