2.4. The Faith
- The Faith holds that there are seven hells (I: 14)
- The Faith has a child naming ceremony, involving anointing with seven oils (I: 18)
- Crystals and light are important elements of the Faith (I: 18)
- The building where religious worship is done is called a sept (I: 18)
- The gods of the Faith have names (I: 18)
- The religious leaders are septons, who lead worship with incense and censers, seven-sided crystals and songs. (I: 18)
- Female godsworn are named septas and wear white robes (I: 57, 626. TSS 117)
- Prayer is done to each of the seven faces of the gods (I: 78)
- Visenya's Hill in King's Landing is crowned by the marble-walled Great Sept of Baelor and its seven crystal towers (I: 141. II: 549)
- Candles are lit to the Seven to draw their aid (I: 161)
- The Great Sept of Baelor has a rainbow pool (I: 229)
- The gods frown on gamblers (I: 242)
- Upon a death a family member, friend, or even a concerned stranger stands last vigil (I: 256. IV: 116)
- A septon presides over a trial by combat, raising a crystal sphere above his head and chanting in a singsong voice for the gods to look down and bear witness, find truth in the man's soul, to grant him life and freedom if innocent and death if he were guilty (I: 365)
- Inside a sept, a great crystal catches light and spreads it in a rainbow around the altar (I: 430)
- In the North, only a few houses do not worship the Old Gods, following the Seven instead (I: 476)
- The seven towers of the Great Sept of Baelor each have bells. All of them are only rung on momentous occasions, such as the death of a king (I: 600)
- One tower tolling from Baelor's Sept is a summoning for the city (I: 604)
- No one is taken to the Great Sept of Baelor to be executed (I: 605)
- The High Septon wears long white robes and an immense crown of spun gold and crystal (I: 606)
- The Faith was brought to Westeros by the Andal invaders nearly 6,000 years ago. Their warriors painted seven-pointed stars on their bodies (I: 618)
- When a man is laid in his grave, a septon usually says some prayers for him (THK: 458)
- The trial of seven is seldom used, coming across with the Andals and their seven gods. The Andals believed that if seven champions fought on each side, the gods thus honored would be more likely to see justice done. If a man cannot find six others to stand with him, then he is obviously guilty (THK: 509)
- There are wandering and begging brothers of the Faith who wear brown robes and can say blessings over the faithful (THK: 515)
- Dead bodies are given over to the silent sisters for ritual cleansing (II: 46. BNC)
- When someone of the Faith is buried, a crystal is left on their grave (II: 61)
- The seven gods of the Faith are the Mother, the Father, the Warrior, the Maid, the Stranger, the Smith, and the Crone (II: 108, 362)
- A person might pray to the Warrior before a battle, to the Smith when launching a ship, and to the Mother when a woman grew great with child (II: 109)
- Leaded glass windows in the septs often depict scenes and pictures (II: 208)
- Altars at the greater septs are sometimes inlaid richly with mother-of-pearl, onyx, and lapis lazuli (II: 208)
- The begging brothers are marked by their robes, which are undyed and belted with a hempen rope (II: 232)
- The silent sisters wear cowled grey robes (II: 339. BNC)
- Some septons claim that the Faith has but one God with seven aspects and that that is why septs are single buildings with seven walls (II: 362. III: 803)
- Wealthy septs have statues of the Seven and altars to each, and septs in the North might have carved masks to represent the Seven, but poor village septs might have only crude charcoal drawings (II: 362)
- The Father is always bearded, the Mother is depicted as smiling with love and protection, the Warrior and the Smith always have their swords and hammers, the Maid is always beautiful, and the crone is always wizened (II: 362)
- The Stranger is neither male nor female, always the outcast and the wandered from far places (II: 362)
- Some say that each of the Seven embodies all of the Seven, in a way (II: 363)
- Incest is a monstrous sin before the gods, but the Targaryens followed the practices of ancient Valyria and didn't answer to religions when it came to such issues (II: 364)
- The Smith is known as a mender of broken things, and might be called upon to protect the crippled (II: 364)
- Even in the North, septons witness marriages (although this may not be the case if both parties follow only the old gods) (II: 384)
- The High Septon has a crystal crown (II: 431)
- Holding hands with others while in the sept to worship and pray seems common (II: 595)
- There is an example of a hymn to the Mother (II: 595)
- There is room for thousands inside of the Great Sept of Baelor (II: 595)
- The Smith might be asked to lend strength to a warrior's arms and armor, the Warrior might be asked to give him courage, and the Father might be asked to defend him in need by a septon seeking divine intervention (II: 596)
- The High Septon may be involved in confirming the propriety of a marriage contract being broken if the parties are sufficiently important enough (II: 664)
