Jordan Plaup

Jordan Plaup is the son of two members of House Plaup of which makes him a member of and the current Patriarch as well as Lord of House Plaup.

Jordan Plaup spent his youth at the Lucernian Academy and during his time there he joined with the youthful nobles of whom wanted to lead an assault against Lyons to assist Bretonia, and it was in this youthful decision he would take part in the Battle of Lyons. Jordan Plaup would join with Bill Lovie during the Battle of Lyons where he would lead a contingent of cavalry, but he never got the chance to truly fight as the Orcs were made aware by Roman mistakes and the human force was destroyed leaving most of the Lucernian force dead, but Jordan was able to escape alongside the King.

History

War in France

Main Article : War in France

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

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

Lucernian Invasion of Gondor

Main Article : Lucernian Invasion of Rhunian

Lucernian Invasion of Rhunian One day you men will look back and ask yourself what the hell you did here. You attacked us while were fighting monsters. So much for the honor of the Dragons.

“James Lovie second of his name forced us to invade a realm we had only shared interests with. He saw a chance to take advantage of a realm fighting against a shared enemy, and for that there can be no forgiveness.” — Eddard Starke The Lucernian Invasion of Rhunian begin after an increasingly devolving James Lovie II. recieved word from Gondor that they needed help in fighting the Orcs on their eastern border. James would summon the council of Lucerne and reluctantly everyone outside of Forks came to the meeting but instead of proposing assistance to Gondor it was James that discussed his desire to attack and gain control of the Rhunian region of Gondor. Upon hearing this the Starke forces that were present would react with shock and resisted this heavily, but in this they were supported by none of the other members of the council who all have been successfully intimated by what everyone knows was James reaction to the last time the lords resisted him in the form of The Plague. When Eddard Starke continued to resist the wishes of James it was James Nighting and several guards who brought Rickon Starke, and Lyanna Starke and in front of the council Rickons life was threatened if Eddard did not agree to follow through. Unwilling to lose his son and sister it was Eddard that agreed to lead his forces in assaulting Gondor, and alongside Winterfell it was the Grand State of Castamere and several other prominent areas in the Valley that would be commanded to begin preperations for the assault on Rhunian. Eddard would remain behind after the rest of the council was sent away and it was made clear that Rickon, and Lyanna would remain in Lucerne and that if the Starke's did not make good on their word then not only would Rickon, and Lyanna be executed but the next council meeting would be about removing House Starke from their position. “Your father sent me letters detailing how many troops he was planning on sending us in support. He spent weeks lying to me. Promices are tough to hear from a Lovie.” — Tari-Aragorn Elessar III. While this was being planned it was James that was communicating with Gondor about his plans to support them in a push into Umbar to create a barrier between the two nations, and thus Gondor was moving troops to the Ethring region while Lucerne was moving troops to the Gondor border. Rhunian thus would have only its own forces, and a small amount of reserves from Gondor to defend it if the Lucernians attacked the land, but one element that the Lucernians had not anticiapted was the arrival of Tur-Eldarion Elessar a prince of Gondor who arrived in Langstrand to begin recruiting troops in Rhunian and this drive for recruitment would bring thousands of extra troops into Rhunian. When the Starke's did little more then send small outriders against northern Rhunian, and a contingent of Mormont men from Bear Island it was left to the Lannisters to actually instigate the conflict. Tywin, and Tygett Lannister would send hundreds of cavalry into central Rhunian against the villages along the border, and proceeded to ransack and pillage the entire area leading to at first confusion from Gondor who had signed alliance papers and had principally agreed on a mutual plan to attack Umbar. Gondorian diplomats were imprisoned in both Castamere and Winterfell and attempts to communicate were met with silence leading to a shocked Gondorian prince Tur-Eldarion to send word to the Gondor capital that was was now declared with Lucerne. Lannister Invasion of Langstrad “I looked at the conflict in two different lenses. The first was my belief that the king was increasingly moving in the direction of a mad King and this decision wreaked of a lack of foresight. On the other hand control of Lanstrand would be a great addition to the power of House Lannister.” — Tywin Lannister As the Gondorians were mobilizing it was the Lannisters who smashed into the western areas of Rhunian taking control of dozens of villages and putting four towns under siege. House Lannister moved their main army straight out of Lannistane alongside all of their vassals, and other houses and moved directly towards Langstrand. The Lannisters were led by Tywin Lannister of whom took complete charge of the siege of Langstrand, and then he sent his family members to take control of the various villages, and castles nearby. The defenders of Langstrand were offered quarter, but refused under the command of Haalbrad and demanded the Lucernians leave their lands or else face the consequences. The defenders were outnumbered, but