In A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones, “Every great lord has [a] maester” , an
educated man who serves as a healer, tutor and advisor . The maesters may seem harmless,
but many fans – and some characters in the series – think they’re up to something.
Something big.
So let’s have a look.
The maesters are an ancient order based in the Citadel, in Oldtown , which is kind of
like a university . As a maester studies, he forges a chain made of many different metals
to be worn around his neck , with each link representing mastery of a different field
of learning – silver for healing , copper for history , and so on.
The Citadel is governed by a Conclave of archmaesters – the highest-ranking maesters – who each
bear a mask, ring and rod made of the metal of their field of expertise.
The Conclave also elects a Grand Maester who advises the King in King’s Landing – for
the last forty years, this has been Pycelle . When maesters complete their training, they
give up their family name , and take vows of celibacy and service to the realm . They’re
then assigned to a castle or keep in Westeros where they serve whoever rules there – healing,
teaching, advising, and also managing the ravens that carry messages between castles
. So – what’s so suspicious them?
The Lady of Barrowton, Barbrey Dustin, deeply distrusts the maesters, calling them “grey
rats”.
She points out that the maesters actually have a lot of power over the lords they supposedly
serve – she says since maesters often read and write the letters for their lords, they
could possibly “twist … the words for their own ends”.
Maesters are supposed to be politically neutral , but because they abandon their family names,
you can’t know “who they truly are”, or “where they come from” – or whose
interests they might serve . She says “we … make them privy to all our shames and
secrets, a part of every council.
And before too long, the ruler has become the ruled”.
Dustin makes some good points here, right?
Maesters are like the Google or Facebook of Westeros – they control the flow of information,
and everyone just trusts or hopes that they’re not being manipulated.
Maesters write the history books , educate young lordlings, count the votes at councils
, and whisper into the ears of the most powerful people in Westeros.
Could the maesters be manipulating politics for their purposes?
Dustin goes on to claim that the maesters were closely involved in a plot against the
Targaryens before Robert’s Rebellion.
So at the start of the series, before Tommen and Joffrey, Robert Baratheon is the king
of Westeros.
He became king about twenty years earlier, when his Rebellion overthrew the Targaryens,
who had ruled Westeros for the last three hundred years.
The rebellion began when Eddard Stark’s sister Lyanna was abducted by – or maybe
ran away with – Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.
But Lady Dustin implies that the Starks along with the Tullys, and maybe the Arryns and
Baratheons had been plotting a rebellion long before the war began , and that one of the
main people behind this plot was a maester named Walys, apparently the son of an archmaester
of the Citadel and a “Hightower girl” – House Hightower is one of the biggest
supporters of the maesters . So if what Lady Dustin is saying is true, the maesters of
the Citadel may have been partly responsible for Robert’s Rebellion and the downfall
of the Targaryens . A lot of this is uncertain, we don’t really know the details, but it
sure is intriguing, and we hear a similar but bigger claim from another character – Marwyn
the Mage.
Marwyn is an archmaester of the Citadel, but he’s “not like other maesters” , all
stuffy and academic.
Marywn reputedly “keep[s] company with whores and hedge wizards”, in “rat pits and black
brothels”, and sacrifices to “queer gods”.
He spent years in the distant east, “searching for lost books”, “studying with warlocks
and shadowbinders” , and, along the way, teaching Mirri Maz Duur how to heal . Marwyn’s
mask is Valyrian steel , meaning he is an expert on magic.
At the end of Feast, Sam Tarly meets Marwyn, and Marwyn claims that the maesters are conspiring
to build a world without “sorcery or prophecy or glass candles” or dragons.
He implies that the maesters “killed all the dragons the last time around”, that
they didn’t trust Maester Aemon because he was a Targaryen , and that the maesters
are willing to kill to further their goals . Marwyn then gets on a boat and sails off
to find Daenerys, leaving Sam, and the reader, wondering what the hells to make of all that.
So let’s work it out.
Marwyn is implying that the maesters of the Citadel have been conspiring for many years
against Targaryens, and dragons, and magic.
