The Westerlands

Crakehall

The Crag

The **westerlands** is a region in the west of the continent of Westeros. Before Aegon's Conquest, it was known as the Kingdom of the Rock. People from the westerlands are known as westermen. The customary surname of bastards of noble origin born in the westerlands is Hill.

The westerlands is ruled from Casterly Rock by House Lannister. Notable bannermen include Banefort, Brax, Crakehall, Farman, Lefford, Lydden, Marbrand, Serrett, Swyft, Tully, and Westerling.

## History

### War of the Five Kings, 298 - 300 AC

The War of the Five Kings, while not a defeat, left House Lannister in a weaker position than when it started. While Myrcella Baratheon sat on the Iron Throne and Lord Commander Jaime Lannister of the Kingsguard served as one of her regents, it was the Rose, not the Lion, that ruled.

### The Great Council, 300 - 301 AC

Following the death of King Tommen I in a riot, Hand of the King Mace Tyrell called a Great Council, which elected **Myrcella I Baratheon** as the Lady of the Seven Kingdoms. A regency council, made up of Mace Tyrell, Randyll Tarly, Nestor Royce, Petyr Baelish, and Ser Jaime Lannister, was established to rule until Myrcella came of age. **Aegon Targaryen**, claimant to the Iron Throne, who also put his name forward during the council, was forced to call off his conquest and flee to Essos with the remnants of the Golden Company.

As the last surviving heir of both her father King Robert I Baratheon and Queen Consort Cersei Lannister, Queen Myrcella inherited Storm's End and Casterly Rock, respectively, in addition to her new royal seat at the Red Keep. Rather than maintain these castles within her royal domain, however, the regency council chose to pass Casterly Rock to Martyn Lannister.

### Years of Consolidation, 301 - 306 AC

The Years of Consolidation was the period of time in were the War of the Five King's came to an end and saw the reintegration of Westeros into one realm once more under Queen Myrcella I Baratheon following the Great Council of 301 AC.

### A Queen's Marriage and Lord Martyn's Reign, 301/306 AC - 325 AC

As the Long Winter passed and spring once again brought life to Westeros, Queen Myrcella married Willas Tyrell in King’s Landing. The ceremony was the first event in years to bring the whole of the Realm together in merriment and promised an age of bounty and unity.

When Myrcella took the crown, she granted Casterly Rock to the young Martyn Lannister in exchange for the West’s full (and near unanimous) support for her claim to the Iron Throne in the Great Council of 301AC. Lord Martyn’s early years were defined by the regency of Lord Rolph and later Lady Syblle Spicer, which caused great unrest from Lord Martyn’s vassals, namely Lord’s Crakehall and Marbrand who both expected to be made Regent instead.

At the age of his majority, Lord Martyn took power and married Jeyne Westerling, the widow of the late Robb Stark. Two healthy boys were soon born from their union, Gawen and Gerion Lannister. Soon, those two men would see the Lion of Lannister expand its power once again, taking a page out of House Tyrell’s book this time around.

### War of the Two Dragons, 309 AC

When the War broke out, House Lannister at once sought to raise their banners for Queen Myrcella, half Lannister by birth. Lord Martyn was not as military minded as his predecessors, but young and eager, the now twenty five year old was enthusiastic about supporting his royal cousin and participating in his first war.  So, he trusted his advisors to make the right choices for the military standing for the West. Still holding a high position at Casterly Rock as Lords of Castamere, House Spicer’s head Lady Syblle recommended the Westerman be led by Lord Bryan Brax, to which Lord Martyn agreed.

Marching day and night to support the capital, Lord Brax met the opposing Lord Buckler and was defeated with heavy casualties through his mismanagement. He remained a pariah for the rest of his life. House Spicer too lost influence for this disaster, never recovering and eventually dying out.. However, Lord Martyn’s reputation was restored when, under advice of his other lords, he rode out to join Petyr Baelish’s combined Riverlander and Westerman force, though he mostly left tactical decisions to his lords at the Battle of the God’s Eye. The reign of Lord Martyn was largely peaceful, barring the War of the Two Dragons, and afterwards mostly unaffected by religious unrest that claimed the Riverlands.  Aside from mustering token forces to protect the borderlands, the West did not participate in the Riverlands unrest during the Pitchfork Rebellion, simply preferring to ensure it did not spill into their region.

