Ruins | |
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Creations | |
Spin Offs | Background Story |
Chronological Order | |
Preceded By | The Rise of Lucerne |
Followed By | None |
Narration | POV Character, Unreliable |
Ruins is a short story written chronologically after the Rise of Lucerne, and centers around the events of what happens after Hermione Granger arrives in Orleans in search of Mystisicm. Ashley Lerman is built up heavily during the story, and her exodus from Orleans following the destruction of Bill Lovie leads most to believe she is heading for the Westerlands and the rising colonization. Bill Lovie gets his second coming, as following this POV time during the End of Darkness he disappeared for sometime, and this story gave his voice back to the overall story.
Ruins begins chronologically following Chapters in Westros when William Lovie III. commands the Order of the Violet Dragon to hunt down the whereabouts of James Lovie, and eventually Sophia Lovie discovers him leading to Ruins. Ruins is one of the first Short Stories to basically be required reading as without this you only hear about the death of Bill Lovie following the return of Sophia Lovie.
Ruins begins with the departure of Hermione Granger from Alcase and her arrival in Orleans where she is searching for the Magi book Myctisisym. She works her way into the inner workings of Bill Lovie's Circle of Magi, and from here she grows close to Logan Lerman who becomes an important character and a very influencial figure. After growing increasingly close to Bill Lovie she makes him believe that she is in fact Alice Lovie and from this more of what is deeply wrong with Bill comes out. At this point the Order of the Violet Dragon arrives in the city after getting information sent from Logan Lerman and begins to infiltrate the city. From this infiltration they start a plot to kill Bill Lovie through the use of a distraction led by releasing the thousands of slaves in the dungeons beneath Orleans.
POV characters[]
POV Character | Chapter |
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Mathias Peltier III. | 1, 6, 11, 16 |
2, 7, 12, 17 | |
Ashley Lerman | 3, 8, 13, 18 |
Satheron Brightblaze | 4, 9, 14, 19 |
Luke Ellerdeen | 5, 10, 15, 20 |
Plot Summary[]
Chapter 1[]
Mathias Peltier III. is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he wakes up to the sound of screaming and goes outside of his tent to find an Orc lashing a young women surrounded by dozens of Orcs, while they are watched by hundreds of onlooking humans. Remaining stoic he controls the crowd of whom remains shockingly silent despite the attack on the young girl, and when the Orcs have beaten the girl nearly to death the largest of the Orcs named Targhed the Brokentooth walks towards Mathias and demands payment for the girl as she can no longer be purchased, and despite being disgusted by the Orc he pulls coins from his side and gives the Orc his return money and the Orc then pushes past him and walks down the street followed by his orcs. Mathias thinks to himself on Targhed of whom is the general in command of the Blackrock forces within Orleans and his power is the reason that Mathias was unable to resist him, but despite this Mathias feels shame that he allowed it to happen. Mathias commands his men to gather the girl who was attacked and bring her to his estate, but before he can return to see to the girl he must go to the Orleans keep and take part in a council meeting as a member of the Lords Council. The Orleans council meets in regards to a large rebellion which has started in the town of Peronville which is only several days march west of Orleans and while many argue that the Orcs should be sent and the city sacked with half the population sold in slavery it is Mathias that is able to convinse Bill Lovie to send him and try and talk down the rebels. After having been given this command Mathias is summoned seperatly alongside several other lords of Orleans to the private chambers of Bill Lovie and meeting there Mathias is told that the Orcs will be accompanying him, but that he is to make sure that they do not return as the Orcs are sending Gruul and there plan is to kill Mathias and Bill doesn't want this to happen, and shocked that the Orcs were planning to kill bills castallen he agrees without question, and leaves the chambers to return to the estate. Following his meetings he returns to his estate to be met at the gates by his steward in the form of Peter of Peltier and he inquires about the girl of whom is revealed to being cared for by Mathias's bastard sister Ingrid Bu-Peltier, and entering the room his sister leaves leaving him alone with the girl of whom reveals herself as Lisette, and tells Mathias her story (telling him that she was born a commoner in Orleans and sold into slavery shortly after her birth and has remained in Orleans ever since) and falls asleep as he watches her.