Which could make sense.
As the historians of Westeros, the maesters would be painfully aware of the damage done
to realm by the Targaryens and their dragons, through war , and misrule , and madness – not
to mention that several Grand Maesters were killed by Targaryen kings . Maybe the maesters
figured that the best way they could serve the realm would be to get rid of the Targaryens
and their destructive dragons.
It’s also no secret that the maesters don’t trust magic – it’s easy to see why – magic’s
wild, and dangerous, difficult to control and to understand , which is a real challenge
to the maesters’ power as scholars and advisors.
So it probably would make sense for the maesters to oppose the Targaryens, dragons and magic.
Can we find any evidence that they’ve been conspiring against those things?
We’ve already talked about Lady Dustin’s claim that a maester helped cause Robert’s
Rebellion, which could possibly have been part of a maester conspiracy against the Targaryens.
We hear another claim from Marwyn – he suggests that the maesters don’t trust Maester Aemon
because he’s a Targaryen, and that’s why Aemon spent his life on the Wall instead of
becoming an archmaester at the Citadel . However, when Aemon talks about this stuff, it sounds
like it was his choice to serve on the Wall , and the official World of Ice and Fire app
says Aemon went to the Wall so he couldn’t be used politically against his brother Egg,
the king . So it doesn’t really sound like Aemon was exiled from the Citadel for being
a Targaryen.
Further, we know of at least one Targaryen who did serve as an archmaester at the Citadel
, though admittedly that was a long time ago.
So none of this is really evidence of a conspiracy.
Let’s look at another of Marwyn’s claims – he implies that the maesters “killed
all the dragons the last time around” . The “last time around” was about a hundred
and seventy years ago, at a time during the Targaryen reign of Westeros, when they had
twenty-one dragons.
Most of these dragons were killed during the Dance of the Dragons, a civil war of succession
that divided the Targaryens and their dragons, and pitted them against each other . In the
three years of the war, twelve dragons were killed in battle , five dragons were killed
by a rioting mob of common people , two flew off , and one “vanished” , leaving just
one young dragon, called Morning, alive and under Targaryen control . There were also
some hatchlings after the war, but none survived long, and apparently Morning died too because
within about twenty years, the last Targaryen dragon was dead . There were still some eggs
left over after that , but none of them ever hatched – well, not until much later . Anyway
it’s not clear what Marwyn means when he claims that the maesters killed the dragons
– the dragons clearly died in this huge civil war . Maybe Marwyn means that the maesters
killed off these last few dragons somehow – it has been suggested that they might
have been poisoned, because they were stunted and small . In fact, the dragons had been
getting smaller for years – none ever grew as large as the original three that Aegon
the Conqueror brought from Valyria . The maesters say that the reason the dragons don’t grow
so large is because the Targaryens started keeping them in an enclosure in King’s Landing
called the Dragonpit – though Daenerys’ dragons still seem to grow fine when they’re
kept chained up, so maybe that’s not true.
Either way, it does seem possible that the maesters might have poisoned the last dragon
hatchlings, or stunted the dragons’ growth somehow, but there’s no evidence for any
of it and besides that’s hardly “kill[ing] all the dragons”, is it?
What killed the dragons was the war, the Dance of the Dragons , so maybe what Marwyn means
is that the maesters caused that war, like how Lady Dustin claims that the maesters helped
cause Robert’s Rebellion.
We learn about the origins of the Dance of the Dragons in the Princess and the Queen
and Rogue Prince novellas, as well as The World of Ice and Fire, and in these texts,
it… doesn’t look like the maesters were involved in the start of the war.
In fact, both Grand Maester Orwyle and Grand Maester Runciter try to prevent the war from
starting , and Maester Norren helps a dragon and its rider flee the war . If you want to
get a bit paranoid you could point out that, in-universe, these texts are written by maesters
, who may have covered up their own involvement in the war.
It’s possible, maybe, but we are told that a septon and a court jester also contributed
to these accounts , making a maester cover-up seem less likely.
