House Lannister

The Lannisters suddenly appear as First Men in historical records of the Age of Heroes, ruling large portions of the westerlands from Casterly Rock just as the Casterlys vanish from the chronicles. They claim descent from Lann the Clever, the legendary figure who tricked the Casterlys from Casterly Rock.

According to a semi-canon source, members of lesser branches of the family left Casterly Rock and developed a nearby village into the city of Lannisport, forming House Lannister of Lannisport. Meanwhile, the Lannisters of Casterly Rock grew to become Kings of the Rock. The first known King of the Rock was Loreon I Lannister, although Lann the Clever has posthumously been called by the same title. Loreon gained House Reyne as his vassals and defeated the Hooded King, Morgon Banefort.

House Lannister of Casterly Rock is one of the Great Houses of Seven Kingdoms, and the principal house of the westerlands. Their seat is Casterly Rock, though another branch exists in nearby Lannisport. Their sigil is a golden lion on a field of crimson. Their official motto is "Hear Me Roar!" However, their unofficial motto, equally well known, is "A Lannister always pays his debts." The Warden of the West is a Lannister by tradition. Their gold mines have made the Lannisters the wealthiest of the Great Houses.

Through the female line the Lannisters boast of descent from Lann the Clever, the legendary trickster of the Age of Heroes who tricked the members of House Casterly into giving him Casterly Rock during the era of the First Men. Later marrying Andals, the Lannisters reigned as Kings of the Rock until the Targaryen conquest, when they were defeated at the Field of Fire. King Loren I Lannister's surrender to Aegon the Conqueror allowed the Lannisters to remain the liege lords of the westerlands.

The current Lord of Casterly Rock is Tywin Lannister, whose daughter Cersei is the queen of King Robert I Baratheon, while her twin, Ser Jaime, is a knight of Robert's Kingsguard. Tywin's youngest child is Tyrion, a dwarf.

The incestuous relationship of Cersei and Jaime had been concealed in a conspiracy. Their son Joffrey Baratheon had claimed the Iron Throne on the premise that he was actually fathered by the late King Robert Baratheon. Lord Tywin was a key supporter of his reign in the War of the Five Kings. The Lannisters continued to hold sway when Tommen Baratheon ascended the throne, with Kevan Lannister as Hand of the King and Protector of the Realm, but lost their hold over Tommen to the Faith of the Seven, and, after destroying the Great Sept of Baelor, Cersei took the throne. With the deaths of Cersei and Jaime at the Battle of King's Landing, Tyrion is now the head of House Lannister and given up the crown in favor of an elective monarchy. It currently swears fealty directly to the King of the Andals and the First Men, an office which is currently held by Bran Stark.

## History

The Lannisters suddenly appear as First Men in historical records of the Age of Heroes, ruling large portions of the westerlands from Casterly Rock just as the Casterlys vanish from the chronicles. They claim descent from Lann the Clever, the legendary figure who tricked the Casterlys from Casterly Rock.

According to a semi-canon source, members of lesser branches of the family left Casterly Rock and developed a nearby village into the city of Lannisport, forming House Lannister of Lannisport. Meanwhile, the Lannisters of Casterly Rock grew to become Kings of the Rock. The first known King of the Rock was Loreon I Lannister, although Lann the Clever has posthumously been called by the same title. Loreon gained House Reyne as his vassals and defeated the Hooded King, Morgon Banefort.

During the coming of the Andals to Westeros, King Tybolt Lannister initially fought the invading Andal warlords and adventurers who ventured into the westerlands, but Kings Tyrion III and Gerold eventually took a policy of arranging marriages between them and the daughters of the local First Men houses. They also took Andal sons and daughters as wards and fosterlings at Casterly Rock to prevent betrayals such as those that had happened in the Vale. In time, the Lannister kings also wed their children to Andals, and when King Gerold III died without male issue, a council crowned the Andal husband of Gerold's only daughter, Ser Joffrey Lydden, who took the Lannister name. Thus the Lannisters became an Andal house, though their First Men name lived on.

Cerion extended his rule to the Golden Tooth, and Tommen I gained Fair Isle. Lancel I and Lancel IV fell while campaigning against the Kings of the Reach from House Gardener, while Gerold the Great raided the Iron Islands.

Hagon Hoare, King of the Iron Islands, allowed his mother, the dowager queen Lelia Lannister, to be mutilated by the Shrike. Her nephew, the King of the Rock, began a war which left the Iron Islands impoverished.

House Lannister possessed an ancestral Valyrian steel greatsword called Brightroar, but it was lost when King Tommen II Lannister went on a quest to Valyria and never returned. The Lannisters have been looking for a replacement ever since, though they have not stopped looking for their own lost ancestral sword.

