A trio of Castigator-class battle tanks, the
Lannisters are collectively named after a corruption of the High Gothic word "lanista" (meaning "trainer [of warriors]"). Originally provided as prototypes and templates for the Ophelia VII
Mechanicus forges in the
'Dust Zone, the
Lannisters differ from the final production vehicles in a number of ways. After being used to calibrate the manufactorums' assembly lines the three tanks were enshrined within a votive-garage in the 'Dust Zone for millennia until
Saint Danforth gifted the
Via Imperator to the newly-established
Daughters of Verity. As part of the agreement between the Order of Our
Crystal Lady and the Adeptus Mechanicus, the three tanks were provided to the Battle Sisters to form the core of their
armor.
Over the centuries of their service with the Daughters of Verity, the
Lannisters have been repaired, modified and highly ornamented as befits ancient and sacred relics - despite this they retain much of their original structure and their aesthetic differs somewhat from other vehicles in the Daughters' armory, with significant use of Mechanicum red and raw bronze-colored panels. In addition, the Forge World's heraldic charger of a golden lion is prominent on the vehicles.
There are three
Lannisters;
Cersei,
Jaime and
Tyrion.
Cersei & Jaime
Cersei and
Jaime were the prototype hulls manufactured by the Mechanicum during the Castigator project, and were constructed in tandem in order to provide comparative data for the Techpriests. Throughout trials and shakedown components were frequently interchanged until which elements belonged to which vehicle was unclear. For this reason the two tanks are called
The Twins.
The two tanks were commissioned at the same time, although
Cersei's registration was logged slightly before
Jaime's.
Cersei is a "female" (anti-infantry) tank, with a hull-mounted heavy bolter, sponson-mounted heavy flamers and turret-mounted twin autocannons.
Jaime is a "male" (general purpose) tank, with sponson-mounted heavy bolters, turret-mounted battlecannon and hull-mounted multimelta. Neither of the armament configurations of
The Twins made it into production on Ophelia VII or Mars - it was decided the simpler logistics of all-bolter secondary armaments was preferred over variant weapons.
Because of the number of armor kills
Jaime has claimed, the tank is informally known as
Kingslayer. In recent years,
Jaime suffered damage while rescuing a
Celestian (the lone survivor of her corpus). The right sponson was irreparably damaged and a jury-rigged repair was made in the field, installing the Celestians' gilded heavy bolter in its place. The Celestian, Brienne by name, transferred to the motorpool (a rare occurrence) and joined the crew of
Jaime, assuming the role of commander.
Tyrion
The third hull,
Tyrion, was built as dedicated tank-hunter without turret or sponson weapons and with a hull-mounted thermal spear weapon. Rejected as incompatible with the nascent Sororitas' combat doctrines as well as unacceptably vulnerable (owning to exposed capacitors and a lack of rapid-firing weapons to defend against close assault) the prototype never made it into production. When the
Lannisters left their votive-garage to serve with the Daughters, the armament configuration was approved - unlike the Sororitas, the Daughters
make use of snipers and the idea of a "tank sniper" was not anathema to their combat doctrines. Nevertheless, the somewhat-dishonorable implications of sniping have resulted in
Tyrion being informally known as
The Imp.
