Faith Militant

The Faith Militant was the military order of the Faith of the Seven, the dominant religion in the Seven Kingdoms. They served the will of the High Septon and enforced the word of The Seven-Pointed Star by force of arms. They were disbanded centuries ago upon the reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, following the order's bloody war with Maegor Targaryen, known as Maegor the Cruel.
Nonetheless, they were revived during later stages of the War of the Five Kings when a fanatical faction of the Faith of the Seven, commonly known as "Sparrows" and their leader the "High Sparrow", became aligned with Queen Dowager Cersei Lannister. Cersei manipulated her son, King Tommen Baratheon, to name the High Sparrow as the High Septon and to reinstate the Faith Militant in return for using them as allies against the Tyrells.
After being reinstated, the Faith Militant began enforcing their strict religious values on the nobility and smallfolk alike. They harassed inhabitants of King's Landing who engaged in acts they deemed as sinful, such as street vendors selling idols from other religions or nobles visiting local brothels. They later grew bolder and arrested Ser Loras Tyrell and Queen Margaery Tyrell. On the High Sparrow's orders, they eventually even turned on Cersei herself by arresting her for several crimes including regicide, incest, and adultery. Cersei eventually admitted to adultery with her cousin Lancel Lannister, who had joined the Faith Militant, which resulted in her making a walk of atonement.
Eventually, Cersei was put on the trial for the crimes she continued to deny but instead of going to the Great Sept of Baelor to face them, she eliminated the Sparrows, their leader and the recently created Faith Militant when she destroyed the Great Sept of Baelor on the day of her trial, having the wildfire planted there by Aerys II Targaryen ignited."The Winds of Winter"
After the Great Sept of Baelor was destroyed, it is yet to be seen if whatever remains of the Faith of the Seven will try to recreate the Faith Militant or if they will submit to the will of Cersei, now Queen on the Iron Throne.
Members of the Faith Militant typically garbed themselves in rough-spun robes of dyed black wool, which they fasten around their waists with chains. They arm themselves with clubs, maces, and cudgels. To show their absolute devotion, they carved their foreheads with the Seven-Pointed Star, the symbol of the Faith of the Seven.
== Prominent members ==
* Brother {Lancel}, formerly Ser Lancel Lannister
*Brother {Loras}, last to be accepted in the Faith Militant
* Brother {Boake}
===Historical members===
*Damon Morrigen, commander of the Faith Militant during the uprising
== History ==
===Background===
The Faith Militant traces its roots to the original Andal Invaders who set out to conquer Westeros. The Andals had carved the Seven-Pointed Star into their foreheads, a practice that the Faith Militant would adopt. As Andal Warriors fought the First Men, Septons had attempted to convert them, and were met with the same brutality. Eventually many of the Faith's followers took up the sword to defend and preserve it from its enemies, and so the Faith Militant was founded.
Following Aegon's Conquest, though Aegon I Targaryen had simultaneously broken the Faith of the Seven's rules against incest and polygamy (as he was married to both his sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys), and none of the siblings were wholly devoted to the Faith, the Faith wasn't in much position to oppose the victorious Targaryen armies or the dragons. Aegon I however, understood to tread lightly with the Faith, and both sides came to agree that incestuous marriage was a relic of the past destined to fade. Aegon I intended for the practice to end in the future generations of his dynasty and promised it to the Faith, who in return did not press the matter for the remainder of his life.
When Aegon’s eldest son, King Aenys Targaryen, wed his daughter Princess Rhaena to his son Prince Aegon, it was met with outrage as the agreement with Aegon I was broken. This would spark the Faith Militant uprising, in which the High Septon denounced the Targaryen Dynasty and many noble lords followed their lead, attacking the Targaryens and their followers. Aenys proved to be inept in the face of the revolt and was completely overwhelmed. The lords who supported him were attacked by the Faith Militant all across the Seven Kingdoms, and members of the Faith Militant nearly killed Aenys and his family when they scaled the partially completed walls of the Red Keep, but failed due to the efforts of the Kingsguard.
After Aenys died, he was succeeded by his younger half brother, Maegor the Cruel, who seized power ahead of Aenys's children and struck back against the Faith Militant. Maegor's first act when arriving in King's Landing was to challenge the Faith Militant's leaders in personal combat, to which they accepted. Ser Damon Morrigen, a leader of the Faith Militant, proposed a trial by seven—the more dangerous but theoretically more holy variant of a traditional trial by combat. Ser Damon and six of the Faith Militant fought Maegor and six members of the Kingsguard. Out of the fourteen men, only Maegor himself was said to have lived and proved that the throne was rightfully his.
