You theorized in a recent post that a noble family sending a son to be trained as a maester “gets you either a free maester or a discount because the Citadel wants to get literate novices who know how to behave around highborns.” Is this based on any historical practice, such as noble families sending sons or be priests getting them benefits with the church?

Well, it’s kind of extrapolating in reverse – the historical practice was that you sent your son to the Church, and then the son often got a posting in the area so that he could provide religious services to the family, so you were getting something in exchange.

But because the Citadel doesn’t assign maesters to their own families, and seems to try to assign maesters to different regions, as a means of ensuring political neutrality, you need something to balance the books.