Gerold II Lannister

Gerold II inherited the throne of Casterly Rock from his father, Tyrion III, at a time when the arrival of Andal warriors in the Westerlands had grown heavier than it had been under King Tybolt Lannister.

As his father had done before him, he chose to arrange marriages between the most powerful Andal warlords and the daughters of the great western houses, seeking to draw the newcomers in rather than fight them.

Gerold II did not fully trust his new allies: knowing what the Andals had done in the Vale of Arryn, where they had betrayed the lords who took them in, he took the sons and daughters of the Andal warlords as wards at Casterly Rock.

There they served as pages and cupbearers, a courtly role that masked their true purpose: they were hostages guaranteeing their fathers' loyalty to the crown of the Rock.