After surviving the trial by seven, Maegor promptly mounted his father's dragon, Balerion, flew to the local Faith Militant chapter's headquarters at the Sept of Remembrance, and burned it down with hundreds of members inside in the middle of the morning prayers. Maegor demanded the complete destruction of the Faith Militant and made war on the order wherever he found it. The order refused to surrender and instead raised their own armies and won over many lords who supported Maegor. The uprising would last for the duration of Maegor's reign.
After Maegor's death, his nephew, Jaehaerys I, was crowned king and made peace with the Faith, in return for the disbanding of the Faith Militant, ending the uprisings and ushering in an era of peace."The Faith Militant"
===Game of Thrones: Season 5===
The Faith Militant is reestablished during the rule of King Tommen I Baratheon by the order of the Queen Mother, Cersei Lannister, who seeks the support of the High Sparrow and the Faith of the Seven in her power struggle against House Tyrell. Their purpose is ostensibly to protect the faithful and the clergy from attacks and abuses, but they swiftly start imposing their puritanical views upon King's Landing. Formed from the ranks of the most devoted among the Sparrows, the new Faith Militant storm the streets of King's Landing, attacking taverns, brothels, and street vendors selling idols from other religions. The City Watch look on, helpless, and do not intervene. They ransack Littlefinger's brothel, dragging prostitutes like Marei out into the street by their hair. Olyvar is struck and ignored as they barge in. Olyvar hears screams coming from another room, which he approaches to see the Sparrows have singled out a male client having sex with one of the male prostitutes. The Sparrows assault the customer and prostitute with knives and hurl homophobic slurs against them. One Sparrow approaches one of the men with a knife. Olyvar flees as one of the men screams off-screen.
Lancel leads a group of Sparrows to arrest Ser Loras Tyrell for his sexual relationships with other men."Sons of the Harpy" During the inquest into the charges of fornication, buggery, and blasphemy against the knight, Margaery Tyrell offers false testimony, which is debunked by a witness secretly arranged by Queen Cersei and Lord Baelish: Olyvar, who had a relationship with Ser Loras. Olyvar's testimony convinces the High Septon to bring Loras to a full trial, and also to arrest Margaery for perjury and blasphemy."Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken"
Ironically, Cersei herself is then arrested by the Faith: secretly pushed by Lady Olenna Tyrell and Lord Baelish, Lancel, Cersei's cousin and former lover and now a member of the Faith Militant, confesses their adulterous affair to the High Sparrow, as well the queen's relationship with her brother, Ser Jaime Lannister, and Lancel's own involvement in Cersei's murder of King Robert."The Gift" After being held for several days, Cersei eventually confesses the adultery with Lancel in order to get back to her son King Tommen, though she still denies the incest with Jaime and the murder of King Robert. The High Sparrow agrees to let her go until the trial that will ascertain the truth of the regicide and incest, but first she must perform a walk of atonement. As Cersei performs her walk, naked and shamed through the streets of King's Landing, she is escorted by six members of the Faith Militant to protect her from the hostile crowds."Mother's Mercy"
===Game of Thrones: Season 6===
The moment Queen Margaery Tyrell's walk of atonement is about to commence, House Tyrell troops led by Mace Tyrell intervene to prevent the public humiliation. The force is spearheaded by Jaime Lannister, who rides up the stairway of the Great Sept of Baelor to confront the High Sparrow personally. He demands that Margaery and Loras be released, threatening to destroy the Faith Militant if they fail to comply. The High Sparrow then outmaneuvers Jaime and the Tyrells by announcing the cancellation of the walk of atonement, and reveals a formation of a new alliance between the faith and the crown. To everyone's shock, King Tommen emerges from the Great Sept accompanied by his own guards and takes his wife's hand. Olenna Tyrell bitterly notes that the High Sparrow has beaten them."Blood of My Blood"
Some time later, members of the Faith Militant led by Brother Lancel go to the Red Keep to demand Cersei go with them, as the High Sparrow requests her presence at the Sept of Baelor. Cersei refuses their petition as she recalls the High Sparrow promised to let her stay in the Red Keep until the day of her trial. But Lancel rebuffs this and orders the members of the Faith Militant to take her by force. However, the queen's guard, Ser Gregor Clegane, prevents this, ripping off the head of one of the Faith Militant's Brothers, forcing Brother Lancel to back down and leave.
