Westfall was a land of brown. Romantic farmers often claimed it was a land of gold, but really it was a land of brown. All overpowering brown from the crops that farmers forced out of the ground. The thing about Westfall was that it wasn't even the most fertile of Stormwind's provinces. That title went squarely to the Elwynn Forest. However, Westfall still produced the majority of Stormwind's grain.
This was thanks to the other things provided in Stormwind's provinces. Elwynn and Duskwood both produced lumber and rather than putting up fields in the resulting bare areas, there was a longstanding culture (particularly towards the east) of planting new trees. In Redridge they concentrated on fishing and driving back the dangers coming from the surrounding areas, especially the Burning Steps.
Westfall's soil wasn't good at growing trees, particular the kind strong enough to be used for building. The waters off and the coast itself was murloc infested. The only thing Westfall had was a lot of barren land that was mediocre for farming. So, the reason why it was the biggest soil producer of the kingdom was solely because it used its entire, fairly flat surface to that end.
This was all about to change now that Anduin was here though. He stood atop the tower at the heart of Sentinel Hill, the fortress in the area painfully erected by dragging stones from Stormwind's mines all the way to here. They would have used the Moonbrooks mines instead, but that was the Defias centre of operation with the infamous Deadmines at their very heart.
He was going to travel to the city, the only settlement in Westfall that had really deserved that title before being ruined, in the next few days. The Light would guide them in their search for anymore spies and deviants and then the Defias would finally fade into obscurity.
'Just destroying the birth of the people's rage will not quell it,' Anduin thought, looking further north until his eyes hit a pillar of light, trees, houses and chunks of soil tumbling through the air around it. The Raging Chasm, a scar left on the land from the Cataclysm. It had the shape of a giant sinkhole, for why there was a pillar of light attached to it, nobody knew and many investigations were made.
Anduin didn't know either, but he saw in that unworked sinkhole an opportunity to stroke many giants with one swipe. He turned around to look at the gathered night elves and Gilneans. Both were clothed and stood in military order. When called to duty, it was expected of soldiers to keep their discipline, which, due to the promises of IOYs (I own you) bonds was higher than ever and still rising. Stormwind must have had the most elite military in the world now, even outclassing Lordaeron in its prime.
It also helped that all of those soldiers already had sex today and balls, unlike stomachs, were a good thing to serve empty on. Sadly, Anduin could not think of a similarly common saying for the women in his army. A scratched itch makes a soldieress fit? No, he wouldn't try to popularize that one. Perhaps he should leave such a thing to Tyrande, her people's elite warrior class, the sentinels, were entirely women after all.
None of that was related to the plans at hand though. Valeera, invisible to everyone else around, raised an eyebrow at him. He still hadn't fucked her, the situation in the cart had never felt right, and once they arrived he had been in constant motion. "Listen and listen closely. The list of instructions I shall now give you will be the lifeblood of a rejuvenated Westfall. I want you to..."
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Moonbrook was a ghost city. Not that it was entirely devoid of life, it just had more houses from its peak than then people around needed. Not that the people around were particularly pleasant fellows, with few exceptions this was a hive of scum and villainy.
Now, it was also surrounded by a siege ring of heavily armed Stormwind knights and mages. They were there to make sure nobody got away. "Make sure to watch these points," Anduin commanded a specialized battalion of spies and scouts, handing them a map. It marked the endpoints of evacuation tunnels in the area. Produced by a combined effort by Valeera and the SI:7, Stormwind's intelligence service, that map allowed them to make this siege absolutely effective.
Anduin's goal wasn't to starve them out, however, he was anxiously waiting for a signal to storm into the city with his elite guard. The goal wasn't just to smash the Defias, they had reformed once and they would do it again, it was to decapitate the beast while also destroying its footing. Valeera was working on the former, the High King had put the groundworks for the latter.
A sudden explosion of dark smoke, that was the signal. "Follow me!" he declared, raising Shalamayne while putting his horse into motion. The signal flags his accompanying officer rose relayed to the rest of the army that they were to stay put and close the siege ring behind him.
To the Defias hiding behind hastily made barricades made from tipped over carts, crates and whatever else they could find, several fear-inducing sights were given. First was that very siege ring. In this time of the year, Westfall was often subject to heatwaves and that was such a day. Seeing the steel-clad knights standing in the sweltering heat, making the air itself waver, in a perfect semi-circle with equal gaps between each showed the band of lowlifes what true discipline looked like.
Next was the equipment they had. Stormwind had always been one of the more well-equipped kingdoms, but with its ascended economy the amount of money Anduin had to spend on military was so absurd basically everyone had his armour heavily enchanted and tailored to their liking. While that broke up the perfectly uniform appearance of the army somewhat, with the differing runes and what-not, everyone with half a mind knew they were dealing with an army that would go down as legend.
Lastly was the High King himself. Anduin had exchanged the lion themed plate after getting fashion advice from all of his ladies. They had called it, especially the helmet, 'frankly ridiculous' and that was a consensual opinion amongst all three of them. The sentinel, the arch mage and the High Priestess had thus gone to the crafters themselves, knowing Anduin's measurements down to the girth of his biceps.
The result was a much less decorated but more stylish piece of tri-colour armour. The thick plates were of a sleek look and were dominated by gold. In keeping with his recent changes, the secondary colour was a deep purple, especially taking hold of his armguards and boots. Pieces of blue cloth shone with heavy enchantments, making the plate even sturdier and Anduin himself stronger and faster. All of it laid over a layer of brown griffon leather, in itself enough protection to ward off arrows from but the most skilled of hunters.
It didn't stop at his armour or the armoured horse he rode into battle, it also extended to the aura of holy fury around him. Ever since accepting the power of Light and Shadow, Anduin had become that more adapt in actual combat, his true potential was unlocked.
