Maesters

 

Maesters, formally known as the Order of Maesters, are an order of scholars, healers, and learned men in the Seven Kingdoms. Due to their scientific and intellectual pursuits, they are sometimes referred to as "the knights of the mind".

 

Focusing on scientific knowledge and disdaining belief in magic, in the present day the Order of Maesters has largely eclipsed the older Alchemists' Guild, which claims to possess arcane magical knowledge, but whose number, power, and abilities have waned over the centuries.

The maesters are a secular organization, not a religious order, though they do swear sacred oaths to follow the duties and restrictions of their office. Unlike certain other organizations such as the Faith of the Seven, which has male and female priests, women are not allowed to join the maesters, and thus its membership is all-male.

 

Almost every castle and noble family in Westeros, no matter how small, has a maester on hand to teach the lord's children, give him counsel, and attend to medical and educational needs. The lords of the Seven Kingdoms are also reliant on their ability to send long distance communiques using trained messenger ravens, which they are responsible for tending in a castle's rookery. Maesters also serve as the resident medical expert at a castle, responsible for everything from setting broken bones, assisting childbirth, and knowledge of medicinal herbs and potions to aid fevers and internal illnesses. In addition, maesters also observe changes in the weather to watch for shifting of the seasons.

Maesters are expected to eschew their familial background and political allegiances. They drop their family name when they join the order. They are assigned to serve at castles and holdfasts throughout the Seven Kingdoms and are bound by their vows to serve whoever holds the castle in which they reside, regardless of change in lordship. It is not considered a breach of their vows if a maester advises the current lord of their castle in military matters to defeat their enemies, but if their lord is defeated by his enemies and possession of the castle officially changes hands, the maester is expected to serve its new lord.  Similar to the Night's Watch, the Order of Maesters is an egalitarian institution whose members must ignore their past family and political ties, give up their right to inheritance, and take an oath of celibacy.

 

Thus, like the Night's Watch, younger sons or bastard sons are often made to join the maesters, so as not to interfere with the inheritance of firstborn and/or legitimate sons. Another similarity is that both the Night's Watch and the maesters are considered to be servants of the realm. It is possible to be both a maester and a member of the Night's Watch, due to the similar restrictions of their vows and because the castles along the Wall each need a maester.

This has always been something of a rarity, however, as even during its prime the Night's Watch only maintained nineteen castles along the Wall, and by the time of Robert's Rebellion, the number of manned castles had dwindled over the centuries to only three. Thus in the current era there are usually only three maesters who are also members of the Night's Watch. Most prominent among these is Maester Aemon, who by the outbreak of the War of the Five Kings had served as maester of Castle Black for over seventy years. Should the need arise at the Wall, it is also permissible for a member of the Night's Watch to be trained as a maester at the Citadel, then return to the Wall to serve as the maester of one of its castles.