Why Sam going to the Citadel is so important

Potential Spoilers Below

The White Tower is the tallest building in the Aes Sedai compound in Tar Valon. It is both home and training grounds to Aes Sedai, those training to become Aes Sedai, and Warders.  It is a bone-white tower nearly 100 spans (around 600 feet) in height. Its roof is flat-topped with a waist-high railing.

Tar Valon

The island of Tar Valon is eight miles long and more than two miles across at its widest point. The city fills the entire island, bar an Ogier grove, which is the only one within a major city still maintained and kept as a garden. The buildings of Tar Valon are noted for being graceful, tall, and sometimes linked together by unique “skybridges”. The White Tower is, in fact, the tallest structure in the known world. The city doesn't just rely on its island location for defense, but also on its walls, which stretch along the full length of the banks of the island. The city is centered on the White Tower and its grounds.

The city is linked to the mainland by six bridges, each one of which is a mighty feat of engineering in its own right. Even the shortest bridge is still almost a mile long and gracefully arches from the island to the shore. It isn't said whether or not the Aes Sedai helped to build Tar Valon's magnificent buildings and bridges as they helped build the White Tower or the Stone of Tear, however much of Tar Valon was definitely built by Ogier stonemasons.

The six bridges leading out of Tar Valon end at villages on both sides of the River Erinin. Darein, Jualdhe, and Alindaer lie on the west bank, and Lugagde, Daghain, and Osenrein sit on the east bank. One small hamlet further inland, Dorlan, is so small that it has no inn.

The Citadel is the seat of the Order of Maesters, the learned men who advise the lords of the Seven Kingdoms on matters scientific, medical, and historical. It is located in the city of Oldtown in the far southwest of the continent.  The Citadel is located in Oldtown, in the Reach.

Hightower

Oldtown

The Citadel was founded many centuries ago to promote and increase learning and knowledge in Westeros. It is administered by the Conclave, the ruling council of archmaesters. The Citadel is also where young men from the entire continent are trained to become Maesters.

In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Citadel is described as a university-like complex of buildings extending along both banks of the River Honeywine in Oldtown, linked by graceful bridges. The Isle of Ravens is the oldest part of the Citadel and the site of the ravenry, from where the maesters send messenger ravens out to all parts of the Seven Kingdoms. Other locations of note in the Citadel include the Seneschal's Court, Weeping Dock, and Scribe's Hearth.

Oldtown is famed for its meandering, cobbled streets and many fine inns and septs. It has an immense port which plays host to ships from across the Seven Kingdoms, as well as the Free Cities and even the distant Summer Islands. The port and the entire city is dominated by the HighTower, a massive, seven-sided, stepped lighthouse rising from Battle Island. More than 800 feet high, it is the tallest structure in Westeros, higher even than the Wall. It serves as House Hightower's keep, as well as a lighthouse.

Time to go to school:

The White Tower is where Novices and Accepted are trained by Sisters or Aes Sedai to see if they have what it takes to reach the Shawl to become full Sisters or Aes Sedai.

The Citadel is where the novices and acolytes are trained by Archmaesters and maesters.  The Archmaesters determine if their students have sufficient knowledge to gain each link in their chain.

Only women are allowed to train at the White Tower and only men are allowed to train at the Citadel.  When you enter the White Tower you become a Novice.  When you enter the Citadel you also become a Novice.  When you have learned enough to be dangerous in the White Tower you become an Accepted; in the Citadel you become an Acolyte.  When you have graduated in the White Tower you become an Aes Sedia or Sister and are given a “Shawl”.  When you complete your training in the Citadel you become a “Maester” and you have completed a chain that you wear about your neck.

Aes Sedai Shawl

Maester's Chain; it is described as a choker chain in the books

“Moiraine Damodred, you will spend tonight in prayer and contemplation of the burdens you will take up on the morrow, when you don the shawl of an Aes Sedai. It is done.” For a third time she clapped her hands together.

Moiraine Damodred

Armen the Acolyte cleared his throat. “The night before an acolyte says his vows, he must stand a vigil in the vault. No lantern is permitted him, no torch, no lamp, no taper . . . only a candle of obsidian. He must spend the night in darkness, unless he can light that candle. Some will try. The foolish and the stubborn, those who have made a study of these so-called higher mysteries. Often they cut their fingers, for the ridges on the candles are said to be as sharp as razors. Then, with bloody hands, they must wait upon the dawn, brooding on their failure. Wiser men simply go to sleep, or spend their night in prayer, but every year there are always a few who must try.”

Both the White Tower and the Citadel hold vast libraries. 

There are twelve publicly known Depositories, each having books and records pertaining to a particular subject, or to related subjects. A Thirteenth Depository, known only to some Aes Sedai, contains secret documents, records and histories which may be accessed only by the Amyrlin Seat, the Keeper of the Chronicles and the Sitters in the Hall of the Tower. And, of course, by that handful of librarians who maintain the depository.  The library at the White Tower held information about the past that when brought to light helped them fight and win the Last Battle. 

An Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah in the Library

What Loial did.

“It soon became obvious, even within the stedding, that the Pattern was growing frail. The sky darkened. Our dead appeared, standing in rings outside the borders of the stedding, looking in. Most troublingly, trees fell ill, and no song would heal them.

