Most Devout

The Most Devout is the senior clerical body of the Faith of the Seven and the assembly responsible for choosing the High Septon. Its influence extended beyond religious office: the succession to the crystal crown could affect the standing of the Iron Throne, the Targaryen marriage tradition, and the balance between the Faith and powerful noble houses. In Jaehaerys Targaryen’s reign, an election that began amid court anxiety became a contest over who could define the Faith’s policy toward the Crown.

Place in the Faith and Public Life

The Most Devout appears in the account both as a body of senior religious figures and as an electoral assembly convened to choose the High Septon. Its members could gather in Oldtown’s Starry Sept, where the election took place, and some wore the cloth-of-silver associated with the group. The account does not set out a formal constitution or a complete procedure for membership; it does show that the body’s decisions carried religious and political weight throughout the realm.

That public standing was visible at the wedding of Rogar Baratheon and the Dowager Queen Alyssa. Donnel Hightower came from Oldtown with a large retinue that included seventy-seven members of the Most Devout, accompanying the High Septon. Their presence made the ceremony more than a royal family celebration: the Faith’s senior clergy were represented at a gathering attended by lords from across the Seven Kingdoms and visitors from beyond them. The wedding also brought political business to court, as lords sought to meet the King’s Hand and assess the young king, Jaehaerys.

Divisions over Targaryen Marriage

The group did not speak with one unquestioned voice on the Targaryen practice of sibling marriage. Some among the Most Devout continued to bristle at the tradition, and the question was politically urgent when Jaehaerys and Alysanne intended to marry. The Queen Regent, Alyssa, feared a renewed religious backlash like the one that had followed the marriage of Aegon and Rhaena. Septon Mattheus, a member of the Most Devout who had stayed in King’s Landing, supported her concern. He warned that a marriage between the royal siblings could be seen as a grave affront to the pious and might provoke unrest.

At that moment the sitting High Septon was cautious and accommodating, making a denunciation from Oldtown seem unlikely while he remained in office. But his age and declining health made that reassurance uncertain. Jaehaerys later judged that the earlier marriage crisis had been made worse by the breakdown in understanding between the Iron Throne and the Starry Sept. He believed the Most Devout’s reservations still mattered, even if the Faith’s current leader was not inclined to act on them. Rather than rely on a quiet High Septon, the king sought a successor who would make Exceptionalism—the doctrine defending the Targaryen marriage custom—official Faith policy.

The Election of Septon Alfyn

When the High Septon died, the Most Devout was to assemble in the Starry Sept and elect his successor. Jaehaerys initially favored Septon Barth, one of his trusted advisers, but Barth persuaded him that he was too young, too little known, and not even a member of the Most Devout. The king and his council agreed that Septon Mattheus must not be chosen, in part because his earlier warnings had left the Crown distrustful of him. The council considered bribery, a show of force, and even arranging a sudden death; Jaehaerys rejected these proposals and decided to travel to Oldtown with Alysanne.

There, the king’s concern was not the new High Septon’s birth or family, but whether he would support Exceptionalism. Donnel Hightower, meanwhile, hoped that one of his own relatives would receive the office. In 54 AC, the Hightower family had numerous members serving the Faith: Donnel’s younger brother, two nephews, and six cousins were among them, and four wore the cloth-of-silver of the Most Devout. After private discussions between the king and Donnel, the two sides reached an understanding. Agents of both the Crown and House Hightower were present among the electors, though most members did not know of their involvement.

The election required four ballots. Mattheus led the first, as expected, but did not secure enough votes; his support then diminished on each subsequent ballot. On the fourth, the Most Devout broke with tradition by selecting Septon Alfyn, who was not one of their own members. Alfyn had travelled through the Reach repeatedly as one of the Seven Speakers for Jaehaerys and Alysanne, and he was a forceful supporter of Exceptionalism. The choice therefore met the king’s central objective: the new High Septon would champion the doctrine and help prevent the Starry Sept from again challenging the Targaryen marriage tradition.

Patronage, Influence, and Cost

The election was also a negotiation over future influence. Jaehaerys assured Donnel that a Hightower would succeed Alfyn, provided Donnel’s kin aligned themselves firmly with the Exceptionalists during Alfyn’s tenure. The arrangement linked the Faith’s highest office to the interests of a great Oldtown family while advancing the Crown’s religious policy. Septon Barth accepted the account of the bargain, though he regretted how readily the Most Devout could be influenced by worldly power. In his view, when the gods did not make their choice clear, kings and lords made their own voices heard.

Alfyn’s appointment was not simply a private victory for the king. It demonstrated that the Most Devout’s electoral authority could be shaped by royal negotiation, noble patronage, and the candidates’ positions on doctrine. The account also notes a limit to the Crown’s control: the electors still had to cast their ballots, and the outcome unfolded over four rounds rather than by direct appointment. The election’s consequence was lasting enough to matter beyond Alfyn himself, since Jaehaerys’s agreement with Donnel anticipated a Hightower successor aligned with the same religious position.

The group’s vulnerability to disease became stark during the Shivers of 59–60 AC. Oldtown lost a quarter of its population; the High Septon died, as did forty members of the Most Devout, alongside a third of the Citadel’s archmaesters, maesters, acolytes, and novices. The deaths depleted the religious leadership as well as the city’s learned community. Across these episodes, the Most Devout emerges as neither a merely ceremonial gathering nor a unified political actor: it was an electoral institution whose choices could legitimize policy, attract noble patronage, and become a point of pressure between the Faith and the monarchy.