Jacob Swan

Jacob Swan is the son of Charles, and Renee Swan making him a member of House Swan through his father, and a member of House Yernese through his mother. Jacob Swan is also the brother of Isabella Swan, which since she married the king of Lucerne in Andrew Lovie he is now a member of the royal family House Lovie. Jacob Swan has become involved with the second daughter of a high ranking noble of Erengrad in the form of Kira Tornov of House Tornov, and she has followed alongside him in his quest to save the land of Kizlev.

The son of Charles and Renee Swan, he had gained great sucess in his young life, and the whole Kingdom weeped when he fell during the First Battle of Tree Hill, after following his grandfather in the doomed counter assault on Tree Hill. He was in fact now actually killed, but captured by orcs and sold into slavery. His time in Paris was short as he was purchased by Jutes from Kizlev on the coin of a rich merchant in eastern Kizlev. He would eventually find his way into the far north with the Human nation of Kizlev, and once here he realized how different the world in the north truly was. Upon arriving in Kizlev his natural abilities were quickly noticed and he has rose very quickly in the Kizlev military, and on top of this his influence increased dramatically as he became involved in a serious emotional relationship with Kira Tornov of whom was the daughter of the powerful Igor Tornov. His frist great conflict was when he repelled one of the vangaurd forces of Morgagian the Dark and his army of Rus that were attempting to rampage throughout Western Kislev.

Jacob Swan is the main POV character for the story called Homeland of which chronicles firstly his defeat during the Battle of Tree Hill, and then his eventual selling to Kizlev where he becomes a powerful military leader and fighting in the next Black Crusade. During the story he becomes a moral center in a land that is torn to shreds by the things being done to it from basically all angles, and he manages to find love as well while he is there.

Early History

 * "I can hardly remember my home in Forks but what I remember of it is all positive. I know that I was loved, and I know that the world was a happy one that I excisted in. I miss many things in this world, and my family in Forks will forever be top of that list."


 * -Jacob Swan

Jacob Swan was born the oldest child of Renee, and Charlie Swan making him the future heir to House Swan. As Jacob grew up he became incredibly close with both his sister, and his father of whome he was devoted to without question. Jacob's relationship with his mother was always a frosty one as Renee had come to be jelous of Jacob and the affection that he recieved from Charlie, where as Renee was often ignored. This didn't change the fact that he was very close with his family, and he took on a very important role for Bella his sister. Bella was a shy girl and as she was only eight but was becoming more and more reliant upon her older brother to make up for the fact that she had no friends.

Fame

 * "I won seemingly everything I ever tried to do, and it was in those moments that I wanted to become obsessed with myself in a way. Each time I wanted to be vain, my father would walk up to me and take me for a walk into the vastness of the poor parts of Forks, and that made me perfectly aware of what I was fighting for."


 * -Jacob Swan

Apparent Death
Main Article : First Battle of Tree Hill

See Also : Siege Of Forks




 * "Forks was the center of the Kingdom of Lucerne, and in a lot of ways the only city that even approached Lucerne in terms of importance. To see its walls assailed by Greenskins was a horrifying sight that I hope I never see again."


 * -Charlie Swan

While 80% of the Orc army attacked Tree Hill, the other 20% split off and attempted to stage the same sort of ambush on Forks. The only difference was Tree Hill relied on the Western Scout towers because its western side was a mountainy area where it was difficult to see movement, while Forks had a near 360 degree view of attackers. Gaurds on the wall noticed the attacking Orcs long before they closed in, and thus managed to sound the alarm and shut the gate. Witht the gates shut and the forces of Forks arranging on the walls, the Orcs found themselves in a killing zone outside the walls, and what few did manage to place ladders against the walls were repulsed with heavy casualties on both sides, but the defences held without much problem. As the Orcs massed for another assault on the walls with ladders, a large cavalry force would arrive from House Clegane from the north, and alongside a sortie from House Swan's forces the Orcs were massacred as they attemtped to flee from these two forces.

Reinforcements

 * Alex_Kirsh.jpg"The City was near destruction, and it seemed only fitting that the entire Kingdom of Lucerne would mass to take it back. If we chose to allow Tree Hill to die, then what did that say of us. What did that say to every city, town, and village that was near Tree Hill. Should they run. Should they hide amongst the trees so that the Orcs didn't kill them too."


