Difference between revisions of "Cersei Lannister"

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Revision as of 19:13, 25 April 2007

Cersei Lannister is Tywin's eldest child by mere moments and the twin sister of Jaime Lannister. After Robert's Rebellion she married the new King, Robert Baratheon, and became Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. A willful and ambitious woman, Cersei resents the restrictions put on her for her sex. She is always concerned for the safety of her royal children, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, and stops at nothing to protect them.

Appearance

Cersei is beautiful, with golden hair, bright green eyes and a lush, curvaceous body.

History

Cersei has shared an incestuous relationship with her brother Jaime since they were youths. That her three children were all a product of this incest, rather than her husband King Robert, was a well-guarded secret until Jon Arryn and Stannis Baratheon uncovered it shortly before the War of the Five Kings.

Throughout the series, Cersei has come to positions of increasing power. After arranging the death of her husband, Cersei put her 13-year-old son Joffrey on the throne, despite accusations of bastardy, and ruled as his Queen Regent. However, Tywin promptly put Tyrion in the position of Hand of the King, and he nullified most of her decisions. Tywin later took over the office himself and bent Cersei to his will. When Joffrey and Tywin were murdered in quick succession, the checks on her claim to power were cleared. She resumed her position as Regent over her son, the eight-year-old King Tommen, who was entirely obedient to her will. As the eldest child of Tywin, she was also acknowledged as the Lady of Casterly Rock by her uncle Kevan. Thus empowered and unrestricted, Cersei felt she had the opportunity to prove herself an even better ruler than her father. She began her new regime by filling all of the positions on Tommen's Small Council with her own supporters and agents, disregarding the previous arrangements made by Tywin.

Cersei grew to suspect that her powerful Tyrell allies, now relatives through Tommen's marriage, were trying to seize control of the kingdom. She commenced a campaign of intrigue to remove all the Tyrells in King's Landing from positions of influence and authority, including her son's wife Margaery, and Loras, a member of the Kingsguard. She thus alienated Jaime, who abandoned her to her political machinations. She refused to honor the debts owed by the Crown, angering powerful institutions such as the Iron Bank of Braavos and the Faith. With the monies owed, she constructed a new royal fleet of warships and gave command to Aurane Waters, a sellsail of questionable expertise and loyalty. In an attempt to alleviate the crown's debts and gain more protection from her purported enemies, she allowed the High Septon to revive the Faith Militant, ignorant of its history of causing trouble for monarchs. She also took the disgraced former maester Qyburn into her service, using him as a torturer and allowing him to conduct immoral experiments on human subjects. She also began drinking heavily.

All her plans to remove the Tyrell influence at court backfired when the High Septon arrested her for several crimes, including the murder of the previous High Septon. Her own ministers seized control of the government while she awaited trial in the Great Sept of Baelor. They recalled her uncle Kevan to fill her position as regent, while her new lord admiral absconded with the costly new fleet. Accused of capital crimes, her only hope lay in a Kingsguard champion to stand for her in a trial by combat. She sent an emotional summons to Jaime, which he burned and to which he has not replied.

Cersei has been haunted since childhood by a prophesy given to her by a maegi. This prophesy correctly predicted the death of a childhood friend, her unrequited love for Rhaegar Targaryen, and the marriage (and mutual infidelity) with the King. It also predicts that all three of her children will be crowned, but that all three will die before her. Everything that she has will be taken away by a younger and more beautiful queen, and then the valonqar (Valyrian for "little brother") will strangle her to death. Cersei assumes that the younger, more beautiful queen is Margaery Tyrell and the valonqar is Tyrion Lannister.