Later, King Tommen decrees that after an agreement with the High Sparrow, trial by combat is now forbidden in the Seven Kingdoms and his mother Cersei and Ser Loras Tyrell will face trial in the Sept of Baelor on the first day of the Festival of the Mother."No One"
During the day of the trial at the Sept, Ser Loras confesses his crimes to the seven septons appointed as judges (including the High Sparrow), and in exchange for mercy he agrees to relinquish his lordship and name and devote his life to serving the Faith. After accepting his confession, the High Sparrow then instructs some of the Faith Militant to carve the seven pointed star into Loras' forehead, as they begin preparing to start Queen Cersei's trial.
After noticing that Cersei is not present at the Sept, Brother Lancel informs the High Sparrow about it, and he is ordered to go and retrieve her. As he leaves the Sept to go to the Red Keep, Lancel notices Arthur, a little boy working for Qyburn, and follows him below the Sept in an attempt to catch him. He is stabbed in the spine, and left to discover a cache of wildfire about to be set off with lit candles.
Inside the Sept, Queen Margaery attempts to convince the High Sparrow that Cersei is planning something: she knows full well the consequences of not being present at her own trial, and yet she has chosen to fail to appear anyway. The High Sparrow arrogantly rejects Margaery's claim, clearly believing not even Cersei would dare defy the orders of the Faith Militant after the walk of shame she was forced to endure. He therefore refuses to let anyone leave, even at the request or (later) demands of the queen.
Beneath the Sept, Brother Lancel struggles to stop the wildfire—which is about to ignite—but he fails to reach the candles to douse them in time. The normal flame reaching the green alchemical liquid results in a massive explosion, which utterly destroys the Great Sept of Baelor and kills everyone inside, as well as some innocent bystanders outside.
==In the books==
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Faith Militant is the collective name of two military orders: the Warrior's Sons and the Poor Fellows. They were also known as the "Swords and Stars" for their symbols: the sword for the Warrior's Sons and the star for the Poor Fellows. The TV series apparently simply condensed them into one order, "the Faith Militant".
The Warrior's Sons were the higher order, composed of knights and younger sons of high lords. Similar to the Night's Watch or Kingsguard, noblemen who join the Warrior's Sons swore to give up all inheritance, marry no wives, and father no children. Their swords were sworn directly to the service of the High Septon. They were named specifically for the Warrior, one of the aspects of the seven-in-one godhead, who represents martial prowess (i.e. if this were Greek mythology, they would be called "Ares's Sons"). The Warrior's Sons tended to be well-trained and well-equipped knights and had a reputation for fanaticism and brutality against enemies of the Faith.
The Poor Fellows were the lower order, whose members were commoners. Women could not join the Warrior's Sons, but they could join the Poor Fellows (few if any women would have the professional martial training and expensive military equipment to join the Warrior's Sons). The Poor Fellows were vastly more numerous than the Warrior's Sons, though this was their only advantage. Its members tended to be poor penitents with nothing to lose by joining the order, armed with only axes and clubs. The sheer numbers of the Poor Fellows could be overwhelming, however, and they could quickly replenish their forces—given that potentially anyone who followed the Faith of the Seven and who could swing a club could become a Poor Fellow.
The banner of the Warrior's Sons was a rainbow-colored sword shining in the darkness—rainbows are more commonly used in the novels as a symbol of the Faith, because they are one beam of light refracted into seven colors, and thus a metaphor for the Seven-in-One God. The TV series consistently avoided showing such symbols, apparently because they might be seen as silly by casual viewers. The Poor Fellows, meanwhile, used banners or simple badges consisting of a red Seven-Pointed Star—just like the normal Seven-Pointed Star symbols found throughout most of Westeros, which were thus easy to acquire, though they made sure to color them in red (apparently to signify battle). The TV series simplified both orders into just "the Faith Militant", and didn't specifically give them a new banner so much as they just used the Seven-Pointed Star very prominently—though the TV series has usually used a red Seven-Pointed star for them, which does mirror the banner of the Poor Fellows from the novels.
Unlike in the show, members of the Faith Militant are not required to carve the Seven-Pointed Star symbol onto their foreheads. Most of them paint the star on their brows or sew a badge of it to their clothes. Only the zealous among them carve the star into their chests, not their foreheads.
