queen cersei lannister

early Life

Cersei Lannister was born in 266 AC as the only daughter and eldest child of Lord Tywin Lannister and Lady Joanna Lannister. She is a twin to her brother, Jaime. From a young age, Cersei exhibited strong willfulness and ambition, traits that would define her character throughout her life. The twins were inseparable during their childhood, often engaging in mischievous activities together, including sexual experimentation. Their bond was complicated by the death of their mother during childbirth when Cersei was just seven years old, an event that led her to harbor deep resentment towards her younger brother Tyrion, whom she blamed for Joanna’s death.

Betrothal Aspirations

Tywin Lannister had grand plans for Cersei’s future, initially hoping to betroth her to Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. However, this plan fell through when Aerys II Targaryen rejected the proposal. Instead, after Robert’s Rebellion, Cersei married King Robert Baratheon in 284 AC as part of a political alliance between House Baratheon and House Lannister. Despite initially being enthralled by the royal wedding festivities, Cersei’s marriage quickly soured due to Robert’s drunkenness and infidelity.

Incestuous Affair with Jaime

Throughout her marriage to Robert, Cersei continued her incestuous relationship with Jaime. They conceived three children: Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. To maintain the facade that these children were Robert’s legitimate heirs, Cersei went to great lengths to deceive not only Robert but also the entire realm. This deception became a central plot point leading to significant political turmoil following Robert’s death.

Power Struggles After Robert’s Death

After Robert died from injuries sustained during a hunting accident—a situation that Cersei had orchestrated—she seized power as Queen Regent for her son Joffrey. Her rule was marked by manipulation and ruthless tactics against those who threatened her position. Eddard Stark discovered the truth about Joffrey’s parentage and confronted Cersei; she admitted the truth but attempted to seduce him into silence. When Eddard planned to reveal the truth to Robert before his death, Cersei had him imprisoned and executed on Joffrey’s orders after he refused to confess treason publicly.

Conflict with Tyrion

In subsequent books like A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords, Tyrion Lannister was appointed Hand of the King by their father Tywin in an effort to control both Joffrey and Cersei. This led to intense power struggles between Tyrion and Cersei as they vied for influence over the throne. During this time, she engaged in an affair with Ser Lancel Lannister while plotting against Margaery Tyrell.

Downfall and Imprisonmen

Cersei’s paranoia grew as she feared losing power amid rising tensions with other noble houses like House Tyrell. Her attempts at framing Margaery for treason backfired spectacularly when evidence of her own misdeeds came to light. This culminated in her arrest by the Faith Militant after she confessed some charges but denied others related to murder or incest. As punishment for her actions, she underwent a humiliating walk of atonement through King’s Landing—a pivotal moment that showcased her vulnerability despite her previous ruthlessness.

Recent Developments

In A Dance with Dragons, while imprisoned awaiting trial, Cersei’s influence waned significantly as others took control of governance in King’s Landing. However, events began shifting again when Varys returned and assassinated key figures who had been managing affairs in her absence.

appearance and personality

She is described as very beautiful, and has many aspects classic of House Lannister, including her golden hair and her green eyes. She has fair skin and a slender figure, however she starts to gain weight during the series due to her high alcohol consumption and starts to lose her beauty with age. She always dresses extravagantly and accentuates her family's wealth at every opportunity. She is extremely similar to her twin brother Jaime. Cersei's amazing beauty is a mask for her true nature. She is willful, grasping, instinctively narcissistic, extremely cruel, manipulative and ferociously determined to achieve her goals, no matter what the cost to others. She is exceptionally reliant on the reputation, power and influence of her name so much that she has become blind to the deeply precarious position that she has put House Lannister in. Cersei is somewhat violent and temperamental, reacting aggressively when things don't go her way or when she feels she is being threatened, contradicted or undermined. She adores her eldest son Joffrey and spoiled him rotten, utterly blind to the psychopathic monster he became thanks to her doting. She is also somewhat ignorant of Tommen and Myrcella, the former of whom she sees as a poor replacement to Joffrey.

appearance and personality

She is actually rather intelligent in her own right, but has the fatal weakness of being extremely arrogant, selfish and narcissistic to a fault. Obsessed with maintaining her own personal power and totally crushing those she believes to oppose her, Cersei sees enemies in almost every shadow - most commonly she perceives her hated brother Tyrion to be behind all crimes that happen within close proximity of either of them, especially the murder of Joffrey. There are very few things spoken in her presence that she does not take personally. She believes herself to be brilliant and equivalent to her father Tywin, and is enraged when people do not respect her as they respected him, even though she behaves and strategises differently to him. Tywin never surrounded himself with sycophants so eagerly as she did, and his decisions were always firm and effective, whereas Cersei's commonly focused on whatever was troubling her at the time. Cersei is a hypocrite and unfaithful to Jaime, utilising sexual favours to other (lesser) men to get what she wants, yet expecting total devotion from him.

appearance and personality

Cersei has always been especially violent, resorting to physically traumatising an infant Tyrion whenever she lost her temper. As an adult, she threatened to murder her husband Robert if he ever disciplined Joffrey with violence again. Cersei carried out the massacre of Robert Baratheon's children without a shred of guilt, deeply offended by his unfaithfulness to her despite the fact that she surpassed his crimes considerably with her relationship with Jaime. She would react irrationally and almost childishly to open slights taken against her, or those she cares for. In many ways, she is actually similar to Rhaenyra Targaryen, who was fierce and proud and viewed as insane near the end of her life; like Rhaenyra, Cersei covets power for herself, but the difference is that Rhaenyra was well suited to the throne and had been trained to rule, whereas Cersei was neither, having been all but neglected by her father for her childhood.

appearance and personality

Cersei is categorised by the weakness that she is completely unable to sympathise with other people, the hallmark of a true narcissist. She always sees people, events and circumstances from a narrow and self-serving perspective, thinking that certain things people do are done with the direct intent of insulting or damaging her. She effortlessly used Sansa Stark's childish love for Joffrey as a method of defeating Ned Stark, mistreated and abused her throughout her captivity in the Red Keep, and yet seemed utterly awestruck at the idea that Sansa would 'betray' her 'kindness'. Cersei also refuses to accept responsibility for events she is directly responsible for; she played an utterly pivotal part in starting the War of the Five Kings by installing Joffrey on the throne, thus decimating her family and the Seven Kingdoms as a whole. She blames Eddard Stark, or Stannis, among several others for starting the war. In addition, Cersei actually complains about how 'willful' Joffrey has become, especially since he became king, but she turned Joffrey into the monster that he became and cannot see nor take responsibility for it. Cersei's actions are influenced, in some way, shape or form, by the prophecy of Maggy the Frog she received when she was a child: she believes Margaery to be the younger, more beautiful one who will cast her down; she believes Tyrion to be the valonqar who will destroy her when she has lost everything; she is terrified of losing her other children, as Maggy prophecised 'gold will be their crowns, and gold their shrouds'; she is aware and hypocritically resentful of Robert Baratheon's bastards, the six-and-ten children that the king would have according to Maggy. In the latter case, she is a total hypocrite, as she has mothered three bastards of her own and passed them off as princes and princesses - bastards of golden hair, increasing the certainty of her fateful prophecy coming true.

setting

takes place before or during the events of A Song of Ice and Fire book.