Previous Conflict | Fall of Hispania | |||
War in France | ||||
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The Lands of France before the War in France. | ||||
Story Involvement | ||||
Story Involvment | {{{Story Involvment}}} | |||
POV Characters | {{{POV Characters}}} | |||
Details | ||||
Location | France | |||
Start of Conflict | 5107 | |||
End of Conflict | 5111 | |||
Result | Empire of Emblam Victory
| |||
Combatants | ||||
Empire of Emblam | Bretonian Alliance | |||
Commanders | ||||
Empire of Emblam
Raven Order Kingdom of Senegal |
Kingdom of Bretonia
Kingdom of Lothlorian
Empire of Matron Kingdom of Lucerne Roman Empire
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† = Killed in action (†) = Missing = Captured = Fled the Field | ||||
Strength | ||||
Empire of Emblam | Kingdom of Bretonia | |||
Casualties | ||||
Empire of Emblam | Kingdom of Bretonia |
The War in France or The Seventh Emblam Waaagh was a devastating war fought between the Empire of Emblam, of Africanas against the Kingdom Of Bretonia, in its home territory of France. While the conflict would originally be maintained in southern France, a breakout of Orcs would cause the spreading of the conflict to the farthest northern parts of France. The War ended the once very powerful Kingdom Of Bretonia, although they now are reborn in their once backword province of England. The War would also lead to the destruction of a vast number of the surrounding humans of the region, and in this way it destabilized the entire central European region.
The Kingdom of Bretonia would not underestimate this conflict and threw in basically everything that they had in order to try and hold off the Orcs but they would fail to defeat them at the fortress of Andorra and this would mean the destruction of much their Kingdom. Following their fall in France they were forced to accept a new way of living, now that they were not one of the elite kingdoms in Europe and couldn't count on the support of their allies of whom no longer bordered them. The Kingdom of Bretonia was emotionally scarred by the losses, and the Natiionalism that excisted in the Kingdom over being Frankish has declined significantly in some provinces as they have found they are now outnumbed in several provinces by the Saxons.
The Orcs would bring together the largest army in the history of their people in order to take France. They planned this as if they were no longer fighting the vulnerable Romans and this time they sent in a larger amount of High Orcs to plan the assault and this would lead to some dramaitc meneauvers in the beggining that the Bretonians did not think them capable of. Following the defeat of the Humans at the Battle of Lyons though the Orcs found themselves victorious over Europe with only the Empire of Matron, and the Elves of Lothlorian to defend against their onslaught. As they took over the last port of the Bretonians and prepared to launch their finishing blow against the Empire of Matron, and the Lothlorians they found themselves under a massive invasion from the Murlocs. This war has been devestating for the Orcs and they are being pushed back inc by inch into eastern France, and Hispania.
The War in France would begin in reality the moment the Orcs crossed the landbridge at Grbalter where they would following this overrun the Roman Empire in Hispania despite heavy reinforcements arriving later in that conflict. Following this the Kingdom of Bretonia would massively fortify the fortress province of Andorra and the Roman Empire fortified Valencia and together the two forces prepared for the eventual assault of the Orcs. The Orcs during this time consolidated their numbers and received nearly a million more Orcs across the land bridge before the forces of the High Elves would destroy the bridge cutting of the Orcs from crossing anymore, but along side the land bridge reinforcements a lack of knowledge of Orcish physiciology led to all of their losses coming back in spores and their numbers increasing dramatically.
Origins of the War
The Kingdom of Bretonia
See Also : Kingdom of Bretonia
The Kingdom of Bretonia had begun its power within the region of France, and its continued expansion out of France, was always maintained as the center being France and everywhere they moved to being nothing more then colonies. In this way the regions of France, and especially the southern regions became extremely populated, and the armies of Bretonia swelled.