When the Wars of Conquest began and Aegon the Conqueror swept through Westeros, Loren I, King of the Rock, sided with Mern IX Gardener, King of the Reach, against the Targaryens. The host of the Two Kings numbered fifty-five thousand men, five thousand of them mounted knights, while the Targaryens had only ten thousand men, many of uncertain loyalty and reliability. The two armies met in the plains of the Reach south of the Blackwater Rush. With their smaller force severely weakened and in danger of routing, Aegon and his sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys, each deployed their three dragons, the only time this happened during Aegon's Conquest. Their combined fires scoured the battlefield, immolating more than four thousand men (including King Mern and his heirs) in the Field of Fire.

After he was captured the following day, King Loren the Last bent the knee to Aegon and was allowed to remain Lord of Casterly Rock. Loren rose as the first Warden of the West. Queen Visenya is said to have been grateful that Loren rode to war instead of seeking refuge in his castle, as Casterly Rock may have withstood even dragonflame.

To encourage greater ties throughout the Seven Kingdoms, House Targaryen brokered marriages between the new vassals sworn to the Iron Throne. The eldest son of Lord Loren Lannister, for instance, was wed to a girl from House Redwyne.

While the great wealth of Casterly Rock was untouched by the Targaryen Conquest, the Lannisters were reduced from kings to lords, and they did not have close ties to the new Targaryen kings. The Lannisters had little presence at the royal court for the first century of Targaryen rule, and no Lannister is mentioned as a member of the small council until the lead-up to the Dance of the Dragons. During this first century, the noble houses with the closest political connections to the Targaryen dynasty were the Velaryons, Baratheons, Tullys, Hightowers, and Arryns.

By the time of the Faith Militant uprising, Lyman Lannister was Lord of Casterly Rock, and was wed to Lady Jocasta Tarbeck. Lord Lyman resented the Lannisters' lack of influence under the new Targaryen regime, but could do little about it. When the conflict began in 42 AC, Prince Aegon Targaryen and his sister-wife, Princess Rhaena were in the middle of a royal progress through the westerlands, and were briefly trapped at Crakehall by Poor Fellows, until Lord Lyman offered the couple refuge at Casterly Rock. Lyman refused to surrender them to King Maegor I Targaryen, although he declined to support Aegon's claim militarily. A shrewd ruler, Lyman carefully weighed his actions and played both sides: when young Aegon the Uncrowned eventually raised a rebel army to march against his uncle Maegor, Lyman's bastard son Ser Tyler Hill led five hundred men from Lannisport to join his forces - thus allowing Lyman himself to plausibly deny that he had directly ordered a force of westermen to join the rebels. As it happened, Aegon was slain by Maegor in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye in 43 AC, though Tyler Hill survived.

In the second half of Maegor's reign the surviving Faith Militant rebounded, now led by Ser Joffrey Doggett, leader of Lannisport chapter of the Warrior's Sons. They could no longer face Maegor in open battle but resorted to ambush and harassing his forces. By late 45 AC, Joffrey ruled the hill country north of the Golden Tooth in all but name. Maegor also later sent the son of Jeyne Westerling to be Lyman's ward.

Throughout all this the Lannisters took no direct action in favor of one side or the other. At the very end of the conflict in 48 AC, Maegor's nephew Jaehaerys I Targaryen declared against him, and after his brutal reign the Great Houses could finally stand him no longer. First the Velaryons declared for Jaehaerys, rapidly followed by most of the Great Houses including the Lannisters. Abandoned by his supporters and with rebel armies advancing on King's Landing unopposed, Maegor ran out of options, and was found dead on the Iron Throne by the time the rebels arrived.

Lord Lyman led three hundred knights to King's Landing to attend the famed Golden Wedding in 49 AC, a grand event which by extension celebrated Jaehaerys's succession to the throne and reconciliation with the Great Houses. The Lannisters hosted Rhaena and her husband, Androw Farman, for a time after they were sent away from Fair Isle. Rhaena eventually departed, however, after determining that Lyman and his wife Lady Jocasta Lannister coveted her dragon eggs, hoping to become the "second house" in the realm (displacing the Targaryens' current favorites, the Velaryons and Baratheons). King Jaehaerys never fully trusted Lyman either, accurately judging that he was an ambitious man who wanted to increase Lannister power by edging his way into the Targaryens' inner circle. At multiple points Jaehaerys therefore passed over Lyman for several royal offices and favors: he decided not to name him master of coin in 50 AC, or to name him as the new Hand of the King in 54 AC, or to consider him as master of coin again in 59 AC upon the death of Rego Draz. Lyman and many of his bannermen died months later in 59 AC from the Shivers plague.

