Silent Sisters

The Silent Sisters are associated in the chronicles with two distinct duties: a possible religious life for royal women and the preparation of the dead for their funeral rites. The evidence gives no account of their internal organization, but its contrasting references show how the same institution could be invoked as a destination for the living and summoned for a king’s corpse.

Funeral Duties

When King Viserys died, the Silent Sisters were summoned to prepare his body for burning. Their appearance in the account is brief but establishes a specific role in royal funerary practice: they were called upon to prepare the dead before the cremation. The passage does not describe their methods or any further part they played in the ceremony.

A Possible Vocation for Daella

The Silent Sisters were also raised as a possible future for Princess Daella Targaryen when her parents discussed whether she would marry. Jaehaerys considered that she might have to enter their service if she would not wed, but preferred to find her a gentle husband who would protect and cherish her. Alysanne then offered Daella a choice of three suitors. The exchange presents the Silent Sisters as a contingency considered by the king, not a vocation Daella was ultimately sent to pursue.

Saera’s Novitiate

Princess Saera Targaryen was sent from King’s Landing to Oldtown after her parents decided she required punishment. The announcement described her as a novice destined for the Silent Sisters, and her sister Maegelle was to oversee her instruction. Septon Barth later maintained that the sentence was meant as a lesson: Jaehaerys did not expect Saera to become a septa, still less a Silent Sister, but hoped that prayer, discipline, and contemplation would lead her toward redemption.

Saera endured the novice regimen for a year and a half, then fled the motherhouse in 85 AC. Her disappearance made clear that the announced religious future had not become a lasting one. A year later she was found in a pleasure garden in Lys, still dressed as a novice. Her story therefore records an attempted placement under the institution’s discipline, not a completed vocation.