- The Father is also known as the Father Above (III: 32)
- The Crone let the first raven into the world when she peered through the door of death (III: 33)
- The Mother is also known as the Mother Above (III: 185)
- All the septons agree that the Mother is merciful (III: 197)
- Kissing the High Septon's ring is a sign of proper devotion (III: 208)
- Old gods or new, it makes no matter, no man is so accursed as the kinslayer (III: 232)
- Carved wooden likenesses of the gods, some having chalcedony eyes (III: 244)
- A sept with windows of leaded glass and icons of the Seven with the Mother wearing costly robes, the Crone carrying a gilded lantern, and the Father wearing a silver crown. They have eyes of jet, lapis, and mother-of-pearl. There is a vault beneath the sept where wine and other things were kept (III: 247, 248)
- A silly song about Big Belly Ben and the High Septon's goose (III: 248)
- There is a motherhouse at Oldtown (III: 251)
- The silent sisters of the dead swear vows of chastity, but they are not accounted septas (III: 261)
- The Faith holds slavery as an abomination (III: 264)
- Prayers at the sept seem to take place three times each day (III: 288)
- There are seven "wanderers" in the night sky which the Faith hold sacred (III: 294)
- The red wanderer is held to be sacred to the Smtih (III: 294)
- Marriages by the Faith take place before the marriage altar, where the septon waits between the Mother and the Father to join a man and a woman in wedlock (III: 319)
- Prayers, vows, and singing are part of the marriage ceremony. Many tall candles are lit as well (III: 319)
- A bride's father removes her maiden cloak so that her husband may place his cloak about her shoulders, passing her into his protection (III: 319, 669)
- The final words a couple says at the end of a marriage ceremony: "With this kiss I pledge my love, and take you for my lord/lady and husband/wife" (III: 320)
- The septon ends the marriage ceremony be declaiming: "Here in the sight of gods and men, I do solemnly proclaim [Groom's name] of House X and [Bride's name] of House Y to be man and wife, one flesh, one heart, one soul, now and forever, and cursed be the one who comes between them" (III: 320)
- A marriage that has not been consumated can be set aside by the High Septon or a Council of Faith (III: 362)
- Seven years seems typical as a time for serving as a begging brother, as a penance (III: 403)
- A septry can have a mill, brewhouse, and stables. Prosperous septries can have forty or more memebers, with a dozen milk cows and a bull, a hundred beehives, a vineyard, and an apple arbor (III: 438, 442)
- Members of a septry are known as brown brothers (III: 441, 442)
- People may wear small emblems to show their devotion to a particular god, such a small iron hammer on a thong for the Smith (III: 442)
- The leader of a septry is known as Elder Brother (III: 442)
- There are young novice brothers at septries (III: 442)
- The peace banner of the Seven is a rainbow-striped flag with seven long tails, a seven-pointed star topping the stave is hangs from (III: 503)
- "The Song of the Seven", a children's lullaby, has all the gods but for the Stranger (III: 531, 532)
- No one ever sings of the Stranger, as his face is the face of death (III: 532)
- Septons speak of the seven aspects of grace (III: 589)
- Septon Murmison's prayers are said to have worked miracles, but as Hand he soon had the whole realm praying for his death (III: 604)
- Septon Barth, the blacksmith's son plucked from the Red Keep's library by the Old King Jaehaerys I, gave the realm forty years of peace and plenty (III: 604)
- The Great Sept of Baelor has two towering gilded statues of the Father and the Mother, between which a royal bride and groom place themselves for their wedding vows (III: 660, 667)
- A wedding includes the making of seven vows, the invocation of seven blessings, and the exchange of seven promises. A wedding song is sung after this point, and a challenge is made to speak against the marriage. If the challenge goes unanswered, the wedding cloaks may be exchanged (III: 668)
- Flower petals are sometimes scattered before newlyweds as they leave the sept (III: 669)
- "Maiden, Mother, and Crone", a song that delights septons (III: 676)
- The prayer for the dead begins with, "Father Above, judge [person] justly" (III: 684)
- The Stranger is thought to lead the newly dead to the other world (III: 699)
- Supposedly, a suitable gift to the Faith would persuade the High Septon to release a Kingsguard from his vows (III: 703)
- The septons teach that a person should pray to the Crone for wisdom, to the Warrior for courage, and to the Warrior for strength (III: 706)
- There is a constellation named the Crone's Lamp, four bright stars enclosing a golden haze (III: 710)
- Some claim that the silent sisters cut out the tongues of young members of their order who talk too much (III: 727, 728)
- Trials, at least among the nobility, often begin with a prayer from a septon beseeching the Father Above to guide them towards justice (III: 740)
- A septon will swear a man to honesty before he gives testimony at a trial (III: 741)
- Kings are laid to rest in tombs in the Great Sept of Baelor (III: 751)