So, there’s no clear evidence that the maesters were involved in causing the war, but we do
know that the Hightowers were.
Queen Alicent Hightower, who had married King Viserys Targaryen, wanted her son Aegon to
inherit the throne, even though the king himself wanted Rhaenyra, his daughter by his first
wife, to inherit the throne.
That’s basically the conflict that led to the Dance – and the deaths – of the Dragons
– and it was, in large part, caused by House Hightower, the same house that that Lady Dustin
says was connected to the maester who helped cause Robert’s Rebellion, and the same house
that’s known to closely support the maesters . It doesn’t seem likely that the Hightowers
were conspiring with the maesters against the Targaryens, because the Hightowers have
actually been very loyal to the Targaryens , but it might be that the maesters manipulated
the Hightowers into starting the Dance of the Dragons in the same way that the maesters
apparently manipulated the Starks to rebel against the Targaryens.
So – we still have no hard evidence, but it does seem very possible that the maesters
were behind both the Dance of the Dragons and Robert’s Rebellion – the wars that
killed the dragons and overthrew the Targaryens.
Let’s look at the other part of Marwyn’s claim – he says the maesters are building
a world without “sorcery or prophecy or glass candles” – a world without magic.
This is an interesting thing because, apparently, at least until recently, magic has been in
decline in Westeros.
Daenerys says that “Magic had died in the west when the Doom fell on Valyria” . The
Doom of Valyria was centuries ago, and happened very far away, so the maesters probably weren’t
involved – though the Faceless Men might have been . The point is that now it seems
that the maesters believe that magic’s no longer a thing.
Maester Luwin says that “magic does not work” . “Perhaps magic was once a mighty
force in the world, but no longer” . This view seems to be shared by most other maesters
. At the Citadel, part of a maester’s training involves spending a night in a darkened room
with a candle made of obsidian, or dragonglass.
Lighting a glass candle apparently requires magic, and the whole point of this procedure
is to show maesters that magic doesn’t work . So what’s the sense in the maesters having
a conspiracy against magic, if the maesters believe there is no magic any more?
Maybe the maesters have realised the same thing that Quaithe and Marwyn have realised
– that “glass candles are burning” – magic is returning.
New dragons have been born, the Others have returned, Melisandre’s magic grows stronger
and resurrections are happening left, right and centre . Leo Tyrell says “Old powers
waken.
Shadows stir.
An age of wonder and terror will soon be upon us, an age for gods and heroes”.
That does not sound like something the maesters would want to happen, so maybe they are trying
to stop it.
It’s not clear how they would do that, though.
It’s not like they’re covering up the existence of magic – they openly discuss
it in their books , and they have an official position on their Conclave for an archmaester
who’s an expert on magic.
So while it makes sense that the maesters might oppose magic, it’s not clear how they
do would it.
So a big maester conspiracy against Targaryens and dragons and magic is looking possible,
but we still have zero solid evidence that one exists.
Let’s try to find some by having a look at some individual maesters – Pycelle and
Cressen.
Pycelle is the Grand Maester – he directly advises the king of Westeros, so he’s one
of, if not the, most powerful maesters.
If there is a maester conspiracy, Pycelle would surely be a part of it.
And Pycelle has done a lot to undermine the Targaryens.
In Book 1, when the small council discusses what to do about Daenerys, Pycelle advocates
assassinating her – though, most of the rest of the council does too, so that might
not mean much.
But there’s a bigger thing – during Robert's Rebellion, Pycelle convinced the Mad King
to open his gates to Tywin Lannister's army – which led to the Sack of King's Landing
, the death of King Aerys, and the end of the line of Targaryen kings.
Maybe Pycelle did these things as part of the maesters' conspiracy against the Targaryens.
But, a couple of times, Pycelle gets really sharply interrogated – by Tyrion, then by
Cersei – and in these scenes, Pycelle totally breaks down, he’s weeping and whimpering
on the floor, and he reveals his true motivation – which turns out to be not a conspiracy
against Targaryens, but a massive man-crush on Tywin Lannister.
