The Runes of Arlyn

Prologue: The King of Erengoth

The clouds are at peace and are shaped in a way that is pleasing to common eyes. It is calm in the sky above Erengoth, the Human kingdom of the World of Arnon. But below the clouds, especially in the Raulen Valley, it is anything but peaceful, caused by the conflict between the Erengothians, and the Dwarves of the Redfoot Mountains. The air is filled with thick, black smoke, while fire engulfs most of the valley's once calm green and snowy pasture. The mountain pass leading to the Jarosh Pass is no longer visible from the smog and smoke covering the body littered battlefield. The chaos across a large field of bodies continues to escalate, and the Northern Troops of Erengoth are starting to falter.
The Dwarven archers on the western ridge are raining down arrows on both the invading Dwarves of the Redfoot Mountains and the defending Humans of Erengoth. The arrows land on their targets with a quick and sudden THUNK, barely dwindling the seemly neverending forces. The men that are hit cry out in pain, trying their hardest to escape, only to be struck again with another volley, or stampeded over by charging soldiers and horses. The dwarves begin to corner the remaining humans with an encircling shield wall, with archers continuing to shoot unfortunate targets, and begin to overwhelm the soldiers flying the Silver Falcon Banner of Clan Stormhand.
Meanwhile within the giant enclosing circle of Dwarves, the leader and the Chosen Noble to command Erengoth in this war, Robert Stormhand, is trying desperately to win this last battle. His bronze and silver armor is completely covered in mud and gore, his Warhammer, Irhial, is swinging through dwarven infantry like a stone passing through water, fighting alongside his men and his giant War-Hound, Harthall. He tries with exhausted effort to beat back the dwarven pikes for an opening to rally his men, but nothing shows despite his efforts. The warhammer slams into two or three dwarves at a time, spending their armor and completely ruining their bodies, sending their souls to the Void of Carlnen. But despite the carnage that Irhial provides, the dwarves seem to never dwindle, tiring the remnants of the Army of Erengoth. 
Robert's troops continue to fight on, but lose two men for every dwarf that falls. The wails of the wounded are almost deafening, almost distracting Robert from shielding himself from the most recent volley. The stench of rotting flesh and steaming piss burns within his nostrils, with the smoke, blood, and mud from the battle covering his body and face. Harthall crashes into the incoming dwarves and spears, trying to create a gap in the massive shield wall.
The archers continue to decrease the Stormhand numbers, until Robert gathers his archers and scatters them through the ranks for one more desperate move against the dwarves, ordering them to aim towards the ridge. As they get into position, they keep their bows hidden to not give their positions away to the Dwarvish Archers. Robert, pushing through his men, tells any soldier with a shield to stand close to an archer to defend them if they are spotted by the opposing archers. They get into position, waiting for Robert's signal. The field seems to get louder as Robert shouts "Shields UP!!"
The shield-bearers crash their shields over the archers while grunting in unison. "HO!" They wait there, arrow after arrow piling up as they await the archers to return fire, and awaiting their next order. Robert smashes two more dwarves as his archers prepare to fire on the ridge.
A few moments later, Robert is thrown off his feet and three dwarves begin to attack him, swinging at him with swords and axes until Robert can defend himself with his shield. He crashes his shield into their sides, and renders them off balance. He then recovers himself, and unsheathes his sword, Wolfsbane, and quickly despatches the Dwarves. But then, over the screams, the clashing of metal and wood, and grunts of fighting, a horn sounds. Everyone seems to stop to see where and who blared the horn, and seemingly out of nowhere, an entire company of knight-calvary is riding through the dwarven pikemen, waving the crimson colored Axe-Banner of Kakkar Axeblood and the Golden Horned Banner of Stromnerth Icehammer as they turn over the earth beneath their horses, crashing into the Dwarvish shield-wall, giving Robert much needed time to turn the battle in Erengoth's favor.
    Unsurprisingly, the dwarves continue to fight against the calvary, only escalating the Battle of Raulen Valley by countering the Erengothian Calvary with their own fully-armored War Hogs. The hogs begin to tear through Erengothian soldiers as Robert collects Irhial, and charges with the last few thousand soldiers of Erengoth, presenting his clan's Silver Falcon Banner as he charges on foot towards what could be an glorious death. His soldiers follow, and begin to hack through as the Erengothian archers fire upon the dwarven archery, beginning to turn the tide of the battle.
