House Shephard

House Shephard took the lead on the invasion of Westian during the Invasion of Westbridge, and this was an important moment for them as of the major towns south of Westbridge the largest by far was Westian. Westian was a large town of nearly 47,000 people which was much larger then the other two towns that were required to be taken before Westbridge fell, and with most other houses committed to other things the task fell to House Shephard and its vassals and sworn houses to take the town. Christian Shephard gathered his family alongside his vassals leaderships and they met inside the House Shephard estates as they knew they were going to be late to arriving to the town as there forces were west near Castle Stragnarax and thus would be delayed. While they planned it was deemed by Christian that he would take charge of the attack, and that Jack, and the younger Taylor would form the next tier of the leadership planning. When John Shephard asked what his role would be the powerful Christian took the chance to take a shot at his brother when he told him that he would remain behind and stand as the regent of Gulltown until he returned.

The call from Willaim for involvement had meant that nearly every house in the area was more then prepared to join with House Shephard and their forces massed for several weeks at Gulltown where the plan was to have everyone leave together. When the forces of House Shephard and their vassals were finally gathered together outside of Gulltown they left nearly four days after the rest of the Lucernians but due to their control of Gulltown they were able to use ships to move most of their forces eastward landing south of Stormwind and then making their march north. While the forces of House Shephard were marshelling and moving north it was Thaleon Von Proveer that was moving among the ranks of the Westian nobles and non-nobles forming a rebellious element within the area with the help of his cloaks Annelie Westheimer, Ernst Havenstein, and Mikael Fichtner. The Malfoy commander in the area was a man named Xavier Delcroix and had followed the commands of House Malfoy when he took the position and had forced extreme taxes, and punishments on the people of the area, and only the corruption of Lord Francis Gripper who allowed the excesses of the Deatheaters in return for being made quite wealthy, and due to all this the people of the area were very open to the words of Thaleon and his men. While Ernst and Mikael worked on expanding the rebellious forces of the area it was Thaleon, Annelie, and ten Whelps that moved against the Tower of Westian which located in the mountains north of Westian had to be taken in order to stop Westian from being able to warn the Westbridge forces. Attacking the tower they found light defenses and killed all those with malfoy colors but imprisoned those with non-malfoy colors and then entered the tower where they found a Death Eater in the form of Renaud Couturier and ambushing the Magi they took him hostage which signaled the capture of the tower which they then made as their base of operation in the area.

Preparing the Siege

When they arrived at the outskirts of Westian the forces of House Shephard outside of House Kane would begin their planning for the surrounding of Westian, and in this regard they begin sneaking small groups of troops to locations north and west of Westian while they awaited House Kane to arrive in the east. While surrounding Westian it was Sawyer Shephard that would take a small group of knights and dressed as merchants they would enter Westian where they would stay in the Estate of House Tarin of whom under Orival Tarin III. had turned against the Malfoys and had through this joined with the forces of Lucerne.

Mistaken Landings

While doing this the first mistake of the siege would begin when the sworn house in the form of House Kane who had used ships to move along the coast landed too far north, and while attempting to march south towards their objective of eastern Westian they were spotted by scouts from Westian. Reginald Kane following the mistaken landing by his forces at the Siege of Westian would suffer a nervous breakdown and without his sister to advise him on what to do he would order his forces to attack the town of Whestianol but after this he handed command over to his son Hargon Kane II. and returned to the ships where he remained for the remainder of the Siege of Westian. Now under the command of Hargon Kane II. he commanded they send cavalry against the scouts but a close chase they were unable to stop the scouts who entered Westian warning the town of Lucerne's arrival. Hargon despite seeing no value in attacking Whestianol he would follow his fathers command and launched the Battle of Whestianol, while at the same time he sent word to the main force about what was happening in the area of Whestianol. Rebel forces had been concentrated at Whestianol and thus the town fell with relative ease but its capture was not meant to have happened but with their discovery House Kane believed they had to block the port and the road of which both were easy access for Whestianol. This moment through the entire operation into jeopardy and could have foiled the entire attack on Westbridge if not handled properly. Because of their discovery during the preparation for the siege they had been forced to set sentries all across the outside of the town stretching their might throughout the entire breathe of the town so that they could shoot down any ravens that attempted to warn Westbridge that they were coming. The fact that they were overstretched meant that the defenders could see this and over the course of the first day the defenders begin making sorties out of the gates to which became a larger and larger problem as the day went on. It was at this point the sorties would discover the large number of vassals of Westian that had joined the Lucernian attack, and this was reported back to the defense commander in Goren Doer of whom would begin executing people on the walls as a sign to not betray the Malfoys.

