Maesters - Grey Rats Unprotected

[Hammers1895]

Throughout the saga of A Song of Ice and Fire and the other associated GRMM Planetos canon, I have often wondered about the Citadel and maesters and the inner workings of the Order.

Some of the questions I have wondered about include...how does the Citadel determine which maesters go where? It seems that each lord or landed knight, if of enough prestige and wealth, can write to the Citadel and request a maester, oftentimes necessitated when their previous maester dies and they need a new one. Easy enough. Is it next-up goes to the next requested place? Once said maester has earned enough links to be a "full maester", they are in limbo at the Citadel until it's their turn to be sent somewhere? How do they determine which maesters spend their careers at Oldtown and which get sent out into the realm to serve out their lives at Castle A or Castle B?

I also have often wondered about what little protection (or care) the individual maesters seem to receive from the Citadel once they are sent on their way. Throughout the stories in ASOIAF, the World Book, Dunk & Egg and all the other pieces that make up the canon, we've seen time and again maesters falling victim to the violence and cruelty of others around them. This is nothing new when compared with the smallfolk (as Varys says "why is it always the innocents who suffer most when you high lords play your game of thrones?)" But I have found myself wondering why an institution like the Citadel cannot provide some form of protection to it's practitioners? Why is it not somehow taboo within the realm to harm these men of learning? We know of folks like Barbey Dustin who hate the maesters, and of people like Wyman Manderly who cannot trust their own maesters because of their previous blood ties (which tells me the Lords do not much of a say in who the Citadel sends to fill the posts). But we have not seen the Dustins or Manderly outright kill their maesters out of hatred or mistrust. 

I think there are obvious exceptions where the royal personage himself is doing the killing (what are you supposed to do, or who can you possibly complain to, when the king or claimant themselves is killing maesters?). Maegor the Cruel executed three Grand Maesters in quick succession (Gawen (for questioning the laws of succession), Myros (for questioning Maegor's polygamy) and Desmond (for not saving the baby delivered by Queen Alys Harroway). Grand Maester Orwyle was sentenced to death by Cregan Stark for his complicity in the poisoning of Aegon II but was allowed to take the black. Before he left for the Wall however, he fled, but was eventually found and sentenced to death as a traitor and oath breaker. Fellow Grand Master Gerardys, raised to the office by Queen Rhaenyra during the Dance of the Dragons, was tortured by Aegon II's men and then partially fed to his dragon Sunfyre. Gerardys was simply on the wrong side in the war.

But there are (many) other example of maesters being killed by those other than royals. In each case, there is some sort of abnormal circumstance I suppose that could account for the maester being killed. If you are already doing something that you believe will be hidden from the world and no one will find out, I guess killing a maester is no different than killing anyone else. Or if you believe you will be victorious whilst in rebellion, you therefore have to account to no one, so feel free to kill maesters (particularly as they are not connected with families who will attempt to extract revenge). 

Examples of this include:

• Balon Greyjoy had the unnamed maester of Pyke's fingers cut off and then sewn back on by his stepmother, an also unnamed Lady Piper. This was in revenge for the maester failing to heal Balon's brother Urrigon after Urri lost half his hand during the "finger dance" played with another brother, Aeron. The tried-and-true ironborn method to dealing with this injury would have been to amputate the whole hand when infection presented itself. However, the maester, with all the healing ethos imbued from the Citadel, attempted to reattach the fingers. This led to a painful death from infection for Urrigon. Balon paid the maester back in his same coin and the maester "died raving" from his own infection. Assumedly, the Citadel then sent another maester to Pyke. (In story, Maester Wendamyr serves Pyke, and it is stated he succeeded a maester Qalen, but we do not know if Qalen succeeded the unnamed maester of if there were others in between). It is interesting that the ironborn seem to eschew other institutions (the Faith) and cultural norms from the "green lands" (i.e. paying coin for anything when you could just take it by force), but when it comes to maesters them use them just like their mainland counterparts. 
• When the Golden Company take Griffin's Roost, Jon Connington's men throw the castle's maester from the window of the rookery, presumably killing this maester and he is replaced with their own Haldon Half-maester. In theory, Haldon will move on with the Golden Company and eventually Griffin's Roost would receive a new maester from the Citadel. 
• Maester Luwin is killed by Bolton forces during the Sack of Winterfell. We all know Ramsay Snow is not one to place much stock in the rules, unspoken or otherwise, and it may have been a calculated decision to not leave alive any in the castle who were loyal to the Starks or who could bear witness to the treachery of the Dreadfort men, so that blame for the event could be placed squarely on Theon Greyjoy and his ironmen.
• Victarion Greyjoy has Maester Kerwin murdered and thrown overboard during the Iron Fleet's sailing to Meereen to aid Daenerys Targaryen and her battle with the Yunkish alliance there. This is a combination of Kerwin's failure to heal Victarion's wound, and Moqorro subtly suggesting to Victarion that a sacrifice to R'hllor and the Drowned God would produce favorable winds for their journey.
• Pycelle being killed by Varys is politically-motivated, and Varys is obviously working outside of the Iron Throne's scope (and actively against it's current interests). 

