( CHARACTER ★ INFORMATION )

DOES THIS CHARACTER MEET SKELETAL BASICS? Yes
NAME & AGE: Tyrion Lannister (27 by book canon, near 30 with show timeskip)
CANON & CANON POINT: A Song of Ice and Fire | A Storm of Swords (After the Purple Wedding, before his Trial by Combat)
CANON INFORMATION: A Wiki of Ice and Fire

PERSONALITY:

Tyrion Lannister, the youngest of Lord Tywin's brood, and by far the ugliest. All that the gods had given to Cersei and Jaime, they had denied Tyrion. He was a dwarf, half his brother's height, struggling to keep pace on stunted legs.

Tyrion’s story was not a happy one, though it nearly could have been. He was born the second son of Tywin Lannister, one of the most powerful and feared men in all the Seven Kingdoms. His father had reforged the Lannister legacy to one that was highly respected. His family was rich and influential. All of it might have made for good life, but for the fact that Tyrion was born a dwarf. More than that, his mother died birthing him and so robbed his father of those best parts of him. For that crime of babehood ‘kinslaying’, his father resented him and let him live only because it would not have been permitted to kill him as the smallfolk might have done. He found no love from his sister either, who also despised him for killing their mother and for being an unnatural creature. It was only his brother that ever loved him, for which Tyrion was endlessly grateful to him for.

“Would you rather be called the Imp? Let them see that their words can cut you and you’ll never be free of the mockery. If they want to give you a name take it make it your own. Then they can’t hurt you with it anymore. ” - Tyrion Lannister

He gained no love for being what he was, nor did he gain sympathy. Most in his immediate family reviled him and it did not take long for him to earn unpleasant nicknames. Even the kindness that his uncles would show him was quickly shattered by his father’s stern disapproval. Over time, Tyrion learned to weather himself from those insults. He accepted them and used them for himself, accepting them as his own kind of armor. Yet for how much he might claim to shield himself from it, Tyrion’s pride often proves stronger than the man himself. He does not take insults nearly so well as he claims and he does not forget the slights done to him. The Imp will never be a name he takes affectionately, even if he has made it his own. As more insults are heaped upon him, Tyrion’s shield proves a fragile thing. This becomes notable when Jacelyn Bywater explains to Tyrion what the commonfolk say of him - none of it kind.

”Robert wanted smiles and cheers, always, so he went where he found them, to his friends and his whores. Robert wanted to be loved. My brother Tyrion has the same disease.” - Cersei Lannister

It’s love which breaks Tyrion. Considered a freak by all the world, Tyrion has never felt truly loved. Save for his brother and the kindness of a few relatives, he has not felt loved. His first taste of it came with a common girl named Tysha, to whom he eagerly wed as a young boy. But when his father and brother deceived him into believing she was a whore, his experience with love was forever tainted. So he has gone through his life seeking pleasures from whores, indulging in a destructive and hedonistic life while shielding himself from being hurt by not falling in love. Yet, ultimately, his desire to love and be loved reaches a tipping point when he takes a liking to Shae. He provides for her and begins to love her and worse, begins to think she loves him back. Though constantly plagued by doubt and always knowing better, Tyrion more and more convinces himself that it’s a real love he feels for her. So strong is that love that when Cersei threatens his whore (who isn’t even Shae at the time), he counters back that he would return that same harm on his own nephew. This love proves false in the end, however. By the time everything falls apart, Shae betrays him to the court and ends up in his father’s own bed.

