Septon Ray

Brother Ray, or Septon Ray is a minor character in the TV series, Game of Thrones. He was a kind and eccentric septon who presides over a small village in the Riverlands. He was also a veteran of the War of the Ninepenny Kings, as well as a former mercenary who redeemed himself and served the Faith of the Seven.
He is an amalgamation between Septon Meribald and the Elder Brother, two characters in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, both members of the Faith of the Seven. Character-wise, Ray is more directly based on Meribald, a war veteran from the War of the Ninepenny Kings. Overall he has roles similar to those of Meribald, who is a traveling septon, and the Elder Brother, a monk, retired knight, war veteran from Robert's Rebellion, and the senior contemplative brother at the Quiet Isle, an island septry (a monastery). In the show, Ray has the Elder Brother's role as the man who found the dying Sandor Clegane.
He was portrayed by Ian McShane.
==Personality==
In his dark past, Ray used to be soldier who committed horrific crimes in the name of war. However, after the harrowing incident in which he killed the boy in front of his mother, guilt overpowered Ray, and he set on the path to atone for his sins.
In the present, Ray is a wise, kindly man who dedicates his life to helping others. He reveals to his group that his main goal now is to "bring a little goodness into the world", if only to make up for the wrongs he committed in the past. He is not too proud to admit that he will be haunted by his terrible deeds for the rest of his life, including the screams of a mother whose child he had murdered. Ray firmly believes in redemption at any time, as shown when he tells his congregation that it is never too late for someone to turn their lives around.
==Differences between the TV Series and the Novels==
===Ray and Meribald===
Brother/Septon Ray shares a similar background as his book counterpart, Septon Meribald.
In the show: Many years ago, Ray had at least two brothers, Willam and Owen, and all three of them were recruited by a local lord to fight in the War of the Ninepenny Kings. As a soldier, he followed orders without question and his friends believed he was not afraid of anything. Ray, however, admits he was just a "a coward who followed orders", and was afraid of being seen as such. During the war, which took place in the Stepstones and in regions of the Free Cities, he burned down villages, stole crops, and killed anyone he was told to. At some point he slit the throat of a young boy, while the mother watched and screamed. The night after his crime, Ray was unable to forget the mother's screams, and became ashamed of what he was. After the war, he became a septon of the Seven and a man of peace.
In the novels: Many years ago, the young 12 year old boy Meribald, his older brother Willam and his two other brothers, Robin and Owen, went to fight in the War of the Ninepenny Kings. They were joined by Jon Pox, a friend of Owen. It appears that Meribald was the youngest of his group, as he was jokingly called by Willam as the "squire". During the war, both Willam and Robin died from a fever, Owen was killed in battle, and Jon Pox was hanged for rape. For the rest of the war, which took place in the Stepstones and in regions of the Free Cities, Meribald may have become a broken man (a wartime outlaw who began as smallfolk conscript, but fled service for a life of brigandry) and thus dirtied his hands of some heinous crimes.
Eventually after the war and returning to the Riverlands, Meribald joined the joined the Faith of the Seven and became a world-savvy septon. However, he actually only used his position to seduce young women and have sex with them. Now Meribald walks barefoot as penance for all the sins he committed as a youth. He mostly travels alone with only his loyal dog companion, whom he simply calls Dog. Normally, he also takes a donkey to carry his heavy load, which include packs of food and goods that he distributes to the poor and hungry of all the villages he passes by.
Unlike his book counterpart Meribald, Ray does not have a huge dog following him around, nor a donkey. Also, unlike Ray, Meribald never meets Sandor Clegane and only heard the stories that he is guilty of the brutal and cruel massacre known as the raid on Saltpans, which wiped out the entire town off the map, and caused a mass panic in the eastern Riverlands and the intervention of the Iron Throne's military forces.
In the show, Ray never meets Brienne of Tarth and his role in the story is smaller, while during the fourth book Meribald and Dog travel across the Riverlands with the company of Brienne and her companions, Ser Hyle Hunt and Podrick Payne. After Rorge and Biter's deaths, Meribald and Dog depart from the group to proceed on their own way, while Lady Stoneheart's outlaws of the Brotherhood without Banners kidnap Brienne, Pod and Hyle, due to their affiliations with their enemy houses Lannister and Tarly.
Unlike his counterpart Ray, who along his entire congregation ended up murdered by a group of former members of the Brotherhood, Meribald was left alone by the outlaws, as they saw no reason to hurt him and let him and Dog go their own way and resume their travels. Thus, Lem Lemoncloak, who became extremely cruel and vengeful through the war, claimed the Hound's old helmet for himself, much to Thoros' disapproval. The Brotherhood is also hunting for Sandor Clegane, as they are aware he kidnapped Arya Stark, who was originally their captive. Their new leader, Lady Stoneheart, is searching for her daughter.
