House Lannister
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House Lannister is a fictional family from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. House Lannister is the principal house in the westerlands; many lesser houses are sworn to them, including Banefort, Broom, Clegane, Crakehall, Lefford, Lydden, Marbrand, Payne, Prester, Serrett, Swyft, and Westerling. Their seat is at Casterly Rock. Their sigil is a golden lion on a field of crimson, and their words are "Hear me roar!" Their unofficial motto, just as well known, states that "A Lannister always pays his debts," for good or ill. The Lannisters claim descent from Lann the Clever, a trickster from the Age of Heroes 10,000 years in the past, who tricked the Casterlys into giving him Casterly Rock. They were Kings of the Rock until the Targaryen conquest. The Lannisters surrendered and were allowed to remain the paramount lords of the westerlands.
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Genealogy of recent Lannisters
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Lannisters in A Song of Ice and Fire
Tywin
Image:Tywin Lannister Amok.jpg Lord of Casterly Rock and Warden of the West, Tywin is a calculating, ruthless, and controlling man in his mid-fifties. He loves Jaime and Cersei but despises Tyrion for causing his wife's death in childbirth and for being a dwarf. He was Hand of the King for Aerys Targaryen.
After Robert Baratheon's death, Tywin was made Hand of the King for Joffrey at the end of "A Game of Thrones". For much of the next year he conducted war against House Stark and had his son Tyrion serve as Hand in his stead. When his surpise withdrawal to attack Stannis led to the victory of House Lannister at Kings Landing and an alliance with House Tyrell, he resumed his position as Hand until he was murdered in his privy by Tyrion at the conclusion of "A Storm of Swords".
Though ruthless and cruel, Tywin Lannister brought great prosperity during his tenures as the King's Hand; his daughter Cersei once reminisced that the common folk cheered twice as loud for him as they did for their actual king, Mad Aerys II. This bounty did not extend to his personal life, however. Lord Tywin was a man who saw only what he looked for and brooked no deviation, a fact that caused endless difficulties between him and his children, as none of them were ever able to conform to the paths he had laid out for them.
Cersei
Image:Cersei Lannister Amok.jpg Cersei, Tywin's eldest child by mere moments, is the twin sister of Jaime Lannister. A beautiful woman, she married Robert Baratheon, and so became Queen of Westeros. She is the mother of Prince Joffrey, Princess Myrcella, and Prince Tommen. Cersei desires power but does not wield it well. In A Feast for Crows she becomes a point-of-view character.
At the start of the series, Cersei had had an incestuous relationship with her brother Jaime for many years; twins, they were halves of the same whole, and were coupling as soon as they knew such a thing could be done. Her three children, though Baratheon by name, were in fact sired by Jaime.
As a child, she had her future told by a crone named Maggy the Frog: 1) that she would marry the king, and be queen, until another, "younger and more beautiful," would tear her down; 2) that she would have three children, and her husband sixteen; and 3) that, "when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." To Cersei, valonqar—the High Valyrian word for "little brother"—has always meant her disfigured dwarf sibling Tyrion.
As the series progressed, she had come to positions of increasing power. The Queen of Westeros at the start of the series, her influence deepened when her husband, King Robert Baratheon, the First of His Name, was killed in a hunting accident (of Cersei's devising), and her 13-year-old son Joffrey ascended to the throne, with his mother as his Queen Regent. Joffrey was headstrong, and though Cersei mourned his passing, his death left the kingdom to eight-year-old Tommen, a far more tractable boy. Soon after, her father Tywin, The King's Hand, who had been planning a new marriage for her, was murdered by Tyrion, leaving her to appoint all of Tommen's cabinet herself; she filled them with her own supporters, and by the opening of A Feast for Crows, was secure in her position. Cersei, ambitious, endowed with a beauty most Westerosi politicians lack, and willing to use them in the pursuit of power, sees herself as the son her father never had.
However, just as Cersei's insecurities motivated her rise to power, they caused her own downfall. Even in the early stages of the war, she begged her father to station his army at Kings Landing, where Tyrion observed it would do absolutely no good at all. She was not able to stop Joffrey from beheading Ned Stark. She herself has often set bad policy, most notably the revival of an order of warrior-priests that historically caused endless trouble to rulers far wiser than she. She may also have developed a dependence on alcohol, a trait shared by her late husband Robert.
