Tytos Lannister

Tytos was born in 220 AC, the third son of Lord Gerold Lannister and Lady Rohanne Webber. No one raised him to inherit Casterly Rock — that was meant for his eldest brother, Tywald. By some accounts he was a fine squire and loved tournaments, though he only ever watched from the stands; he was never knighted and never rode in one himself.

Death rearranged his future twice. Tywald fell in battle during the Peake Rebellion in 233 AC. Three years later, in 236 AC, his other older brother Tion died fighting in the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion. Suddenly Tytos was heir to a house he barely knew how to run.

The same year Tion married Ellyn Reyne, Tytos had wed Jeyne Marbrand — 235 AC. After Tion's death, rumor spread that Ellyn had tried to seduce her brother-in-law; a rattled Tytos confessed everything to his wife, who forgave him but never her. It was Jeyne who carried the complaint to Lord Gerold, who hastily married Ellyn off to an elderly bannerman, Lord Walderan Tarbeck. Gerold, for his part, kept trying to shape an heir who showed little promise.

When his father died in 244 AC, Tytos inherited Casterly Rock. He was already known as the Merry Lion, and for a while the lords of the West laughed along with his jokes. Soon enough they were laughing at him.

Tytos had no stomach for rule, still less for war. He handed out land, gold and favors to men who held him in contempt without seeming to notice, and lent freely from Casterly Rock's coffers to anyone who asked. Most of those loans were never repaid. Merchants from Lannisport and Kayce began flocking to his court, knowing their lord forgave debts as easily as he granted them.

House Lannister's power dimmed while neighboring houses like the Reynes and the Tarbecks grew stronger, better than anyone at turning Casterly Rock's weakness to their own advantage. Across the Westerlands, people began saying the Lannister lion no longer frightened anyone.

In 252 AC, at a great feast, Tytos announced the betrothal of his daughter Genna to Emmon Frey, the second son of Lord Walder Frey. Genna would later say her father only agreed to please Walder Frey. Most of the lords of the West were there to hear it.

Not everyone took it well. Lord Roger Reyne stormed out of the hall; Lady Ellyn Tarbeck — the same Ellyn who had once nearly married Tytos himself — laughed out loud in front of everyone. The rest of the bannermen held their tongues. Only one man spoke against the match: Tywin, Tytos's eldest son.

Not long after, Tytos sent Tywin away from Casterly Rock, to King's Landing, to serve as cupbearer to King Aegon V Targaryen.

Jeyne Marbrand died in 255 AC, a month after giving birth to Gerion, the last of her five children. Tytos's good humor died with her; men stopped calling him the Merry Lion, and he withdrew even further from governing his lands.

The Westerlands filled with outlaws, bannermen stopped obeying their lord, and King Aegon V had to send Iron Throne troops three separate times to restore order that should have been Tytos's to keep. Tytos, meanwhile, stayed at Casterly Rock with a new mistress — his youngest son's wet nurse — and sent his three eldest sons off to fight in the War of the Ninepenny Kings.

Tywin did not stay quiet this time either. He told his father to his face that he would restore House Lannister to its rightful place while Tytos hid with his mistress. Then he set about hunting down outlaws and collecting the debts his father had spent years forgiving.

In 261 AC, the Tarbecks and Reynes rose in rebellion against Casterly Rock. Tywin crushed it, razing their lands and ending both houses.

With Tywin named Hand of the King by Aerys II Targaryen and settled in King's Landing, Tytos remained at Casterly Rock. The punishment dealt to the Reynes and Tarbecks had been harsh enough that no bannerman ever rose against the house again.

One autumn, a lioness threw him from his horse when he stepped between her and her prey, and came close to killing him. Casterly Rock's houndsman saved him, losing a leg and three dogs in the attempt. Tytos rewarded the man with land and a title and took his son on as a squire — the beginning of House Clegane.

In his last years Tytos grew very stout and took another mistress, a candlemaker's daughter, who claimed the late Jeyne's jewels and gowns and ended up deciding almost everything that happened at Casterly Rock. In 266 AC he became a grandfather when his daughter-in-law Joanna Lannister gave birth to twins, Cersei and Jaime.

He died in 267 AC of a seizure of the heart, climbing the stairs to his mistress's chambers. Tywin returned from King's Landing to take charge of Casterly Rock, and one of his first acts was to send his father's mistress on a walk of atonement through the streets of Lannisport. In his will, Tytos had not forgotten any of his children: he left gold for Tywin, Kevan, Genna, Tygett and Gerion.