Steven Xue: How does the Night’s Watch get their Maesters?

One thing about the Watch I don’t get is how they receive their Maesters? We know that for Aemon, he already had undergone training as a Maester when he volunteered to join the Night’s Watch so I suppose in his case it made sense for him to take over when his predecessor died (assuming they had one at all at the time). He was a rather special case since he was already qualified but in other times I don’t think that is how the Maesters at Castle Black are normally replaced.  

In any case I have no doubt that whoever becomes Maester to the Night’s Watch will have to be one of their comrades (eg Aemon). This makes me wonder if whenever the Watch needs a Maester they would just send the most learned of their order to the Citadel to be trained as one (as was the case with Sam) or like everywhere else the Citadel just appoints one for them who then gets initiated into their order.

I also wonder why despite his advanced age Aemon never took on an apprentice to take over in case he suddenly passes away. Even though he had stewards aiding him with his day to day duties, he didn’t seem to have an understudy until Sam came along. Did he expect the Citadel will send a replacement when the time comes?

I think it’s more common for the Citadel to just send a new one. Aemon is a bit of an unusual case – as you say, he was already a maester and volunteered, but he also lived an extraordinary long time, so there wasn’t a need for replacements in a long time. 

However, I would push back on the apprenticeship point, because that’s not how maesters work. Remember, you have to build your chain by studying under different maesters and then be judged by an archmaester chosen by the conclave as an expert in that field. This way, the order as a whole controls the certification of maesters, and the loyalty of a maester is to the institution rather than to their former master.