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Who funds the research projects of the maesters?


Mithras

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To a certain degree, I'd guess the citadel is such a big institution it can fund itself. Sadly, as far as I know we don't know anything about where the citadel gets it's cash from.

Just a guess, but maybe lords pay a small fee to have a maester in their castle?

I doubt lords get maesters for free. I guess it's safe to assume they fund the Citadel to an extent, though we don't know why: if they pay yearly, or each time a new maester is sent etc.

Also the Hightowers are pretty rich. Maybe there's a tax that goes directly to the Citadel etc.

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For the southern kingdoms I can agree Lords might pay the citadel to send them a Maester.



Though it would surprise me the northern Lords paying for their Maesters.


For instance we see Lady Dustin being very suspicious about the citadel and the Maesters they send, so why would she even pay for it?

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For the southern kingdoms I can agree Lords might pay the citadel to send them a Maester.

Though it would surprise me the northern Lords paying for their Maesters.

For instance we see Lady Dustin being very suspicious about the citadel and the Maesters they send, so why would she even pay for it?

That wouldn't be sustainable on any level. If the Northern lords got away without contributing, it would be about thirty seconds before a southern lord declared he wasn't either. As for the Northern lords, religion aside I'd figure the quick communication of the ravens alone would be worth it.

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That wouldn't be sustainable on any level. If the Northern lords got away without contributing, it would be about thirty seconds before a southern lord declared he wasn't either. As for the Northern lords, religion aside I'd figure the quick communication of the ravens alone would be worth it.

The Great Houses would likely require their principle bannermen to have a Maester so that commands could diffuse across the kingdom; it would be a bit crap if Rickard Karstark decided he didn't need a Maester, then he only finds out he is supposed to go to war to free Ned 3 weeks after the rest of the northern lords have finished mobilising.

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For the southern kingdoms I can agree Lords might pay the citadel to send them a Maester.

Though it would surprise me the northern Lords paying for their Maesters.

For instance we see Lady Dustin being very suspicious about the citadel and the Maesters they send, so why would she even pay for it?

Lady Dustin hates maesters, but I think she's smart enough to know she needs one.

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I've wondered about this myself. The High Septon was previously based on Oldtown before the Great Sept was built in KL, so maybe the church funds it much like the way the Catholic Church funded the earliest universities in Europe.



The acolytes also perform medical, legal and other services for the people in Oldtown, but I would imagine a lot of those payments are made in goods rather than coin, save for the custom they get from sailors and traders and the like. And even if the acolytes are supposed to give a portion of the potatoes they earned in a given day to the Cit, I can't imagine it would be enough to support an institution of that magnitude.



Another possibility is when young lordlings, or even princelings like Aemon, are sent to the Cit, the house would have to pay for his education, plus room and board, at least until he becomes a master.



And like others mentioned, perhaps maesters earn a salary from their lord, a part of which goes back to the Cit -- and the higher the lord, the more accomplished the maester, so the bigger the salary.



But it will be interesting to see if anything about the Cit's finances comes out, because it could go a long way to determining where their loyalties lie.



And I still think it's interesting the that word "maester" itself contains that backward ae phoneme that is featured in many Targaryen names, plus other characters like Shae and Baelish.


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And I still think it's interesting the that word "maester" itself contains that backward ae phoneme that is featured in many Targaryen names, plus other characters like Shae and Baelish.

That "ae" diphthong appears all over Old and Middle English (usually written as a single-letter ligature, "æ"). It even still appears in modern English, mostly in words derived directly from Old English, or from Greek ("aeroplane"), but only in Commonwealth English; in America it's usually respelled ("airplane").

In fact, our word "master" comes from the Old English word "mǣster", reinforced by the Norman French word "maistre" (both from Latin "magister").

So, I wouldn't read too much into that.

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To a certain degree, I'd guess the citadel is such a big institution it can fund itself. Sadly, as far as I know we don't know anything about where the citadel gets it's cash from.

Just a guess, but maybe lords pay a small fee to have a maester in their castle?

Yes, this is probably it. The lords donate to the Citadel in exchange for the services rendered by their maesters.

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While the SSM Fire Eater posted answers the question, it is quite amusing imagining Marwyn filling out a grant proposal...

Stranger things have happened. Even Qyburn found a patron in Cersei to finance his research.

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