Gerold Lannister

Younger son of Damon Lannister, the Grey Lion, and Cerissa of House Brax, born at Casterly Rock and grown to a golden-haired man above six feet, genial and exceedingly clever, with a fondness for letters and, in later years, for his books. He stood as regent for his young niece Cerelle after his brother Tybolt's sudden death in 212 AC, and when she too died within the year there were lords and smallfolk who whispered kinslayer and named him for the pillow, though he succeeded her all the same and ruled the westerlands for one and thirty years as the Golden, swelling the trade of Lannisport and the wealth of his house. He wed first Alysanne Farman, who gave him no issue, and after her Rohanne Webber, who bore him four sons (Tywald, Tion, Tytos, and Jason) before she vanished from Casterly Rock in 230 AC under causes never told. He lost Tywald at the Storming of Starpike in the Peake Uprising and lent his eloquence, and it was said his gold, to the Great Council of 233 AC that set Aegon the Fifth upon the Iron Throne; after Tion fell at Wendwater Bridge in the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion he married the troublesome Ellyn Reyne off to old Walderan Tarbeck and turned the rearing of Tytos to the matter of succession. He lived to see his first grandson Tywin, whose golden hair he ruffled and whose milk teeth closed upon his finger, and died at Casterly Rock in 244 AC of a bad bladder, unable to pass water, leaving the Rock to Tytos.