Work Text:
Order of the Silver Sisters (the Dragon’s Daughters a.k.a. the Mother-Maesters) - Hierarchical Organization & Structure:
• the Silver Sisters are an order of scholars, healers, & scientists; they educate new students at Harrenhal’s Motherhouse, which is located in Harrenhal, a castle in the Riverlands; House Targaryen was integral in this order’s foundation, & continues to patronize the order; members of this order function as both healers & teachers (& advisers) to many Westerosi people (smallfolk & nobility alike)
• Princess Daenerys oversaw the creation of this order as a distaff-counterpart to both the maesters of Oldtown’s Citadel & the Alchemists’ Guild, albeit an order that is answerable to/owes its loyalties to House Targaryen, 1st & foremost
• 1 - Organization:
◦ 1.1) Novices & Acolytes
‣ the girls & women who begin their education at Harrenhal’s Motherhouse are known as [silver] novices (1st-tier rank, similar in position to an apprentice); once they have demonstrated a reasonable degree of knowledge about subject(s) they become [silver] acolytes (2nd-tier rank, similar in position to a journeyman), & this hierarchy is shared too by the maesters of the Citadel in Oldtown & the Alchemists’ Guild)
‣ members of this order wear garments that are a varying combination of mostly pale grey, pale blue, & white; higher-ranking members, such as the Magistra, may wear robes of cloth-of-silver during more formal events; depending on the requirements of individual tasks & preferences, some Silver Sisters may don hoods & veils as they go about their daily lives
‣ [silver] acolytes train at letters at the Scribe’s Cell, & can be hired by Riverlanders (& others) to read/write [their] letters, messages, [their] wills, etc.
‣ girls & women who violate the rules of Harrenhal’s Motherhouse can be ordered confined to their rooms by the septas & women in charge of them, or face more severe punishments, up to & including dismissal
◦ 1.2) Hedge-Healers, Hedge-sisters, or Hedge-wives:
‣ is a sobriquet given to a traveling Silver Sister (who is ostensibly a reasonably well-educated) member of the order, & who uses a combination of medicinal knowledge, traditional healing, prayer, as well as spells & charms to heal the sick or help the needy; these Silver Sisters are oftentimes more affordable & accessible than a maester, & the former use the knowledge taught to them by septas, midwives, herb-women & woods witches
◦ 1.3) Silver Sisters
‣ ‘Silver Sister(s)’ is the title given to the female scholars & healers who have completed their training at Harrenhal’s Motherhouse & taken their vows (thus making them fully-fledged members of the order of the Silver Sisters of Harrenhal); the origin of this order’s name comes from the metal silver—more specifically, its traditional use in wound dressings, creams, & as an antibiotic coating on medical instruments (this name is both an alliteration & an allusion to silver’s healing/medicinal properties)
◦ 1.4) Silver Serpents a.k.a. Silver Shadows
‣ members of the order that display an affinity for skill in arms are also given the sobriquets “battle-brides/brides of battle”, “spear-sisters”, “steel sisters/sisters of steel”, or “war-wives”; the justification used for their function was based on & modeled after Jonquil Darke, Queen Alysanne’s sworn shield & protector:
• ‘Alysanne had insisted that she needed a female protector, who could accompany her in places where men were not allowed to go’, & Princess Daenerys wished to continue this practice for herself, rewording a quote from her father: “Men & women who would perform evil acts seldom attack honorably, on horseback with lance in hand”, & she also reinforced her argument with a rephrased quote by her grandmother Alyssa: “I want the women defending Harrenhal to be the finest found anywhere in Westeros, true honest women whose loyalty & courage is unquestioned”, & went on to cite the past occurrences of the members of the royal family being attacked (in a dishonorable manner):
◦ in 41 AC, 2 Poor Fellows snuck into Aenys I Targaryen’s bedchamber & attempted to murder him
◦ in 41 AC, Prince Aegon & Princess Rhaena Targaryen were besieged in Crakehall castle by thousands of Poor Fellows & pious smallfolk
◦ in 51 AC, Queen Alysanne Targaryen was attacked by septas while at Jonquil’s Pool in the town of Maidenpool
‣ Silver Serpents go about clad in breeches, boots, & tunics—as well as armor—while on-duty (& oftentimes during leisure)
◦ 1.5) Magistra
‣ is the head of this order
• 2 - Practices:
