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)
Most septons claim that the Faith has but one god with seven aspects and that that is why septs are single buildings with seven walls. However, some say it's easier for the smallfolk to grasp seven separate gods than they do the mystery of the Seven Who Are One (II: 362. III: 803. IV: 370)
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. However, there are degrees of kinslaying, and killing a distant cousin in the midst of a battle is much less of a problem than killing a brother in cold blood (III: 232. SSM: 1)
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, or from wandering septons who travel a regular circuit. 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. IV: 368)
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)
A husband swears his love and devotion to his bride during the wedding ceremony (IV: 176)
Six silent sisters might attend the bones of a great lord as they travelled in a funeral procession to their place of burial (IV: 226)
The bells of the Great Sept ring to herald the death of a High Septon (IV: 238, 240)
Silent sisters remove bowels and organs, as well as drain blood, from corpses in their care. They may also stuff the body with fragrant herbs and salts to preserve it and hide the smell of decomposition (IV: 241)
The Most Devout elect the High Septon, and those ambitious for the office often play politics to try and secure votes. Generally, the Most Devout select the new High Septon from their own ranks, but this is not always the case (IV: 242-243, 412)
The High Septon can pronounce an anathema upon a person, banishing them from the Faith (IV: 243)
Wandering septons are seen as one step above the begging brothers. Some will carry extra food to distribute to the poor and hungry, and will avoid staying too long in any one place to avoid taxing their resources as hosts. Innkeepers might occasionally find a space for them to rest in kitchens or stables, and there are septries, holdfasts, and even castles that will show them hospitality (IV: 369)
Not all septons can read or write. They memorize a hundred prayers, rituals, and ceremonies, however, and can recite long passages from The Seven-Pointed Star. (IV: 369)
The Seven-Pointed Star is the chief religious text of the Faith. Among its contents is the Maiden's Book (IV: 370)
Septons teach that the afterlife is a surcrease from budens, journeying to a far sweet land where there is no want or sadness (IV: 382)
It is written in The Seven-Pointed Star that all sins may be forgiven, but that crimes must still be punished (IV: 407, 653)
The High Septon puts aside their name, even if they are of a great and noble lineage, when they assume the mantle and crystal crown because it is said they serve as an avatar of the gods themselves (IV: 412)
During the reign of Baelor the Blessed, King Baelor caused a stone mason to be made High Septon because he thought the man's work was so beautiful that he must be the Smith made flesh. The mason could neither read nor write, and could not remember even the simplest prayers. It's rumored Baelor's Hand, the future Viserys II, had the man poisoned. After him, Baelor saw an eight-year-old boy raised to High Septon, believing he could work miracles, but the boy High Septon could not save Baelor during his final fast (IV: 412)
Aegon the Conqueror dated the beginning of his reign from the day the High Septon anointed him as king in Oldtown. Since then, it has been traditional for the High Septon to give their blessing to every king (IV: 413, 421)
The Great Sept of Baelor has large gardens, capable of holding hundreds (IV: 414)
It's said that work can be a form of prayer, pleasing to the Smith (IV: 418)
There are cells for pentinents in the Great Sept of Baelor (IV: 418)
In the Seven-Pointed Star, it's written that as men bow to lords, lords bow to kings, and kings and queens must bow to the Seven (IV: 418)
The vaults of the Great Sept hold costly vestments, rings, crystal crowns, and other treasures of the Faith (IV: 419)
The sept-proper of the Great Sept is reached through double-doors in the Hall of Lamps. The floors are of marble, light enters through great windows of leaded, colored glass, and the seven altars are set about with candles (IV: 419)
The Mother and the Maid are the most beloved of the Seven, while the Stranger is the least worshipped (IV: 419)
Jaehaerys the Conciliator swore upon the Iron Throne that the crown would always defend the Faith (IV: 420-421)
When news arrived in Oldtown of the landing of Aegon and his sisters, the High Septon fasted and prayed for seven days and nights under the dome of the Starry Sept in Oldtown. He then announced that the Faith would take not oppose the Targaryens, because the Crone had shown him that to do so would mean the destruction of Oldtown in dragonflame. Lord Hightower, a pious man, kept his forces at Oldtown and would later freely open his gates to Aegon when he came to be anointed by the High Septon (IV: 421)
King Maegor's decree prohibited the Faith from arming itself, and he fought for years in an attempt to repress the militant orders (IV: 422, 458)
The ancient blessed orders known as the Swords and the Stars comprised the Faith Militant, until Maegor's decree. The proper name of the Swords is the Warrior's Son, and it's said they wore fabulous armor over hair shirts and carried swords with crystal stars in their pommels. The Stars were named for their sigil, the red seven-pointed star on white, and were properly called the Poor Fellows. They were far humbler than the other order, for the most part, and were often little more than armed begging brothers who protected the faithful as they travelled from sept to sept and town to town (IV: 422-423)
