Editing Maesters (section)

==Quotes==
{{Quote|'''Jon''': I remember once I asked Maester [[Luwin]] why he wore a chain around his throat.<br>'''Aemon''': Go on.<br>'''Jon''': He told me that a maester's collar is made of chain to remind him that he is sworn to serve. I asked why each link was a different metal. A [[silver]] chain would look much finer with his grey robes, I said. Maester Luwin laughed. A maester forges his chain with study, he told me. The different metals are each a different kind of learning, [[gold]] for the study of [[currency|money]] and accounts, silver for healing, [[iron]] for warcraft. And he said there were other meanings as well. The collar is supposed to remind a maester of [[Seven Kingdoms|the realm]] he serves, isn't that so? [[Lord]]s are gold and [[knight]]s [[steel]], but two links can't make a chain. You also need silver and iron and [[lead]], [[tin]] and [[copper]] and [[bronze]] and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people.{{Ref|AGOT|41}}|[[Jon Snow]] and [[Aemon Targaryen (son of Maekar I)|Aemon]]}}

{{Quote|There are some who call my order the [[knight]]s of the mind ... Have you ever thought that you might wear a maester's chain? There is no limit to what you might learn ... I can teach you history, healing, herblore. I can teach you the speech of [[raven]]s, and how to build a castle, and the way a sailor steers his ship by the [[astronomy|stars]]. I can teach you to measure the days and marks the seasons, and at the [[Citadel]] in [[Oldtown]] they can teach you a thousand things more. But, Bran, no man can teach you [[magic]].{{Ref|AGOT|53}}|[[Luwin]] to [[Bran Stark]]}}

{{Quote|'''Jon''': Who are you?<br>'''Aemon''': Only a maester of the [[Citadel]], bound in service to [[Castle Black]] and the [[Night's Watch]]. In my order, we put aside our house names when we take our vows and don the collar.{{Ref|AGOT|60}}|[[Jon Snow]] and [[Aemon Targaryen (son of Maekar I)|Aemon]]}}

{{Quote|All the world knew that a maester forged his [[silver]] link when he learned the art of healing—but the world preferred to forget that men who knew how to heal also [[poison|knew how to kill]].{{ref|ACOK|Prologue}}|thoughts of [[Cressen]]}}

{{Quote|He had no love of maesters. Their [[raven]]s were creatures of the [[Storm God]], and he did not trust their healing, not since [[Urrigon Greyjoy|Urri]]. No proper man would choose a life of [[thrall]]dom, nor forge a chain of servitude to wear about his throat.{{Ref|AFFC|1}}|thoughts of [[Aeron Greyjoy]]}}

{{Quote|'''Barbrey''': If I were queen, the first thing I would do would be to kill all those grey rats. They scurry everywhere, living on the leavings of the [[lord]]s, chittering to one another, whispering in the ears of their masters. But who are the masters and who are the servants, truly? Every great lord has his maester, every lesser lord aspires to one. If you do not have a maester, it is taken to mean that you are of little consequence. The grey rats read and write our letters, even for such lords as cannot read themselves, and who can say for a certainty that they are not twisting the words for their own ends? What good are they, I ask you?<br>'''Theon''': They heal.<br>'''Barbrey''': They heal, yes. I never said they were not subtle. They tend to us when we are sick and injured, or distraught over the illness of a parent or a child. Whenever we are weakest and most vulnerable, there they are. Sometimes they heal us, and we are duly grateful. When they fail, they console us in our grief, and we are grateful for that as well. 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.{{Ref|ADWD|37}}|[[Barbrey Dustin]] and [[Theon Greyjoy]]}}