Towards the end of the day the siege machines were finally completed and where the attack was not supposed to damage or kill to much of the city and its people they now no longer had a choice in the matter. Doren Doer attempted two sorties against the main concentration of siege machines, but he specifically used those forces that he worried were not loyal to the Malfoy's and while the first attack got close before being repulsed the second attack would surrender to the Lucernians and lose without causing anything close to a hit against the siegers.

First Salvo

The first shot fired by the siege machines changed the way in which the battle was meant to go as no longer was this a peaceful annexation this was a full blown siege that was happening. The siege machines fired for the next three days and then paused during the night of the third day and while they paused the Lucernians looked at the fact that their were several holes in the walls now and two of the gate, along with several towers were close to collapse. It was decided by Christian that they would level the southern gate, and towers and then overwhelm that area with their forces. While this was happening the rebels that Thaleon Von Prover had cultivated inside of Westian begin to openly attack the defenders during the night in coordinated attacks all across the town. Thaleon Von Prover would lead his Order of the Violet Dragon forces in infiltrating the personal keep of House Doer of whom was one of the staunchest House Malfoy houses in the entire region, and thus couldn't be allowed to survive the fighting. Thaleon Von Prover and the other assassins would murder their way into the compound using the rebel attacks as a distraction, and they would be able to capture the compound and kill the entire Doer family. Following this the rebels would take control of the compound, and barred the gates shooting anyone that came near causing a huge problem for the defenders. The fighting would continue for the rest of the night, and the next day when the sun begin to shine the outside Lucernians were greeted with the southern gates opening and a single man walking out.

Things Change

The defenders led by House Gripper sent a messenger to the defenders in order to discuss what was happening, and when he arrived Jack Shephard was the one to speak to him alongside his cousin in Charlie Shephard. They told the messenger that they didn't want to damage the city they simply wanted to take control and that nothing would change for them except they would be under better rule without House Malfoy. During the conversation they learned that House Gripper's only son and heir to his house had been killed during the early breakout attempts and that the Lord of Westian was now prepared to have the whole city burn down before he gave it up to the murderers of his son. Jack Shephard would attempt to see if there could be any compromise made and he learned from the messenger this was impossible as the Lord of House Gripper was commanding the setting of barrels of oil that he was going to light in his plot to burn the city to the ground. 

With this in mind they delayed for a time while the command of House Shephard got together to plan how they were going to proceed. Knowing they were going to be in serious trouble if somehow House Gripper survived this they knew first and most importantly during the fall of the city that entire house had to be killed, and as they discussed who would be responsible for this Maron Scorpian stood up and said that his house would take the lead on this. Thaleon Von Proveer was contacted along the wall using flag messages and from this he would organize the rebels and his assassins to be prepared for the attack to come that day. House Kane was commanded a special mission as well as they were commanded to find and protect the members of House Tarin inside the city as House Tarin was decided to be the next Lord of the House since House Gripper refused to be reasonable. With the plan in place the next day the armies of House Shephard watched as the siege machines tore apart the gate, and towers of the south and left a giant series of holes throughout the southern half of the town. While there were some defenders still on the wall the rebel attack the previous day, the large number of defections and the retreat of House Gripper into their personal compount meant that the walls were a skeleton crew. With the gap open they moved through it and while taking casualties getting through they broke the defenders and made their way inside the town where they found most of the resistence was now formed by House Gripper's personal elite gaurd and the rest of the houses, and defenders were throwing their weapons down and surrendering of which all were accepted.

