Following on from the Maester question, any thoughts on Qyburn, Vyman and Colemon?
I’m surprised that anybody was interested in those headcanons. Glad you liked them!
Colemon is described as “young” by Pycelle and Lady Anya, but he’s also balding. He was also serving Jon Arryn for some time before his death, which makes me think he’s older than 25ish Pylos/Willamen Frey; so maybe he’s mid 30s. I’ll say he’s a Stormlander of some notable birth, maybe to a lordly house
I don’t have any evidence for the Stormlander other than Colemon sounds like Cole or even Colen (knight of Greenpools). As for the notable birth, well, Pycelle was somewhat close to him (saying he’s like a son) and it definitely wasn’t because of his natural skill at healing. Yet somehow, despite his noted youth and inexperience, he’s Maester to the second most important man in the realm. He must’ve had amazing references, and I’m guessing since they’re not skill-based, they’re family based
Stormlander noblemen are noted for their martial prowess. Coleman grew up with many tall (which he also is) warlike older brothers. He went to the Citadel as a teen after showing little skill at arms, and inadvertently after the Rebellion broke out was one of the few novices of “rebel” houses in the royalist hotbed Oldtown, causing him to dislike his time there
Took the same crash courses that the young Maesters do with medicine, ravencraft, history, and economy. He immersed himself in all the key texts, but was less efficient practically. Had difficulty passing the exams due to nervousness, as well as little faith in defending his own ideas (instead citing the works of others)
Pycelle took note of him due to his family name and that he’d quoted many of his own writings on economy during his exam. Seeing him as an intelligent but unimaginative follower, he was involved with conclave assigning Colemon to Jon Arryn when his old maester passed away, about 4 years before canon
Headcanons on Vyman and Qyburn under the cut:
Vyman is described as “old with lined hands”, so I’ll say he’s from the same generation as Pycelle/Cressen, in his late 70s. I’ll say he’s from the Vale originally, and maybe of decently distinguished birth
I say the Vale because the most characterization we get out of him is when he shows Cat the letter that Bran and Rickon are dead first thing in the morning, which she notes as “dutiful but not kind” as well as continuing to serve Emmon Frey with Riverrun’s surrender. That characterization sort of feels right for the Vale, who in fandom are stereotyped as proper/sticklers for the rules, as well as being mostly neutral in the wars thus far. As for the high birth, he carries himself with confidence, shutting Catelyn’s questions down with a “I was commanded not to speak to you”, whereas maybe a less confident person would’ve cracked under the interrogation
Studied at the Citadel for a long time, as it seems he was already an older man by the time he replaced Maester Kym at Riverrun. Most of his links were in the practical subjects such as ravencraft, economy, and above all medicine
Qyburn is noticeably younger than Pycelle, with hair more gray than white, and still tall and strong. I’ll put him as a contemporary of the also gray-haired Luwin, in his mid 60s. Because he’s such a foil to Pycelle as the Lannister-aligned Maester on the Small Council—even doing the same ostentatious dress routine once he gets the money—I’ll give him the similar backstory of from around the Oldtown area and possibly a foundling
I think it’s pretty obvious that as someone trying to ingratiate himself with the Lannisters, and traveling with an extremely brutal mercenary company in shabby clothing, that Qyburn had no “safety net” of a wealthy family on which to rely. Thus him being dechained and ejected from the Citadel was throwing him from the only life he’d known, and he resents the “gray sheep” for their narrow views. Nor does he know the Lannister situation well to bring Pia to Jaime, so I don’t think he’s from the Westerlands. I like the idea of him being from the Blackcrown area because it’s close enough to Oldtown but not in the city proper, the legendary founder of House Bulwer was said to get extremely strong drinking bull’s blood (Robert Strong parallels here), there’s the singing cliffs with its wind whistles off the twisted towers (Qyburn’s fascination with ghosts here), plus the maester is a cousin of the Tyrells.
Also GRRM likes to use young kids tormenting animals as a sign of evil (see: Maegor, Joffrey, Aerion), so I can just imagine kid!Qyburn living in a fishing village, utterly fascinated by the fact that sea cucumbers can eviscerate themselves when seriously threatened—literally eject their intestines at their pursuer—and still grow it all back after a few months. It makes sense for his first experiments to be on living animals before he “graduated” to the humans that eventually got him dechained
He studied primarily under Ebrose (healing) as per canon, and Marwyn (magic). He assisted Ebrose with gathering accounts of men suffering from Sothoryi diseases, but he grew impatient with just learning from texts and corpses, eventually deciding the maester was holding back progress by refusing to vivisect the patients. Marwyn he respected more, as he didn’t discount his stranger ideas about the residue of souls, wasn’t afraid to consort with strange Essosi sorcerers and hedge witches, nor did he respect the hard rules of the Citadel. He was sometimes joined in lectures by Luwin, also a student of magic, though Luwin quickly became skeptical and disliked Qyburn’s “ingratiating” attitude
It was through Marwyn’s fellowships at the docks that Qyburn signed on with the Brave Companions as the Maester, which back then was mostly Essosi. Part of being a sellsword meant he had to learn basic combat skills, and used a polearm due to its long reach. Needless to say, he also doubled as the company torturer
¡Las palabras de un poeta oscuro Son asesinas cortantes y dolorosas Pero luego sus sentimientos son reales, tan reales que la traición Es como una lanza llena de odio capaz de atravesar lo que más quería Capaz de suicidarse así mismo lentamente y mentalmente Pero solo trata a su víctima como alimento es como si fuera caníbal de pensamiento "Especiales" Es como si todo fuera un libro caminante y observador! VYMAN...EV. #vyman #ev #by_idem #frases #escritos #simplespalabras (Texto por @evilwrite y edición by_idem) https://www.instagram.com/p/Br37-TaHuey/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=t4ac3ugok9u0
"Me gusta cuando evades el mundo por mi Pero luego me haces sentir efímero, cuando me esquivas por el.." VYMAN... EV #vyman #ev #by_idem #frases #escritos #poesia (Texto @evilwrite, edición y fotografía by_idem) https://www.instagram.com/p/Brt4SYFFPz2/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=nncplaxlcl5z
"Mi mente es un estado efímero Cada pensamiento asesina mis horas Es como si mi espíritu fuera un cuervo Es como si mis ojos se cristalizaran al pasar de una tormenta amarga Escucho melodías abstractas con mis propias letras Cada letra es una cuchilla hambrienta..." VYMAN.. EV. #by_idem #EV #VYMAN #escritos #frases #poesia (texto de @evilwrite, edición y fotografía by_idem) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrgWKTtl2--/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1w3chzsip99ff