Langstrand sat on the edge of water, and the river bed was shielded by cliffs which meant they could get some supplies inside, thus making the siege even longer. Invasion of Tolhnen Elements from Mander, and southern Castamere landed by boat in southern Rhunian and placed the town of Tolhnen under siege as well as spread out throughout the coastline of southern Rhunian attempting to gain control of the entire southern coast. Sack of Tolhnen Invasion of Torginiath With his brother Guntram still missing it was Arwin that took command of the House Jest forces during the Lucernian Invasion of Rhunian and his forces would launch a naval invasion of the port town of Minas Torginiath, but before he could reach the port he took part in a brief naval battle outside Torginiath where he sunk most of the Gondor navy. Having gained control of the port of Torginiath it was Arwin that situated his forces in a garrison position as per his commands from the Lannister high command, and prepared for any sort of invasion by the forces of mainland Gondor. During this garrison duty he would become close with the Admiral of the Torginiath naval forces in the form of Ka-Alisse Maethadis, and their friendship would allow for a more peaceful control of Torginiath as Alisse assisted him in controlling the city. Arwin would agree to Alisse's desire to travel to Tolhnen and try and save her brother and sent her there with three men, and before she left the two shared a kiss and promices of more for the two of them hung in the air as she left Torginiath for Tolhnen. Exodus of Torginiath The men that Arwin had sent to accompany Alisse to Tolhnen returned and told him that she had been executed alongside hundreds of other innocents by the order of Alberich Grefford, as well as telling him that Alberich was on his way to Torginiath. Realizing what Alberich would do if he came to Torginiath he would take his ship and meet with Admiral Ka-Nethion Authion and would faciliate the exodus of hundreds of high ranking nobles out of Minas Torginiath by boat, and when Alberich arrived this exodus was almost complete and once again in his desire to continue his ethnic cleansing program it was Alberich who attempted to order a fight with the Gondor navy. This attempt was resisted by Arwin and once again Alberich prepared to fight a fellow Lucernian force, and this time there was no high ranking Lucernian commander to stop him and thus started the Skirmish At Torginiath. During the brief skirmish between the forces loyal to Arwin and those loylal to Alberich hundreds were killed but when the population of Torginiath came to the streets in support of Arwin it was Alberich that forced to flee the city leaving Arwin firmly in control of Torginiath. Invasion of Adrahil With the Lannisters fully preparing to invade and once that war being declared it was the Starke's no matter what they wanted, and they massed all their vassals into the area now known as Arathor and prepared to attack into Central Rhunian and upwards, while the Lannisters already had mobilized were preparing to attack southern Rhunian, and upwards from there. It was this point that James Lovie would send forces from his own Circle of Magi of whom led by Kieth Schwartz, and accompanied by men from House Lerman under the command of Faedra Lerman, and Logan Lerman and these forces were sent to watch over the leadership of House Starke of whom James Lovie had no trust in. The strategy of House Starke though was for their forces to thrust against the large town of Adrahil, while there forces then moved against the villages north of Adrahil in an attempt to draw the Gondor soldiers into pitched battles that worked against them. They would be led by Eddard Starke, and Brandon Starke of which the two brothers would lead the siege of Adrahil. Gondorian Counter Attack “It was just another tick in a nearly endless supply of failures given to us by Bill Lovie. He told us noone would come, and here we were facing the might of the two princes of Gondor and a weaker but still substantial army.” — Eddard Starke Following this the conflict escalated very quickly when despite the conflicts on the eastern half of their Kingdom the forces of Gondor moved significant forces to the western half against the forces of Stormwind. During this escalation the forces of House Lannister, and House Starke moved increasingly to the front, with both sides employing different strategies. House Lannister and its forces continued to move against the area around the large Gondor town of Langstrand which they had surrounded with forces, and moved a smaller force of more elite irregular troops led by many of their more elite forces to harass the lands south of Adrahil where the main thrust of House Starke was moving against. This strategy worked with both the forces assisted by a small detatchment sent from House Ordos. House Ordos sent an elite force of siege experts that assisted with both the siege of Langstrand, and Adrahil with both logistics and leadership for goals of the sieges. On the other side of the conflict was the defenders of Gondor of whom were led by Eldarion Elessar, his brother Ildarion, and their uncle Halbaard Elessar. The conflict in the east was dire, and thus Gondor was forced to rely on the two princes, and the forces they brought were relatively weak auxiliary forces from south western Gondor, and not the more battle hardened eastern troops. The forces of Gondor were obviously relying mainly on defenders made up of the forces of the two major towns Adrahil, and Langstrand and because of this they were in a lot of trouble when it came to the massive forces being brought to bear by Castamere, Winterfell, Mander, and Hillsbrad. The northern