House Greymane

Following Bill 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. The true match that would set off the rebellion within Lucerene begin after Bill Lovie travelled 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 Bill Lovie lost Bill 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 noone 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 Bill into leaving under the lie that William was nearbye would Bill Lovie stumble out of the dining hall and carried by his sworn knights pass out in his room.

Despite the horrible ranting by Bill 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 the Hedge Knight Halys Forend of whom was a knight of House Jackson, and following this Bill Lovie would leave his seat and travel to where Hayls was celebrating and while everyone bowed before their king Bill 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 only the calling in of the House Lovie gaurds there would stop a riot from starting. Dozens of Smallfolk were killed during the riot as the violent Nighting`s unleased rage on those they felt insulent 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 eachother they both then left the tournament as everyone had been commanded to leave.

Rise and Fall of a Rebel

Following the disasterous 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. One who didn`t sit idle was Walter Jackson and Charlie Swan of whom 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. 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 Bill from the throne and replace him with his son. As the rebellion itself was growing in strength the sanity of Bill Lovie was decling to newer levels as he had now had debased his one true relationship with Carlisle Cullen after he tricked Esme Portmane into betraying Carlisle and having several of his bastards.

The movement reached its end following Walter Jackson 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 belived 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 convinse Tywin so he ignored the rest of them and travelled 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 Bill Lovie removed.

The moment that Walter left the room Tywin ordered his gaurd 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 outloud 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 travelled to Lucerne where he immediatly was given audiance with King Bill Lovie.

House Greymane had the extremely unlucky time of having several of their members in the Lucerne Palace when Tywin told Bill Lovie about the rebellion. Bill 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. Bill in his enraged state turned to Tywin Lannister and asked him whether House Greymane could be invovled 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 Bill that House Greymane had been involved. With this lie Bill left the throne room with his personal gaurd and as Darius and his family bowed before there king Bill raised his sword and started slashing at Darius while his gaurd killed the rest of the family. Its said that Bill slashed at Darius for so long that there was nothing left of him but a bloody mess on the ground.

Death of the Rebellion

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 Bill 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 assasins 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 assasins went back into the house in the pretents of making sure everyone was dead. When the assasin 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 assasin in this moment moved to the child, and whispered for him to be very quiet if he wanted to live. The assasin then proceeded to put the child behind him attatched to a rope, and hidden behind his cloak. This was how Joshua travelled to Lucerne, and when they arrived the assasin brought him to the steps of the Lucerne orphanage and left him there.

Survival of Joshua Jackson

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 assasins would be forced to attack him again in order to not fail their mission.

Destruction of House Heard

In the same way that House Jackson had led the rebellion House Heard was one of the greater supporters and for this reason Bill made sure that their punishment was severe. At the time several of the sons of House Heard were located in Lucerne as they were serving inside the actual gaurd 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 gaurds inside and killed. Their bodies were hung from the rafters of the Lucerne wall. Following this assassins entered the actual house heard home in Forks where they proceeded to butcher the entire family. The wife and children of Telvin were destroyed along with the patriarch of the house in Hektor Heard who was forced to be dragged throughout the house and look at the sene of his entire family destroyed. In a mistake by the assasins the other side of House Heard was left alive because they were on a trip west to visit the city of Hillsbrad when the attacks were underway.

Releasing Prisoners

Throughout the events of the rebellion it was Eddard Starke and 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 Bill Lovie and with Eddard also swearing the oath Bill Lovie prepared their release 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.