- Targhed the Brokentooth
- Peter of Peltier
- Ingrid bu-Peltier
- Lisette Eisenburg
Chapter 2[]
Logan Lerman is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he walks into the main room of the Castle Tollsen holdfast where he joins his brother Krandell Lerman in a meeting with Liam Greymane. Meeting with Liam the Lord of House Greymane and the entire state would send the Lerman's after the retreating forces, while he led the main army into Castle Tollsen where he planned to spend several weeks rebuilding what was lost, and adding what he could to the area. Having been given their order Logan and his brother enthusiastic over the honor of this command would return to their father outside the walls where Krandell relayed the command and Urven quickly obeyed commanding the Lerman forces to move Logan Lerman, his two brothers, and his father would lead the Lerman forces into a fake chase of the Badgers, and Logan and his younger brother were shocked when they stopped their forces to camp, and were met while camped by the remaining Badgers. Logan attempted to fight them, but was laughed at by both his older brother and father and the Badgers, and came to understand that they were working together. Several dead bodies were passed across, and a mass grave was shown to Logan of which would be identified in case they needed to as the place they burried the remaining Badgers. Logan would following this be taken aside with his brother Krandell Lerman by their father of whom explained to them the reason why they had sided with the badgers was that this was the command of their lord in Adrian Nighting of whom had been commanded by Bill Lovie thus no matter what was right or wrong they had to listen to the words of the king, and hearing this despite his reservations Logan would understand and after his father left them alone he spoke to his brother alone. After speaking with Krandell for some time he believed that he had also convinsed his brother that despite it being morally wrong they had no choice due to the oaths they had sworn to always serve and honor their lord and their king. Spending weeks riding around basically pretending to fight against the badgers Logan and his brother Krendall would stay very close keeping eachother company and this continues until the end of the Badger Rebellion when his father leads the Lerman forces back to Castle Tollsen which shows major signs of improvement under Liam Greymane and it is here that the Lucernian forces meet to discuss next steps. During this meeting Logan is once again impressed by Liam Greymane and after the meeting ends he is approached in private by his brother who reveals that he will be telling Liam about what actually happened and conserned that this action will lead to the imprisonment of his entire family he goes to his father and tells him what is going to happen and at his words his father quickly has his brother imprisoned and sent back to the Lerman seat of Lehaven. The chapter ends with Logan having betrayed his brother now in an extremely emotionally devestated state but returns with his father to Lehaven where he is overjoyed to see his uncle Wren again of whom is the man that Logan sees as his true father and the man he knows will tell him the truth of everything.
Chapter 3[]
Ashley Lerman is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter she stands at the gates of Lehaven with her mother Rhellia, and uncle Theodoric of whom the group watch as the Lerman forces are coming up the road returning from their part in the Badger Rebellion. Ashley is overjoyed to see her brother Logan and the two hug for some time but Ashley hears her brother crying and knowing that he cannot be seen crying she hides his face and takes him away from the group where they go off to one of the towers of Lehaven and Logan breaks down telling her everything that has happened which shocks Ashley to her core as she realizes that everything her uncle had been telling her about her father was right. The two are interupted by their brother Faedra of whom she has not seen for many months and while they were never really close she immediatly sees that he is changed as he watches her with the eyes of a predator, and his staring only stops when he eyes the tears on Logan and this leads to him attacking logan launching a series of verbal attacks at Logan of whom in his current state is unable to even resist leading to Ashley to stand up for Logan which leads to Faedra getting in her face and touching her inapropriatly which seems to be about to get worse until the arrival of their mother Rhellia ends this when she sends Faedra to go and see his father. After what is happened no one knows quite what to say but Logan runs off embaressed about and Ashley spends time talking with her about things and she learns that Rhellia has bruises all across her arms as Urven has become increasingly lost since he started working with the members of House Nighting and the Circle of Magi.
Chapter 4[]
Satheron Brightblaze is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he
Chapter 5[]
Luke Ellerdeen is the POV Character of this chapter and during this he
Chapter 6[]
Mathias Peltier III. is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he leaves the city of Orleans with a force of two thousand Kingdom of Orleans forces and some five hundred Orcs with the Orcs being sent to make sure that Peronville understands what happens if they ever revolt again, and these Orcs led by Gruul are open in their desire to cause problems.