town of Adrahil was led by the two sons of the King, while Lanstrand was held by Halbaard Elessar making for serious leadership in the two towns. Hiding “Did my father expect me to leave you here Liana? Did he think I would turn away? I hope he thinks more of me now then he clearly thought of me back then.” — Philip Prester It would be at this time that Liana Beyne would be nearly completely in love with Philip Prester by the time the two were fourteen and it was this love that led Philip to take drastic actions when his father sent him word about the invasion of Rhuthian. The word came in the form of several pages, and a man at arm in the form of Tristen of Feastfires of whom would take Philip aside and tell him he needed to come with them as the attack on Rhuthian was weeks away. Learning this he would in the dead of night sneak away from the sleeping Tristen of Feastfires and go to Liana's father Menagil Beyne of whom would assemble his family after hearing what Philip had to say, and would put complete faith in the young Philip Prester when he handed him over his two daughters for protection, and with only supplies and horses he sent them away from Castle Beyne for the west. Tristen of Feastfires would awaken and realizing quickly what had happened left the castle with little resistance from House Beyne of whom was happy to have him and his two squires gone. Philip would reach the Gondorian port town of Leghland where they found passage to Lucerne where shortly after arriving on shore they found a large encampment of Lucernian forces carrying the banner of House Starke. Going into the camp of House Starke Philip Prester would present himself to the Starke leadership of whom listened to him as he was the heir to a powerful house, and they would do the honorable thing when they sent him northward with Liana and Vellia to Winterfell. As the conflict neared its beginning his presence in Winterfell would become known when Tristen of Feastfires finally found his trail after weeks of looking, and would lie saying Tywin Lannister himself had summoned Philip, and with this command in place Philip would tearfully say goodbye for a time to Liana Beyne while traveling with Tristen to the forces of House Prester. Chasing the Prince When he was given word that Ildarion Elessar had fled Adrahil and was moving south he sent his most trusted commander in his son Jaime Lannister north to chase him down with most of the heavy cavalry and the entire force of House Reyne that had come with House Lannister. Jaime Lannister would move quickly north, but was very careful to move his large force out of sight of any force that they saw and through this strategy he moved undetected through Gondor and begin stalking Ildarion Elessar and his force so that he could capture the prince before the Starke's got him. Jaime got close to Ildarion Elessar twice but both times Ildarion was able to meneaver himself away from the forces of Jaime Lannister, and escape. Either way the forces of Ildarion were basically reduced to running around for nearly a month as they were chased by Jaime Lannister and this left them unable to take part in any actual fighting. “My father may not have noticed but while Jaime was running about chasing around Ildarion Elessar, I was taking control of an entire province of Gondor.” — Tyrion Lannister While Jaime was searching for Ildarion Elessar his brother in Tyrion Lannister moved throughout the region between around Langstrand with a largely weakly equipped ground force and begin capturing the various castles, and forts that dotted this region. These forts, and castles were far weaker then they had ever been because the west was seen by Gondor as the area that they least needed to be worried about. Despite this though Tyrion had to deal with each of these defences of which the largest was the fort of Amon Hen of which was defended by six hundred men of Gondor and was perched on a cliff overlooking the valley around it. Tyrion would use great skill in traversing the valley around the fort which allowed him to sneak his forces to the depths surrounding the fort. The forces of Gondor in many places fought to the last man, but were clearly given some orders for larger garrisons to surrender and save their lives. In Amon Hen the defenders lost some three hundred troops in the suprise attack, but still held on for hours before they surrendered and were sent westward as prisoners. With Tyrion sacking castle after castle he finally had managed to block the eastern river approach into Langstrand thus closing the city off from supplies by the water, and thus making starving them out once more an option. The Chase Expands “I knew I had to take control of the situation before the Lannisters got their brand of victory. The only problem was that I knew Halbaard very well and I didn't have any violent quarrel with the city.” — Eddard Starke Theon Greyjoy joined Robb Starke in a raiding party that was basically meant to harass, and capture large tracts of land in the hopes of getting the Gondorians to leave their fortifications and walk into traps north of Adrahil. While they did this Jon Snow led a smaller group of heavy cavalry against the villages of this area, and he slowly but surely became a sort of vangaurd for the larger cavalry force of Theon, and Robb. At this point with fighting breaking out all over the region the main army of Eddard Starke supported by House Baratheon and some logistics sent by House Ordos moved against the town of Adrahil and put the town completely under siege. Before they could get the entire town under siege though one of the brothers in Ildarion left the city from the west with a large force of heavy, and light cavalry and made