Continued Destruction

Following the departure of Tywin Lannister Nedrick Baratheon who was the Patriarch of the house at the time went to Lucerne with his daughter Sarah and his son Edward and hoped to make the point of the rebels known to Bill Lovie. His arrival though was misunderstood by Bill 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. Following this act he went about dealing with Tywin`s next hint in House Hale who he said had great involvement and was the main financier of the rebellious movement. When Tywin had come to Bill and told him the extent of the rebellion Bill had been shocked and terrified about the involvement of House Hale. Firstly he had once been close to Tarnide Hale II., and for this reason he didn't know what to make of his betrayal and for the second reason House Hale had made themselves so important financially that Bill couldn't just destroy them as he did all the other rebels involved. Needing to know the truth of House Hale's invovlement it was Bill that sent Carlisle Cullen to the house and with Carlisle still blackmailed by Bill he would manipulate his friend Tarnide Hale II. into revealing that it was Lord Tarnide Hale his father that was the main culprit and with this information Carlisle left the house and returned to Bill revealing this information. In his growing paranoia and madness Bill would come to the conclusion that he must destroy House Hale but due to their importance he was talked out of this by Kieth Schwartz and it was agreed that they would kill their former friend Tarnide Hale II. as a warning to the house that rebellion would not be accepted.

In order to make sure Tarnide Hale understood the consequences of rebellion it was James that went personally alongside his personal guard and several members of the Circle of Magi during the night and took the Hale estate by force gathering the entire family in the courtyard of their estate. With the entirety of House Hale in the courtyard (outside of Jasper Hale who had been removed from the situation by spending the night with William Lovie III. at the Cloud Tower) he would have have the entire house watch as his guards murdered Tarnide Hale II. who was the heir to House Hale and Bill's friend alongside. Bill Lovie and Tarnide Hale would have the following conversation following the murder and it would be the last true time they spoke as anything other then master ans servant. Taking Rosalie Hale with him as a prisoner Bill Lovie would have her placed in the dungeons beneath the Cloud Tower and despite frequent attempts to have her released it was Bill that made her release known to be something that was not in question until such time that he felt that House Hale was completely loyal to him and only him.

Look at the world father. You were born into this land, and you have told me hundreds upon hundreds of times how much you used to love it. Look at everything you have done to it. You destroyed a city for no reason, 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. I have all the evidence laid out in front of me as to why you are the villain of this world, but I don't fully believe it. Don't end it all here, and be remembered as a monster..

"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 wihtin 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.

Hillsbrad Meeting

With William Lovie III. leaving Lucerne for the event that would become later known as The Journey the rest of the Kingdom became increasingly positive about his actions, but also throughout the Valley of Lucerne there was significant discussion on what to do as the previous time someone had moved against Bill Lovie it had resulted in The Plague. In the city of Hillsbrad the Arch Lord in House Greymane would call an assembly of all of his vassals of which included every major house in western Hillsbrad without exception and without ability for the houses to decline invitation. Arriving in Hillsbrad the meetings began with Genn Greymane talking of the continued consequences of them allowing the current King to wield unending power, and that their only chance of survival was to find this William Lovie III. and help him achieve victory. Vincent Godfrey would openly support King Bill Lovie and said as a warning to all those around that the last time anyone tried to resist him they were destroyed in The Plague. Franklin Brent would stand on the other side openly speaking of supporting William , and these two would continue to argue for minutes as other lords stepped in siding with their respective lords, and this continued for some time. As the argueing continued it was Franklin Brent III. that would arrive and brought his prison Tobin Aven into the meeting and with the support tilting against William at this time his testimony would be of great importance. Tobin Aven that would testify as to what he had been ordered to do and this greatly changed the mood of the meeting, and allowed Demi Snow to stand up and state that her family was one hundred percent behind William and was going to send forces to assist him immediately, and this information shocked the other houses as everyone had assumed that they were not going to do anything like they always did. Still without her Lord father`s support she would during the meeting commit to sending one hundred men immediately with the larger force being sent by the Greymane`s and after this promise there was little that her father could do to turn against it.

Look at the world father. You were born into this land, and you have told me hundreds upon hundreds of times how much you used to love it. Look at everything you have done to it. You destroyed a city for no reason, 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. I have all the evidence laid out in front of me as to why you are the villain of this world, but I don't fully believe it. Don't end it all here, and be remembered as a monster..

