Byron Arryn

Byron Arryn
Story Role
POV Role	None
Appears In	Lucerne Series Valley of Lucerne End of Darkness The Rise of Lucerne Westros (Book) The New Land
Titles
Title	Official Titles Arch Lord of Berne Patriarch of House Arryn
Alias	Scared Bird
Vital statistics
Born	Placeholder
Religion	{{{Religion}}}
Status	Dead
Allegiance	House Arryn
Racial Statistics
Maternal	{{{Maternal race}}}
Paternal	{{{Paternal race}}}
Family
Parents
Father	Talbot Arryn
Mother	Mernia Arryn
Siblings
Siblings	Full Siblings † Amber Arryn † Martin Arryn
Internal Family
Spouse	† Ella Arryn
Children	True Born With Ellla Arryn Spencer Arryn Aria Arryn † Byron Arryn II. Base Born With Ashley Martin Hanna Arryn

Byron Arryn is the son of Talbot, and Mernia Arryn making him both a member and the current patriarch of House Arryn. Following the Battle of Berne he was retained by William Lovie who remade him the Lord of Berne. Byron Arryn has two siblings in the form of Amber, and Talbot Arryn of which his sister Amber is the matriarch of House Heard before her death in the Battle of Tree Hill, and his brother Talbot accompanied their father to the Battle of Lyons and was struck down while fighting. Byron Arryn was married to Leibgarda Merryjones of whom he loved but she eventually died during childbirth breaking his heart. Byron Arryn married Ella Arryn as his second wife following the death of Leibgarda and before she died he and Ella were a strained relationship broken by his failures at Berne. With Ella Arryn he had three children with her in the form of Aria, Spencer, and Byron of which Aria is a popular member of the house of whom is taking over the role of her mother since Ella died, his son Byron was the heir to the throne of House Arryn until his surprising betrayal left him following James Lovie into exile, and his final daughter Spencer has become very involved militarily in House Arryn and fought well during the Invasion of Westbridge. With Ashley Martin he has one other child in the form of Hanna Martin of whom upon the death of Ashley became a member of House Arryn and created a lot of problems amongst the house.

Byron Arryn would be born the first child of Talbot Arryn marking him at the time of his birth as the first in the line of succession to House Arryn and thus a prominent future lay ahead for Byron. Byron Arryn would follow his father, and brother into the War in France where he took part in the Lucernian campaign but was placed in command of the Lucerne fleet at Saint Le'Poliel which he did until the arrival of a large Senegal/Emblam fleet at the town forced him and his force to retreat from the town and abandon the fleet. Byron would link up with the remaining Lucernians following the Battle of Lyons and followed King James Lovie II. back to Lucerne becoming one of the primary generals of the distraught king. Returning to Lucerne and becoming the new lord of Arryndale due to the death of so much of his family left him a changed man, and in this change he became distant from his His attempts at this were often seen by the people as cowardly, and what little reputation he had left basically evaporated when he watched and would not stop the murder of his niece Allison Arryn and then didn`t come to the aid of his wife Ellia Arryn of whom would later die in a prepared suicide that most blame him for. When he had another chance to organize a resistance in Berne he would once again prove scared of this, and instead would retreat into the House Arryn estate where he pulled half the forces of House Arryn and hid himself for the remainder of the siege despite calls for aid from all across the city. When William`s forces broke into the city he would remain in the estate, and in the aftermath it was only the persuasion of his daughters that led to his survival as William wanted to execute him for his behavior. Byron Arryn would spend some time attempting to rebuild his image as he wanted to make his son proud of him which he believed was the reason his son had fled Berne with James Lovie, and despite his best attempts he was unable to move the nobles of Berne to his side and became depressed. This depression would culminate in his suicide upon the return of Byron Arryn II. to Berne in a coffin as he had died during the assault on Orleans. Byron Arryn would leave his heir as Byron Arryn II. when he died and thus when his son and he both died the ruler-ship of Berne and House Arryn would pass to his next oldest child of which was Aria Arryn.

History

Main Article : Timeline of Byron Arryn

Byron Arryn would be born the first child of Talbot Arryn marking him at the time of his birth as the first in the line of succession to House Arryn and thus a prominent future lay ahead for Byron.

Early History

Byron Arryn would grow up in Arryndale and throughout his youth he was very close with his father, and younger brother Talbot with his younger brother Talbot being his best friend and person he valued above almost all others.

First Crisis of Turnendorf

Main Article : First Crisis of Turnendorf

The First Crisis of Turnendorf You have stopped us for now Lady Anshutz. Trust me when I tell you this is not over. We shall see each other again.

“I need you to listen to me now Aelfwynn. Its time to open your eyes. Time to see the truth.” — Sogronul Battle of Murstendorf Main Article : Battle of Murstendorf “The Sogronul that once led us would have never done what she did at Murstendorf.” — Sogronul As the smoke cleared and it was clear the extent of the violence that the forces of the Voiceless had done to the city it was Aelfwynn that would turn against Sogronul realizing that there was no redemption to be found for her adoptive mother and fled to Turnendorf. Siege of Turnendorf Aelfwynn would arrive at Turnendorf ahead of the main Voiceless army and warning her father of the coming attack they were able to deploy defenses and call up hundreds of men from the country side. Arrival of James Lovie II. The siege of Turnendorf was ended with the arrival of James Lovie II. and the relief army from Lucerne of whom with their superior numbers forced the order to retreat back to Rissingshire Castle. Siege of Thaig Roelet Last Stand As the forces of Lucerne broke the defenses of Thaig Roelet it was Aethelhilda that would make the decision to sacrifice herself so that the Order of the Voiceless Angel could survive and in a massive spell she blew herself up creating a giant fissure in the ground that seemed to destroy the Thaig but had actually only broken the entrance.

War in France

Main Article : War in France

The War in France First they killed there fellow Orcs, and we did not care because we were not Orcs. Then they came for the Africans, and we didn't care because we were not africans. Then they killed the Romans, and we did not care because we were not romans. When they finally came for us there was no one left to care for us. Let our shame stand over the graves of all those who died here.

"They died in their thousands charging at the walls for days, and all they got out of it was wasting alot of our arrows. When we finally massacred the army on the field I couldn't help but ask myself what they were thinking" -Lord Landuin Andorra was always going to be where the true battle begin, and it was here that the conflict would be decided. As discussed elcewhere the defenders of Andorra were extremely prepared for an attack against the main fortress of Andorra itself which was protected by the massive 1st Army, but they were not prepared for the Orcs to focus on the smaller castles that surrounded the Andorran mountains. The first act of the war was a silent but probing attack against Andorra by a force of some sixty thousand Orcs of whom attacked the fortress with the only purpose being so that the High Orcs would know the capabilities of the defense. The Orcs would move into the area around the fortress and put it under siege, but they could not even get to the walls as they were being massacred by the hit and run attacks of the first army, and the masive firepower of the defenders. The Battle would end eventually when the First Army accepted noone elce was coming, and proceeded to surround the Orc force and massacre it. During this masacre though they revealed to the onlooking Orcs that the First Army was in place to surround any force that attacked Andorra and because of this the High Orcs decided that a frontal assault would not sucede, and thus they moved to surrounding Andorra itself. “We never had a larger plan at play here. I am so stupid to have put my faith in men like you.” — Poncet Mariette This change in strategy was something that was completely not caught on to by the Bretonian defenders and this coming ambush would be discussed heavily by the Order of the Raven agents present at the Orcish occupied city of Logrono and it was during these discussions that Poncet Mariette would finally make his stand. Realizing from the talk of the top raven in Logrono in the form of Rodrigo Diaz that there was no larger plan in mind behind the obvious Poncet would prepare to leave Logrono for the Andorra fortress to warn them, but was discovered by the other Raven and thus as he made his way north the Raven used Magi divises to warn the larger Raven Order of this, and it was Sayden Ah-Salemi that commanded dozens of Raven all over the area to attempt to intercept the legendary Poncet. Of those sent one of the most notable was Ludwig Krieger of whom loved Poncet as a father but had never truly recovered from what had happened during his time with the Chaos Cult of his youth and thus this would be a turning point for the young man in making his choice. Poncet would be ambushed by two raven while crossing into Bretonia but managed to kill both of them but suffered a wound to his arm which slowed him as he made his way towards Andorra. Poncet would be once again delayed when he found the bridges for crossing the Andorra River had been destroyed by the Bretonians and with the Orcish main invasion still months away the Senegal had not repaired them yet forcing him to travel further downriver to a land crossing but this once again heavily delayed him. Francisco Abarquero, and Gilbert Bonpre IV. arrived in Andorra with a team of Raven before Poncet and the seven raven would prepare an ambush against Poncet of whom having finally reached the area around Andorra realized that his delay would have given the Ravens a chance to reach Andorra before him and thus was prepared for an ambush. During the ambush against Poncet it was the elderly Poncet that would kill them all but took near fatal injuries during the fighting and it was in this state that he was discovered by Ludwig Krieger his former son of sorts. 2nd Battle of Andorra "There were some that begin to whisper that the King had made a mistake in making us believe the conflict was so dire. It seemed to me and many of my men that we could be much more use in the northern battlefields then down here defending against a race little more then children. I mean we were absolutely massacring them all across the lines, and other then a few castles falling everything was going perfect." -Julien Brunel one week before he died in the Fall of Castle Bayonne With their strategy in mind the High Orcs would assemble an army of some one million and place it infront of the fortress of Andorra and its goal was to lock the first army into the Andorra fortress by continuesly sending small pieces of its force against Andorra itself. These attacks appeared massive but their purpose was never to win, but from the inside the attacks would look like the blind charge of a stupid race. As they followed this strategy another Orc force of seven hundred thousand locked the forces in Valencia so that they too what be able to be surrounded and destroyed in the same manner. The first true battle in the war would start with horror for the defending forces. News began to break throughout the border that nearly a million Orcs were attacking scout castles all along the Andorran border. What was in truth happening was the Orcs were attacking all along the border but were focusing their attention on trapping the main Bretonian army in the Fortress of Andorra. The Noose closes "The fall of Bayonne was something none of us saw coming, and there was a hesistation amongst us about what to do about its fall, and while we waited the Orcs were heading towards us, now from all directions." -Lord Landuin As the defenders of Andorra butchered the attacking Orcs time and time again they failed to understand that the First Army and nearly half of the Bretonian army was being surrounded in Andorra, and the first signs of this was a few vague reports from field commanders that begin to flow in saying that two massive armies were attacking up the flanks of Andorra towards Bayonne, and Bordeaux. These reports were seen as falce by those who saw them and thus it took the fall of Bordeaux and Bayonne for the defenders to understand what was happening. The defenders of Bordeaux were mobilizing to relieve the caslte of Nox south of the town when they discovered tha the Orc army attacking Nox had already destroyed the castle and by this point the Orcs had Bordeaux surrounded and proceeded to massacre the city whose main army had left, and the army fled northwards or risk being trapped in Andorra with the First Army. Nearly at the same time the fort of Bayonne came under assault and while the city itself held out, the castle was overun and fell in less then a week. Because the city had survived the defenders were able to send ravens, and griphon messengers to Andorra with the information that the Orcs were surrounding Andorra and they needed to escape the trap. By this point Lord Landuin was already getting reports that Bordeaux had fallen and as the attacks came from the west and east he knew the time for running was over. 3rd Battle of Andorra "We killed nearly a million Orcs in that Battle but our army was ruined. Half my commanders were dead, and the men that weren't injured were tired from the fight. When I gave the order to return to Andorra I knew I was ordering a last stand but what choice did I have." -Lord Landuin The Third Battle of Andorra was the finality of the conflict in Andorra and it would be a victory for the forces of Bretonia but it would also result in the defeat of the first army which in its absence would make the fortress of Andorra fall months later. Lord Landuin believed in his mind that the army attacking in the south was the largest, and for this reason he created a strategy where he and the first army would attack the force using the shock that their arrival would be to destroy the force. The next day the Orcs would attack and when they did the first army was not their to greet them and thus they put the fortress under siege. The First Army had moved south silently and hit the main force of the south with the entirety of their strength, and over the course of that day the two forces would fight to the death. The Orcs would break ranks at the end of the day and most of the million troops were killed in the battle, but the first army was broken. Of the four hundred thousand men of the army there were less then fifty after its conclusion, and what was left retreated into Andorra in the hopes that they had destroyed the main force and could now hold out until relief came. Fall of Andorra “Everyone watched the fall of Hispania with little interest at first which as the Orcs took more and more of the land it became an almost fanatical rush to try and come together to save France before the whole continent fell apart.” — Bill Lovie The Orcs breaking out of Hispania caused a massive amount of chaos to spread throughout Europe. At first like many of the members of the Kingdom of Lucerne he looked at it with little importance as he was dealing with a lot of the leadership issues that were going alongside with him taking over from his father. He was pushed in different directions by his council of which some wanted him to stay completely out of the talk of assistance as they didn't want to waste energy protecting their rival in the Roman Empire. While this happened though it was Draco Highmore that would romanticize the protection of the land from the rampaging forces of the Orcs, and thus it was without anyone realizing it that Bill Lovie was becoming very interested in saving the land from the Orcs. A council was held in the French City of Lyon. As king of one of the mighty kingdoms of Europe he attended the council. Council of Lyons Main Article : Council of Lyons “Hope was the main emotion I felt learning about what happened at the Council at Lyons. I saw the forces of Europe aligned together to fight the common enemy, and honestly hearing about the forces that would be brought to bear it didn't even pop into my mind that it might not be enough.” — James Lovie II. James Lovie sent envoys to the Bretonian city of Lyons where they met with the leadership of the European human Kingdoms where they would decide the direction they were all going to take. James was strongly on the side of the Bretonians and was fully on board with a completely all in mentality on the part of the humans of Europe. The meeting would go especially well, and would lead to a massive combined human and Dwarf force that would head towards the Lyons area, and take part in the Battle of Lyons. Flemeth Enters the Fray “I shall hunt down the forces of Flemeth that enter France. I shall not fail you father.” — Helja While the Human/Dwarven Alliance was massing for its move against the Orcs at Lyons it was other actors that moved further into the area attempting to drive there own goals forward. These two actors were the Thunderlands of Valhalla, and the Korcani Wilds of which the Korcani Wilds and Flemeth wanted to ruin the Kingdom of Bretonia while the Thunderlands wanted to stop this from happening and thus both sent agents into the maelstrom that was France at the time. Flemeth sent in four of her daughters in the form of Peltrasia Dominica, Luciana Cordelier, Isabel Saintyon, and Nicolete Espernon accompanied by several hundred Korcani Knights and nearly three thousand Korcani Men at Arms leaving a large force entering. The Thunderlands would send in a force of four Valkyrie in the form of Helja, Roswita, Hrodny, and Svanhilda who were accompanied by nearly two thousand Vrykul, and ten Storm Giants to oppose the forces of Flemeth leaving the Thunderlands with on paper the more powerful force. Flemeth knew that she could not compete militarily with the Thunderlands and thus that was never her goal instead she sent the entire force to the western front where the Dwarves were battling and made it appear that there goal was helping defeat the Dwarves. While the main force went that way it was Peltrasia, Isabel, and Luciana that went to the city of Reims where the Roman army was massing for its movement north. The three would get inside the Roman court and Peltrasia using Magi was able to get into the mind of the Imperial Legate Lartius Tiburtius convincing him that the two were deeply in love and she had the powers of premonition. While Peltrasia and the other two were manipulating the Romans it was the Thunderlands forces that followed Nicolete who was busying herself destroying bretonian villages and sacrificing villagers to summon to her hundreds of demons allowing her to be viewed as more of a threat then she actually was. Hrodny, and Svanhilda would break off from the main Valhalla forces following a lead and eventually found the other three daughters at the city of Orleans where the Romans had reached, and in a mistake they did not wait for the main force and fought the daughters alone leading to them being killed but also mortally wounding Peltrasia. Without Peltrasia to guide him Lartius became desperate for her return and made a deal with Isabel that he believed would bring her back, but in fact only allowed her to have him possessed by a demon. Now in complete control of the Roman army they moved towards Lyons only days away from the Battle of Lyons. “Your too late Helja. My sisters have control of the Romans. By the time you get there the battle will be a bloodbath. This land is gone.” — Nicolete Espernon Battle of Lyons Main Article : Battle of Lyons “I had been to Lyons before the Orcs arrived so I knew what the city looked like in peacetime. Arriving there this time it was almost beyond looking at this time. Unimagineable numbers of Orcs sprawled out like bugs around the city now left this horrifying small circle of space in the middle of the horde.” — James Lovie II. The opening to the battle would begin with the Human armies moving into position around the besieged city. The commanders in charge had placed a strategy of encirclement with the largest army in the Romans facing what was the strongest section of the Orcs, and the second strongest in The Empire facing the east side. With this strategy the element of surprise was the most important aspect, and this was mainly due to the fact that the Orc besieging army had well over a million orcs in it. The human alliance was almost six hundred thousand but no where near big enough to compete without an ambush. There is much speculation as to what happened in the Roman lines, and the fact that very few survived, and those that did do not speak of it doesn't help things. It is believed by most that the Romans believed they could take the army without the Bretonian, Lucernian, and Alcase assistance and because of this they begin bombarding the Orc lines. This attack did heavy damage to the closest Orc forces, but it also alerted the whole sieging force that they were surrounded. With the Orcs now at full alert they ignored the city of Lyons and simply charged the nearest human they could find, which meant that the million plus orcs were now charging as one massive pack, and the entire ambush was a failure. Lucernians Return to the Valley Main Article : Lucernian Retreat from Lyons “We have survived where thousands have not. We owe it to them to make it home.” — James Lovie II. Following the violence and hopelessness that he felt and saw during the War in France, James continued to lead the Lucernians southward but discovered to his increasing horror a land that was now in the control of the Orcs. Reaching the port of Saint Le'Poliel they would be met on the outskirts of the town by Byron Arryn and his men who had been tasked with holding the fleet at Saint Le'Poliel, but had failed when they had been overrun by wave of attackers. From Byron they learned the town had been taken over by the forces of the Orcs but was being held dark skinned humans, and there were far too many defending the town to hope to retake it. Unable to use the ships they had left behind at Saint Le'Poliel they were forced to continue southward where they made their way towards Orleans constantly forced to hide within the forests as the Orcs rampaged across the land. Arriving at the town of Saint Etienne they found the place had been retaken by retreat Roman troops and entering the town they discovered the Romans preparing to leave were stripping the town of its supplies as they did this. Shocked at what was happening but without the troops to protect the remaining Bretonians it was James that commanded the Lucernians out of the town where a small group of Romans followed with their party as they continued southward towards Orleans. “It all just feels so fake, ya know? This idea that good things happen to good people. That there's magic in the world, and that the meek and the righteous will inherit it. Too many good people suffer for that to be true. Too many prayers go unanswered. And every day it just gets worse. Every day we ignore how truly broken this world is, and we tell ourselves it's all going to be okay. But it's not going to be okay. And once you know that, there's no going back. There's no magic in the world...at least today there isn't.” — Avidius Agaptus The ride back from the battle was perhaps the true nail in the coffin as he was riding with a an emotionally distraught Legion Tribune by the name of Avidius Agaptus. Pablius Reeter was a Roman Legion Tribune that survived the battle but watched as three of his children, and his father did not. In this kind of emotional state it wasn't shocking when he was beyond pessimistic. Pablius had been present in the planning meeting where Imperial Legate Lartius Tiburtius had made the decision to attack without the rest of the army, and despite Pablius and the two Legion Legate's arguing against this it was Pablius that overruled them. Pablius would talk of loss with James and this talk made James miss Lisa even more then he did before, and as the situation around them deteriorated it was James that held onto his desire to see Lisa again as the only thing moving him forward. As they moved southward they were met on the road by the forces of House Royce who had been forced out of Reims and had traveled in this direction attempting to assist the main Lucernian forces. Arriving at the town of Saint Etienne they found the place had been retaken by retreat Roman troops and entering the town they discovered the Romans preparing to leave were stripping the town of its supplies as they did this. Shocked at what was happening but without the troops to protect the remaining Bretonians it was James that commanded the Lucernians out of the town while a small group of Romans led by Pablius followed with their party as they continued southward towards Orleans. Arriving at Orleans the Lucernian/Roman force looked on as humans were paraded in large convoys by more of the dark skinned humans as before, and again realizing that they were too few to effect any kind of change James made the decision to turn away from Orleans and keep going south attempting to find any kind of port where they could get ships. While traveling south of Orleans they accumulated hundreds of panicked Bretonian refugees of whom would lead the army towards the port of Saint Velialla where the people said the whole town had been put to the sword or fled as the Orcs moved northward. Battle of Saint Velialla “Tell me where you come from? Tell me why you did this?” — James Lovie II. Reaching Saint Velialla they found a massacre that was beyond what they could understand as there was no sign of any kind of military in the town, and thus it appeared it was just civilians that had been killed. They were able to find enough ships at Saint Velialla but these ships were under the control of a small garrison of the black skinned humans, but with a suprise factor on their side they would decide to make there move now. The Senegal troops there were led by Addir Istroddir of whom was just finishing looting the town and filling the boats before he would be heading northward to the main site of their forces in Orleans and thus was not in any way prepared for a battle. When the Lucernian force crashed into them the Senegal troops were spread out through the whole town and thus half were killed before they even realized they were under attack and then the Lucernians captured the ships before the Senegal troops could push off into the water. Trohn Royce would be killed during this attack leaving Yohn Royce to become the lord of House Royce as well as forced to leave behind his father as there was no time to bury any of the bodies. Taking what loot they could onto the boats as well as the few surviving slaves joining them they would take several Senegal hostages with them as they moved south on the river. Only Addir was able to speak german and only barely and so James interrogated the commander of whom gave him what information he could in return for promises of being released by the Lucernians. Learning what he could from Addir they would eventually execute the other Senegal troops before releasing Addir with his hands bound in the river to die. Sailing eastward toward Reims where they believed they would find shelter they would instead be stopped on the river by a Magi apparition created by Wilhelm Kissling causing them to come to shore. Bypassing Reims Coming to shore they met with Wilhelm Kissling and his men who told them that Reims had been overtaken by the Greenskin while they were gone, and thus they would have to travel by land to get by. Fall of France Harriot Eisenburg would be inside the walls of Paris as the Orcs besieged the city, and at this point moral was extremely low following the disastrous Battle of Lyons and it was left to Harriot to take charge of the city, but the emotional losses she had suffered left her unable to do this leading to the rise of the Lord Duke of Paris in the form of Marcel Frolois becoming the central leader in the defense.

The Fall of James Lovie II. Your father was a good man. This thing. This creature in front of you now. This is not your father.

