Born to Tywin and Joanna Lannister in 266 AC, Cersei and her twin brother Jaime were
raised in Casterly Rock of the Westerlands and were so similar in appearance, they sometimes
switched clothes and assumed each other’s identities in their youth.
Inseperable for most of their young lives, they began to experiment with each other sexually,
until caught by a servant who reported it to their mother, afterwhich they were separated
and forbidden from ever repeating what their actions.
In 273 AC their mother died giving birth to Tyrion Lannister.
The child who was born a dwarf inspired deep resentment and hatred from Cersei and their
father Tywin, with only Jaime treating the boy with respect and kindness.
As she grew Cersei began to explore her sexuality with more partners becoming interested in
both boys and girls.
Although an offer was made to House Lannister to betroth Cersei to young Oberyn Martell,
Tywin refused, in the hopes of pairing his daughter with Rhaegar Targaryen, heir to the
Iron Throne.
Cersei came to fantasize about marrying the handsome prince and becoming queen of the
seven kindoms, and was even told the betrothal was to occur at the Tournament of Lannisport
in 276 AC.
During the festivities, young Cersei and her friend Malara Heatherspoon journeyed into
the forest and encountered the woods witch maggy the frog, who spoke a troubling prophecy
Foretelling that Cersei would marry a man who’d have 16 bastards while she had 3 golden
haired children of her own.
It also stated that Cersei would be Queen until replaced by someone younger and more
beautiful, her children would be each wear crowns but die young and that she would be
killed by the Valonqar, meaning little brother in High Valyrian.
The final prophecy saw the death of Melara Heatherspoon, killed by Cersei later that
night to prevent anyone from ever learning of what was said.
Cersei was then told that King Aerys II rejected Tywin’s offer for betrothal to prince Rhaegar
who was later married to Elia Martell of Dorne.
By the age of 15 Cersei was living in King’s Landing with her father, and was once again
involved romantically with her brother who came to visit for a time.
Eager to have him stay with her, she schemed to have the King bring Jaime into the Kingsguard,
thereby having him move permanently to King’s Landing so they could be together.
However the plan backfired, when Tywin saw this as yet another insult by a petty king,
who’d grown jealous of his accomplishments and so now purposefully robbed him of the
heir to Casterly Rock.
And so Tywin quit his position as Hand of the King and moved back to Casterly Rock with
his daughter, thereby separating the twins once more.
In 283 AC, after the fall of House Targaryen in Robert’s Rebellion, Tywin at last was
in a position to see his daughter become Queen, marrying Cersei to the newly crowned King
Robert baratheon, and cementing an alliance that brought stability and peace to Westeros
for many years.
Cersei, though still in a relationship with her brother, was excited to be marrying a
war hero and king, eager to start a life with her new husband.
But Robert proved a poor husband saying the name of another woman, Lyanna Stark during
their first night together.
Cersei then realized he was not the man she expected and over the years the relationship
deteriorated further.
Robert, who’d chosen to leave the responsibility of running the kingdom to the hand of the
king jon arryn, spent his time in blissful debauchery, bedding many different woman and
fathering a number of bastard children.
Cersei meanwhile, continued her incestuous relationship with her brother Jaime, and gave
birth to 3 pureborn lannisters, which she passed off as children of her husband the
King.
On one occasion, the queen truly did become pregnant with Robert’s child, but she’d
grown so bitter and resentful towards him that she sent for a woman to help cleanse
her of the problem.
Robert’s brother Stannis, seeing all the dark haired children Robert was fathering,
and their likeness to their father, he found it odd all 3 of his legitimate children where
blond with no discernable Baratheon traits whatsoever.
He began to investigate alongside Jon Arryn and coming to suspect the children were not
of the royal line.
However Jon Arryn soon fell ill and died in 298 AC.
Stannis, suspecting that the Lannisters poisoned him, left the capital for Dragonstone.
