Ask a hundred Westreachers about the War for Freedom and you'll get a hundred different stories. Ask them why it was fought though, and most will give you the same answer, Freedom.
The Empire has its historians, scholars, and officials who speak of rebellion, unity, and lost provinces. Most folk in Westreach see it differently. To them the war was never about taking something from the Empire, it was about preventing the Empire from taking any more from them.
The Empire's Frontier
Long before there was a Westreach, there were only frontier settlements. Small communities carved from wilderness by farmers, hunters, miners, traders, and folk stubborn enough to build homes where common sense suggested otherwise. Life was hard, winters were cold, forests were dangerous, roads were poor, and when trouble came help was weeks or months away. The people who survived learned a simple leson, if you wanted something done you did it yoruself. If your neighbor needed help you helped them. If a monster threatened the town, then the town dealt with it. That spirit would eventually become the foundation of Westreach itself.
The Breaking Point
No one agrees on the exact moment the war became inevitable, some blame taxes, some nobles, corruption, or greed. Most simply say the Empire forgot what life was like on the frontier. The further west one traveled the less Imperial authority seemed to matter. Yet the demands never stopped, more taxes, more laws, more soldiers, more obedience. The people who worked the land, built the towns, and defended the frontier would increasingly ask a simple question. Why should someone thousands of miles away decide how we live? The Empire never provided an answer they were willing to accept.
The War
The war was long, it was brutal, and it cost more lives than anyone can count. Many who fought had once considered themselves Imperial citizens. Some still did. That mattered less with each passing year. As the war continued more and more people came to believe there could be no compromise. The Empire wanted obedience, the frontier wanted freedom. Neither side was willing to surrender.
What was won
Westreachers do not celebrate the war because they enjoy fighting. They celebrate it because they believe it secured something worth protecting. The right to govern themselves, choose their leaders, to live free of distant rulers. The right to tell kings, nobles, and would be tyrants exactly where they can shove their authority.
Many Westreachers still argue amongst themselves over almost anything, land, trade, politics, religion, clans, houses, even settlements. Yet one belief remains nearly universal, Freedom was purchased with blood. It should never be surrendered lightly.
The Death Marsch
The war ended with a wound carved into the land itself. The Death Marsch stands as a reminder of the price both sides paid. Every Westreacher has heard stories about its creation, most disagree on what truly happened. The dead are gone, the scar remains, that is what they do agree on.
"What we remember"
The Empire remembers a rebellion. Westreach, however, remembers a choice. A choice made by ordinary people who decided they would rather risk everything than surrender the freedom to govern themselves how they seen fit. Whether that choice was wise or foolish depends on who is telling the story. Most Westreachers would simply shrug and point east, then remind you that no Imperial banners fly over Kingsmeet.