In 80 AC, Jaehaerys once again passed over the Lannisters, this time for a royal marriage between his younger daughter Princess Daella and young Tymond Lannister, the new heir to Casterly Rock. This had more to do with the fact, however, that Daella personally disliked Tymond, for he was a noted womanizer and overly fond of wine. Nonetheless Jaehaerys indulged Daella and let her marry whoever she chose instead of insisting on a political marriage alliance, and ultimately she chose to wed Lord Rodrik Arryn.

Twenty years later, Lord Tymond Lannister and three hundred westermen attended the Great Council of 101 AC at Harrenhal. Despite the fact that Jaehaerys never granted the Lannisters any royal favors, like the overwhelming majority of lords at the council they voted in favor of Jaehaerys's preferred candidate Viserys (son of his second son) over Laenor Velaryon (Jaehaerys's grandson through his first son's daughter). It was said that a major factor in the decision for many lords was that male proximity predominate in the inheritance, regardless of their current political allegiance. Ser Jason and Ser Tyland Lannister, twin knights, wooed Rhaenyra Targaryen during the princess's visit to Casterly Rock in 112 AC, but without success.

Ser Tyland returned to Westeros, and was named the new Hand of the King to Rhaenyra's eldest surviving son, King Aegon III Targaryen, whose execution Tyland had once proposed. Tyland had an odd sense of honor, in that he only felt compelled to obey oaths he had personally sworn, not those made by his ancestors or his allies, but once he had personally sworn an oath he would keep it even to his enemies. Ser Tyland served loyally and ably as Hand early in the regency of Aegon III, trying to hold the realm together after the devastation of the war and the harsh winter that followed. Both Tyland and his sister-in-law Lady Johanna (current regent for House Lannister) attended Aegon III's coronation, and his wedding to Aegon II's daughter, Princess Jaehaera Targaryen.

Although the Dance of the Dragons had ended with Aegon III on the Iron Throne, Dalton refused to make peace with the westerlands. Lady Johanna won a victory over the ironborn at Kayce, but her plan to recover Fair Isle ended with the deaths of Ser Erwin Lannister and Lords Prester and Tarbeck. Lord Unwin Peake, Tyland's successor as Aegon's Hand, tasked Lord Alyn Velaryon with bringing peace to the west. Dalton was killed by Tess, one of his many salt wives, however, and the ironmen began to retreat. Johanna presented Alyn Oakenfist with a golden seahorse when his fleet finally arrived in the west, but the admiral declined her suggestion to attack the Iron Islands.

Johanna took advantage of the struggle for power in the Iron Islands by having Ser Leo Costayne invade the archipelago with a Lannister army. In return for conquering the isles for young Lord Loreon, Leo hoped to win Johanna's hand. The Lannister army eventually faltered and Leo was slain on Great Wyk, but hundreds of ironborn ships and villages were destroyed during the invasion. Many ironborn nobles were killed in the campaign, and Johanna had the captured Rodrik Greyjoy gelded and made him a fool for Loreon.

Meanwhile, after the Dance ended in 131 AC Tyland Lannister was heavily involved in dealing with the outbreak of the Daughters' War in the Free Cities, and the complicated political maneuverings that followed as the multi-sided war spilled over into the narrow sea and involved the fleets of Westeros. Two years into the regency of Aegon III, however, Westeros was further devastated by the outbreak of the Winter Fever. While it never spread to the west coasts of the continent, King's Landing was hard hit. Ser Tyland ordered a quarantine and was locked inside the city along with the rest of its inhabitants, where he was one of the last to die from the plague in 133 AC.

Damon Lannister remained loyal to the Targaryens in 196 AC during the First Blackfyre Rebellion, but he was defeated by Ser Quentyn Ball outside the gates of Lannisport.

Damon and his heir, Ser Tybolt Lannister, participated in the tourney at Ashford Meadow. Damon was defeated in the first tilt by Lord Leo "Longthorn" Tyrell, while his son defeated his opponent to become a champion. Tybolt inherited the lordship from Damon when the latter died of the Great Spring Sickness.

Gerold Lannister was a suitor to Rohanne Webber, Lady of Coldmoat, but much preferred to remain at Casterly Rock with his brother Tybolt. When Lord Dagon Greyjoy raided the western coast during the early reign of Aerys I Targaryen, House Lannister built ships to fight him at sea. Gerold succeeded as lord after the deaths of Lord Tybolt and his daughter, Lady Cerelle Lannister, under mysterious circumstances, but the new lord became known as Gerold the Golden for his prosperous rule.

Gerold's second wife, Lady Rohanne, disappeared in 230 AC, and his twin sons, Ser Tywald and Ser Tion, were killed in the Peake Uprising in 233 AC and the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion in 236 AC, respectively. Tion's widow, Ellyn Reyne, bickered with Jeyne Marbrand, the wife of Gerold's new heir, Tytos Lannister, and Ellyn eventually remarried to Walderan Tarbeck, Lord of Tarbeck Hall.