### Lannister of Castamere

In 301 AC, Rolph Spicer died without a male heir, and his sister Sybell Westerling inherited the castle the Lannisters had granted him. Castamere, the once-seat of the proud Lord Roger Reyne was to come under the rule of the house that had barely avoided retribution for siding with the Young Wolf.

However, due to a clever arrangement orchestrated by Lady Sybell who still held great influence at court in Casterly Rock, Castamere was written down as the inheritance of her eldest daughter, Jeyne. Her savvy unfolded when, a year after the Great Council, the widow of Robb Stark was wed to the new Lord of Casterly Rock, Martyn Lannister. Upon her death during the War of the Two Dragon’s, her eldest son Gawen ascended as Lord of Castamere, and then granted it to his youngest brother in 324 AC.

Two sons were born to their union, Gawen and Gerion, and whilst the first would go on to rule the Westerlands, the second, Ser Gerion, would be granted his mother's seat. So was House Lannister of Castamere created - the third great branch of the Lion’s Dynasty.

### A Dynasty of Roses, 336 AC

**324 AC**: King-Consort Willas Tyrell passed away in illness and the young Prince Tommen inherited Highgarden, becoming the Lord Paramount of the Mander. As the latter was rather young, Queen Myrcella bestowed the honor of Warden of the South to her former betrothed, Prince Trystane Martell. Lord Martyn had been content in allowing his more experienced bannermen to command the West’s armies during the War of the Two Dragons, but still he participated in the ranks, giving heart to the men he helped to lead.  He had taken injury during the Battle of the God’s Eye, with a stray arrow lodging in his upper chest, just below the shoulder.  While he recovered, he was plagued with difficulty breathing for the remainder of his tenure as lord.  His injury, along with the death of his wife, Lady Jeyne, in childbirth during the war, further brought Martyn down.  Lord Martyn would perish late in 324AC, after his fourth bout of a chill in the lungs, something that became commonplace as a continuation of his old injury.  And so, the eldest son of Lord Martyn and Lady Jeyne, Gawen, became Lord of Casterly Rock, adding to his title of Lord of Castamere, which was bestowed upon him on the death of his mother fourteen years before.

**336 AC**: Queen Myrcella I passed away and her son Tommen II Tyrell followed her as the sovereign of the Realm. His ascension to the throne was subject to some controversy, as he subsequently abolished the titles Lord of Highgarden and Lord Paramount of the Mander, an named his firstborn, Prince Alester, the Prince of Highgarden. This act signified the formal unification of the Crown and the Reach under the Dynasty of the Rose. Relations between the Crown and the West radically changed in 336 AC with the death of Queen Myrcella I and the ascension of King Tommen II Tyrell. The balance of power shifted heavily in favor of House Tyrell with the Reach becoming part of its royal domain. Lord Gawen and his brother were alarmed at this, and immediately began seeking ways to reinforce their own power and to weaken that of an overly dominant crown.

### War of White and Gold 357 AC - 358 AC

When the banners of the Reach rose in rebellion, Lord Gawen saw his opportunity to finally take military action. Through his various connections and alliances in the Reach, Gawen raised his banners to aid the rebel cause, dispatching his eldest son and heir, Jon, to command with Lord’s Harlan Crakehall and Lord Theomar Serrett. An experienced statesman, Lord Gawen knew to hold half his force in reserve in case of other threats, such as the royalist Riverlanders. This threat did come, as suspected. Lord Gawen sent his second son, Ser Tommen, with the rest of his strength to stop them, which they did, but only after the Rivermen made heavy inroads, taking Goldentooth in what became known as the Battle of the Teeth.  The Riverlanders pushed into the West, making it as far south as Sarsfield before being met with the forces mustered by Ser Tommen, who rode out with a cavalry of several hundred to break the lines, and followed by several thousand footmen and archers from the keep’s gates before the Rivermen could establish their siege.  The following skirmishes and retreat of the Riverlands troops became widely known as The Running of the Rivers.  Tommen Lannister returned a hero, held in high regard by the West for protecting the region successfully.

