A niece of Lord Alester Florent of Brightwater Keep, tall and thin and not a beauty, with the long Florent ears and a shadow of hair upon her upper lip and a mouth like a whip. She was wed to Lord Stannis Baratheon in 286 AC or thereabouts at Storm's End, and that night the bride and groom had no sooner sealed their vows than King Robert dragged her cousin Delena Florent down upon the newlyweds' own bed and got Edric Storm upon her — an offence Selyse would never forget nor forgive, and which she came in time to read as the curse the gods had sent her in the place of sons. Her marriage to Stannis was loveless and barren but for the one daughter Shireen, whom the greyscale had marked in her cradle, and the small council of King Robert was given to whisper that the babe's true father was the lord's fool Patchface, the rumour spread to discredit Stannis when his brother died.
In Dragonstone she found her zeal in the red faith brought from Asshai by the priestess Melisandre, took up the worship of R'hllor with a convert's hunger, and brought her uncle Ser Axell and most of her Florent kin into the new fold after her. When her husband proclaimed himself king after Robert's death, the men of his army who followed her red god were called the queen's men. Her crown was twin to his, red gold with points cut in the shape of flame. After the Florent fleet under her brother Ser Imry was broken upon the wildfire at the Blackwater she pressed her husband and her priestess to burn King Robert's last living bastard Edric Storm upon a nightfire to wake a stone dragon for the kingdom's saving, but Ser Davos Seaworth conspired to smuggle the boy across the narrow sea before the pyre could be lit. She followed Stannis at the last to Castle Black and stood at the Wall while the red woman lit her king-fires in the snow, calling herself queen of a court that held only her uncle, her ladies, and the king's fool.