Castle Stragnarax | |
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Vital statistics | |
Type of Goverment | Heriditary Lord |
Allegiance | Kingdom Of Lucerne |
Ruling House | House Brent |
Population | Placeholder |
Location | The Westerlands |
Language | German |
Religion | Dragonoph |
Races, and Ethnicity | Placeholder |
Castle Stragnarax is a mighty fortress of Lucerne built on the extreme western border of the Kingdom. Its purpose is to be the first line of defence against the Orcs ofFrance and because of this is heavily gaurded and fortified. The castle was named after the deceased dragon of William Lovie II. and because of this the symbolism of both its creation, and any attempt to take control of the Castle is of vast importance to the future of the Kingdom of Lucerne.
Castle Stragnarax is the centerpiece of House Brent of the Westerlands, and from this it is a growing element of the overall House Brent power structure in western Lucerne. House Brent of the Westerlands is controlled by Thomas Brrent of whom is the second son of the Grand Duke of House Brent and thus is attempting to increase his power on his own since his brother Franklin was destined to take control of House Brent. The castle contains a small village only a half a mile east of the castle, and it is in this village that the population of the farms, and others of the area come together.
Castle Stragnarax was constructed by the Order of the Grey Dragon using funds collected in part by donations by houses in the area of which were competing for the right to control the Castle. In the end the victory was given to House Brent and this victory means that Castle Stragnarax is now controlled by House Brent, a minor House in Lucerne, who through this endevor has become quite wealthy. The fortress is also the home of the Order of the Violet Dragon who make their home within the tower of the Violet Dragon. The Order of the Violet Dragon also operates a large scale training operation south of the castle as well, and this has led to a centering of the influence of the Order of the Violet Dragon in Castle Stragnarax.
Castle Stragnarax was constructed by the Order of the Grey Dragon using funds collected in part by donations by houses in the area of which were competing for the right to control the Castle. As the castle was getting under construction it was decided that House Brent had done the most to see its completion, and thus it became a major source of power for the growing House Brent. Thomas Brent the second son of Frank Brent would be named the Lord of the castle, and shortly after this he formed a cadet branch of the House called House Brent of the Westerlands.
History
Construction
With Andrew moving forward on the plans of heavily increasing the defences in Western Lucerne the call went up for a House to take responsibility for the rulership of the in construction Castle Stragnarax. In this way the wealty mining family House Brent stepped forward for this obligation. Many were suprised since they were quite valuable in the Order of the Black Dragon, and had never really shown an aptitude for warfare.
Either way the members of House Brent put a lot of their own personal wealth into further upgrading the castle itself, and were the primary supporters of the Order of the Violet Dragon's tower being constructed. Many did not like that House Brent was not going to move their home to Castle Stragnarax and as appeasment publically the heir to the House in Thomas Brent moved himself and his family to the castle. In order to better assist their son they gave a command to their sworn house in House Criston to follow their son to Castle Stragnarax and to take up their operations east of the castle but to live within the Castle. Grandon Criston was a House Brent loyalist and for this reason they believed he would be the best for this task, and he moved his house to the east of Castle Stragnarax while at the same time constructing a home inside Castle Stragnarax for his family to stay. During the early days in the castle Grandon and Thomas Brent would become close, and Grandon became basically the second in command of the castle.
First Battle of Castle Stragnarax
Main Article : Battle of Castle Stragnarax
Battle of Castle Stragnarax Everyone was moving on Westbridge when the monsters came to our doors. We were horribly outnumbered, but we had strength of our own. I would be damned if I let these monsters beat us. | ||||||||||||||||
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For his own part Lothar Wornwayne was forced to deal with the Orcs overruning the Eyes, and this forced him to recall many of his troops into the cave systems they had long set up. Lothar would send word to his second in command Rolly Reyne of whom would be commanded to follow as closely as humanly possible to the forces of the Orcs, and find out as much as possible about their numbers, while the rest of the Rangers either defended themselves or in the case of Lothar prepared to make the rest of the journey for the Orcs as miserable as he possibly could.
