Lucerne Wiki
Register
No edit summary
Tag: rte-wysiwyg
 
Line 45: Line 45:
 
===Noteable Members===
 
===Noteable Members===
 
[[Category:City in Westros]]
 
[[Category:City in Westros]]
[[Category:Kingdom of Bolten]]
 
 
[[Category:House Karstark]]
 
[[Category:House Karstark]]
 
[[Category:House Starke]]
 
[[Category:House Starke]]
 
[[Category:Settlement in Bolten]]
  +
[[Category:City]]
  +
[[Category:Castle]]

Latest revision as of 03:51, 31 March 2017

Karhold

Karhold is a large city built to the south of the capital of Dreadfort, and is the ancestoral home of the influencial House Karstark, and through this connection also the home of House Starke. Karhold is built on two massive peaks with the large section of the population living at the bottom of the peaks and unprotected by the large fortifications of the castle. Karhold is one of the few lucky cities of the old Empire of Numeron that survived the downfall nearly intact. Due to this there survival the settlement is rather large by the standards of the region with nearly 300,000 people living within the region. The actual city is significantly smaller with more emphasis on defence then being a city which is why it only has 85,000 people. This matters little to House Karstark who at will can call upon one of the largest armies in Westros.

The city of Karhold truly came into existence during the rise of House Starke who travelled south from Norway during the Great Migration and settled in this region. Their numbers and intelligence during their early time here allowed them to accumulate a large amount of wealth which eventually spawned a large scale settlement in their region which slowly came to be known as Karhold. House Starke used their wealth to create the foundations of what still stands today as the keep of Karhold. The Keep stood as the center of what was at the time an independant micro Kingdom ruled by the Starkes.

History

Early History

House Starke

House Starke

See Also : House Starke

The city of Karhold truly came into existence during the rise of House Starke who travelled south from Norway during the Great Migration and settled in this region. Their numbers and intelligence during their early time here allowed them to accumulate a large amount of wealth which eventually spawned a large scale settlement in their region which slowly came to be known as Karhold. House Starke used their wealth to create the foundations of what still stands today as the keep of Karhold. The Keep stood as the center of what was at the time an independant micro Kingdom ruled by the Starkes.

During this rise the city gained widespread notice after the Starkes constructed a large wall around the city. This brought the attention of the growing Kingdom of Bolten who begin setting their eyes on expansion. During this time the House was led by Jordin Starke, and he was silently facing resistence from his brother Josin Starke, who wanted to rule on his own without his brother.

House Starke Civil War

Main Article : House Starke Civil War

House Karstark

See Also : House Karstark

First Bolten-Lucerne War

Main Article : First Bolten-Lucerne War

The Siege of Karhold
Surrender now. Everything west of here is gone to your kingdom, and we have this city surrounded. Save thousands of lives and surrender yourselves to the justice of Lucerne.

Siege of Karhold

Main Article : Siege of Karhold

Siege of Karhold

The forces of House Starke and the Kingdom of Lucerne already vastly outnumbered the defending forces and this was only made worse for the defenders as long time only slightly aligned forces around Karhold turned against their House Karstark masters.

It had been generations since we had been betrayed and our land taken form us. While we had rebuilt our lives and the memory had begun to fade. The anger and hatred of a betrayal never truly goes away.
Eddard Starke

With the fall of Jeutenburg the route into Karhold was completely open to the forces of Lucerne and they would take advantage of the shock caused on the Bolten forces by the destruction of the army at Green Creek. Moving eastward the forces of House Karstark would be fed bad information from the retreating forces who told them that the main goal was the castle west of Karhold in the form of Saltwood Castle. In this way believing they would hit Saltwood first Arnolf who was in command of Karhold would send a significant portion of the Karstark forces to Saltwood under the command of the Bastard and already turned to the Lucernians Wellen Flayed of whom knew that House Saltwood had already defected to the Lucernians and was thus further feeding bad information. As the Bolten forces were going towards Saltwood Castle in order to meet the forces of House Starke head on the true Starke force was now heading directly towards Karhold from the north where due to misinformation and much of the Karstark forces turning to the Lucernians it found basically no resistance.

Battle of Saltwood Castle

Main Article : Battle of Saltwood Castle

Jaden Ambry1
You half felt bad for those poor fools walking into the disaster at Saltwood. We knew there would surprise and everyone who laid down a sword was going to live. It had to be that way.
Jaden Ambry

The Secondary force from House Starke would arrive at Saltwood Castle before the forces of Bolten and would menaeuver themselves into the forests south of the castle while the Bolten forces could be devided into two distinct sections. The first section of the Bolten forces had remained loyal to House Bolten and the Karstarkes either out of honor or had not been told of other options and thus moved towards Saltwood without knowledge that most had switched sides. The second group were led by House Johanston of whom commanded a force made up of the houses of the area and from elsewhere that had switched sides to the Lucernians and these forces were prepared for the ambush as they marched. Marching forward the Lucernian loyalists would remain outside the castle while the Bolten loyalists split in a further half with one side entering the castle, and the other side heading towards the forest where the Lucernians awaited them. Once out of range of the castle the Saltwoods would reject the call to call for surrenders when they opened fire on the Bolten troops entering the castle, and nearly the entire force was massacred. Trying to flee the Lucernians turncoats that had waited outside the castle hit them from the rear and these forces were more willing to accept prisoners but the Bolten troops were destroyed or captured in their entirety. The other force led by Cregan Karstark II., and Eddard Karstark II. would find themselves moving towards the forest and seeing a now fully deployed and larger force of Lucernian troops awaiting them. Deploying into position they watched the arrival of the other forces but these forces stopped behind them with weapons drawn clearly indicating a trap. Moving forward towards these troops Jaden Ambry, and Trevor Baratheon would bid them surrender and seeing the hopelessness of their position they would surrender themselves as well.

