Gerold Lannister

Gerold was the second son of Lord Damon Lannister and Lady Cerissa Brax, with an elder brother, Tybolt, set to inherit Casterly Rock. When Tybolt became lord in 210 AC, Gerold stayed at his side as his closest counsellor and built a name for himself as a shrewd hand in the affairs of the West.

Through those years he kept up a friendly correspondence with Lady Rohanne Webber, and the letters stirred talk of a match. She herself doubted Gerold would trade the comforts of Lannisport for so small a lordship as hers, when he already held more sway as a lord's brother than he ever would as her husband. In time, though, the two did marry.

When Tybolt died, Gerold became regent for his three-year-old niece Cerelle, who had inherited the title. The girl died not long after, in 213 AC, and Casterly Rock passed to Gerold instead.

He held the West for thirty-one years, earning a name as a capable man with a quick mind. But his people never warmed to him: whispers spread that he had a hand in the deaths of his brother and his niece, and every misfortune that followed only fed the suspicion.

In 230 AC, Lady Rohanne vanished without explanation, only months after giving Gerold his fourth child, Jason. Three years later, in 233 AC, his son Tywald fell in battle during the Peake Uprising, while serving as a squire under Robert Reyne, lord of Castamere.

That same year the Great Council met to decide who would wear the crown after King Maekar I's death. Gerold's standing among the lords is said to have tipped the choice toward Egg, Maekar's fourth son, who went on to reign as Aegon V.

In 235 AC, Tion, one of Gerold's twin sons, married Ellyn Reyne, the woman once betrothed to his late brother Tywald. Lord Gerold is said to have disliked the match, but years of grief and illness had left him with little will to object.

The following year the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion broke out, and King Aegon V called his loyal lords from across the realm to defend the Iron Throne. The loyalists lost few men, but Tion was among them. Gerold met his son's death by taking firmer hold of the West, already grooming his third son, Tytos, to succeed him.

In 239 AC, Gerold's daughter-in-law Jeyne Marbrand told him that Ellyn Reyne, Tion's widow, had seduced Tytos, Jeyne's own husband. Gerold acted fast, driving Ellyn out of Casterly Rock for good.

Ravens flew, and within a fortnight Ellyn had already married Lord Walderan Tarbeck, lord of Tarbeck Hall.

Gerold was remembered as a golden-haired man, quick-witted and well over six feet tall, fond of reading especially in his later years. Age and grief left him sickly and stooped.

He died at Casterly Rock in 244 AC, unable to pass water because of a failing bladder. His third son, Tytos, then twenty-four, succeeded him.