Entering the hall early allowed me time to think about what I planned to do. I had come to the understanding sometime during the trip here that there was no way I could ever return to the Crowley Estates, or Crowley Hold or else I was dead. My brother would eventually get his wish and be left alone without my father, and when that happened his madness would be unleashed. Andrew entered shortly after I did, and I felt terrible as he smiled at me so enthusiastically. I loved him, surely I did, but today my main purpose for him was manipulation, and that made me feel lower then ever. Slowly the other lords entered the hall. The lithe Gregor Voner entered flanked by several of his vassals including his son Duncan of whom always had the same emotioneless look of his father, and as they entered they squatted on the seat to my right. Gregor Voner had always been friendly with our house, and my father always told me to be as nice to him as possible as he hated the Godfreys. Apparently when Gregor was young his little sister had been raped and murdered, and the only person that appeared to be guilty was Groevin Godfrey and he too escaped justice after winning and killing Gregor`s older brother Aron in a duel. The Godfrey`s had after this exiled Groevin, but this was followed by insults from the Godfrey`s which basically have created a distinct hatred between the two houses. "Lady Hill how is your father?" "My father is well Lord Voner. He sends you his regards, and apologizes that his sickness leaves him unable to come to the meeting." "Your father is one of few men I can count on my hands who stood beside me when I demanded the damn Godfey's pay for what they did." His hand clenched into a fist and I saw him exchange glances with his son before continuing. "I apologize Lady Hill for my outburst." "Nothing to apoligize for Lord Godfrey." Seeing the hate was still strong I knew I would just need to spark the flames a little bit to keep him on my side. "What Groevin Godfrey did to your family was a crime of the greatest magnitude. My family remains behind you in that feeling." "Thank you for the words Lady Hill." He moved closer to me whispering in my ear. "Just know Demi that your position will be our position." He pulled back a bit looking at me in the eyes. "I assume that your father sent you with the authority to negotiate for the family?" It was said as if it wasn't a question but I knew that it was. Either way the question was in the open and I could see that Lord Brennard Fladen, and Cayle Benden were listening in now wanting to hear the response. The two men were my fathers closest banner man and I felt stupid for not noticing their arrival, as they must have sat down to my left while I was talking to Gregor. "My father has given me permission to negotiate for House Crowley today Lord Voner" A smile crossed his face, and I looked towards Brennard, and Cayle and watched them bow their heads at me as well realizing that I was for all intensive purposes their Lord at the table. "Well then, as I said we stand beside your family and whatever decision you have come here with we will join you." "House Fladen stands with you as well Milady." "House Bended as well Demi." I heard Duncan huff at Cayle not calling me a more proper name, but all this did was elisit a smile from Cayle. I wouldn't blame Duncan for being annoyed with the language, but he couldn't know how close Cayle and I had gotten over the years. It wasn't often that you found a lord of similar age to myself, and for this reason above many of the others he was someone I had always gravitated towards. When Leyton Mountain entered being escorted by his heir Baelor and his frightening looking daughter Malora. I had heard that she and Leyton spent nearly all of their days locked away in their hightower, and from the looks of her she hadn`t seen the outside world very much of late. Franklin Brent entered flanked by his little wife Karyl Reyne of whom held onto him as if he was the last thing in ths world. Franklin brought in tow with him Benjemin, and Dennis Ordos of which I along with everyone else in the room found beyond hilarious. Dennis had long been the Lord of House Ordos, but the wealth possessed by House Brent always meant that the kind of diplomatic insults that might doom another vassal were simply ignored for fear of what House Brent might do. The final Lords to enter were Laehera Rholler, Vincent Godfrey, and Kieth Darkwood of whom waited at the door and when the four Greymane gaurds walked in holding the door I knew we were in for Genn Greymane. Held to his feet by Liam Greymane the Elderly Lord of Hillsbrad was seated at the Arch Lord table and when he raised his hand to speak the meeting would begin. ``My Lords...``Liam whispered to him briefly, and he continued.``My Lords, and Ladies I thank you all for arriving so promptly.`` The ever present grovelling begin with Kieth Darkwood of whom bowed his head from the table and thanked Genn for his hospitality of which when Genn did not anwser or look it was clear he hadn`t heard and so Liam said the your welcomes necessary.  Genn appeared to enter some kind of trance, and when this happened Liam moved himself away from his father as if to avert people`s eyes and begin speaking`` My honored Lords and Ladies we are here today to speak of the direction that the lands of Hillsbrad shall move in when it comes to the issue of William Lovie III. I, alongside my family have come to the conclusion that we shall support the young prince in his endeavors. I do not come here commanding the support of our vassals, instead I ask that we all make a decision and let it be known that all were heard.`` Liam sat back down beside his father of whom he put his hand onto the top of his fathers hand before raising his other hand to direct others to speak. Vincent Godfrey spoke first. ``I may offer but one small issue. While I do not disagree that what we have heard of this young prince is at least more promising then his father, I do wish to point out that others have attempted to move against Bill and they now sit in shallow graves.`` ``That is no reason not to support William. We all must die at some point, so why not die supporting the rightful king.`` Franklin spoke with a conviction and a admiration that was promising when it came to my hope that the Greymane`s would get much support. ``The fanaticism of youth is something that brings about its own host of dangers young Brent.`` Osbert Konie the vassal of Godfrey spoke in support of his liege. It was interesting to see the Kronies sitting with Vincent Godfrey while the Godfrey`s other vassal in the Voner`s was on the other side of the table. Clearly the long history of conflict between the two houses was alive and well. Franklin made the right choice when he ignored the attempted goading by Osbert. ``I come with the words of my father and thus all of House Brent behind me that we shall support the crown prince William Lovie III. Any who do not also follow the prince I beg to ask you one question. How can you accept a king that murders your family? Just a few short years ago he murdered hundreds in targeted assassinations. Our Liege Lord lost many members of his family for doing nothing more then what everyone at this table should be jumping at doing.`` Franklin`s words were met by smacks on the table of support by many of the Lords at the table. ``You speak as if you understand the world so greatly child. You have been alive for less summers then anyone at this table and yet you speak for all of us now.`` ``I speak for my liege Lord Genn Greymane, who has led us wisely and justly for years and was forced to endure the deaths of so much of his family for just asking questions.`` He looked around the table at each person before continuing. ``Lord Godfrey I think you forget to much that you are the vassal of House Greymane.`` "I do not forget my oaths at all. It is the fact that I do not forget my oaths that gives me pause disobeying the commands of the King of the Valley. You say the King is insane, and perhaps you are right, but does that give you the right to turn away from him?"