 * -Earl Scott

With the city on the verge of utter destruction, and the Orcs massacring the few survivors within the walls and outside the Keep the forces of Lucerne were preparing to gather in Forks for what they assumed would be a massive reinforcement effort. At this time Bill Lovie, and House Lovie's forces would be only a day away from Forks, and he was trying to find a way to make the forces of Lucerne stand down and not assist the city he had planned to destroy. His oppurtunity would come when the main army of Tree Hill which had been ordered by him to Forks on the day of the attack massed alongside hundreds of volunteers and prepared to move inside the city from the eastern gate so to give the defenders more time for the relieving force to arrive. At this point Earl Scott asked for permission for the forces of House Swan, and House Arryn to join with them, and when the raven arrived with Bill Lovie he knew he had his chance.


 * Earl_Scott_Leaving_Forks.png"Earl Scott in his foolishness had sacrifised himself unknowingly. He had given me the perfect reason why we should not relieve Tree Hill, and allow me to remove yet another loose end in my plans.


 * -Bill Lovie

He sent four ravens in responce to Earl's letter. The first was to Earl Scott himself of whom he told he was going to send the full wieght of House Arryn, and House Swan to the western side of Tree Hill so that the route into Tree Hill would be opened to them. He sent two more ravens to House Swan, and House Arryn which told them that they were to move to the northern end of Tree Hill, and they they were to wait in the forests there for the full force of Lucerne to arrive. With this in mind Earl Scott would assemble his forces, and without checking in with Charlie Swan who was the only one who knew nearbye that he was walking into a trap he moved his forces towards Tree Hill. As his forces were leaving out the gate, it would be Jacob Swan who would follow with Earl Scott alongside several of his bodygaurd, and they would join what would be a doomed effort. The final raven would be the most deadly and had been sent to Alex Kirsh who was located in a small mountain cave north of Tree Hill more then a day ahead of Earl Scott. He would order Alex Kirsh to infiltrate the northern gatehouse and wait there until the arrival of Earl Scott, where upon his arrival he would trap his forces by closing the gate.

Massacre at Hyphon's farm

 * Hyphon's_Farm.jpg"It was a horrible realization when I understood what had happened. I knew in the moment before the Orc's blade struck me across the chest that he had betrayed me. I knew that there was never any true relief and all he wanted was to see my force dead. I had walked right into his trap, and in the end I had noone to blame but myself."


 * -Earl Scott

Earl's forces would arrive at Tree Hill nearly a day and a half later and were exhausted due to the speed at which they had been marching to Tree Hill. Upon their arrival they saw that the gate was open, and few Orcs were defending the area so they moved quickly into the area believing that the forces of House Swan, and House Arryn had blocked the main army from being able to ambush them. At the same time as they were moving it was the movement of Alex Kirsh in the northern gatehouse that would seal the fate of the army of Earl Scott. Alex Kirsh had waited for Earl's forces to arrive, and once they neared the gatehouse he begin to lower the gate so that they couldn't get inside. Earl's forces now stuck on the outside saw a large force of Worg riders moving towards them from the east, and thus they moved northward, and when the Worgs hit them they were trapped in Hyphon's farm. The Worgs overran their positions all across their lines, and despite attempts by Earl to get the troops under control they were cut down in their hundreds by the rampaging forces of the Orc Worg Riders. As they attempted to shift westward they saw the main Orc force moving towards them and realized they were trapped and doomed. The Worg Riders and the main Orc force would together over the course of several hours massacre the entire force and capture several of the soldiers for slavery.

Slavery
The Orcs sent their slaves back to their main settlements in the Marseilles region, and once they arrived there the eighty four men now enslaved prepared themselves for the death they saw coming. Jacob had spent the last few years hearing the dark and violent stories of what happened to those who were captured by the Orcs, and because of this those men were withdrawn and utterly accepting of their fate. They were mistaken in what happened to those captured in that they were often sold to nefarious humans in the secretive slave market in Paris.

So the captured men of Forks were packed into wagons with the hundreds of other humans captured and begin the long journey towards the Paris slave market. It took nearly a month and half and nearly half of the slaves died due to the utter lack of support they recieved from their orcish captors but those who survived entered the slave market of Paris.

Paris
See Also : Paris




 * "Everything was wrong about what I found in Paris. The land wasn't supposed to be used in this manner, it was supposed to be in ruins not being used for slavery."