Tytos became lord after his father Gerold's death in 244 AC. Although a kind man, Tytos was a weak ruler, and corruption and disloyalty spread among his bannermen, including Houses Reyne and Tarbeck. On three occasions King Aegon V Targaryen sent knights to bring order to the westerlands. Tytos's younger brother, Ser Jason Lannister, was killed in the War of the Ninepenny Kings in 260 AC, but Tytos's older sons—Tywin, Kevan, and Tygett—won honor for their House in the war.

Ser Tywin sought to restore House Lannister to their former glory, so he crushed the Reyne-Tarbeck revolt in 261 AC.

When Aerys II Targaryen succeeded to the Iron Throne in 262 AC, his friend, the twenty-year-old Ser Tywin Lannister, became the youngest man to serve as Hand of the King. Tywin then became Lord of Casterly Rock after the death of Tytos Lannister in 267 AC. Like his grandfather Gerold, Tywin became a skilled steward and ruler.

When Aerys was held hostage by Lord Denys Darklyn, Tywin's conservative approach took six months to resolve the Defiance of Duskendale in 277 AC. This instigated Aerys's paranoia and drove a wedge between the two, along with the king's lusting after Joanna Lannister, Tywin's wife, cousin, and trusted confidante.

Despite Tywin's attempts to ensure a strong legacy, life at Casterly Rock was dysfunctional at best. His twin children, Cersei and Jaime, began an incestuous relationship at an early age. Tywin was never a jovial man, but when Joanna died birthing their third child, Tyrion, he was much saddened. His brother, Kevan, became his right hand and their sister, Genna, took a maternal role over the children. His second brother, Tygett, died of a pox, and their youngest brother, Gerion, sailed off on a journey to Valyria, never to be seen again.

Cersei, while a young maid, visited a woods witch called Maggy the Frog, who shared portents of Cersei's future that planted seeds of her paranoia. Cersei possibly murdered her friend Melara Hetherspoon, who had witnessed the prophecy. Tyrion, when thirteen years old, was out with Jaime when he met and married a girl named Tysha, a match which was quickly and cruelly ended by their father. Tywin offered Tyrion to Houses Martell, Hightower, Royce, Florent and Tully, but he was rejected by all. Jaime was a promising young knight, dubbed by Ser Arthur Dayne. Tywin was devastated when Jaime joined King Aery's Kingsguard, breaking off a betrothal to Lysa Tully. Upon this action (which he perceived as Aerys robbing him of his heir), coupled with the Mad King's refusal to wed Prince Rhaegar Targaryen to Cersei, Tywin resigned the Handship. This flew in the face of Jaime's plan, which was to be closer to Cersei; he was kept in King's Landing while Cersei returned to Casterly Rock.

The Lannisters stayed neutral for the majority of Robert's Rebellion. Only after the killing of Rhaegar Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone, by Robert Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End, in the Battle of the Trident did Lord Tywin Lannister bestir himself from Casterly Rock.

Tywin led an army of twelve thousand to King's Landing, where he professed loyalty to House Targaryen. Although Lord Varys objected, Grand Maester Pycelle, a Lannister loyalist, convinced King Aerys II Targaryen to open the capital's gates. Tywin betrayed the Targaryens, however, and had his host conquer the city for Robert. During the ensuing Sack of King's Landing, Ser Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard slew Aerys to avert the Mad King's wildfire plot. Meanwhile, Ser Gregor Clegane and Ser Amory Lorch, two of Tywin's knights, killed Rhaegar's wife, Elia Martell, and children to prove House Lannister's commitment to Robert's cause. The bodies of Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon were wrapped in crimson cloaks to hide their blood.

Afterwards, Tywin's daughter Cersei was wed to the new king, Robert I. Tya Lannister had been the last Lannister to marry a member of House Baratheon, Gowen Baratheon, before the marriage of Robert and Cersei.

The royal marriage and the increasing amount of gold King Robert I Baratheon owes to Lord Tywin Lannister have only increased Lannister power. Much of Tywin's energy is directed inward, ensuring all of his relatives do their part to uphold the family name.

On behalf of Balon Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands, Euron and Victarion Greyjoy began Greyjoy's Rebellion with the burning of the Lannister fleet. Tywin joined Robert and Eddard Stark, Warden of the West, in invading the Iron Islands, however, and the rebellion was defeated.

Tywin attended the tourney on Prince Joffrey's name day in King's Landing. Queen Cersei Lannister and her children accompanied Tywin during his return to Casterly Rock; en route they were informed of the death of Jon Arryn, Robert's Hand of the King.