Kapitel 22: Westerlands and Greenskins (1)

Year 280 AC of Westerosi Callendar, August

Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, Westerlands, Casterley's Rock

Indeed, as most of the leadership among the House Lannister predicted, soon after the news about the Imperial Delegation arriving at the shores of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, there was only so long that they could hold the Mad King on bay.

It took a long time for the members of the Small Council and the Crown Prince to calm down the raging King, who was spouting nonsense about treason and other accusations.

In the end, it only resulted in Lord Tywin Lannister stepping down as the Hand of the King on his own, but that was still the best outcome that was possible.

It was way better than the possible civil war because the outcome of it would be rather... uncertain, one could say in the most diplomatic way.

After he stepped down from his position as the Hand of the King, Lewyn Martell uncle of the Elia Martel, was named as the new Hand of the King.

In truth, Tywin Lannister himself planned to step down in the near future, so the situation that happened with the mad king wasn't entirely bad because he was forced to step down so he could make use of it to obtain some benefits from it.

From that day on, the Westerlands have mostly closed its borders and kept to themselves, but everyone could see the increasing tension between the various kingdoms of the Westeros.

And one could also see the increasing division between them as various power blocks started appearing within Westeros because of the rule of the Mad King Aerys II. Targaryen.

North was becoming a block on their own, as it grew more and more isolated from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms, though there existed some sort of pseudo-block of the Seven Kingdoms with the Vale of Arryn and Stormlands, mainly through the person of John Arryn, Warden of the Vale.

Westerlands was entering a new age of isolation and a closer relationship with the Empire from beyond the Sunset Sea, which was making everyone nervous and scared because many could see the dangers of it.

And naturally, then there was were the last two remaining power blocks within the Seven Kingdoms of the Westeros. One of them were the reavers of the Iron Islands who were once again alone as they always were.

And the last power block was the so-called Royal Faction which consisted of the Crownlands directly under the rule of the Targaryen and the Lordship of Dragonstone, together with the support of their in-laws of Martels of Dorne, Kingdom of Reach, and Riverlands.

Those who were most politically apt could see that this was a tickling bomb, especially after Lord Rickard Stark decided to call off any further engagement with the Tullys of the Riverlands and the betrothal between his Heir Brandon Stark and eldest daughter of Hoster Tully was annulled.

It was clear that John Arryn was trying to create something that could rival the Royal Faction in case the mand king went entirely out of control and the nation developed into a full-scale civil war.

From that perspective, his moves of fostering the second son of Lord Rickard Stark and also the Heir of the Stormlands, Robert Baratheon, made sense.

Meanwhile, the Lannisters of the Westerlands were slowly growing in power because after they had established a standing military, Tywin obtained the means to solidify his control over the nobles completely.

After he stripped all of his vassals of the right to call levies, some tried to not so subtly protest, but they were swiftly disposed of and now, the Westerlands had five fewer Noble Houses.

And in their places, he raised the two most loyal cutthroats, and three members of the House Lannister were awarded the former holds of the extinguished noble houses.

From then on, nobody dared to say a single word about it anymore.

But not everything was just positive because there were also some problems that the Westerlands were facing, which was the increasing danger from the Greenskisn that took hold within the mountains and hills of the Westerlands.

"Have we found their headquarters?"

For the past few weeks, the scouts of the army were searching for the headquarters of the Orkish Klan that appeared within the Westerlands. Just a few days after the Greenskisn were first sighed, they were already raiding villages, which prompted Tywin to increase the patrols over the Westerlands.

At first, he even managed to strike a deal with the Chapter Master Agamemnon Atreides, who sent a few hundred of his Silver Knights to help the Westerosi to search for the Greenskins and to search for their holds.

"Yes, right now General Greiss is creating the battle strategy for the siege of the headquarters of the Klan; there should be something between 20,000 to 25,000 Greenskins... which is a rather outrageous number considering the situation in the Westeros right now."

Kevan Lannister acted as the liaison between the administration of the Casterly Rock and the Army that was seated within the Castemere that was currently undergoing renovations, but large parts were already used by the army.

"That is certainly more than were initial anticipations..."

Indeed, it seemed that the Greenskins were a bit overpopulated within the Westerlands; it seemed that they had given them a lot of time and now they were a bit overpopulated. Yet, at the same time, they at least were mostly Gretchen, some goblins and ordinary Boyz.

"Yes, it is, but we have the support of the Silver Knights and even some of the Wizards said that they would support us and the Chapter Master would also send a good number of the Silver Knights with us, perhaps even participate in the expedition to destroy the Greenskins."