 * -Jacob Swan

Once a magnificant and massive city of the Bretonian Kingdom the city of Paris was now nothing more then a cruel joke of a city. Transformed now into one of the largest slave markets in Europe the city itself was teeming with thousands of every manner of species, and it was here that Jacob would be sold. It was luckily for him that he was purchased by a rich merchant from Kizlev who was in the market for warriors to replace his personal army. He was an incredibly patriotic individual and the main reason he went to Paris to recruit was he wanted to free as many slaves as he could and this was the easiest way to do it. Jacob Swan would travel with the slave convoy all the way back east towards Kislev, and during this trip he had a lot of time to lement the loss of his homeland and the simple fact that his family would think him dead. During the trip he would also grow close to Nikita Vlasiv of whom was one of the gaurds for the convoy, and he attempted to learn more about the language of the people of Kizlev since he would need to know it. Nikita also told him of the lands of Kizlev since he barely knew of them, and had only heard them mentioned as a eastern ally of The Empire. When they arrived in Kizlev City on the western border of the land of Kizlev he found himself meeting a girl that would come to define him in later days.

Meeting Kira

 * Kira_Tornov_Small2.png"I wasn't used to a women being so much in control, as back in Lucerne the role of a women was quite different to what I discovered the role of a women in Kizlev was."


 * -Jacob Swan

The convoy would stop outside of Kizlev and while there many nobles of the city came to see the specimens, and more then a few inquired about Jacob, but the gaurds made sure they understood that Jacob was going back to Boras and was not for sale. During the inspections of him, a girl walked up to the side of the cage, and begin to inspect him. Running her hands along the bars of the cage she walked throughout without a word to Jacob, and despite how entranced he was by the beauty of this women he remained silent as well listening to the words of the slave master who told him so. She would put her hands in the air as if to describe that she meant him no harm, and then she stuck her hand into the bars and grabbed ahold of his face and ran her hand across his cheek briefly before checking his teeth, and the strength of his jaw. She finally spoke to him, in the harsh language of the Kizlevian, and when he didn't respond she spoke a different language, until finally she changed again and spoke to him in a broken German. Hearing her for the first time, he tried his best to concetrate on what his master had said.


 * Kira_Tornov_Large1.png Tornov : You are high born man. What reason brings to slave become? Has tongue been cut slave? You speak this language, I see on your head that you speak.


 * Jacob Swan : I was once a noble yes. Long ago though.


 * Kira Tornov : What reason brings to slave become?


 * Jacob Swan : Orcs destroyed the army I was with, and took me as a prisoner.


 * Kira Tornov : Honor lost is painful cut. Do you miss house of home german?


 * Jacob Swan : I miss my home very much.


 * Kira Tornov : I am sorry german. Hello.

And with her hello she walked away clearly not knowing that hello was what you said at the beggining of the conversation and not the end. Watching her walk away she was joined by several heavily armed men who surrounded her as she walked back towards her horse, and before she departed he watched her give him one last look before galloping away. With Kira out of sight he was approached by Nikita Vlasiv one of the gaurds who asked him what she had said to him. He told Nikita and when he asked who the women was, he was told that it was Kira Tornov the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the Kingdom of Kizlev in the form of Igor Tornov the leader of Erengrad.

Growth
See Also : Kizlev




 * "He became the son none of my wives had ever been able to give me. One swing of his sword told me everything I ever needed to know about the German."


 * -Boras Belesku

When he was finnally delivered to his new master in Kizlev the man in Boras Belesku took one look at him and decided that Jacob was going to be a true warrior. Boras used his wealth built up as a long time trader to turn the broken Jacob Swan into his personal champion. He spent months bringing in a master trainer, and armorer to his estate where he fashioned armor and weapons that Jacob would use. All of this was happening as he was talking up his newest warrior to his people, and he spent a lot of energy making the young Jacob Swan the source of so much hope. While this was going on he was being trained further in the eastern style of fighting, which differed greatly from the very ordered style used in central Europe, and was regaining much of the strength that he had lost after so long as a slave.

Battle of the River Venigors
Main Article : Battle of the River Venigors


 * Novokov_Pentov.png had a lot riding on the young German. On the one hand he could win the battle and everything I had been building would only get stronger. With a victory behind us our forces would swell, and our chances of survival went up massively. On the other he could fail."


 * -Boros Belesku

Boras and Jacob Swan would have their first chance to show off their metel as they were alerted to the arrival of a large force of Chaos attacking the eastern steppes. This force was a vangaurd of the much larger force of Mogragian, and thus its purpose was mainly to test the resistence against the main force, and to sow destruction in the land. The size of the army was too large for just the forces of Boyar Boras Belesku and thus he went to Boyar Novokov Pentov with the hopes of uniting their forces. Novokov had by the time they arrived already marshaled his forces, and was more then willing to join with their forces in order to save his land from the destruction about to happen to them. The two forces thus combined and waited in the forests near the large village of Khanrov where they would come out of hiding from three sides once the forces of Chaos had past and would cause massive casualties, and the complete rout of the Chaos force. During the fighting the rout had not happened until Jacob Swan had waded into the center of the Chaos forces and slew the Chaos Lord in single combat, thus leaving them nearly leaderless. With the rout on the two united forces chased them north away from their lands.