With the support of House Crowley the movement of some of the houses would change as all the Crowley loyalists quickly jumped on board with this plan as most had wanted to do this but didn't due to their belief that Vincent Godfrey would never have supported this.

Demi Snow following the ending of the meeting would take to staying near Andrew Garfield of whom accompanied her back to her families estate. Spending some time there getting the one hundred men she had promiced she would leave shortly after and return with Andrew to the assembling party outside of the eastern gate. By this point hours later her father learned of what she had done, and left the Crowley castle hours west of Hillsbrad and attempted to return to Hillsbrad. Demi realizing that her father was going to do something like that left with the hundred men of House Crowley ahead of the main Hillsbrad force heading for Forks.

Demi Hill Marries

Following the arrival of the Hillsbrad force in Forks Demi Snow would continue with the next step of her plan when she handed a letter of forged consent of marriage to Andrew`s father Harron Garfield of whom knew that his son desperately wanted to marry Demi, and knew that the match was perfect for his house so he jumped at the opportunity. Realizing that she couldn`t return unmarried or else her father would put an end to her scheming she persuaded Andrew and his father to have the ceremony in Forks so that she could truly be a part of their family during The Journey. Following her persuasion the marriage happened with the large Dragon Temple of Forks and Demi Snow became Demi Garfield and was now protected so she believed from the actions of her brother Dexter.