“I am malformed, scarred, and small, but... abed, when the candles are blown out, I am made no worse than other men. In the dark, I am the Knight of Flowers. I am generous. Loyal to those who are loyal to me. I’ve proven I’m no craven. And I am cleverer than most, surely wits count for something. I can even be kind. Kindness is not a habit with us Lannisters, I fear, but I know I have some somewhere. I could be... I could be good to you.” - Tyrion Lannister to Sansa Stark

When he weds Sansa, at first he is willing to give her the space and time she needs. He knows that she did not want to wed him and he had tried to be kind to her in the past. Yet even as pragmatic as he can be, he is taken aback when she states that she would never want to share a bed with him. It comes to him as a heavy blow and for however much he might armor himself, the defense shatters. Furthermore he chides himself in thinking she might ever love him when she vanishes after Joffrey’s wedding feast and abandons him to be named the man responsible for poisoning the king. At the same time, all of King’s Landing seems to have turned on him, despite how he had endeavored so hard to save them all. With even Shae’s betrayal, Tyrion is left to believe that ultimately he will never be loved.

“Tyrion is Tywin’s son, not you. I said so once to your father’s face, and he would not speak to me for half a year.” - Gemma Lannister

He does not require just love, but also approval. Chiefly it’s his father’s approval, for which he will never be able to gain. Despite moments when Tywin does recognize Tyrion’s worth, it is never enough. Even in his dreams, Tyrion dreams of being knighted by his brother and seeing his father smiling in satisfaction. Yet he has not forgotten the crime his father did to his whore-wife Tysha all those years ago. So creates a relationship of ever trying to appease his father, yet hating him and resenting him for being unable to do so. It’s on Jaime that Tywin rests the future of the family name, but for most it’s plain to see that Tyrion is his father. As he becomes Hand, this becomes more and more obvious. Tyrion did not ignore the lessons his father taught him. You must be feared to be respected, a threat is no good unless you can follow through with it, and sometimes brutality is necessary. As he tells his own father, “Now that’s where you’re wrong, Father. Why, I believe I’m you writ small.”

[Tyrion] dismounted and glanced up at what remained of the corpse. The birds had eaten her lips and eyes and most of her cheeks, baring her stained red teeth in a hideous smile. “A room, a meal, and a flagon of wine, that was all I asked,” he reminded her with a sigh of reproach.

It can be easy to mistake Tyrion as a good man. In many ways he does believe in justice and he shows more empathy and kindness than his family does. Yet he is a vengeful man, which can be seen even in his unsympathetic look to Masha Heddle who had done her no great harm other than own the inn where Catelyn Stark gained him. For while he does claim a soft spot for bastards, cripples, and broken things - his sympathy does not necessarily extent to the smallfolk. He knows the mathematics of war and death and where a lord like Edmure Tully will do all to protect his people, Tyrion understands how war is fought. He chooses the battles he fight, but those good deeds he does are more often done for his own sakes. He banishes Janos Slynt to the wall not for his crime, but because he was his sister’s man and because the brutality against King Robert’s whore made him think of Tysha and Shae. The kind of kindness he showed Jon and Bran early on is etched away as he begins to play the Game more in earnest. It stops mattering to him who gets stepped on in the way. Certainly he does not show any remorse at the chaos he leaves in the Vale. It does not matter to him that the wildlings armed with steel will be harming the smallfolk and not the lords and ladies that slighted him there. His brand of vengeance is petty.

“My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer and I have my mind...and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow.” - Tyrion Lannister

Where his brother excelled at all things including the sword, Tyrion was never so blessed with those advantages. Instead he had only his mind and his wits as his weapons. He learned this early on and so armed himself with knowledge. He read all the books in his father’s library and learned all he could. In his learning, he developed a clever mind that was well suited for strategy and subterfuge. Although often defeated by his inability to keep his mouth shut, he often made use of that cunning to great effect. Manipulation was a game often played by him and he was able to use it in the Vale to manipulate himself into getting a trial by combat. In King’s Landing, he proved adept at both forming a defensive strategy for the city while simultaneously thwarting Cersei’s schemes against him. He had recognized it for the game it was and found that he loved it.