- The drawings and illuminations in the White Book are done by septons sent from the Great Sept of Baelor three times a year (III: 751)
- There are devotional books (III: 766)
- In a trial of combat, a septon will ask the Father Above to help in judgement and that the Warrior would lend his strength to the arm of the man whose cause was just (III: 797)
- In a trial by combat, some knights might paint their shields with the seven-pointed star of their Faith (III: 798)
- Not even the High Septon himself can declare a person married if they refuse to say the vows (III: 907)
- Villages too small to support a septon may receive visits from the septons of larger neighbors twice a year. While there, the septon will dispense the Mother's forgiveness and peform rituals such as marriage ceremonies for the sins of the villagers, but during that time the village must house and feed him (TSS: 93, 96, 98)
- The Poor Fellows and the Warrior's Sons, also known as the Stars and the Swords, were supressed by King Maegor (TSS: 105)
- The Lord of the Seven Hells is said to command demons and practice black arts (TSS: 107)
- The High Septon, a third of the Most Devout, and nearly all the silent sisters in King's Landing died during the Great Spring Sickness (TSS: 121)
- The High Septon who died in the Great Spring Sickness counseled Prince Maekar against Lord Bloodraven, claiming that as bastards were born of men's lust and weakness, so too were they weak and could not be trusted (TSS: 133)
- Septs greet each morning by ringing their bells (IV: 12)
- There are a number of septs in Oldtown: the Sailor's Sept by the harbor, the Lord's Sept, the Seven Shrines in gardens across the Honeywine from the Quill and Tankard, the Starry Sept which was the seat of the High Septon for a thousand years until the Targaryens came (IV: 12)
- The Starry Sept is made of black marble and has arched windows. The manses of the wealthy and more pious inhabitants of the city crowd around its feet (IV: 12)
- When the Andals first invaded Westeros, some of their warriors had the seven-pointed star of the Faith carved into their flesh (IV: 63)
- Maidens and mothers seem to be sorts of ranks or orders for women in the Faith (IV: 64)
- It's said by some that the silent sisters are wives to the Stranger, and that their female parts are cold and wet as ice (IV: 64)
- The oldest histories in Westeros were written after the Andal's came to Westeros, because the First Men only used runes for carving on stone. Everything written about the Age of Heroes, the Dawn Age, and the Long Night originates from stories written down by septons thousands of years later. There are archmaesters who question all these histories, noting the kings who seem to live for centuries and knights who fought a thousand years before there were knights (IV: 80)
- There is a sept in Braavos, known as the Sept-Beyond-the-Sea (IV: 89)
- A grand funeral for a Hand of the King might include morning services for the deceased with nobles in attendance, afternoon prayers for the commons, and evening prayers open to all (IV: 100)
- The High Septons robes have sleeves encrusted with golden scrollwork and small crystals (IV: 101)
- On entering the Great Sept of Baelor, one passes beneath colored globes of leaded glass in the Hall of Lamps (IV: 101)
- The High Septon carries a weirwood staff topped by a crystal orb (IV: 101)
- The Most Devout appear to be a high rank within the Faith. They wear robes of cloth-of-silver and crystal coronets (IV: 101, 124)
- Past the inner doors of the Great Sept is its cavernous center, with seven broad aisles which meet beneath the dome (IV: 101)
- The Great Sept's dome is lofty and made of glass, gold, and crystal (IV: 101)
- The Great Sept has high windows (IV: 116)
- The altars of the Seven in the Great Sept feature towering likenesses set in transpets, and are surrounded by lit candles. The floors are of marble and the transepts alone are larger than many septs (IV: 116, 124)
- Evensongs are sung in septs as night falls (IV: 116)
- The Great Sept can be accessed via the Father’s Door, the Mother’s Door, the Stranger’s Steps, and other entryways (IV: 124)
- The robes of septons are belted with woven belts of seven plaits, each a different color (IV:124)
- White-robed septas often reside in cloisters (IV: 124)
- Brothers of the Faith wear robes of various hues, such as brown, butternut, dun, or even undyed roughen (IV: 124)
- Brothers of the Faith may wear iron hammers on thongs in reverence of the Smith, or begging bowls (IV: 124)
- Novices of the Faith take part in religious ceremonies by swinging censers filled with burning incense (IV: 127)
- Many holy brothers wear tonsures, cutting the hair on their scalps as an act of humility and to show the Father that they have nothing to hide (IV: 137)
- Some local septons are not very educated, but there are great centers of religious training in Westeros, with the Great Sept of Baelor being preeminent among them (SSC: 75)
- No one needs to be present for the High Septon to annul the marriage, but at least one of the wedded pair must request the annulment (SSC: 122)
Last revised May 19, 2008