With the Orcs incoming the defenses were prepared and all troops were called in from the villages and farms nearby. This swelled the defenders of Castle Strangarax to a force of some 5,500 men at arms along with the twelve training members of the Order of the Violet Dragon that had remained in Castle Stragnarax under the command of Benjamin Bradfoot. The castle itself was commanded by Thomas Brent but his percieved inexperiance meant that he left the defence of the city to his honor gaurd commanders and Benjamin Bradfoot, along with the council of his military force. One of the other premier commanders of the castle was the recently arrived Edric Summerwall, and his Knights of the Summerwall of whom had been commanded to move themselves from their previous home in Forks to Castle Stragnarax where they would be the official Knightly Order of the castle. The Plan for the defence consisted of holding on for as long as they possibly could while they waited for the army of Hillsbrad to arrive and relieve them, alongside the rest of House Brent coming as well. As the Battle reached the point that everyone knew it was going happen they would drain the women, old, and young from the town and they would make there way eastward towards Marburg of which was the closest nearbye town. As the old, women, and children were withdrawn, and in their place came wagon after wagon of supplies from the surrounding region they knew there preperation was about to end as the Orcs were nearly at the castle. Fionna Brent would be one of the few women that didn't leave the Battle and she would lead a contingent of Dragon Priests of whom preached the power of Glaurung and tried to raise the moral of the forces. Knowing how long they had before the attack the defenders would send out some two hundred cavalry of whom were tasked with further scouting the incoming Orcs and giving them some extra amount of knowledge when they would attack. In Hohenstein the leadership of House Mountain would make the decision to assist Castle Stragnarax after Baelor Mountain stated that he believed this would help to uplift them in the eyes of Lucerne, and specifically the King in Lucerne of whom was not exactly shy about his distain for those who sat on the sidelines. As the furthest away of those who cold come to the aid of Castle Stragnarax, there assistence unknown by most and they were going to arrive later then the others anyway. By this point Franklin Brent would marshal his personal knightly order, and while he did this his father would gather the forces of House Brent, of whom would meet with House Ordos outside of Marburg and prepare themselves to also assist Castle Stragnarax. Franklin Brent would lead his forces seperate from his father Frank, as he was still unwilling to forgive his father for being passed over, and while making the trip the sickly Frank Brent would be forced to return to the Brent Seat and thus left command to Franklin. The Knights of the Gilded Fell would also mount themselves and leave their seat at White Hill led by Desmond Hill and make their way southward, and their location meant that they would arrive hours before the Orcish army did and they were thus able to enter the castle before the Orcs blocked the routes in. One of the final arrivals was the unexpected forces of House Darkmore, and House Darkwood of whom had been meeting in the Darkwood of seat of
While the scouts did this it the Rangers of the Eyes were continueing to harass the Orcish Hordeas they moved eastward. Special attention was paid by the Rangers to the dozen or so Gronn that had accompanied the Orcish army. As the Orcs continued to move they lost four of the Gronn to hit and run attacks as the Rangers used hidden caves and cliff tops to rain arrows down on the Orcish army while retreating once they had done the damage they could. Lothar Wornwayne was constantly harrassing the Orcish force, and this only increased in intensity when he and Rolly Reyne finally met up days away from Castle Stragnarax, and in a join ambush during the night they killed some four hundred Orcs before they were forced to retreat southward and into Dragonhorn while the Orc army had finally reached the outskirts of the Castle Stragnarax. The Orcs Arrive
It was nearly two weeks after the Raven fortold of the coming Orcs they arrived west of the castle and begin chopping down the trees that were there to use to construct ladders, and siege towers. The Orcs spent an entire day doing this and as they worked the defenders of the towers were firing long range balista shots at them which were able to destory one of the towers before it was able to be used the following day. Also during this day the Orcs attempted to push forward siege machines in order to batter holes in the walls but they discovered the accurasy of the balistas was extreme as each siege machine pushed forward was destoryed in turn with only a few shots getting off and dowing little damage to the wall. When the final batch of catapults were brought up defended by large trenches and by blocks of wood meant to shield from the Balistas it was Alann, and Bran Voil that had the entire Order of the Blue Dragon force set the field ablaze destroying the remaining catapults and hundreds of Orcs manning the trenches, shiels, and catapults.