Much in the same way that the Orcs were repelled in their invasion east and then forced to expand in a different direction, the Kingdom of Bretonia was repelled in a brief war with the Romans in Hispania, and this caused a peace treaty and also caused the Bretonians to move into England. As the Bretonians expanded into England, and really got down to setting roots their the news begin to shuffle in that a massive invasion of Hispania was underway. The news coming in originally was that the Romans were in near complete collapse and that Hispania was going to fall. With this news the forces of Bretonia marshalled their armies, and begin moving into that conflict.
Orcs of Africanas
See Also : Orcs of Africanas
While the Bretonian Kingdom was growing steadily inside the region of France, the Orcs of Africanas completed their overrun of nearly the entire Africanas continent. With this conquest complete they begin setting their eyes on continued expansion. The Orcs attacked east towards Lahmia, and Nerubia, but they were repelled and this made them interested in going north. Realizing the only way across was the straits of gibralter they begin plans for building a mighty bridge there that would allow them to cross into Europe.
For nearly ten years the Orcs built a massive wooden bridge across the straits of Gibralter, and with its completion they massed huge numbers of their armies on the Hispania border. When the Orcs finnally launched the war that is now called The Fall of Hispania , the importance of Hispania wasn't lost on Bretonia, and towards the end of the war it was mainly Bretonian armies fighting the Orcs. Despite a valient effort Castile fell to the Orcs, and this signlaed the end of Hispania in Human hands.
Prelude
Hispania Falls
Main Article : Fall of Hispania
- "When Hispania fell it was like a light went off in every human in Europe's mind telling them that this was serious. It was as if HIspania suriving had allowed us the hope that the threat would just go away. When we lost at Castile there was no more dreaming of that."
- -Bill Lovie
Hispania's fall signaled the War in France beginning days. Without the buffer of a surviving Hispania even in the form of a rump state, the Kingdom of Bretonia was wide open to assault from huge numbers of Orcs. As a partner in the Fall of Hispania the commanders in the Bretonian army were well aware of the vast numbers of Orcs that were all over Hispania. The Orcs were opposed from getting into France by two distinct strong points in Andorra held by the Bretonians, and the second location being the last surviving Roman fortress of Valencia. The Bretonians believed strongly that the attack would come against Andorra as it provided the most direct route, and the Orcs had shown little strategy for avoiding strong points.
Bretonians Hunker Down
- "The whole strategy was simple enough. We build these elaborate, and heavily fortified castles and the idiot orcs would simply get bogged down. Once they were bogged down the First Army would destroy them. I guess we should have questioned how they had built a massive bridge across continents before we blindly accepted how stupid they truly were."
- -Harvey McCraten
The Bretonians were very worried about the Orcs in Hispania, and because of this they pulled back their forces from England and moved them into the regions surrounding Hispania. A huge part of this buildup was in Andorra where the Bretonians poured massive amount of resources into building castles, and forts throughout the region
in the hopes of being able to stop the Orcs. In Andorra they believed that no matter what the Orcs threw at them they would be able to beat them back. This was due to the fact that in the year of the attack on Hispania the commanders and Lords in southern France had met, and all agreed to pool their resources to fortify the Andorra region to a point that it could be held against massive numbers. King Tanlian Eisenburg was the main propenent of fortifying their position and while some argued that it might be time to retaliate against the Orcs and do hit and run actions he was steadfast in his defencive strategy.
- "We decided our only hope was to fortify the Fortress of Andorra so much that the Orcs would be horrified about the context of attacking us, and this would by us time. While Andorra was fortified we were brigning in more and more troops from England, and our allies were moving closer to understanding how desperate this fight was. It was such a well though up plan. We just didn't anticipate the Orcs being able to replenish the millions they had lost in Hispania in a matter of months."
- -Tanlian Eisenburg
The Andorra region was fortified with a number of heavily fortified, and large scale castle constructions that were meant to hold the Orcs in place so that the large Bretonian army that was present would be able to simply move from one hot spot to another, all the while being able to move quickly and quite unnaposed by the large but stupid Orc armies.
