Warsong Blades

==Description==
The Warsong Blades are a military service order that has been dedicated to Garrosh Hellscream even before the mag'har's ascension as Warchief. The Blades are veterans of decades of warfare and multiple tours of duty.
Once an order of orc warriors of the Warsong Clan, the Blades have changed to suit the times. The order is now a military group that exists to enforce the will of the new Warchief and safeguard the Horde against the encroachment of spiritual corruption. Orcs who are not of Warsong Clan lineage are eligible to dedicate themselves to the Blades, as are tauren and Darkspear trolls. Even goblins are permitted to associate themselves with the order as Followers. Every race of the Horde that holds a district in Orgrimmar has been represented in the Blades.
The Warsong Blades are currently led by Katalmach Banefang, who holds the title of Warlord of the Hall of Blades, and his brothers, Warbringer Nazrug Thunderfang and Warbringer Krusg Thunderhowl.
==Organisation and structure==
The Blades are a small military service order based in Orgrimmar. They operate from the Hall of Blades, a small keep in the Valley of Honour that serves as an arena, armoury, barracks, and feasting hall to those who are permitted a place within it.
Members of the Blades serve in the mainstream Horde military, often being posted in other divisions of the army abroad, or defending the Horde’s home provinces from external and internal threat. A mere few handfuls of soldiers, they endeavour to enforce Hellscream’s will and vision.
A prospective member of the Blades who is accepted into the order is given the simple rank of Enlisted. From recruits, to transfers from another military regiment, to conscripts, these prospective Blades remain mere grunts and sentries until their evaluation ends. This evaluation process involves training the Enlisted and testing his mettle in trials until such time that his worth and his loyalty have been proven.
When a member of the Enlisted has overcome his evaluations, he is given the opportunity to take his oath. This oath is a more stringent version of the Blood Oath of the Horde, and requires the oath-taker to swear his ultimate loyalty to Hellscream. Any other tribal, political, or ideological affiliations the oath-taker has become subordinate to his commitment to Garrosh and the Warsong Blades both, thereby establishing the candidate’s loyalty and patriotism. Once his oath has been taken, the Enlisted is formally given a seat in the Hall of Blades, which marks his advancement to the rank of Blade and full membership in the order. Upon gaining this rank, the Blade is held to a higher standard, and is expected to serve as an example to others.
Associates of the order who lack the skill at arms and military prowess required of a Blade are given the rank of Follower. The Followers are honorary members of the order who perform in important support functions for the Blades. They consist of armour and weapon smiths, engineers, healers and surgeons, and other non-combat personnel.
Veteran Blades who distinguish themselves are risen to the rank of Reaver, which denotes their seniority. Other Blades are expected to defer to the Reavers, who lead patrols and oversee their Blade brothers and sisters during training. They are the eyes and ears of the Warlord among the Blades, and are held to a higher standard of discipline. This is the highest that a non-orc can rise in the Blades, as the order’s leadership triumvirate is exclusive to those of the blood of Draenor.
The Blades are led by the Warlord, who holds ultimate authority over the order in the Warchief’s name. Alongside the Warlord are the Warbringers, who speak in the Warlord’s name and command in his absence. Over members of the order, their word is held to be binding law.
==Goals and ideology==
The Warsong Blades represent a union of old, traditional orcish culture with newer politics founded in Garrosh’s imperialistic dogma.
The Warsong Blades are so named not simply to denote clan heritage, but to honour and glorify what the Warsong Clan always stood for. The Blades follow the Warsong way; the hard, spartan way of life that prevailed on Draenor. They are devoted to the shamanistic faith of their people, but follow an older and more puritanical interpretation of shamanism than that of the Earthen Ring. This older interpretation of the shamanistic faith has been bolstered by the union of the Mag’har and their shaman into the Horde, which restored lore and history once thought lost.
But even though the Blades hold fast to many of the traditionalist aspects of their culture, Garrosh’s leadership has brought them to adopt new and progressive politics. The old way of autonomous clans living independently from one another is no more. In their place, the orcs have been unified into one nation with one ruler. Orcish civilization has changed a great deal in the last few decades, and now Garrosh sits the throne; demanding patriotism and preaching that the world should be remade and united under the Horde’s banner. The Blades have rallied to Garrosh’s cause, and support his ambitions of building a centralized empire with Orgrimmar at its heart. The Blades wish to ensure that their spartan, Warsong way is dominant in this vision of the future, and they support Garrosh as the champion of their ideals.
As a military service order, the purpose of the Warsong Blades is threefold; military, political, and spiritual.
In their military capacity, the Blades are much like any loyalist Horde regiment. Their goal is to see to the enemies of the Horde cast down and ruined, that the Horde may thrive in strength and dominance. The Blades are bound by oath and honour to fight for the Warchief.
Politically, the Blades serve another function. They are enforcers and advocates of Hellscream’s vision of the Horde’s future. To that end, the Blades are vigilant against internal threats as well as external ones, and seek to bring about Garrosh’s will as well as bring others to support it.
