Casterly Rock

Casterly Rock, nicknamed the Rock, is a castle and the seat of House Lannister. The capital of the westerlands, it is on the ocean road and overlooks the harbour of Lannisport and the Sunset Sea. Nearby strongholds include Kayce and Feastfires to the west, Sarsfield to the north, and Cornfield and Clegane's Keep to the south.
The household of Casterly Rock includes Maester Creylen, Vylarr, Ser Benedict Broom, and Whitesmile Wat.
== Layout ==
Casterly Rock is carved out of a colossal stone hill beside the Sunset Sea. It is popularly believed to resemble a lion in repose at sunset. According to George R. R. Martin, the Rock is two leagues (six miles) long from west to east and has a width of two miles from north to south. Its peak is about 2,100 feet high which makes it three times as high as the highest point of the Wall and taller than the Hightower of Oldtown too.
The Casterlys of antiquity built a ringfort on the peak, and as millennia have passed its natural defences have been expanded with walls, gates, and watchtowers. The base of the Rock contains large sea-carved caverns. The stone has been mined for thousands of years, so there are hundreds of mineshafts in the depths of the Rock, as well as yet untouched gold veins.
The face of the mount has windows and arrow slits scattered all over, they look small from the outside but it is only an illusion due to the huge size of the Rock. The entire stronghold—tunnels, dungeons, storerooms, barracks, halls, grand halls, stables, stairways, courtyards, balconies, gardens, a sept, passages, caves, mines, galleries, chutes, wells, barracks, armouries, bedchambers, servant's quarters, etc.—lies within the Rock itself. The only exception being the watchtower on the top of the mount that is also used by the maesters as a rookery. According to George R. R. Martin, this particularity makes Casterly Rock the strongest and most impregnable seat in all of Westeros.
In the bowels of the Rock are rooms where caged lions were once kept, cells for the worst prisoners, as well as oubliettes so small that a man cannot even sit down in one.
The Lion's Mouth, the main entry to Casterly Rock, is an enormous natural cavern reaching two hundred feet high located on the south face of the Rock. It is accessible via a great stone stairway with steps wide enough for twenty riders. There are sea gates at the base of the west face, large enough for galleys and cogs to sail into the caverns under the stone, where the Lannisters have their own protected docks, as well as wharves, and shipyards. However, the bulk of the Lannister fleet anchors in the harbour of Lannisport, the port city that lies close by to the south of the Rock. From below the Rock thunder can be heard, where the sea comes in.
The Golden Gallery contains treasures of the Lannisters, including gilded ornaments and walls. The Hall of Heroes is where the Lannisters and their close kin who have died valiantly are interred. The armour of Lannisters of old are also displayed in the hall. The Stone Garden is a godswood in a cave within the Rock. It contains a twisted weirwood, a tenth the size of Raventree Hall's, whose tangled roots have almost filled the cave, choking out all other growth.
== History ==
=== House Casterly ===
The region was probably inhabited by children of the forest and giants before the arrival of the First Men, and numerous animals have made it their home as well.
Legend says that Casterly Rock is named for the family of First Men who ruled it in the Dawn Age and the Age of Heroes, the Casterlys. After their founder, Corlos, discovered gold within the Rock, the Casterlys fortified the entrance and carved halls and tunnels deep into the stone.
The Lannisters trace their rule over the Rock back to Lann the Clever, who tricked the Casterlys out of their castle and claimed it for his own. Some claim that Lann still haunts the fortress, which has never fallen.
=== Kings of the Rock ===
The Kings of the Rock from House Lannister took their title from their seat, and members of the family founded nearby Lannisport. During the coming of the Andals to Westeros, the Lannisters eventually invited Andals into their realm and brought Andal youths to serve at Casterly Rock as wards and potential hostages. According to a lost scroll, Valyrian sorcerers believed their downfall would come from the Rock's gold.
Impressed by earlier visits to Casterly Rock and the Hightower, Roland I Arryn ordered the construction of the Eyrie as a replacement for the Gates of the Moon as the seat of House Arryn.
King Gerold Lannister raided the Iron Islands and held one hundred captives in the Rock. Gerold the Great then hanged a captive whenever the ironborn threatened his lands. Before becoming King of the Iron Islands, Harmund II Hoare spent his youth at Casterly Rock as a ward.
During Aegon's Conquest, King Loren I formed an alliance at Casterly Rock with Mern IX Gardener, King of the Reach, against Aegon the Conqueror. House Targaryen defeated the Lannisters and Gardeners at the Field of Fire, however. After the battle, Loren the Last surrendered his crown to Aegon and was confirmed as Lord of Casterly Rock and Warden of the West. Queen Visenya Targaryen is said to have been grateful that Loren rode to war instead of seeking refuge in his castle, as the Rock may have withstood even dragonflame.
=== Iron Throne ===
Casterly Rock hosted King Aegon I Targaryen several times during his royal progresses.
After the ascension of King Maegor I Targaryen, Lord Lyman Lannister hosted Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaena Targaryen at Casterly Rock, where the princess gave birth to Aerea and Rhaella at the Rock. The son of Jeyne Westerling was sent to Casterly Rock to be Lyman's ward.
After being expelled from Faircastle during the reign of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, Rhaena flew from Fair Isle to the Rock on Dreamfyre. Lyman gave the Four-Headed Beast a suite within his castle, but Rhaena eventually left after becoming convinced that the Lord of Casterly Rock wanted her dragon eggs. Rhaena visited the Rock during her search throughout the Seven Kingdoms for the missing Aerea. Ser Alastor Reyne, master-at-arms of the Rock, participated in the tourney for the completion of the Dragonpit. Jaehaerys visited Casterly Rock during his progresses in 55 AC and 88 AC.