The Orcs Build up
- "They lost millions all across the battlefields of Hispania. We used the logic of what would happen to a human Kingdom if that happened and that was our problem. We didn't know that there dead just came back as spores if the battlefield wasn't burned. We thought we had time. We thought wrong."
- -Lucius Vorenus
While the Bretonians were building their defences, the Orcs numbers were swelling with an endless stream of Orcs crossing the land bridge in Gbralter. Where all logical strategy said that they must have diminished the Orcs numbers, the actual truth was that the orcs were almost 3 times as large and growing yearly. Africanas sent in tens of thousands of Orcs into Hispania every week as they spread the rumor amongt the Fell Orcs that the truth behind becoming a HIgh Orc was by going to Hispania and ending the human menace. As this was happening there was actually a really close moment when Lucius Vorenus travelled to Rome and petitioned to have the royal Roman Navy attack the south of Hispania and attempt to cut off the flow of reinforcements. This plan would have worked perfectly as the Orcs have absolutely no navy, but the Roman Senate and the Emperor believed that they did, and didn't want to lose their navy as they were surrounding Valencia, Sardinia, Cordoba, and Italy with the navy as a shield against possible attack.
First Steps
- "Packs of these wolf riding Orcs just rode around the lands surrounding our castles. If we attempted to ride out and fight them they turned back. If we didn't move out then they just kept riding around. It took us too long to understand that they were probing our strategies. We had it built in our mind that these were mindless zombies, and we ignored all the examples of where they were very good at following directions."
- -Lord Landuin
A great moment happened for the Bretonians briefly before the Orcs would attack on mass, and this was the arrival in Andorra of Lord Landuin and nearly fifty thousand of his elite troops all the way from Rhohavion in the far north of England. His arrival galvanized the belief amongst the defenders that they could win the fight, and shortly after arriving he was given command of the defences, and he pushed the construction teams to new levels of building as he saw the defences as too small to do what they were going to need.The first movements that told everyone the war was going to start soon, was the movement of hundreds of thousands of Orcs all along the Andorran, Valencia, and Bretonian Border. Andorra and Valencia were the most heavily defended regions, and because of this it was felt that the Orcs would focus on taking them first. This strategy would lead to the 450,000 elite Roman legionares, and 150,000 strong Bretonian army in Valencia to basically sit in Valencia for the entirety of the war.
Invasion of Andorra
Battle of Andorra
Main Article : Battle of Andorra
- "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 defence. 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.
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
Invasion of Toulose and Aquintaine
Invasion of Central France
Battles of Central France
The Orcish Invasion of Athel Loren This forest protects us. You shall never pass these walls. Never. |
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Orcish Invasion of Athel Loren
The Kingdom of Lothlorian had historically been laize faire towards the Kingdom of Bretonia with the two mighty nations basically ignoring each other, but this changed dramatically following the meeting of Maltivian Eisenburg, and Kael'Thalas Sunstrider. Watching her husband grow closer to Maltivian it was Valeera Sunstrider that was constantly vigilant about protecting her husband from growing to close to the prince of the Bretonia. She warned Kael that the humans were not long for this world, and that getting involved with them would do nothing but bring trouble to the forests of Athel Loren. Despite her warnings Kael and Maltivian grew to be great friends and it was because of this friendship even more then the strategic importance that the Lothlorians became heavily involved in the War in France. Second AssaultTotal DefeatThe Orcs would mass one more time with a larger force then the second time as they received nearly a hundred thousand more troops incoming from Hispania, and moved forward towards the First Gate Once More. This time the army was led by two High Orcs in the form of of whom Incorporated dozens of Orc Magi into their assault of which greatly weakened the effects of the Elven Magi defenses allowing the Orc scouts to move into the actual forests where skirmishes quickly broke out between the Sentinels defending the trees and the hundreds of Orc irregulars that flowed into the forests around the main gate. |
Fall of Viche
Main Article : Fall of Viche
- "Everyone was just standing around too frightened to move. There was an aura of death that just melded over everyone in Viche. It was as if we knew our time was numbered, we just hadn't come to terms with how quickly it was all going to unravel around us. You just wanted to shake the king in that moment and beg him to flee the city. Beg him to save as many lives as he possible could. His death meant much more then just his life, and that was what he failed to see in that moment. He failed to understand how much his death would handicap us in the exact moment in which we had one last chance to win back our homes."
