The Westerlands



The westerlands is a region in the west of the continent of Westeros. Before Aegon's Conquest, it was known as the Kingdom of the Rock. People from the westerlands are known as westermen. The customary surname of bastards of noble origin born in the westerlands is Hill.

The westerlands is ruled from Casterly Rock by House Lannister. Notable bannermen have included Banefort, Brax, Broom, Clegane, Crakehall, Farman, Lefford, Lydden, Marbrand, Payne, Prester, Reyne, Serrett, Swyft, Tarbeck, and Westerling.

Geography
The westerlands is known for its rugged hills, rolling plains, fertile fields, and broadleaf forests. The land contains lakes and rivers, and the hills conceal systems of caves and caverns.

The region lies along the coast of the Sunset Sea, with Ironman's Bay and the Iron Islands to the north. A salient of the northeastern westerlands extends near the ruins of Oldstones and the Blue Fork. Castles on the northwestern coast include Banefort and the Crag. Faircastle is located on Fair Isle, while Feastfires and the market town of Kayce are found on a peninsula jutting into the sea.

Also along the coast is Casterly Rock, the seat of House Lannister, a fortress carved out of a massive hill of solid rock. Near the Rock is Lannisport, a port and one of the largest cities of Westeros. Three days ride from the Rock is the village of Oxcross. Inland castles near the Rock including Ashemark and Sarsfield, as well as the ruins of Castamere and Tarbeck Hall.

The headwaters of the Tumblestone and the Red Fork begin in the westerlands and flow east into the riverlands. The main pass through the eastern hills is guarded by the Golden Tooth, a castle which controls access to the river road leading to Riverrun. Further south is the Goldroad, which runs east to King's Landing. Deep Den watches this road, with Hornvale to the north and Silverhill to the south.

The southern westerlands contain more flatland than the rest of the country and includes Cornfield and the forest by Crakehall Castle. The Ocean Road leads south from the Rock past Crakehall to Old Oak and Highgarden in the Reach. Also located in the westerlands are Greenfield and Wyndhall.

People and Economy
The westerlands are not the largest, most populous, or most fertile part of the realm, but they are the richest. Full of hills and crags, the land is dotted with mines from which pour gold and silver in astonishing quantities. There are gold mines at Casterly Rock, the Golden Tooth, Castamere, Nunn's Deep, and the Pendric Hills. According to semi-canon sources, there are settlements which become ghost towns once nearby mines stop producing ore. Besides farming, there is also some fishery in Lannisport and on Fair Isle.

Military strength
A semi-canon source from 2005 estimates the military strength of the westerlands to be fifty thousand men strong, though this count includes even green boys, and depletes most castles of any protection. During Aegon's Conquest, King Loren I Lannister marched a host of twenty-two thousand from the westerlands to battle. The westerlands contributed ten thousand men-at-arms and one thousand knights during the War of the Ninepenny Kings.

According to a semi-canon source, in 261 House Reyne was able to field eight thousand men, while Houses Westerling, Banefort, Plumm, and Stackspear together were able to field at least sixty-five hundred men together.

In 283, Lord Tywin Lannister commanded twelve thousand Lannister men during the Sack of King's Landing.

The Lannister fleet at Lannisport consists of twenty or thirty cogs, carracks, galleys, and dromonds, while lesser lords have two or three ships for patrolling. A semi-canon sources from 2005 estimates the total naval power of the westerlands to be “probably closer to fifty or sixty large ships”. Casterly Rock's vessels were rebuilt after the burning of the Lannister fleet in 289.

Before the Andals
Little is known of the time before the coming of the First Men. Like the rest of Westeros, the children of the forest and giants lived in the westerlands and fought with the First Men when they came. After the Pact at the Isle of Faces, the children only kept the forests. The hills of the west were once inhabited by lions, but they are believed to all have been slain.

First Men lords, some of whom were petty kings, included the Baneforts, Brooms, Crakehalls, Farmans, Footes, Greenfields, Hawthornes, Morelands, Plumms, Reynes, Westerlings, and Yews. The coastal First Men were often raided by the ironborn from the Iron Islands.

During the Age of Heroes, the legendary hero and trickster Lann the Clever acquired Casterly Rock in some manner from House Casterly. According to legend he is the ancestor of the Lannisters, who became the Kings of the Rock with Casterly Rock as their seat. Westermen believe that Lann made off with some of the inheritance of Garth Greenhand by posing as one of his sons.

Kingdom of the Rock
The Lannister Kings of the Rock gradually conquered or acquired neighboring territory, including the lands of the Reynes and the Baneforts. They initially resisted the Andal invasion, but later Lannister kings allowed the Andals to marry into the westermen nobility. New houses formed by the intermarriages included Houses Brax, Drox, Jast, Kyndall, Lefford, Marbrand, Parren, Sarsfield, and Serrett. In contrast to most kings of First Men origin, the support of the Andals allowed the Kings of the Rock to expand their power. When King Gerold III Lannister died without male issue, a council crowned his daughter's husband, Ser Joffrey Lydden, who became the first Andal King of the Rock, Joffrey Lannister.

With Andal support the Lannisters extended their rule to the Golden Tooth and Fair Isle and engaged in border wars with the Kings of the Trident and Kings of the Reach. The growing strength of House Lannister allowed them to expel the ironborn from the western coasts, and King Gerold the Great raided the Iron Isles and brought hostages back to the Rock.

Some of the eastern hills of what is now the westerlands were historically ruled by Kings of the Rivers and the Hills, such as the Mudds and the Teagues. Lord Torrence Teague used his spoils after raiding the west in his successful campaign to become river king.

Ser Eustace Osgrey mentioned that a famous relative of his defeated an attack by the Kingdom of the Rock by killing a Lannister king, Lancel V.

Targaryen Era


Loren I Lannister, King of the Rock, mustered his armies to fight Aegon Targaryen, Lord of Dragonstone, during Aegon's Conquest. Allied with Mern IX Gardener, King of the Reach, they assembled the enormous Host of the Two Kings. However, they were no match for Targaryen dragons. King Loren escaped the so-called Field of Fire and submitted to Aegon. His primacy in the westerlands as Warden of the West was confirmed by the Targaryens. Since this time the westerlands have been part of the Seven Kingdoms controlled by the Iron Throne.

Dalton Greyjoy, the Red Kraken, attacked the westerlands during the Dance of the Dragons.

Quotes
"The westerlands are a place of rugged hills and rolling plains, of misty dales and craggy shorelines, a place of blue lakes and sparkling rivers and fertile fields, of broadleaf forests that teem with game of every sort, where half-hidden doors in the sides of wooded hills open onto labyrinthine caves that wend their way through darkness to reveal unimaginable wonders and vast treasures deep beneath the earth."

- writings of Yandel

"The great wealth of the westerlands, of course, stems primarily from their gold and silver mines. The veins of ore run wide and deep, and there are mines, even now, that have been delved for a thousand years and more and are yet to be emptied."

- writings of Yandel

"Thirty-five hundred they were, thirty-five hundred who had been blooded in the Whispering Wood, who had reddened their swords at the Battle of the Camps, at Oxcross, Ashemark, and the Crag, and all through the gold-rich hills of the Lannister west."

- thoughts of Catelyn Stark