### The Foraging, 358-59 & 368-69 AC

However, a third crisis had arisen in the same year. Anticipating a grueling civil war to unfold among the greenlanders in 357 AC, the men of the Iron Islands picked up their axes and shields and set sail toward the western shores with renewed vigor to reap the riches hoarded by the Westermen. Fair Isle and Kayce were hit the hardest by the reaving parties, but the lands of Banefort, Westerling, and Crakehall were raided as well.

The Ironrbon struck at Kayce and Fair Isle to secure grain and wealth from the Westermen, taking advantage of the West’s weakened position and driven by the onset of winter. Lord Gawen had few commanders to send and even fewer troops at his disposal, and his fears became more real as reports arrived at the Rock that House Banefort, Westerling, and Crakehall had also been visited by the invaders.  His eldest son Jon was campaigning in the Reach, his second son Tommen protecting the northern borders against the Riverlands; So, he did what any lord would do, and set sail from Lannisport himself with a small fleet to protect his people. Lord Gawen the Good, the man who brought great prosperity to the West, was killed in a naval battle against the Ironborn reavers in 358AC. His body was never recovered, and the fleet that set sail with him was all but destroyed.

Jon Lannister returned from the war in the Reach only one moon later, and took his seat as Lord of Casterly Rock.  Lord Jon turned cold fury and focused it on the sea, ordering the entire Westerlands fleet to mobilize and set out for an invasion of the Iron Islands, with the intention to stamp out their ways once and for all and seek retribution for Lord Gawen the Good.  Instead, the Westermen found themselves on the receiving end of a stunning defeat after meeting the Ironborn upon the waves, and withdrew back to Lannisport.  Recognizing his strengths and weaknesses, Lord Jon instead turned to statecraft, and led his region through the oncoming winter.  He ordered trade with the Ironborn to cease immediately, closing all doors soundly in their faces for the next decade.  This was only eased after the second invasion of the Ironborn in 368AC, and the intervention of the Crown to ease tensions and repay the damages of the Ironborn to the West, did the conflict end, though tensions still abound between the regions to this day, and varies from house to house.

The Lannisters couldn’t mount a proper response due to their campaigning in the Reach, but when the Greyjoy claimed he had taken no part in the raids and simultaneously ignored Casterly Rock’s demands to serve justice among his vassals, the fury of the Lion was invoked.

### Lord Jon's Reign, 358 AC - 376 AC

Jon Lannister ruled as lord for almost twenty years as a highly effective leader.  Within the first few moons of his tenure, he wed a woman from House Rowan, in an arrangement set between him and the Lord of Highgarden, to secure the alliance between Highgarden and the Rock.  In return, Lord Loras Tyrell took Jon’s sister, Lady Jocasta, as his wife.  Ser Tommen became his brother's Master of War, and served faithfully as Commander of the Red Cloaks until his passing just a few short years before Lord Jon himself in 376AC, when he and his young son Myles succumbed to a winter chill that ravaged the West, known simply as *‘the shaking sickness’.* The illness swept through Casterly Rock and Lannisport, along with several other keeps and towns, in the years 374 - 377AC, and taking the lives of lords and lowborn in equal amounts, with little regard for status or wealth.

### The Feeble Lion, 376 AC - Present

When Jason Lannister took Casterly Rock upon his father's death, it appeared clear that he was not cut from the same cloth as his predecessors. Indecisive, timid, easily swayed and ready with an excuse for every shortcoming, such a lord might have served as a well intentioned and harmless puppet in any other period of time, but not when the dragonfire came. When the Westerlands needed a strong leader, they found only weakness, as other Lions came onto the field to lead the house in battle.  Lord Jason Lannister was present for the war, but never on the lines, preferring to stay in the command pavilions of the army encampments and ‘strategize’.  His actions in this conflict earned him the moniker ‘*The Feeble Lion’.* This nickname is widely known in the West, and his subsequent actions in his leadership have done nothing to dispel this name. Instead, his twin, Lady Eleyna Lannister, leads silently from behind her brother, another facet that adds to the Westermen’s low opinion of him.

### War of the Last Dragon, 378 - 381 AC

Following her conquests in Essos, **Daena Targaryen**, Queen of the Narrow Sea, invaded Westeros with her army of sellsails and mercenaries to once again bring the Seven Kingdoms under the banner of the dragon. After several years of brutal fighting Queen Daena and Drogon, the Last Dragons, were finally brought down, ending once and for all the final remnants of the Targaryen dynasty.

