Marinda Oakwhisper

Marinda Oakwhisper is

The West


Sansa Starke and Harrold Hardyng would join William in the trip back to Lucerne where they were to meet with many of the Lucernian state noblemen in order to help gain more people for the colonization. Arriving there Sansa would become a growing influence as her kindness and gentle personality were something many of the nobles gravited towards, and her former family in House Starke supported her heavily. After spending many weeks in Lucerne she and Harrold would travel southward to Forks and rally many of the Lords of that state to their cause, but found less support amongst that state, although House Swan would send several smaller knightly houses to join with the colonization. Travelling finally to Hillsbrad they would enlist the assistence of many nobles there including the powerful Franklin Brent of whom had lost his place following the rebirth of his brother politically. Following this they would leave for Berne where the colonization efforts would begin. In Tristfall itself during this time Margot Robbet had found herself fighting against an Orcish agression for the first time in many years, and this led to her sending scouts out of the forest for the first time in that same period, and it was at this point that she met with some of the more eastern surviving members of the humans of Tristfall, and they would tell her that the Kingdom of Lucerne was massing for an attack all across Tristfall, and the Elves of Quel'Thalas were looking as if they might join with them. Realizing that this was her chance to make her people stronger she would prepare her Knights of the Quill for battle, and leave her younger sister in command of Robbet Forest, and she prepared to leave for Berne with her forces.

Back in Berne Sansa Starke would join alongside her new husband as he was tasked by House Arryn to colonize and expand into the region west of Berne. Using the influence and power given to him by William Lovie III. they begin forming the army for colonization as the reinforcements from all across Lucerne travelled to the lands of Berne. One of the first tasks that the human forces of Lucerne would have was to make contact with the broken human elements that still remained in the lands of Tristfall of which there were many thousands surrounded by ten times that amount of Orcs. Living in the forests and along rivers these human remnents would be contacted and prepared for the coming crusade against the unaware Orcs. One of the first of these groups was the Knights of the Quill led by Margot Robbet of whom swore themselves to House Hardyng and joined with the growing army of Berne. Sansa Starke would join her husband and Paul Arryn as they met with the Sindar Elves of Quel'Thalas, of whom were going to align with them in order to clean the land of the Orcs.

The Elves of Quel'Thalas


The Elves had been following the situation in Tristfall very closely since the end of the Battle of Berne, and with the tensions very low with Lothlorian at the moment they would meet in oder to decide as a people if they wanted to completely throw their lot in with the Kingdom of Lucerne. Franklin Brent would first notice them when several of his scouts reported signs of Elven ambushes against Orcs near the forest, and he relayed this information to the overall commander in Gunthor Mountain of whom would relay a message to the Quel'Thalasian Elves that they were open to meeting. The leading members of the Senate of Quel'Thalas would request a meeting with King William Lovie III. of which - since William was at this point very far away - they would have via a Magi stone. William Lovie would be able to assist Alleria Windrunner in convinsing Marinda Oakwhisper that the Lucernians meant them only friendship when he revealed how in his dealings with both the High Elves, and the Lothlorian Elves he had made it clear that the Quel'Thalasian Elves were his friend and would not be harmed, and this was the reason that tensions had disapeared with Lothlorian. Seeing truth in his eyes Marinda Oakwhisper would become a direhard loyalist of the Lucernian alliance, and personally commanded some two hundred of her priestesses to the campaign in Tristfall.

Under the command of Thranduil some three hundred Sindar Elves, and another two hundred Priestesses of Elune personally led by Marinda Oakwhisper entered Berne where the talks begin about the terms of the coming crusade. Gunthor Mountain was grateful for their help, and the Elves were heavily placed in a position to assist them all along the forest of Quel'Thalas but especially in the northwest of Tristfall where the Elves would lead the one thousand strong force of Forks led by Ser Donnel Swann of whom would assist them in the northwest while the main force moved in that same direction but from Berne. The Elves would mass in large numbers northward from their forests and would ambush and kill as many Orcs as they possibly could. Special notice was made to make sure the Elves would be able to assist the small villages of humans in the area as every human they saved was one person to add to the army and to add to the possiblity of the future of the land. The Elves described a series of large bridges that allowed crossing over the cliff coasts of the River Berne, and said that in order to hold off the Orcs long term these bridges would need to be destroyed. Thranduil and the Elven forces would at this point recieve reniforcements from there own side in the form of Legolas, and Tauriel of whom both would lead another five hundred Quel'Thalasian Elves into the crusade for Tristfall. By this point they were in full scale fighting with the Bleeding Hollow Clan, but were killing them in their hundreds due to poor leadership on their side, and they had gained nearly a full thousand more troops through the rescueing of stranded humans in the northwest.