- -Harvey McCraten
With the Orcs destruction of the city of Toulose, which was believed could never be taken, the nobles, and military commanders of Bretonia became horrified that the King refused to leave the ancestoral home of Viche. There was at this point a nearly constant attempt for nearly a week to make the King leave the capital but at this point he basically refused to accept the seriousness of the situation and believed that his forces would protect him. On top of this he hinted at a darker more religious view that since he was the son of God in terms of what the Bible of Bretonia stated he could not be harmed, and thus no amount of Orcs could threaten him in the capital.
Preparing
- "As it became hopeless to make a responsible retreat, and since the armies of Bretonia were basically fighting at all fronts, it fell to me to hold off hundreds of thousands with nothing but a patchwork army of survivors of previous losses, and untrained knights."
- -Harvey McCraten
With the Orcs arriving all over the area, the main army of the region was led by Harvey McCraten and he was given the order to delay the Orc forces while the main Bretonian army moved forward. During this time the council was begging the King to leave Vichy, but he refused to leave, and in this decision he forced his one son, wife, and daughters to remain in the city as they would never abandon him.
The Siege
The city itself was not meant to be attacked which was the main reason it was so far into the French territory. This defenclessness was the main reason why so many forces were expended in attempting to halt the Orcs before they could enter the city. But with the Orcs rampaging around the area the defenders were forced to attempt to defend the city. The first attack against the city was actually repelled with heavy losses to the orcs, but in actuality this was only a small orc splinter group that had wandered away from the main host and became stuck against the defenders. When the commander saw how much it took to just defeat that small group he realized there was little hope, and attempted to once again convinse the leadership to pull back through the eastern gap that still remained open to them.
Unfortunatly the blindness that the king had shown earlier was still present and he refused to accept that the city could even fall. With the hope of escape seemingly gone the last hope for the city came in the form of a raven declaring that Theodwynn and his army had arrived in the area and was going to attempt to clear the field of Orcs.
Battle of Vichy Gate
- "The Orcs were utterly endless in their numbers. The castle behind their army looked like an ant surrounded by a wave of bears. I knew in that moment that it was over, but thinking that didn't change the fact that I couldn't leave it to die that way."
- -Theodwynn
Theodwynn approached the area and as he and his commanders surveyed they saw that their army of only 20,000 was going to be of no match against the Orc army of well over two hundred thousand, but Theodwynn realized that if he didn't try then he was declaring the King a dead man. He attempted to find out if there was anyone nearbye so that he might wait and make some sort of actual battleplan, but the ravens returned with little information of anyone nearbye. With this information it was with a heavy heart that Theodwynn moved his army forward and prepared to charge through the Orcs outfront the gate in the hopes of forcing the Orcs to pull back and deal with their flanks as opposed to simply destroying the city.
- "It was a brave moment for the Kingdom of Bretonia but it also changed nothing."
- -Theodwynn
The army of Theodwynn charged the Orc army, and the entire city held their breath as the forces of Theodwynn charged through the flank like butter. For a moment there was hope that the desperate charge might suceded but this ended when the main body of the army was hit by a counter attack from the Orc worg riders who were 60,000 strong. With the body now stuck the front of the army contined charging as if they stopped they would be massacred but the vast majority of the force was now stuck in melee with a force that outnumbered it horribly. With little hope of success now the lead echolon broke through miraculously but they left behind almost 19,000 of their number dead on the field, and had not broken the siege of the gate.
The City Falls
- "The defenders were sending a constant raven for a long time and it was with a heavy heart that we continued to respond that we were attempting to make our way through rampaging Orcs that were splintering northward and ransacking villages throughout the region. When we were told originally of the situation I knew my force wasn't capable of affecting the outcome but like Theodwynn that didn't stop us from trying to change its fate."
