Things go from bad to worse for poor Ser Duncan double dose last week on A Knight of the Seven Kingdomsas our hedge knight hero got angry in the House of the Dragon itself. But Dunk’s method of justice took a little from what we’ve seen before in trials by combat Game of Thrones‘ passed—putting the spotlight on another ancient piece of Westerosi history.

What is the *Test of Seven?

Trials by combat have existed as ways for Westeros’ elites to settle issues for thousands of years, but the Trial of the Seven is rooted in another ancient aspect of Westeros’ past, the migration of the Andals from Essos to Westeros thousands of years ago.

The Andals brought what became the dominant religious order of the Seven Kingdoms, the Faith of the Seven, which, unlike the many Old Gods worshiped by the First Men, believed in a god with seven parts. Each “face” of the Seven Who Ones represents a different aspect of the faith, and so the number seven is kept in many religious practices throughout Westeros—the concept of trials by combat included.

A Trial of Seven differs from the usual trials by combat because instead of a one-on-one duel, it is a 14-person melee, in which the accused and accuser (or their designated champions) fight with six warriors each, believing that God will be more inclined to influence the judgment of the trial to see the seven honored. Although the seven participants on one side did not necessarily represent the different faces of God, each side demanded that the seven warriors must participate—failure to find the full complement of required participants would see the accused declared guilty by default, as Dunk was about to find out.

Were there Tests of Seven before?

There is a reason that Maekar Targaryen expressed obscene confusion when Aerion demanded that Dunk’s right to a trial by combat be a Trial of the Seven: even if the concept existed, perhaps, as long as the Faith had, Trials of the Seven were MUCH rare in recorded Westerosi history. In fact, before the tournament at Ashford Meadow, only one Trial of Seven of significant note had taken place before it. And it also involves House Targaryen — indeed, one of the most famous Targaryens to ever live.

About 170 years before the events of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in 42 AC, Aegon the Conqueror’s second son, Maegor (eventually known as Maegor the Fierce), became the third Targaryen to rule the Seven Kingdoms. Maegor came to the Iron Throne at a time of great discontent: besides the sudden death of his older half-brother, King Aenys I Targaryen, a growing division between the church and the royal family began since Maegor took a second wife against the scriptures years ago, as well as the marriage between the children of Aenys, who led a princess princess Aegon and princess. Faith, the Faith, at the time when Maegor returned from exile to claim the Iron Throne in defiance of the laws of inheritance.

Faced with a proclamation by Maegor’s mother, Queen Visenya, to challenge her son’s claim, the Faith Militant invokes the Trial of Seven to challenge Maegor. The accuser, Ser Damon Morrigen, led the other six members of his Faith Militant chapter, the Warrior’s Sons, against Maegor. Traditionally, royal families facing trials by combat should have the Kingsguard act as their champions, but with the Kingsguard far from King’s Landing at the time, Maegor recruited a mixture of soldiers and knights from the gathered crowds: Dick Bean, a man-at-arms in the service of House Targaryen, was the first to volunteer and eventually joined Massey’s soldiers and cavalry. Bernarr Brune, Ser Bramm of Blackhull, Ser Rayford Rosby, and Ser Guth Lothston.

All who saved Maegor died during the trial, and Maegor himself was severely injured in the process, falling into a month-long coma as the last of the Warrior’s Sons who opposed him fell. The conclusion of the trial in Maegor’s favor casts doubt on the Faith’s argument against his right to the Iron Throne, but the conflict between House Targaryen and the Faith explodes into open conflict when Maegor emerges from his coma and immediately burns the base of operations of the Warrior’s Sons, the Sept of Remembrance, to the ground from atop the Dread Balerion.

Why Did Aerion Call a Trial of the Seven Instead of a Regular Trial by Combat?

As his father Maekar asked, there are several potential reasons why Aerion invoked the obscure Trial of Seven against Dunk. Practically speaking, while Aerion was a capable warrior, fighting against a strong opponent like Dunk, even if he was an inferior knight in the fence, was a daunting prospect despite Dunk’s own skill.

Second, and perhaps more true to Aerion’s character, is that his obsession with dragons and the supposed divine heritage of the Targaryens led him to see some kind of kinship with Maegor. Although it was just shy of two centuries after Aegon I conquered Westeros, in the time since, House Targaryen had been shaken considerably from its powerful position as House of the Dragon, losing its grip on dragons entirely after the Dance of the Dragons, with the last dragon dying 60 years before the tournament at Ashford Meadow.

Aerion, who has made himself Brightflame and is practically a living dragon himself, is especially obsessed with trying to return the Targaryens to their glory years as dragon lords and resents the long-term decline of his family—after all, as we’ve seen before, the inciting incident that led to the trial in the first place was born out of Aerion’s supposed belief in Tanselled’s performance of the Shield. little of the Targaryens themselves. It would only make sense that a man driven by his House’s great past would, at this point, be reminded of Maegor’s own defiant response to denying dragon blood and think he could make a similar tale for himself.

Let’s wait for the last two episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to see how that goes for him, though.

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