The Fall of James Lovie II. Main Article : Lucernian Retreat from Lyons “I didn't know Magi before that day. It was as if the power just flowed into me as I read the book. What manner of power flowed into that book to make it possible I'll never know.” — James Lovie Having made the decision to rest at Berne before traveling back into the Valley it was James that felt content for a time in the city and while the plan was never to stay for longer then a few days he felt at ease during his time there. Tobin remained behind in Berne holding control of the town for James who moved the rest of their forces back to Lucerne, and while in command of Berne it was Tobin who begin to recover emotionally but also took the girl he had raped as his wife forcing her into marriage. Return to Family Arriving back at the Lucernian capital, there was sadness, but also happiness that at least some had survived. James went to his family, and attempted to find peace again, but he was quite dramatically changed by the things he'd seen as well as the words spoken by Pablius. James would at first be kept busy when he was told by leadership in the capital that members of the Arch Lords had attempted to push out William Lovie III. and place one of their own as the new monarch, and that the only reason this had failed was due to Hayden Percy arriving at the capital with a force from House Percy and defending the capital. Without Lisa to talk to it was James that fell into the depression of what had happened to him alongside the paranoia that he felt following the news that while he was gone members of the Arch Lords had attempted to place someone outside of House Lovie as a new monarch over his son William. These fears led to him distancing himself from almost everyone outside of his closest friends, and led him down a path of trying desperately to fix Lisa. Each night as Lisa fell deeper into the Fade as a result of her work with Lornax, James would sneak to the Lovie family library and searched their books for some sort of answer to how to save his wife from what was happening to her. “There was nothing good in that book from a morality sense of the word. But in that book I found the answers to every question I'd ever asked. As I read more and more I came to understand the world in a way that both shocked, and amazed me.” — James Lovie II. It was during one of these searches of the House Lovie library that he found a book that would change his mind for good, and set the Kingdom of Lucerne in a tailspin. He would begin searching in the locked section of the House Lovie library, and discovered Mysticism which was a book hidden by William Lovie due to its historical connection with darkness and evil. Not knowing the true depths of the book's evil James Lovie became obsessed with the book and for months he would spend every night reading the book over and over again. Each time he read the book his mind became more wrapped up in the things he learned about Magi, but also each time he read the book he begin hearing voices in his head which taught him things. “I didn't know Magi before that day. It was as if the power just flowed into me as I read the book. What manner of power flowed into that book to make it possible I'll never know.” — James Lovie While before reading the book he had did not have any active connection to the Fade and was of level 0 in terms of Magi, it was James that was actually a Dragonborn due to his blood and thus was sensitive in magi just not in a way that he would have ever discovered without assistance. While the Dragonborn were envisioned to be guided by a Dovah, it was the actions of John Lovie that had left the Dovah removed from the Kingdom of Lucerne and thus the Dragonborn of the Valley were born and died without ever understanding their underlying abilities. This underlying Dragonborn abilities led to the Fallen Titan Vhloraz having a lot of difficulty in gaining control of James and thus he played the long game giving James more power in return for James doing things for him. The things that James was asked to do seemed trivial but were in fact allowing Vhloraz to weaken the protective Magi shield that all Dragonborn have over them, and as this continued Vhloraz was able to move himself out of Mysticism and into James thus beginning the parasitic relationship between the two. Returning Friends “You have to understand William. When you father left Lucerne he had everything. He had a wife he loved. Friends who loved him. Family. When he returned he got the feeling he had lost it all. He pushed away his friends until they begin to scatter. His family didn't recognize him, and he knew that. Hes a broken man.” — Einhard Rosler Following the return of James Lovie from the War in France it was Esme Portmane that returned to Lucerne deciding she needed to see him and the two would spend time together before his growing emotional erraticness would lead to Esme leaving but she did leave pregnant with their third child together. Also returning to his side was his former best friends in the form of Einhard Rosler, Charles Swan, and Eddard Starke all of whom were very excited to have their friend back, but would quickly realize he was a changed man. Einhard had become a parental figure to Williams children as by this point Lisa was all but a ghost of herself barely capable of stringing words together, and for this James held him in very high esteem not showing any signs of jealousy. Charles for his part attempted to go back to things as normal but James blamed himself for the death of Charles father during the Battle of Lyons and felt shame around Charles causing their relationship strain. Eventually this strain would lead to Charles leaving Lucerne to return to Forks, and this departure left him the open target for many of the new people entering James life. The Circle of Magi “I need you both to do something for me. Bring minds capable of helping us. Bring them together so that we can fix what has been broken.” — James Lovie II. During this period where James fell into addiction, and depression over the rising control of Vhloraz he would also command the founding of a long time dream of his in the form of the Circle of Magi. In this founding he gave the organization of this to his two close friends Kieth Schwartz, and Er-Khadgar Morgrave of whom went about doing what James had always dreamed of when they formed the early foundation of the Circle. Putting out public notices throughout the Grand State of the Crownlands for all Magi sensitive to come to a camp they constructed outside of Nortburg they received hundreds of recruits of whom having been forced to hide before this found great hope in this new direction. One of these new recruits was Wuldrik Toyne of whom would travel from the Grand Temple of Lucerne to Nortburg where he met with one of the earliest recruits to the Circle of Magi in the form of Lothar Guntbold and the more advanced Magi Lothar took him under his wing during this early time.

James Lovie's Suicide Attempt I can't live like this anymore Esme. I need you to end this.

James Lovie's Suicide Attempt Main Article : James Lovie's Suicide Attempt “I'm sorry James. There can be no doubting this. I watched you kill her with my own eyes.” — Kieth Schwartz Maergary would become a source of increased resistance to the corruption being suffered by her son James and in this resistance begin recalling people to the capital that had been friends of James during his better times. First bringing to the capital Charles Swan, and Eddard Starke the two former best friends of James found themselves shocked at what had happened to James. Both had seen the changes when he had returned from France, but the changes since they had left were beyond dramatic, and led both to vow to try and help there former best friend. As the attempts continued it was James that was after several months unable to stop Vhloraz from taking complete control for several minutes and during this time Vhloraz would murder Maergary in front of many onlookers before James was able to regain control. Following the realization that he had killed his mother in a blind rage he would come to the conclusion that he could no longer control whatever was happening within him, and with Lisa now nearly comatose he commanded that word be sent for Esme to be brought back to Lucerne. Esme responded almost immediatly to the call to the return, and begin heading to Lucerne from Lorderon traveling with her daughter Diane but leaving behind Natalie, and Jamie with her family. As they waited for Esme to come to Lucerne the group was forced to put James into an almost constant state of use of opioids which kept Vhloraz at bay. When Esme arrived she was shocked to see the state of addiction he was in, but doing his best James asked them to listen as he told them the truth for the first time about what was happening to him. The First Attempt “Witold was a brave young man back then. He's been dead for years though. The thing that walks around now is not Witold.” — Kieth Schwartz With James still able to control himself during this time to a much larger degree then would eventually become the case he revealed to those near him that he felt a voice within him who called himself Vhloraz. He revealed this information to Kieth Schwartz, Khadgar, Esme Portmane, Charles Swan, Eddard Starke, and Witold Jestife and learning this they would in their first attempt to save James attempt to discover the purpose of Vhloraz. Kieth, Khadgar, and Witold would both enter the Fade attempting to discover who this creature was but as they did this it was Vhloraz that was prepared for this attempt and as they got close to him he unleashed dozens of Titans aligned to him and while Kieth, and Khadgar were able to escape back to reality it was Witold that found himself stuck within the Fade. Captured by the Titans it was Witold that was subjected to possession by the Titan Gernimach who tortured him within the Fade while back in reality it was Kieth, and others that worked feverishly to attempt to get Witold back. After several days they were able to return Witold to reality but by this point it was Gernimach that came alongside him, and realizing what had happened it was the group that attempted to kill him but found themselves stopped by the arrival of Vhloraz. Vhloraz had taken complete control for a moment and fought alongside Gernimach killing several guards before forcing the rest to retreat leaving Vhloraz and Gernimach victorious in the moment. “It started off with good intentions.” — Aelfwynn Turnidlon Following this event it was Kieth that decided to begin shielding James from events like this through the assistence of both Lothar Guntbold, and the increasingly prominent Aelfwynn Turnidlon. Aelfwynn was commanded to create illusions for James which made him believe that those who were being killed, or the bad decisions being made were either deserved or out of his control. Lothar would assign his enchanter Wuldrik Toyne to assist Aelfwynn in this goal by creating memory loss spells that assisted in the stories and menipulations being done by Aelfwynn. Vhloraz Betrayed Gernimach and Vhloraz would at first work together but as Vhloraz gained more influence over James it was Gernimach that betrayed Vhloraz and worked with Kieth Schwartz to form a pact for James to make with Vhloraz which would give James safeguards to stop Vhloraz from ever taking full control. After betraying Vhloraz and leaving him unable to fully gain control of James it was Gernimach that feigned continued loyalty to Vhloraz who was far more powerful then he was but in actuality he begin forming the Order of the Cerulean Eye in order to eventually take control of the Valley of Lucerne and kill his now rival Vhloraz.

The First Lucernian Purge

Main Article : First Lucernian Purge

The Unspoken Civil War This is the price of betraying your king. Look at this man and understand the fate of anyone who thinks they may turn against the Dragon.

“He had been in that damn library without exiting for nearly a week before we left for the tournament, and it showed in his state of mind.” — Carlisle Cullen Following James Lovie's Suicide Attempt that ended in failure there were several high profile people imprisoned in the form of Catherine Bell, and Eddard Starke but for most this was seen as something that must be based in truth and thus outside of House Starke who petitioned heavily for the release of Eddard Starke there was little outcry to these imprisonments. As the Starke's made official requests for Eddard's release it was Vhloraz that was gaining a control over James that allowed him to give commands to the leadership of the Circle of Magi, and then lock himself within the Sky Tower so that when James regained control he couldn't stop what had been ordered. There would be three events that led to the eventual Purge with the first being after James Lovie traveled southward to Gulltown and hosted the fated Tournament of 5110 in Gulltown. The tournament itself went off without much a hitch, but after several of the fated knights of James Lovie lost James became openly hostile to everyone that wasn`t his sole remaining knight at the tournament in James Nighting. As the tournament went on and as all the Arch Lords of the land were there he begin shouting and acting as if insane during the dinner before the final bout of the tournament. Surrounded by loyalists to him in the Nighting`s, Jestifes, and Scorpians no one dared speak as he continued to scream, but the effects of this were terrible on his Lords who lost complete faith in him. It was only when Carlisle Cullen tricked James into leaving under the lie that William was nearby would James Lovie stumble out of the dining hall and carried by his sworn knights pass out in his room. “Halys was a good man, and for his entire life he had lived an honorable life undeserving of the end he met. James needed to pay for what happened that day, and if I was the only one brave enough to do it then so be it.” — Walter Jackson Despite the horrible ranting by James he demanded the tournament continue, and all did this as they were loyal and Carlisle had worked hard to say that the king was just exhausted. At the final joust James Nighting was defeated by Halys Forend of whom was a knight of House Jackson, and following this victory it was Halys that attended a celebration in his honor and while this happy event was going on it was Aelflynn that overheard Carlisle Cullen talking with Lord Walter Jackson about a betrothal between William Lovie III. and Walter's daughter Eadwin Jackson II. and this caused jealousy from the Magi Aelfwynn Turnidlon who would use her abilities to sneak into the room where James asleep. Sneaking into the room she woke him and gave him visions that told him that Halys Forend was a sexual predator who was planning on using his winnings to buy children for his sick pleasure. Overcome with anger over this James who was still high on opioids would give power over to Vhloraz who would agree to stop Halys. James Lovie now being controlled by Vhloraz would break out of his room and travel to where Hayls was celebrating and while everyone bowed before their king James Lovie would walk up to him and decapitate the man. Causing screaming amongst the crowd as his family watched him die the place went crazy and as the crowd begin to get angry it was Carlisle that called in the knights of House Lovie who under the command of James Nighting reacted violently. Dozens of Smallfolk were killed during the riot as the violent Nighting`s unleashed rage on those they felt insolent enough to riot in the presence of the king. Outside of the smallfolk the hedge knights family were rounded up as well and executed alongside several of the other noblemen who had dared to speak out against the violence. Watching all of this transpire from behind the stands was Walter Jackson of whom stood beside his old friend Tywin Lannister of whom also watched the King go mad. Looking at each other they both then left the tournament as everyone had been commanded to leave. Rise of the Rebellion “I knew what was right and I knew what was wrong. If I sat by and let him continue that was wrong. That evil could not be allowed to fester on the world. As I looked at the young baby that my wife had just brought into the world I couldn`t bare the thought of him living in a kingdom that was a wasteland of morals. Sometimes you had to take a stand even when it was dangerous.” — Walter Jackson Following the disastrous tournament most of the Lords went back to their holdings and tried to return to life as usual, but the simply fact was that all knew their king was mad. Of those who didn't sit idle was Walter Jackson and Charlie Swan of whom at this point aligned together but also had very different goals in mind for the rebellion that they were discussing. For Charles Swan the goal was the removal of James by any means necessary including his death, while for Walter he wanted to amass a force so that he could be given time to complete his work on the Hungering Mirror. Walter, Charles, and the leaders of this early rebel group met together in Forks several times and begin forming the first elements of the Rebels in Lucerne. Staying very silent about their leanings the two would expand themselves, and found huge support amongst the Lords of the north, and the Reach. Noble Family Loyalty Motivation House Jackson Yellow Dragons Walter would be the original founder of the rebellion and then begin construction of the Hungering Mirror which would fail but nearly destroyed Vhloraz. House Nighting Red Dragons House Nighting would be the major elements of the forces of James Lovie and supported him fully. House Reinmann Yellow Dragons House Reinmann would be one of the early major elements of the yellow Dragons. House Swan Yellow Dragons House Swan provided support to the Starke's as they went back to Lucerne to launch the operation to get Eddard Starke out of Lucerne. House Starke Yellow Dragons House Starke would spark the actual Purge when they infiltrated the capital and recaptured Eddard Starke from his imprisonment at the capital. House Jestife Red Dragons House Jestife would be the major elements of the forces of James Lovie and supported him fully. House Jestife Red Dragons House Jestife would be the major elements of the forces of James Lovie and supported him fully. House Scorpian Red Dragons House Scorpian and especially Maron Scorpian became dire hard loyalists and stayed constantly near James as one of the few he trusted. The Tyrells became a serious supporter hoping as they always did to gain more power and perhaps their own Arch Lord position if they were able to take James from the throne and replace him with his son. As the rebellion itself was growing in strength the sanity of James Lovie was decline to newer levels as he had now pushed away most of the more controlled members of his council leaving him with an increasingly Nighting, and Jestife dominated council. Escape of Eddard Starke March on Nunendorf Main Article : Siege of Nunedorf “You come here with the idea that I have betrayed you. I have never betrayed you. I would never betray you. Today you kill a friend.” — Leofrich Nune III. With idea that House Nune had Stragglers Following Leofrich escaping the destruction he hid with different farming families before eventually fleeing into the forest where he kept his daughter and nephew alive through hunting small game and picking mushrooms. This went on for several weeks with Leofrich coming to live within an old, abandoned watchtower, and while it was a tough life, he was able to stay alive and keep his family alive. This ended with the arrival of a search party led by Horton Jestife who surrounded the watchtower but to his surprise it was Horton that let them go telling them to leave the area and never come back. Following the sacking of Nunendorf it was Horton that went on the move searching for survivors of the massacre and during this he became overcome by his conflicting emotions and when his force discovered Leofrich Nune III. hiding in the forest with his daughter and nephew it was Horton that allowed him to flee. Violence Spreads “He had been unleashed. The lies of that monster were going to kill us all.” — Carlisle Cullen Following the destruction of almost the entirety of House Nune it was the army of James that moved northward towards Halendorf where he planned to confront House Hale of whom had been implicated by House Nune. The army arrived at Halendorf where the cities defenses had been raised following being warned by a merchant who had seen the fires of Nunendorf. With Halendorf defended it was King James Lovie II. that commanded House Hale come out and meet with him to discuss the accusations made against them. Tarnide himself would not go out, and instead sent his son Tarnide Hale II. out to meet with the king and hoped the sending of his heir and war companion would calm down the very angry king. Instead of causing him to calm down seeing the Landsgrave and Guildmaster Tarnide Hale not exit the castle made James more paranoid. As Tarnide the younger and his wife came outside they were also joined by Tarnide's sister Lisbeth as they attempted to show a united front. Arriving at the camp they were shocked to not be given a chance to speak and instead were placed in the stockade outside the army camp where they were placed in full view of the castle. At this point it was Tarnide the elder that made his second mistake when instead of immediately agreeing to the request of James to meet with him he delayed things believing his councilors that this was a bluff to attempt to kill him, but that he would never hurt his son who James was friends with. “It's my father. He has decided that James is without saving. I fought him for some time Carlisle I really did but honestly. James is gone. We as his friends have to realize that before everyone else. He died in France.” — Tarnide Hale II. As the days past it was James that lost control of himself and Vhloraz would take over and in control of the situation he would go outside and pushing past his companions he would travel to the stockades. Having his army blast horns for several minutes it was the Halendorf defenders that came to the walls including Tarnide the elder. As the army and the defenders watched it was Vhloraz that decapitated both Tarnide and his wife to the horror of the defenders including the leadership and most especially a devastated Tarnide the elder. Following this it was Vhloraz that had control retaken by James who was rushed back to his tent by Kieth and his other companions, and then fell into what basically amounted to a coma. With James incapacitated it was Kieth that took charge of the siege and wanting to end things as quickly as possible he would once again demand to meet with Tarnide Hale who this time met with the army. Meeting together it was Kieth that made it clear that Halendorf would be sacked if a deal was not made to ensure that House Hale was loyal, and after a discussion it was decided that both Jasper, and Rosalie Hale would become wards of House Lovie thus leaving the new heir of House Hale in Jasper as a hostage of James. Carlisle's near Turn “I cannot do this anymore Walter. I have to make this right. I can't have all this blood on my soul.” — Carlisle Cullen The violence of Halendorf had in the mind of the Red Dragons ended the rebellion but for several prominent members of the government they came to believe that James could no longer be saved from himself. One of these government officials was Carlisle Cullen. What had happened throughout the previous months had finally pushed Carlisle to the point he couldn’t accept the things he was being asked to do. This break for Carlisle had led to starting to talk with Walter Jackson and these discussions would at first not go far as Walter did not believe that Carlisle was an honest broker. During these early talks Walter refused to admit his role in the rebellion and although Carlisle believed Walter was a rebel, he attempted to gain his trust by leaking information to Walter. Following the leaking of detailed orders with the stamp of James Lovie II. from Carlisle to Walter, it was Walter that went against his own gut feeling and revealed to Carlisle his involvement in the rebellion. With Carlisle now being brought in it was Walter and him that begin plotting to assassinate James who they believed was on the verge of losing control completely of his mind to the demon within. Going to the Lannisters “We all warned him that Tywin Lannister could not be trusted, but all he could remember was the boy he knew back in the academy. He should have known that boy died when he burned Castamere during his rebellion.” — Mace Tyrell II. The movement reached its end following attempting to gain the support of House Lannister when he contacted Tywin Lannister. Walter had known Tywin as a child and when he knew him back then he believed he knew Tywin to be an honorable man who would know what the right thing to do was and what the wrong thing was. When Walter first told the other rebels what he planned to do they all were combined in telling Walter that he should not tell Tywin as Tywin was not trustworthy, and they didn't need his sort of person involved in the rebellion. Walter was arrogant in his belief that he could convince Tywin so he ignored the rest of them and traveled to Stormwind where he met first with Brandon Starke who was on board with the action but with the imprisonment of his brother and lord of House Starke he was not willing to actually commit forces to the fight for fear of the king responding by killing Eddard Starke. Once he was done talking to Brandon he met with Tywin and the two talked for some time before Walter believed that he had turned Tywin to his way of thinking. Tywin said goodbye and told Walter that House Lannister was fully behind the plan, and that he would rally his banner houses when the time was right. And thus Walter left Stormwind believing that he had completed his dream of seeing the madness of King James Lovie removed. Tywin Lannister was best friends with Walter Jackson for many years, but in that final moment when he had to choose he chose family, and betrayed the only friend he had ever had. “I took me until I had no family left that loved me to realize William, that I made the wrong choice. I caused the deaths of thousands because I was afraid for my family. I see now that all I did was push us further into isolation and that is a threat greater then any mad king.” — Tywin Lannister to William Lovie III. The moment that Walter left the room Tywin ordered his guard to call Cersei and Jamie to him. When his children arrived he told them to take the children, and to find their brother and leave for Lannistane. Once there they were to make sure that none entered the city as he was about to tell the king about a rebellion and knowing the king there was going to be a lot of violence and he didn't want his family or the banner houses damaged by it. Jamie wondered out loud to him whether or not it might be more prudent to assist the rebels since the king was mad, but Tywin simply reminded him of what they had done to their rebels and said there was a high price to pay for rebellion. Following this Tywin left Stormwind and traveled to Lucerne where he immediately was given audience with King James Lovie. The Greymane's “I'm sorry for what happened back there. You might hear that and think me a liar. It’s the truth though. I saw your sister and everything else just faded away. I wouldn’t be allowed to have her if your grandfather was there. He had to go away. Your grandmother and brother were just casualties of that. In a way you might blame your grandfather for what happened.” — Loreon Lannister As Tywin entered the city it was only a day after that another party arrived in the form of Darius Greymane, his wife, daughter, and several grandchildren who came to Lucerne inside a carriage. Sitting beside his sister Alisson, and brother Hektor he listens as his grandfather Darius jokes lovingly with his grandmother Tara. As they enter the city its Bravin that is amazed at the size of the city, and as they travel through Lucernian Proper they make there way into Lucerne Hold passing through the fortress of Theiner they enter the more prosperous area of Lucerne making there way to the Palace of Lucerne. Entering the palace grounds, they are taken by guards to the Citadel of William Lovie I. where they are to wait to be met by a government official. They don’t have to wait at the citadel long before they are met by the Konsular Loreon Lannister of whom treats them kindly and as Darius tells him how he wants to have his grandchildren and daughter set up in the capital working for the government or a noble family its Loreon that agrees to help process this request. Loreon leaves and an excited Darius goes to walk the gardens with Tara leaving behind Olivia to watch Bravin and his siblings. The chapter ends with Bravin and his family entering the king’s throne to meet with King James Lovie II. and ceremonially accept their positions in the capital. Arriving inside the room its Bravin that notices the large contingent of men at arms inside the room and his grandfather must as well because he puts his arms out to protect them but before he can say anything he is struck in the chest by an arrow. Betrayal of Tywin “Had Tywin waited another ten minutes I had planned on ending his life. I was going to assassinate my former best friend. Had I of acted quicker how many lives would have been saved. When I think of that its difficult to just get up in the morning let alone accept the person that I've become.” — Carlisle Cullen As Tywin Lannister approached Lucerne Carlisle Cullen had come to the decision that he was going to join the rebels, and the way he would do it was by assassinating James Lovie before any violence could happen. As Carlisle prepared for this Tywin entered the Keep. House Greymane had the extremely unlucky time of having several of their members in the Lucerne Palace when Tywin told James Lovie about the rebellion. James was so enraged at the news that when he remembered that House Greymane member Darius Greymane was waiting so that his family could meet their king. James in his enraged state turned to Tywin Lannister and asked him whether House Greymane could be involved and in that moment Tywin remembered the anger he had towards Archibold Greymane about the way he had treated Tywin's father. In that moment Tywin lied and told James that House Greymane had been involved. With this lie James left the throne room with his personal guard and as Darius and his family bowed before there king James raised his sword and started slashing at Darius while his guard killed the rest of the family. Its said that James slashed at Darius for so long that there was nothing left of him but a bloody mess on the ground. Bravin would accompany his family to the capital where his grandfather planned to meet with the king and swear himself personally to the king while also hopefully gaining service for his daughter, and grandchildren in the royal court. Following a successful meeting with Kieth Schwartz it was the Greymane group that was brought to the keep to meet with the king where it was agreed that several of his daughter, and grandchildren would enter the royal families Palatine, and Malatine ranks but before this could happen they became the target of Tywin Lannister who manipulated the situation and caused the entire group outside of Bravin and Olivia to be killed by the king and his men. Bravin would be sent back to Hillsbrad with a note that this was the consequence of turning on the royal family, while Olivia would be taken into imprisonment by the Circle of Magi as a result of her turning into a Worgen during the killing and thus revealing herself. Death of the Rebellion “The sudden speed at which everything in my life was destroyed left me without the time necessary to understand the scope of everything. My wife lay butchered in the other room as all I could do was resist the man holding a bag over my head and pulling me out of the house. I could only pray to god that somehow one of my children had survived the destruction of my life.” — Walter Jackson House Jackson was painted very early on as the ringleader of the rebellion and for this reason their destruction was made to be paramount but also James wanted to know the true extent of the movement and for this reason the operation had to make sure that they captured Walter Jackson alive so that he could be tortured for information. It was decided that assassins from Ravenholdt would join members of House Nighting, and House Jestife in the destroying the rebels completely and utterly. Brandon Von Gruger would accompany the dark and twisted Terrorblade alongside some fifty men at arms from House Nighting of whom had been commanded to destroy House Jackson completely outside of the Patriarch of whom was to be captured alive. Brandon had killed innocent's before but something about the way in which this was going didn't sit well in his stomach. When they captured Walter, one of the assassins went back into the house in the pretests of making sure everyone was dead. When the assassin Brandon Von Gruger entered the room where Josh's mother had been killed he found Joshua rubbing his mother's back trying to get her to wake up. The assassin in this moment moved to the child, and whispered for him to be very quiet if he wanted to live. The assassin then proceeded to put the child behind him attached to a rope, and hidden behind his cloak. This was how Joshua traveled to Lucerne, and when they arrived the assassin brought him to the steps of the Lucerne orphanage and left him there. During the attack on Bredgooden it was also Benjamin Heard that was captured, and this was a surprise as he was not someone being targeted. The young Benjamin was visiting Bredgooden with his family to spend time with his friend Francis Jackson and thus was captured instead of killed and while his family was kept locked within the house they were staying it was Benjamin that was tortured by Nighting men. During this torture it was Benjamin that revealed the fact that his father Hektor had sworn himself to the Yellow Dragons, and this revelation shocked (Nighting Man) leading to the eventual attack on House Heard. Benjamin would swear himself to the Red Dragons and sent his son Mikael Heard to Lucerne with the Nighting men as a means of ensuring his loyalty while Benjamin, his wife and daughters were sent to Castle Cullen to remain as hostages until the rest of their family had been dealt with. Survival of Joshua Jackson “I had to watch him to make sure everything went alright. There would have been no point to everything that I did if they discovered him alive later. He had to live. He just had to live.” — Brandon Von Gruger Brandon stayed with Joshua for two weeks in order to make sure that he wasn't going to be attacked or found out about. He knew though eventually Joshua would be discovered and when this happened he knew the assassins would be forced to attack him again in order to not fail their mission. Destruction of House Heard In his recklessness James almost commanded the death of the mother of his future grandson. “For a guy who spoke everyday about how much he loved me, and how much he prided himself off looking after me. He sure went to great measures to kill the girl that would give him his first grandchild.” — William Lovie III. In the same way that House Jackson had become a major leader of the rebellion in the Crownlands it was House Heard under Hektor Heard that had joined the rebellion. Following the collapse of House Jackson it was the Red Dragon forces that moved next against House Heard moving there army to near Arryndale. At the time several of the sons of House Heard were located in Lucerne as they were serving inside the actual guard of Lucerne. The heir to the throne of House Heard in Martin Heard, along with his brother Telvin Heard were located in Lucerne and they were both summoned to their commanders office where when they entered they were attacked by the guards inside and killed. Their bodies were hung from the rafters of the Lucerne wall. As the purge in Lucerne continued the Circle launched an attack on the Heard apartment in Lucerne killing the families and servants of Telvin, and Martin before hanging there bodies outside the entrance of Lucerne alongside Martin and Telvin. The army that arrived at Arryndale negotiated with House Arryn and during this negotiation it was Byron Arryn that was manipulated into allowing the Red Dragon force to pass the city without warning House Heard. Byron believed that the Red Dragon force was going to take Hektor Heard into custody and then leave the area, but in truth they were planning to kill the entire family. Arriving at Heard Hold the Red Dragons would surround the hold fast and village before charging inside without warning or notice. Releasing Prisoners “For a guy who spoke everyday about how much he loved me, and how much he prided himself off looking after me. He sure went to great measures to kill the girl that would give him his first grandchild.” — William Lovie III. Throughout the events of the rebellion it was Catherine Bell that remained imprisoned within Lucerne and with the killings now spreading both families of the imprisoned became desperate to have them released. With the rebellion destroyed with House Jackson and the others it was Brandon Starke that arrived at Lucerne and swore and oath of loyalty to James Lovie and with Eddard also swearing the oath James Lovie prepared the release of Catherine but before he would fully release him he demanded a hostage which he got when they agreed to send their young sister Lyanna Starke to Lucerne where she would be held as a hostage in order to maintain their loyalty. Final Flames “Hundreds of Nobles Died in a few nights of murder and chaos. The King was meant to protect not to destroy.” — Carlisle Cullen Following the departure of Tywin Lannister, it was Nedrick Baratheon who was the Patriarch of the house at the time went to Lucerne with his daughter Reinhilda Baratheon and his son Edward and hoped to make the point of the rebels known to James Lovie. His arrival though was misunderstood by James Lovie and instead of seeing it as the peace offering that it was he saw the coming of Nedrick and his children as a hostile act, and had the three executed in the main square of Lucerne. Look at the world father. You were born into this land. You grew up here. These people swore their lives to you. How could you have done all of this? Look at everything you have done. You destroyed a city. Killed hundreds of good men out of fear. Is this how you want to be remembered father. Is this the world you want to leave behind? I know you were a good person once. Don't end it all here. Don't do this. For me father. For everything I supposedly mean to you. Don't do this. "Understand that this was nothing more then a warning. Don't involve yourself in rebellions again or you'll find it won't matter how much money you control I'll just take it all. You better understand what happened her because if this has to be explained again there won't be any of you alive to tell me that they understand." "I understand." "Who is your king?" "You are My Grace." "Excellent." In Northern Lucerne where the smallfolk had turned on the authority with gusto it was the actions of House Scorpian and House Jestife that sealed the ending of the Plague. Rounding up hundreds of rebels supporters through the use of traitors within their ranks they would execute hundreds in penguin courts held in the forests. Eventually they just targeted whoever they wanted and after weeks of this they had killed thousands across the north. Sack of Sawyer Hold “My father had sent us to stay with our mothers family for the summer. While we were away the Knights of Targ attacked my families home. Killed almost the entire family.” — Peyton Sawyer As the final moments of the ceasefire got close it was the Knights of Targ that led by Aeron Dalanis III. that would make a move south of their borders against House Sawyer. Aeron would get permission from the Circle of Magi to deal with House Sawyer who they lied was a member of the rebellion, and the Circle would give them three days to deal with House Sawyer before the ceasefire took place. Taking a force of several hundred from Dalnariat they would arrive at Sawyer Hold where they would attack the hold during the night. The defenders were overwhelmed by the sudden and surprise nature of the attack and the Knights of Targ got inside the hold but the inner holdfast was locked by the defenders. As the Knights of Targ prepared to break inside it was Robbin Sawyer that betrayed his family when he arranged with Maehagel Raenralis to keep his family safe in exchange for opening the gatehouse. During the next day Robbin would open the gate allowing the Knights inside the holdfast and following this it was him and his family that were allowed to leave safely but the the knights then sacked the holdfast. During this sack they took almost everything of value from the hold, but above that they would also kill many members of the family with the only survivors of the family being Robbin Sawyer who had already betrayed his family during the initial assault for safety, and the children of Thomas Sawyer who were away from the holdfast at the time of the attack. Another unlikely survivor was Marcel Sawyer who survived by hiding in a secret shelter in the holdfast where he would stay hidden for three days eventually coming out when the Knights of Targ had left the holdfast.

