Cersei Lannister

Lady **Cersei Lannister**, is the wife of Robert Baratheon and the Lady of Storm's End is the only daughter and eldest child of Lord Tywin Lannister of Casterly Rock and his wife, Lady Joanna Lannister. She is the twin of her younger brother, Ser Jaime Lannister.

Cersei has three children, two sons, Joffrey and Tommen and one daughter, Myrcella. The realm believe the children to be from her husband, Robert Baratheon, but they are actually the children of her twin brother, Ser Jaime Lannister, who have had an incestuous relationship, since they were children.

## **Appearance and Character:**

Cersei is a strikingly beautiful woman, with golden hair, emerald green eyes, fair skin, and a slender, graceful figure.

Cersei is willful, ambitious and has a certain low cunning. She is hungry and greedy for power. Cersei believes herself to be subtle and politically astute. She hates being excluded from power on account of her gender, and resents the customs and conventions put on her because she is female. She thinks of herself as a female version of her father, and feels slighted when people do not obey her commands as they would have done for Lord Tywin, but instead give her their counsel, or disagree with her, which she faults on her gender.

Cersei is impatient, and never forgets a slight, whether real or imagined. She considers caution to be cowardice and disagreement for defiance. Her quick temper and her easily wounded pride frequently lead her to make rash decisions, and she rarely considers what unintended consequences her actions might have. She does not shy away from using sex as a weapon.

While she certainly believes herself to be a master strategist, she is extremely impatient, short-sighted, and prone to displays of poor judgment and poor leadership, resulting in her being both unskilled at manipulating enemies who openly distrust her and incapable of thinking about the long-term consequences of her actions. Cersei's own father Tywin stated to her that he distrusts her because she isn't nearly as intelligent as she believes herself to be. This makes for a dangerous combination, as not only is Cersei not as intelligent as she thinks, but she does not even realize her own limitations.

Cersei's behaviour is very mercurial, capable of switching between seemingly true affection for someone to extreme loathing over trifles. She is very petty about even small slights, both real and imagined.

Cersei's lack of a parental relationship growing up is reflected in how poorly she has served as a mother to her own children, for whom she is unable to act as a stable moral instructor. While she certainly dotes on them, she doesn't genuinely "love" them so much as she treats them as extensions of herself. She is convinced that she is obsessed with their welfare, but when events threaten to take any of them away from her she is not so much worried about their happiness and well-being as angered that something she feels belongs to her is being taken away.

Her overindulgence of Joffrey also spoiled him rotten, filling him with an insatiable sense of entitlement - *nor* did he particularly give her much respect in return. Meanwhile, Cersei seems oblivious to the fact that she ignored her two younger children, Myrcella and Tommen. While Cersei is constantly upset that her own father Tywin played favourites with his children and focused all of his attention on her brother Jaime, she hypocritically visited the same treatment on her own children. She fixated on Joffrey so much that she barely knew Myrcella and Tommen, rarely engaging them in conversation except when she needed to manipulate them.

## **History:**

Cersei was born as the first-born child and only daughter to Ser Tywin Lannister, heir to Casterly Rock, and his wife, Lady Joanna. Cersei was born shortly before her twin brother Jaime, who was holding her foot. King Aerys II Targaryen sent the twins their weights in gold as a name day gift, and commanded Tywin to bring the children to court when they were old enough to travel. It is currently unknown whether this visit to King's Landing actually occurred, as the royal court came to Casterly Rock following the death of Lord Tytos Lannister.

During their early childhood, Cersei and Jaime were inseparable. They looked so similar as children, up to the point that not even their father was able to keep them apart. played in the bowels of Casterly Rock, where the caged lions of Cersei's late grandfather, Tytos, were kept. Cersei and Jaime would dare each other to climb into the cage. Cersei once dared to go as far as touch one of the lions, until her brother pulled her away. Cersei and Jaime slept together in the same bed when they were very young, and experimented together in a sexual manner at a young age. During one of these encounters, they were caught by a servant who informed their mother. A guard was placed near Cersei's bedchamber, whilst Jaime's bedchamber was moved to the other side of the castle. The twins were told never to do anything like that ever again, as Joanna would otherwise be forced to tell their father.

Cersei's mother died not long thereafter, when giving birth to Cersei's younger brother, Tyrion. For killing her mother, Cersei despised her youngest sibling. Shortly after Joanna's death, the Princess of Dorne visited Casterly Rock with her two youngest children, Elia and Oberyn Martell. Though Tyrion was kept out of sight during the visit of the Martells, Cersei promised Princess Elia to show Tyrion to her. Threatening her brother's wet nurse before sending her away, Cersei undid Tyrion's swaddling clothes and hurt her little brother, until Jaime stopped her. The Princess of Dorne proposed a betrothal between Cersei and Oberyn, during this visit, but she was refused, and Tywin informed her that Cersei was meant as a bride for Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.

Lord Tywin Lannister first informed Cersei of his wish to betroth her to the crown prince when she was no older than six or seven, though he told her never to speak of it until a betrothal was officially announced. Cersei drew a picture of her and Rhaegar on a dragon, once, though she claimed it depicted King Jaehaerys I Targaryen and his sister-wife, Alysanne, when Jaime discovered it.