It's said 900,000 gold dragons could feed the hungry and rebuild a thousand septs (IV: 422)
There are many tales of the Warrior's Sons, with members who were said to have been sorcerers, demonhunters, ascetics, holy men, dragonslayers, and fanatics united in their opposition to anyone that threatend the Holy Faith (IV: 423)
The Seven-Pointed Star states that lives are like candle flames, easily snuffed out by errant winds (IV: 456)
The faithful in their zeal to repent their sins might wear hair shirts, which are uncomfortable and painful to wear (IV: 457)
Some septries, such as the one found on the Quiet Isle, house penitents who swear vows of silence. The Elder Brother and proctors are the only ones who may speak, though the proctors may do so only once in seven days (IV: 461-462)
If a septry is known for its healers, men and women who are injured, or women heavy with child, might seek aid there (IV: 462)
A typical septry might have a windmill, cloisters where the brothers rest, a common hall for meals, and a sept among their larger structures (IV: 464)
The Elder Brother at a septry may depend on how many years they have served at a place, rather than just their age (IV: 464, 470)
The septry at the Quiet Isle has the Hermit's Hole, a cave where a holy hermit took residence and allegedly performed miracles two thousand years before (IV: 464-465)
Much of the furnishings at the Quiet Isle are made from driftwood (IV: 465)
Only septons can hear the confessions of brothers of the Faith, and giving confession is one of the exceptions to vows of silence (IV: 466)
Men and women do not lodge together at a septry, unless they are wed. Sometimes modest cottages are set aside for women who visit the septries (IV: 467)
Aegon the Conqueror treaded lightly with the Faith, so that the militant orders would not oppose him. When he died, however, they were in the thick of the rebellions that his sons faced (IV: 500)
King Maegor put a bounty on members of the Faith Militant: a dragon for the head of a Warrior's Son, and a stag for the scalp of a Poor Fellow. Thousands were killed, but as many still roamed the realm defiantly until Maegor's death and Jaehaerys the Conciliator's agreement to pardon all those who gave up their swords (IV: 500)
Septon Barth wrote of the changing genders of dragons (IV: 520)
It's said that those who are worthy will feast forever in the Father's golden hall in the afterlife (IV: 522)
Baelor the Blessed ordered Septon Barth's writings to be burned (IV: 522)
The Warrior's Sons wear seven-stranded belts, have crystals decorating their sword pommels and the crests of their greathelms, and bear old-fashioned kite-shaped shields which bear the emblem of the rainbow sword upon a black field. Their robes are rainbow-striped (IV: 536, 648)
The full name of the Warrior's Sons is the Noble and Puissant Order of the Warrior's Sons (IV: 536)
The saying of a grace over a meal (IV: 555)
The holy day known as Maiden's Day involves maidens fasting and purifying themselves in preparation, then clad in white they proceed to a sept to light candles at the Maiden's altar and hang paper garlands about or near her depiction. Only maidens can enter the sept and sing the devotional songs of the innocent (IV: 585)
It's suggested that the seven hells are reserved for various kinds of sinners, and that some of them are worse than others in their torments (IV: 586)
There is a book called Lives of the High Septons (IV: 590)
The High Septons used to be able to try men and women for crimes such as high treason, lewdness, fornication, and adultery. Jaehaerys the Conciliator took from them the scales of justice, however (IV: 643, 645, 651)
Of old, the High Septons might appoint seven judges to try a case, and if a woman was accussed, three of them might be women, representing maidens, mothers, and crones (IV: 645, 651)
Novice sisters wear roughspun shifts (IV: 649)
There is a septry on the grounds of the Citadel (IV: 677)
The High Septon is known as Father of the Faithful, Voice of the Seven on Earth (IV: 693)
Knights often light candles to the Warrior while attending tourneys, praying for strength and courage (TMK: 720)
The Stranger rarely has candles burning to him. The Mother and the Father receive the most candles, save perhaps when war or tourney beckons knights and men-at-arms to pray to the Warrior, while the Smith and the Maiden tend to receive fewer devotions (TMK: 720)
The Faith teaches that the Seven walked the hills of Andalos in human form (V: 79)
Andalos is said to have been the realm of Hugor of the Hill (V: 79)
From The Seven-Pointed Star: "The Father reached his hand into the heavens and pulled down seven stars, and one by one he set them on the brow of Hugor of the Hill to make a glowing crown" (V: 79, 80)
There are a number of holy books (V: 79)
The Seven-Pointed Star concerning Hugor of the Hill: "The Maid brough him forth a girl as supple as a willow with eyes like deep blue pools, and Hugor declared that he would have her for his bride. So the Mother made her fertile, and the Crone foretold that she would bear the king four-and-forty might sons. The Warrior gave strength to their arms, whilst the Smith wrough for each a suit of iron plates" (V: 80)
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 (SSM: 1)
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 (SSM: 1)
Dorne accepted the High Septon even after Maegor the Cruel and Jaehaerys the Concilator disarmed the Faith and carried undue influence over the Faith (SSM: 1)
Septs raised as part of a castle or its grounds are the property of the lords of the castle (SSM: 1)
Baelor the Blessed was a peace-loving king, and never considered rearming the Faith (SSM: 1)