The Grey Rats

"Who do you think killed the dragons the last time around? Gallant dragonslayers armed with swords? The world the Citadel is building has no place for sorcery or prophecy or glass candles, much less for dragons."

Samwell V, AFFC

At the very end of "A Feast For Crows", Marwyn the Mage drops the above bombshell on us. He claims that the Citadel and many of the Maesters are responsible for the extinction of dragons. This is an incredibly interesting claim, not to mention one that's difficult to fathom. How could the non-combative order of Maesters be the ones to accomplish what no other group had ever achieved? Well, when we read into several parts it begins to seem less implausible.

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Part 1: Southron Ambitions

"Out of gratitude we give them a place beneath our roof and make them privy to all our shames and secrets, a part of every council. And before too long, the ruler has become the ruled."

This is of course Lady Barbrey Dustin speaking with Theon about her disgust with the Maesters; "the grey rats" as she refers to them. This was our second insight into the possible intentions of the Citadel. That Rickard Stark was encouraged by his Maester, a man named Walys, to pursue what she refers to as southron ambitions. She is certain the betrothal between Brandon and Catelyn was Walys' idea. She also mentions something else very interesting: that Walys was the son of a Hightower woman and an Archmaester of the Citadel. The connections between House Hightower and the Citadel are something I'll come back to.

First that's delve deeper into this claim of southron ambitions because it's one I find incredibly interesting. When you look through the family trees of most houses you'll notice they almost always marry within their given region. For instance, northerners wed other northerners and so on. This is especially true with the great houses because marrying within their realm strengthens relations with their people. Just think about it, what good does marrying outside your realm do? And let's not forget, marriage in this world is almost always political.

Now once in a while we'll see a great house marrying outside their realm but never to another great house. However, prior to Robert's Rebellion we see an abnormal amount of this; unprecedented really. Rickard betrothed his eldest son, Brandon, to Catelyn Tully. At around this same time, Robert Baratheon was betrothed to Lyanna Stark. Robert and Ned were being fostered with Jon Arryn at the Vale, and fostering can be looked at in the same way as marriages: they're done to strengthen relations between houses. So, just like that, four realms were uniting: The North, The Riverlands, The Stormlands, and The Vale. But it goes past Rickard's possible ambitions.

We find out some interesting news in "A Storm of Swords". Tywin Lannister and Hoster Tully had been negotiating a marriage between their children Jaime and Lysa. Their plans were thwarted when Aerys appointed Jaime to the Kingsguard. That would've brought The Westerlands into the fold. An interesting fact about the five men central to these negotiations: Rickard Stark, Hoster Tully, Jon Arryn, Steffon Baratheon, and Tywin Lannister, had all recently been compatriots in The War of the Ninepenny Kings. Was there already talk amongst these great lords regarding a possible rebellion? And it still doesn't end there.

In "A Storm of Swords" and season four of the show, Oberyn tells Tyrion about the time he and his sister Elia visited Casterly Rock back when Tyrion was no more than a baby. Their trip to the Rock was because the prince of Dorne hoped to wed Oberyn to Cersei. To Oberyn's good fortune, Tywin refused because he thought Cersei had a legitimate chance of wedding Rhaegar. The Dornish Prince went to plan B and offered Elia to Jaime. This never happened and my guess is because Jaime was already betrothed to Lysa Tully. Prior to this, the two Martells visit Oldtown and Elia shows interest in Baelor Hightower until Oberyn puts the kybosh on that. Also around this time, Mace Tyrell married Alerie Hightower.

If these prospective marriages had gone as planned you could of had an alliance of seven separate realms all ed through they're most powerful Houses. The only exception here would've been House Hightower. Albeit a powerful house, they still answer to the Tyrells. However, those two houses had just married as well. The only major houses missing from all this are the Greyjoys and more importantly, The Targaryens. If the Maesters were behind this their plan worked despite not everything going as planned. Robert's Rebellion wiped out the Targaryen dynasty, destroying the "dragons" as Marwyn claims.