As the day wore on the forces of Franklin Brent arrived at the Battle, and he would make his forces move towards the southern wall where he arrayed against the large southern Orc host. Sending word into the castle that they had arrived, this would greatly uplift the defenders moral who knew they were in some amount of trouble. Franklin constructed a series of trenches lined with anti-cavalry poles of which he planned to retreat into in case the Orcs sent an army to deal with his forces. After spending all of the energy constructing the siege machines they found that the catapults and such were destroyed the moment they got into range, with only a few actually able to launch a real shot at the walls. The Orcs were forced to place more forces in the southern end as the arrival of Franklin Brent meant they were now threatened by somone outside the walls and the mainly cavalry force was of great danger to them. Without any hope of launching their catapults the Orcs would move their forces forward and their seige towers that had been hidden would be pushed forward for the first attack. The First Attack
With their seige machines set up the Orcs attacked in a vast wave of upwards of 25,000 of which the vast majority attacked the main gate while some 7,000 attacked the southern section defended by Marbrand Keep. The northern wall also had some two thousand Orcs attack it but these were extremely disorganized and the least of the problems of the Castle. Outside of the seven thousand sent towards the southern wall four thousand Orcs were sent against the army of Franklin Brent in order to keep them away from the fighting. Mainly Worgs this force would chase Franklin's forces into the trenches they had constructed, and suffered many casualties to this traps before fighting broke out between the two forces. Franklin Brent was forced to battle against a large Orc of which had killed two other men, and finally reaching the Orc he and the Orc dueled for several minutes until he shot the Orc with a hand crossbow he was finally able to reach off his back. Staggered by the shot the Orc would be sliced across the chest fatally by Franklin as he attempted to pull the crossbow from his neck. Following the large Orc's death the other Worgs became less threatening but there numbers still meant that Franklin could not advance agains the southern forces and aid the defenders. As the Orcs advanced they were devestated by the massive array of archer, and balista fire by the time they reached the wall they had lost significant numbers. Attack on the Main Gate
The attack on the main gate went disastrously with all four of the Siege towers destroyed, and with the huge array of archers present the Orcs that massed on the ground trying to get up the ladders were caught in a killing zone and lost huge numbers before the Orcs retreated leaving behind the ruins of much of their force alongside the destroyed siege towers. The Balistas that sat on the towers continued to destroy anything that even resembled a battering ram, and because of the hoardings all along the wall the few Orcish archers that were on the ground found very few targets, and the few they did were unable to be struck because of the hoarding. Along the main gate though despite this horrifying aray of weapons the Orcs did manage to get several of their number onto the walls where the Knights of the Gilded Fell under the command of Orival Black would stand in the breaks and kill them as they climbed over the walls. The Magi of the Order of the Blue Dragon had been completely concentrated along this defence and had been responsible for two of the towers going down as they lit them on fire using spells. Attack on the Tower of James the Vigilant
The Orcs attacked the three areas and it was only at the tower of James the Vigilant that they had any real success. The Orcs were able to keep their seige tower alive in this section and with its survival they were able to mass over the wall, and this caused the beggining of an intense fight over the tower. The Orcs slowly pushed them back into the tower, and forced the defenders to lock the gates into the tower, and block them outside. The Orcs attemtped to break through the gate, and during this time the Orcs begin to take fire from the inner wall as they were free to fire on them now that the defenders were gone. As they took heavy casualties they found themselves unable to break into the tower itself, and begin spreading throughout the walls of the western walls to the point that they attempted to break into the main forces at the main tower itself. During this time Thomas Brent would order the main reserve forces sneaking out through the more southern tower and behind the Orcs of whom were busy sprawling all over the walls. Now behind their lines the relief force set the siege tower alight and then was able to get back through the tower with minimal casualties. As the siege tower burned down the Orcs found their reinforcements ended and they were slowly wittled away at by the massive number of archers all along the James Towers. The final holdouts were to be dealt with personally by Benjamin Bradfoot of whom was directed to the castle under the command of Thomas Brent of whom was worried over the prospect of Orcs within the walls. Attack on Marbrand Keep
Marbrand Keep was defended by Domeric Marbrand of whom defended the large keep with some three hundred men, while the main wall was defended by another three hunded. The men on the walls were designed to hit them with as many arrow barrages as they could, but the moment the Orcs manned the walls the force was to enter the heavily fortified gates and make their way into the keep. The Orcs would attack with some two thousand forces against the wall, and at first for the Orcs the Attack on Marbrand keep went well at first with the Orcs able to climb over the walls after suffering some three hundred losses to the defenders on the walls. With the ladders against the walls the defenders retreated into the towers and through the tunnels allowing the Orcs to get into the actual castle but once there the design plan went into affect with the Orcs now stuck in no mans land with no ability to get over the next defences. The Orcs attempted to follow the retreating defenders through the tunnels into Mabrand Keep but discovered the tunnels filled with nearly twenty feet deep gates that would be nearly impossible to break through without Magi, or some sort of explosive. The Orcs then attempted to charge across the field but the defenders of the keep were able to fire acurate shots into them and caused horrible casulties against them. By this point the Orcs were in panic, but begin to run past the Keep and into the city proper where the nearly five hundred remaining Orcs were confronted by a force led by Thomas Brent himself. Leading his most elite troops they would battle against the Orcs and defeat them causing them to retreat back as they came, and they were basically anihilated with very few returning to camp. The Second Attack
The Orc army was still massive but it had suffered heavy casualties accomplishing nothing the first day, and in even worse news for the Orcish army was the fact that the reinforcements of the defenders had begun to arrive in heavy numbers. The full army of House Mountain led by Baelor Mountain had arrived alongside the forces of House Garfield and they were camped northwest of the battle moving in behind the Orc forces. Andrew Garfield would lead the forces of House Garfield into the fray as he was joined by several of his loyal retainers including Edmund Frotenhood, Esla Tollsen, and several other important knights of the region north of Hillsbrad. House Greymane had now joined the army of Franklin Brent bringing the southern army to more then ten thousand, and that number grew throughout the day as the southern vassals came north and more of the army filtered in. Realizing the main gate was a killing zone he didn't have the force to take down the Orc commander would move nearly his entire force to the southern wall of which caused most of the defenders to shift to the same wall. With this in motion the relief armies would move into place, and House Mountain was nearly completely behind them and was actually destroying the reargaurd of the Orc army as the Orcs attacked the Tower of James the Vigilant.