Cersei became infatuated with Rhaegar after meeting him for the first time during the tournament in honor of Viserys's birth at Lannisport. Before the tourney began Cersei's aunt, Lady Genna, informed Cersei that her betrothal to Rhaegar would be announced during the final feast of the tourney.

Following Genna's announcement that Cersei's betrothal to Rhaegar would soon be announced, Cersei brought Melara Hetherspoon and Jeyne Farman to a woods witch, Maggy the Frog. After Jeyne fled out of fear, Cersei inquired as to when she and Rhaegar would wed and how many children they would have. Maggy predicted Cersei's would marry someone with Kingsblood and she would have three children with golden hair. She went on to prophesy that Cersei would outlive her children, and that after everything she had was taken away by a younger and more beautiful queen, the *valonqar* would come to end her life. Melara suggested that if they never spoke about it, the prophecies would not come true. However, Melara died shortly after their visit to Maggy, and it is implied that Cersei killed the girl to prevent her from speaking of the prophecies.

After Melara's death, Cersei inquired with her septa, Saranella, about the meaning of *valonqar*, who informed her it was High Valyrian for "little brother". Cersei eventually became convinced that Tyrion was the *valonqar* Maggy spoke of, resulting in her despising and mistrusting him even more than she had before. The prophecy of the *valonqar* has continued to haunt Cersei.

After the guests left The Westerlands, Cersei learned from her aunt that Tywin had proposed the betrothal to King Aerys II Targaryen, but Aerys refused Cersei as a bride for his son and heir.

At the age of twelve, following the failure of Lord Steffon Baratheon's mission to find Prince Rhaegar Targaryen a suitable bride in Essos, Cersei was taken to King's Landing by her father, who still served as Hand of the King. In the following years, Lord Tywin Lannister refused every offer of marriage for Cersei. According to Jaime, Tywin still had his sights set on a Targaryen match, either hoping to betroth Cersei to young Prince Viserys or hoping for Rhaegar's new bride, Elia Martell, to die in childbirth.

When Cersei was fifteen, Jaime visited King's Landing after receiving his knighthood. Cersei informed him their father had been discussing betrothing Jaime to Lysa Tully. Cersei seduced Jaime and persuaded him to join the Kingsguard, which would require him to remain unmarried and live near her in King's Landing. Cersei knew that Tywin would be opposed to the idea, but that he could not openly object to, and offered to make the arrangements herself. However, she had no idea how much the relationship between her father and the king had deteriorated, and although Aerys did award Jaime a place in the Kingsguard, Tywin perceived Jaime's appointment to the Kingsguard as a slight by King Aerys intended to rob him of his heir. Furiously, he resigned as Hand, and moved back to Casterly Rock with Cersei, separating the twins once more.

After the conclusion of Robert's Rebellion, a marriage was arranged between Cersei and the Lord Paramount of The Stormlands, Robert Baratheon. Cersei and Robert were wed. She and Jaime had sex the morning of her wedding. Nonetheless, Cersei was at first enthralled by the happy crowds at the royal wedding. However, her enthusiasm for the match ended when Robert called her "Lyanna" during their first night together.

The marriage rapidly deteriorated, and Cersei resumed her incestuous relationship with Jaime. She bore him three children (Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen), all of whom she successfully passed off as Robert's trueborn heirs. Jaime was present for at least Joffrey's birth, though Cersei refused to let her brother hold the child, fearing people might start to suspect his true parentage. On one occasion, early in her marriage, Cersei became pregnant by Robert. Unwilling to give birth to Robert's child, she sent Jaime out to find a woman to cleanse her. Having grown to resent Robert over the years, Cersei took further care to ensure he did not impregnate her.

While Robert "claimed his rights" frequently during the early years of their marriage, his drinking led to him hurting Cersei during those encounters. When she confronted him once during their first year of marriage, Robert claimed it was because of the drink, and he was not to blame. When he tried to take another horn of ale, Cersei smashed her own horn in his face, chipping his tooth. Robert claimed not to remember anything of those nights, but Cersei believes otherwise, and is certain that Robert did recall what he did to her, but felt that pretending to forget was easier than facing the truth. Cersei, in turn, tried to pretend that Robert was Rhaegar during those years. Over time, Robert came to Cersei's bed less frequently, not even once a year.

True to Maggy's prophecy, Cersei had three children, while Robert sired several bastards. After Joffrey assaulted a pregnant cat, Robert suggested bringing a bastard daughter of his to court. Cersei threatened the girl, claiming Storm's End was a dangerous place for a girl growing up. Though Robert hit Cersei for that, the girl was not brought to court, and all of Robert's bastards were kept out of sight.

Further into the marriage, Cersei started to travelling and staying in King's Landing more often, to get away from Robert Baratheon and to be closer to her brother, Jaime. Although during her time in the capital, Cersei had a bad relationship with Queen Lyanna Stark, Cersei hated her. Lyanna and Elia had 'stolen' Rhaegar from her, but she also blamed Lyanna for the bad state of her marriage, knowing Robert loved Lyanna and wished he was married to her, had ruined their marriage right from the start, something Cersei blames on Lyanna Stark, she had stolen Rhaegar and ruined Robert.