Cleaning of Tristfall


When the Elves left Harrold Hardyng massed the vast army of Lucerne and begin preparing for the army and people joining them for the western journey. The area was somewhat deserted but using griphons to map the area for Orcish settlements they were able to ambush and massacre the Orcish encampents during the night with the assistence of the Sindar Elves of nearbye Quel`Thalas. These attackers were devestating to the Orcish population, and over the course of two months nearly half the Orcs of Trisfall were butchered in this way, while many thousands of others retreated westward away from the demons that killed them in the night. While this happened the mass flying might of Lucerne would provide support to the surviving humans of Tristfall of whom were armed and fed, and with these supplies they begin preparing themselves to do any kind of damage they could to the Orcs of Tristfall. By this point the Orcs were being pushed back all across the front, and the Blackrock Orcs begin to hear reports from their loyalists in the area about this, and back in Blackrock Mountain a large Orc force was massed in order to attack whatever force the humans were mustering. Led by Blackhand's twin sons this force would make its way southward, but along the way the Frostfang Orcs were reported to be attacking Bleeding Hollow Orcs and thus the twins would change their father's orders and instead moved towards attacking the hated Frostfang Orcs. The Orcs in Trisftall though still had sizeable numbers and the bridges still were in place so they were of great danger to the colonization of Tristfall due to the enormous numbers of Orcs surrounding Tristfall. The Order of the Blue Dragon would become heavily involved during this stage when Khadgar led a large contingent of the Order into the main camp of the army in order to assist. Flying many behind the main lines they would land a contingent of forces near many of the bridges of which the Order of the Blue Dragon would plan the operation to destroy the bridge and thus cutting off the Orcs from being able to swarm into the area. With the destruction of that last bridge the routes into Tristfall were all but cut outside of the pathway that would be fortified and a castle built onto it.

Khadgar would split his force into dozens of piece with two main fronts being the northern river, and the western river. Leaving the northern river in charge of Irelia Hardyng the sister of Harrold he would take the majority of the Elven forces and prepare to destroy the western bridges, while Irelia was given most of the Swann forces in order to assist her. Across the operation it went mainly according to plan but along the northern river the Orcs had built a town of sorts around one of the bridges, and it was here where Irelia massed most of her forces including herself, and four other Blue Dragons in the form of Brann Roil, Traevin Rivers, Orden Snow, and Larra Marbrand of whom would summon spells for hours before the attack preparing to basically light the side of the town that was on the Tristfall side of the river on fire, and then during the confusion kill those who retreated southward, and at the same time Brann Roil would destroy Larra Marbrand would summon explosives onto the bridge and destroy it. The plan worked extremly well when the town nearly exploded after the fire of the spells struck several explosve piles the Orcs had placed around the town, and as the fire spread it engulphed the bridge and the town killing most of the town and destroying the bridge as well. The hundreds of Orcs that retreated from the inferno found themselves caught in a crossfire as Donnel Swann's forces would massacre them.

As the main army of Lucerne moved westward they worked alongside the Sindar Elves of Quel'Thalas to massacre the Orcs, but the further westward they got they begin to encounter news from the Sindar Elves and the Griffins that boded ill. The Orcs begin massing near the front lines in a huge force of tens of thousands. This large force was targeted from the sides by the Elves of Quel'Thalas of whom picked them off in ambushes, while they moved towards the main force. Gunthor Mountain would move the main Lucerne army towards this force, and met Franklin Brent's force, and Maron Scorpian's recently arrived force near a large lake. The Elves continued to harrass them, and battle was prepared when the suprise arrival of Tytos Blackwood and some eight hundred men with him caused them to wait several more days before fighting the Orcs. When Tytos arrived at the front he told them that he had been sent by his father in order to form his own wing of House Blackwood in the new land and would assist however he could, and his eight hundred men joined Maron Scorpian north of the lake where they would come down against the Orcs once battle was met.

Greengarden
See Also : Greengarden

With the main army still moving westward Harrold Hardyng would in his own mind find a perfect spot by the edge of the lake where they had won their great victory, and Harrold would call in the Order of the Grey Dragon in order to found the capital of this new land. Founding the town of Greengarden it would be the very important Sansa Starke wife of Harrold Hardyng that would arrive there and she would become the High Lady of the new castle and town, thus rising her to a level she thought wouldn`t have been possible with House Hardyng.

The rustic lifestyle of Greengarden would take its tole on her as they were forced to deal with the constant threat of the Orcs that were present in the area, and there were also significant numbers of Trollocs in the area, but despite all of this they were able to push forward and she would become pregnant with their first child shortly afterwards.