Jaime Lannister

Jaime is born at Casterly Rock in 266, the second child of Tywin and Joanna Lannister. He grows up so close to his twin sister Cersei that even the family finds it worrying, and a maid catches the two of them at something far from innocent; their rooms are moved apart, with a warning. At nine he loses his mother, who dies giving birth to Tyrion, a deformed boy Jaime ends up loving anyway.

At eleven he's sent off as a squire to Crakehall, wins his first tourney melee at thirteen, and at fifteen is knighted on a battlefield by Ser Arthur Dayne, after a campaign in which he saves Lord Sumner Crakehall's life.

Shortly after being knighted, Jaime travels to King's Landing and learns his father means to marry him off to Lysa Tully. Cersei suggests a way out, join the Kingsguard, and fifteen days later Ser Gerold Hightower swears him in at Harrenhal, the youngest man ever to wear the white cloak. Aerys, jealous of Tywin, sends him straight back to the capital just to spite his father.

At court he sees the king's madness up close: he stands guard while Aerys beats Queen Rhaella, and when Rickard and Brandon Stark are executed, Ser Gerold reminds him he swore to protect the king, not judge him. He learns to take it all in, silently.

When Robert's Rebellion breaks out, Aerys keeps him as a hostage against an undecided Tywin, and as defeat closes in, plots with his pyromancer to burn the whole city rather than surrender it. Jaime holds onto that secret without a word.

The Battle of the Trident forces Tywin to move: he brings his army to the capital's gates, and Aerys, against Varys's advice, lets him in. Once inside, Tywin turns on the king, and his men sack the city.

Aerys orders Jaime to kill his own father. Jaime instead kills the pyromancer who was about to torch the city, then kills the king himself. He sits for a moment on the Iron Throne until Eddard Stark walks in claiming the crown for Robert.

Robert pardons him despite Eddard's objections, and gives him the name that will follow him forever. Jaime never explains his reasons: the realm hates him for the betrayal without knowing about the fire he stopped.

Cersei marries Robert Baratheon and becomes queen, but nothing changes between her and Jaime: the twins keep up their relationship in secret through the whole marriage. Over the years three children are born, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, acknowledged by the realm as the king's own.

On a night ride from Lannisport to Casterly Rock, Jaime and Tyrion save a girl named Tysha from bandits. Tyrion falls for her and marries her in secret. When Tywin finds out, he forces Jaime to lie to his own brother, claiming the girl was a paid whore, and punishes Tysha in front of Tyrion in a way Jaime never speaks of again.

After Jon Arryn's death, King Robert rides north to talk Eddard Stark into becoming his Hand. Jaime arrives with the court, and Robert hands him the title of Warden of the East that should have gone to young Robert Arryn. At Winterfell, Bran Stark catches him and Cersei together; Jaime throws him from a window hoping the fall kills him. The boy survives, but falls into a coma.

Eddard investigates Jon Arryn's death and works out that Cersei's children are all fair-haired, not dark as they should be with Baratheon blood. Catelyn Tully seizes Tyrion on the road, certain he sent the knife after Bran; Jaime answers by ambushing Eddard in the capital's streets, leaving men dead and Eddard wounded, then flees west.

With Tywin's army he takes the Golden Tooth and besieges Riverrun, but Robb Stark catches him at the Whispering Wood: Jaime fights hard, kills the sons of Lord Rickard Karstark and Lord Halys Hornwood, and still ends up captured. Just before this, King Joffrey had named him Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

A prisoner in a tower at Riverrun as the war goes on, Jaime watches Tyrion's rescue attempt with false envoys fail: he kills two men and wounds a third, but is recaptured anyway. For breaking his word not to run, Edmure Tully has him thrown into the dungeons in chains.

After the Battle of the Fords, Catelyn Tully questions him, frantic over word that Bran and Rickon are dead after the fall of Winterfell. Bearded now and filthy, Jaime admits, unasked, that it was him who threw Bran from that window.

In exchange for Lysa Arryn marrying Petyr Baelish and pledging the Vale's loyalty, Tywin gives the title of Warden of the East back to Robert Arryn, taking it from Jaime. Catelyn sends him toward King's Landing under Brienne of Tarth's escort, to trade for her daughters. On the road he shaves his head to avoid being recognized.

They escape Ser Robin Ryger but not the Brave Companions, who have Vargo Hoat cut off his right hand. Losing it, and everything he knew how to do, drops him into a depression Brienne pulls him out of, reminding him he still has his family and his revenge. At Harrenhal he finally tells her the truth about the night of the sack.

Back in King's Landing after Joffrey's death, he defends Brienne against Loras Tyrell's accusations and gives her his own sword, Oathkeeper, to find and protect Sansa Stark. When Cersei accuses Tyrion of the murder, Jaime doesn't believe it: he helps free him, and finally tells him the truth about Tysha. Tyrion, furious, confesses to a crime he didn't commit, just to wound their father.

With Tywin dead at Tyrion's hand, Jaime stays behind to keep vigil over his father's body. Cersei asks him to become the new Hand of the King; he refuses, and she storms off, telling him she was a fool to ever have loved him.

Sent west to sort out Harrenhal and lift the siege of Riverrun, he has a golden hand forged and clumsily teaches himself to fight left-handed. At Darry he runs into his cousin Lancel, who confesses his part in Robert's death and his own affair with Cersei.

At Riverrun, Brynden Tully refuses to surrender the castle, so Jaime rescues Edmure Tully from Ryman Frey instead and sends him back to negotiate, threatening his newborn son. Edmure gives in, though he lets his uncle escape. At Raventree Hall he lifts another siege by dealing with Lord Tytos Blackwood and Jonos Bracken, and heading back toward Riverrun, Brienne finds him with word that Sansa Stark is close, and that he must come with her alone.