After Aegon's Conquest, the Faith of the Seven had tense relations with the new Targaryen kings, due to the incestuous marriages of brother to sister practiced by House Targaryen to "keep the bloodline pure". Even Aegon the Conqueror tread lightly around the Faith, and was able to placate them during his reign. The Faith's leaders never approved of Aegon I's incestuous marriages and bloodline, but they did not openly speak out against it either, in a grudging and unspoken truce. After Aegon I died, however, the Faith did rise up against his two sons, Aenys and Maegor. While they had no sisters to marry, Aenys eventually grew foolhardy enough that four years into his reign he announced the marriage of his son and daughter, at which point the Faith exploded into open rebellion. The Faith Militant uprising spread across southern Westeros, and lasted throughout the rest of Aenys's reign—which lasted less than a year—and subsequently throughout Maegor's six-year reign. Maegor would brutally crush the Faith Militant's armies but they inflicted grievous casualties on his forces, and new popular revolts under the banner of the Poor Fellows popped up faster than he could destroy them. Maegor enacted laws forbidding any holy man to carry weapons—later known as Maegor's Laws—while putting a bounty on the lives of members of the Faith Militant: a Gold Dragon for the scalp of a Warrior's Son, a Silver Stag for one of a Poor Fellow.
The uprisings only ended after Maegor died and his nephew, Aenys's son Jaehaerys I, took the throne. Jaehaerys was a very skilled diplomat and negotiated a peace with the Faith of the Seven, for which he is remembered as Jaehaerys the Conciliator. The compromise he reached was that the Iron Throne would always defend the Faith, whereas the Faith did not have to approve of the Targaryens' incestuous bloodline and marriages; they simply had to acknowledge them. The Targaryens would be able to get away with breaking this social rule due to their special royal status. The Faith would also have to accept the laws which forbid holy men to carry weapons and disband the Faith Militant, but otherwise would be left unmolested by the crown. The Faith's leaders accepted, and peace was restored. As a result, the Faith Militant has not existed for about 250 years by the time of the War of the Five Kings.
A slight difference with the Faith Militant's revival is that in the TV series, Cersei suggests it to the High Sparrow (and even made the High Sparrow the new High Septon) as a political bribe, thinking the new Faith Militant would therefore be loyal to her. In the novels, the Sparrows stormed the election held by the Most Devout and forced them to elect the High Sparrow as the new High Septon. Further, while the crown owed about three million gold dragons to House Lannister and about two million Gold Dragons to the Iron Bank of Braavos, House Tyrell, and several Tyroshi trading cartels (together), it owed nearly one million Gold Dragons to the Faith of the Seven, which it has also heavily borrowed from. The High Sparrow refuses to acknowledge Tommen, and denies Cersei's request that the Faith simply forgive the massive debts the crown owes them, but says that he will give in to her requests on the condition that the crown grant him the right to reform the Faith Militant. Thus in the TV series reforming the Faith Militant was Cersei's idea (knowing the High Sparrow would be tempted by the offer), while in the novels it was the High Sparrow's idea. Either way, even in the novels, Cersei's decision to accept such an outlandish request is seen as absurd. She thinks she can handle the Faith Militant and doesn't understand that having the debts to the Faith forgiven in exchange for letting them have their own army is just trading one problem for another. Accepting the request to rearm the Faith Militant is also the specific point at which even Pycelle realizes that Cersei is too unstable and unintelligent to be allowed to remain in power, leading to him eventually side against Cersei with her uncle Kevan.
As soon as the two original orders of the Faith Militant are reformed, the Sparrows join the Poor Fellows. 
The Blu-ray commentaries explained that this change—Cersei herself coming up with the idea to re-arm the Faith Militant—was made to make her complicity in her own downfall all the more apparent. It was a bit too convoluted to quickly convey on-screen that accepting a request to re-arm the Faith Militant was absurd, and several other terrible decisions Cersei made at this point in the novels were also cut (outright insulting the representative of the Iron Bank and refusing to pay off the loans, using the loan she took from the Faith to rebuild the royal fleet at kingdom-beggaring cost, etc.). Thus the writers wanted to make the main thematic point clear that no single outside group managed to bring Cersei down: more than anything else, her downfall was due to her own staggering inability to rule effectively.Season 5 Blu-ray commentary
==References==
===Notes===
==External links==
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Category:Faith of the Seven
Category:Military organizations
Category:Religious organizations
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