Orcs

Orcs

Not to be mistaken for the Black Orks.It is speculated that, after the society of the ancient elvish race called the Aldenar of Nature was crushed by a volcanic disaster, a part of their people hid in underground caves and somehow made a living there until the surface was inhabitable was once more.

In spite of such claims, the islands of Althond, more precisely, the mountain with the same name, was the place in which the Orcs were first spotted by Men or Elves. They are green-skinned people usually with a brutish appearance and taller than Men. Their life period is approximately three halves to two times that of Humans.

Early Orcish history is tainted by savagery and brutality. The first contacts between Orcs and Men resulted in a bloodshed that drove, on one hand, the civilization of Men to fragment, and, on another hand, the alliance of the Kan Dynasty, made between Men and Earth Elves, to be formed.

After the first Orcish invasion on Southridge, from which resulted the departure of many Humans towards west, the Orcs made various settlements on Northridge. Although these settlements were united in a common banner, the Orcs began diverging and settling upon different areas, forming various clans. By the time of the Third Orcish Invasion, the most notables were: Warhunger, a clan that, despite being small, trained some of the best Orcish warriors, Bleakstare, famous for their animal taming, such as a species of tamable rhinoceros, and Stormclaw, the most notorious of the clans for its adepts of Shamanism magic, being Garr'dar its chieftain and leader of the Bloodgores, as the Orcish united force was later known.

Three days after the Orcs had taken Evergreen, the Third Orcish Invasion ended at the Battle of the Four Rings in Delaria, on June 19 of Year 693 of the First Age, where Xingdao Fan defeated Garr'dar in single combat and convinced him that the war between the two races was useless, and that other forces might have been plotting against both races. Garr'dar, ashamed by his defeat, accepted to leave Southridge, but refused to give Avalon to the Kan Dynasty or let Humans travel in Northridge.

Xingdao Fan's claims proved true when, later that year, rumors of insidious creatures spotted in the remnants of the Human villages in Northridge began spreading across the Orcish population and Southridge as well. The infectious disease seemed not to affect Orcs, which resulted in an indifference towards the creatures. This would soon prove to have been a mistake, since the creatures attacked Orc camps. At the same time, more people began being diagnosed with the disease in the villages of Southridge near Hacksay bridge.

The Foras Cult of Magic was quick to conclude that the creatures were Undead and intensively investigate the origins of the plague. Somehow, Foras managed to track the plague in Birtha, or Lithirion, as it would later be known. Xingdao Fan, knowing that Garr'dar was seeking a mission for his son, Dal'Ragg, whom she knew somewhat well, to prove his worth, secretly passed this information through to the Orc chieftain, who sent his son to the western continent. Simultaneously, Zagath of the Kan Dynasty was sent to Lithiron as well. Xingdao Fan knew that these two characters were tolerant, and would work in unison to find the solution to the problem of both their peoples. Once more, she was right, for on January 10 of Year 694, the Human captain and the Orc commander formed an alliance in spite of the two races' mutual suspicion for one another.

Their forces would soon be joined by the Jungle Trolls, natives to Lithirion, whose witch doctors would be crucial to finding the components for the cure of the plague. On February 18 of the same year, the cure had been found and the Human and Orc forces were returning to their homelands. This alliance would not be forgotten, and the empathy between both races would play a very important part in the Second Age, upon the Black Orks' invasion.