 * Kira_Tornov_Large.jpg"His eyes haunted my dreams for much of the time that we were apart, and it maddened me. I had seen for less then a few minutes but those few minutes now haunted my dreams, and spilled into my life. I wanted to know where he was now, but I was too afraid to ask anyone. I knew that eventually I would have to or he would most likely die out their in the east, if he wasn't dead already."


 * -Kira Tornov

She would think of him for some time afterwards but it would be almost six months before she would meet him again. She discovered from a member of her battalion that the slaves at Kizlev City were being sent eastward for the army of Boras Belesku. While those six months were on she found herself constantly wanting to ask Boras who she knew somewhat where Jacob was now. She never did because she feared being scorned by those around her for looking into a slave, but as the days went by she found herself consumed by thoughts of him. She was shaken from these fears when she was alerted to the fact that a large Chaos force had been defeated by Boras and his forces in the east and was now moving rapidly north attempting to flee. Ravens sent to the north had warned her of their arrival, and she decided to ambush them as they attempted to cross the river Venigors. She was moving her forces while Jacob Swan was now leading alongside Boras the large Kizlev force as they chased the forces of Chaos northward towards the trap waiting for them.


 * KIRA_tORNOV_Small.png"I had been fighting for six months against the enviroment, and then suddenly there is this huge Chaos force, and we are suddenly fighting them. After we destroyed them as a force and were chasing them down, I find myself being called a hero for what I did in the battle. I found myself carried away by the events and then when we massacred them on the backs of a mighty river I found myself staring once again at the most beautiful girl I'd ever met. Her face covered in a bloody red that matched her hair, and the look of curiosity in her eyes made me want to reach out and take her in my arms."


 * -Jacob Swan

As Jacob's force pushed them towards the river the larger force of Kira Tornov would sit infront of them and cut them down by the hundreds as they attempted to blindly escape the forces of Jacob, and didn't even attempt to resist the forces of Kira. As they were stalled in their retreat north they attempted to move eastward but couldn't shift quickly enough before they were smashed from behind by the forces of Jacob and Boras and thus the entire Chaos force was massacred before it could escape. As the two Kizlev forces met in the center it would be Jacob, and Kira meeting again this time she saw him in full armor, and he saw her covered in the blood of the enemy holding onto her two swords. The two would basically make a bee line for eachother and when they met without a single word to eachother he placed his hand on her cheek and she melted into his hand before he pulled her into a hug. Seeing their usually unemotional leader hugging into this unknown man, many in her force were confused, and it wasn't until she pulled away and he led her by the hand away from the battle that the whistles and hooting begin.

War
Over the years following this he found himself in the Kizlev army and taking part in quite large battles. These battles were led by Boras and his army which grew large as the people of eastern Kizlev attempted to band together to hold themselves against the encroaching horde. Each year Jacob was in Kizlev he remarked that there forces grew weaker but the enemy forces were larger every year. Boras said that such is the way in the east, and that no hope would come until the enemy started moving towards Kizlev and then the civilized west would come to their aid.

"The Battle of Tree Hill was a complete joke compared to the endless hordes that poured into Kizlev almost every year. It took my first battle up here on the stepps for me to understand that."

-Jacob Swan

Understanding that this was a growingly hopeless fight Jacob went to Boras and asked whether he could go west and attempt to warn the westerners of the dangers poised out in the wastes. Botas laughed at him and his blind faith but agreed that he could leave but he needed to be back by summer as the armies of Chaos would begin attacking again.

Meeting Andrew Lovie
Jacob travelled west all alone in an attempt to meet with the leadership of Kizlev in the capital of Praag. As he arrived at Praag he entered the city and saw the distant look in the peoples eyes as they too understood that things were moving towards another Black Crusade by the forces of Chaos. He had been given the seal of Boras and such was able to meet with the Queen of Kizlev.



Morgagian
See Also : Morgagian

When Jacob finally arrived back in Kizlev he found his masters fort nearly empty and the remaining soilders said he had headed east to resist the massive army of Morgagian. Jacob quickly got on his horse and left to meet with Boras at the town of Histen. When he arrived at Histen it was only two days before the coming of Morgagian, but his arrival was greeted with much excitement. Near the end of the book Rise of Lucerne Morgagian rises his hand in command of his force to move forward, and as of the end of the book it is unclear how the battle will progress.

Family Members
Charlie Swan - Father

Renee Swan - Mother

Bella Swan - Sister