This content delves into the life and history of Maester Aemon Targaryen, a significant character in "A Song of Ice and Fire," detailing his royal lineage, his choice to become a maester, and his eventual service at the Wall.
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What is the history of Maester Aean?
What happened in his life before he took
the black? Hi everyone, this is Robert.
Welcome to InDeepge Geek. If you like
theories, background, history, and lore
about A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lord
of the Rings, and The Witcher, this is
the place for you. Welcome. This is
another collaboration with The Wonderful
History of Westeros. Please do check out
their podcast and YouTube channel.
There's a link in the description.
Maester Aean is mentioned in the
prologue to book one of A Song of Ice
and Fire. In fact, he's one of the first
characters named at all. Will looks at
Garrett's scarred, frostbitten ear holes
where Maester Aean had their ears cut
away. His first actual appearance is not
in a Jon chapter, but a Tyrion one.
Aemon says that Tyrion is a giant come
among us here at the end of the world.
And Tyrion was genuinely moved by his
sincerity. He also noticed that everyone
seems to respect and defer to Maester
Aean and how incredibly old he is. It's
not until John's eighth chapter of A
Game of Thrones, so near the end of that
first book, that Ammon's Targaryen
heritage is revealed. It says a lot that
his Targaryen ancestry had been largely
forgotten by then. We'll come back to
that point in this or a later video
because yes, this is the start of a
miniseries on Aean. He's a great
character with a long life and deserves
more than one video.
Maester Aean finally died at the age of
102 in a feast for crows in a Sam
chapter. You may have seen the memes,
but yes, he was badass enough to be one
of the very, very few to die of old age
in a game of thrones. His death came at
sea, a journey pushed on him largely due
to his Targaryen blood. Jon feared that
Melisandre would burn him alive. King's
blood is powerful, and she has a track
record of trying to use it, so to speak.
Amean's destination that he never
reached alive was where he first began
his training to become a maester. The
citadel of Oldtown, a life going full
circle in a way. Aean was born in the
year 198 to Prince Mar Targaryen and
Lady Danna Dayne. He was their third
child, preceded by his brothers Aryan, 4
to 6 years older than him, and Darren,
about 8 years older than him. His
grandfather, the king, was also a
Darren, second of his name, Darren II,
the good. His grandmother was Queen
Mirri of House Martell, giving him
Dornish ancestry from both her and from
his mother. Thus, neither his parents
nor his grandparents practiced the
typical Targaryen incest, though his
great-grandparents, King Aegon IVth, the
Unworthy, and Queen Neris Targaryen,
did. He was named after Prince Aemon the
Dragon Knight, his famous ancestor,
killed in action defending the king. And
usually his parents did not choose his
name. King Darren himself did so. One
year after Aean's birth, his sister
Deala was born, followed by Aegon
another year later and Ry sometime after
that. It was Aean who came up with the
nickname Egg for his younger brother.
They were always close. As an aside
here, Aegon and Aean were also the names
of Damon Blackfire's firstborn twin
sons. They were killed alongside their
father at the Battle of the Red Grass
Field, a fact surely well known to their
namesakes, young princes Aean and Aegon,
as they would often recreate battles of
the Blackfire Rebellion using toy
figures. Perhaps King Darren was taking
the names Aegon and Aean back from the
Blackfires, so to speak. Prince Aegon
would indeed go on to be not just a
warrior, but a king. But Aean, though
older than his brother, Aegon, was not
destined to live the life of a king,
battle commander, or even warrior.
Though the dragons had been gone for
over four decades, some traditions die
hard. Aean had a dragon egg placed in
his cradle, as did his siblings. He and
Aegon would often imagine what it would
be like if their eggs hatched, how
they'd fly, as the first Aegon and his
sisters did. Much later, Aean told
Samari that all his brothers dreamed of
dragons and that all of them died
because of it. At some point during
Aemon's early life, King Eris I perhaps
even before he was king, found a
prophecy proclaiming that the dragons
would return. It seems that younger
princes like Aean and his siblings
latched on to this as only children can,
only to be disappointed by the lack of
dragons arriving. Then, near death, Aean
learned of Daenerys's dragons. But we
are getting ahead of ourselves. Back to
the year 207 or 208 when Aean was 9 or
10, a couple of years before the events
of the Hedge Knight and King Darren
decided Aean's fate. Noting his
bookishness and temperament, and
recalling the Blackfire Rebellion, he
concluded that too many dragons can be
as dangerous as too few and decreed that
Aean should attend the Citadel to become
a maester. For context, at this point
there were a lot of Targaryenss heading
towards 30. A third son of a fourth son
sent to the citadel was hardly likely to
inherit and might be a nuisance. Still,
Prince Mar, a proud man, was openly
displeased that one of his sons was to
live a life of servitude. That said,
Aean himself doesn't seem to have
argued. Perhaps it's what he wanted. And
to be fair, it does seem to be somewhat
precient of King Darren. Aemon was in
the future to be offered the Iron
Throne. But again, we're getting ahead
of ourselves. Though Aean's long age and
time, forgotten on the wall, caused
people to forget his heritage, it would
have been quite the opposite when he
first arrived at the Citadel. Instead of
eyes gone milky with blindness, they
were clearly purple. Instead of hair
gone white with age, he had the silvery
gold hair typical of House Targaryen.
