William Lovie

The Driving Tide burst onto the scene when William Lovie returned to Forks on the back of a dragon, and and to say it caused a stir would be a vast underestamet. He was greeted quickly by the members of his Companions along with the rest of their houses but overall the attitude was very anxious as the people didn't know what William planned to do with this unimaginable power. Following this a group of Dwarves entered Forks begging for assistance against the goblins. As the Dwarves left the council of Forks met, and their was fierce debate about what should be done with William Lovie leading the charge alongside House Tyrell, House Targaryan, and House Swan in assisting the Dwarves in exchange for the Dwarves assisting them. There support was countered by the opposition of House Cash, House Arryn, and House Clegane who believed it wasn't their problem so it should be ignored. With the Forks council at a complete stalemate, the auxiliary House Hale who was one of the richest houses in Forks became interested in gaining more influence and with William Lovie now having a dragon they decided that his wagon was the one they wanted to hitch themselves to. To show their support of William Lovie and his House Lovie they went to William and offered to supply him with all the armor, and weapons that his house as well as House Swan, and Targaryan. With this advantage to them it became clear that the Lovie alliance was going to choose the way Forks would go in the Driving Tide.

With House Lovie, House Targaryan, and House Swan now militarily very strong it would be William that would come to the home of Mace Tyrell of whom was still for all intensive purposes still William's king, and would basically apologize to him for having to make him so much smaller then he had been. The two would eventually come to an understanding and in this understanding Mace Tyrell would join him on the battlefield where before he had planned to sit aside while House Lovie's alliance he now decided to move the entire strength of House Tyrell with him. In this way House Hale The decision of House Hale to assist the effort of William Lovie, and House Lovie meant that House Tyrell had no choice but to ignore the wishes of the House Arryn alliance and force their involvement in the Driving Tide. With no one left to resist the forces of Forks and the nearby regions begin massing north of the city for the campaign that would from this point on be called the Driving Tide.

The First Battle of the Gate

The First Battle of the Gate was the battle fought as the Goblins attempted to defeat the Humans before they could gain enough strength to effectively assist the Dwarves. As the forces of Forks moved forward William Lovie on Stragnarax rode far ahead and scouted out the mountains. When William arrived at the mountains they could see the massive number of Goblins that were hiding amongst the stones of the mountain, and thus it was clear they were going to attempt to ambush the Forks army. He was told by Stranganarx that the Goblins of the mountains had been building their strength for many years and what he saw there was nothing more then a small fraction of their total force. Realizing that even a victory on that field wouldn't completely mean victory in the war he knew he would need to eventually meet with the forces of the Dwarves so that their combined armies could completely defeat the Goblins. Stragnarax would take him back to Forks and during the trip he asked Stragnarax whether any dragons could come to their aid, and while Stragnarax wanted to help the Lucernians and his friend in William Lovie he still did not trust the humans enough to intervene on that scale. Upon his return to Forks he called all the Nobles that were there to a meeting where he would make everyone understand how dire the situation was, and the consequences if they did not deal with the Goblins now. When he returned to the army William took the lead in planning and devised a strategy where they would set up camp in front of the mountain making it appear that they were going to sleep but when the Goblins charged forward they would be ready for them and would massacre them in the open.

House Tyrell for the first time saw their power truly slipping away and attempted to argue against the plan but at this point even House Tyrell's allies were not supporting them and this led to William's plan being followed. In a huge coup the members of House Lovie gained the upper hand in the city of Forks in a way that had never occured before. Mace Tyrell would try and storm out of the meeting but he was stopped by his bannermen of whom warned him that the momentum had shifted and that he might be killed if they didn't side with the alliance of House Lovie. So everyone including House Arryn would join the massive army that was preparing to march to the valley beneath the mountains to ambush the goblin army.

The Prelude

The Night Goblins had sent scouts to follow all of the dwarf messengers, and were aware that the Forks army was on its way to assist. The moment they became aware, the Night Goblin leader sent his luitenant Greshak to ambush them at the gate. This ambush would have been completely disasterous for the entire war had it not been for the stupidity of the goblin liutenant Greshak. The Goblin commander decided that since the Lucernians camped at the outside of the gateway in then he would be able to attack them while they slept. This would mean even fewer casualties and a complete destruction of Lucernes army. The reason that he had been told to ambush the humans was that the Lucernians were waiting for the Dwarves to arrive, and had been warned that they should not sit idle while sitting out front the gate. For this reason the Lucernians had barricaded their camp completely, and were 100% ready for any attack.

To further complicate matters for the goblins the Humans now had the service of Stragnarax, and he was flying in the sky. While flying he noticed the goblins hiding in the hills of the entrance. With this knowledge he telepathically contacted William Lovie, and further warned him. With this warning the forces of Lucerne prepared for nightfall and the eventual attack that was coming.