Kevan Lannister said as he was sitting together with his eldest brother in his solar. During the time, they had a good encounter with the Greenskins and many of their soldiers, and they learned that dealing with the Grentchen or Goblins was relatively easy.

They were practically weaker than trainer adult human soldiers, so killing the Grentchen and Goblins wasn't that big of a problem. When it came to the Ork Boyz, it was rather problematic because Orks were innately stronger than humans, but Orks within the Westeralnds were even in a poorer state than those in the Lordran.

As the Greenskins were never known for their crafting abilities and capability to create things, they were fighting mostly with the scraps that they found, pillaged or scavaged and it was no different within the Westeros.

"We need to root them out before they start building some fortifications in the mountains; then it would be a nightmare to push them out of there."

Fortunately, as they were right, the Orks didn't build anything beyond some primitive wooden palisades and tents, but when their population got enough resources and numbers, they could build fortifications from stone and metal.

Even though it was mostly patched up together and looked terrible, when it counted with the terrain it was located, then the problem was significant because the rocky terrain would be greatly easing them to do so.

"We would be ready to march on them in a few days according to General Greiss."

Tywin then wrote something on the paper before he finished with all of the paperwork for the day.

"And the next things? What is the situation in the other Kingdoms?"

Initially, he wouldn't really believe if someone told him that the Seven Kingdoms were facing the possibility of a rebellion, but now, as more and more time passed, it seemed increasingly possible.

"As expected... with the recent happenings, the King has gone entirely mad, and only last week he wanted to declare Westerlands and North traitors at least three times or four, but he was held back by the Small Council and the Crown Prince. His mood is getting worse and worse and he is getting increasingly paranoid and burning people with the Wildfire as capital punishment."

Many things were happening in Westeros since the first contact with the Holy Arcadia Empire and after Lord Ornstein met with Lord Stark.

"In the end, it was only a matter of time... Targaryens never unified Westeros, they left the former Kings too much authority and right, everyone has their own armies and basically do what they want. When they still controlled Wyverns, it didn't really represent a problem due to the lack of Magic and means of combating them on the larger scale..."

Tywin said as he looked through the window and Kevan couldn't help but agree with him. The gravest mistake that the Targaryens made was that they never unified the Westeros. Every single Lord Paramount had their own armies and they were basically kings on their own.

However, at the same time, Aegon the Conqueror didn't have the resources to do so because he was just lucky to conquer Westeros; everyone put down their weapons and his rule was stable and unstable at the same time.

"There is also another interesting thing to report brother."

But now that the Magic was returning back, it brought with it countless challenges and opportunities.

"What is it this time?"

There were too many things happening in the past months and weeks, and it was already getting annoying that something was constantly happening.

"The Wizards have confirmed that the Magic has officially started recovering within the Westeros and it seems that the news is now spreading through the Westeros. We have noticed that there have been several attacks on the Septs of the Faith of Seven, mainly on those that were holding some forbidden books and there are right now many Lords who are seeking the knowledge about Magic."

Something like this didn't really surprise him because Faith of Seven was someone who was destroying any mentions of Magic within Westeros for centuries, for many, many centuries, but many of the things they confiscated were not destroyed but rather stored.

"And that is not all... it seems that the return of Magic is prompting some of the Lords to become pretty much rebellious... exactly as the Imperator predicted."

This made Tywin raise his brow hearing that because this was pretty interesting news.

"Who exactly?"

The Lord of the House Lannister wanted to make use of this fact to increase his power and at the same time, to weaken his potential rivals to a great degree. He was warned by the Imperator that those who didn't grasp the Magic would lose forever and either fall into obscurity or be extinguished.

"Hightowers of the Oldtown are showing some weird movements..."

The Hightowers were always the one House within the Reach that had too much influence, and due to their close relationship with the Maester Order of the Citadel, which was headquartered within the Oldtown, they were also the best-informed ones.

Tywin, in all of his experience and knowledge, didn't doubt for even a second that the House Hightower didn't have very significant influence within the Maester Order.

He even predicted that Heads of the House Hightower may be even one of the decision makers within the Maester Order, but that was just his own speculation.

If there was someone who would be creating a mess within the Kingdom of Reach, then it would be the Hightowers because the moment the House Tyrrel got weaker, then they would jump at the opportunity to plunge them down.

In the end, House Tyrrell were just upstarts with no history to tell in the eyes of many and it was one of the most foolish decisions of the Aegon Conqueror to give the Tyrells former castellans of the High Garden, Lordship over the entire Kingdom of Reach.

And the same thing could be said about the House Tully in the Riverlands. The return of Magic told many who were living on borrowed time, and Tywin knew that chances were slim for them to turn the tides.