“Of Joffrey’s death I am innocent. I am guilty of a more monstrous crime.” He took a step toward his father. “I was born. I lived. I am guilty of being a dwarf, I confess it. And no matter how many times my good father forgave me, I have persisted in my infamy.” - Tyrion Lannister

In all, Tyrion is a man half cursed by the world he lives in and half cursed by his sense of pride. It is his pride that makes him use his wits and his tongue when silence would be better. But he is bitter and it comes to him in the form of sarcasm and his hedonistic lifestyle. He wants to be a better man, though he cannot be certain what that is. In his ambitions he wants to be like Jaime, strong and tall. Or he wants to live up to his father’s expectations. But for no matter how much he’s battered, there is still the boy in him that would like to ride a dragon where he could ride high enough and look down on everyone else. But most of it has been chipped away by betrayal and an unforgiving world, leaving a man that is not quite a monster, but would find it so much simpler if he was.


COURT ALLIANCE & REASONING: Mod Choice
Although later events would spiral Tyrion into a destructive attitude that cared little for order and justice, the Tyrion that comes to be the Hand at King’s Landing is one that may be shrewd and willing to be dishonest, but is one who who subscribes to the order of society. This he confesses to Shae in their bed:

“So what will you do, m’lord, now that you’re the Hand of the King?”
“Something Cersei will never expect,” Tyrion murmured softly against her slender neck. “I’ll do . . . justice.”

To be fair, his justice is not so hard a thing as Stannis’s or honorable as Ned Stark’s. But Tyrion is pragmatic man who does all he can to keep the Lannisters in power, despite knowing full well they have no right to the Iron Throne. There is no true honor in it, nor does Tyrion practice it. But before murdering his father, Tyrion was still a man who believed in the kingdom and in his role in it.

A common motto for his family is “A Lannister Always Pays His Debts” and these are words that Tyrion has made his mantra. This is taken to extremes where he often paints people who have slighted him for revenge. Though he does not always make good on that revenge, his payback is often intended to be far crueler than what he suffered. Ever since the annulment of his marriage to Tysha, he has waited for the chance to repay his debt to his father. When he finally does, it’s with a crossbow bolt to the chest. His payback is nothing short of revenge and he does not easily forgive someone once they have wronged him.

What Tyrion does know is that honour is a weakness. He learned this well from Ned Stark’s example and so Tyrion little troubles himself with it. He whores and drinks and dispenses his own version of justice through his own means, no matter how vile the methods might be. While he may be a man of wit, it is often his passion that drives him more than his mind does. When he’s not thinking with his cock, he’s instead speaking out of turn. He might feel a duty to his family, but that does not stop him from actively plotting against them in anticipation of them trying to do the same to him.

All in all, Tyrion does not neatly fit into one court more than the other. While still in King’s Landing, he has some elements of the Seelie that he wants to believe in, but does not truly subscribe to. Once he becomes a fugitive, he becomes a kinslayer and a man seeking nothing more than revenge and destruction. So at his current canon point, he wants to believe in Seelie ideals, but his core is an Unseelie scratching its way free.


ABILITIES: As a dwarf, Tyrion has no great physical skill. His legs are often stiff and his spine gives him trouble. He has fought and killed, though it was never for superior strength or skill, but for luck and cunning. Though he is capable of tumbling and cartwheels, he does not practice it often.

What Tyrion has instead is his wit, which he keeps well honed. Tyrion has a great love for books and has read whatever he could get his hands on. While the knowledge of Westeros may not be vast, it has imbued Tyrion with a great deal of cunning and a talent for the various subjects of mathematics and other topics. He has a strategic mind not only from books, but also by virtue of having a father who was among the greatest military commanders to be found.

But perhaps his greatest ability and one which he cannot carry with him is that his a Lannister and so has all the wealth of Casterly Rock at his disposal. Unlike the show canon, Casterly Rock’s mines are still rich with gold and so his family is incredibly wealthy. It is a wealth that can buy him the loyalty of sellswords and men who might otherwise claim to be honorable. It buys him influence.

INVENTORY:

Nothing but the prison-worn clothes on his back.