The Starks of Winterfell also came to believe the Lannisters were responsible, when Jon
Arryn’s life Lysa wrote them a letter suggesting they were behind the assassination.
In truth however, it was Petyr Baelish, called Littlefinger, who was orchestrating events
from behind the scenes, convincing Lysa to poison her own husband, then pitting the Stark
and Lannister factions against each other.
After the death of Jon Arryn, King Robert and his family travelled north to Winterfell,
where he named his old friend Eddard Stark as the new Hand of the King.
During their time at the fortress Cersei laid with her brother in a secluded area of the
broken tower, but were discovered by young Bran Stark who enjoyed climbing up the walls
of the fortress.
Jaime, in an attempt to keep their secret relationship from being exposed, pushed Bran
from the tower window, leaving him in a coma.
With the boy still unconscious, they began their return journey south, but while in the
riverlands, Arya’s direwolf Nymeria attacked Prince Joffrey Baratheon.
In order to avoid punishment, Arya released her companion into the wild.
However as a result, Cersei had Sansa’s direwolf Lady killed in retribution.
Once back in King’s Landing, a tournament was held in honor of the new hand of the king.
Cersei however, publically forbade her husband the king from participating, an action which
Varys the Spider suspected was part of her scheme to embarrass Robert and actually provoke
him into entering the tourney, so he might be killed in the contest.
But in the end Robert was convinced by others not to participate.
After the youngest Lannister sibling, Tyrion was arrested by Catelyn Stark in the Riverlands,
Cersei confronted her husband and demanded retribution, insulting the King and questioning
his manhood when he refused to act rashly.
The King, enraged by her comments, hit her in a burst of anger.
But Cersei merely replied she would wear the mark as a badge of honor.
Cersei still conspiring to have her husband killed, convinced her cousin Lancel Lannister,
to bring fortified wine during a hunting trip with the king, to ensure Robert was properly
drunk and less able to defend himself.
While Robert was away, Eddard Stark met with the Queen, and revealed that he’d learned
the truth about her children’s origins, and warned her that he would tell the king
upon his return, advising that she take her children and leave the capital at once, lest
Robert kill them all in his rage.
But Cersei had no intention of leaving the castle, further bolstered by the words of
Sansa Stark, who’d come to her and confessed that her father was making arrangement to
send his daughters out of the city.
Fortunately for the Queen, her schemes against her husband at last paid off, and Robert returned
fatally wounded from his hunt.
Ned Stark, unable to tell his friend the truth in his final hours, attempted to seize the
iron throne by other means, only to be betrayed by Petyr Baelish, leading to the arrest of
the hand of the king.
Cersei had successfully defended the Lannister’s position in King’s Landing, and so began
to consolidate power as queen regent for her young son King Joffrey Baratheon.
Ultimately, Cersei did not harm Eddard Stark, knowing this would make war with the north
inevitable, and so made a deal to have him sent to the wall, in exchange for his confession
and repentance.
But her son proved impulsive and reckless, ignoring his mother’s wishes and ordering
the execution of the Lord of the North.
As a result, conflict erupted all over the continent in the War of the Five King, and
so Cersei requested aid from her father Tywin, who was marching his armies to the Riverlands,
to deal with Stark and Tully forces.
Unable to go south at the moment, Tywin sent his youngest son, the clever dwarf Tyrion
Lannister in his place, to serve as temporary Hand of the King and put the capital city
in order.
Cersei however, was unwilling to give up control of the city, especially to her hated little
brother, and so the two struggled for power, with Tyrion proving the more wise and strategically
gifted of the two, evening poisoning the queen so she might be bed-ridden for a time.
After discovering that Grand Maester Pycelle was spying for the queen, Tyrion had him arrested
and tortured, then making arrangements for Cersei’s daughter Myrcella to wed Trystan
Martell, in order to secure the allegiance of Dorne.