The Gulltown Tournament of 5119 That was the last time there was peace in our house. After that it was just a steady decline into madness and death.

Gulltown Tournament of 5119 Main Article : Gulltown Tournament of 5119 “I want my children kept safe from all this. I can keep William safe. I need to get the rest of the children out of here before. Before this thing in my head does something terrible.” — James Lovie II. Its Aelfwynn Turnidlon that is sitting with Wuldrik as they prepare the recharge of the Pendant of Understanding which they have been using as a means of understanding when the monster has gained control of James. During the casting of this spell everything is going well but the Pendant shows signs of cracking, and this leads to Aelfwynn and Wuldrik Toyne stopping the spell. Unable to fix the issue themselves they decide to speak with Kieth Schwartz to discuss the construction of a new pendant to replace it. Finding out that Kieth has left the Spire for the Cloud Tower they head there accompanied by several men at arms. Arriving at the Cloud Tower they are let inside although Aelfwynn is delayed watching William, Leven, and Alice playing the garden. Watching this she becomes jealous of Leven who is wrestling with William and feeling the attraction between the two she marks Leven as an enemy in her pursuit of William. Going to the 13th floor they find Kieth inside already talking with Carlisle Cullen, Wilhelm Kisssling, Fabian Klauseburg, and James Lovie II. of whom are discussing the declining mental stability of James. Unable to get the time needed to replace the damaged Pendant of Understanding its Wuldrik, and Aelfwyn that go back to the Spire under orders to recharge the pendant despite the risks. The spell is completed but Wuldrik is badly burned during the event leading to him being taken away by Catrin Heissler and a group of Restoration Magi to fix him. With Wuldrik too injured to travel its Aelfwynn that travels with the royal party of the Gulltown tournament of 5119 without him taking charge of keeping James under control. Coming of the Cleganes “I want you to be happy my boy. I love you son. You are my heir. My hope for the future. That does not mean your happiness comes above this family.” — Rupert Clegane Hedrik joins a boat with a fleet of seven ships from House Clegane making their way towards the port of Stillwood. Hedrik is leaning on the side of the boat speaking with his friend Konstantin Gaimen when his father comes up from his quarters alongside Hedrik’s mother and seeing them arrive he says goodbye to Konstantin and goes to speak with his father. Speaking to his father about the proposed betrothal of Hedrik and Accia Potenza of whom he admits to being his lover but indicates that this love is one of friendship and he doesn't see it going further then friendship. Rupert tells Hedrik that although he wants his son to be happy, he wants to honor the relationship that he has with House Potenza. Rupert is reluctant to simply end the betrothal instead telling Hedrik that if he wants something different, he needs to find a better match. Following this he goes back to the front of the boat where Konstantin has now been joined by Hedrik’s sister at his side, and his lover Accia Potenza, and best friends Meinolf Ostriger. Joking with his friends its Hedrik that watches his father of whom from his own personal thoughts seems to be very loyal towards but has a growing lack of respect for several of the lords around his father including most critically Vopiscus Lentini of whom he sees as a coward turning his father into a coward. Reaching the port of Stillwood he watches his father and Vopiscus meet with Caius Norelli while ignoring the lord of House Stillwood in the form of Gregory Stillwood and realizing the insult that is being made, he approaches Gregory alongside Meinolf Ostriger and the two discuss with Gregory that Hedrik will speak with his father regarding the insult. Despite calming it down its still Gregory that storms from the docks to return to Castle Stillwood leaving Perwyn, and Jeyne to speak with Hedrik about their next steps. The three decide that Jeyne will go and stay near their father to make sure he doesn’t do anything rash while Perwyn will go with Hedrik to speak with Rupert. Perwyn goes alongside Hedrik to speak with Rupert Clegane who has gone to the estate of House Norelli. Arriving at the estate it’s Perwyn’s friend Flavius Norelli that leads them inside. Meeting with Rupert, his lords, and Caius Norelli they learn that the reason for the snub was that Rupert was angry that the other wives were at the initial meeting. Learning from Caius they are told that Gregory had agreed to only bring his primary wife to the meeting and thus when all were present Rupert took this as an insult. The group agrees to not take any further action and since they will be leaving for the tournament its decided that they will cancel the planned dinner the next day and just restock the boats before leaving together. Perwyn leaves to and speak with his father about what has been discussed but Hedrik and Perwyn agree as he leaves to keep the lines of communication between them open no matter what their fathers do. Protecting Accia “Don't worry Accia. I'm here for you. I promise that I wont let anything happen to you.” — Hedrik Clegane III. Hedrik spends the rest of the night with his family who remain at the Norelli estate and then before going to bed he joins Accia in her room where the two sleep together. After finishing having sex its Accia that burns her arm while she helps him get dressed and Hedrik helps her by putting wet cloth on it. Staying with her for some time until she eventually falls asleep he tucks her in and falls asleep in her room. Hedrik is woken from his sleep by Accia who is crying as she shows him her now healed burn. Telling him that she fixed it just by looking at it and thinking about fixing it. Skeptical of this he tries to support her but when it becomes clear he doesn’t believe her she gets a dagger from his pack and cuts her arm. As she bleeds, he uses his blanket to control the bleeding and then goes to get help when she blocks the door and removes the blanket causing her arm to bleed onto the ground. Trying to stop her she begins once again staring at her arm and as he watches the cut begins to close itself and the bleeding stops. Betrothal of Dylan and Mary “On one hand this was my chance at a future. As much as I loved Laera, there was simply no future there. I couldn't marry her. That was a dead end. This Mary Kilgor was a bright shiny door. No obstacles with her.” — Dylan Steinmare Dylan Steinmare is eating dinner with his family at Castle Steinmare where he is visiting before he leaves for Gulltown and the tournament there. Spending time with his family its father that takes him for a walk with just the two of them following dinner. During this walk his father tells him that he has been working at a betrothal between him and Mary Kilgor of the prominent House Kilgor. He is told by his father that he is to travel to Mirador Keep meeting with Lord John Kilgor. Following this meeting he will join the Kilgor party on the road to Gulltown and make a good impression with Mary Kilgor and her father. Dylan is quite happy about this news as the Kilgors are a major family and while he doesn’t know about Mary, he is told by his father that she is very good looking which makes him smile. Dylan attempts to bring up Laera Griffon who he has feelings for, but before he can his father blocks discussion of her saying he has sent Laera back to Griffons Roost to not distract Dylan from his new reality. Dylan travels from Castle Steinmare alongside his mother Melina, and the members of his Palatine. Arriving at Mirador Keep they are met at the gates by a contingent of nobles sent by House Kilgor. Among these are Mary’s father John Kilgor, her brother Leopold Kilgor II. and her aunt Corina who is well know for her political prominence. Leaving Mirador Keep its Dylan that rides alongside Mary and the two get along very well as he continues to be blown away by her beauty but as they spend more time together he is further impressed by her intelligence as they talk about the history of the Valley and she is able to not simply keep up with him, but he accepts with a laugh that she knows more than he does. Hiding Leofrich “We have been given short notice of the plans of the royal family to visit Runburgh on there way south. You know this means you must be hidden.” — Andar Royce Its Leofrich Nune III. that is sitting in the water with his daughter Gorlinda and his nephew Karl and playing with the two children is interrupted by the arrival of a very pregnant Charlotte Royce holding a baby Wendelin Royce who joins her family in spending time together at Royce River. Returning to Runburgh with his family he sees the city in state of chaos and Karl to guard his family he rides ahead into the city where he learns from Ordenmarshal Franzal Tuhlbeck that they got short notice that King James Lovie II. and a large party of the royal family are on their way to Runburgh where they will stay for the night on their way southward. Realizing that the coming of anyone from the capital means danger for himself he goes to Runestone. Making his way through guards and checkpoints he eventually reaches the Keep where he meets with Lord Yohn Royce who is standing around a table planning things out with his brother and Hochmeister Wolfram Royce alongside his sons Andar, and Robar. Also as the table are the Burgomaster of the city in Alaric Opehlbeck of whom Leofrich thinks is a coward and if given the chance would tell the first person who paid him about Leofrich’s existence in the city. Listening to the group from the corner of the room he whispers with Landmeister Tristan of Royce of whom he has grown close to over his time in Runestone and the two discuss where they think Leofrich should go while the king is near. As the meeting ends its Landsgrave Yohn that calls Leofrich forward leaving him to talk with just Yohn and his son Andar. The three talk and it’s decided that to protect Leofrich and by extension Yohn’s daughter Charlotte and grandchildren its Leofrich that will hide with the Guild of Runes. Accompanied by Andar to the Peak of Runestone its Andar that asks Leofrich to tell him about the last time he saw anyone from the capital. Using the lift to the peaks its Leofrich that talks with Andar about his time hiding in the forest following the massacre at Nunedorf. During this time, he hid with different farming families before eventually fleeing into the forest where he kept his daughter and nephew alive through hunting small game and picking mushrooms. This went on for several weeks with Leofrich coming to live within an old, abandoned watchtower, and while it was a tough life, he was able to stay alive and keep his family alive. This ended with the arrival of a search party led by Horton Jestife who surrounded the watchtower but to his surprise it was Horton that let them go telling them to leave the area and never come back. Andar asks him how he made his way to Runburgh, but Leofrich is close to tears thinking about his past and tells Andar he will tell him more another time. Reaching the peak of Runestone its Leofrich that is let inside the Hall of Runes by Thomas of the Guild of Runes who takes him to a apartment within the hall of Rune where a bed is to be prepared for Leofrich to stay. Leofrich remains in the apartment reading for days leaving only to use the latrine during this time. The Dragon Moves “My sister is getting married. Going to Gulltown signals that it shall be me getting married next.” — William Lovie III. Its Aria Arryn is sitting with Oswald, Jasper, and Lyanna as they talk about their coming departure from the capital for the wedding of Matilda at Gulltown. The trio talking is interrupted by the arrival of Aria’s father Byron, and her father Byron who tells Aria to go to see her mother and help assist with the plans for leaving. Saying a quick goodbye, she heads towards the Manor house that her mother was staying. On the way there she stops briefly to talk with Dallia her Malatine mistress and the two share a nice talk as it is clear there is a close relationship between the two. Arriving at the manor she finds her mother who is ordering around her servants and generally being the difficult person that Aria knows her to be. “The time will come when its going to be just us. We are the only ones who we can truly trust in this world.” — Jasper Hale Aria rides on the carriage with William, Leven, Rosalie, Jasper, and Oswald which brings her great happiness although she feels jealousy at how close romantically it appears that William and Rosalie are growing. Hanna Arryn is riding beside Blake Cullen, Adela Aven, Erica Steinmare, and Eddara Floren as they follow behind the wagons carrying the royal family and their entourage. Hanna is silent as the other girls gossip over boys with Blake having a crush on Jasper Hale while Erica and Eddara discussing how handsome they think William is. Hanna is uncomfortable with this conversation and so allows herself to fall behind the other girls and instead rides beside the House Bell part of the baggage train and begins talking with her friend Hanah Bell of whom she laughs that she first became friends with due to having the same name. “I want you to have this armor Prince. This was made by the hands of both myself, and Grand Master Daniel Schunemann. No effort has been spared in marking this as the greatest suit of armor I have ever been involved in crafting.” — Eadwig Schuhbeck Following leaving Lucerne the group is traveling on the road making his way alongside most of his friends and family to the port of Nortburg accompanied by what is as a large army. Traveling on the road with him is his best friends Jasper Hale, Lyanna Starke, Edward Cullen, Byron Arryn II., Rosalie Hale, Dylan Steinmare, Aria Arryn, Rachel Nighting, and Leven Martell as well his sister Alice Lovie, and as they travel on the road the relationship between this group is expanded on. During this journey we see the members of William's personal guards as well in the form of Einhard Rosler, Erik Fahnrich, and Gilbert Fouline of whom Einhard is shown as someone who is very close to William acting as a stand in for his father James who is in the convoy but is inside a covered wagon as he passed out. His father is revealed as the King but is also revealed as an addict of opium leaving William to be raised by his guards, but also by his sister Matilda who they are traveling to see the wedding of. The party arrives at Nortburg at night and thus it is the army and the servants that prepare tents for everyone to sleep in that night in preparation for leaving on the boats in the morning. As William and his friends attempt to all stay in one large tent it’s Carlisle Cullen that forces them to share two tents with the boys in one and the girls in another. As Rachel is preparing to go to bed it’s a man carrying the sigil of her family crest on his chest armor that passes her a note and then walks away. As this is happening its Rosalie that whispers for William to hide her. Feeling very attracted to her he hides her with the help of Jasper and Dylan. Staying the night in a tent with Aria, Lyanna, Leven, and Alice but the girls become openly bitter that Rosalie managed to join the boys in their tent. Rachel and Leven discuss the situation with Rosalie and William with both girls barely containing their jealousy and Rachel for her part believes that she could better control Leven then Rosalie and thus views Rosalie as a threat to her attempts with William. The Nighting's Move “You are to keep close to the prince. When the time comes you will need to tell us what you hear while near him. Everyone who is anyone is going to be at Gulltown. We need all the information that we can get.” — Leonard Nighting III. Once the other girls go to sleep its Rachel that reads the note she was given, which tells her to leave the tent silently and to find a Nighting man and then follow him. Reading this she gets up and leaves the tent finding a man of her family’s sigil adorning his armor and following the man into the forest outside of the tents they move past the sentries and soldiers guarding the camp and reach a clearing outside. In the clearing its Rachel that meets with her great uncle Leonard Nighting III. who details to her the plans that are being given to her. Time at Runburgh Hanna Arryn is riding beside Blake Cullen, Adela Aven, Erica Steinmare, and Eddara Floren as they follow behind the wagons carrying the royal family and their entourage. Hanna is silent as the other girls gossip over boys with Blake having a crush on Jasper Hale while Erica and Eddara discussing how handsome they think William is. Hanna is uncomfortable with this conversation and so allows herself to fall behind the other girls and instead rides beside the House Bell part of the baggage train and begins talking with her friend Hanah Bell of whom she laughs that she first became friends with due to having the same name. The convoy arrives at Runburgh and so Hanna leaves Hanah and returns to the Malatine where she scoffs as they are still talking about Jasper and William. As the convoy stops its Hanna that joins the others of Alice’s Malatine in traveling ahead of the convoy into the city where they will prepare the room for Alice. The group stops at the town of Runburgh where William, Edward, Jasper, and Dylan are gifted a suit of armor by Lord Yohn Royce, and the Grand Master of the two Runestone Guilds. The suit made for William is described as something above anything they have ever crafted before, and behind the scenes it had runes crafted on it that make William immune to the effects of Magi while wearing it. Following being given this gift its William, Alice, Leven, and Edward that are taken into the Great Peak of Runestone where Grand Master Eadwig Schuhbeck, and Grand Master Daniel Schunemann show them the entrance to the forges of the Inner Rune which have never been entered by anyone outside of the Inner Circle of the Runestone Guilds. “Think of where we are my friends. We are sleeping in a place barely anyone has been allowed to enter. We are blessed by Glaurung himself this day.” — William Lovie III. Following this tour, the group is given lodgings inside the mid-level of Runestone leaving the eight of them to all stay in a large open-air room where they can see out for miles. Alice leaves to go and see her Malatine before bed, and in passing William tells Alice to bring one of them back as a reward for their work. Alice arrives at the room her Malatine had prepared for her and thanks each of them for all their work, and then they all sit down and talk together about how things went for Alice in the main carriage. Alice reveals how close her brother William and Rosalie are getting and at this both Eddara and Erica make petty comments about Rosalie to which Alice says nothing, but Hanna does say that her sister Aria says that Rosalie has a mind for the politics of being with William. After this conversation its Alice that reveals she will be staying with William and the others in the open-air room prepared for him and says that she can bring one person with her. To the shock of the Malatine she asks Hanna to come with her stating quite honestly that she is the only one who Alice believes can control her feelings. Hanna follows Alice as they enter the lift and travelling up its Hanna that begins to get quite nervous, but she is calmed down by Alice who holds her hand and smiles at her. Hanna goes to sleep that night with the rest of the Shadow Council and for the first time she feels like one of their friends, and not just the sister of Aria. Going to sleep William lays beside his sister to one side, and Rosalie Hale to the other with the two talking romantically for some time before going to sleep. Following the night Hanna wakes in the morning before Alice and does her best to prepare something for her, but is stopped by William, and Edward who instead force her to go to the edge of the room and look out with them. Edward does a Magi trick and William makes them all laugh, and Hanna can’t help but find herself attracted to William. When the others begin waking up and join them its Hanna that tries to get away but its Aria that refuses to let her go and despite her nerves, she begins to join the conversation more as the time goes by. “What happened to your family. What has happened to so many families. It cannot be left unchecked. Will you help me when the time comes?” — Catherine Lovie A journeymen runesmith that had been delivering his food tells him of the arrival of the royal party and Leofrich feels a overwhelming fear that his one time good friend James is near. Leofrich is locked within the apartment as the prince and his party are to stay in the Hall of Runes and during this time its Leofrich that catches a glimpse of the prince and his party through a peeping hole in the wall and feels fear looking at the prince due to how much he looks like James. That night its Leofrich that is moved by a knock at the door and when the door opens its Daniel Schunemann, Yohn Royce, and Catherine Lovie that come inside the room. Catherine begins crying telling Leofrich that she is so sorry for what happened and wishes she could go back and change it. Realizing that Catherine is not like her brother he forgives her and then listens as she tells him that the time will come when she needs him to avenge what happened to his family and many others, and he agrees to help her when the time comes. “Watching my father act this way was never easy. It was embarrassing on the surface. Beneath that feeling stood fear. Fear that perhaps I was destined to become my father.” — William Lovie III. As they leave Runestone its William that speaks once more with Yohn Royce who asks him to take with him his middle son Andar Royce who would accompany them and take in the wedding. William agreed and Andar joined the group as they made their way south towards Gulltown. Arriving at Gulltown they are met at the gates by Matilda Lovie his elder sister and seeing each other they hug as she takes them towards her lodgings at Castle Shephard, and while walking there its Matilda that tells them about how she has been in the months since she left Lucerne for Gulltown to get to know her betrothed Marius Scott. Marius Scott is introduced to William, and Alice for the first time and William has a good feeling about Marius during this conversation. The good times are interrupted by the arrival of their father James who William can clearly tell is high from his opioids as he comes into the room, and despite William feeling embarrassed by his father its Marius that lightens the mood and appears to get along well with James. Following the meeting with his sister and Marius its William and his friends that go to the Temple of Kyne as Lyanna wants to pray and forces the rest of her friends to go with her as is her usual way. Arriving at the Temple of Kyne they enter the Temple being let into a special area of the Temple by Otwin Erdenstoud the Bishop of the Temple. Going inside they pray for a time before William and the group outside of Lyanna leave the temple to go and walk the streets of Gulltown exploring. The Picnic “Men came to our village. They took everything. Took my sister. Took my mother. Please help us.” — Ceolwith of Nune Walking the streets, they go to the market where they buy food and plan to go to hiking west of Gulltown and have a picnic while doing this. Accompanied by a dozen men at arms and several knights the group leaves Gulltown heading west and while leaving they meet the Crane group arriving at the city led by Dustin Crane, and his son Orival Crane. Speaking with the group for a time its Germira Cranewel that leaves the Crane force and travels with them hiking on the idea of forming an alliance for the coming melee tournament. Germira and Jasper get close during the hike but for William his mind is constantly on Rosalie and the spend most of the hike talking and becoming increasingly flirtatious. While riding to the mountain spot that they plan to have the picnic at its Leven, Aria, and Byron Arryn that are speaking. Byron is discussing the alliance he has formed with the team led by Harrold Hardyng for the coming melee, but for Leven she can barely focus as she watches with jealousy William and Rosalie. Leven thinks on her desire to be the one riding beside William, and she plans to tell him her feelings once they arrive at the picnic. Arriving at the picnic its Leven that tries to talk with William but is blocked by Dylan who tells Leven that he thinks Rosalie and William need some alone time. As the group sits for the