Lore:Gortwog

King  , Warlord of the Orcs  (also titled "Lord of Orsinium"  and "King of Orcs and Warlord of the Subterranean Realms")  was the ruler of the  ish people in   in the late   and chieftain of the  .   He is remembered as a skilled diplomat and a political genius. 

The Orcish race had been homeless for centuries when Gortwog founded the independent kingdom of   in  .   Gortwog set about gathering dirt on his rivals to bolster his political situation, and in the process bought a stolen letter written by Emperor  . It had been sent to the then-Queen   of  , but had never reached her.   The release of this letter contributed directly to events which culminated in the  .   

Following the " ", his kingdom had expanded to control much of the   as well as valuable coastline along the  . By  , the   recognized Gortwog as king, and Orsinium as a county of  , though portions of the kingdom extended into  .  
 

History
A New Kingdom
 
The story of Gortwog gro-Nagorm is the story of  's rebirth. Tales say he acquired land near the former site of Orsinium after winning a duel in  .  He then constructed a new city, also named Orsinium, for his people within the nascent  , ruling from his citadel of steel.   But despite this, most in the   region saw the Orcs as villains,  beneath contempt. 

thumb|right|The original extent of the Orsinium Area
In  , the   broke out between the kingdoms of   and  . While historians recorded that Daggerfall's King   was felled by an arrow during the climactic battle at  ,   he was actually slain by treachery before it.    , which had remained neutral in the conflict, sent delegations to meet with the warring kings on the eve of the battle.  Among those sent to meet King Lysandus was Lord  , a minor noble who secretly schemed to usurp the throne of Wayrest.  While some sources claim it was Gortwog and his Orcs who slew the king on Woodborne's orders,  in truth, Lysandus was assassinated by Lord Woodborne himself.  

King Lysandus had supported Gortwog's claim to sovereign rule.  When Gortwog got word of the planned assassination, he sent his archers to waylay and attack the Wayrest delegation en route,  despite knowing that this act would damage his efforts at   recognition.  The Orcish warriors were slain in the attempt. 

The Emperor's Letter
In  , Emperor   learned that Lord Woodborne had acquired the  ,  an artifact which allowed its bearer to control  's ultimate weapon,  .  He wrote to Queen   of Daggerfall, asking her to use her influence with the court of Wayrest to try and recover the Totem.  Unfortunately, the letter never reached her, its delivery delayed by the War of Betony. When it arrived, Lysandus' son   was the new King, and as the letter was addressed to "the Queen of Daggerfall", it was delivered to the new Queen,  . 

The letter didn’t remain secret for long; it was stolen by the   and sold to the highest bidder, Gortwog.  It is believed he then sold copies of the letter to the major powers of the Iliac Bay region, as the Orcs stood to gain much from the resulting conflict. 

When the ghost of King Lysandus began haunting the city of  , it attracted the Emperor's attention. Uriel VII sent an   of the   to investigate, and to search for his missing letter (though he downplayed its significance).   This agent crossed paths with Gortwog several times, and even braved the dungeons beneath the steel citadel of Orsinium to retrieve the Emperor's missing letter.  On another occasion, Gortwog had obtained and intended to publish copies of a suppressed  , the contents of which would cause considerable embarrassment to Queen   of Wayrest. The queen hired the agent to retrieve the tome, which turned into a race against the   for the manuscript.  The Orc chieftain also provided the agent with the whereabouts of a magical ingredient to soothe the spirit of King Lysandus, for which Gortwog gained the sorceress  's support of his claim to the  . 

The Warp in the West
 
Ultimately, the agent recovered the Totem of Tiber Septim, which set off a bidding war between seven major powers in the Iliac Bay region. Gortwog made his case plainly, offering a legendary artifact (rumored to have been either the   or the sword  ) in exchange.  The Orc king was given the Totem, though  , the other six powers were also simultaneously given the artifact.  After the agent retrieved the   from the plane of  , Numidium was ready to be activated.  And on the 9th of Frostfall,  , it was.  

Time and reality became " " as the seven powers used a Numidium to their own ends, giving the phenomenon its name, the  . Three days merged into one, though events progressed further than even three days could account for; among the known occurrences was a titanic three-way battle between Daggerfall, Wayrest, and Orsinium midway between their kingdoms that left the surrounding countryside "decimated". The Warp ended as suddenly as it began, and as a result Orsinium was one of but four kingdoms that remained in the Iliac Bay region. Orsinium's borders were greatly expanded to include much of the  , as well as parts of the  coast and  . 

Recognition and Peace
thumb|left|Orsinium's location in High Rock, circa  
King Gortwog's struggles had not been in vain; the Orcish people were given equal status among the races of the Empire, and within ten years Orcs could be found across  , in all walks of life.  By  , the Iliac Bay was at peace, and Nova Orsinium was recognized as a kingdom of   by the Empire, though King Gortwog continued to press for elevation to Provincial status. 

Orsinium was not wholly without conflict, however. King Gortwog established a new priesthood devoted to the worship of  , the ancient Orcish Hero, who according to legend was devoured by   and became the    . Traditionally, the Orcs had worshipped   (another name for Malacath). Gortwog, however, believed Trinimac was still alive, and that he and Malacath were separate entities. This became the official stance of the shaman priests of Orsinium, and further, that Malacath was a demon who wanted the Orsimer to remain pariah folk forever. To some traditionalist Orcs within Orsinium—and most Orcs without—these beliefs were dangerously heretical.  The outcome of this religious schism is not known, but worship of Malacath outside of Orsinium was still strong well into the  . 
 

Notes
  mentions a delegation of   sent to Orsinium to petition King Gortwog to allow their practice there.
The Daggerfall Chronicles lists King Gortwog as having the blood of Tiber Septim, potentially making him a member of the Septim Dynasty.  

See Also
For game-specific information, see the Daggerfall and   articles.

Gallery
 

References