In the absence of any real military command from the head of House Lannister, the West looked elsewhere for guidance. While his twin sister Eleyna bent Lord Jason to her will behind closed doors, even she was unprepared for the war when it came to their doorstep. With the news that Copperstone had been razed, and no great understanding of warfare herself, she turned to the eldest member of the family, Lord Lyonel Lannister of Castamere, cousin to her father.

When Daena split her men and advanced upon both Crakehall and Cornfield, Lyonel mustered the forces of the West at Lannisport and made the strategic decision to march south towards the former, aiding Lord Jason and the survivors of Crakehall, and lifting the siege by land and sea. With the First Legion of the Golden Company being held at bay, the Westermen regrouped and in the following weeks, several skirmishes took place between them and the Westerlanders along the southern borders, led by Lords Marbrand, Tully, and Lord Jason Crakehall’s sons, Ser Sumner and the newly made Ser Loras, knighted by Ser Axel Tully for his valor in the siege of Crakehall.  At one such skirmish, Lyonel was caught by a stray arrow, and though the Maesters did all they could, his wounds soon festered and the Lord of Castamere fell in battle. A brief and rare moment of panic overcame the Westermen, as several Lords fought over command, before it was decided that Lord Banefort, Lord Serrett and Ser Leo Lannister would share command and lead the main host in union.

After her loss at Crakehall, Daena reconsidered her tactics, regrouping her armies into one large host that would meet the might of the Westerlands head on at the Battle of the Goldvein. Perhaps the Dragon Queen underestimated the Westerosi, as she did not join her men at the foot of Silverhill. Instead the two hosts met on equal footing, and the lions of the West fought with renewed vigor, knowing a decisive victory could save their homes from further invasion. The battle was a success, as the attackers lost a third of their men, and Daena’s army was soon routed. However their triumph did not come without loss, as many notable men including the son of Lord Crakehall, Ser Sumner and Ser Eddard Tully, met their demise. Lord Archibald Lannister of Lannisport was also gravely injured as a result of the fight. A few minor skirmishes followed the battle, keeping the Lord’s of the West distracted long enough for the Dragon Queen to make her return. Little could be done when the flames engulfed their lands, and the proud Westermen were forced to retreat back into their keeps. The few who resisted, such as Ser Axel Tully and his men, were burnt to the ground.

Despite their eventual loss to the Dragon Queen, many in the Westerlands had fought bravely to preserve their homes, and a slew of knighthoods were granted to the young men who survived their first war. Lords who had fought together had become bonded, strengthening alliances between Houses, one such being that of House Lannister and Castamere, as Ser Leo was betrothed to Lady Eleyna Lannister in reward of his loyalty and service.

### Sacking of Lannisport, 379 AC

In 379 AC, a fleet of one hundred longships, crewed by reavers from every great island of the archipelago, set sail for the the Westerlands. The ships of Fair Isle didn't stand a chance, and while the bulk of the Lannister forces were battling the Golden Company to the south, the castles along the western shores had been left vulnerable. Dozens of settlements were pillaged, and wealthy towns such as Feasfires and Kayce were robbed blind. The Ironborn terrorized the Westerlands for months and they felt righteous in their savage cause; the Lannisters had wronged them, and now they had the opportunity to retaliate.

After beating the Lannisters at sea, they didn't spare their precious city either. The iron reavers hit the harbor with the power of a tidal wave, and the ensuing skirmish with the city watch ultimately yielded them victory. They were as fearsome as brutal as they were remembered, and everyone caught in their path of destruction was reminded again. They had stormed and sacked Lannisport within, and took everything their vessels could bear; they stole gold and jewelry in amounts they had never beheld before, emptied dozens of granaries for grain, and pulled innocent women from their homes to take as their salt-wives. It was said that their hundred ships were loaded so full with their hoard from Lannisport that some of them sank under the weight on their way back home.

When there was nothing left to ravage, they were gone as quick as they had come. Not since Balon's rebellion had the Ironborn slighted Casterly Rock so much, and their deeds would not be forgotten for a good while to come.

Not all denizens of the Iron Islands possessed such bloodthirst and greed, however. There were those that had enough of the practices of the Old Ways, and frowned upon their countrymen that had repeatedly chosen to undermine their standing with the rest of the Realm. After the war, they would have a word with the scum.