picnic its Rosalie and William that sneak off and sitting together the flirtation goes to the next level when William and Rosalie kiss. Leven storms off but is followed by Aria Arryn who consoles her friend telling Leven that she knows how Leven feels about William. After talking things over its Leven, and Aria that return to the main group where they find Draco Highmore searching for William. Jasper, and Dylan lie to Draco to give William his alone time, but in her jealousy its Leven that can’t do the same. “I thought I could stop them before they started. Seeing her happy face when Draco dragged them back to the group told me I was wrong. I was too late.” — Leven Martell When Draco follows the lies of Dylan and Jasper its Leven that follows him and reveals where William is. The arrival of Draco Highmore and several guards bringing them back to the group ends this kissing but this has opened a door between the two of them. Leven returns to the group who doesn’t know that she revealed the truth, and she watches as Rosalie and William return. At first Leven is happy that she has done this but watching the two happily return she realizes she was too late. Her feelings are made even worse when Rosalie comes to her and hugs Leven revealing to her what happened before calling Leven her best friend. Leven sits with Aria and Rosalie for the rest of the picnic and listens as Rosalie tells the two of them how strong her feelings are for William. Aria looks to Leven with sadness but they both do there best to be happy for their friend. The groups picnic is further interrupted by the arrival of a group of peasants who are attempting to reach Gulltown after what they describe as the destruction of their village. William attempts to get his force to accompany the peasants back to their village and help the remainder but as more peasants begin streaming up the road its Draco that forces the group to return to their horses and return to Gulltown. Draco promises William and the group that he will send forces back but they cannot be here with the crown prince while that is happening. Before being forced to flee its William that gives one of the Ceolwith of Nune one of his rings, and a bag of coins which is a significant amount of money. Riding back to Gulltown its William that gets into an argument with Draco but it becomes clear that Draco is under personal threat if he would have stayed and thus William forgives Draco but plans to confront his father. Choices “I thought I could stop them before they started. Seeing her happy face when Draco dragged them back to the group told me I was wrong. I was too late.” — Leven Martell Its Aelfwynn, Cuthwin, and Ostara that accompany James into the Shephard Castle where he will be staying during the tournament. By this point in the day, he is already almost unconscious from opioid use attempting to keep Vhloraz beneath the surface, and thus the servants get him into bed. Aelfwynn watches him go to sleep with no one in the room daring to speak lest they interrupt James going to sleep. Once he has fallen asleep, she places chains on his arms locking him to the bed and then locking the door the room behind her leaving only Ostara, and Cuthwin inside the room to watch over him. Having locked the door she thinks on Cuthwin, and Ostara coming to see the changes in the two as they have spent more time watching over James as he sleeps, and she thanks Glaurung that she has been given that task. Leaving the room, she travels to the walls where she sits in a quiet tower by herself and spends several hours praying to Glaurung attempting to find peace from her constant thoughts of William. As she prays a vision of William appears and she talks with this vision with the two flirting, and eventually kissing. The kissing ends when she hears arguing in the courtyard and the vision of William disappears. A tear falls as he leaves her, but she goes to the wall and watches as William, Leven, and Jasper attempt to get inside the castle. “I thought I could stop them before they started. Seeing her happy face when Draco dragged them back to the group told me I was wrong. I was too late.” — Leven Martell Returning to Gulltown, its Leven and Jasper that accompany William as he attempts to meet with his father about what happened at the picnic. Arriving at the gate to Shephard Castle they are let inside by the guards but find Kieth Schwartz, blocking the courtyard with a handful of Jestife, and Schwartz men at arms as well as several knights. Speaking with Kieth its William that is blocked from seeing his father and as William attempts to force his way through its Kieth that commands the men at arms to restrain the three of them. A brief skirmish breaks out but the men at arms and knights can easily restrain the weaponless three. As they are held its Kieth that goes to William and tells him to never come to a conflict without weapons. The two argue briefly with the argument only ending with the arrival of Carlisle Cullen. Arrival of the Cranes “Take the Orane girl to the temple. I don't care how you feel about her. You will cement the betrothal. Go now.” — Dustin Orane The House Crane group enters through the front gate of Gulltown and Orival Crane alongside his friends, follow his father and his most prominent bannermen. As they continue following his father he looks back to the rear of the group and sees his betrothed Estrid Orane. Estrid smiles at him, and while he returns the smile, he is still unsure of her due to her opinions on the Swabians. The group runs into a group led by William Lovie III. and while Orival doesn’t get to speak to William he sees the opportunity to form an alliance in the coming melee and sends his friend Germira Cranewel to organize this with William. Continuing into the city his father leads them towards the keep where they are to meet with a House Shephard representative who is to take them to their lodgings. Once they reach the keep his father meets with Ratmann Rickard Taubman. Rickard leads the group with the assistance of his son Timothy Taubman, and daughter Amalia Taubman towards their lodgings. During this final trip its Orival that is brought to the front by his father and Orival listens in as Rickard discusses the situation in northern Lucerne. Arriving at the camp its Orival that is going to spend time with his friends when his father whispers to him that he is to instead take Estrid to visit the Great Temple of Kyne. It’s implied from the words of his father that Orival is having doubts about his betrothal to Estrid, but Orival is unwilling to resist the words of his father and pushes this aside. Listening to the words of his father without question he goes to Estrid who is getting his mother Falena’s tent ready. “It speaks to your misplaced loyalties that you send that Swab to make deals for you.” — Estrid Orane Going to Estrid she is clearly excited to see him approach her, and she goes into the back of the tent to change for her trip to the Temple. While Estrid is changing the main person pushing for him to treat her well in the form of his mother pulls him into a hug. Orival thinks it’s nice to have her back around, but he is sad when he realizes that once his marriage to Estrid is completed then his mother will return to the Grand Temple of Crane. Orival and Estrid walk together to the Great Temple of Kyne and the two have a good time on the way until Estrid notices a group of Swabian selling goods at a booth and begins making racist comments about them. Orival ignores this and tries to have a good time with her but can’t ignore it anymore once she attacks Germira. The two have an argument on the steps leading to Orival abandoning her at the temple and making his way back to their lodgings but he becomes lost and eventually winds up back at the Swabians booth that Estrid had insulted earlier. Conversation Incoming Loneliness is a disease just like any other. The worst part of the disease is the cure isn;t always to be surrounded by those who love you. Many times the desease spreads despite the logical reasons why it would nothing vulnerable in the host. Loneliness is a disease. I know because I have it.. “It’s very nice of you to give the swabs a handout, but you really should be careful keeping them so close.” I had heard enough and stopped walking up the steps. “Do you have to call them Swabs?” She turned around looking at me with confusion in her eyes. “I don’t mean to offend. It’s simply what they are.” “They are my friends. People who will be in my life.” I took a step towards her. “Until they stick a knife in you.” My hands flew in the air and again the confusion in her eyes was clear. “Stop it.” “We are to be married. I’m simply being honest with you.” “As of right now. In this moment, I hope to avoid your honesty.” It was the truth. Not a kind truth but it was still true. How could I ever accept a person who felt this way. The Swabians were a big part of the Cranehold population in many areas. It wasn’t possible to take the ideas of her father and bring that to the court without there being big problems in the future. “What are you saying?” “I’m saying I don’t really see how we could make a life together with the way you think about things.” “There just Swabs.” “They are people. They are my friends.” With that I stormed away from her. I could hear her yelling after me as I left her on the steps of the Temple. I made my way angrily through the winding streets of Gulltown finding myself moving with the crowd. Watching the group speak Swabian he thinks back on his positive experiences with the Swabians through the years and approaches the group buying a shirt from their booth. Returning to the camp without Estrid he is reprimanded by his mother who forces him to return to the temple with her. Accompanying his mother back to the temple she explains the different life experiences that people have, and why these things don’t make having different opinions evil. Listening to his mother they enter the temple to find Estrid inside at prayer and as he kneels beside her joined by his mother, he looks at her face and sees that she has been crying. When his mother steps away to speak with the bishops of the temple its Orival that apologizes to her for leaving her. Estrid to his surprise apologizes for what she said about Swabians, and while she doesn’t understand his love for them, she promises to attempt to see what he sees. Arrival of the Cleganes As the Cleganes are preparing to enter Gulltown when Accia begins losing control causing Hedrik to stop the march. Hedrik does his best to stay in control as he commands the force to set up camp here instead of entering Gulltown, and then he tells Konstantin to ride back down the road and tell the rest of the Clegane forces that they will camp here outside the city. As the group begins preparing the camp its Hedrik that continues holding Accia hand who is at this point on the verge of losing complete control. Hedrik sends Meinolf to go and find help regarding this Magi event while Dylan and Accia head into the forest. Once they reach the edge of the forest its Accia that goes limp in his hand, and he watches as she passes out. Hedrik tries to wake her up but nothing he does can wake her. As she struggles with what to do its his cousin Theresa that comes upon them, and without time to explain he has her watch over Accia while he runs to find out if Meinolf has had any luck. Reaching the camp, he does his best to not show what is happening and joined by Servius of Clegane he goes into Gulltown attempting to find Meinolf and he can’t to find help himself. As they enter Gulltown they are met on the road by Meinolf who is accompanied by a man and women who he doesn’t recognize. They are introduced to him as Wynne Tanlader, and Er-Khadgar Morgrave and they tell Hedrik they will help Accia. Before the Wedding “I have never felt this way about a girl before Alice. Maybe its time I take a chance.” — William Lovie III. Carlisle takes the three away telling them they must go to his sister who is preparing for her wedding and that this is beneath them on such a day. As they walk its Jasper that leaves them to return to the rest of the shadow council, but Leven stays at Williams side. As they walk, they talk about the picnic and the arrival of the peasants. William reveals his terror at being unable to help them and sensing his sadness its Leven that holds his hand as they walk. Arriving at the estate of House Scheck where Matilda is preparing its William that waits in the courtyard with Marcel Lovie while Leven goes inside the estate. Inside the estate she goes through the halls eventually reaching the room where Matilda is staying and surrounded by handmaids and servants, she almost cries at how beautiful Matilda looks. One of the girl’s helping Matilda is Rosalie and seeing this Leven thinks jealously that was why Rosalie didn’t accompany William to the castle. Watching Matilda get ready its Leven that feels out of place and becomes increasingly angry at Rosalie as she watches as she looks so at home in this environment. As she watches its Leven that thinks back to her childhood and her uncle stressing a need for good skill at war before her skills as a good lady. Spending hours helping Matilda its Leven that exits the preparations to go and spend time with William who she finds in the courtyard. Going to him the two have a conversation where Leven wants to tell him about her feelings for him, but the arrival of Rosalie ends their conversation and causes rage inside Leven. “Seeing her touching him. Seeing them kiss. It makes me angrier then I have ever felt before. It's an anger that scares me Aria.” — Leven Martell Rosalie takes William away as they must leave for the wedding, and this leaves Leven behind. Sitting on the bench she is approached by Aria Arryn and Aria comforts her on her feelings for William which Aria has already guessed at. The two speak for a time about this with Aria also revealing that she has feelings for William and unlike her jealousy towards Rosalie its Leven that feels nothing but love for Aria. Aria leaves to go back for the final preparations for the wedding and Leven follows her back into the estate. Returning to the estate she and Aria are stopped in their tracks by seeing William and the shadow council drinking in a hallway. While Aria keeps walking its Leven that goes to the boys as she feels a pull she cannot ignore towards William. Unable to control herself she goes to William and pulls him into a kiss. As they kiss its Jasper and Dylan that block the hallway. William pulls away from the kiss first, and the two share no words with Leven fleeing the scene in nervousness. Running down the halls she finds herself face to face with Catherine Bell who seeing the state of Leven takes her into a hug. Calming her down its Catherine that takes her into the room as the final preparations are being made for the wedding, and the whole time she holds Leven’s hand. The chapter ends with Leven stepping off the boat and onto the dock of Sunspear Hold, and with a tearful look eastward she thinks on William. The Melee The Joust Its Marius Scott that watches as Jamie Lannister defeats Brandon Starke and wins the joust tournament. Marius is sitting with his friends Lucas Oakheart, his wife Melinda Ladybright, Reginald Madritch, his wife Ingrid Madritch, Alke Erlic, and Gretchen Rivel with her husband Edric Rivel. Marius begins talking with Reginald about his nervousness about the wedding. Marius is nervous about Matilda loving him as she is so beautiful, and he has accomplished very little so far in his life. Reginald, and Alke convince him to move past his nervousness and trust that she will love him, which he reluctantly attempts to do as he watches her from afar. As the winner of the tournament in Jamie Lannister, alongside Brandon Starke come to stand before the kings stage its Marius that is waved over by his grand father and joining Peter and the King in their stage he watches as Jamie makes his declaration. Jamie doesn’t ask for the winnings but instead requests from the king to have his nieces Myrcella and Lanna Lannister join the royal family as ladies in waiting with a special point of putting them on the list of potential betrothals to William. The King stands and makes a kind speech declaring Jamie’s bravery and skill and accepts this request. Standing in the stage as the king is mingling with finalists of the joust its Marius that sparks up the courage to make a joke to Matilda who smiles at his lame joke to her. As his shyness begins to overwhelm him, he smiles and prepares to leave but is stopped by her hand on his shoulder and turning back to her she requests him for dinner that night. Catherine Lovie who is standing watching interrupts telling her that is against tradition, but a desperate Marius uses his own Christianity as a means of forcing the dinner. Catherine agrees to host the dinner with Matilda’s friend Domeric Highmore standing as a chaperone for the dinner. The Wedding The Aftermath Watching the door close behind a tear falls and only the hand of William keeps her moving forward. Alice and the rest of the Wostellian family make there way towards the Shephard Castle, and Alice continues crying as they walk as she is afraid of losing her sister. Arriving at Shephard Castle she tries to go to her room, but William forces her to come with him to the Bath houses to spend time with their friends. Having fun together in the bath houses she and William eventually get alone time and she opens up to him that she feels like shes losing her mother of sorts in Matilda, and he comforts her as she lets out her feelings about it. Rosalie, and Leven join them in the corner of the bath house, and they all talk about different times that Matilda was a mother to them and talking it over with everyone she feels better. Edict of Tanthdom Main Article : Edict of Tanthdom in the Valley Arrival of Emma Arryn “We have come here to make you an offer. We can give you control of the entire county of Ross. Think of the rich places that we could hit from safety of my families lands. We just ask for your protection. In return for that protection, we can both profit.” — Mikael Ross IV. Emma Arryn is getting off the boat at the docks of Gulltown, and as her husband Mikael helps her over a box that was blocking her path, they share a laugh together. Emma, Mikael, and two of their knights in the form of Conrad Dosst, and Eckbert of Dosst movie into the city joined by several men at arms as they make there way towards the marketplace where they to meet with Ingolf Frightling a member of the Nighting Crime Syndicate. Arriving at the marketplace they find Ingolf with several other Frightling men and after a quick conversation he leads them towards the Shephard Castle. While walking its Ingold who is quite openly talking about the excitement they all have for Emma’s pitch and Emma is shocked to hear him speak so openly about slavery. Ingolf laughs at her and tells her that this is the crownlands, and that there is no resistance to them here. Following the agreement of James Nighting to name Mikael a Minister in the Nighting Crime Syndicate its Emma, Mikael, Conrad, and Eckbert that leave Shephard Castle to go back to the docks where they will go back to their boat and discuss things. Emma, and Mikael make love that night and once Mikael falls asleep its Emma that lays beside him thinking about how sad her life was before she met him. Emma dreams of the first time she met him. Emma had run away from home as her depression was getting so bad that she wanted to escape her mother’s home and go to the capital where she hoped her sister Aria would take her in. While on the run she had fallen off her horse and had then gotten scared by a wolf howling and had run into the forest. After tripping and falling down a hill she had been knocked out by the fall. When she woke up it was Mikael that was beside her taking care of the wound on her head, and startled at first, he took care of her, and then listened to her when she asked him not to take her back to Arryndale. Mikael wakes up as shes thinking of this and the two make love once more, and after this she falls asleep as well. Breaking of the Shadow Council Main Article : The First Breaking of the Shadow Council Decision on Edelhend It was Gaidrion would travel to the Gulltown tournament of 5119 and a major result of this time was an agreement that Edelhend should be officially brought into the Kingdom of Lucerne and agreeing to this he would travel the valley of Lucerne gathering support for this eventuality. Alongside Gaidrion it was Paidrion and his wife Glindia would travel to the Gulltown tournament of 5119 alongside his father and during this time he took part in the negotiations with the Circle of Magi but was disturbed that his father was just trading Mordor for another similar group and begin to doubt his fathers leadership The Plot Against House Swan “You want to destroy the Swans. I want to avenge my family. We can both get what we want.” — Mildred Gleckourd Mildred travels to the Gulltown tournament and meets with the Circle of Magi forming the arrangement that will lead to the Forks Civil War. Also while at the tournament she attempts to kidnap her sister and this leads to a fight where one of her knights is killed but she escapes blame and becomes a guardian to Alice Lovie. Fabia's Truth Fabia would travel to the Gulltown tournament with her daughter in order to see her friend again and while there she did was jealous of the affection he clearly had for Mildred and thus did not tell him about the abuse she was suffering at the hands of Marcus. Moving Alice “This is going to feel like a punishment. I want you to be strong and not take it that way.” — Einhard Rosler Alice is finally having fun when Einhard Rosler comes inside and tells Alice to come with him and rejects William joining them despite his attempt to go with her. Following Einhard she is taken to the Shephard Castle Dining Hall where she finds a large gathering inside waiting for her. Taken to a seat by Einhard he joins her in the seat beside her, and as she sits down its Kieth Schwartz that begins speaking. Kieth tells the assembled parties that he has been placed in charge of the betrothal process for Alice and that at the advice of many advisors he has chosen to have preliminary discussions with House Yernese at Pomeria. A shocked Alice listens on as they discuss that Alice, and a party will head by boat following the meeting towards Pomeria and despite wanting to speak up her nervousness leads her to remain silent. The meeting ends and Einhard takes her by the arm and gently leads her to the door. The moment they go through the door, and he closes it behind them she smacks Einhard in the chest and tries to run away from him and back to William but runs into a tall woman. Knocked to the ground by their collision the girl helps her to her feet. Looking at the girl she is amazed at her beauty but she up and then the girl smiles at her before speaking to her in a language that Alice doesn’t understand. One of the girls behind the women introduces herself as Adelhelma Beckstoud a handmaid of the women that she begins translating for. The translations by Adelhelma reveal the women is Mildred Gleckourd the Viscount of Gleckheint and will be joining Alice on the journey to Pomeria. Alice attempts to leave but is taken by the arm by Mildred who leads her to her boat and going through the streets the only thing she can think is hoping that she sees someone she knows. Getting on to the boat she watches as the ramps are quickly put up and as she stands on the side with Einhard she lets tears fall as she watches Gulltown fall into the distance. Supporting Alice Leven is met by Catherine who in a rush tells her there is no time to explain and that she needs Leven to race to the docks to find Alice and go with her. Catherine tells her that there will be a boat waiting for her, but she needs to make sure that she gets to go on that boat. Leven does as she is told and races to the docks where she at first cannot see Alice but does see the Gleckoud boards. As they reach the dock its Alice that sees Leven running towards her, and as Leven approaches its Alice that lies and tells her that Leven is a member of her Malatine. Comforted at least a bit by the arrival of Leven this goes away as Leven is forced onto another boat while Alice joins Mildred on what appears to be the main ship of the Gleckourd fleet. The chapter ends with Leven stepping onto the boat that Catherine has directed to follow the Gleckourd boats heading towards Pomeria, and despite not wanting to leave her friends its Leven that knows she must try and protect Alice.

The Failure of the Pendant of Cleansing Together we can save your friend. The Dragon is back Kieth.