=== Dalton and the Dance ===
The young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen was once courted during a feast at Casterly Rock by the twins Jason Lannister and Tyland Lannister.
House Lannister declared for the greens during the Dance of the Dragons. At the start of the civil war, Ser Tyland, master of coin to King Aegon II Targaryen, sent a quarter of the royal treasury from King's Landing to the Rock for safekeeping. The castle was left in disarray after the death of Lord Jason in the Battle of the Red Fork and the Lannister defeat in the Battle by the Lakeshore, however. Prince Daemon Targaryen, husband to Aegon's rival Rhaenyra, suggested that Casterly Rock be stripped from the Lannisters and granted to Ser Hugh Hammer, but the queen declined.
The ironborn declared for Rhaenyra's blacks during the Dance. Although Dalton Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands, was able to sack Lannisport, Casterly Rock was too strong for the ironborn once Jason's widow, Lady Johanna Lannister, barred its gates. Johanna approved an expedition to recover Fair Isle from the ironborn, but the Red Kraken sent the heads of Ser Erwin Lannister and Lords Prester and Tarbeck to Johanna at the Rock after the plan was betrayed.
As the Dance wound down, Lord Cregan Stark considered marching to subdue Storm's End, Oldtown, and Casterly Rock. Lady Johanna agreed to peace terms previously sent by Lord Corlys Velaryon, however.
Dalton was slain at Faircastle in 133 AC. When the fleet of Lord Alyn Velaryon arrived in the westerlands, Johanna presented him with a seahorse wrought in gold. Ser Leo Costayne invaded the Iron Islands, and the captured Rodrik Greyjoy was made into a fool at Casterly Rock.
=== Lord Tytos ===
Lady Ellyn Reyne, the wife of Ser Tion Lannister, held a splendid court at the Rock as her good-father, Lord Gerold Lannister, declined in health. Ellyn's influence declined after Tion's death in the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion, however, and she left the Rock in 239 AC after Gerold had her wed Lord Walderan Tarbeck.
Gerold was succeeded by his ineffectual son Tytos, a lord easily taken advantage of and mocked at feasts and balls. When Lord Tytos announced at a feast that his daughter Genna would wed Emmon Frey, the second son of Lord Walder Frey, the western lords were shocked and Tytos' ten-year-old heir, Tywin, publicly denounced the betrothal.
After returning from the War of the Ninepenny Kings, young Ser Tywin sought to restore the power of Casterly Rock. Those who were unable to repay loans were required to send hostages to the Rock; Dorna Swyft was one such hostage. Lord Tarbeck rode to Casterly Rock to speak with Lord Tytos, but Tywin had him imprisoned in a dungeon before Walderan could meet with his father. Ellyn Tarbeck captured Stafford Lannister and two Lannisters of Lannisport, so Lord Tytos forced the feuding factions to release their hostages.
In 261 AC, Ser Tywin ordered Lord Roger Reyne, Ser Reynard Reyne, and the Tarbecks to present themselves at Casterly Rock. The bannermen refused, however, as Tywin expected. Without Tytos' leave, the Lannister heir gathered a host and quickly crushed the Reyne-Tarbeck revolt. Tywin was named Hand of the King by Aerys II Targaryen the following year.
House Clegane was founded after the kennelmaster of the Rock saved Tytos from a lioness attack. Late in his life, Tytos allowed his mistress to sit beside him in his hall. Tytos died in 267 AC while climbing the stairs to her bedchamber.
=== Lord Tywin ===
For much of 267 AC, King Aerys II Targaryen resided at Casterly Rock with Lord Tywin Lannister, his Hand of the King. Tywin repaid the late Jaehaerys II Targaryen's debts to Braavos with gold from the Rock. When Tywin's children, the twins Cersei and Jaime, were caught experimenting with each other by a maid, Lady Joanna Lannister had her children sleep in distant bedchambers within the Rock.
Shortly after the birth of Tyrion Lannister, the young Elia and Oberyn Martell accompanied their mother, the Princess of Dorne, to Casterly Rock when she met with Lord Tywin. The Dornishmen could hear the howling baby from the depths of the Rock. Tyrion and his elder brother, Jaime, played in the Hall of Heroes as boys.
Aerys' decision to name Ser Jaime to the Kingsguard in 281 AC angered Tywin, who resigned as Hand and returned to Casterly Rock with his daughter, Cersei. During Robert's Rebellion, Tywin led a host from the Rock to King's Landing following the Battle of the Trident, and Jaime slew Aerys during the Sack of King's Landing.
Although outlaws are not common near Casterly Rock, Ser Jaime and his younger brother Tyrion saved Tysha from two bandits on the road between Lannisport and the Rock around 286 AC.
Aeron Greyjoy was captured after the sea battle off Fair Isle in 289 AC, taken to Lannisport in chains, and spent the rest of Greyjoy's Rebellion imprisoned in Casterly Rock.
When Tyrion became a man at sixteen, he was forbidden by Tywin from taking a tour of the Free Cities as his uncles Gerion and Tygett had done. Instead Tywin gave his son charge of the cisterns and drains at Casterly Rock. Tyrion learned a few of the customs of Tyrosh from a sellsword at the Rock.
Following the tourney on Prince Joffrey's name day in King's Landing, Queen Cersei Lannister and her children accompanied her father, Tywin, during his return to Casterly Rock.