his way south to defend Langstrad where the the city was more capable of falling quickly. With Adrahil under siege and the objective of starving the town out until it surrendered Eddard gave the command to begin the heavy harrasment in the north. House Mormont and the Bear Island troops would capture nearly all the mines, and livestock of the area and bring it westward, while the other Bear Island troops ransacked northern Rhunian and took the spoils into Lucerne. While this was happening the forces of House Tarly of whom commanded a large force would move eastward towards Lamedon, where they would arrive and thus block off the ability of Gondor to send any kind of supplies or reinforcements into the area. Randyll Tarly would hold two castles west of Lamedon, and despite attempts by the Lamedon troops to dislodge him, he was a master tactision and was unable to be removed. “My father gave me strict orders that I wasn't to die.” — Robb Starke Theon and Robb would command together a force of cavalary of which they used brilliantly and after raiding the village of Meadow's Grove they noticed a rather large group of Gondor soilders marching eastward and they immediatly begin following the group. After a full day of marching the Gondor forces set up camp inside a forest and they believed they had the night to rest before marching again. This was a large mistake, and the forces of Theon and Robb moved quickly to surround the camp. While they surrounded the camp the forces of Jon Snow moved against the only real chance of the Gondor force to be saved when they moved against a cavalry force led by one of the local commanders. In the coming Raid on Groilline Jon Snow would discover that Ildarion was with that camped force, and would send word to Robb about this, while Jamie Lannister was not told or made aware of any changes. Raid on Groiline “My success in the capture of Groiline would allow me to get out of the shadow of being a bastard son of the Lord of Stormwind, but it also sent me to the north.” — Jon Snow During the days of the war with Gondor, Jon Snow was tasked with a small unit of troops that he was tasked with raiding the northern farmlands in order to draw out the outstretched Gondor forces into the trap of the army of House Lannister, and House Starke. In Jon's role he would become aware of how outstretched the Gondor forces were when he chased a force of Gondor cavalry through the night and as he passed by the village of Groiline his scouts reported no defenders. His scouts informed him that the cavalry had no intention of stopping as they were moving eastwards towards Prince Ildarion of whom was being shadowed by both Robb Starke, and Jaime Lannister. Seeing this as an oppurtunity he would stop chasing the cavalry and would instead move his force to Groiline and capture the village, thus unknown to Ildarion Elessar and his forces the road west was free for them to go back through, but without knowing that they made camp that nigh with no knowledge they were trapped on all sides except one. “I followed my orders to the letter. I chased that foolish prince through the forests for weeks, and each time I got close he ran a little faster. When I finally caught him I was failed by my scouts of whom I can only assume died for their mistake.” — Jamie Lannister As Jamie Lannister made his way north his scouts were constantly scanning the woods, and the villages that they moved through, and around in the guise of finding Ildarion. As this continued they reached just east of Castle Beyne when they caught the scent of Ildarion as he was travelling north of the castle fighting a running battle against a House Starke cavalry force. His scouts reported to him that the forces of House Starke that were involved were those of his rival in Robb Starke so he moved quicker then he wanted to in order to catch Ildarion. As he moved with less stealth now his force was noticed by a local garrison of whom was led by the able commander Aegnor Tal-Villion of whom begin shadowing the larger Lannister force. Aegnor was a Numenorian just like his friend Ildarion Ellessar and knew the importance of his prince, and thus he made the decision to stop Jame Lannister by whatever means necessary. Aegnor quickly realized as he followed Jamie's forces that Jamie was attempting to harry his prince, and thus Aegnor prepared most of his men for the defence of their fort, while he and a company fifty cavalry begin to harass the rear echolon of the Jaime Lannister force. Jaime Lannister was in a meeting with his scouts of whom informed him that Ildarion was only a few hours away and if they marched now they could catch him. As he prepared to give the command the cries of battle went out as the cavalry of Aegnor crashed into the camp killing at random. As they charged into the camp Aegnor would set off extremely loud horns and cut the ropes that bound the horses thus causing the Lannister horses to go screaming into the night. Jaime moved into the fray, and after a brief fight the cavalry of Aegnor calmly retreated from the field. The Lannisters had lost nearly two hundred men in the brief fight, and their supplies were in tatters following the ambush so Jaime was forced to deal with the forces of Aegnor and resist the capture of Ildarion as he didn't have the capable forces anymore. Having saved his prince from capture Aegnor retreated to Castle Trenabal where they bunkered in for the inevitable counter assault. Ambush at Meadow's Grove “The culmination of everything over the past months was finally coming together, and the closeness of it gave me slight pause. I moved into that camp with the belief that I would either be sealing his coffin, or walking into the trap that