But for now, his main aim was the Riverlands because from all of the Kingdoms in Westeros, it was the weakest one and at the same time, it was destined to fall sooner or later, thus it would be the most prudent to take the planning for the future expansion of the Westerlands.

"Hypothetically speaking, if the rebellion happened in Westeros, what are the chances of the Riverlands remaining loyal to the Iron Throne? I would say that they are at the 100%..."

Compared to the Kingdom of Reach which had a few powerful Noble Houses that would create a problem when it came to the expansion of the territory, the Riverlands had none and their military potential was poor.

"And due to that, if the potential rebellion broke out we can take some of the border territories from the Riverlands and merge them into the Westerlands."

After the Aegon's Conquest, it was night impossible to obtain more territories for the Kingdoms of the Seven Kingdoms because it would be breaking the King's Peace. Even during the previous military engagements within the Seven Kingdoms of the Westeros, it wasn't possible.

"There have been already thoughts about that... the stance of the North would be most probably neutrality over the matter if they are not included."

Indeed in this one, Tywin thought that Kevan was right because Northmen would not intervene in what they called Southern Politics. They never did and when they did it was only when there was no other solution.

They were pretty isolated from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms as they greatly disdained politics and other things, mainly the backstabbing that was rather common within the South.

One could say that the North was a "Kingdom" within the Kingdom.

"No matter the end of the rebellion, the one who will be seated on the Throne will be either weakened or weak and the rule would be unstable, giving us a greater leverage against the Iron Throne."

If the Rebellion erupted within the Seven Kingdoms, then there were two possible scenarios that could happen.

Either the rebels won, which would then create the question on who would rule and with that, and there was very high certainty that the new ruler of the Seven Kingdoms would have a very weak grip on the nation as a whole.

Or the Iron Throne won, but considering the current division of the Nobles and other factors that Tywin was accounting for, it left there a high possibility that, even though the Iron Throne would win, they would be greatly weakened.

***

Six Days Later, Somewhere at the Pendric Hills

The gathering point for the Lannister army was not far from the Ashemark, as they identified the headquarters of the Greenkins to be at the Nun's Deep at the Pendric Hills.

Nun's Deep was a newly discovered and established mine, that wasn't even fully operational; it was only a place that was designed to be transformed into a mine and thus nobody thought about it as a possible headquarters of the Greenskins.

Even though they were brutes, some of them had rather strong gifts for cunning and it seemed that the Boss of the Klan was relatively smart of the Orkish standards at least, because he had chosen a suitable base for his Klan.

Not far from the Ahsemark, close to the Thumblestone River, approximately only a few tens kilometers from the Nun's Deep the Lannister Army was gathering.

There were thousands of them, all of them being clad in the signature red armors, looking more like standardized military compared to the previous appearance of the conscripted peasants and Household Guards of various Noble Houses.

Yet the most eye-catching were only two units within the military camp.

One of them were hundreds of silver armored knights that were in their own part of the camp; they were either practicing their stances and sparring or standing vigil as any proper Imperial Knight of the Holy Arcadia Empire would be.

The second one were heavily armored troops clad in red armor with a golden pattern of Lion, also known as the Red Guards and even the Knights of the Westerlands that were grouped together into the Golden Lion Knights led by Kevan Lannister personally.

The Red Guards and Golden Lion Knights were the core of the Lannister Army of the Westerlands. Together with the Silver Knight Order, they would be the core of the invasion force against the Orks.

Naturally, after the Magic started returning to the Westeros, the people were already feeling it, especially those who had some dormant Magical Blood flowing through their veins.

There were also a good number of Level 1s according to the Imperial Classification within the Golden Lion Knights and there were also a few within the Red Guards. And naturally, that was not counting the mercenaries from the Lands of Ancients that became part of the Lannister Army.

Everybody was rather nervous about the incoming assault on the holds of the Greenskins, something that even the commanders of the army were aware of, but the presence of the Silver Knights and Priests of the Healing Church was tremendously boosting morale.

After several weeks, the Faith of the Great Ones and the authority of the Healing Church was spreading like wildfire within the Westerlands. After the events that took place at the Lannisport were witnessed by countless people, commoners began to change their Faith massively.

The Septs began to disappear, the Septons were often chased off or were even killed in some cases, as this was certainly causing the headache to the Tywin Lannister and apparently the High Septon was furious about this.

To the point where he went to petition the King to do something with it, but this was the situation where the King's madness finally brought something positive when Aerys II. sent High Septon away and threatened to burn him with fire if he bothered him again.

So much for the Defender of Faith in the real action, yet there were not many things that could be done about the situation truthfully.

