House Reyne of Castamere

The Reynes trace back to the golden age of the First Men, when they raised their seat underground, among the galleries and caves of Castamere. The silver and gold they drew from it rivaled even the wealth of the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, and that fortune made them one of the great powers of the west.

In time they styled themselves Lords of Castamere, and they entered the Lannisters' orbit when King Loreon I married a woman of their blood, sealing their place within the Kingdom of the Rock.

In 51 AC, after taking leave of Lord Lyman Lannister, Queen Rhaena toured the Westerlands and the Riverlands and came to Castamere. The welcome was warm at first, but the Reynes soon showed too much interest in her dragon, somewhere between fear and desire, and that cooled the visit.

Four years later, in 55 AC, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen himself passed through Castamere on a royal progress. That same year Ser Alastor Reyne served as master-at-arms of Casterly Rock and champion of the Westerlands, a title he defended at the tourney held to mark the completion of the Dragonpit.

During the Dance of the Dragons, the Reynes sided with King Aegon II. The lord of the house paid for that loyalty with his life, falling at the battle of the lakeshore.

Generations later, Robb Reyne — reckoned one of the finest knights of his age — took up arms alongside Daemon Blackfyre when he rose in rebellion.

The decline began with Lord Robert Reyne, who betrothed his daughter Ellyn to Tywald Lannister, heir to Lord Gerold. Tywald served as Robert's squire during the Peake Uprising, and the two died together at the battle of Starpike in 233 AC.

Ellyn had no intention of giving up her hope of one day becoming Lady of Casterly Rock, so she talked Tywald's twin brother, Tion Lannister, into setting aside his own betrothed and marrying her instead. In the years that followed she filled the Rock's court with Reyne kin, threw tourneys, and lived beyond any measure; the hunchbacked jester known as Lord Toad declared: "Lady Ellyn must be a witch, for she has made it rain inside the Rock the whole year long."

Ser Tion's death in the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion roused his father Gerold from his passivity, and he took firm hold of the Westerlands, ending what had come to be called "the kingdom of the Reynes." In 239 AC, accused of trying to bed Gerold's third son, Tytos, Ellyn was forced to leave Casterly Rock and later married Lord Walderan Tarbeck.

With Tytos Lannister ruling Casterly Rock — a lion the realm's talk branded meek and toothless — the Reynes and their fellow vassals the Tarbecks rose in revolt, certain they would go unpunished. They were wrong: the one who rode out against them was not Tytos, but his son and heir, Ser Tywin Lannister.

When Tywin reached Castamere, the rebel lord mocked his youth and asked who he thought he was to demand the knee. Tywin's answer was to raze the seat to the ground: he burned Castamere to its foundations and had every Reyne put to the sword, sparing neither age nor sex. The Tarbecks met the same end. Both houses were gone within a single day, in 261 AC.

Out of that slaughter came "The Rains of Castamere," the song that celebrates Tywin's victory and that has been sung more than once since to spread fear: "And who are you, the proud lord said..." House Vikary still bears the Reyne arms, inverted, on two quarters of its own shield, which has fed the suspicion that it descends from some bastard of this house.