- -Eomer Edwig
With the Battle lost the Orcs begin swarming into the area, and the defenders of Vichy steeled themselves to defend their King long enough for reinforcements to arrive that they believed had to be near. In fact the closest army was that of Eomer Edwig, and his force was far too small to make any difference. So unfortunatly no reinforcements were coming and even if the city had been designed to withstand a siege it's very unlikely its garrison could have held against the unnending horde of Orcs piling in on them.
Last Stand
- "It was over the moment they attacked a city built to be a tribute to our power. This city was never meant to be held against any kind of real opposition, it was meant as a home for the King."
- -Unknown Fighter in Viche
The main thrust came from the western side of the city, and because of this the defenders placed nearly all their elite forces on this section in an attempt to hold the gate. The first few thrusts from the Orcs met with little sucess and large body counts from the accurate bow fire from the defenders. The problem continued when the Orcs just continued to throw more and more troops at the gate with a agrowing level of success as with each attack more and more of the defenders were falling prey to the attacks. It is a sad testiment that on the final attack on the gate, it was defended by less then 200 men against an orc force of upwards of 30,000. The Orcs this time simply bypassed the gate, and scaled the now basically defenseless walls. Once the ladders were up all over the wall the Orcs overran the gate, and were able to open it to the thousands waiting outside.
The Massacre
- "When the gates went down it was like the final truth that the world we knew had ended. There was no coming back from the the fall of Viche, it had just changed everything so completely the world could never hope to be the same."
- -Maltivian Eisenburg
With the final gates gone, the Orcs piled into the Keep. There were a series of desperate last stands by the elite members of the Bretonian Kings gaurd, but in the end the entire castle was burned to the ground along with everyone in it. Bill Lovie would capture one of the Orcs that was involved in this final attack on the throne room, and it is from this orcs statement that everything is known about the final moments of the King of Bretonia. The Orc said that they had entered the inner throne room and found the King at the dinner table eating with his children, and wife huddled in the corner of the room holding eachother for somesort of comfort. When the Orcs burst in the King begin screaming at them that he couldn't be killed as he was the son of God, and he continued to yell this until an Orc stuck a spear through his chest. Following this the rest of the inhabitents of the room were murdered including the children and his wife.
First Battle of Marseilles
Main Article : Battle of Marseilles
Last Stand
Battle of Bordeaux
Olarys would gather his forces to Bordeaux and as the Orcs advanced on the fortress he would begin his spell, and as it neared completion he came to understand that it just didn't have enough power and thus in an act of sacrifice he used all of himself sacrificing himself but pushing the spell forward ripping the land around Bordeaux apart killing tens of thousands of Orcs and separating the Crater of Aquintaine from France.
Battle of Orleans
Main Article : Battle of Orleans
Prelude
The Council of Lyons had convened and decided that the fate of France would be decided in the Battle of Lyons. But in order for it to work the western half of Lyons had to be cleared. The only army with any strength with which any hope of success was Eomer's army and he was ordered to head to the city of Orleans and defeat the Orcs there so that they couldn't come in behind the alliance forces while they trapped the Orcs at Lyons.
Eomer and his army arrived near Orleans and when they caught sight of the Orc army they knew it was almost hopeless. There army was only 15,000 while the Orcs has well over a hundred thousand. Eomer and his army made camp and prepared for a suicide charge in the hopes of destroying the Orc army, but everyone knew they would all die. During the night a Dwarven Messenger arrived and said that the Imperial Army of Matron was on their way to the area and would be able to assit in the retaking of Orleans. When the Dwarven Army arrived they were suprised to see how many Orcs there were, with the orcish army well over a hundred thousand in stength. The Dwarves skirted around the southern end of the city and connected with the human force under Eomer Eadig. Now together the Dwarves and humans quickly mobilized and moved directly towards the Orcish force that was now half inside the city and half sitting outside the gates.