Failure of the Pendant of Cleansing Main Article : Failure of the Pendant of Cleansing “I want you to know that being around you. Spending time with you. It was my honor. I know I'm not your father, and I wouldn't ever pretend to be. Just know thats how I look at you. I love you Alice.” — Einhard Rosler Its Alice Lovie that returns to Lucerne with William and the rest of the Lucernian party that had traveled to Gulltown for the wedding and tournament. Arriving back home she and William spend the day together at Lake of Aerene's Breath swimming and having fun together. There fun ends with the arrival of Einhard Rosler who is joined by Aria Arryn, Dylan Steinmare, and Faye Skane three friends of William's who take him away while Einhard stays with Alice who is sad that William has left her but spends time talking with Einhard. Einhard appears nervous, and having known him for years she is surprised to see him like this but doesn't mention anything about it to him. The arrival of Draco Highmore leaves Einhard to return to the Sky Tower where he tells her he is going to speak to her mother, and before Alice can say anything about this its Draco that begins telling her about the fact that he has overheard that she will be betrothed at the upcoming Nortberg Tournament. Planning for Cleansing “I'm sorry James. There can be no doubting this. I watched you kill Einhard with my own eyes.” — Kieth Schwartz After James had killed Einhard it was Kieth that attempted to hide the murder from James the same way he had hidden the events of the Purge, but this time he found his attempts thwarted by the counter work of the Dovah Flarnax. Flarnax had become friends of sorts with Einhard during the Goblin Invasion of Telstendil and had stayed in contact with Einhard and was thus deeply hurt when Einhard was killed, and watching as the Circle attempted to hide the murder from James she would make that an impossibility. As Aelflynn, and Wudrik made their final preparations to remove this memory from James it was Flarnax assisted by Lornax that would reveal the truth of what happened with Einhard to William who then confronted his father. The involvement of William changed everything as Aelfwynn and Wudrik were unwilling to involved the prince in their work and thus they were forced to deal with the fact that James now knew the truth. Following the realization that he had killed his friend Einhard Rosler in a blind rage he would come to the conclusion that he could no longer control whatever was happening within him, and sent word for Esme to be brought back to Lucerne. James in this way did not remember due to the manipulations of both Aelfwynn Turnidlon, and Vhloraz that he had already once before brought Esme to the capital attempting this same thing, and thus made the command again. Despite his attempt to get Esme to come back it was Kieth that realized the cost of bringing her back was most likely her life and did not send the letter to her leaving it up to just him and Carlisle to try and fix this once and for all. The Ritual Failure “I need you to stay here. Promise me that you won't leave this room. Promise me Edward. Swear to me that you will not leave this room.” — Carlisle Cullen Carlisle in his attempt to keep Edward safe brings a Magi trainer to the city in order to train his son without alerting anyone of what power Edward actually has. Upon the arrival of Moritz its Carlisle that takes him to meet with a man he has brought to Lucerne in order to help him learn of his power. Meeting with the man he learns about his new trainer in the form of Moritz Krenkel of whom is from northern Lucerne and has kept his Magi secret for his whole life through mastery of control. Moritz and Edward leave Lucerne and travel to a small farm southwest of the city where the two practice Magi for several days. Edward during this time listens to the words of Moritz in a way but also misses his friends and Tanya and thus goes against Moritz wishes when he uses Magi to speak to William, and Tanya through his dreams. Their training stops when William, Leven, Byron, Jasper, and Tanya arrive at the farm after following the clues left by Edward in the Magi dreams and as Edward prepares to leave its Moritz that warns him about his use of Magi, but Edward wants to spend time with his friends more then he wants to learn and so rejects Moritz advise and leaves with the group back to Lucerne. Returning to Lucerne they find the gateway out of Lucerne is heavily fortified, and a large caravan is moving out of the city. William learns from the caravan that all of the families leaving the city have been paid to leave the city and Edward senses all of the families have a member that is Magi sensitive, and at this feeling he clenches his ring tightly. “How long do I have to be hidden away Will. I tire of being constantly hidden away by my father. I just want to be normal.” — Edward Cullen After spending the day with his friends he returns home and finds his father sitting at his table reading and at the sight of Edward his father storms towards him grabbing him in anger, and Edward tries to use magi to push him off but his ring cancels his power and his father is able to berate him on his coming back to Lucerne. With the city on lock down Carlisle is unable to get Edward out of the city as he wants to and so he locks Edward in his room and Edward can hear through the walls his father put the guards on alert to not let Edward leave his room including placing Oskar of Cullen inside the room with Edward to make sure nothing happens. Despite his father begging him not to leave Edward ignores the warnings of his father and when Oskar is distracted momentarily by Edward tricking him its Edward that removes his ring and uses Magi to leave a bedazzling hex on his chair making Oskar see the chair as Edward, while he then again uses Magi to walk through the wall and out of his room. With Oskar still believing he was in the room its Edward that sneaks out of his home and after getting out without anyone seeing him he makes his way to Tanya's home. Arriving at her house Edward talks with both her parents in the form of Emerich and Carmen Denali of whom he discusses with them Emerich's desire to push the betrothal of Edward and Tanya forward, and Edward quickly agrees telling him he will talk with his father. When Tanya comes down Emerich doesn't know Edward is restricted and thus lets Tanya leave with him for the Eye of Lucerne where all the friends were supposed to meet. Edward and Tanya walk together and its clear that the two are in love, and trying to impress Tanya he takes his ring off several times doing little Magi tricks which make her smile. Arriving at the fortress of Reintrel he is let through the gates by Arnulf Reintrel of whom knows him and so lets him and Tanya inside letting them know that William and the others arrived about an hour ago and were already on the lift going up. Going to the lift they wait in the garden surrounding it and sit with a family that is also taking the lift up in the form of Meinhard Bethmann, and his wife Irmlinde, and their two children Charlotte, and Markolf and talking with them they all have a nice conversation while they wait for the lift to come back. Possession on the Mountain “You killed me way back on that mountaintop Ed. I've been a walking corpse ever since. Fitting your the one that final puts me down.” — Byron Arryn II. Edward, and Tanya are laying together on a blanket just talking, but when Tanya gets cold its Edward who once more takes his ring off and uses Magi to start a small fire keeping them warm, but when he does this he feels the air change and looking into the sky he sees a crack in the sky itself. While Tanya cannot see this change its Edward who becomes panicked watching as figures begin appearing through the crack in the sky coming towards him, and as he attempts to put his ring back on he drops it and while trying to get it back the figures reach them and crash into both Byron Arryn II. and Meinhard Bethmann, but after hitting Meinhard he is able to get his ring back on and the figures disappear. Going to the side of Byron he checks on his friend and sees blood coming from his ears, and eyes and fears Byron is dead until he sits up suddenly alongside Meinhard whose family was crying over him. Unable to stop Byron, and Meinhard who are responding but in unusual ways they watch as the two make there way back to the barracks overhang and despite attempts to stop them they grab two gliders and jump off the side of the overhang down towards Lucerne to the horror of everyone there. Aftermath Discovery of Eleonore “What have you kept hidden from us Flarnax. Is this one of the blood of William? The things she could do for the valley. Don't listen to Flarnax little one. Listen to me. I'll give the whole world. I'll give you the prince.” — Vlarenix As Kieth leaves the Cloud Towers in order to meet with the White Dovah following the failure of the Pendant to get rid of Vhloraz its Wuldrik that follows the command of Khadgar and follows Kieth. Following him and his several guards through the streets they arrive at the Great Temple of Glaurung where he watches as Kieth dismisses his guards and begins speaking with the two White Dovah from the spell room. Its Eleonore Scarlet that is sitting at prayer within the Great Temple of Glaurung when she is shaken by the door into the Temple smashing open revealing two women, and a man who smash the door closed behind them. The three do not notice her and she is able to hide herself behind a pillar as they start yelling at each other, and listening for a moment she is startled from behind as Gerwine Holderlin a prominent priestess covers her mouth from screaming before motioning for her to be silent. Gerwine steps out into the argument revealing herself but they three indicate they felt her before she had entered the room, and Eleonore questions why they didn't sense her then. Gerwine names the three as Kieth Schwartz (who Eleonore knows as he is quite prominent in the government), Vlarenix, and (both of whom Eleonore does not recognize) and then is referred to by Kieth as Flarnax. During this arguement its Vlarenix that admits that the plan from her side all along was to kill Vhloraz but she knew that would also basically kill James by cutting him off from his duality spirit, but argues that this is the only way forward as there is no way to remove the possession otherwise. Kieht is unable to accept turning James into what has become of Byron Arryn and thus rejects attempting to do the spell again with more defenses this time. The arguing eventually ends with Kieth telling them that he will no longer help them or hide them, and that from this moment forward his only goal is protecting James to whatever end that leads him. As Kieth leaves the remaining three keep talking for a time but this two is interrupted by Eleonore accidentally dropping her copy of The Testament of Ysgramor and this leads to her being forced to reveal herself. The moment they see her she watches as Gerwine gives her a depressed look before standing between her and the two women, but despite attempting to block them its the one called Vlarenix that moves past Flarnax and begins inspecting Eleonore. Investigating Failure Main Article : Investigation into the Failure of the Pendant Following this conversation its Kieth that leaves the Great Temple of Glaurung where he continues to follow Kieth, but as they continue down the road Kieth stops and lets Wuldrik realize that Kieth knew he was there the whole time. The two have a conversation and when Kieth reveals he knows that Wuldrik is the father to Leven Martell he threatens Leven if Wuldrik doesn't work for him, and fearful of Leven being hurt he agrees to this. Kieth tasks him with joining Baldwin Haufet who is travelling to Eye Lucerne to investigate a Magi event that occurred while the spell was working. Arriving at the fortress of Reintrel he is stopped by Carlisle Cullen who takes him aside and reveals that it was his son that caused the spike of Magi. Carlisle begs him to hide Edward’s involvement and in return he will arrange for Wuldrik and Leven to spend time together. Punishment of the Peak The Order of the Peak would be heavily reprimanded in the aftermath of the Failure of the Pendant of Cleansing as it was discovered that the Chaos Titan had entered through the peak and while it was known to all that there was clearly others involved it was the Order of the Peak that had several of its leaders demoted or moved outright to other positions.

Lucerne Civil War

Main Article : Lucerne Civil War

Madness comes to Berne

See Also : Sean Lovie's Takeover of Berne

Madness comes to Berne This is the beginning of what I will make the entire world look like. First I'm going to make all of you see the truth. Then I'm going to kill my brother. Then I'm going to watch the world burn. Oh the fun I shall have.

The City of Berne had originally been the idea of James Lovie and he had begun contracts with the Dwarves of the Kingdom of Karak Izor to assist in its construction, but following his death this project would become a source of obsession for Jame's son the new king James Lovie II. of whom saw Berne as another site for the people of Lucerne to retreat into after the Orcs had taken control of the Valley. As the Valley of Lucerne burned with the fires of James Lovie II's madness it was the city of Berne that continued to move along in its construction, and this only would become derailed when William Lovie III's Takeover of Lucerne led to Sean Lovie arriving in Berne with a group of Circle of Magi led by Kieth Schwartz. “The True Sons were the anchor by which all of my violence, and malice shall be unleashed. I could give two shits about what the hell my brother does in Lucerne as long as I get to see the fear in peoples eyes before they fall.” — Sean Lovie As the leader of the True Sons of Lucerne Sean went about furthering the control of himself over the people of Berne. It didn't matter to him that they believed him King, and this alone would have made him untouchable, he just secretly wanted the violence. He cared nothing about the actual war, or winning it. He simply wanted to destory the world that he felt had ruined him.With Sean's arrival in the city, Berne was no longer under the control of House Arryn but was now under the control of the newly created goverment of Sean Lovie self-entitled the True Sons of Lucerne. The rule of the True Sons of Lucerne was pure madness, and the peaceful and growth oreanted nature of House Arryn was replaced by a madness enduced chaotic nature which led to violence in the streets. Murderers all around. Sean Lovie is said to have exectuted a person a day towards the later days of his reign in Berne, and if murder was all he did then that was one thing but he in fact made a sport of trying new things and his raping, and sexual deviancy became out of control while in Berne. “They all thought I was after something. They thought I had some great plan to unite the Valley of Lucerne and spread peace like a Man God. In the end it was about the pain I could inflict on a women. It was about finding out how much damage I could do before finally the city just died. Before there was noone left to commit these crimes on. On one hand I wanted to escape the constant anger, and hate I felt, but a darker and a real powerful side of me just wanted more. More of it all, and it didn't care about the end game.” — Sean Lovie It was during this dark time where Byron's rule had been taken over by Sean Lovie that the social climbing member of House Arryn in Allison Arryn rose to prominence as she allowed Sean to act out many of his sexual desires on her. This gave her a growing amount of power, and for a time she came to believe that she was even controlling Sean. Allison Arryn during this period where she believed she was in control would put in place a system that would allow Sean Lovie to regain control of what was nearing collapse. Allison Arryn used her menipulative nature, and the influence of Ella Arryn to trick House Arryn, along with many other high ranking commanders to continue supporting Sean Lovie because she spread the rumor that he had promised her the throne of Lucerne once he was the King. Allison Arryn bided her time day after day as Sean Lovie butchered people in the streets, and raped women all over the city to the point that the only thing that she could do to slow him down was to continue to surrender her body to him. As she surrendered herself to him she fell into a spell of her own making where she came to believe the lies that she was telling people. She forgot for a time that he was a monster, and she came to believe that this was all a game and he truly loved her. In this madness she would come to find that she was pregnant, and with Sean Lovie being her only sexual partner she was overjoyed to believe that she had given him a heir. When she learned she was pregnant with his child she came to understand how little she controlled when she told him the news. The best description of the events was by Ezio Ederiz who was in the room when it all went down. Murder of Allison Arryn “After he killed Allison there was simply no going back. It was time for me to finally do the right thing.” — Ezio Ederiz As the assembled nobles and Ezio watched as Sean Lovie stabbed Allison Arryn over and over again the silence of the room was broken by the sceams of Ella Arryn of whom walked into the room as Sean stood there defiling her body. Ella Arryn attempted to run to the girl that had become her daughter when she was stopped by several of the gaurds in the room, and upon hearing the commotion Sean got up from her body and walked over to the distraught Ella Arryn of whom was searching the room for anyone who might help. As Sean walked over to her Byron Arryn stood completely frozen, and when his vassal in Benjamin Krinner whispered to him that this was the time to intervene, Byron thought for a moment before seeing the body of Allison and becoming frightened. Instead of telling Benjamin Krinner that yes they should intervene he just allowed Sean Lovie to walk over to his wife with a dagger covered in the blood of his niece. By this point Ella Arryn was screaming uncontrollably, and Sean's loyalists led by Aiden Nighting II., and Eldon Estermont II. would begin to flood into the room from outside to assist. Sean walked up to her and pushed her to the ground before he stabbed her in the arm with the dagger. Standing over her body there was shock and screaming in the room as the Stormcrow gaurds that he had brought in would go about rounding these panicked nobles up and getting them out of the room. “Letting his own niece, and wife die were the last of a series of troubling and pathetic acts by the Arch Lord of Berne. His people had long ago lost faith in him, but the troubling part for him was now they had lost respect for him.” — Ezio Ederiz Sean Lovie then stood back up, and still covered in blood walked himself over to his throne, and gestered at the girl before to continue what she was doing. He just remained staring at the dead body of Allison Arryn with a look that many in the room saw as some sort of regret. If he realized the extent of what he had done in that moment is unknown, but as Ezio was ushered out of the room he pushed the girl aside and walked into a backroom followed by several of his loyalists. Ezio walking into the next room found himself walking into the middle of a commotion as Byron Arryn was being held to the ground by Trailen Dorin while his son and nearly a half a dozen House Dorin and vassal men surrounded the panicked gaurdsmen of the Lord. Ezio watched on as Trailen Dorin accused him of treason, and made sure that Byron understood his rule was at an end, and Byron in this pathetic form would begin to weep causing Trailen to punch him in the face before walking away with his men, Look at the world father. You were born into this land. You grew up here. These people swore their lives to you. How could you have done all of this? Look at everything you have done. You destroyed a city. Killed hundreds of good men out of fear. Is this how you want to be remembered father. Is this the world you want to leave behind? I know you were a good person once. Don't end it all here. Don't do this. For me father. For everything I supposedly mean to you. Don't do this. I watched the doors open and close for more time then I would like to admit, but when faced with the choice of that or watching Sean being serviced by that poor girl I had little real options. He just sat there with little emotions on his face, but everyonce in a while I would see a flash of hate as he scanned the room and must have saw someone he hated. Man after man entered the room as they brought their grievences to their "king". I had seen bad king before. I had seen evil kings before. I had seen more kings then most had, and seeing Sean Lovie listening to his people's desires while the poor girl serviced him sexually was the most disturbing moment of any of my experiences with kings. A man entered the room with his young wife on his arm, and followed by who must have been their two children. The man and his family bowed before their king and prepared to get the kings justice on whatever matter pained them. "Your Grace I come to you pleading for food for my family. We have not eaten with any real substance for days and I fear my youngest is not long for this world without assistence." The man wept as he spoke, and his wife comforted the little boy clinging to her leg. I wanted to reach out to them. I wanted to give them some of the food that he wasted every night on his parties, but I knew this wasn't within my grasp. Without showing any signs of noticing the family they remained bowed for nearly a minute in silence until one of the Stormcrow men beside Sean stepped forward and spoke. "Your grace wishes you nothing but the best of the food but there is nothing to spare. The false king of the east has blockaded us, and you shall have to find what food you can on..." Sean's interuption was shocking as this was one of the first times he had spoken during the hours we had been doing this. "I have some advice for you. You smallfolk should travel outside the main gates and be killed." "Your Gace?" "Did I stutter?" The man remained with his mouth open clearly unable to speak from shock. "Perhaps you do not love your king and laugh at my stuttering. Do you laugh at me?" "No your grace, but..." "But what? You are a smallfolk, and barely capable of the coversation that you have shown today. Your problems are the problems of a leaf flying in the wind. Go now and die, for that is all you smallfolk are good for." A few Stormblown men moved in and grabbed the family tearing them apart from eachother and took them out of the room where it seemed obvious they were going to be executed outside the gates in Sean's horrible excesses.  In that moment I moved my hand to my side, and feeling under the cloak I felt the dagger I had safely hidden there. Looking around I saw the dishonorable Daesyn of Harad nearbye and I knew I could stab him and take his sword. With a sword I could butcher every Stormblown in this room until I finally reached the real false king and ended this madness. As I seriously considered ending all this I heard a commotion at the door and watched it slowly open revealing Allison Arryn. I watched as Allison entered the room with a skip to her step. Her smile was always one that I knew she had manufactured in her mind, but today as she entered I noticed a genuine nature to her eyes. As she approached the mad prince he barely even moved his eyes from the poor women that was on her knees pleasing him, and I saw the sadness momentarily come to her eyes as some piece of her must have realized how wrong this was. In that moment I came back to thinking about killing Sean. Looking around at the four men that had entered alongside Allison I have no doubt I would be able to still easily kill them all if I was able to still reach Daesyn's neck. The room had maybe four people beyond the Stormblown that would defend him and I could have killed them with ease. Perhaps it was cowerdess. Perhaps it was something elce entirely, but before I could further examine the situation she blurted out to Sean who was still being assisted by the poor women I might add. "Your Grace I have finally honored you with a child." The moment she said it he looked up from the girl, who stopped immediately servicing him. As she waited with that extatic look on her face the entire room went silent. Everyone stopped what they were doing which seemingly most importantly to Sean was the women that had been at his knees. Perhaps it was that she had stopped that caused the rage. Maybe it was the fact that deep down he understood that he shouldn't father anything. Whatever it was he simply got up walked over to Allison who still had a look of pure happiness and pushed her to the ground before taking out his knife and stabbing her repeatadly in the stomach. He kept stabbing her and she screamed in a terrible blood curdling scream that seemed to shake the foundations of the room in its terrror. Stabbing her over and over again the Stormblown would move quickly as commotion begin with Dailin Dorin storming towards the scene but being grabbed and taken out of the room by the Stormblown, his son followed closely behind and I watched how his hand moved closer and closer to his sword before they disapeared outside the doors. As I went for my own dagger some Stormblown fool crashed into me from behind and I mentally slapped myself for being so foolish as to be caught unaware. Knocked to the ground the man kneeled on top of me for a moment and told me to remain calm. As I looked up I could see Sean still stabbing poor Allison and I wanted to pull myself free, but felt helpless in my sadness. The man grabbed me by my shoulders and as he picked me up I shook from a new screaming voice, and looking over I saw Ella Arryn who had barged her way into the room. Screaming at the top of her lungs she ran towards the bloody mess that was once her beloved Allison Arryn and as she tried to reach her she was grabbed by Daesyn of whom held her watching as Sean defiled Allison's corpse. I wanted to throw up. I wanted it to stop. I had seen horror before. I have killed hundreds if not more in my lifetime, and yet this all just seemed to much. I looked over and noticed for the first time that Lord Byron Arryn was still in the room. Being whispered to by a very irate Benjamin Krinner he stood pathetically still as his wife screamed at Sean. The fear all over Byron's face was a shocking thing to behold, as he was the most powerful man in this city outside of Sean, and yet he did nothing with that power. A disrespected figure in this city was Byron before, but after this display it was clear that if anyone survived they would not disrespect him, they would hate him. Then to my right a door slammed open and stepped through were two stormblown men by the color of their armor. I recegnized the one man as Godfrey Toelis, but the other man was unknown to me. Seeing the scene in front of them the one man went to his sword, but before he could pull the sword from his scabbard without a word Godfrey knocked him in the back of the head causing him to fall to the ground. Godfrey roared for his men to put the other man in a cell, and without a word two Stormblown grabbed the man and rushed him out of the room. I continued to watch the man as the Stormblown holding my shoulders somewhat relented watching the show Godfrey was making. "What have you done Sean!" I turned towards Sean seeing that he was still stabbing his knife into the belly of Allison of which by this point was more of a hole then it was an actually belly, but at the roar of Godfrey he stopped and begin walking towards Godfrey completely covered in blood, but followed closely behind by two of his lackeys in Eldon Estermont II., and Aiden Nighting II. of whom formed a protective guard on both his sides. "I have done whatever the fuck I want to you bastard." Without warning Sean ran full sprint towards Godfrey crashing into him full speed and knocking the sword out of Godfrey's hand. Before Godfrey could pull out another weapon Sean stabbed him through the neck killing the man and then standing up and shaking himself off like he had something on him he wanted off. "Does anyone else have anything to fucking say to me." Sean picked up Godfrey's sword and begin waving it around his head screaming. His screams in this moment were interrupted by Ella of whom broke free from Daesyn and went to Allison's body with cradling her broken niece in her arms screaming out in pain. Daesyn attempted to get her back but was restrained by the Stormblown men of whom knocked him to the ground holding him there. As if not noticing her screaming he begin slashing away at Godfrey with the sword, and it said something terrible about the situation that outside of Ella's sobbing the room was utterly silent. Finally Sean must have grown tired of this and stood up covered in the blood of Godfrey, and Allison and stepped towards Ella. Benjamin Krinner kept speaking to Lord Byron and by this point I had been moved close enough to hear what he was saying. He begged his Lord commander to do something. Told him of his men, and their ability to stop this madness. As he begged him there was nothing back. He stood waiting for his Lord to say something but instead of that Byron just stood there. Hating him in that moment I looked back over to Sean and Ella and saw Sean still staring at her as she screamed and yelled at him. Staring at her for a moment longer he stabbed her in the arm without any warning. "That's the same dagger I just killed her with. You see I've given you a piece of her. Who else in this entire world would be so giving that they would be able to give you the gift that I just gave you." She started screaming again, and it only stopped when he slapped her across the face. "Now your going to get up, and leave this room. Your going to leave this room, and hang yourself. Your going to hang yourself outside the doors of your room, and your going to make sure that no one moves you. Your eyes question me why you would do something like this? Well Ella Arryn your going to do this because I'm going to give you one last gift. I'm going to stop ignoring the fact that my brother's heir is in the hands of that half noble niece of yours. I'm going to rip that baby from her arms and I'm going to bash it apart with a rock. When I'm done with that I'm going to kill Hanna. I'm going to kill Spencer. I'm going to kill them All. I will give them the peace that you want for them. I do it all for you. I'm a very generous King." Death of Ella Arryn “I saw her walk in with nothing more then a casual glance at first. I mean you see your mother, and you just assume she's here to get your clothes to clean or something. You never immediatly see your mother and think, hey she's going to take out a knife and try and kill my sister. That just isn't the first thing that pops into your mind.” — Aria Arryn Following all of this Ella Arryn was picked up Byron Arryn her husband who attempted to take her back to her room so he could fix her arm, but she ran away from him towards the location of Aria Arryn's room. Ella Arryn ran into her room to find her sitting on the bed with Hanna, and Amber Heard also in the room. The discust that Ella Arryn felt in that moment for Hanna Arryn was so much that even covered in blood and losing the ability to even move her arm she roared at her step-daughter. All the girls in the room had at first though the was there to see Aria, but now they looked at her and saw the blood stemming from her arm, and the crazed look in her eyes. As Aria, and Amber rushed to her to see what had happened to her arm she tried to charge through them so that she could get to Hanna, and in this moment she took out a dagger and rushed at Hanna. Hanna dodged the knife by only a little before falling off the backside of the bed. After this attempt Amber, and Aria were able to get ahold of her just enough that they pushed her back away from Hanna, but she wasn't going to stop this time, and rushed once more at Hanna. This time the girls got in front of her, and just as she raised her dagger to charge again they watched as a sword punched itself through her chest. Before she fell forward and arm reached around her front and held her up, and the girls saw Trailen Dorin behind her holding her up with the saddest look on his face. In this moment she coughed out blood before saying her last words on the Earth. “Aria, Amber you girls need to leave now. Hide yourself now. The Mad King...The Mad King comes for you...and he knows of...he knows of the child. Save yourselves. The family must not die out with the rest of this city.” — Ella Arryn With those last words Trailen gently rested her down on the ground, and she slowly bled out. Before she finally succumbed she asked to speak to Hanna Arryn of whom walked to her, and in this moment everyone assembled expected her to apologize or to atleast see some of the errors of her ways, but instead she looked up at Hanna and spit blood in her face before finally dying. With this Trailen quickly got up and made the girls perfectly aware that they needed to get the hell out of her. The girls told him that this was the Arryn estate in Berne and they had no where to go, and as the group panicked Benjamin Krinner walked in behind them and told the group that they would come stay with him in the Krinner Estate. The girls quickly followed behind him, but Amber stopped them and said she had to get Thomas. Benjamin went to her and told her that Sean had already sent someone to her room to get the child and that it was too late. Amber didn't accept this and ran off from the group towards her room where she prayed that she wasn't too late. Amber Captured “I ran to that room faster then I had ever run anywhere elce in my life. I knew in that moment that everything in my life had led me to this place. To this moment. I had to save our son.” — Amber Heard II. When she opened the door to the room she found a body laying face down on the ground coughing and bleeding out, and she stepped past the body to the room where Thomas should have been, and when she walked in his room she found the body of her maid lying dead beside his bed, and beside her another man's body, but no signs of little Thomas. She fell to her knees and cried, but before she could cry for long a man wrapped his hand around her and covered her mouth at the same time before pulling her into the closet. As he did this he whispered for her to be quiet, before she heard other men enter the room all armed from what she could see through the door. These men begin screaming out to try and lure her out, and in this moment she looked at the man and whispered to him whether he had saved Thomas. When the man nodded his head, she told him to keep him safe from harm and the put her hand to the door. Before she opened the door she asked the man what the name was of the man that had saved her son, and he quietly told her that it was Ezio Ederiz. And with that Amber Heard said one last thank you before she pulled the handle and opened the door and walked into the room thus allowing the men to take her. The men would harshly pull her through the hallways that made up the Heard Estate, and from here they took her to the throne room of Sean Lovie where he was at that moment stabbing his knife into the body of Allison Arryn. Seeing this she cried out, and this caused Sean to notice her, and he looked over at her with a look of pure enjoyment. He cleared out the room including his gaurds of whom he ordered to place her in a cage to the right of his throne, which he had brought in. With Amber now in a cage he sat himself beside the cage, and stared at her, before speaking to her for the first time in years. “Do you remember me Amber? Does your mind remember the stories they told of me there back in Lucerne. Do you quiver in fear knowing that what I just did to your cousin is going to be the same thing that I do to you. My men tell me that your child, and my young nephew was not in your room. Did you kill those men who came to steal your child? I doubt this. I want to know who was helping you. I want to know a name. Speak now. Speak now or I shall do things to you so henious. So painful that you will wish for the cold embrace of death. You will beg me for the oppurtunity to sell your son away just so that your pain may cease. Speak now. Noone comes for you Amber. This isn't like Lucerne where you can hope that William is coming for you. He can't get inside. He's been sitting outside these walls for months trying to get in. But the trick is. The great lie is that he can never get in. No matter how much he tries to free this city he will never sucede. So I say again, speak now.” — Sean Lovie Amber looked into the horribly evil eyes of Sean Lovie and for the first time in her life since she had allowed herself to be intimidated by Bill Lovie she understood exactly what she had to do. She spit in Sean's face before retreating the opposite end of the cage away from him. Sean Lovie just laughed and told her that they had lots of time left, and then he got up and walked over to the body of Allison and proceeded to violate her in front of Amber. Amber turned away and covered her ears as Sean continued to violate her, and it went this way for longer then she could count. After however long he stopped and ordered his guards to bring her out of the cage where he then proceeded to have her stripped and as she stood there naked, he walked around her and ran his hand across her body before finally brining in a suit that he forced her to put on before putting her back in the cage. Each day Sean would attempt to get her to tell him, and each day he would do something terrible to someone in an attempt to make her speak. Saving Thomas Lovie “The child was completely innocent. Whatever crimes the world may make up for the adults of the world these just shouldn't be true for this child. Everything he might be. Everything he should be was what they wanted to take away from him, and this was exactly what I refused to allow to happen.” — Ezio Ederiz With Amber Heard now taken in by Sean Lovie, Ezio made his way out of the closet and went to the window and proceeded to raise young Thomas Heard from the basket that he had him sitting in outside the window. Ezio picked up the young boy and told the young boy that he needed to be strong for his mother, as Thomas had heard everything that had happened to his mother but couldn't speak or help because Ezio had roped his mouth shut so that he wouldn't scream. Thomas blamed himself and Ezio took the moment to make sure that Thomas understood that nothing he could have done would have saved his mother from being taken. But that didn't meant that he couldn't help, because she wasn't dead and thus there was always hope. He gave the child one last pat on the shoulder before strapping the child to his back and then jumping out the window and climbing across the roof towards the only safe place he knew of in this hell hole. Ezio made his way to the home of Alistair, and it was here that he hid Thomas while he prepared to save the city. Thomas would remain hidden with Alistair's men inside his small enclave of the city, and through this Thomas would become a member of the rebellion as he sharpened swords, and did whatever else he could do to help the men of the rebellion in doing what he hoped would free his mother from Sean Lovie. Fall of Hardyng Hold “My father told me that it was not simply our duty to protect those who needed help. It was our purpose. He died showing me how important it is to fight for what is right.” — Harrold Hardyng As the rebellion within Berne begin to spread it was Jasper Hardyng that would be responsible for the hiding and protection of many who resisted Sean Lovie by bringing them into the strong point that was the Hardyng Estates, and he did this to the point that they were running low on food they were caring for so many people inside their Berne estate. Sean Lovie would following the capture of Amber Heard go on a hunt for traitors within Berne and had his spies and soldiers (mainly the Stormblown) begin mobilizing themselves to assault any strong point that may have formed, and it was during this search that they came to discover that a flow of people had been entering the House Hardyng estate. Gustov Hardyng III. would betray his family when he revealed what was happening within Hardyng Hold and with knowledge of what they were doing the Stormblown sent some two hundred men to attack the unprepared estate. The betrayal of Gustov Hardyng had begun when Jasper Hardyng had become disgusted with what the True Sons of Lucerne were becoming and in this disgust he was pushed into rebellion by his sister Ina of whom begin to take a leadership role over Gustov which begin to cause bitterness and eventually betrayal from Gustov. During the night the Stormblown swept inside Hardyng Hold breaking the defences without difficulty as they were not prepared and under the command of Baldwin Bisset would be kind to the people within taking all within the estate to the Berne prisons except for Lord Jasper Hardyng and his sister Ina Hardyng II. who were brought personally to the throne of Sean Lovie. Jasper would following the fall of the House Hardyng estate be taken alongside his sister to Sean Lovie and it was there where Jasper confronted Sean Lovie and in response would be forced to witness Sean rape Ina in front of him and then he would be tortured attempting to find out other rebels but he resisted and did not give any names which infuriated Sean causing Sean to beat him to death. Ina Hardyng would following the execution of her brother Lord Jasper Hardyng be placed into one of the cages that adorned the throne room of Sean Lovie and during her time imprisoned there she was brutally raped many times but eventually resisted Sean on the wrong day and in response he brutally killed her causing Amber Heard II. to break emotionally. “There will be another time to get your revenge Harrold. I'm sorry that day is not today.” — Benjamin Krinner Harrold Hardyng had been at the outer gatehouse when he learned of the sacking of his family estate and the deaths of his father and aunt and learning this he would attempt to enter the throne of Sean but he survived after Benjamin Krinner knocked him on the head and brought himself the Krinner fortress where he would be when the Battle of Krinner took place. Departure of Canius Opimius With the madness and violence that was spreading within the city it was the James Lovie II. loyalist Canius Opimius that decided that the cause of Sean was lost.

