House Lannister

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.

## House Lannister

### Title

King of the Rock (formerly) Lord of Casterly Rock Shield of Lannisport Warden of the West

## First Man Kings

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.

## Andal Kings

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.

## Aegon's Conquest

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.