Ending of House Gripper

While House Shephard and House Kilgor moved throughout the town securing its main locations, the two other houses in House Scorpian and House Kane went about their specific missions. House Kane located the members and leadership of House Tarin very quickly and arriving at the estate they would be greeted as liberators of which led to the easy taking of the estate and it being brought under heavy guard to protect them thereby quickly finishing their task. House Scorpian moved directly towards the House Gripper estate where they met heavy resistance from the last of the House Gripper military who appeared to be engaging in a last stand to protect their lord and his family. Making their stand at the gatehouse leading into the estate they were slowly picked apart by the massive numbers brought to bear by House Scorpian, and finally defeated as Faril Scorpian led a group over the walls behind their lines and fell on the gatehouse killing the last members of the guards. The last stand having now failed and with his orders to follow Maron Scorpian led his soldiers inside the estate where they proceeded to go room to room killing every member of House Gripper including women and children.

As they prepared to leave the estate the young member of House Scorpian in Evin Scorpian discovered a beautiful young women hiding beneath a bed, and when he approached her and asked her name she begin crying and he knew she was a member of House Gripper. He knew she must die but he didn't have the heart to do it so he told her to stay quiet and hidden and then he left quickly to another room where he found a body of a House Scorpian soilder and dragged him into her room. Seeing the dead body she wanted to cry more but he covered her mouth and told her to change into his clothes so that she could escape. She relunctantly followed his words and changed, and then once changed she followed him out of the burning estate, and through the wreckage of the family she loved. Unknown to Evin Scorpian was the fact that while he was changing her they were being watched by Tobias Henkel of whom would report back to Thaleon that Evin had allowed a member of House Gripper to survive. This would be kept as silent information as they wanted to make sure that she was wanted dead or whether she could be married and thus kept alive as further ammunition for the control of Westian by Lucerne.

Wading through Death

With the estate in tatters and believing with sadness that the killing was done Faril went outside to meet with Evin of whom he proceeded to insult before telling him that Maron their father had told him to make sure that he checked inside the estate to see what the real family had done. As he entered the estate he walked from building to building seeing the endless parade of dead bodies he was horrified at what his family had done, and as he prepared to walk into one of the last houses he felt a hand on his shoulder. When he turned around to look he saw that it was Elize whose hand was on his shoulder and while her face was somewhat covered with blood, and her personal armor was covered with it as well she looked at him with a smile that made him feel loved, but at the same time sad for how disturbed she had become. She pulled him into a hug which made him forget for a moment where all the blood that covered her had come from, and he allowed himself to simply enjoy her embrace and forget the violence. As she hugged him she whispered in his ear and they had a conversation that would prove critical in their later days of which was encircled by her final words.

"Don't get to upset that you can't go in that house. Don't dwell on that because when your pained by that your ignoring the more deadly question which is what kind of person could go into that house."

-Elize Scorpian

Maryl Gripper

As they prepared to leave the estate the young member of House Scorpian discovered a beautiful young women hiding beneath a bed, and when he approached her and asked her name she begin crying and he knew she was a member of House Gripper. He knew she must die but he didn't have the heart to do it so he told her to stay quiet and hidden and then he left quickly to another room where he found a body of a House Scorpian soilder and dragged him into her room. Seeing the dead body she wanted to cry more but he covered her mouth and told her to change into his clothes so that she could escape. She relunctantly followed his words and changed, and then once changed she followed him out of the burning estate, and through the wreckage of the family she loved. As she followed him out of the wreckage he saw his sister Elize walking quickly towards him, and he knew that she knew that he was up to something. She walked over and pulled Evin and Maryl into a small house that was nearbye. She attempted to find out for what reason Evin would protect this girl, and he couldn't give her an anwser but when Faril entered the house to find out what they were doing she lied to Faril and told him that she was just congratulating Maryl - of whome she passed off as a random soilder - on her work during the massacre. When Faril bid Maryl to speak Elize spoke up again and said that she had cut off the soilders tongue during an argument, and this was enough to finally get Faril to leave the house and give them a chance to talk about things. Despite her obsessive love for Evin Elize promised to keep the girl safe and make sure they were able to get her back to Lucerne but once there she made sure that Evin understood that she couldn't stay with him or else her kindness would be overriden by her love for Evin. With that she walked up to Evin and gave him a passionate kiss before walking back out. When she left Maryl spoke for one of the first times when she asked Evin who that women was, and she was shocked when Evin said that it was his sister.