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A maester forges his chain with study. The different metals are each a different kind of learning, gold for the study of money and accounts, silver for healing, iron for warcraft. The collar is supposed to remind a maester of the realm he serves, isn’t that so? Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can’t make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people. And the Night’s Watch needs all sorts too.