Character from House of the Dragon by George R.R. Martin
Grand Maester and author of 'The Dance of the Dragons, A True Telling' — one of the primary historical sources for the civil war, a scholar who served during the regency and tried to record the truth of a conflict that had drowned in propaganda.
Munkun is significant not for what he did during the Dance — he was a maester, serving as maesters do — but for what he wrote afterward. His 'True Telling' is one of the three primary sources for the Dance of the Dragons (alongside Mushroom's bawdy testimony and Septon Eustace's moralizing account), and it is generally considered the most reliable, if also the driest. He served as Grand Maester during the regency of Aegon III and was a member of the council of regents. He tried to govern competently in a kingdom exhausted by civil war, and he tried to record what had happened with the objectivity his Citadel training demanded. Whether he succeeded in either aim is debatable — the regency was factional and chaotic, and his history, while valuable, inevitably reflects the biases of a man who lived through the events he describes. But he tried, and in the aftermath of the Dance, trying was more than most managed.
An older man with the chain of a Grand Maester around his neck — links of various metals representing his areas of study. He has the lined, thoughtful face of a career scholar, spectacles perched on a narrow nose, and ink-stained fingers. He dresses in the grey robes of his order and moves with the careful deliberation of someone who spends more time with books than with people.
Also known as: Munkun, Grand Maester Munkun