◦ 1.1) Education
‣ there is no age requirement, & despite the prejudice of many Westerosi to status of birth, females of every social status are allowed to attend & study; as such, foreigners, baseborns, bastards, [younger] children of nobility, & even royalty can study together at Harrenhal’s Motherhouse
‣ girls & women from all over Westeros (& some parts of Essos) come to study & learn at Harrenhal’s Motherhouse
‣ novices & acolytes are educated together; septas, midwives, herb-women, woods witches, & other sorts of learned women give open lectures, which the students can attend at will; once a student believes that she has sufficient knowledge on a particular subject, she can request an audience with a septa, midwife, herb-woman, or woods witch to demonstrate her knowledge; if the septa, midwife, herb-woman, or woods witch deems the student’s knowledge to be proficient, she then awards her with a pin of a metal reflecting/symbolizing the particular topic
‣ of course, not every girl or woman who lives at Harrenhal or joins this order is taught all of these subjects ... only the girls or women that show an aptitude & inclination are taught the matters of higher learning
‣ not all who begin their studies will complete them; Harrenhal is full of older novices & acolytes who have never taken their vows as Silver Sisters, & others leave Harrenhal before completing their studies on purpose; some students learn only something about healing, & may instead decide to become a herb-woman, a midwife, or a septa at a later time, & some may find a man & decide to wed him
◦ 1.2) Harrenhal
‣ it is customary for at least 1 female dragon-rider to reside at Harrenhal, so as to be able to rise to the defense of the castle, & to ride their dragon whenever lengthier travel is required of them (which would discourage any thought of an assault upon them, & would act as an unspoken reminder to the realm of the power of House Targaryen & its dragons)
◦ 1.3) Subjects of Knowledge & Tasks
‣ the girls & women there (called novices & acolytes) that desire to learn, are taught are variety of [other] subjects considered useful:
‣ said girls & women (novices & acolytes) that attend & study at Harrenhal’s Motherhouse are required to be present at lectures for most or all of the subjects (listed below), in addition to working 1 on 1 with septas & other teachers:
• Common/General subjects:
◦ sewing, spinning, weaving & embroidery a.k.a. needlework
◦ fashion
◦ preparation of food & drink
◦ [highborn] etiquette
◦ pottery
◦ wood-carving
◦ recognizing the noble houses of Westeros
◦ music (learning how to play various musical instruments)
◦ song (learning how to sing)
◦ painting
◦ grammar
◦ arithmetic
◦ bookkeeping/record-keeping
◦ morals
◦ Faith of the 7
◦ herb-craft & herblore (including smallfolk-remedies)
◦ healing
◦ letters & numbers (reading & writing) in Common
◦ history
◦ woodscraft (knowing how to survive in the wild)
◦ the Old Gods (nameless deities of stream, forest, & stone)
◦ the running of a household
◦ butchery
◦ smithing
• Advanced/Specialized subjects:
◦ midwifery
◦ bone-setting
◦ administration
◦ diplomacy
◦ [more advanced] herb-craft & herblore (including smallfolk-remedies)
◦ [more advanced] history
◦ glass-blowing/glassworking
◦ rhetoric
◦ letters & numbers (reading & writing) in other tongues
◦ scribing & translating
◦ alchemy
◦ geometry, as well as algebra, calculus, & trigonometry
◦ the care & speech of ravens
◦ the building of castles
◦ the measurement of days & the marking of seasons, astronomy/navigating by the stars
◦ the higher mysteries (a.k.a. various forms of magic)
◦ & possibly other matters, as well
◦ [more advanced] smithing, such as learning how to [re]work Valyrian steel
• 3 - Formation/Origin of the Order of the Silver Sisters:
‣ it is common knowledge that Harrenhal is thought to be too costly to maintain &—more importantly—to garrison, so Princess Daenerys Targaryen devised a solution:
• beginning in 73 AC, Princess Daenerys Targaryen assembles a gathering of female orphans, bastards (many nobles send their bastard daughters to Harrenhal’s Motherhouse to be raised), & otherwise abandoned/dispossessed girls & women from all across the realm to be instructed by a group of septas, midwives, herb-women & woods witches (all of whom are used to maintain the castle of Harrenhal & its nearby lands, to a greater or lesser degree); a number of women are used to garrison the castle, as well
• the vast tracts of fertile green land surrounding the castle are to be farmed by smallfolk women & girls
