The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 26: Casterly Rock

Casterly Rock, the capital of the Westerlands, is a city built inside a rock.

This massive rock castle stands by the sea, its base on the seaside having been hollowed out by seawater erosion, forming a huge cave. Whenever the tide comes in, the seawater rushes into this cave, producing a rumbling, thunderous sound. Above the cave is the Hall of Heroes of House Lannister.

Only members of House Lannister and their close relatives who have performed extraordinary feats are eligible to be buried in the Hall of Heroes. The Hall of Heroes houses statues of one hundred Lannister knights, lords, and kings clad in luxurious armor, who are the heroes forever guarding Casterly Rock. The Hall of Heroes is renowned throughout the Seven Kingdoms, and even across the Narrow Sea, people mention it.

This seaside rock is two hundred feet high, which is about seventy meters, equivalent to the height of a twenty-three-story building in Earth's civilization. The rock is nearly twenty miles long from east to west and about fifteen miles wide. Standing on flat ground and looking at the architecture of Casterly Rock, one can only see a tower and watchtower on the top of the rock, the rest being the outer shell of the rock itself.

This rock has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years.

Inside this massive rock lies a gold mine, discovered and mined thousands of years ago. Over the millennia, hundreds of mine shafts have penetrated deep into the base of the rock, hollowing out the interior. Although the red and yellow gold ore remaining in the rock still exists, it is no longer worth mining. House Casterly was the first family to convert the mine shafts into halls and rooms. After building the first fortress on top of the rock, they began to use the mine shafts that had been dug to the bottom to construct halls and other rooms.

Legend has it that during the Age of Heroes, a highly legendary trickster known as "Lann the Clever" tricked House Casterly out of Casterly Rock using only his cunning. He was the ancestor of the Lannister bloodline, Lann Lannister.

Generations later, Lann's descendants became so numerous that they filled Casterly Rock, which had not yet been developed with many mine shafts for construction. Therefore, some collateral descendants moved to a nearby village and settled beside a natural harbor. Thousands of years later, that place flourished due to trade and eventually developed into Lannisport, the third largest port city on the continent of Westeros.

Today, this seaside rock has been completely hollowed out, and its interior has been built into a large city with winding roads at different levels. It is filled with corridors, dungeons, storerooms, barracks, halls, stables, staircases, courtyards, septs, balconies, and gardens. It has everything a city should have.

At the base of the rock, three huge openings have been carved, known as the Lion's Mouths. The Lion's Mouths are the only roads in and out of Casterly Rock. The central Lion's Mouth is very wide, connecting to the Gold Road, the Coast Road, and the River Road that leads directly to the Riverlands. Twenty horses can easily pass through the Lion's Mouth into Casterly Rock side by side.

When there is sunlight, the shadow cast on the ground by the rock that carries Casterly Rock resembles a crouching lion, so Casterly Rock is also known as the Lion City, and the entrance to the city is named the Lion's Mouth. House Lannister therefore calls themselves lions, and their family sigil and family motto come from this. Their family sigil is a golden roaring lion on a crimson field, and their family motto is "Hear Me Roar!" In addition, there is a widely circulated unofficial motto: "A Lannister Always Pays His Debts"—its popularity in Westeros exceeds the family motto.

The current Lord of Casterly Rock, Tywin Lannister, was born in 242 AC and is 56 years old this year. He is the Lord of Casterly Rock, Shield of Lannisport, and Warden of the West. When he was fifty years old, he began to lose his hair, so he simply shaved it all off, leaving only thick golden sideburns. Tywin's pale green eyes are also dotted with gold, which nobles believe is a symbol of gold. He likes crimson, so his armor is also made of crimson, and therefore the warriors' armor and cloaks throughout the Westerlands are crimson, and the Westerlands army is also known as the Red Cloaks.

In the main castle of Casterly Rock, Tywin Lannister is skinning a huge black bear, the result of a hunt he led with his guards in the eastern mountains. His knife skills are very skilled, and the skinned bear hide is complete and flawless.

While Tywin was washing the blood from his hands in a golden copper basin, Maester Potter walked in.

"Lord Tywin, I have just received a letter and a gift from Maester Hallis."

Maester Hallis is a novice that Maester Potter took in the Westerlands, a very young novice who is not yet twenty years old and has not yet passed the Citadel's official examination.

"Read!"

Duke Tywin is very majestic. He has never smiled since the day his wife died in childbirth. It has been twenty-five years. In 273 AC, Tyrion Lannister, known as the Imp, was born, but it also led to the death of Tywin's beloved wife, Joanna Lannister.

"Yes, my lord."

After Maester Potter finished reading Maester Hallis's letter, he anxiously observed Duke Tywin's expression.

The letter said that Alan Charlet of Silverhall exchanged gold coins for Ser Addam Charlet, sent four barrels of Arbor gold wine as a gift. Ser Gregor, out of caution towards the Charlet family, had Alan Charlet and his four guards drink first. As a result, Alan Charlet and his four guards all died from poisoning. After Hallis's appraisal, the wine was mixed with the deadly poison 'the strangler'.

Subsequently, thirty Charlet mercenary cavalry ambushed in the woods outside Clegane's Keep launched a pincer attack on Clegane's Keep, and were all killed by Ser Gregor and his subordinates. Twenty-three warhorses, eleven sets of armor, and dozens of swords and battle axes were seized. Ser Gregor asked Duke Tywin what he should do now? Should he counterattack, or return all the warhorses, armor, and weapons to the Charlet family? Ser Gregor believes that the poisoning and cavalry raid may not have been the idea of Alan Charlet of Silverhall. None of the cavalry who raided Clegane's Keep were Charlet family cavalry, so the accident was most likely the idea of Alan Charlet, the captain of the guard of the deceased Alvar Charlet.

Alan Charlet is not a member of the Silverhall Charlet family, but a very distant branch of the Charlet family.

Duke Tywin washed his hands clean, and a servant hurried to hand him a snow-white towel.

Duke Tywin wiped his hands carefully and said, "What is the gift?"

"Salt."

Tywin paused in his wiping motion: "Bring it to me!"

Salt is very precious to ordinary people, and some poor people cannot afford salt, but to Tywin Lannister, it is a very ordinary thing. How could Gregor bring it as a gift? There is something strange about this.

"I have already brought it."

Maester Potter took out a beautifully packaged wooden box, opened it, and inside was parchment paper tied very carefully and exquisitely. The style of the bow should have come from a woman's hand. He untied the rope, opened the parchment paper, and inside was a square of bright silver silk. Untying the knot of the silk, both the maester and the duke's eyes lit up: the salt was as white as sand, as crystal clear as they had never seen before.