The Battle
The main stength of the human/Dwarven force was the fact that the hundred thousand plus force was devided by the fact that they had broken into the city and were now miled about around the outside as much of the army massacred inside the city. The Dwarves and humans devided themselves and the Dwarves attacked the forces in the southern part of the city, while the humans charged the eastern gateway. These attacks were a complete shock to the Orcish forces and led them have their forces nearly completely destoryed outside the city. After hours of tough fighting nealy half of the Orc force lay dead, and the orcs that were not completely lost in bloodlust begin fleeing out the gates where much of them were destroyed by the Dwarves, and humans that now blocked all the gates. With the Orcs destroyed the Dwarves and humans moved into the city and cleared the city of the remaining Orcs.
The Battle was a victory but the delay in waiting for the Dwarves to arrive had led to the Orcs destroying nearly 70% of the city, and a similar percent of the population with nothing but those who had reached the inner castle still alive. With this in mind the city was quickly evacuated with the survivors either going west to the safety of Matron or going north towards Paris.
Invasion of Tristfall
Main Article : Fall of Brionne
Invasion of Northern France
There was a lull in the fighting following the Orcish defeat at the Battle of Marseilles, and Battle of Lothlorian leading to the Orcs consolidating their holdings in Hispania further and moving there armies which were only now finishing with the final fortresses of Andorra to move northward. With the lull in the fighting the Elves of the Kingdom of Lothlorian would take the most agressive turn in the fighting with King Kael'Thalas Sunstrider reacting very badly to the death of his friend Malitivian Eisenburg's family at Lyons and led several ambushes on Orcish forces moving northward leading to two major events with the first being the Second Invasion of Marseilles which further tied down the Orcish forces, and the second being Kael'Thalas sending his son Kaelen'Tolas Sunstrider on a mission to bring the High Elves to the aid of France.
Battle of Gibraltar
- “You could win any battle you wanted. Kill any army you wanted. As long as that bridge stood they would just pile more and more troops into Europe. The bridge had to go down.”
- — Kael'Thalas Sunstrider
Kaelen'Tolas Sunstrider would be commanded by his father to travel to Ulthuan using the Great Temple of Silvermoon, and arriving there he was able to convince Tyrion, and Teclis Aestarion to lead a naval force of High Elves to Gibraltar taking part in the Battle of Gibraltar. The High Elves would lead a large fleet from the Port of Lothern and would move towards the Straights of Gibraltar where the High Orcs had massed a large force of Orcs all across the bridge in case of attack by a naval force after the Romans had almost suceeded in destroying the bridge. Alongside these Orcish defenders the Orcs had managed to gather to their forces several hundred human pirate ships, and nearly three hundred heavily armored Umbar ships sent to the bridge on the command of Sauron of whom obviously wanted to see the success of this invasion. The Elves would gather to them nearly two hundred ships from their own fleet at the short notice they were given, while they would also gather another fifty from the Hispania region moving towards Gibraltar, but they were still outnumbered by the defenders in terms of numbers.
Battle of Karak Matron
Second Battle of Athel Loren
Third Battle of Marseilles
Battle of Lyons
Main Article : Battle of Lyons
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 suprise 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.
The Romans Failure
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 assistence 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.
The Aftermath
The Human armies were nearly completely destoyed in the aftermath of the battle, and the only survivors of the battle were many of the actual commanders, along with the most lucky of the men of the armies. Without relief the besieged within Lyons were doomed and the city would fall only a week and a half later, with the loss of its entire 120,000 population.
Final Invasion
Battle of Paris
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.
Exodus of the Franks
Following the Collapse of France it was
Aftermath
It isnt going on a ledge to say that this was the most destructive moment in human history in Europe since the Fall of Numeron. Tens of millions of humans lay dead across Europe, and one of the largest militaries in Europe had been obliterated.
Along side the destruction was the fact that the Orcs now had a breachead from which to attack the rest of Europe, with only the High Elven led Battle of Gibraltar leading to the end of the wave of Orcish immigration into Western Europe.