sealed mine.” — Robb Starke Before Jon Snow had moved against the village of Goiline he had sent a raven scout northwest towards where he believed his brother to be with the information that he had Ildarion surrounded from the north, while Jaime Lannister was in the south blocking that route, and a force of cavalry was coming from the west to alert the Ildarion force of their predicament. Realizing they had to stop the cavalry force Robb Starke ordered a bold move when he moved his entire force south west into the path of the cavalry. His force would get off their horses and quickly prepare and ambush for the force of maybe fifteen cavalry, and when the force arrived they quickly saw they were in a lot of trouble so they surrendered with only two casualties of whom had attempted to flee. Robb's force would quickly gain the information from the cavalry about where the prince was precisely located, and with this information they were sent to the rear lines by some of the men, and the rest of the force moved towards the force of Ildarion. With no hope of relief, or any new information they knew they had Ildarion this night if they worked this well. Theon, and Robb's forces moved silently in the night and proceeded to take out the scouts that had been posted to watch for just this event. With the scouts taken out the forces moved into the camp, and went tent to tent killing the nearly 300 strong Gondor force. Quickly into the attack the Gondorians woke up on mass after a large death scream, and combat raged across the camp with the House Starke force vastly outnumbering the Gondorians and completely surrounded and without their equipment on. The force had been chased by Jamie Lannister for well over a month, and due to House Tarly closing the supplies they were not able to be releived as often, and thus for all of these reasons by the time they were now in battle they were no longer even capable of fighting. After only a few minutes the Gondorians begin to surrender, and it was during this end of the fighting that Robb Starke noticed that one of the fighters who had remained fighting was Ildarion Elessar the son of the King of Gondor. “Seeing him like this was exactly what I thought it would look like. He was unarmored due to the fact that he was probably catching the first true sleep he'd had in over a month, and this was how it turned out for him. He killed two of my men before I was able to intervene, and fighting him made me realize how much training I still needed to do. If he wasn't half asleep, and ragged from being worn down for two months I would have never won that fight, but he was and I won.” — Robb Starke Robb immediatly engaged him in combat and on his own velition was able to defeat him only because he could tell that Ildarion was half dead from fatigue, and being unequipped with armor, or a shield. When Ildarion fell defeated the rest of the Gondor force was swiftly throwing down their weapons and surrendering leaving the full Starke force with a nearly complete victory. With Ildarion defeated Robb was egged on by Theon to kill him, and for a moment Robb contimplated listening to his friend but he then thought strategically and realized that if they had the prince they could basically ransom whatever they wanted from the Gondorians. With this in mind Robb decided instead of killing him he would instead take him in as a prisoner, and ordered the force to pull back to their original position with their now sixty prisoners along with the prince of Gondor. Prisoner “I never thought I would be captured. Even as I was chased I just assumed I would get away.” — Ildarion Ellessar Robb Starke would pull his force back behind the lines, and there would set up a camp for all the prisoners they had captured and then sent word to his father about the capture of Ildarion, which would then spread like wildfire. When Eddard heard of this news he sent word to Eldarion in Adrahil of whom then sent word to Aragorn of this change in events. Aragorn had two options in front of him. The first option was to engage the Lucernians in a full pitched battle which he might lose, and if he didn't lose he would most likely lose on the east because of all the causualites. Or he surrendered most of the Gondor lands west of the River Rhine. In the end he would send word to Eldarion that their forces were going to surrender under the terms that all Gondor citizens, and forces be allowed free pass into Gondor, along with the return of Ildarion, and all prisoners. Bill Lovie would send word to Eddard that he was incoming to the camp that Eddard and Tywin Lannister were meeting, but when the letter came the servent that brought it told them that Bill planned to execute Ildarion on the spot. “The King was coming to kill the prisoner that stood between me and a lot of power. I couldn't let his stupidity and blatent attempts at war to stand between me and all that. Luckily for me Eddard Starke was able to ignore his honor for a second and do exactly what had to be done.” — Tywin Lannister Both commanders understood that if they did this it would mean all out war which was stupid since they could have all of this land with no bloodshed. Because of this they hid the note, and told the scout that the prisoners were already in transfer back to Gondor. With this information Bill Lovie would return to Lucerne instead of seeing the two Lords, and they both knew they had made an enemy that day. When this happened Ildarion was given word by Robb Starke that he was to be released along with all of his men. The two would discuss the coming world that they both lived in, and Robb Starke would gain a lot of respect for Ildarion, and the same would be true of Ildarion for Robb Starke.