Battle of Berne

Main Article : Battle of Berne

The Battle of Berne This is where this divide ends. After we take this city there is nothing stopping the Kingdom of Lucerne from becoming exactly what we always dreamed it would be.

“The fact that Sean was able to escape was a black eye on the Kingdom of Lucerne, and no matter what anyone said as long as he lived there would be no improvement for us. He had to die or else we would be nothing more then a joke to the rest of Europe.” — William Lovie III. With the valley clear of Bill, and Sean Lovie, William went about attempting to gain control by eliminating those that were loyal to his father, but most of all he declared war on his father's supporters and very soon after doing this he came to understand that Sean Lovie had taken control of the city of Berne which he didn't even know existed. Under Alistair Bedregen the loyalists loyal to William were sending word to William outside Berne for the first bit of the control by Sean and thus for this early time they knew many of those loyal to Sean or at least to afraid to resist Sean. With this knowledge William rallied the Order of the Red Dragon, alongside a large force of House Lovie and sent this large force to besiege Berne. When his forces arrived there he they saw that Berne was a death trap, and that while they could feasibly attack the city the casualties would be horrendous and on top of that they might not even succeed. Knowing this William ordered them to dig in, and make sure no assistance came from land, and they were forced to live off the small parcel of land within Berne, and to burn through their internal supplies. With the front door shut for the moment William went about his plan to take control of Berne which would revolve around building a tunnel from Lucerne into the rear of Berne and fighting inside from that direction, while also hoping to starve out the defenders so that they would surrender. As William devised his plan where they would complete the underway in its route to Berne and thus they would break in behind the defenses and take the city from within, the Order of the Red Dragon begin having difficulties holding the main entrance as the Orcs in the region were a constant problem. Knowing they needed to be somewhat quick with their siege they were in trouble as unfortunately the tunneling behind Berne would take some time, and so he needed to block the front of Berne without having his army sitting there for the four years the underway would take to complete. “The Kingdom of Quel'Thalas could either close the gap that existed, or leave it open. It all depended on the whims of Elves, and they had never showed themselves to be willing to take chances in order to help others so I wasn't exactly betting on their assistance.” — William Lovie III. In order to do this William sent emissaries from the Order of the Green Dragon to meet with the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas whose forest extended close to the boundaries of Berne and thus would be able to assist in blocking them in if they so chose to do. The Order of the Green Dragon was sent and led by Demi Hill of whom was accompanied by Franklin Brent and his wife Karyl Reyne who led a force of some six hundred House Brent forces alongside three hundred men led by Dexter Hill to act as guards for the mission. When his emissaries arrived they were greeted by Legolas, and Alleria Windrunner of whom were accompanied by nearly three hundred Sindar Elves, and they would greet them with friendship and take them to Darnassus. Traveling through the woods of Quel'Thalas its Franklin, Karyl, and Demi that discuss the current situation in the area and discover that the Quel'Thalasian Elves are not the only major Elven power in the area as Alleria tells them about Lothlorian. While being there to make an alliance with Quel'Thalas its Demi Hill and Franklin that both make mental notes to discuss also furthering the Lucernian presence in the area by also forming a relationship with the Kingdom of Lothlorian. In Darnassus they would be treated to a beautiful feast and Alleria took Franklin and his wife around the capital before they would have the meeting later that night. Seeing the size and beauty of Darnassus, and the kindness of the Windrunner siblings Franklin would have a very high opinion of the Sindar Elves, and he took this opinion into the meeting that night. At the meeting they found that Quel'Thalas was willing to do this in return for an alliance with them which Demi Hill was quick to give them, as William was more then willing to make an alliance with the Elves. Not just happy with an alliance the it was Alleria Windrunner that would offer Franklin and the members of the Lucernian entourage a chance to visit the Dor'Danil Barrow Den where they would be able to enter the Emarald Dream if they so choose. “Enter the Emerald Dream, and discover who you really are.” — Tular Windswift After discussing what would happen there its the groups decision that they will all accept this gift except for Demi Hill, and outside of Demi they are then taken by Clintar Dreamwalker of whom is the Arch Druid of Quel'Thalas, and Saelar Dewwalker of whom is the Guardian of the Claw and leader of the Dor'danil Barrow, to the Dor'Danil Barrow Dens which are located on the edge of Darnassus. While the group spends several days in the Barrow Dens a letter arrives from William stating that a revolt has broken out in Hillsbrad and since they are closer Franklin is tasked to travel there with all speed and end the revolt. The Quel'Thallasians reveal that they can portal Franklin and a small group to near Hillsbrad as there is a forest there with a way stone and Demi Hill agrees that once he wakes from the Emerald Dream he will go there through the portal and gives the letter to Alleria who will give it to Franklin. Following the agreement its Legalos that would lead a force of some two thousand fighters to a forward forest that they would fortify and from there they would be able to adequately block the Orcs from being able to interfere in any real way. So with the front door closed his forces returned to Lucerne while a small contingent remained along with a larger force of the Elves of Quel'Thalas. Franklin Brent and his group wake from the Emerald Dream and with Alavanna holding a visablly shaken Franklin of whom is in tears as he wakes from the Emerald Dream, and taking him by the arm she leads him to a meeting room where Clintar, and Nylindia wait inside. The group sits together and as Franklin slowly recovers from waking from the Emerald Dream they discuss that Tular, and Alavanna will be joining him as he travels not back to Berne, but instead travels through a portal formed for them in Darnassus taking them to a small forest east of Hillsbrad where Franklin is told William Lovie III. has sent him a letter which after reading Franklin nods and asks for them to take him to the portal. As Demi Hill was leaving to return to Berne it's Alleria Windrunner that said that she would be joining them with some two hundred heavily trained and equipped Sentinels at the main Lucerne camp, and this was once again quickly accepted by Demi Hill. Meeting Ezio Ederiz See Also : Ezio Ederiz “There were two option when it came to Ezio Ederiz. Option one was that he was a trap. Sean had sent him to make us believe him and we would be caught in a trap of his making. Option two was that he was telling the truth. If this was correct then we couldn't just ignore him, but the real question was how would we ever know until it was too late to turn back.” — William Lovie III. As things were happening outside the city and making the siege move positively inside the city there was chaos as Sean Lovie lost his mind and was the source of madness and chaos for the citizens. Ezio after saving the life of Thomas Lovie and watching Allison Arryn die would decide to move aggressively to allow William into the city, and thus would make his way to the western tower and prepare to send a message to the Lucernians sieging the city. Ezio enclosed in the message the entirety that he knew about the defenses of Berne, and a message that the city was ready to be joined with William's forces. He had hoped that if he gave as much information that William would still attack even if he didn't believe Ezio, but he also understood the distinct possiblity that William wouldn't believe him and would just continue to siege the city. Ezio waited at the tower for some time alongside the rebels that he had gained control of, and waited patiently for a response. He got his anwser when a Lucernian messenger approached the tower, and sent a letter up to Ezio. In the letter William told Ezio that he needed to come down from the tower so that they could discuss this, and that no harm would come to him if he did this. For all Ezio knew William had become his fathers son since the last time he had seen him, and thus suffering from the same madness as his brother, but he knew he had to do something so he trusted the devil he didn't know over the mad man that he did. Ezio gave command of the tower over to his top man in the form of Martin Arryn of whom had snuck his way into the tower and convinsed the men to join the rebellion. “I felt fear being pulled alongside those golden armored men. This whole thing just reminded me why I didn't get personally involved in these political matters. As I regretted my decision to put myself in this kind of danger I remembered the brave look in Amber's eyes as she surrendered herself to save her child. If she could have that kind of strength then I could, and would do everything in my power to save her.” — Ezio Ederiz When Ezio got to the bottom of the tower he was grabbed by some five men all clad in golden armor, and these men escorted him to the Lucernians camp. One of the men identified himself as James Junnsworth and told Ezio that if he planned to harm the king he would be doing it over all of their bodies. When he arrived at the camp he immediatly knew which one William was when he saw the golden haired boy walking up to him in his magnificant armor. Restrained by the men around him he saw how little he was trusted by the arranged forces, but he wasn't bitter as he could understand their fear. He spoke as best he could and told William of what was happening inside the fortress, and that every day they delayed the citizens inside were being killed in ever increasing numbers. As the conversation continued Ezio accompanied William inside his tent with Jasper, Leven, Marcel Lovie II., and Draco Highmore and then spoke openly of the murder of Allison, the rapes, and for Andrew the most horrifying news that Amber Heard was captured and now held in a cage beside Sean's throne. Ezio would at this point tell William about much of the things he had done for his father, and would make William understand that he had done all he could to help him after he had learned how brilliant and how much potential William had. Leven would suggest that during their initial attempts to clear the gatehouse that much of what Ezio suggested he did made sense as to why they found it so easy in certain places to get what they wanted. Infiltrating the Tower First Tower of Berne Peak “For whatever it was worth I believed him. I looked in his eyes and it told me that he was being truthful. In this world you really have to trust your gut, and my gut was telling me to go all in on this.” — William Lovie III. With Ezio done telling him what was happening William told him he needed some time to think and that while he trusted him, he needed to plan on the best way forward. Ezio told him that he had control of the first tower, and thus he could get some of William's men inside that tower if that would make him feel better about the whole thing. William liked this plan, and it was then that he asked whether or not Hanna Arryn, and her sister Aria were safe inside the city, and Ezio told him that House Arryn was now in hiding in the city outside of Byron Arryn who was being forced to sit and watch Allison's body be violated by Sean Lovie. Andrew was thankful that Hanna was fine, and because of this he told Ezio that he would have his anwser in an hour. With that William called in his commanders and they discussed their options about how to move forward. After talking for some time it became clear that they needed to gather more troops, and especially Andrew wanted to have some of his up and coming leadership involved so that they would feel important to him. He planned to travel to Forks where he would meet with these leaders and make them aware of their involvement and then they would launch the attack. He got Ezio back in the tent, and he told him that he needed to allow his men to take control of the first tower, and that this would amount to his test of loyalty. Ezio agreed without hesitation and left with Jasper, and Leven to make the arrangements of which Franklin Brent would volunteer to command the first forces into the tower. Emmett was left in command of the siege while William was gone alongside the commanders, and this would be the situation that was left as William left for Forks. Franklin Brent would lead a force of men alongside his friend Dexter Hill, and several others of whom they would enter the first tower using massive ropes hung down by the loyalist Arryn rebels within the tower. Meeting in Forks “It took days to travel to Forks, and days to travel back to Berne, and thus it's hard for me not to wonder what might have been had we of just moved against the fortress with just House Lovie's forces. Atleast I got to see Bella, and it was in the comfort that she offered me that I knew exactly why she was the one for me.” — William Lovie III. After talking to Ezio and having silently infiltrated the first tower with his help William accepted that this was the only plan that had any quick hope of success, and he now felt incredibly rushed due to the threat to the people inside the city of which there were many that he cared for on a deep level. In order to do this he needed the most elite force he could get, so he begin calling his banner houses in, as well as commanding several houses travel to Forks to meet him. All the houses that had been called clearly had to send representatives but when they arrived this mission clearly could be seen as a silent attack that didn't require huge numbers. House Crane, House Swan, House Scarlet, and House Lovie were the houses that would be leading the attack along with leadership from many other houses in Lucerne. Alongside this House Skane, and House Starke were sending numbers led by Robb Starke, and Torgon Skane of whom would join the other forces in entering through the main courtyard once the towers had fallen, or in the worst case even if they didn't fall. As William waited for Bella to arrive so that he could see her, he spent many hours talking with the leadership of the houses that were going to be involved of which included Orival Crane of whom he wanted to one day be a very important figure in the Kingdom of Lucerne, and he made this very clear to Orival as they talked. The Arrival of the reinforcements also brought news that House Jestife had started a revolt taking control of Brill, alongside a spreading rebellion elsewhere which were being handled by loyalists in House Clegane, and House Tyrell. In his talk with Orival Crane he and Hedrik discussed how William was trusting heavily in this traitor of the True Sons of Lucerne, and also discussed how his older lover Amber Heard had been captured likely as a last minute threat to William in order to make him turn back. It was late when Bella arrived in Forks, accompanied by Freddie Highmore, and Wilhem Martell - alongside a large force of House Martell, and House Shephard of whom were also sending forces to join the attack - and when they did he said his quick hellos to Freddie and Wilhem before he and Bella made their way to stay in room in the House Swan estate of which he was technically a member of House Swan. After being together romantically he talked openly about how scared he was of seeing Sean there, and also he feared that he was going to be made to make a choice in that final room between killing Sean and keeping his old friend Amber alive. Bella already knew of the old relationship between the two, as Alice had told her of this long ago, and because of this she understood that he didn't simply care for this girl, but he in fact loved her. Bella tried to make him feel better about it, but there really wasn't much you could say to that horrible of a situation so she just held him while he went through it all with her. That night he left Bella who was sleeping and went outside to speak with Leven of whom brought him a response letter from Brooke of whom had quickly sent a letter after William's had reached her. William would read the letter with Leven and Brooke sent her emotional support and told him how much she loved him, of which Leven at that moment didn't believe but didn't want to upset William. Discovery of Betrayal “I saw you once Your Grace. It was at the Battle of Minus Ithil. You were slashing and stabbing at the monsters and for a moment I stopped. Just stopped and watched you. All the fighting surrounding me and there I was watching you move like a god. I knew then that you were my king.” — Edric Nighting It was at this point that Edric Nighting would arrive in Forks where he had made the decision to turn against his family and reveal the plans of his family. Edric Nighting had several weeks before this begin hearing talk from his father and older brother that they planned to rise against House Scott and murder the Scotts in the city before taking control of Tree Hill itself. He would watch his brother in secret as his brother James Nighting II. followed Brooke Scott watching her movements, and watching her himself he discovered that she was the mistress of William Lovie III. through listening in on a conversation between Brooke and Haley Scott. Learning of this relationship between William and Brooke the loyal Edric Nighting would depart Tree Hill by horse with his friend Hanzal Grightling heading towards Forks where they had heard William Lovie III. was meeting with his wife and the leadership of Forks. Arriving at Forks the two would quickly gain an audience with the king of whom was surrounded at the time by Charlie Swan, Leven Martell, and Bella Swan, and seeing how influential the group was Edric would immediately tell the king what he knew which horrified the group of whom had already rallied their forces and was planning to move out the next day to Berne. Realizing the main forces still needed to go to Berne he would command Jasper Hale to lead a secondary force to Tree Hill in order to defend the Scott's once the Nighting's moved against them, and after discussing it was decided that Jasper would move south through the province of Rosten where he would summon a force from that province's lord in House Elric alongside Northern Tree Hill's lordn in House Guntbold and then lead them southward to Tree Hill. “Tell me Jasper how it is fair that your love for him is more valuable then my own. He doesn't love you any more then he loves me. So tell me the truth why you must always stand by his side?” — Leven Martell Following the breaking up of the meeting Jasper, Leven, and Bella would follow William back to his tent where Jasper would convince William to take him with him to Berne and instead send Leven to Tree Hill. Making up excuses about why she needed to go instead of him Leven was left shocked by what Jasper did and thus limply accepted this change of plans, and with a kiss to her forward she and William would say goodnight and following this Jasper and Leven left the tent. Leaving the tent Leven would follow Jasper trying to get him to explain himself, but he refused until she became quite agitated leading to an argument between the long time friends. Fighting loudly forced Jasper to take the argument into his tent where he would reveal that he did not trust her abilities to protect William considering how in love with him she was, and following this she would punch him in the face before returning to her own tent. The next day William, Jasper and the larger force from Forks would leave the city leaving Leven and a few hundred men at arms and knights to move south towards Castle Elric where she would go to defend the mistress of her beloved. Sneaking Inside “This was the moment thousands had been waiting for. The moment my brother's madness would finally come to an end.” — William Lovie III. When William Lovie arrived back at Berne flanked by the forces of House Swan, Scarlet, Crane, Starke, Martell, Skane, and many of their vassals he entered the command tent and prepared alongside his commanders the method by which they would do this. Ezio told them that the only real way into the valley of Berne was to take control of the towers defending the passes, and this was possible since they controlled the first tower. From the first tower they would attack the second tower, and then the third, and fourth control towers which would allow them to bring the entire army into the Valley where the defenders would be unprepared for their entry. Once this was achieved they must take control of the fifth tower which was inside the City of Berne itself and was connected through a long tunnel which could be locked from the inside meaning if they failed to take it before they were noticed it would be shut and they would have to attack the main walls. “I felt fear being pulled alongside those golden armored men. This whole thing just reminded me why I didn't get personally involved in these political matters. As I regretted my decision to put myself in this kind of danger I remembered the brave look in Amber's eyes as she surrendered herself to save her child. If she could have that kind of strength then I could, and would do everything in my power to save her.” — Ezio Ederiz With this plan in place William Lovie would send the forces of House Scarlet led by Darion, and Saiden Scarlet to enter the First Tower where they would push their full forces and they alone would be responsible for working alongside the rebels in order to take control of the towers. They would be assisted by the Order of the Golden Dragon of whom was forced to follow William Lovie of whom was going to assist here alongside Edward Cullen and several members of the Order of the Blue Dragon, as well Orival Crane would convince William to let him join the forces attacking the towers. Entering the tower and joining the Arryn loyalists, and Franklin Brent and his forces that had initially taken control of the tower from the rebels and had held it while the main forces gathered. At that final moment Robb, and Jon Starke joined the assault group and this would force William to also take Wilheim alongside with him as Wilheim now wouldn't take no for an answer. The Battle “The Towers all held so many moments where everything could have gone terribly wrong. It was by the shere luck of the dragon that we were able to sucede as easily as we did.” — Saiden Scarlet With the main force now preparing to enter the first pass into Berne they only needed to see the response from the second tower to know when to move in, and they would get that call the first night as they would be signaled by a flag hanging from the wall set out by the tower forces. The Tower forces would wait until night, and that night as they moved forward the few guards meant to make sure such infiltration of the towers were not possible were rebels and thus they allowed the tower forces to infiltrate the towers, and within they found the mercenary forces of Sean Lovie in the form of the Stormblown. The fight for the tower was swift as with most of their forces asleep the few on sentry duty found themselves being attacked by a huge number of troops flooding into the tower. As the Stormblown moved to raise the alarm they found the alarm room locked, and when they finally broke inside they found inside several rebels of whom killed the Stormblown that tried to enter the room. With the tower taken Orival Crane would raise the flag thus giving the main force the safe call to enter the first pass. Torgon Skane alongside the other commanders would move their forces alongside the Elves and reached the very edge of the first pass as the attack move forward, and during this they also moved forward with the siege machines that everyone hoped they would have no need of using. At the third tower they would basically be allowed in as the rebels had taken complete control over this tower, and the few members of the Stormblown that were present inside the tower were barely able to get out of their beds before they were killed by the vengeful rebels and the incoming Lucernians. “I watched each flag go up and each time a piece of me felt better as I knew my king was safe for yet another moment. It was his bravery that made people love him, but in these moments his braveary was horrifying for those of us who were forced to watch from afar.” — Joshua Jackson The fourth tower was the true test of the attack as while it was held by the forces of House Krinner who was a member of the rebellion the tower held the largest contingent of the Stormblown outside of the city itself. Robb Starke, and Wilheim Martell alongside Robb Starke would lead a contingent of forces east of the tower to cut off any kind of relief once the main attack went forward, and with that the main assault could begin on the fourth tower. As the Lucernians made their way into the tunnels approaching the fourth tower they were spotted by a Stormblown soldier of whom alerted the rest of the force to a betrayal, and with this becoming clear the forces of House Krinner would assemble under the command of Danzal, and Benjamin Krinner of whom defended the tunnel route heading towards the fifth tower so that none of the Stormblown could warn their comrades, and inside the tower House Krinner under the command of Oskar Kinner the defenders would block the gate into the alarm room thus preventing for a time the forces of the Stormblown from gaining entry to the alarm. A fierce battle would commense between the defenders in House Krinner and the Stormblown. As the forces of Lucerne attempted to enter the fight they were forced to attack through defended barriers quickly set up by the forces of the Stormblown in order to resist the attackers. During the fighting here Darion Scarlet would become famous for defeating the Stormblown second in command in single combat after they entered the last room of the tower and it was held by the Stormblown second in command. With his death the rest of the Stormblown slowly surrendered, and with that the flag was raised and the main army understood that the way into the valley was clear. The Final Tower “The Sound of that horn going off could have meant the massacre of our entire force. It could have meant the deaths of thousands but the bravery of the three Arryn brothers. They could have stayed hidden and not risked death but instead they did what was right and resisted a tyrant and they saved thousands. History may say that I won that day but I know the truth of who was responsible for our victory.” — William Lovie III. As the main army moved into the valley silently in the darkness of the night the tower forces moved into the tunnels approaching the fifth and final tower. Ezio had told them that they had to get to the other end without being stopped or else the way would be blocked and there would be no way in except a truly viscous fight for the valley. As they entered the tunnel and were only two minutes away everyone including the main force heard a massive horn go off, and the rebels told William that someone had set off one of the alarms of the towers. With this all sense of stealth went out the window and the tower force charged into the tunnel in the hopes of reaching the gate controls before it was shut. As they ran down the tunnel they watched as the massive portcullis gate was slowly shutting, and then suddenly as they were getting closer it slowed and then stopped and they could hear the cries of battle at the other side, and as they reached it they entered a brutal battle between members of House Arryn and the Stormblown who were trying to shut the gate. With the entry of the Lucernians the battle went away from them, but the Stormblown survivors were able to retreat in good form and make their way towards the Berne Keep where they would blow the alarm horn again and the Stormblown throughout Berne would retreat to the keep alongside those still loyal to Sean Lovie although that number was very slight now that House Arryn was in full rebellion. With the stormblown in full retreat the defenders that were on the wall moved completely into the rebellion allowing the main force to enter through the front gate, as the rebels opened the gate letting them inside. The rebels, and the tower forces would move throughout the city, and kill or capture anyone still flying the colors of the Stormblown and as well as this making sure that everyone knew that the city was Lucernian again and they had nothing to fear. Battle of Krinner Main Article : Battle of Krinner “As the Stormblown mercenaries, and the other True Sons were pushed back more and more the call from Sean was not for them to pull completely back, but instead it was for them to attack the estate of House Krinner where much of the women and children alongside nearly all of the nobility of the city had fled too. Thousands fleeing into the estate were never under the belief that they would be under threat, but that was proven wrong the moment the forces appeared near the walls.” — Paul Arryn As the Lucerne forces took the final tower before the wall there were some who suspected something was wrong, but all orders were that everyone stayed inside so no one was allowed to leave the inner fortress to investigate, and in order to occupy the forces he had at alert (and in order to further make sure the defenses failed as was hinted at by Sean Lovie during the final duel with William) Sean would command that they attack the House Krinner estate of which was the site of the retreating nobles of Berne. While the commoners and the vast majority of the population had fled into the deeper sections of the city, and to the walls where the more Lucernian houses guarded it was the nobles that fled into the estate of House Krinner. Other then the nobles and politically far more important then that was the fact that Alistair Bedregen had retreated into the Keep alongside Thomas Lovie of whom was the true target of Sean Lovie this late in the fight. News reached them late that Alistair had gone there following the attempt on his life and Thomas and when it became clear this was where he was Sean would send basically everyone available including most of the defenses of the tunnel in order to try and kill Thomas. The estate itself was a sort of mini castle that was built into a large cave deep in the northern section of the city and was defensible from one large tower that covered the entire entrance, and from the ramparts built into the gatehouse. “Massing on the walls I could make out the hundreds of attackers that swarmed all around the courtyard. I knew what they would have to do to take us, and I just prayed we were strong enough to resist.” — Paul Arryn It was this spot that the forces of the Stormblown, and the other True Sons loyalist houses would move towards in heavy numbers in order to try and complete the commands of Sean Lovie. Some three hundred Stormblown (including many of their most elite members, and two of their top three commander) alongside some four hundred more True Sons loyalist (of which only the fifty from House Ignirt would actually take part in the battle while the rest simply miled about faking interest in the siege. House Ingirt would be this only truly loyalist element due to the fact that Lord Beren Ingirt's daughter Lia Ingirt, and heir Harren Ingirt were captives of the prince and he was basically blackmailed into supporting Sean Lovie's forces out of fear for his two children. The forces of the True Sons would charge out from the shadows and attack without even a call for surrender, as they were commanded to destroy them and thus no surrender was neccessary or warrented. Charging the walls they suffered accurate and deadly archer fire from the large tower that surveyed the courtyard, and the archers on the ramparts. During this charge Lord Beren Ingirt would fall with an arrow to the neck and with his death the forces of House Ingirt fell under the command of Beren's brother Brandon Ingirt of whom would silently slip away with most of the relief forces moving them towards the prison where they would take part in the taking of the prison. With no cover the Stormblown and others got to the walls much diminished but still with high strength, and once at the gate they bashed at it with quickly made battering rams and climbed the sides of the wall to get to the ramparts, while hoisting a large ladder against the tower. “I could see Trailen Dorin`s heir, and Danzal Krinner standing on the ramparts, and from their position they were able to shoot anyone that came up the ladder to the tower without any cause for fear from the ground. On the tower they were just massacring those on the ground with a nearly endless stream of arrows into their ranks. At the gate I stood with my shoulder against it alongside my men as we tried to buy more time for the archers to thin their numbers even more.” — Paul Arryn   The men attempting to get up the ladders and climbing the walls suffered terribly as the tower was able to hit the men climbing with ease while the ramparts were hitting the men climbing for the tower, and thus it all came down to the gate. During this initial fighting the defenders on the walls were joined by Alistair of whom desperate to make sure that Thomas survived would take a bow and fight on the walls where despite his age he would fight bravely before being hit by an arrow from the ground, and fell dead at the age of nearly seventy three. It was near this point that Vaedin Stormblown`s next brother Sordin Stormblown was also shot through the chest by Danzal Danzal Krinner would make a further name for himself during the battle as he led the tower in its attacks and coordinated the fire very well. Krinner of which led to the final Stormblown son in Tolin Stormblown fleeing the field, and taking several other high level commanders with him as well. By this point the other houses of which had been milling about watching the siege, would retreat and pull back to their respective estates of which they decided was the only logical thing they could do as they would be most likely targeted by the Krinner estate for their believed betrayal. The battering at the gates was shattering it, and it was only a few more minutes before it finally came crashing down. Moments before it went down, Paul Arryn would gather with his most elite men, and forces of the loyalist houses, and prepare for a charge out of the gate. Warning the wall and tower that they were charging out, they opened the gate and smashed into the unsuspecting attackers outside the wall. Pushing them back the force fell back and was cut down from behind, killing nearly the entire force attacking but the loyalist forces returned into the keep to repair the gate and didn`t persue believing the larger force was incoming. At this point as the line melded together Hanna, Aria, and other noble ladies would move into the front and do their best to relieve the men by bringing water, and other supplies while helping to repair the gate. Taking of the Prison Hunting a Beast Morrigan would serve for the final time Bill Lovie in his command of her to go to Berne and murder Forder Braxton and stop him from killing several of the prisoners. By this point she was till under the directive of Flemeth to assist Bill Lovie and using this directive she would be more then happy to serve Bill Lovie who was beginning to attempt to silently assist his son one last time before he lost himself to madness completely. “I don't have much time before my mind is taken over again by the monster. Go to Berne and stop Forder Braxton. The monster in my mind has ordered him to kill as many people as he can in Berne, and I need you to stop this from happening.” — James Lovie II.   