Even if not for his striking Valyrian
appearance, he would not have gone
unnoticed as a prince of the realm.
There's simply no way to hide who he
was. Yes, maesters give up their names
as part of their oath, but their family
doesn't forget who they are, and they
don't forget their families, nor does
everyone else, at least not when it's
the most famous family in the realm. The
Masterly Oath, as well as the Night's
Watch oath, are oaths of duty. They
forear their inheritances and names, not
their memories. It's not an oath to
forget. Aemon may have received special
treatment because of his ancestry, or
perhaps not. We don't know. We do know
that he was an excellent student. He
earned links of many metals through
merit, not birth. Nevertheless, only a
year or two after he arrived at the
citadel in the year 209, later in that
same year as the events of the hedge
night, the great spring sickness came.
Many, many people died in Oldtown,
though Aean survived. The following
year, Duncan Egg came to visit. At the
time of writing, we don't have a story
about that, but we do know that the
three of them went to the Quill and
Tankered, the very same establishment
where the prologue of A Feast for Crows
takes place to enjoy the fearsomely
strong cider they serve. As a parting
gift, Aean gave Egg a mule named
Maester, who became his mount for many
years. He also measured Dunc, confirming
his height at an inch below 7 ft. That's
over 2 m 10 for those metrically minded.
We don't know exactly which links Ammon
formed in the Citadel other than silver
for healing, gold, lead, and tin, but
Valyrian steel for the higher mysteries
and black iron for Ravencraft also seem
likely. Jon notes many more in one of
his PF chapters, but is unable to
identify them all. Aean finished his
studies by the age of 19, so perhaps a
decade, which seems like a very young
age, and was immediately sent to the
castle of an unknown minor lord, where
he served for about 4 years. During this
stint, the third blackfire rebellion
took place, and Aean's brothers, Aegon
and Aryan, were noted for their actions
against the rebels. It's unclear whether
the lord Aean served fought for the
black dragons or the red. The country
was nearly split 50/50, making this a
potentially intriguing and unknown
period in Aemon's early life. In fact,
it is our first option for the first of
Aemon's famous three tests, as he
relates to John, where he was tempted to
break his oaths. The first temptation
must have come after he forged his
chain, or else he would not have an oath
to break. If the Lord he served rose for
the black dragon, it would certainly
test his vows. So would falling in love.
It is Aean who tells John that love is
the death of duty. And he seems to have
been speaking from experience. Ammon
says that three times the gods saw fit
to test my vows. Once when I was a boy,
once in the fullness of my manhood, and
once when I had grown old. The third is
to do with Daenerys, which we will come
on to in a later video. But this first
time, we don't know. Perhaps it was the
Blackfire Rebellion, but more likely
love. Who did Aean fall in love with?
Whoever it was, his older self thought
himself a boy at the time, which perhaps
he was, aged 20 or so from the
perspective of a very old Aemon.
Jumping forward a few years, in the year
221 AC, King Aries I died without issue,
and Ammon's father, Mar ascended to the
throne. He summoned Aean and his three
brothers to court. It was an unexpected
elevation for Mar who was a fourth son,
so very unlikely to succeed to the
throne. He offered Aean a place on the
small council, but Aean refused, not
wanting to upset the hierarchy of the
citadel by userting some of the Grand
Maester's power. Instead, he became the
maester for his brother Darren the
drunken, who became prince of
Dragonstone and heir to the throne with
Mar's ascension. That's an alternate
future like with possibilities. Ammon's
tenure there seems to have begun on a
high note, the birth of a new princess.
Darren had married Kira of Tyro, who had
once been married to Prince Valar
Targaryen before he died during the
great spring sickness. Yes, this is
another of those weird Targaryen
intermarriage things. In 222, the year
after he took up residence, Maester
Aemon delivered their daughter, Vella.