The Attack Begins

Siege of Karhold2
We went immediatly under the assumption that the Saltwood turning would lead to our victory against their main force, and we hit the northern gate while noone was ready.
Robb Starke

Robb Starke and the main Starke force would hit the northern edge of Karhold during the night, and would spy very few sentries on the wall due to the late night and the fact that noone thought Karhold was even threatened. Robb would send Theon Greyjoy, and Gregory Estermont with a small team of troops carring ropes who would ascend the northern wall and open the gatehouse for their troops. Theon, and Gregory would be able to get onto the wall but the alarm was raised as they were opening the gates thus alerting the city to the attack. The army of the Starkes entered the northern gate either way and was able to quickly capture a large swathe of the northern section as most of the defenders were just waking up, and those that were up were either killed or disarmed by the attacking forces. Arriving at the western gate Robb Starke alongside Wilheim Martell would get inside the gatehouse, and open the gate allowing the monsterous Grey Wind to enter as well and Grey Wind would massacre Cregan Karstark and several other men before finally being restrained by Robb and together they left men at the gatehouse before moving to the Keep.

Grey Wind and Robb
They held fast at the eastern gatehouse, but they were horribly outnumbered and in most spots we controlled the high ground.
Gregory Estermont

The fighting in the eastern gatehouse was particularrly stiff as Craig Karstark, Urmen Stone, and Douglas Tisler waking to the alarm and heading to the eastern gatehouse in order to try and defend it. Urmen Stone would be struck by an arrow as the Stark men had taken the tower that overlooked the gatehouse and fired shots down at them. Retreating from view of the tower Craig would hold the inner gatehouse and fought off several men before finally Gregory Estermont got into the courtyard and would kill Craig. With the gate opening Douglas Tisler would jump from the wall into the water beneath and while badly injuring his leg he was able to swim to the Karstark side of the river to safety. The Karstarks would resist greatly in the marketplace of southern Karhold, but the main reason for the resistence being able to hold them off was the fact that Robb Starke had ordered a slow and safe conquest of the town believing he had increasingly large amounts of reinforcements incoming and didnt need to risk his forces in a battle he was already going to win.

Name Fate
Eddard Karstark
  • Killed by Robb in a duel near the western bridge after failing to surrender
Craig Karstark
  • Killed by Gregory Estermont while defending the eastern gatehouse
Urmen Stone
  • Killed by arrow while defending eastern gatehouse
Janise Karstark
  • Died trying to kill Gregory after the death of Craig Karstark
Cregan Karstark II. 
  • Prisoner following the Battle of Saltwood Castle
Eddard Karstark II.
  • Prisoner following the Battle of Saltwood Castle
Ophellia Karstark
  • Prisoner following failed attempt to flee the city during the intial attack
Metalyn Karstark
  • Prisoner following failed attempt to flee the city during the initial attack
Cregan Karstark
  • Killed by Grey Wind defending the western Gatehouse
Leysha Karstark
  • Prisoner following surrendering to the Starkes
Bodies were strewn about the streets as the Karstark forces had left disaster as they retreated into their keep. I stood over the body of Eddard Karstark his name brought shame to my fathers and for that along with his poor life choices he paid the ultimate price. Looking at the keep I saw four bridges and my men had told me a fifth was located on the opposite side of the island, and that made me clearly aware that we controlled three out of the five bridges. One of the bridges they controlled was so close to our lines that we would be able to destroy it with ease while the one on the east was built of stronger work then that. In the end it was clear the siege was over, and now we were fighting to see how many of them died.
Robb Starke

The Karstarks had been devestated by the fighting with nearly ten of their number either captured or dead on the field, and without much hope that they could hold the keep for long. The sheer number of Karstarks that they had prisoner meant that they were forced to house them all in the walled keep in the northern part of the city, and from there they made Arnolf very much aware of how many were prisoners. Arnolf himself was sickly and was unable to move but in an act of blind arrogance refused to hand command over to his grandson Harnolf Karstark believing that his brother Rickard was laughing at him for failing to hold the city, and thus he would die before he gave it up. Outside of the Karstarks there allies in House Urnet, and House Tisler also lost several members with only Heshen Urnet able to flee out of the city, and returning to the forces of House Urnet. With the fighting intensifying in the southern half of the city the Karstarks awaited reinforcements, but this would be a hopeless wait as well as while the fighting was dying down in Karhold the news begin filtering in that Hornwood was under siege from House Locke and House Hornwood was abandoning the area east of Karhold in order return home, and they were taking all their men with them.

Demographics

Houses

Name Seat Power Liege Ethnicity
House Blones South of Karhold Large farming base but small population Gothic German

Noteable Members