Slaughter of Castamere

Illustration of Lannish Archers at the Battle of Neck Plains

Total: 14,000

**Slaughter of Castamere**, also known as **Tyruls War**, **War for Castamere** or the **Lannish Slaughter**, was a conflict between the Kingdom of Lannistera and the Kingdom of Castamere. The conflict would last only a month beginning 2 weeks after Tyrul I Lannister became the new king and ending at the event known as the Rains of Castamere. The conflict would lead to over 65,000 deaths making it the most deadliest conflict in the Peninsulas history.

## Background

Before Lancel II ascended to the Lannish throne, the Five Kingdoms of the Peninsula were at a relative peace for 27 years with no major confrontations since the War for Wilam right before. While the peace felt as if it could break at any moment, the peace stayed and even progressed under Tyion the Wise. The peace didn't feel threatened until Jondar I Bara of the Stormlands came to the Storm Throne in which he felt Tyion robbed the Stormlands of increasing their power in 3 BT. However, Tyion would then die from a disease leading to Lancel II ascending to the throne of Lannistera.

Lancel ascension to the throne would lead him to relying on giving away Dragon Coins to the Stormlands (4,000,000 In total). He would also give Dragon Coins to Castamere they wanted to burrow the money. This would heavily upset Lancels brother Tyrul and make him grow to detest him his brother for his coward like actions. It would only get worse with Tyruls sister, Cersei Lannister encouraging Lancels actions and ignoring Tyrul believing Tyrul only wanted more power.

## Prelude

In 1 BT, Lancel would get ill making temporary unable to rule leading to Tyrul to be on the throne in Lancels place. Tyrul made it first duty to demand Castamere to repay their debts and Cannis refused to pay. Cannis would personally ride to Lannisport to talk with Lancel (Cannis II did not know Tyrul was current ruler). When in the palace, Tyrul would seize Cannis and throw him in prison. Tyrul would then send a message to Castamere once more for them to pay their debts as Tyrul also prepared the Lannish army. However, Lancel would then come back from his illness and would release Cannis and forgave him of the debts and even gave him 200,000 Dragon Coins. Tyrul knew though that his actions would start a war which he wanted. Even with his actions, Tyrul was welcomed by the general Lannish populous as strong willed person. Seeing this opportunity, Tyrul rose a army of 2,000 soldiers as he planned to overthrow his brother. In 1 BT, Tyrul would march on Lannisport saying it was meant to show Lannish power. However Tyrul then gave the order to capture Lancel and Cersei. Lancel and Cersei were then put before the populous in which Tyrul would expose the romantic relationship of Lancel and Cersei. This outraged the public demanding them to be killed. Tyrul would personally see Cersei be burnt alive in front of the masses while also sawing Lancel II in half upside from his genitals to his head officially ending Lancel II short reign and Tyrul becoming the new king.

## Lannish Invasion of Castamere

With Lancel II death, Tyrul was now the King at the age of 18. Tyrul wasn't hesitant and began amassing his army. While he amassed his army, reports of the deaths shocked the realm. Cannis was fearful and knew he had to act fast and quickly gathered Castameran Army. Jondar would follow suit rushing to Casta to form a alliance for the greater good in his point of view. However in a surprising move, Tyrul marched into Castamere first with 16,000 soldiers leading the force personally as he had been mobilizing his army in complete secrecy and officially beginning the war.

The invasion had caught Cannis by surprise as he didn't expect such a quick mobilization. His forces were still gathering except his cavalry. In a attempt to halt the advance, Cannis would send 1,000 Cavalry on Tyrul which was most of the Cavalry as he underestimated Tyruls full force and his Cavalry wasn't heavily armored while the Lannish infantry was. Tyrul was aware of the force that was to come and chose Neck Plains to be a place of battle and pack his lines in formation as their were streams on each side.

* **Battle of Neck Plains.** First he deployed his archers and rain down arrows on the Cavalry Charging towards him. Once they got closer, the archers rushed behind Lannish Lines and the Castamerans found themselves up against a shield wall with spears. Now distracted by the shield wall, in the nearby woods, 4,000 Lannish Forces came from both sides of the stream surrounding the Castamerans. The Lannish main force began to aggressively gain ground cutting down horsemen. Desperate, the Castamerans attempted to break the flanking force but to no effect. The Lannish flanking force kept firm. The battle was over by the afternoon with the Lannish forces suffering only 200 dead as the entire Cavalry was wiped out.