The First Battle of the Gate

When darkness descended on the hills the Goblin army charged out of their hiding spots, and encircled the Human camp. The human defenders had been prepared for this so when the first goblin got near, the human archers begin unloading arrows on them. In their current position the goblins were completely exposed, and took huge casualties before they even reached the human camp. When they did reach the camp they found the entrances to the camp heavily barricaded, and the few entrances were extremely well gaurded. The Goblins found themselves completely under fire and unable to break through into the camp.

It was at this low point in the battle that a massacre was about to take place. Stragnarax and William Lovie rode to the center of the Goblin army, and engaged the goblin commander. The two fought very briefly before William killed him, and Stragnarax rained fire on the goblins. The center of the goblins was gone, and now they broke completely. When the goblins broke and ran, the humans chased behind, and fewer then 5% of the massive goblin army survived to make it back to the gate.

Goblin Counter Attack

While the loss of the army at the Gate wasn't good for the Goblins they had nearly unlimated forces at this point and thus they wanted to keep up the pressure so they hastily re-launched their attack on Karak Mulger which was still attempting to repair the damage to their defences. The Battle was a tough fight but again the Goblins were pushed back by the determined Dwarves who were at this point beggining to recieve reinforcements from Karak Izor as the situation out front the gate had somewhat stabalized the hole warzone.

Second Battle of Karak Izor

After the disasterous First battle of the Gate, and the following defeat they suffered during the Karak Mulger, the Night Goblins became even more aggressive in their attacks. The Goblins moved many of their forces to the far back of the conflict where they launched a series of raids against the unprepared Karak Izor who didn't think they could be hit. In this lack of preperation the Goblins had found a series of mines that were abandoned and through them they were able to sneak there way inside the Hold itself where once inside a series of desperate battles were fought which together are called the First Battle of Karak Izor. The Dwarves were able to keep the goblins out of the main hold itself but as they defeated the advances they found the goblins had hunkered down into the shadows and were now launching constant geurilla raids against Karak Izor. While these attacks were of little actual consequence they forced a large amount of their forces to move into the tunnels attempting to rid them of goblins instead of moving towards Karak Izor.

Fall of Karak Mulger

As the Night Goblins attacked the Dwarf Hold of Karak Izor their main thrust came out when their huge forces attacked the recovering fortress of Karak Mulger. The Dwarves had still been working on the repairs to the Hold, and because of the swiftness of the attack the Goblins were able to mass themselves at all entrances to the Hold, and had it completely surrounded. As the Dwarves prepared to accept the charge of the endless Goblins they were all shocked as the Goblins burst through tunnels in the deepest core of Karak Mulger. With these breaches the Dwarves were forced to pull forces from their strong points, and this was exactly what the Goblins had wanted them to do. The moment the Dwarves moved from the fortress the Goblins begin overruning the defences at every entrance. The moment of the fall of the Hold was at hand, and everyone involved knew what was happening as the entrances, and the Dwarves were pushed back completely. The Dwarves that had went to react to the burrowing Goblins now discovered their fellow Dwarves retreating into the core of the Hold, and with this the thousands of Dwarves left prepared for their last stand. The Nigh Goblins massed their thousands and then charged the beligured Dwarves before the forces of Karak Izor could once again intervene and possibly save what little remained of the hold. The Dwarves held the gateways into the core for more then two hours before the last Gate Gaurd was pulled apart, and with this the Goblins were inside the walls, and they proceeded to massacre the remaining Dwarves inside the Hold.

The Final Battles

With Karak Mulger overrun the goblins believed themselves to have the upper hand. In this high for the Night Goblins their scouts reported that the human army had regrouped and was now on its way to the gate with the obvious intentions of retaking Karak Mulgar. The Night Goblin leader knew he didn't have the hold neccessary to be able to maintain control of Karak Mulgar, and if the humans did enter the mountains and team up with the Dwarves, the Night Goblins could possbily lose the war. With this in mind the Goblin commander pulled his forces from the siege of Karak Izor, and left a large force their to hold the Dwarves in place. He then took the entire Night Goblin army and headed to the gates of Lucerne. When William Lovie, and the Lucernian army arrived at the gate they saw the massive Goblin Army arrayed in front of them. In this moment the two armies just stared eachother down. Each side wanting to be the ones with initative this caused the two armies to charge eachother.

Third Battle of Karak Izor

While the Goblin army was leaving to attack the humans at the gate, the Dwarven King of Karak Izor, and Karak Mulger gathered their entire army and launched a shock attack at the goblin army that had remained to hold them in place. So much hate was on the side of the Dwarves, and so sudden was the attack, the goblin army barely even got out of their beds before the Dwarves had completely wiped them out. With this victory the Dwarves moved themselves behind the army of the Nigh Goblins.

Second Battle at the Gates

The Goblins had been prepared to meet the forces of the Humans, and at the final days before the Battle they knew there would also be Dwarves from the more western Holds but what they did not understand was that in the days before the Second Battle of the Gates Stragnarax would travel into the Mountains and gather his entire White Dovah and command they following him into the Battle which would bring thousands of Draknoids, and hundreds of full Drakes into the Mountains just north of Lucerne awaiting the arrival of the Goblins.