It would be Forder Braxton, and his son Markus Braxton that would be sent to Berne by James Lovie II. to represent the dealings of the Circle of Magi and a believed loyalist faction, although Bill Lovie had no intention of ever assisting Sean as he wanted William to gain victory, but this was not known by Fordor of whom arrived in Berne to find the city in Chaos and surrounded by the Lucernians. Traveling into the city through Magi he would meet with Sean Lovie and at this point he would join the upper tier of the leadership of the True Sons of Lucerne executing several loyalists alongside his son, but it would be only a few weeks before the city came under assault by the Lucernians. During the battle Fordor and Markus would wander the city of Berne killing at random as was their command by James Lovie if/and when the city fell, and reaching the prisons hoping to kill as many valuable hostages as he could before leaving Forder would be shocked to find Morrigan his old Circle of Magi partner waiting in the gallows before the prison entrance surrounded by the dead bodies of the Stormblown mercenaries guarding the prison. “You think you understand what Bill Lovie truly wants of you? Do you think you even have the slightest idea what that madman wants of you. This great king of yours killed hundreds for doing nothing more then asking why they should serve a madman. You stood by...I stood by as he murdered these men, women and children, and then we did it again...You come here because of reasons you could not even hope to understand. He commanded you to come here and murder innocent men, and women, and children, and at the same time he ordered me to come here and stop you. What kind of king do you follow? What kind of man do you worship at the feet of? What kind...I'll tell you now that you shouldn't follow a man who gets your son killed...” — Morrigan Confused why Morrigan was resisting him he told her he was only doing the work of James Lovie, and at this she would retort saying that so was she and then launched a killing spell at Markus, but it was deflected killing the two guards accompanying them, and then fighting Forder, and Markus who barely managed to resist her strength. As the three fought Forder, and Markus were no match for the more powerful Morrigan and Forder dropped his wand surrendering, but after surrendering he expected to be allowed to leave but Morrigan instead slew young Markus and then prepared to kill Forder but he unleashed a Magi blast at her and was able to escape through hidden tunnels. Duel with Sean Lovie William carrying Amber “Forgiveness is never easy. Bitterness is easy. Hatred is easy. But forgiveness, that's a tough one. Sometimes, people say things they don't mean or do things they can't take back. Sometimes we do things we can't take back. So we feed ourselves to starve the pain. I have to believe that's what happened to Sean.” — William Lovie III. With the civil war all but over the moment had come for the final confrontation with his brother. There wasn't really a doubt in anyone's mind who would win in a fight the difficult part of the coming fight was the fact that Sean had the emotional advantage through his capture and hostage taking of Amber Heard the first love of Andrew.  The room before the throne room was gaurded by James Nighting II. of whom laughed at them for not realizing that House Nighting was truly on the side of the True Sons of Lucerne. James and the three House Nighting men that were with him charged William and his group, and after a brief fight the four were killed by the far superior forces of William. Jasper held James down, and with a wave William commanded his death and Jasper ended his life. Surveying the rest of the room there were bodies stacked in the corner, of which not all were adults, and the the scope of the atrocities in this city were becoming clear. William before entering the throne room ordered Wilheim Martell to return to the camp at all speed and send word that House Nighting had betrayed them. They all knew that if House Nighting turned then who knew what sort of alliance might be present outside of Berne and with a large quantity of the loyalist forces besieging Lucerne they could be open for a betrayal. Amber Heard never thought she was going to survive to see William again, and the sight of him caused her to leap up and great pain as the chain around her neck kept her stationary. Before entering the final room William would also command Robb, and Jon Starke to lead forces to make sure that no holdouts would cause them any problems, while he briefly met with Alleria Windrunner of whom would wish him the best in the next room as she knew something about fighting siblings. She attempted to one last time make sure he understood that his brother had made his choice and that no amount of sympathy from his side would change what Sean had become. When Andrew entered the throne room of Berne flanked by Jasper, Edward, Emmett, Faye, and his elite guard they found Sean standing alone with nothing but the bound and strapped form of Amber Heard keeping him company. Looking around the room briefly he could see the ruined corpse of what he assumed from the words of Ezio was the poor Allison Arryn, and all along the wall he could see broken corpses of men and women that had obviously fallen victim to Sean's madness. “He sat the way you would expect any psychopath to be sitting when they were idle. He just had nothing in his eyes, and I had to try to force my mind to even remember a moment that he didn't look that way. My brother was gone. He was lost into madness, and no matter what he said he couldn't leave this room alive. After all the years and the pain he was going to pay for everything he had ever done.” — William Lovie III. As he entered the room Sean remained silent but the look on his face told Andrew that Sean had a plan and whatever happened this plan was something he believed could work. Amber Heard never thought she was going to survive to see William again, and the sight of him caused her to leap up and this led to great pain as the chain around her neck kept her stationary. Laughing at what had happened to Amber through the fact that she was crying and holding her neck the situation turned as William charged forward only stopped by Sean holding his sword to Amber`s neck. Look at the world father. You were born into this land. You grew up here. These people swore their lives to you. How could you have done all of this? Look at everything you have done. You destroyed a city. Killed hundreds of good men out of fear. Is this how you want to be remembered father. Is this the world you want to leave behind? I know you were a good person once. Don't end it all here. Don't do this. For me father. For everything I supposedly mean to you. Don't do this. ``Really brother. If I were you I would take a couple of steps backwards.`` Everyone stopped as he held the sword to Amber`s neck. I held my hands out to make sure he knew I was willing to atleast talk this out. As I did I noticed the windows in the corner of my eye which I noticed had archers in them. ``Thats right you listen to me now.`` Everyone just stood in place and I hated having him control even an ounce of anything in this world. ``Now that I have your attention tell everyone to leave. This is between me, you, and the bird.`` I looked behind me at Jasper and his eyes told me there was no way he was going to leave, but I knew he had to if I wanted to try and find a way into his mind and to somehow save Amber. Knowing about the windows I had to hope that there was some kind of back entrance into the throne room, and from there perhaps they could infiltrate the windows and gain the upper hand. Moving closer to the men I whispered to the group so lowly that poor Emmett with his poor hearing was forced to come nearly to kissing level. "We need to do what he says.``Seeing the rejection in their eyes I stopped it immediatly. ``There are windows all along this room, and I need you to get in them so that we can get a handle on this. Emmett, and Edward I can`t tell you what to do. If you want to go with Jasper and the windows then so be it. I would prefer if you saved as many innocents as you could. The rest of you wait in the last room and give those poor souls a cleaner end....they deserve better then to be piled in the corner like garbage. If I should fall.``Edward stepped forward``If I should fall you all must make sure under no circumstances does he leave this room. He cannot be allowed to survive this no matter what happens. Now go. We have little time.``Relunctantly they begin filtering out of the room to the sound of laughter from Sean behind me. ``Yes Sean you have us exactly where you want us, now tell me what you want.`` His laughter was the first thing that happened before he grabbed a key from behind his back and undid the chain around Amber`s neck. Pulling her farther away it took everything in me to not move forward and attack him on the spot. ``I don`t want anything brother. You see that`s the trick. You had the same repository of books that I did, and let me tell you something about the villians in a story. Sometimes the villians want something. They want gold to build a mighty castle. Or maybe they want a women." He swayed as he spoke flayling his arms about like a mad man. " In the end brother It doesn`t matter what they want, it just matters that they want something. You see its important that they want something because for this reason these villians you see, they can be bargained with. They can lose.`` Knowing where he was going I interupted him. ``And let me guess. Your the kind that wants nothing.`` Standing up taller before he spoke he pulled Amber closer to him, and I could see the tears flowing from her eyes. I tried my best to comfort her with my eyes, and her eyes followed suit with mine, and I could tell I had calmed her down. He pushed her to the ground holding the sword so close to her neck I could see a bit of blood fall before raising his face to me again with a twisted look to his face. ``I don`t mean to interupt your longing towards the Arryn whore. " He stared at me clearly trying to make sure that I got the message. "Good. Now that I have your attention again I'll tell you the secret." He looked so excited to say it, as if its was some secret. "I'm not the villian brother. That honor is for you.`` ``In what twisted world do you live where your not the villian. You are the same man who sits on a throne covered in the innocents that hes killed. Your the same evil that tried to molest his own sister, and now dares to threaten such a innocent as Amber Heard.`` "Its all a matter of perception." He pulled Amber back up to stand in front of him, and he begin to pet her hair causing a whelp from her. It took every piece of my control not to burst forward and kill him where he stood for touching a hair on her head. Controlling my increasing rage I spoke to the monster standing before me. "And what perception is that?" ``The perseption that comes from knowing the anwser to this question." He stopped and stared at Amber before looking back at me. "What makes her innocent my brother. Is her innocene borne from the fact that she opened her legs for you whenever you pleased...`` ``How dare you...`` "It is an honest question. I want you to tell me how this girl. This piece of meat. I want you to tell me right here, and right now what makes her innocent. " "She hasn't harmed anyone. She hasn't done a thing in this world other then be a good person." "And that makes her innocent, does it?" "Yes it does." "Your a fool." "You wish to brandish words around like a bunch of fish wives then do it your way. Or do you want to finally become a man and face what you've done." ``I get this moment brother. You forgot through your youth, that unlike you the rest of us out here in the world have things happen to them. Your the villian along with this whore because of what you have allowed to happen. One does not blame the virus for infecting its victom. You blame the monster who created the virus, and you my brother are the reason I am the way that I am.`` ``You want to find a way to escape the person that you are you need to find someone who cares for even a moment for whether or not you live or die.`` ``There it is right there. Don`t you see. It was that uncaring neglect. Outright hatred at times that left me utterly alone.`` ``You don`t get to blame becoming a monster on the fact that you and I weren`t best friends.`` ``I have the sword. I have the damsel. Those mean I get to say, and do whatever the fuck I want to do. Do you understand what I`ve done. Do you have any idea the scope of the things I`ve caused.` ...Continued Death is the End “As the minutes went by my brother fell into a darker and darker place, and despite knowing I should be pulling him back, I hated him so much in that moment that I basically pushed him off.” — William Lovie III. Watching his brother implode in front of him, and basically throw him in front of the bus for everything that had ever gone wrong for him in his life, wasn`t something that William was able to accept. William would begin badgering Sean and insulting him to the point that his brother begin to reveal to him certain darker acts then anything anyone had ever thought he was possibly involved in. Sean told him how he had become obsessed with seeing the death of this particulary noble girl of whom he refused to name but said she unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and that this obsession had followed him for years. Finally one night he had been invited to dinner for the first time in months and was told by Bill to not criticize anything throughout the meal or else he was never eating with them again. Tasting something horrible in the meal he ignored it and kept eating, and following this he said that a dark entity would offer him assistance and when he accepted he begin hearing terrifying voices in his mind. After going through all the terrible things he had done throughout this time he finally got to Berne where he told William that he just wanted to die. He just wanted to Amber watched as Sean appeared to fall apart in front of her, and all she could think was that she just wanted to live. She just wanted another chance with William. It didn`t matter that he had remarried. She just wanted to be with him again. escape all the pain that he was constantly bombarded with, but that as time went by nothing he seemed to do incited anyone to kill him, and this annoyed him even more. Sean would tell him that he had broken and abused Hedrik Clegane's now wife in Rachel Wood, and that he was responsible for the rape of countless other noble girls, and that he was specifically attempting to escalate it so that he could die, but no matter what he did he continued to escape justice. Sean would reveal to him how that night he had attempted to kill Alice it was as if this voice in his head was literally screaming, and it was screaming to ravish Alice. He had honestly been incapable of stopping himself, and despite trying he found himself constantly moving towards her room, and he had been glad that William had assaulted him. He told William that he had been forgotten by their father when he made the spell removing Alice and that he had followed her to Forks where he had watched her for months but was stopped by men of Bills from revealing anything to her. “I watched the first archer fall and in that moment I saw Jasper nod at me from the window followed by Emmett standing in the window with his own bow prepared to launch an arrow at Sean, but foolishly I believed I could talk him down. I also knew that any attempt to fire at Sean would most surely end with Amber`s death as Sean was too much of a coward to go down like that. I did know one thing though, with the one window down, it was only a matter of moments until the other three went down as well, and when that happened their would be an opening.” — William Lovie III. William watched as Sean devolved and saw Jasper kill one of the archers in the window thus revealing to him that they had found a way into the windows. Seeing there were only three other windows he waved away Emmett`s offer to kill Sean from the window as he knew it would end with Amber`s death. Sean seeing the look on William`s face would demand to know what was so interesting that his brother was ignoring him, and when William could not appease him enough Sean slashed Amber across the shoulder with a blade narrowly missing her head, but still causing serious damage. Seeing this Sean would pull a lever behind him which the moment after he did all the windows slammed shut with Stone portcullis, and the gate they had entered from also was barred with portcullis. Rushing to Amber he knocked Sean to the ground, and picked up Amber. Picking her up he realized instantly how bad the wound to her shoulder was as it had cut far too deep for anyone there to heal her, and he panicked knowing she was going to die. She held him tight, but he could feel her grasp on him loosening as her life left her. Closing her eyes he let out a cry as he believed she had died, and he held her tight crying into her shoulder before kissing her hard on the lips and then gently laying her down before moving towards Sean who was slumped against a post nearby. “As I walked to him, I knew this was the end. He would die in this moment. I didn`t expect him to be crying.” — William Lovie III. Grabbing Sean by the shoulders he found his brother crying, and Sean grasped onto Williams arms as if to try and hold onto him. There was no resistance, and as William held the sword to his chest he held a moment and looked into Sean`s eyes waiting for his last words. Sean in that moment would tell William that Bill still lived and had gone west to France, and would begin to start an apology when William stabbed him through the chest and covered his mouth with his hand. Looking behind him at the lifeless body of Amber he would proceed to be overcome with rage and strangle Sean as the last of his life left him. Getting up he walked back over to Amber, and ignored the sounds of crashing as his men attempted to break there way through the gate, and the windows. Kneeling beside Amber he ripped some cloth from his tunic and covered her wound not wanting her to be seen like this. As he wiped her wound her arm would move up and grasp onto his, and her final grasp for life would continue and it gave the two former lovers one last chance to talk to each other. The Rise of Lucerne I saw the destruction of the world, and knew I had to stop it. There was nothing left to do but become bigger then everyone else. The Empire was never going to be the beacon the world needed it to be. Westros was on fire. The Bretonians had reached for the stars and been burned. And the old shadow of Numeron was fading far too quickly. It was left to us in Lucerne to change the fate of all those who wished to reject darkness. We were the last hope for a world who had long since given up on believing. I could almost feel her leave me as there was a lifelessness to her eyes, and when I did I gently let her down to the ground. I left a kiss on her lips before closing her eyes and taking a moment to stare at the girl I had loved first in my life. She was the innocence of youth. The kind of person who is always the victim of monsters like my brother and that sad fact just left me more angry then any other death I had seen in my life. I had seen good men die in battle, but to look down at Amber and realize that she was just innocent, and had still died hurt me deeply. Hearing a sound come from Sean I gave one last kiss to her lips before letting her go, and turning around to find my brother. He had moved himself into the corner and was shaking while holding onto a large flag. As I went towards him I couldn't make out what he was saying, but to be frank it was not going to matter what he said. Sometimes men are just guilty and words cannot escape that fact. Reaching Sean I grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him to face me, while I took out a knife and held it to his throat. Turning him had revealed what the noise was as his face was covered in tears, and the sight of the sword made him pull himself towards it. ``Please William. Kill me now. I cannot live the things in my mind anymore.`` ``You murder someone as innocent as Amber and you dare to look for pity now.`` ``No pity brother. I want mercy.`` ``You do not deserve mercy. The things you have done are beyond imagining.`` ``Then punish me William.`` At these words I threw the dagger away and a look of sadness went to his face, before being quickly replaced by understanding when I pulled out my sword and aimed it towards his chest. ``No punishment in the world would ever be far enough to be justice. You deserve so much worse then I could ever give you.`` ``You are right brother.`` Sean begin to shake, and I swear I saw somesort of cloud come from his body towards the roof above us, and as it did he looked up at the roof of the room and a look of peace went over his face that just horrified me. I didnt want him to feel peace while she lay dead. He didnt deserve to feel anything even close to that. The things he had done were too much. ``I think its gone.`` ``No more talk.`` ``Perhaps just one more thing brother.`` ``Say your last words and be done with it.`` ``Our father went west. He went into the ruins of France.`` ``I will find him and give him the true death I will soon give you.`` ``I hope that you do William. I hope that you avenge everyone who has been hurt by him.`` I felt such overpowering rage as I looked at him that my eyes must have been showing it as he looked at me with a realization that it was over and he closed his eyes. ``Goodbye Will...`` Before he got the words out I stabbed him through the chest piercing his armor between the plates and he let out a sigh before going limp in my arms. I let him down with a loud bang as his body hit the floor, and leaving behind his body I went towards Amber wanting to just hold her one last time. Kneeling at her body I pulled her closer and held her tight to me. As I held her in my arms crying into her hair I felt her arms clasp themselves around mine and I looked into her face hoping beyond hope that she would live. I held her face with my hand and begged her to wake. My other hand held her wound with everything I could trying to somehow stop it. I pleaded with her, and I watched as her eyes flickered open. I hugged her tight knowing in my heart that I would want to always remember the feel of her life, as she was perfection, and it was a tradgedy that it had taken all of this for me to realize that. ``William... ``It`s alright my love. Just rest my sweet, Edward will come and...he will...he`ll find a way...``I hadn`t realized that I was crying until I couldn`t see from my eyes anymore, and I felt her hand wipe across my cheek clearing me of the physical signs of my sadness. ``William I love you...Thomas is your son.`` I didn`t understand. She had left, and no one had ever said a word. How many lies had been told to keep this from me. ``It was my doing. Don`t blame anyone but me for keeping it from you.`` "They all lied about where you had went...I loved you with everything in myself. I would have protected you from everything.`` Her eyes closed as the pain must have overwhelmed her. Looking at her shoulder the blood was smeared all across my hand as it was too large a wound for me to keep from gushing. ``I thought I could protect you. He told me he would kill you...he held a knife to your throat and bid me to leave. I`m so sorry William. I`m so sorry you never got to see him grow.``She stopped and coughed out blood, and I knew she was going quickly. The shoulder just kept bleeding through and I couldn't even bear to look at it knowing there was just nothing to fix this. ``You must promise me that you will protect Thomas from everything. Protect him the way I never could.`` ``He lives Amber. You saved him. My brother would have killed everything to have killed any son of mine.`` I kissed her on the lips gently carressing her hair before looking into her eyes again. ``I tried my...`` Her eyes closed and her arm went slack for a moment before I shook her gently and she opened her eyes again. ``It doesn`t hurt anymore. You have to promise me William. Promise me.`` ``I promise you Amber I shall protect him. I shall love him, and cherish him as the son that he is. He shall never know pain, or anguish, or sadness. I shall love him as I love you.`` Her eyes begin to once more close, and I selfishly shook her again. ``Stay with me Amber...just hold on please...``I shook her again, but this time her eyes didn't reopen and just staring at her I could see that I had failed to save her. She coughed one more time and her eyes opened somewhat and she looked at me again. ``I`m so sorry Will...I`m so sor...``Her eyes remained open, but she just never blinked. Holding her I couldn't feel anything as I knew she had died. I would never hear her voice again. I would never know her touch again, and I let out a scream which I could barely control. Following her grasping of his arm the two would talk briefly as she bled out but she held on for long enough to make sure William knew that Thomas was his child, and the two would heart sadly say goodbye to each other before finally she bled out from the horrible wound on her shoulder. It was several minutes of banging on the door with William crying into the hair of Amber before the rest of his men were able to get into the throne room, and by this point the Battle of Berne was over with the remaining forces of the True Sons of Lucerne either dead or having surrendered, but for William it felt increasingly like a hollow victory. As Faye, Jasper and Emmett tried to console him and help him with Amber he would refuse without words picking her body up and carrying her out of the throne room before collapsing outside of the inner keep where he would be helped up by Faye. He whispers to Faye that he needs to take her out of the fortress so he can bury her, and Faye goes ahead clearing the gatehouse, and letting the front gate open where William carries her all the way out of Berne and reaches the Valley of Berne where the large Lucernian army awaits and it is at this point that Alice meet him and he finally surrenders Ambers body to Jasper and breaks down in Alice's arms. Meeting a Son “You are too young to understand my son, but know that I have loved you, and I will always love. The world will be tough on you because of how you were born, but understand this. You shall always have a place at my side. You will always be a member of my house. You are my son. You are our son.” — William Lovie III. With Thomas sleeping William gathers with the Lucernian army leadership and following a long discussion on their next steps he commands his friend Hanna Arryn be brought to him, and then the meeting breaks up and joined by Jasper, and Edward he returns to his tent where saying goodbye to them he goes into the tent and finds Alice sleeping on his bed holding a sleeping Thomas. Looking at the scene in front of him he starts crying as he thinks about the loss of Amber, and at the sound of his crying Alice wakes up and gets out of bed gently leaving Thomas in bed and the two siblings hug. Thomas eventually wakes up to the talking of Alice and William and Thomas at first only wants Alice, but William goes to him and talks to him about his love for Amber and when Thomas reveals that Amber had talked about William to him almost every night William tells him the story of how he met Amber of which was a story that Amber had told him a thousand times before. Control of Berne “I would name you the Arch Duchess of this place if you would let me.” — William Lovie III. Meeting with Hanna Arryn the two old friends discuss a more personal view of what happened in Berne, and Hanna reveals to him the depths of some of the things that happened, but also refuses during their conversation to come with him back to Lucerne telling him that Aria needs her more. Discussing Aria, and her father Byron it becomes clear that he needs to speak with Aria and asks Hanna to bring her to him something she agrees to if William agrees to be lenient on her father of which William agrees to out of love for Hanna. The conversation ends with Aria and William agreeing that in one month it will be the leadership of Berne that will travel to Lucerne to meet with William and the Kings Council who will decide the future of Berne. William Lovie III. leaves Berne with the majority of the army but leaves behind several thousand as a garrison of the city under the command of Dylan Steinmare, and this garrison is under orders to further the control of the crown over Berne who at this point there is still fear may be mixed in its loyalties.