When the Queen attempted to send her son Tommen to safety, away from the city in advance of
the invasion of King’s Landing by Stannis Baratheon, Tyrion again interfered, capturing
the child before he could leave.
He then used the boy as a hostage to prevent Cersei from torturing a prostitute who she
wrongly believed was in a relationship with Tyrion.
During the Battle of Blackwater Bay, Cersei invited all the noble ladies of court to dine
with her in the red keep.
However she also invited Ser Ilyn Payne, who was instructed to kill the women in the case
of defeat, to prevent their capture by the enemy.
As the fighting raged on, the Queen became worried for her son the king, and sent for
him to be taken to safety.
However upon seeing their king retreat from the front lines, the city defense forces lost
morale and began to lose control of the mud gate.
Although Tyrion did everything possible to bolster the city defenses, making Stannis
pay for every inch of the city, the Lannister forces were on the verge of defeat.
Until Tywin Lannister and Randyl Tarly led a combined army from the Westerlands and Reach
as reinforcements, pushing Stannis back out to sea and saving King’s Landing.
Tyrion, who’d been injured in the fighting, was attacked by a kingsguard and became convinced
Cersei was responsible, though it may have actually been king Joffrey.
Tyrion was unconscious for several days, and when he awoke, discovered that Cersei had
taken the opportunity to make herself seem like the hero who kept the city together while
Tyrion was blamed for any shortcomings.
Her focus then turned to preparing for her son Joffrey’s wedding to Lady Margaery Tyrell,
daughter of Mace Tyrell, in order to cement their new alliance.
But Joffrey was poisoned during the wedding feast, with a grief stricken Cersei blaming
Tyrion for the murder and having him arrested.
Sansa Stark, Tyrion’s wife, was also ordered arrested, but she’d already escaped King’s
Landing with the aid of Littlefinger, who once again was behind the intrigue, working
with the Tyrell’s to assassinate the king.
Tyrion, demanded trial by combat, with Oberyn Martell serving as his champion against Ser
Gregor Clegane.
but Oberyn was killed in the fighting.
Tyrion, was set to be executed but was rescued by his brother Jaime with the help of Varys
who aided in his escape> But the youngest Lannister sibling did not leave the city right
away, first murdering the prostitute Shae and his father Tywin before departing.
Cersei was enraged by Tyrion’s escape, and devastated by the loss of her father, leaving
her bitter, resentful and paranoid, beginning to rely more heavily on alcohol.
With 8 year old Tommen now serving as King, Cersei was able to yield considerable influence
once more, using her position to make several rash decisions in the attempt to secure her
position and eliminate enemies.
She began by arranging the death of the High Septon, then burning the Tower of the Hand
with wildfire.
She put a bounty on Tyrion’s head, resulting in the deaths of many innocents and began
to surround herself only with sycophants and flatterers, ignoring the advice of knowledgeable
and experienced noblemen like her uncle Kevan Lannister.
She also became increasingly dependent on Qyburn, a discredited Maester best known for
his immoral experiments on humans, even naming him Master of Whisperers after the disappearance
of Lord varys.
This behaviour led to an ever increasing rift between Cersei and Jaime, who did not approve
of her actions and so left King’s Landing, going to deal with rebellion in the Riverlands,
where he joined the Siege of Riverrun, doing his part to retake the stronghold for House
Lannister.
With no one left to temper Cersei’s paranoia and offer sage council, she began to spiral
out of control.
When Qyburn informed her that a golden coin with the sigil of House Gardener was found
in the dungeon where Tyrion was being held, Cersei began to suspect House Tyrell was involved
in his escape.
With Margaery marrying young Tommen to become the new queen, Cersei believed they were seeking
to undermine her power and ruin her house, and so she set out to destroy the Tyrells
and secure her position in the city.
