Daven Lannister
Daven Lannister is the eldest son of Ser Stafford Lannister and a distant cousin of Lord Tywin himself, one more of the lesser Lannisters the war pushes to the front once the men who used to lead are gone.
His is the story of an ordinary man in a powerful house: he inherits a vow of vengeance, a command he never asked for, and a siege nobody quite knows how to end.
Chapter 1
The offer Tywin didn't want
Books only
When war breaks out in the riverlands, Daven offers Lord Tywin to organize supply for the Lannister army. Tywin turns him down and gives the task to Ser Gregor Clegane instead.
Soon after, his father, Ser Stafford Lannister, dies at the battle of Oxcross at the hands of Lord Rickard Karstark. Neither Jaime Lannister nor Brynden Tully thought much of Stafford's skill as a commander, but both thought well of his son's. Daven then swears not to cut his hair until he avenges him.
Chapter 2
A vow with nothing left to prove
Books only
When Robb Stark's army pulls back into the riverlands, Daven gathers what's left of his father's troops at Lannisport. Soon after, Robb himself has Lord Rickard Karstark executed at Riverrun for killing Willem Lannister and a Frey to avenge his own sons, who died at Jaime Lannister's hands in the Whispering Wood. Daven thus loses the one man he could have made pay for his father's death.
His hair keeps growing anyway, with no one left to grow it for. As part of the pact between Tywin and Lord Walder Frey after Robb Stark's betrayal, it's agreed that Daven will marry one of Walder's daughters. After the Red Wedding, he joins forces with Ser Forley Prester at Golden Tooth and falls in with Ser Ryman Frey to lay siege to Riverrun.
Chapter 3
Warden of the West
Books only
By now Daven, hazel-eyed, has let his hair grow down to the middle of his back, and wears a mustache, thick sideburns and a bristling beard; with his gilded mail, fox-fur cloak and helm, people say he looks like a lion. When Ser Kevan Lannister turns down the office of Hand of the King, Queen Cersei names Daven Warden of the West and orders him to take Riverrun, where Ser Brynden Tully still holds a sizable garrison.
The siege is nothing simple: Brynden has hoarded inside the castle every scrap of food he could find, and the Freys, allies in name only, gather food for themselves alone. Much of the army is made up of surrendered river lords fighting half-heartedly against former allies. Daven has no love for the Freys either, though he knows he must marry one of them and remembers what it cost Robb Stark to trust that house. He wants to storm the castle, but can't talk his commanders into it, least of all Ser Emmon Frey.
Chapter 4
Jaime takes over
Books only
When Ser Jaime Lannister, now Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, arrives to take command of the siege, Daven hands it over gladly. He jokes about Jaime's missing hand and briefs him, almost cheerfully, on everything that's gone wrong. In front of his pages, among them a Piper, he speaks plainly about just how far the river lords' loyalty can be trusted.
Blunt and good-humored at once, in the war council he says outright that Ser Ryman Frey isn't sick, just drunk. Jaime ends up negotiating Riverrun's surrender, though the Blackfish manages to slip away before the castle falls.