We don't know much about these other Maesters at the time. Walys is dead as is the one who served house Tully at the time. However, there is one that was around back then that we've met at the beginning of "A Clash of Kings" and season two of the show: Maester Cressen, the Maester for House Baratheon. His hatred of Melisandre and her magic seems to fit the Citadel principles Marwyn speaks of. He also advises Stannis to ally with the Starks and Arryns, the same families he initially advised his father Steffon Baratheon to ally with. I also find it interesting that Maester Luwin constantly dismissed the idea of magic to Bran despite the fact his order not only studies magic, but those who earn it receive a Valyrian steel link, the rarest and most precious metal designated to the links.

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Part 2: Dance of the Dragons

In part one, I hope I was able to demonstrate at least a strong possibility that the claims made by Marwyn and Lady Dustin against the Citadel might be true. In that part we dealt with the end of the figurative dragons: the Targaryens themselves due to Robert's Rebellion. Now let's look at the end of the actual dragons, and to do so we have to travel back to 129 AC, over a century and half before the beginning of our story. This is the time of the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, although Death of the Dragons might be more fitting. This story is told in Martin's novella "The Princess and the Queen".

I know not everyone has read this so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. There's really just a few parts I'd like to bring up illustrating possible Maester sabotage. The first arises when the current King prior to the beginning of the war, Viserys I, lost his wife. Looking to remarry, his current Maester, named Runticer, cleverly pushes Viserys to marry Alicent Hightower over a girl from House Velaryon. This was an unpopular move by many and one that angered House Velaryon instead of bringing them into the fold. This decision proved catastrophic in many ways, especially since it was Alicent Hightower who defied her husbands wish and fought to put her son on the throne in place of the Princess Rhaenyra. The Velaryons also proved to be very instrumental in the war.

The next comes when Rhaenyra's son, Lucerys, flies to Storm's End to treat with Lord Borros Baratheon on his mother's behalf. Unfortunately, Aemond "One-Eye" Targaryen, second son to Viserys and Alicent, had already arrived. Lucerys gave Baratheon a letter from his mother, Rhaenyra. Then we get this age:

"Never a man of letters, he handed the queen's letter to his Maester, who cracked the seal and whispered the message into his lordship's ear. A frown stole across Lord Borros' face."

We've no idea if what Baratheon's Maester whispered in his ear was the actual content of the letter. What we do know is Baratheon almost immediately tells Lucerys to leave. Upon doing so he's followed outside by Aemond. A battle on dragonback promptly ensues and Lucerys and his dragon are killed. I find it interesting Martin makes a point of telling us Borros can't read and relies on his Maester for all correspondences. This goes back to Lady Dustin's point where she questions how much the information delivered by the Maesters is actually reliable.

That brings me to my last example, and who better to end with then the rogue prince himself, Daemon Targaryen. Towards the end of the war, Daemon took Maidenpool as his base of operations. While there, he also took a lover by the name of Nettles. One morning Daemon is approached by a Maester Norren who claims a letter was received from Queen Rhaenyra, Daemon's wife. Supposedly the queen had heard of the affair, declared Nettles a traitor, and demanded her death. Daemon ignored the command and sent Nettles away from harm. After that Daeron, seemingly disillusioned, challenged Aemond to battle; the battle that would result in both their deaths. We have no way of knowing if such a letter even existed.

There seems to be a substantial amount of proof to the claims of Marwyn and Lady Dustin. There also seems to be a connection between House Hightower and the Citadel, which just makes sense when you think about it. I'll leave you with an interesting age I came across recently that I think might explain why the Hightowers were searching for secretive ways to bring down the Targaryens, possibly by ing or even influencing the Citadel. This is a prophecy made by the high septon of Oldtown during Aegon's invasion.

"If Oldtown took up arms against Aegon the Dragon, His High Holiness saw the city would surely burn, and the Hightower and the Citadel and the Starry Sept would be cast down and destroyed."

Cersei VI, AFFC

Thanks for reading my gibberish! is always welcome.