In her son Tommen's wife Margaery Tyrell, Cersei saw the rival, "younger and more beautiful," that would spell her end. Her plans to indict Margaery with adultery backfired when she herself was arrested by the Faith and charged with murder, adultery, and treason. In her final chapter in "A Feast for Crows," she writes to Jaime, begging him to champion her in trial by combat.
Jaime
Image:Jaime Lannister Amok.jpg Younger twin to Cersei, Ser Jaime Lannister is one of the most famous knights in all of Westeros. At fifteen, he became a knight and ascended to the Kingsguard, the members of which can neither hold land nor marry. Two years later he murdered Mad King Aerys II during the sack of King's Landing, earning the epithet "Kingslayer;" he is also called "The Lion of Lannister." Carefree, amoral, arrogant, and easily amused, Jaime is as handsome as his sister is beautiful. In A Storm of Swords he becomes a point-of-view character. Artist's Depiction of Jaime Lannister
Jaime is secretly his sister's lover and the father of her children. He tried to kill Bran Stark to protect that secret, an act that was a major trigger of the "War of the Five Kings" that followed.
Captured in battle by Robb Stark, Jaime spent much of A Clash of Kings in prison, but was eventually freed and sent to King's Landing to be exchanged for Catelyn Stark's daughters, after she had made him swear oaths not to take up arms against the Stark and Tullys again. Lady Catelyn also appointed Brienne of Tarth to escort him, a duty Brienne took seriously, much to Jaime's amusement. When the party was laid over at Harrenhal, Jaime lost his sword hand to the mercenary company The Brave Companions, depriving him of his martial prowess. Around this time, he began to reconsider his own morality. Jaime returned safely to King's Landing, where he assumed the office of Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, ended his relationship with Cersei, and sent Brienne out to find the missing Sansa Stark, believing her recovery to be his last chance for honor. In A Feast for Crows, Jaime was sent to Riverrun to end Brynden Tully's resistance, which he managed by non-violent means, keeping his oaths to Lady Catelyn. When he received Cersei's plea for help at her trial, he threw it into the fire instead of replying.
Tyrion
Image:Tyrion Lannister Amok.JPG Tyrion, a point-of-view character nicknamed "The Imp," and "The Halfman," is Tywin's third child and younger son. His mother Joanna died during his birth, for which his father has never quite forgiven him. A misshapen dwarf with mis-matched eyes, Tyrion is sardonic and calculating, but despises mistreatment of the weak and the innocent.
Tyrion joined the royal family on their fateful trip to Winterfell, after which he visited The Wall. On his return, he met Catelyn Stark on the road. She arrested him and brought him to the Eyrie to stand trial for the murder of Jon Arryn and the attempted murder of Bran Stark, crimes of which he was innocent. He escaped punishment following victory in a trial-by-battle by his champion, the sellsword Bronn.
In "A Clash of Kings," Tyrion served as acting Hand of the King in his father's stead and was able to gain actual power by outplotting his sister, Queen Cersei. He arranged the wildfire-filled ships and massive chain that decimated Stannis Baratheon's fleet during the Battle of the Blackwater and greatly contributed to the victory of his family against Stannis. He took a facial wound and lost his nose in the fight.
In "A Storm of Swords," Tyrion found himself stripped of position and power through the return of his father Tywin. Soon appointed as royal treasurer in place of Petyr Baelish, Tyrion grudgingly accepted a marriage to Sansa Stark, so that House Lannister might exploit her claim to Winterfell and the north. Though they were married for over a month, Tyrion never forced consummation on his unwilling bride, a decision that earned him only scorn and jest. Sansa fled in the aftermath of Joffrey's murder, for which Tyrion was unjustly arrested. Oberyn Martell championed Tyrion in another trial by battle, but lost to Ser Gregor Clegane. Tyrion, condemned to death, was freed from his prison cell by his brother Jaime and the eunuch spy Varys. He escaped King's Landing after murdering his father Tywin in his privy.
Kevan
Image:Kevan Lannister Amok.jpg Kevan is Lord Tywin's younger brother, and has spent much of his life in his elder sibling's shadow.
After Tywin's death he is offered the position of Hand of the King, but refuses because he does not trust Cersei to rule adequately. He reveals that he knows about Jaime and Cersei's incest. Kevan departs for Casterly Rock with his brother's remains.
Though he has been his brother's right-hand man for many years, Kevan is far more compassionate than Tywin, showing respect to Tyrion and sympathy to Jaime; he is also the first Lannister to criticize Cersei for her destructive behavior.