It was in this time of sorrows that I stepped up to the Great Stump. At first, I was forbidden, but my mother, Covril, demanded I have my chance. I do not know what sparked her change of heart, as she herself had argued quite decisively for the opposing side. My hands shook. I would be the last speaker, and most seemed to have already made up their minds to open the Book of Translation. They considered me an afterthought.

And I knew that unless I spoke true, humanity would be left alone to face the Shadow. In that moment, my nervousness fled. I felt only a stillness, a calm sense of purpose. I opened my mouth, and I began to speak.”

“—from The Dragon Reborn, by Loial,

son of Arent son of Halan, of Stedding Shangtai”

Loial followed the events of his age and wrote a book documenting everything that happened with Rand, Perrin and Mat along with everyone else who contributed to the defeat of the Dark One.

Perrin - Rand - Mat

Representation of the Dark One

What will Sam do?

Sam

“My b-b-bastard.” He had said that, yes, but . . . All that water. I could drown. Ships sink all the time, and autumn is a stormy season. Gilly would be with him, though, and the babe would grow up safe. “Yes, I . . . my mother and my sisters will help Gilly with the child.” I can send a letter, I won’t need to go to Horn Hill myself. “Dareon could see her to Oldtown just as well as me. I’m . . . I’ve been working at my archery every afternoon with Ulmer, as you commanded . . . well, except when I’m in the vaults, but you told me to find out about the Others. The longbow makes my shoulders ache and raises blisters on my fingers.” He showed Jon where one had burst. “I still do it, though. I can hit the target more often than not now, but I’m still the worst archer who ever bent a bow. I like Ulmer’s stories, though. Someone needs to write them down and put them in a book.”

Gilly

Horn Hill

Others

“Did you find who the Others are, where they come from, what they want?”

“Not yet, my lord, but it may be that I’ve just been reading the wrong books. There are hundreds I have not looked at yet. Give me more time and I will find whatever there is to be found.”

“There is no more time.” Jon sounded sad. “You need to get your things together, Sam. You’re going with Gilly.”

Jon Snow

“Going?” For a moment Sam did not understand. “I’m going? To Eastwatch, my lord? Or . . . where am I . . .”

“Oldtown.”

Will Sam be able to uncover a similar type information that will help save their world come their Last Battle?  I believe the answer to this to be YES.  In the Citadel in my opinion he will discover an equivalent to the Thirteenth Depository.  Within that section of the Citadel library he will discover the truth about the Others, the secret to forging Valyrian Steel, the secret of the Horn of Winter, how the runes that the First Men Left on rocks can possibly be used to travel making the staging of troops in preparation for the last battle feasible thus not taking forever to accomplish, the secrets of the glass candles and much more.  Yes I believe Sam will do all this plus make it possible for all of us ASOIAF to do what we enjoy most.  I believe GRRM, at least the writer part of him, is Sam.  I believe we will all learn in the end that Sam wrote ASOIAF and what we are reading his telling of the events that took place during his time.  This is similar to how the introduction of ASOIAF has always been viewed through the lens of the Citadel library where Sam will make his discoveries.  The events before him he gathered from his research into the Citadel’s vast library.  The man that everyone thought useless will become a legend along the lines of Bran the Builder.

Horn of Winter

Possibly the cover of Sam's book?

Bran the Builder

Prophecies and quotes from TWOT that I believe will somehow relate in a similar fashion to ASOIAF:

“I won’t have him embarrassed, Erith,” his mother said before he could open his mouth. “Loial writes well, and Elder Haman says he may have the makings of a scholar about him, but he gets tongue-tied before even a hundred. Besides, he is only a boy.”

This one is easy.  Like Loial Sam will find his voice.

"The unstained tower breaks and bends knee to the forgotten sign. The seas rage, and stormclouds gather unseen. Beyond the horizon, hidden fires swell, and serpents nestle in the bosom. What was exalted is cast down; what was cast down is raised up. Order burns to clear his path.”

-Lord Of Chaos, Closing prophecy

Will the Citadel fall to attack in a similar way as did the White Tower?  Possibly by Euron?

“I want you to tell the Amyrlin something," he said. "If it's Egwene, this should be easy. But even if it isn't, you tell her. The White Tower has something of mine, and it's nearly time that I reclaimed it. I don't want to, but what I want never seems to matter a whisker, these days. So I'll be coming, and I don't mean to be bloody turned away. " He smiled. "Use that exact language.”

Mat was asking for the Horn of Valere. Will something similar happen concerning the Horn of Winter?

Horn of Valere

On a day of fire and blood, a tattered banner waved above Dumai's wells, bearing the ancient symbol of Aes Sedai. On a day of fire and blood and the one power, as prophecy had suggested, the unstained tower, broken, bent knee to the forgotten sign. The first nine Aes Sedai swore fealty to the Dragon Reborn, and the world was changed forever.

Comments encouraged.  Love to hear the idea’s of others.  Most believe that since I present my idea’s as “fact like” I’m not open to change my viewpoints which is far from the truth.  I simply look at the information presented and go from there.  If you can shine a light on another way of thinking that opens the door to debate.