Hearing about the failure at the Battle of Neck Plains, Cannis II now mostly mobilized, would send out 8,000 Catamerans as a last bid before Casta at the village of Aaran. The army was considered to be the most trained and well armored so hopes were high of Castameran victory. Cannis would personally be there to take command of his forces and formed a defensive formation. Tyrul knew of the force awaiting him and due to scouting, understood that the force was large. Tyrul was confident he would win the battle but he didn't want to sustain heavy casualties as he wanted to take Casta. Instead he decided to use a new source of weaponry known as wildfire.

* **Field of Fire.** In the afternoon outside of Aaran, He would deploy his forces as if he were about to attack Cannis. However, behind his lines, he would have his trebuchets launch the wildfire along the entire Castameran line. After this, he had his archers launched fire arrows which ignited the wildfire and causing a massive green explosion along the entire Castameran line. This created massive gaps in the Castameran lines along with the formations completely dispersing out of panic and confusion. Tyrul would then have his archers shoot at the confused Castamerans along with his infantry to move up to wipe any remaining Castamerans. Knowing the battle was lost, Cannis fled the sight to Casta.

* **March of Terror.** After the Battle of the Fire, Tyrul knew all he had in his way were villages and small towns towards Casta. Seeing a opportunity of instilling fear of the Lannish forces, Tyrul would send out raiding parties to slaughter civilians as the full army continue their advance towards Casta. The raiding parties were very successful as it may people fear the Lannish forces to the extent of villages and towns being ready to give their valuables in the hopes of their lives being spared. Some went as far at allowing Lannish forces to have their women. But Lannish soldiers would simply kill off the men then rape the women and kill them after. By the time the March of Terror had ended, 5,000 civilians would be killed.

* **Cannis Flees.** Hearing the reports of the terror, Cannis would mount a defense of 3,500 defenders in Casta but would also flee to the Mines of Castamere with 10,000 civilians mostly women and children, 1,500 Soldiers and the entire royal family in the case of Casta falling on secret passage.By the time Jondar arrived, it was too late for him to flee.
* **Siege of Casta.** Tyrul surrounded the city and kept his army from a safe distance as he didn't want to engage in a full assault. Instead, Tyrul would used his trebuchets to mercilessly throw projectiles at the city walls to hit defenders or to even intentionally hit civilians. The projectile fire continued for four days until Casta defenders finally gave in and surrendered the city and Jondar was captured.
* **Sack of Casta.** With the city taken, Tyrul would order his soldiers to loot all the houses and the palace for Dragon Coins and anything of value. While this had happened, Tyrul would have Jondar tortured and personally executed him. After this, Tyrul burned the city down in the night allowing his soldiers to rape and kill innocent civilians except for 200 civilians (half were children) so they could live to tell the horror across the realm. The Sack of Casta would lead to the deaths of over 35,000 civilians.

* **Rains of Castamere.** After this, Tyrul marched towards the Mines of Castamere where 9/10th of the mine was under ground knowing that the mine would be the last place that Cannis could hide. Cannis expected a battle to happen and had his forces place deep in the mine entrances to be choke points. However, Tyrul would first permanently sealed the mine from the outside with the intention to starve them to death. As he began sealing the mine, he took note of a stream nearby. After the mines were sealed, Tyrul would then divert the stream into some the entrances and ventilation shafts allowing the water to trickle through. Lannish soldiers reported screaming of women and children. By the morning however, it was complete silence.

Everyone that entered mine along with the entire House of Reyne and King Cannis II drowned in the event known as the Rains of Castamere officially ending what seen as the Slaughter of Castamere.

## Aftermath

After the Rains of Castamere, it was estimated as many as 64,000 people were killed out of a population of 700,000 in just one month. The remaining houses of Castamere feared Tyrul and instead of putting up a fight, they would openly submit to Tyrul. For Castamerans, it would be end of Castamere as they once knew it as Tyrul would first rename it Southland. After this, Tyrul would introduce Lannish culture throughout the realm in what was known as Lannification. With this, Castamere was never the same.

For the Lannish, this was a triumphant victory and seen as a means of vengeance against Castamere. Many felt Tyrul made Lannistera strong and powerful once more. Although, many people saw his methods to be cruel in nature but was welcomed and respected. To other kingdoms in the realm, it was only fear of Tyrul. With this, Tyrul would take advantage of this and eventually would lead to all the kingdoms submitting to Tyruls rule.