But such was the danger of the religion; it only required a little to take root within someplace and once it took root, it was almost impossible to dispose of. And now that the Healing Church has taken root within Westeros, they would never leave willingly.

Not like somebody could force them as they were technically speaking part of the Holy Arcadia Empire, so an attack against the Healing Church would be an attack on the nation on itself.

"Has the Greenskins noticed us?"

Within the command tent where the provisionary headquarters of their army that was tasked with the extermination of the Greenskins.

Within the commanding tent, aside from the official leader who was Tywn Lannister, were his brother Kevan Lannister, Reban Greiss, a few of his officers and several Silver Knight Order Officers together with the Agamemnon Atreides.

Surprisingly there were also several Priests of the Healing Church present in case shamans and someone with a connection to the Green Gods appeared, so they could be ready to combat them.

And there were also a few Battle Wizards that remained within the Westerlands after the Imperial Delegation departed back to the Lordran. The Wizards would be playing a crucial role in combating the Shamans of the Greenskins and their Magicians, or if they were none, then they would be tasked with the Control of the Battlefield.

"Unsure; we are rather far away from their position, but it is possible that they have some scouts within the area... we can't notice every single Gretchen and Goblins, as we don't have enough scouts."

General Reban Greiss said, but in his opinion, they would be able to approach closely to the Nun's Deep a lot without being noticed by the Greenskins. Every meter they managed to approach the Nun's Deep unnoticed was increasing their chances for a successful ambush.

"We managed to confirm that the majority of the Greenskins within the Nun's Deep are Gretchen and Goblins, with approximately around 30% of the Klan are Orks, which is greatly playing straight into our cards."

Then General Reban Greiss read the latest reports about the Orkish Klan that was residing within the Pendric Hills. This was a very good piece of news because their number was too high and they were outnumbered.

Even with the addition of the Silver Knights, because Agamemnon Atreides mobilized 1,000 Silver Knights for this operation, something that was relatively a grey zone from the perspective of the Imperial Law.

Still, if they considered the worst variant, then 30% of the overall number would be approximately something around 9,000 Ork Boyz, which was a lot... very lot, considering the individual physical strength of one Ork was superior to that of the human.

"Fighting within the mines would be sure death... we need to lure them out or force them to fight us on the plains before the mine."

Tywin remarked as he looked over the battle plans and everyone agreed with him, because nobody wanted to commence the true siege and enter the Nun's Deep to fight the Orks there.

"Yes... we have prepared several plans to lure the Orks out from the Nun's Deep; hopefully, we will succeed with the first method because the other ones are more costly on time, which would be against us in the combat engagement."

General Reban Greiss was well acquainted with combating the Greenskins because one of the most common contracts for the mercenaries and Free Companies within the Holy Arcadia Empire was the fight against the Greenskins.

So most mercenaries had plenty of experience with the Greenskins and knew their weak and strong sides. Due to this, he didn't have much problems when formulating strategies against the Greenskins, as he knew where to strike.

"Considering the number of the Gretchen and Goblins they have among their numbers, we can await perhaps even some more advanced fortification for their kind, as much as they could get for the Greenkin standards."

If there were some subspecies of the Greenskins that even knew to build something, then it were naturally the Gretchen and Goblins. Even though from the viewpoint of more advanced civilizations, it was primitive, for the Greenskins, it was pretty advanced.

Orks were never known for their capabilities to build something. Actually, they were only known for their capability of destruction and slaughter. It was what they were, but there was a semblance of balance in everything, it seemed, and even the Greenskins had some in their own kind.

"So we can await traps... a lot of traps and their typical mashed-up barriers and other things to prevent us from advancing. With that, entering the mine without killing the Boss and Nobz is no, no..."

General Greiss said quietly because the most common strategy of Gretchen and Goblin was building traps. As both of these subspecies of the Greenskins were much smaller and weaker than their larger and angrier cousins, they reveled in deception and sneakiness, never fighting head-on with their enemy and preferring to use underhanded tactics.

That was the reason why he would rather deal with the Orks only, compared to the Gretchin or Goblins, because while weaker they may be, they were problematic to deal with, especially if the terrain was favorable to them.

And Goblins thrived within the mountain areas, especially underground, where there were dark, many tunnels, paths, various subterranean spaces and so on. Some scholars from the Imperial Universities would even argue that it was their natural habitat just because of how efficient they were within these places.

"The area in front of the Nun's Deep is rather suitable for combat, but we need to create portable walls to stop the mad charge of the Orks in case they already had Squigs."

A Squig was short for "Squiggly Beast". It is the simplest known form of Orkoid life. There are many types of Squig, each generally filling some functional or utilitarian role in the Ork ecosystem.