The Orcs charged the walls using three new siege towers and were this time unable to get any to the walls as the casulties of the previous attack, and the heavily increased defender numbers meant the three new towers took far too long to reach the walls. Stuck again with no towers the ladders went up and a great amount of fighting went all along the walls as the Orcs massed onto the ramparts. The defenders were hard up to resist, but as the battle reached a turning point the Orcs begin screaming as the forces of Franklin Brent, and Liam Greymane's army of House Greymane smashed into their rear. The commander of the Orcs would die during the inital assault, and as mass panic spread amongst the Orcs they begin retreating despite still outnumbering the human attackers, and nearly overwhelming the defenders at the tower. As they retreated westward they came directly in the path of the army of House Mountain and were cut down in their hundreds as the Mountain forces had entered the previously constructed Orc trenches and were in a great defence position. Total Victory
With the Orcish army completely routed and on top of this most of the army had been destroyed in the field leaving the remaining elements to move westward where they were chased down by the cavalry force of House Greymane, and House Ordos and thus the victory was completed. Damage was heavy in the James the Vigilant region of the castle, but elsewhere the losses and damage was nearly non-existence but hours were spent burning the bodies of the Orcs so that they would not send out spores and cause a real problem for the humans of the area. With the clean up beginning the relief armies would camp, while the leadership all met within the castle. Thomas Brent was by this point hailed as a hero and became known as Thomas "The Orc Killer" in honor for what people saw as his great victory, and this was in spite of the two larger armies led by the Mountains, and Franklin Brent moving in and being the true changer of the battle. The story of the battle that had not been seen through the eyes of Franklin Brent were told at dinner, and the next day the armies prepared to return home. Franklin and Thomas would say one last goodbye as Franklin told his brother that he was going to take forces and lead expansion in the Westerlands alongside House Arryn. The two brothers who had constantly battled eachother for position understood that Franklin was accepting defeat and they hugged goodbye knowing they would probably not be meeting any time soon.
Death of Judith KrebsJudith would follow Franklin into the Battle of Castle Stragnarax but it was during this conflict that she finally came face to face with her long time nemisis from the Circle of Magi in the form of Hartmut Ehrenfeld and the two would duel outside the castle but despite Franklin coming to her aid she was killed and Hartmut once again escaped. |
Layout
Castle Stragnarax is built into many different sections that all combine to create the vast Castle Stragnarax.
Brent Keep
The House Brent Keep lies in the far east inside the mountain hold. Brent Keep contains the headquarters of House Brent outside of their estate village, as well as the main headquarters for the House Brent Honor Gaurd. The keep forms what would be the last stand for the entire Castle Strangnarax.
Brent Keep is only approachable from two methods. Firstly you can cross the vast Bridge that connects the inner keep to the castle, which is protected by a toll tower along the way and is completely open to fire from all angles. The second way is across the water that surrounds the keep but since their is not ground to land on this is a rather hopeless method.
Marbrand Keep
The Keep of House Marbrand who is a sworn house of House Brent lies in the south western section of the Castle and it forms the main defence for much of the southern half of the castle with its vast arraw of towers that all contain long range balistas.
Lake Brent
Lake Brent is a large lake that lies in the center of the Castle and allows for the city to surive a siege without supplies due to its water, as well as the large aquaculture farm that exists there as well which while not being able to fully feed the caslte would greatly assist alongside the large array of animals that are kept stocked in the Caslte.