• the Gods Eye lake is fished by many of the smallfolk women & girls as well
• inside the castle itself many of the women & girls living there supplement the incomes of Harrenhal by:
◦ producing textiles (by way of embroidery, weaving, etc.), such as carpets, lace, tapestries, etc. (essentially functioning as professional lace-makers, embroiderers, & tailors/seamstresses), & producing other crafts/crafted materials
◦ engaging in the production & copying of a variety of texts & writing (including leechbooks, maps, & illuminated scrolls, texts, tomes) & scribing; thus, Harrenhal’s Motherhouse is financed by all of this, & also exempted from certain taxes
• the Gods Eye lake, as well as its connecting river & streams, are used for communication & trade & the transport of goods
‣ this solution was influenced by Queen Alysanne Targaryen’s women’s courts, but altered to be more long-lasting than the “courts” it was based on, & would also have the benefit of supplementing Harrenhal’s incomes (much of Daenerys’ personal coffers were used to fund a significant portion of Harrenhal’s rebuilding); so, in this way Daenerys has solved the issue of Harrenhal’s long-term repair & upkeep
‣ the Silver Sisters’ hierarchical structure was modeled by Alysanne, Maegelle, & Daenerys after the maesters of the Citadel in Oldtown, the Alchemists’ Guild, & various motherhouses of the Faith of the 7
‣ this order is designed to function as both a learned society (much like the orders of the maesters of the Citadel in Oldtown & the Alchemists’ Guild) & as a preparatory school for girls & women; Daenerys, Maegelle, & Alysanne made it so that the girls & women that lived at Harrenhal would be educated in matters that women were taught in Westeros traditionally, as well as have the opportunity to receive a higher education (if they proved willing & able)
‣ Queen Alysanne used Lady Florence Fossoway, an able & intelligent noblewoman (who was clever with handling money & accounts on behalf of her Lord husband), as a model of a learned Westerosi woman & able helpmeet for her husband, & also as a woman that the girls & women at Harrenhal should strive to emulate
‣ unlike some other orders or organizations, like the Kingsguard, the septas & Silent Sisters, or the Night’s Watch, the girls & women that attend & study at Harrenhal’s Motherhouse (& decide to formally join the order of the Silver Sisters)
• are not required to be sworn for life & remain in service at Harrenhal
• are not forbidden from owning land
• are not forbidden from taking a husband & bearing children (that is, if they have not already taken vows as a septa)
• while septas can be formally inducted in the order of the Silver Sisters, they are however bound by whatever prior rules or vows they have taken as a septa (& therefore are forbidden from marrying & bearing children)
• if they so will it, they can wed a man of their own choosing (at which point, they depart from Harrenhal to go & live with their husband)
• the women that choose marriage also have the right to choose whether they are wedded in a sept (Harrenhal’s sept), before the weirwood in the Harrenhal’s godswood, or something else entirely
• furthermore, if a girl or woman states a desire to wed a man of their choosing, they are then counseled by wives & septas that both parties go “into the marriage with accurate, reasonable expectations of what the other [can] or [will] provide” (excerpt from goodqueenaly on Tumblr)
‣ some of the women at Harrenhal are wet nurses, since there are a number of natural-born &/or orphaned infants living in the castle
• 4 - Accomplishments of the Order of the Silver Sisters:
‣ eventually, Harrenhal became extremely successful & powerful (as a self-regulating community of teachers & scholars both recognized & sanctioned by the authority of the Iron Throne), as well as a source for reform; here, girls & women received the most comprehensive education available to them during this era
‣ a great number of women who attended Harrenhal would go on to make contributions to natural history, particularly in the field of botany, be it as authors, collectors, or illustrators
‣ as she grew older, Princess Maegelle Targaryen rose to a high position in office at Harrenhal, & was soon put in charge of governing & educating her fellow Silver Sisters; Harrenhal itself also contains multiple apothecaries, with glass gardens, herb-gardens, & at least 1 vineyard (growing plants with anti-infection & pain-relieving properties, like garlic, as an example)