Chapter 7[]
Logan Lerman is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he
Chapter 8[]
Ashley Lerman is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter she
Chapter 9[]
Satheron Brightblaze is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he
Chapter 10[]
Luke Ellerdeen is the POV Character of this chapter and during this he
Chapter 11[]
Mathias Peltier III. is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he pulls the sword from Gruuls chest and steps towards the rebel leader and the two have a long discussion about the future with the two agreeing during this conversation to end the rebellion, and begin truly planning for the destruction of the Circle of Magi. Before leaving Mathias swears an oath of loyalty to Luke Ellerdeen of whom is now officially seen by Mathias as the King of Orleans, and with this Mathias leaves Luke to deal with the Orcish forces while Mathias will return to Orleans and give his report that the revolt has ended and they are now loyal to Bill Lovie. Mathias returns to Orleans where he leaves command of the army to his generals while he travels to the palace grounds to meet with Bill Lovie, but arriving there he discovers a girl waiting for Bill and speaking with her she refuses to give her name and despite warning her she will not leave and instead sits back down demanding to see the king, and despite knowing she will most likely die he sees a future before him for the first time and is reluctant to ruin it by saving this girl so he goes inside and sees Bill Lovie.
Chapter 12[]
Logan Lerman is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he is sitting on his horse watching as his father Urven, and brother Faedra ride in front of him, and near lost in his thoughts he is struck by his his fathers first knight Gregor of Lerman who smacks him in the back of the head with the butt end of his sword as a means of waking him up which causes the large group of soldiers to begin laughing, but his father and brother both do not laugh looking at him with disgust.
Chapter 13[]
Ashley Lerman is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter she
Chapter 14[]
Satheron Brightblaze is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he
Chapter 15[]
Luke Ellerdeen is the POV Character of this chapter and during this he
Chapter 16[]
Mathias Peltier III. is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he
Chapter 17[]
Logan Lerman is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he
Chapter 18[]
Ashley Lerman is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter she
Chapter 19[]
Satheron Brightblaze is the POV Character of this chapter and during this chapter he
Chapter 20[]
Luke Ellerdeen is the POV Character of this chapter and during this he
Plot Events[]
Lucerne discovers Orleans[]
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. |
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"My Lord we have intercepted a letter meant for Paris that may reveal the location of the former King." Tobias remained kneeled until I bid him to rise, while Doma was known for her lack of understanding of such graces, and remained in a sort of half bow and the other half some sort of lazy lean. "Show it to me please." Doma stepped forward and handed me the letter of which wasn't sealed. "I assume you opened the seal, and their are little questions of its authenticity?" Tobias stepped forward bowing before me and then speaking. "Yes we killed the three men carrying the letter and they all carried the badge of the false king." "Good." I opened the letter from the rope that kept it together and begin reading.
-Kieth Schwartz I knew who Kieth Schwartz was and that made it all the more terrifying to hear that he still lived. It showed their stupidity that they simply stated they were in Orleans, and so stupid was this that I wondered immediatly whether this was a trap. "What information do we have on the Orleans area of France?" "Ezio from our talking to several Elves of Quel'Thalas the area of Orleans was especially hit by the Orcs, and there is nothing of any kind of population of humans that remains in the area." Sometimes the way she spoke to me without using proper titles made me think she was the only one with any real bravery around me, but sometimes I wondered whether she was some kind of noble. It would make sence for her to have come from some kind of money, as she spoke far too good of the language to "Have the Elves been to Orleans?" I knew the Elves travelled northward many times during the recent years as they attempted to both locate more humans to funnle into the area they were trying to grow into a buffer zone for themselves, and I hoped they might have gone as far north as Orleans during these trips. "They say that they rescued several slaves of whom were being sent to Paris from the ruins of Orleans, and the hellishness of life in Orleans was very clear from their reports." Tobias stopped when Doma put a hand to his arm and we both waited for her to speak. "My Lord." She paused for a moment and it gave me time to think about the fact that she had called me by my title. "I believe I am the perfect soldier to be sent to find out whether this is the location of Bill Lovie. Me and Tobias can take our Whelps and fly by Griffin to the area and scout it out without any problems." "You are correct Doma you would be the perfect person, but I must ask why you want it so badly. In my years wanting something with passion can be either a very good thing, or a very bad thing." "King William third of his name has given us so much, and I just want...I just need to do something for him. I spoke with him when we were in Westbridge, and the care with which he spoke to me was something I shall never forget. He knew I was a member of the Violet Dragons, and that didn't matter to him. He spoke to me as if I was the highest of ladies when he knew I wasn't, and for that he deserves someone to help him. Help him find the truth that he needs to know." I watched her as I thought. It was clear she was skilled enough for the task, but I worried about what her alterierve motives were, and whether these motives would be a hinderance or a boon to the mission. I watched her face though and saw a change. Something in her eyes when she looked at me changed. It was like watching the purpose behind one's entire life, and I knew which side of the ledger her involvement would sit. "When do you depart Doma?" |
Ashley Escapes[]
- "I looked through the bars of my home now, and I should have felt better. I should have been saved by him. But instead he was my captor. He was the one that was the cause of all my pain."
