Sept

Supporting the Faith, by Gabrielle Portal © Fantasy Flight Games

A sept is a place of worship for followers of the Faith of the Seven. They can be found in villages, urban settlements, castles, septries, and motherhouses.

Layout

See also: Images of septs

Winterfell Sept, by Franz Miklis © Fantasy Flight Games

A sept is a single building with seven walls. Some septs are small and humble, but others are large and magnificent, such as the Great Sept of Baelor. Some septs have crystal or leaded windows.

Every sept houses representational art portraying each of the seven aspects of the Faith. Wealthy septs in cities have stone statues and altars for each of the Seven. Crystals spread seven-colored rainbows onto the altars, which may be inlaid with precious metals and stones, such as mother-of-pearl, onyx, and lapis lazuli. In more isolated or rural septs, however, the depictions of the Seven may be merely carved masks or simple charcoal drawings hanging on each wall.

Septs can be fortified for greater protection.

Customs

Ceremonies are led by the highest ranking male member of the clergy,^{[citation needed]} and hymns are often sung. In the naming of a child, seven oils are used to anoint the infant. Weddings are conducted standing between the altars of the Father and the Mother.

Worshipers can light candles before the different altars during their prayers. Rites of worship held in wealthy areas and during special occasions can feature embellishments such as choirs of seventy-seven septas. In small villages, devotions may be held every seventh day.

Knights traditionally stand vigil and are consecrated with seven oils in septs. Brothers of the Night's Watch who worship the Seven can make their vows at the small sept at Castle Black.

As they are considered holy places, bloodshed is forbidden in septs.

History

In the aftermath of the coming of the Andals, kings such as Merle I Gardener, Humfrey I Teague, and the Arryns founded septs, septries, and motherhouses throughout southern Westeros. The Starry Sept in Oldtown was the seat of the High Septon for a thousand years. The Sept-Beyond-the-Sea is a sept in Braavos for Westerosi.

King Theon Stark, a follower of the old gods, repelled an attack of Andals on the north and retaliated by raiding Andalos in western Essos, burning a score of villages, capturing three towerhouses and a fortified sept, and killing hundreds.

Septs in the Iron Islands have periodically been destroyed by worshippers of the Drowned God.

Aegon the Conqueror is said to have prayed at the sept at Dragonstone before beginning the Conquest. A sept was destroyed during Aegon's burning of Harrenhal.

Soon after Aegon founded King's Landing in 2 BC, a makeshift sept was constructed out of the hulk of a cog on the Blackwater to serve the smallfolk, and a much grander sept was raised on Visenya's Hill with money sent by the High Septon. After 10 AC, the Sept of Remembrance was built on Rhaenys's Hill in memory of the late Queen Rhaenys Targaryen. That sept was used as the base of the Warrior's Sons during the Faith Militant uprising, and was destroyed in the conflict by Maegor the Cruel in 42 AC.

Inspired by a vision, King Baelor I Targaryen ordered the construction of a great sept atop Visenya's Hill; the fate of the grand sept atop the hill from Aegon the Conqueror's reign is unknown. The Great Sept of Baelor was completed years after the death of Baelor the Blessed, and the High Septon moved there, replacing the Starry Sept of Oldtown as the center of the Faith in the Seven Kingdoms.

In 212 AC, Ser Duncan the Tall fought and killed Ser Tommard Heddle in the sept of Whitewalls, in defense of Prince Aegon Targaryen.

Lord Eddard Stark constructed a small sept at Winterfell for his southron wife, Catelyn Tully. The sept at Lordsport was not rebuilt after its destruction during Greyjoy's Rebellion.

Recent Events

A Game of Thrones

The High Septon before the Great Sept of Baelor, by Joshua Cairós © Fantasy Flight Games

King Joffrey I Baratheon orders the execution of Lord Eddard Stark outside the Great Sept of Baelor.

A Clash of Kings

Some of the Night's Watch pray in Castle Black's sept before embarking on the great ranging.

The queen's men destroy the sept at Dragonstone, and Stannis Baratheon allows Melisandre to burn its statues.

Many septs in the riverlands are destroyed during the War of the Five Kings. Catelyn Stark prays at a small village during the siege of Storm's End.

The royal sept at the Red Keep and Baelor's Sept are crowded during the Battle of the Blackwater.

Lady Catelyn's sept is burned during the sack of Winterfell.

A Storm of Swords

Arya Stark visits Stoney Sept with the brotherhood without banners. Vargo Hoat leads a group of Brave Companions in sacking a sept in the riverlands. Northmen seeking Ser Jaime Lannister burned the sept at Sallydance. The sept at Lord Harroway's Town is flooded by the Trident.

Joffrey weds Margaery Tyrell in the Great Sept of Baelor.

A Feast for Crows

A sept in the riverlands, by eemuium ©

The sept in Saltpans is destroyed during the raid on the town.

In the aftermath of Prince Oberyn Martell's death, Obara Sand claims the septs of Dorne are packed.

Loyalists slain in the battle at Duskendale are buried in the septs of Duskendale, while northern rebels are buried in a mass grave by Blackwater Bay.

Ser Lancel Lannister, disinterested in his marriage to Amerei Frey or being the lord of Darry, sleeps in the castle's sept.

With Joffrey having died at his wedding feast, King Tommen I Baratheon marries Margaery in the Red Keep's royal sept. Taena Merryweather tells Queen Cersei Lannister that one of her maids, Senelle, is a spy who relays information to Margaery's cousins in the royal sept. The High Sparrow has Cersei taken into custody at Baelor's Sept.

A Dance with Dragons

The bones of Ser Wendel Manderly are interred in the Sept of the Snows.

Quotes

Worship was a septon with a censer, the smell of incense, a seven-sided crystal alive with light, voices raised in song. The Tullys kept a godswood, as all the great houses did, but it was only a place to walk or read or lie in the sun. Worship was for the sept.

—thoughts of Catelyn Stark

She loved the statues, the pictures in leaded glass, the fragrance of burning incense, the septons with their robes and crystals, the magical play of the rainbows over altars inlaid with mother-of-pearl and onyx and lapis lazuli.

—thoughts of Sansa Stark

God is one, Septon Osmynd had taught her when she was a girl, with seven aspects, as the sept is a single building, with seven walls. The wealthy septs of the cities had statues of the Seven and an altar to each.

—thoughts of Catelyn Stark

When the first shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds to the east, morning bells began to peal from the Sailor's Sept down by the harbor. The Lord's Sept joined in a moment later, then the Seven Shrines from their gardens across the Honeywine, and finally the Starry Sept that had been the seat of the High Septon for a thousand years before Aegon landed at King's Landing. They made a mighty music.

—thoughts of Pate

It is customary to take a finger from a thief, but a man who steals from a sept is stealing from the gods.

—Randyll Tarly to a criminal