Second Battle of Tree Hill

Main Article : Second Battle of Tree Hill

As the human/elven alliance destroyed the Orcs that had held the Gondor siege of Minus Ithil for many years, Jurden Hardaxe paid this little heed despite the fact that he was sent word of it from some of his scouts who had been watching that siege for any signs of Mordor weakness. Jurden over the decade of the siege had become obsessed with maintaining his own power, and had basically become uninterested in actually ending the siege through conventional means. Alongside this he also had a growing belief that the humans were completely useless and for all of these reasons Jurden Hardaxe made no effort to double his scouts or anything that might have assisted him in stopping the coming ambush. And if all of this added up wasn't enough he was also still being whispered to by Morrigan who was telling him that it was all a trick and Sauron was only days away. As the Sindar Elven/Human forces moved to the high ground of the area near the bridge of Weidenhouse and from this position they begin planning the method they would use to end the conflict. As the planning begin it became clear that the fight would be started during the night as town they were in described the fact that they noticed very little activity in the Orc camp during the night most likely due to the fact that they had become completely confident in their lack of any kind of threat.

The Night Comes

Waiting for the night to come William would be able to watch for the first and last time the Orcs setting off their massive drums and horns in order to force the defenders to be unable to sleep during the night and thus exhausted during the day. Hearing this many among the attacking army grew even more angry at the fact that the defenders had been forced to endure this for all this time without anyone helping them. William would spend the night with Leven, Jasper, Emmett, and Edward as the Shadow Council as they were not openly to each other calling themselves spent a few last hours with each other before they all knew everything was going to change. Finding themselves greeted throughout the night by every lord who not wanted to speak to William they couldn't help but see how different things had become for the naive group. The Orcs by this point had no contact with their scouts, and yet they still remained completely unaware. Morrigan would at this point make her final step towards sealing the fate of Jurden Hardaxe when she would convince Jurden to host a large party for his Orcs which made them all drunk and even less prepared.

The Massacre

As the night neared the Orcs would begin their party and the loud noise would alert the alliance that this was underway, and also awake most of the defenders of Tree Hill of whom were prepared for what many believed was the final attack. The party continued, and the alliance moved itself completely into position against the now scout less Orcish force, and pushed in many places all the way against the wall with the entire Orcish force within the city itself or dead outside. The night came and the army would move on their predetermined signal of which moved everything forward. The infiltration of House Scarlet into the under tunnels of the city begin as Saiden Scarlet led a large force of hundreds into the tunnels in the goal of reaching the estate of House James and once the attack was underway they would spring upon the already ambushed Orcs. From the west the forces of House Greymane, and House Ordos would move themselves through the broken shattered western gate and encountered hundreds of Orcs in differing stages of drunkenness and the fighting wouldn't spark any concerns from the Orcs as it was all believed still to be a part of the party. Seeing the ambush was underway it was at this moment that Morrigan finally ended the charade and came upon Jurden while he was standing in his residence.

Aftermath

The battle would end with the complete destruction of the Orc army and the liberation of Tree Hill. When the armies of Lucerne and Gondor entered the remains of Tree Hill, they found the sad remnants of a once truly mighty city. Food, aid and supplies were rushed to the city, but before the true rebuild could begin Andrew Lovie would take the reigns of the King of Lucerne following a duel with his father.

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.

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 had been trained alongside the noble elite in the Lucernian Academy for a year, and during this time I had specialized in siege warfare. That was the problem with the Orcs. I was trained to fight against diciplined troops using strategies, but the Orcs just flew out of the forest in this massive wave. They had a level of shock value to them but in the chaos they were seemingly charging at random. Easy pickings for the methodic fire from the walls. I looked out over the rampart and saw them running about in the field out of range of all our firepower outside of the Balistas, and I was still taken back by their numbers. I could see the towers being pushed forward, and I heard Benjamin, and Orival Black barking out commands for the archers to prepare. They were coming, and this would be the moment of either our salvation or our death. As I watched them pushing the towers forward, and watched as the first tower went up in flames I couldn't help but feel better. The second tower burned with the fire of Brann Voil of whom stood chanting on the top of the tower, and yet again even as they moved forward I couldn't help but harbor a growing level of optimism. The saddest part of the charge was the fact that they had four siege towers, and then a huge number of ladders which they didn't realize till they reached the walls weren't tall enough to reach them. Watching the army run around at the base of the wall after ninety percent of their ladders weren't tall enough was one of the most shocking sights I've ever seen.