As acting Queen Regent and head of the small council, Cersei decided the Seven Kingdoms
was no longer able to pay its debts, greatly angering the Faith of the Seven, to whom they
owed money, as well as the Iron Bank of Braavos, who in response called in all debts from the
families of the westeros, refusing to give out any new loans.
This action sent the continent in economic chaos, while Cersei used the money saved to
build a great naval fleet, entrusting command of the ships to Aurane Waters, known as the
Bastard of Driftmark.
In the hopes of appeasing the Faith and creating a local militia that could aid in her schemes,
The Queen Regent allowed the new High Septon, a man of the people known as the High Sparrow,
to revive the order of Faith Militants, an armed faction of the church that could be
used to enforce religious values in the city.
Cersei then hatched a plot to bring back her daughter from Dorne, sending Ser Balon Swann
with a letter, inviting Prince Doran to take up a seat in the small council, and asking
that Myrcella and Trystane come for a visit.
In truth however, she was planning to set a trap, having their party ambushed, killing
Trystane and framing tyrion for the crime.
Cersei then befriended Taena Merryweather, a woman of questionable loyalty, who became
her new bedwarmer and personal advisor.
With Loras Tyrell injured during the siege of Dragonstone, Cersei focused her attention
on Margaery Tyrell, convincing Osney Kettleblack to confess to the High Sparrow that he committed
fornication with queen Margaery.
However the High Sparrow found the confession suspicious and tortured him until the whole
truth was revealed, including Cersei’s crimes.
Both Margaery and Cersei were arrested by the Faith, and with the queen regent removed
from power, government ministers were able to seize control of the city, recalling Kevan
Lannister to act as new Regent.
During her incarceration, many of Cersei’s poorly developed plans fell apart, with Aurane
Waters abandoning the seven kingdoms, and stealing the new royal fleet to serve as his
personal navy.
Meanwhile, her last remaining allies were gone, with Cersei’s companion Taena forced
to flee the city and Jaime refusing her summons, choosing to remain in the Riverlands rather
then return to help his sister.
Her dornish schemes also fell through, with Prince Doran discovering her plans and refusing
to fall into her trap.
Cersei, desperate to have contact with the outside world, chose to confess to the High
Sparrow, stating she had relations with her cousin, Lancel and all three of the Kettleblack
brothers, but continued to deny the charges of treason against her late husband or any
involvement in the murder of the previous High Septon.
After confessing she was granted an audience with Kevan Lannister, who informed her of
current events.
Cersei asked that Kevan relay a message to her man Qyburn, informing him that the time
had come to unveil his creation.
Cersei was then stripped of all her cloths, and forced to walk naked in the streets, while
the small folk insulted and ridiculed her, covering her in rotten food and feces.
Unwilling to show any signs of shame she walked with dignity until the very last moments before
entering the red keep, when she broke down into tears.
Once behind the red walls, Qyburn introduced her to the newest member of the kingsguard
Ser Robert Strong a mysterious knight covered from head to toe in white armor, said to have
taken a vow of silence, refusing to speak until the land is purged of evil.
In truth many suspected this monster was the reanimated corpse of Gregor Clegane, revived
with dark magic.
With this new champion Cersei would be able to defend herself in a trial by combat, giving
her hope she might not be found guilty.
After such a harrowing ordeal, the former queen regent was subdued and seemingly humbled,
dining with uncle kevan and son Tommen, asking meekly if Taena Merrywhere might be allowed
to return to the city after the trial.
Kevan Lannister meanwhile, was working diligently to repair the damage done by Cersei’s time
in power, and was proving a competent leader and worthy successor to his brother Tywin.
However, it was because of the promise he showed, that Varys the Spider re-emerged,
arranging the deaths of Grand Maester Pycell and Kevan Lannister, shooting him with a crossbow,
then sending children he called “little birds” to finish him off.
Although Varys had nothing personal against the man, his own loyalties were to another
and so he deemed in necessary to eliminate any potential figures of stability, in order
to keep the realm in chaos.