Tower of the Violet Dragon
See Also : Tower of the Violet Dragon
The Tower of the Violet Dragon is the headquarters of theOrder of the Violet Dragon, and is situated withinCastle Stragnarax. Located in the deep core of the Castle the Tower is one of the only towers in the entire castle that has no balistas aboard it and for this reason it relies heavily on the small enclave of housing buildings that surround it, and the wall around them to protect itself in the case an enemy was able to penetrate the Castle.
The Tower is extremely new, and its construction was meant originally to be a balista tower but the commander saw how the inside was coming together and thought it would make a brilliant command tower. This would eventually form into the head of the Order of the Violet Dragon. Under the Order of the Violet Dragon the tower was hollowed out, and the underground corridor's were expanded to make tunnels which would allow the order to move about Castle Stragnarax without being noticed, as well as escaping the castle in the event of disaster, or the need for secrecy. The Tower was the centerpoint for the work of Benjamin Bradfoot during the Battle of Castle Strangnarax and he and his padfoots moved effortlessy around without the Orcs or the defenders having any idea where they were moving.
Garrison
The Castle itself is ruled over by the growing House Brent, who are a loyal house for the larger House Ordos . The members of House Brent live and work within the castle, and are responsible for procting both the area west of the castle, and the small farming done east.
The House though makes a large portion of its money through transfer payments, but its main source of income comes from a silver mine located a few miles northwest of the castle which they man, and control for the Order of the Black Dragon. Most members of the House live north of the castle itself in the lake estate of House Brent, and the House is represented through Thomas Brent and his family who live within the castle itself.
Noteable People
Thomas Brent
See Also : Thomas Brent
Thomas Brent is the son of Frank, and Marjia Brent making him a member of House Brent. Thomas Brent has a sister in Fionna Brent, and a younger brother named Franklin Brent. Thomas Brent is married to Clare Brent, of whome he has one young child with.
Thomas Brent was not of the same economics love that the rest of his family was and as such at the age of 14 he ignored the waiting position at the mine, and chose instead to take a position in the House Brent Honor Gaurd. Thomas then left his families ancestoral estate, and has taken residence in the new House Brent property of Castle Stragnarax. While in the Castle he has grown close to Benjamin Bradfoot who showed Thomas that he was still young and while he had great ideas those were just ideas at his early age and he needed time to really become a great leader of men. While some rich noblechildren would have scoffed at this Thomas respected Benjamin respected him enough to listen and during the Battle of Castle Stragnarax he allowed Benjamin to lead the defence while he took a secondary role.
Grandon Criston
See Also : Grandon Criston
Grandon Criston is the son of poor peasents from eastern Lucerne thus making him during his youth a commoner, but through his own skill he created his own house through the accumulation of power and is now the Patriarch of House Criston. Grandon Criston has three siblings in the form of Davon, Heather, and Joanne Criston of which Davon is one his most trusted men and he has command of a large portion of the military of House Criston, his sister Heather was disfigured during an attack when she was young and since then she has covered her face with a mask while she uses her intelligence to be the basic head of House Criston's economics, and his sister Joanne was married to Harvin Brent making her a member of House Brent. Grandon was married to Anastasia Snow during his youth and the two lovers would grow together, and she is a constant source of love and affection for Grandon. With Anastasia he has three children in the form of Celia, Weilan, and Grandon Criston II. of which Grandon is the heir to the power of House Criston and is a important member of House Criston, his daughter Celia was married to Danzal Krinner making her the wife of the future head of House Krinner, and his final son Weilan ran away from home at the age of twelve and wasn't seen for years until he sent a letter home saying he's living in Corsica under the Roman Empire.
Grandon Criston was born in the extreme poverty of the regions east of Lannistane and throughout his youth he watched as his father and mother attempted to make a living farming and this took everything from them. At the age of fifteen the region was wracked by the Lannister Civil War and during this time the forces of Tylin Lannister were running rampant killing and raping whoever they wanted, and during one of these attacks Grandon was forced to watch as Tylin Lannister came with men to his farm and raped his mother and beat his father nearly to death. When they had finished and killed her mother they left his broken father on the floor next to his beloved wife. Grandon would care for his father, and when his father recuperated he would sell the farm for whatever he could get and the family packed up and moved to the western town of Hillsbrad where they attempted to restart their life. His father though was never the same and Grandon was increasingly forced to care for his family which brought him into the idea of making it so that they never had to worry again. In this way he and his siblings worked together to increase their families power, and after years of this they founded House Criston.