===Ray and the Elder Brother===
In the show: As mentioned above, Ray became a septon and eventually a leader of his own congregation of believers building septs, because of his guilt over his war crimes, abandoning his life of war as a man-at-arms. Years later, Ray discovered the dying Sandor Clegane, in the Vale of Arryn, all covered in bugs. As Ray was intent to bury him, the Hound coughed, so Ray loaded him onto a wagon and took him to be nursed back to health. After recovering, Sandor joined Ray's congregation of believers. He eventually rejoined a life of fighting to avenge Ray's death.
In the novels: The Elder Brother is a dear friend of Septon Meribald, and the TV series merged the two characters into Ray. The Elder Brother is the leader of a septry on the Quiet Isle. He is reputed to have magical powers as a healer. Brienne notes that he does not look like a monk and immediately sees he is a former warrior, whose hands were made to fight.
The Elder Brother was the third son of a family of knights, (believed by some readers to be House Brune). His brothers were knights, as were his father and grandfather. Trained to be a warrior since early childhood, he became a strong and powerful knight. Throughout his life he had sex with many women, but also disgraced himself as a knight, as he also raped some women. He wished to marry a woman, a younger daughter of a petty lord, but as the thirdborn son of his family he had no land nor wealth to offer her; he had only the shield, sword and horse of his own knighthood. When he was not fighting, he was drunk, and his life was violence and wine, just like the Hound.
While the older Meribald is a veteran from the War of the Ninepenny Kings, the Elder Brother is a veteran from Robert's Rebellion, during which he for the loyalist side of House Targaryen. He took part in the Battle of the Trident, where he was knocked unconscious. As he was thought to be dead, other men stripped his armor and possessions and dumped his body into the river Trident. He floated downstream where he woke up naked on the Quiet Isle. Ever since he retired from a life of fighting and knighthood and spent the next ten years in silence, living as a brother of the monastery, with anyone who knew him as the knight he was never knowing he is still alive on the island. He repented for his crimes and eventually gained the rank of Elder Brother, in charge of the whole island's monastic community.
While outside the Quiet Isle and walking across the Riverlands over some business, the Elder Brother came across the dying Sandor Clegane, who was suffering from an infected wound and was left on a tree along a bank of the river Trident. He did what he could to ease Sandor's pain and he buried "his flesh," leaving his snarling hound helm as a marker. The Elder Brother comforted Sandor, who was a fellow fallen warrior and broken man just as he was. The Hound gave the Elder Brother a long confession, telling him all his life and past, his history with Ser Gregor Clegane, and his many crimes. The Elder Brother also learns all about Sandor's misadventures with Arya Stark and how she left him to die at the Trident. The Elder Brother claims to have buried the Hound's flesh, but he speaks cryptically while mentioning the Hound's death, and his fellow septry brothers insist that he has miraculous healing powers capable of saving people from death. 
While the Elder Brother was heading back to Saltpans, someone else found the helm. While the Elder Brother was back at the Quiet Isle, the new Hound and his brutal band of bandit terrorists (all former Brave Companions), reached Saltpans, where they committed mass rape and mass murder and destroyed the entire town with savage cruelty, become the most known and outraging atrocity of the War of the Five Kings. 
While seeking Sansa Stark, Brienne of Tarth heard rumors that Sandor Clegane has taken the girl with him. She and her travel companions Septon Meribald, Podrick Payne, Ser Hyle Hunt and Dog visit the Quiet Isle, where Meribald introduces Brienne, Pod and Hyle to the Elder Brother. While in the septry, the group find out that the monks are now taking care of Sandor Clegane's fierce and mean warhorse, Stranger, now renamed Driftwood to avoid blasphemy. They also notice a huge and limping novice digging graves, who recently joined the monastery.
After Brienne announces that she means to find and kill the Hound for his atrocities at Saltpans and for possibly having Sansa Stark with him, the Elder Brother speaks with her in private, revealing to her that Arya Stark is still alive and that it was her that Sandor made off with, not Sansa. Both Sandor and Arya were headed to Saltpans to find a ship, so now both the Elder Brother and Brienne fear she is probably dead, killed by the new Hound along with the majority of Saltpans' population.
The Elder Brother tells Brienne she would have pitied Sandor if she had seen him at the end, crying in pain and begging for the gift of mercy. He tells her the Hound died in his arms, and Sandor Clegane is at rest. He also tells her Sandor's big black stallion, Stranger is in their stables, noting he has his former master's nature. As Brienne acknowledges the Hound's death and says she understood, the Elder Brother asks her "do you?" Then he advises Brienne to abandon her quest and return to her father who waits for her at Tarth.
==External Links==
*Brother Ray on the Wiki of Westeros.
*Septon Meribald on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.
*Elder Brother on the A Wiki of Ice and Fire.
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