There are other examples throughout the literature I am sure, but those sprang to mind. So another Grand Maester will presumably fill the seat on the small council in King's Landing, whether "in the meantime" by a Lannister or Tyrell-approved candidate, or by Haldon himself possibly if Aegon VI takes the city. The office being held by Haldon would not necessarily be approved by the Citadel, but they aren't in a position to oppose it either. But that is my overall point I guess- why has the Citadel allowed themselves to be so powerless to protect their own? Why do the maesters willingly fill these vacancies when their predecessors met with such violent ends? And what could be done to change this? 

[The Bold Wolf]

There is definitely more going on at the Citadel than we know of. The maesters were there before the conquest of the Targaryen's and they were intent to be there after. The archmaesters learned something after Aegon became King: Fire is power. How can the maesters have power if the Targaryen's hold it all? 

In a Feast for Crows, Samwell is told that dragons have no part of the world the maesters are building, and that they would have a hand in Dany's downfall if they could. They do not want any dragons returning to Westeros. 

In a Clash of Kings, Varys give Tyrion a riddle. The heart of the riddle is "who holds the power?" Well, perhaps before Aegon's landing the maesters held the power. Not so after. But, as maester Aemon says "knowledge is a weapon" and the maesters hold all the knowledge.

I've often wondered why Meagor and Jaehaerys were concerned with building the dragonpit. A conclusion that I've come to is that the maesters convinced them to build it to halt the growth and power of their dragons. After all, dragons need an open sky to keep growing, and no dragon in the history Westeros has reached the size of Balerion. After the dragonpit was finished, the power of the Targaryen's started to diminish. 

The dragons did not grow as big or become as fierce, the hatchlings were pathetic creatures that died not long after being hatched, and the eggs stopped hatching altogether. Which coincided with the Dance of Dragons that saw most of the Targaryen dragons perish only leaving Sheepstealer, Morning, Silverwing, and the Cannibal.

After the Dance, the Targaryen power is weakened tremendously. Aegon III is the first Targaryen king to not be a dragonrider. (as his dragon was killed in the Dance) and the rest of the dragons would die under his reign as well. 

Here's what I think: the measters wanted to get rid of the dragons because they couldn't control the Targaryen's while they had the power to do what they wanted. They didn't want to risk another Maegor or rely on a benevolent King. So they set about poisonings the eggs, stunting the dragons, and perhaps even fermenting the Dance to kill off the older and more powerful dragons. Once that happened, the balance of power is now back in their hands and they can begin to puppeteer the lords and Kings of Westeros once more.

So as to why they don't protect their own; they don't because they can't. Not really. And they don't want to be seen as having the power to, because that would give themselves away. Because when you play the game of thrones you win or you die.  

 

[SerDuncan]

On 4/11/2021 at 4:47 AM, The Bold Wolf said:

Because when you play the game of thrones you win or you die.  

Sums up the series 

[Jay21]

These are good questions.

I could only guess that it would be harder for Maesters to do their real work if they were supported by armed guards, they would certainly not be allowed the same freedoms and confidences that they enjoy with an armed shadow and if they have a greater agenda than just providing a communication net and some knowledge to the lords of westeros these armed guards would be counterproductive - except of course when someone came to kill a maester.

So in a round about way it may be that the vulnerability of the maesters is part of their cover.

[Ser Lepus]

Its a gamble, I guess. When you become a Maester your post depends on your talent: The better you are, the greater the house. If you are lucky, they are decent people, they treat you well... if not... well, bad luck!.

If too many Maesters die too fast the Citadel may grow suspicious and refuse to send more, but if they get wind of a Maester being mistreated or tortured, the best they can do probably is to send an appeal to the king or to the torturer's overlord so they stop it... or the Maester may try to escape, reach the Citaldel and ask for a new post...

If the lord torturing or killing Maesters is great lord... well, the Citadel is in trouble... they can't risk opposing such powerful lord, and if they refuse to send new Maesters, the lord can just steal the Maesters from his vassals' castles...

 

[argonak]

On 10/30/2021 at 3:04 PM, Ser Lepus said:

Its a gamble, I guess. When you become a Maester your post depends on your talent: The better you are, the greater the house. If you are lucky, they are decent people, they treat you well... if not... well, bad luck!.

If too many Maesters die too fast the Citadel may grow suspicious and refuse to send more, but if they get wind of a Maester being mistreated or tortured, the best they can do probably is to send an appeal to the king or to the torturer's overlord so they stop it... or the Maester may try to escape, reach the Citaldel and ask for a new post...

If the lord torturing or killing Maesters is great lord... well, the Citadel is in trouble... they can't risk opposing such powerful lord, and if they refuse to send new Maesters, the lord can just steal the Maesters from his vassals' castles...

 

I feel like this is a strange inconsistency.  Maesters are valuable members of households, if a lord were to treat his maester poorly, the maester should simply leave.  Also, maesters are usually the ones taking care of ravens.  It would be difficult for a lord to keep his maester from reporting in without giving up the ability to communicate over distance and get information.

Maesters take years to train at the citadel.  It makes no sense the citadel doesn't care what happens to them.  If some lord offs his maester, he shouldn't just be able to say "hey send me another dude," they citadel should say "no, sorry, you're on the ban list." Or at the very least "stop breaking them, they're expensive."

It's not like they just train a guy off the street for a few weeks and send him off with a box of ravens.  I could understand someone like the greyjoys doing it in the old days, as they probably kidnapped their maester and enslaved him anyway.  But for anyone following the rule of law, it makes no sense.