Wedding of Hanna Arryn

Wedding of Hanna Arryn You truly look beautiful my friend. May the dragon always shine down on you as he does today.

“William needed to get away as he had stopped living after Brooke died. While anyone around him might have not noticed any difference for those that truly knew him they knew he was a shell of himself. ” — Alice Lovie With the death of Brooke Scott, William had been forced to deal with it in silence until his break down with Alice, but since then despite promising to talk to her he kept it inside, and he fell into a secretive depression. During this time the only person he discussed any of his emotional problems with was Leven Martell of whom at this point he begin to become somewhat more then just friends with again, but despite this emotional shift between the two of them it never changed physically. Alice wanted her brother back, and tried many things to get him back, but when they did not succeed she found the perfect opportunity when their old friend Hanna Arryn prepared for her marriage to Harrold Krinner, and in order to support one of his oldest friends she was able to convince him to travel westward. Returning to the scene of so much death would have been more painful but nearly every member of House Lovie traveled west alongside the whole Shadow Council outside of Edward Cullen of whom was in Lorderon dealing with the Arthas situation. Travelling westward wasn`t such a huge deal for many of them but for Thomas that was the last place he had been alive with his mother, and returning there with his family was a huge moment for the young man. When the group reached the outskirts of Berne the army he traveled with would camp outside the gates and inside the internal valley before they entered the city. Greeted by all the lords and ladies of Berne and the entire province William and the rest of the group would smile and share great love once more when Hanna Arryn, and her sister Aria exited the gate and made their way to them. Hanna, and Aria led them inside the city, and they all marveled over the rebuild that had went on inside the city under the leadership of Aria Arryn, and it was then that they would begin mingling leading to William being pulled away from Alice and taken to meet all the leaders of the city. The Rise of Lucerne I saw the destruction of the world, and knew I had to stop it. There was nothing left to do but become bigger then everyone else. The Empire was never going to be the beacon the world needed it to be. Westros was on fire. The Bretonians had reached for the stars and been burned. And the old shadow of Numeron was fading far too quickly. It was left to us in Lucerne to change the fate of all those who wished to reject darkness. We were the last hope for a world who had long since given up on believing. I watched from afar as he stood on the balcony, and watching as my brother the king walked with several of the lords of Berne. My brother was planning the expansion of Lucerne`s assets into the west, and Lord Byron Arryn was no where to be found. I had heard from Hanna that he was now called the scared bird by those that served him when he was not around, and in a truth so horrifying it was almost laughable Benjamin Krinner had called him Lord Veregnst Arryn which meant scared bird in old German. ``Is it true that they call him the scared bird.`` Aria was a loyal girl, and intelligent beyond nearly everyone I had met, but I thought she would speak the truth to me. We had known eachother back in Lucerne, and our relationship was such I could trust her. ``It is true Alice.`` There was shame as she said it, and that pained me. ``I heard he was absent, and perhaps even pathetic during the time of my brother here, but to see him this way is sad.`` It was now legend how he had abandoned his dying niece, and then not even lifted a finger as Sean had stabbed his own wife. What sort of man can stand and watch that, and do nothing.  ``My father is not a brave man. Not the type that instills love or adortion from his lords, or anyone really. My mother was perhaps the last one that loved him. Loved him truly for who he is.`` ``What do you think could be done in terms of fixing the situation here.``Her honesty was something I truly valued, and despite not knowing if she could actually affect change I would listen to her advice and pass it on to William if he didn`t already know. ``I have spoken to my father of stepping down. Of giving up his power.``I stood up from the chair as I no longer saw William through the window and wanted to find out where he was going. As I did she stood up as well and we walked to the door where hearing us move Draco opened the door and followed us as we walked. ``I told him to move on because his people didn`t respect him anymore.`` That was a brave thing for her to say to her father. I knew from my own relationship with my father that when I resisted him I was put into a spell and had my memory wiped, so there were consequences for resisting those above you. ``What did he say to that.`` We reached the end of the corridor and I followed Aria as she led me towards the cathedral sized building that William had entered. ``He doesn`t believe me. He believes that he loved. He thinks the people have forgiven him, and anyone who tried to tell him otherwise he either ignores, or tells himself they are joking. There is no getting through to him I fear.`` ``My brother plans to speak to him, and let us hope that has the effect of making him see what the truth is.`` I know that William knew it would be nearly impossible to remove Byron as he was still loyal, and despite his incompetence it would set a horrible presedent and despite hating their lord it would bring anger amongst far too many vassals around the valley and beyond. Power my brother said was precarious, and if he brought down Byron Arryn every single lord, and Lady in the Kingdom would wonder if the tyrant king was coming for them next.  ``If anyone can convinse him to do what is right, it is the King.`` We reached the door and were greeted by the handsome Paul Arryn of whom had his wife Lucie Krone on his arm. Both bowed as was expected, and led us into the cathedral with a greeting.  Walking into the giant room I saw William arrayed against a massive group of nobles, with Jasper and Emmett directly around him and Jasper looked absolutely cold hearted seeing William surrounded. Leven walked towards me with the young Sansa Starke, and her new husband Harrold Hardyng. The two would bow before, me along with Leven of whom gave me a quick smile before standing beside me. ``Princess Alice it is a true joy to have you in our remote city. Your family has brightened this land in more ways then I can ever truly appreciate.`` ``Hanna was one of our most dear friends growing up, and we wouldn`t have dared miss a chance to see her wed. The city has certainly been turned into quite the jewel since I was last here.`` I had never imagined myself returning to this place, but William couldn`t stay in one place anymore. He was losing himself more and more each day, and unless I could change the path he was on he was going to kill himself trying to see her again. It seemed so long since he was carrying the lifeless body of Amber from the city, and I couldn`t believe he had the strength to return here where so much bad had happened.  ``Terrible business Princess. I never met your late brother, but I know that despite what he became in the end he was still your brother, and I`m sorry for your loss.`` I felt bad that I had never met her before. When we had travelled to Stormwind she was in Winterfell, and while I had met nearly all the Starke`s she and her brother Rickon were one of the few I had not had the oppurtinity to meet. ``I appreciate that Lady Sansa you are too kind. My brother did more damage to your husbands people then we can ever repay, and I`m beyond happy to see things becoming positive here.`` She smiled at me, and as she did I noticed how young she was. I had thought she was of similar age to me, but it was clear she was somewhat younger, and from the way she held Harrold`s hand she was very nervous. ``How have you come to like Berne Sansa.`` ``It is the same sort of climate as my home in Winterfell, and with Harrold at my side I have been very well taken care of. I will honestly be sad to say goodbye to Berne.`` As she shared a smile with Harrold, I felt out of the loop. Where was she to go that would force her to say goodbye to the city. As if sensing my confusion Leven spoke up. ``The Kingdom will be very proud to have Harrold as the Lord of the new western province. I know that Alice was one of the most strong supporters of your rise Sansa.`` The young Sansa Starke looked shocked, and again I realized how distinct I was from even her scale of nobility. It would never really matter how high up the power tree someone reached, me and my brother were always going to be somewhat seperate from them. ``We decided to name the new city Greengarden, and I promice your grace that we shall turn it into a fortress against our enemies.`` His armor and tone made him seem quite the brave young man, and I wondered if the ruins of the west would claim him, or whether he would prove himself correct. Meeting with the elements of House Arryn it did not take long to notice the absence of Byron Arryn of whom in public excuses were made in regards to his sickness, but once the required entrance was done and William followed Hanna, and Aria Arryn into the Palace Grounds of Berne the truth would quickly come out. William would during this time convince the Lords of Berne to begin an expansion into the western lands, and would bring in several allied Elves of the west of whom promiced their support in this action. When determining of whom would be the new lord of the state being formed westward it was determined that Sansa Starke and her new husband would form the leadership under House Hardyng. As the final days before the wedding came about William travelled the city with his family and Hanna as the night came he would make love to Bella but once they were done he left her asleep in bed and went to find Alice. Finding Alice he told her that he didn`t feel the same way for Bella that he had, and he didn`t know how to get it back as he loved Brooke. Alice and William would speak for nearly the entire night, and she was able to convinse him to not do anything rash, but once again she knew that he was sitting on the edge of a knife without Brooke, and for the first time she worried he might not actually be able to move past her death. Hanna Arryn and William would sit for a time together and he told her about what had happened to him, and she saw the depths of love that he had for Brooke. The actual wedding went by without problem, and following this Alice would accompany William and Thomas as they walked the ramparts of the outer tier of Berne. Walking along the walls William, and Alice held Thomas's hand as William told his son about the bravery of his mother during the siege of Berne, and for the first time in his life Thomas learned the whole truth of what had happened to his mother. Continuing to talk William discussed with Thomas his place in the family, and while Thomas was young he was old enough to understand that his father was telling him that he was not a base born bastard as William had legitimized him. The talk would brighten William somewhat as after Thomas left Alice was able to convince him that if nothing else he needed to be strong for his children, and grudgingly she included the two he had with Brooke in that number as well. “So much had changed since we were children, but the simple fact remained that one of my best friends was gaining a husband and that was a moment to stop and thank the world around us.” — Alice Lovie Following an argument with Jasper it is Alice that goes to find Marcel Lovie II. and together the two stand on the balconies of the Arryn estates and discuss their relationship and how close the two have gotten over the years. As Alice goes to leave for bed Marcel gives her a gift and taking it back to her room she opens the gift discovering a tiny stone and beside the stone a note that detailed that the small stone was a magi device that allowed the two to communicate no matter how far apart they were and as she touches the stone which is attached to a necklace she feels Marcel's thoughts as if they are her own. Before leaving Alice would watch as Hanna and William discussed his affair with Brooke, and how he loved her so much that it felt painful just getting up anymore. William would also mention for the first time to her that he wanted to find the Dragons, and that he thought with everything inside himself that if he did then Lucerne could survive. Arrival of Hillsbrad “I thought for a very long time that I would inherit House Brent. I see now that was foolish. You have your heir, and I'm not content to sit here quietly as his knight.” — Franklin Brent It would be following his taking part in the defense of Castle Stragnarax that a emotionally devastated Franklin Brent would return to Marburg where his wife Karyl Reyne is waiting for him alongside their son Davin Brent, and seeing her waiting for him he collapses into her arms utterly spent by the feeling that he got nothing from all his years of devoted work for his father. Sharing a moment together he tells her he is done running errands for his father and wants to rule something himself leading to him telling her that he was going to go and find his father and tell him that he needed to let him go and find his own lands. Meeting with his father his father would reluctantly send him to Berne where the wedding of Hanna Arryn was looking to be the beginning of what rumors were saying would be William's desire to expand into the lands west of Berne forming a new province there. Travelling to Berne with a small force and his wife he is met on the road by Dexter Hill of whom continues to be disliked by Karyl but their friendship leads Franklin to invite Dexter to join him on the road to Berne though in order to make his wife happy he travels at the front of the force while Franklin and his wife stay in the middle. “I saw your coming in the water Franklin Brent. You and I were destined to meet here.” — Franklin Anikka Salburg Delayed by a collapsing portion of the path through the Dragon's Pass the forces of Hillsbrad under Franklin Brent would arrive following the wedding of Hanna, and Harrold, but did meet the forces of the royal family on the road.

Death of Byron Arryn

The Death of Byron Arryn I wasn't there in the end for him. I couldn't have been there at the end for him. As much as I loved him as my father, he was a monster who had failed his people. He deserved to be alone. He deserved to die the same way so many of his people were forced to die.

“I got the letter before my father did and the moment I did I knew everything was going to change. He was surviving simply off the lie he told himself about my brother, and if he learned the truth with his own eyes it would finish him.” — Aria Arryn The city of Berne was tense as Aria, and Hanna Arryn had become the most powerful leaders of House Arryn overpassing their father Byron of whom was hated by the nobles for his cowardess during the Battle of Berne. While this was happening Aria was somewhat rebuilding her relationship with her father and came to discover that her father still believed her brother Byron was going to come home, and it was for this reason that he was improving his image. It was weeks after discovering this that Aria Arryn would get a letter from William Lovie III. detailing to her that the Order of the Violet Dragon had narrowed down the location of Bill Lovie and that most her brother Byron had in fact been there, and he wished to know what Aria wished them to do with his body. Aria would for that moment remember the brother she knew so many years ago, and want to bury him in Forks where the family had grown up, and where she remembered him with fondness. First going to her sisters Hanna, and Spencer the group would speak kindly of their brother and the way in which they wanted to remember him, but at this point Aria would reveal what she knew about their father and his dependance on the memory of their brother, and they all realized he wouldn't survive the news.  “The three of us went to him and tried our best to say goodbye. It was a tragic moment as he knew nothing of what we were doing, and yet that conversation would be the last I would ever have with my father. I knew I didn't have the heart to tell him, and for that he died alone.” — Aria Arryn The girls would decide to spend time with their father one last time before they knew he would go off the deep end, and each of them had a different idea of what this would end with. The three would travel with a troop of Arryn troops north of Berne to a large waterfall where they spent the day together, and despite Byron becoming increasingly dillusional as he was kept away from Berne they had a good final time with their father. As they returned to Berne, Hanna would travel with only five men west to Greengarden, while Spencer would travel with a hundred men to Castle Scorpian where she planned to organize the living of the retreating refugees that the Violet Dragons had freed from both Orleans and the surrounding area. Left alone with her father Aria would be prepared to tell him when she grew weak and left it to Maester Coleman of whom she told to give the letter from William to once they had returned to Berne.  “I wasn't there in the end for him. I couldn't have been there at the end for him. As much as I loved him as my father, he was a monster who had failed his people. He deserved to be alone. He deserved to die the same way so many of his people were forced to die.” — Aria Arryn Aria would be in the keep of Berne when Maester Coleman, and Benjamin Krinner would enter followed by many other high nobles of the city. Maester Coleman would tell her what she already knew would be to pass, when he told Aria that Byron had thrown himself from walls of Berne and was dead. There was silence as though noone had loved Byron they cared deeply for Aria and thus gave her time to digest the news of her father's death of which she would sit with her head down for a moment before rising and addressing the assembled lords. Describing how good a situation they were in now she wished for them to support her as she took her claim to William Lovie III. in an attempt to make herself the Arch Dutchess of Berne. Benjaming Krinner would be the first to stand and support her, and following this many of the other lords quickly stood and joined the chorus of cheers and applause for her. Aria Arryn would call for the next oldest male of House Arryn in the form of Paul Arryn, and his brother Derek of which both arrived quickly as they were both in Berne. The three would meet and Paul would indicate that he believed she was the best choice, and Derek agreed, and thus Paul would travel with her to Forks where the funural for her brother and father would be held, and it would be there that they would support her claim to the control of Berne. Funeral of an Arch Duke “It was a strange thing to stand around and watch him go beneath the ground. I know he would have been happy knowing his body was so close to his heirs but I just wish it would have been different.” — Hanna Arryn Derek and Spencer Arryn remained in Berne in order to lead the city in the absence of Aria and nearly the entire nobility of the Grand State travelled to Forks in order to meet with the leadership of Lucerne and decide the new Lord of Berne, of which they overwhelmingly wanted to be Aria. Arriving at Forks Hanna and Aria were greated at the front of the caravans and at the entrance of Forks by William Lovie III., Leven Martell, Jasper Hale, Alice Lovie, Bella, and Charlie Swan and William would get off his Griffon and walk to the front where Aria and Hanna got off as well and he would hug Hanna and say his apologies for their loss. The funeral would go as expected with very few attending outside of the Shadow Council, and Bella Swan of whom wanted to support Hanna as she put her father to rest. “Did you come here thinking for even a second that I might reject you? If you did then I suppose I should elect a few more females to my council.” — William Lovie III. Following the ceremony the Shadow Council, and the Arryn sisters would meet in Swan Keep alongside Charlie Swan of whom would meet with Aria over what she wanted to say. Aria would make an impassioned speach detailing why William should name her the Arch Dutchess of Berne, and the others stayed silent and stared at William once Aria was done. William stayed silent for a moment before breaking out laughing causing the rest to laugh until finally William revealed there was never any question as to if she would be named the new ruler. Hanna would travel with her husband back with William and the others to Lucerne where she would plan to stay for several months in better climate and try and help the sickly Harrold Krinner as they attempted to have a child. William having named Aria the Arch Dutchess of Berne would make her the first female leader of a Grand State in the history of Lucerne, and she returned to Berne at the head of the massive force of Berne and finally okay with her position in the political landscape.

Family Members

Ella Arryn - Wife

Hanna Arryn - Daughter

Aria Arryn - Daughter

Spencer Arryn - Daughter

Byron Arryn II. - Son