The Squid's primary purposes were mainly two.

One of them was the primary source of the Ork's food, much like herd animals were for the humans or other more civilized species. The second one, some variants of the Squigs were bred for the war; they could become nightmares on the battlefield if left unchecked.

There are many types of Squigs, but each can be generalized into a single variety, such as edible, musical, hair, medical, parasite-hunting, face-eaters, pet, buzzing and paint Squigs.

Some, like the face-eater types, are little more than snapping, fanged mouths on legs.

Squigs naturally grow and breed within the cesspits of Ork settlements, subsisting on Ork refuse. Tending the Squigs is the duty of the low-caste Orkoids known as Snotlings, whose social standing within the Greenskins was even lower than that of the Gretchin or Goblins.

"That is indeed a great possibility... there are too many of them, so the chances that they already bred a good number of Attack Squigs is very high."

Attack Squigs are one of the most common types of Squig. An Attack Squig is a bouncing ball of claws and razor-sharp teeth, with immense variations in morphology between individuals, with some having horns and a devil-like tail, while others are single-eyed or single-nosed creatures.

Gretchin use them as both a food source if the Squig doesn't eat them first or as a weapon of war, pushing herds of them into the enemy. Orks like to keep them as pets, and sometimes even as weapons as well.

Basically, the Squids were the weapon on their own, as they were pretty hard to kill and were powerful creatures. The Attack Squig was the most common variant that the Orks were using in combat, so it was very unprobable that with their presence number, they didn't have any Squigs.

"Then we shall fish all of the remaining preparations and start the assault, as we still have some surprise on our side."

There were several methods of dealing with the Squids that the Imperium developed over the centuries, such as fighting against the Green Menace. One of the more primitive methods and also it was one of the first ones to be developed, was to use the Barriers to stop their charge.

They would build a portable shield wall that would be etched onto the ground, inscribed with strengthening runes and with holes for the spears that would strike at the weak points of the Squigs when they are charging.

One of the weakest points was naturally their neck, as it was the softest place within their body and it was often not well protected from potential harm. While this method wasn't the best one, as some more experienced Orks and Bosses could find their way around it with strategy as much as it hurt to say that in the same sentence, it was the best one that they had.

Normally, the Imperium was dealing with the Squids purely either through the usage of Magic or Artillery Bombardment from some of their weapons, but those options were not really available for the Westeros and everyone knew it would be a very long time till they would be.

***

Several kilometers away from the Nun's Deep, Pendrick Hills, Westerlands.

Several hours later, the Ork extermination army finally arrived not that far from the Nun's Deep, when their enormous march was finally being noticed by the Orkish scouts that were all around the nearby areas.

In they couldn't commence the surprise attack, but that was something that nobody even anticipated, so they were pretty much lucky that they managed to approach this far without rousing a suspicion.

When they were far enough from the place, as they started moving themselves into the battle formation while keeping the portable shield walls hidden, as they planned to use them in a moment of surprise.

With a single spell from a Wizards, it was pretty easy to keep them hidden from the sight of the Orks unless they sent some Sorcerers or Shamans to scout the area personally, but that will not happen.

Usually, Shamans and Sorcerers had one of the highest social standing within any organization unit of the Greenskins, so they would never lower themselves to an inferior activity that was normally reserved only for the Gretchin or Goblins.

The one fascinating about the Greenskins was that they entire society was strictly hierarchical and organized. Every single Greenskins had someplace on that Hierarchy and normally speaking, when they were somewhere, they could almost never move to other places within the already mentioned Hierarchy.

Stratified society at its best.

But that was also playing to their advantage right now...

"We should make our stand here..."

General Reban Greiss dismounted from his horse, together with other leaders of the expedition army. The place here was suitable to fight against the Greenskins, so they started getting into the formation and laying down the equipment they brought with them.

"We should also start luring the Greenskins out from the Nun's Deep."

This concrete activity was left to lure the Greenskins out, which would be done in a more traditional way. All that was needed to be done was to issue a formal challenge to the Orks, and due to how their society functioned, they would not be able to refuse the challenge.

The greatest cowardice and disgrace for the Ork was not fighting, something like that was completely unacceptable and if the Boss refused the challenge, then even his own authority within the Klan could be challenged by someone else.

In regard to this method, there was a very low possibility of the method not working properly as it should be extremely low or null, so there would be hopefully no need to result in the other methods of "smoking out" the Orks from the mine.

After approximately one hour, everyone could see movements taking place in the distance as the Orks have mobilized to their limits and were already marching on them with great speed and ferocity found.