- -Ashley Lerman
A few weeks after being captured and placed in the dungeons beneath the city. Her brother taunted her for weeks, and begin to bring other slaves from the dungeons and then he would torture and kill them. As this continued she came to speak with a cloaked man called Tobias of whom spoke to her with a kindness that she hadn't seen since her brother Logan had been with her. After talking with her she was released in secret by Tobias Henkel of whom was infiltrating Orleans on behalf of the Order of the Violet Dragon. Seeing young Ashley Lerman he overheard her conversations with her sadistic brother Faedra, and quickly released her when he had the chance. Released into the area around Orleans she wandered the plains west of the ruined city and finally collapsed of exhaustion.
The Camp[]
When she did leave the bed she would find a people demorilized beyond belief by the death and destruction they had seen over the past many years, and she immediatly felt a sence of connection to that kind of sadness based on what happened to her family. When she awoke she was in a tent, and she was told by the man that woke her that she was in a small human emcapment of refugees from the war in France, and she would rest for many days before moving about again. She would become close with Luke Ellerdeen of whom was somewhat the leader of the camp, and she would convinse him that they needed to help the thousands that were in the pens beneath orleans awaiting being sent to the slave markets in Paris. With the help of Luke Everdeen she was able to infiltrate Orleans again, where she found her brother after a lot of searching, and she tried to get him to leave with her, but he said that he had to help Hermione escape the city before she could leave.
Breaking Out[]
Ashley would support her brother, and together they would orchestrate a plan to break out the slaves from beneath the city. Ashley would be separated from her brother when on the day before the plan he went to help Hermione, and didn't return to her as he said that he would, and she would be forced to move forward with the plan anyway. They would receive more help when Tobias Henkel arrived back in the city with several more members of the Order of the Violet Dragon. Together with Tobias, and Dama Rossan they begin taking out many of the gaurds that would impede their plans, and worked side by side with Hermione of whom was going to get Myctisym while everyone was reacting to the chaos of the dungeons opened.
The Break Out[]
On the day of the escape everything would go according to plan, but as she entered one of the last dungeons she found her brother Faedra standing over a body that he was stabbing repeatedly. She would stop for a moment, and consider everything that Faedra had ever been, and in that moment she finally said goodbye to her brother and stabbed him through the back killing him. As she looked at the body Faedra had been stabbing she broke into hysterics when she discovered it was her brother Logan who lay dead. Tobias would come looking for her when she didn't arrive where she was supposed to and found her crying over the dead body of Logan. He was forced to carry her out of the room locking the door behind them so that she would finally leave the room, and with that she was forced to say goodbye to the brother who had given up basically everything for her. As they worked their way out of the dungeons they were knocked to the ground by a massive crash that shook the foundations all around them. After making sure the former slaves were escaping as was planned, Ashley followed Tobias as he made his way to the sound of the explosion, as she came to understand the Order of the Violet Dragon had other things in mind other then just saving slaves when Tobias told her they were there to kill Bill Lovie or at the very least destabilize his operations here.
Death of a King[]
Forced to fight there way through the fighting they finally arrived at the explosion where they found Dama Rossan fighting Bill Lovie, and saw the cause of the destruction as a massive hole had been blown in the side of the tower. Joining the fight the combined fighting of everyone against Bill finally broke him, and he collapsed to the ground defeated. In that moment he let everyone in the room know that Doma Rosson was actually Sophia Lovie the daughter of Tavlian Lovie and that he was sorry for everything he had ever done. As the life ebbed from his eyes Sophia moved towards him and held his hand as the dying former King of Lucerne finally died.