Pycelle says he’s Tywin’s man , that he hoped Tywin would become king , that “All
[he] did, [he] did for House Lannister” . In The World of Ice and Fire, Pycelle says
“The gods made and shaped [Tywin] to rule” , he goes on about “the man beneath the
armor” . It was loyalty to Lannister, not a conspiracy against Targaryen, that led Pycelle
to bring about the Mad King’s downfall.
Of course, you could claim that this seemingly doddery old man is actually a master of deception
and is hiding his true involvement in a conspiracy – we couldn’t rule him out unless we could
really see what he was thinking – fortunately, we get to do exactly that in the case of Cressen.
Maester Cressen serves Stannis Baratheon at Dragonstone.
And in the Prologue of Clash, Cressen tries to kill the “red witch” Melisandre – which
looks exactly like the sort of thing that someone would do if they were part of a conspiracy
against magic.
The chapter is written from Cressen’s point of view – so we get to see all the maester’s
thoughts that lead to his decision.
And opposition to magic and superstition is part of Cressen motivation – a sort of ideological
battle goes on between Melisandre’s magic, and Cressen’s denial of it . But that’s
not the main issue here – Cressen’s does have his doubts about magic and there’s
certainly no mention of any conspiracy.
Cressen’s main motivation is that he wants to protect Stannis.
Cressen loves Stannis, thinks of him as the “son [he] never had” , and he feels Melisandre
is leading Stannis astray by convincing him to kill his brother , and to sail to war without
having allies . So while magic is part of the issue here, the main reason Cressen tries
to kill Mel is not a maester conspiracy against magic but a fatherly love for Stannis .
So.
Where does this leave us?
The maesters could have a lot of influence on the politics of Westeros.
They may have good reasons to oppose Targaryens, dragons and magic.
Lady Dustin suggests that a maester was involved in the in the plot to overthrow the Targaryens,
though we don’t really know what happened there.
Marwyn the Mage claims that the maesters killed off the dragons, which they might have done
indirectly by manipulating the Hightowers to start the Dance, or by maybe by poisoning
the last few dragons, but we really don’t have any proof.
Grand Maester Pycelle and Maester Cressen make moves against Targaryens and magic-users,
but those acts don’t seem to be related to a conspiracy.
So given the complete lack of evidence, a big conspiracy involving many maesters seems
unlikely.
Marwyn’s claims are probably exaggerated – in fact, he might have an ulterior motive
for scaring off Sam from telling the Citadel about Daenerys.
However, it’s very easy to believe that at least some of the archmaesters of the Citadel
strongly distrust Targaryens, dragons and magic, and might occasionally pull some strings
to oppose those things.
So the bottom line is that there’s probably some sneaky shit going on, we just don’t
know how much.
The good news is that we’ll probably find out more in the next book – right now, many
awesome characters are converging on the Citadel – Sam Tarly has been sent to study and earn
the maester’s chain, Jaqen H’ghar has come in disguise and acquired a key said to
unlock every door in the Citadel, Oberyn Martell’s bastard daughter Sarella has come in disguise
as the acolyte Alleras, and Euron Greyjoy's ironborn have started raiding around Oldtown.
There are a lotta disguises going on, lotta intrigue, lotta mystery – it’s gonna be
a lot of fun seeing how it all turns out – and what it might reveal about the maesters.
Thanks for watching – feel free to comment about what you think the maesters are up to.
Thanks also to Ertaç Altınöz, who kindly helped out with some imagery for the video.
He has some really awesome art based on Game of Thrones theories and stuff, so you should
definitely check out his DeviantArt – there’s a link in the description.
Finally, thank you to the Patrons, including NickHurley, Derek Wing, adc400 and Alice Cottrell,
who made it possible for Alt Shift X to go full-time this year.
Thanks to your support, we’re already using better, faster software and hardware, and
are aiming to release at least two or three videos per month, hopefully more – so with
a new Game of Thrones season coming out in April, 2016 is gonna be big.
So happy new year, and see you next time.