Harthall howls as the Dwarves begin another assault as they are smashed back by Stormhand lancers and swordsmen. The dwarves begin to attack the lancers legs, sweeping at their feet and beginning to overcome their ranks, but Robert and Harthall smashes into them as they try to advance, and proudly shouts at the top of his lungs, "FOR THE NORTH!!!" Erengothian arrows continue to hit their targets, and dash through the air as if they were gliding with the wind, as if they were the wind.
The arrows penetrate the archers on the ridge, and the archers' numbers decrease dramatically as Robert commands the archers to continue firing. Robert heads to the front line, where his Swordcarls are pushing back against what remains of the dwarven War Hogs. As he rides Harthall in, he orders Kakkar to dismantle the catapults and trebuchets that the dwarves are using to turn the tide of the battle back in their favor. The siege weapons placed on the top of the southeastern hill are massive: tall wooden constructs that tower over the mechanics firing the weapons, and the soldiers that defend them.
The trebuchets and catapults are launching fire-drenched rocks colliding on the battle, burning the once quiet, snow-coated valley, into an humid, fire-filled hell. Kakkar rallies his calvary and charges to dismantle the War Machines. As they reach the hill, they see hundreds of Dwarven Barbarians surrounding the siege weapons, bloodthirsty, and ready to fight, until death takes them to the Void.
Riding with his cavalry away from the main battle and observing the Dwarven Barbarian formations, Kakkar orders his cavalry to divide, half riding with him, and the other half with his friend and second-in-command, Stromnerth Icehammer. Kakkar circles around the War-Machines with his troops, and prepares to flank at Stromnerth's signal. Riding with the wind to his back, Kakkar sounds his ram's horn to begin the charge. The loud and rallying blast shuts out all the battle for the quick few seconds Kakkar blares its melodious tone. The cavalry begins to yell and scream as they prepare to charge, with their horses circling, readying to charge towards the Barbarians. The stomping of hooves and battle cries of the Erengothians is almost deafening before the charge, but Kakkar only hears his heartbeat and anxious breathing as he leans back and raises his giant battle-axe, Nyghtbane, and straddles his horse to charge furiously towards the Barbarian shields.
The barbarians crouch behind massive iron and stone spiked shields to defend themselves and their formation from the charge. But, in a clever switch in strategy, Stromnerth's cavalry curves around the Barbarians, and charges into the Dwarves side flanks. Stromnerth slams into a breach with his Warhammer Stormfury, and the calvary crashes with their leader. The skirmish near the siege elevates quickly. At first, the Dwarvish Barbarians seem to be a more formidable foe than Stromnerth realized. Soldier after Soldier, horse after horse, the Dwarves cut down Stromnerth's men, quickly giving Stromnerth anxious thoughts of the mission possibly failing. But, in a moment almost given by the Gods, the familiar blast of Kakkar's horn fills the battlefield, and the Erengothians quickly destroy the Barbarians. After what seemed like a neverending battle, the Erengothians calm their horses to a soft stride, softly tampling the ground beneath them littered with ruined helmets, broken bodies, and trampled up snow and dirt. The trebuchets and catapults are standing idle, standing as dead as the wood that makes up the construct. The Erengothians waste no time to begin setting ablaze the siege weapons, and as the blaze of flames dance within the wind, the calvary sets back towards Robert and what remains of his army.
The inferno rises to the point that Robert can see the smoke to signal to charge his army forward. And soon after Irhial clears the last two dwarves ahead of him, Robert rallies his troops to charge one last time at the weakened Dwarves with the calvary charging from their rear flank. They charge. As a pack of wolves rushing to a wounded stag, the collective clansmen of Stormhand, Axeblood, and Icehammer charge to protect their home of Erengoth. They hack, swing, stab, shoot, and cut through the remaining dwarves until the battle is theirs. .
Once they realize that the battle is lost, the dwarves begin to retreat, stripping off their armor and throwing their weapons down to flee faster to escape the merciless defeat that awaits them. Harthall claws and snarls at any fleeing dwarves he can catch, signalling the sound of victory with a long and bloodcurtling howl, rising over the field. Robert raises Irhial to proclaim the safety of Erengoth to his me, with his black banner furiously rushing in the wind.
"VICTORY!!" Exclaims the bolstered Northerners, their swords, spears, and bows raised towards Robert, ceremoniously proclaiming their choice of the new king. "STORMHAND!!"
Robert waves Irhial with an attached Stormhand Banner, and proclaims, "FOR ERENGOTH!!!" His soldiers raise their swords and cheer loudly on for Clan Stormhand.