But things took a downward turn from
there. Veila proved to be simple-minded,
according to the maesters in the world
of ice and fire, and the couple would
not have another child. Perhaps Vila was
a dragon dreamer. Perhaps one day we
will find out. To make matters worse,
Darren continued to be tormented by
dragon dreams. His dreams were
apparently far more vivid, frequent, and
disturbing than those of his siblings,
and perhaps as haunting as any Targaryen
dreamer we know of. This is why he was
called Darren the drunken because he
self-medicated with alcohol to keep the
dreams at bay. Perhaps Aean tried to
sway him away from drink towards other
remedies, but it was all to no avail as
far as we know. We're told that Darren
died of the pox contracted via a sex
worker perhaps, but I remain to be
convinced. Darren's death made Aryan the
heir given that no one would countenance
Princess Bella on the throne. still
Aryan. A constant silver lining amidst
these developments was probably Ammon's
unparalleled access to House Targaryen's
ancient texts kept at Dragonstone. Even
the Citadel would have lacked some of
the tomes that were surely there. Some
may even have survived from old Valyria itself.
itself.
A few years later, the Citadel was
struck by plague yet again, the second
time in less than 20 years. This time it
was called the gray death and claimed
half the city and twothirds of the
citadel. Aemon would have again lost
colleagues and friends, and the number
of people who remembered who he was, not
just a maester, began to dwindle. Aemon
seems to have remained on Dragonstone
after his brother's death. And as far as
we know, Aryan never actually took up
residence there. He apparently preferred
court or summerhaul, but we're not sure.
So perhaps Aean had the run of the
island and its library for several years.
years.
In 232, Aryan and his wife, Lady Dura
Targaryen, had a child they named Magor,
a choice of name that unnerved many,
remembering Magor the Cruel. But later
that year, Aryan Bright Flame drank
wildfire, telling his friends it would
transform him into a dragon. But as Lord
Commander Mormont put it, the gods were
kind and it transformed him into a corpse.
corpse.
Many celebrated his death, giving thanks
that he would never ascend the Iron
Throne. All of which left a bit of a
succession crisis. The list of Targaryen
heirs who died during that time is
lengthy, and King Mar himself was killed
during the Peak Uprising the following
year. Blood Raven called the great
council of 233, and the realm debated
who to crown. Aryan's infant child,
Magor, was deemed unfit, and his
brother, Aegon's reputation as half a
peasant, heavily weighed against him.
Quietly, several lords offered Aean the
crown, pointing out that his maester's
vows could be dissolved. Aemon declined
and would not be persuaded otherwise.
This is very likely the second of the
three temptations he related to Jon
Snow, the one where he was a full-g
grown man. He would have been in his
mid30s at the time. Other than Egg, the
only other known viable candidate for
the throne was Anise, fifth son of Damon
Blackfire. Blood Raven promised him safe
passage to the Red Keep in order to make
his case to the council, but he lied.
Anise was executed and his head was
presented to the council instead of his
claim. Thus, though they had serious
doubts, the council was left with no
choice but to name Aemon's brother Aegon
their new king. He became Aegon V,
called the fortunate and the unlikely.
His first notable act as king was to
have the hand of the king he inherited,
Blood Raven, thrown into prison for
breaking the word of the Iron Throne.
The new king Aegon V was undisputed
ruler, but he had lost the protection of
Blood Raven and had the suspicion of
many of the lords of Westeros. Many
clearly felt that Aean would have been
the better king, at which point we
should return to that childhood bond
between Aean and Egg. Ammon seemingly
didn't want to be the Targaryen that
Egg's enemies tried to rally behind. As
a maester, he would always be somewhere
in the Seven Kingdoms and visible, but
at the wall, that's where people were
sent to be forgotten. Aemon sacrificed
comfort, family, and so much else for
the realm, for duty. The day he left to
take ship for the wool, he told his
brother to kill the boy within, to let
the man be born. Egg had to die for
Aegon to be born. It's the same advice
he later gives Jon when he is elected
Lord Commander. Both Egg and Jon Snow
seem to have listened. Aean's cousin,
Blood Raven, took the Black as well,
along with 50 Raven's teeth, his most
loyal guards. Aean and Brynden were
escorted by none other than Sir Duncan
the Tall all the way to Eastwatch by the
Sea by the ship Golden Dragon. As Aean
said to Sam, no recruit had arrived at
the wall with so much pomp since Nimriia
sent the watch six kings in golden
fetterss. It was the year 236. John and
Sam joined 52 years later. Were there
other reasons why Aean went to the wall?
We'll look at that in another video. But
it is indisputable that Blood Raven and
Maester Aemon found themselves, perhaps
unexpectedly to Aean, serving together
at the wall. two Targaryenss obsessed
with prophecy and magically inclined in
their own ways. All of that will come in
the second part of this series of videos.
videos.
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for this time. Thanks for watching. I'll
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