The third function of the Blades arises from their shamanistic spirituality. The sons of the Warsong clan know well the seductive power and bitter aftertaste of demonic corruption, and as puritanical followers of shamanism they despise anything which causes spiritual corruption. The Blades are mandated to seek out and destroy artefacts of fel influence, and remain vigilant against the subversive encroachment of profane power and those who wield it.
==Code of Conduct==
"Lok'tar ogar! Victory or death - it is these words that bind me to the Horde. For they are the most sacred and fundamental of truths to any warrior of the Horde. I give my flesh and blood freely to the Warchief. I am the instrument of my Warchief's desire. I am a weapon of my Warchief's command. From this moment until the end of days I live and die - For the Horde!" 
Persons associated with the Warsong Blades are expected to required to take the Blood Oath of the Horde above, and uphold the code of conduct defined by the following principles; accountability of action,accountability of movement, accountability of words, honourable association, and purity of body and spirit.
-Accountability of Action-
Blades are required to conduct themselves honourably. The laws and customs of the Horde must be observed and respected at all times, and Blades must protect these laws and customs whenever they are within reasonable jurisdiction to do so. Blades are bound to obey the commands their direct superiors insofar as such orders are not unquestionably corrupt, criminal, disloyal, or treasonous by nature.
-Accountability of Movement-
Blades are required to remain in the area where they are posted, and are held responsible for their location. Unauthorized absences from the place of a Blade’s duty may be considered desertion. Blades are required to remain within the boundaries of Horde territory except when deployed or otherwise ordered or given leave. Extended personal absences abroad require the permission of a commanding officer. Personal absences that involve leaving recognized Horde territory require a formal request and extensive justification before a commanding officer.
-Accountability of Words.-
Blades are required to be honourable in speech. A Blade may never knowingly deceive a fellow Blade or a superior officer, even through omission. A Blade is honour-bound to report anything of significance to an officer. A Blade must never misrepresent the order of the Blades or the Horde itself to any other party. A Blade must never reveal classified or sensitive information to inappropriate persons. A Blade must never publicly condemn or dishonour the Blades, the Horde, or Warchief Hellscream, or use his voice to any detestable purpose.
-Honourable Association-
Blades are required to only maintain associations that are appropriate and honourable. Close association with criminals, exiles, terrorists, and enemies of the Horde is prohibited. Association with foreign, neutral or independent groups and organisations is only permitted insofar as such groups are not at odds with the Horde and do not compromise the Blade’s loyalty to it, or otherwise influence the Blade inappropriately.
-Purity of Body and Spirit-
Blades are required to remain free of taint and corruption, and respect the traditions and values of shamanism (even if they non-shamanistic). Any use of and association with fel and demonic forces is prohibited. Practice of unclean traditions, including but not limited to cannibalism, curses, and sacrifice, is prohibited. Blades are to remain free of malignant spiritual and magical forces, and never supplicate themselves before a malevolent spiritual entity or any force in opposition to the Horde.
==History==
As an order of warriors, the Warsong Blades have a rich history spanning back to well before the corruption of the Horde. With each new phase in orcish history, the Blades have changed to suit the times, and the current Blades are the scions of a substantial legacy.
===Draenor===
The Warsong Blades were first formed on Draenor many generations ago. A chieftain of the Warsong Clan wished to show his favour to one of the shaman of his clan, and decided to select two of his most trusted and most accomplished warriors to assign to the shaman as an honour guard. When he told the shaman to think of the warriors as though they were the chieftain's own blades drawn in his defense, the name stuck.
This gave birth to a lasting tradition in the Warsong Clan. In the generations that followed, the Blades served as a ring of steel surrounding prominent Warsong shaman. Their appointment became a political tool for a chieftain to show when a shaman earned his favour, or lost it. It was not rare for a shaman who thought too much of himself and spoke out of turn in the chieftain's presence to find himself without his bodyguard the following day.
The number of active Blades varied wildly from chieftain to chieftain, commonly ranging from a single warrior to half a dozen. Appointment as a Blade was sometimes seen as a way to retire an aging warrior past his prime with honours, and whether the Blades were seen as honoured war heroes or tired old relics was largely determined by how much emphasis the current chieftain placed on the tradition. Ultimately, despite whether they were honoured or overlooked, the Blades were never a very significant force or presence in the clan.
===Rise of the Horde===
When the clans first came together to wage war against the draenei at Ner’zhul’s urging, there were eight Blades under Grom Hellscream. Like the Blades who had come before them, they were all accomplished fighters with many victories to their names, and they were closer than brothers. But despite their honour, their pride and lust for personal glory had begun to overshadow their duty as a shamanic honour guard. Defending aged shaman who rarely left their huts to go to battle was tiresome and unsatisfying to mighty warriors who had cut their teeth slaying ogres. Such it was that when the call came to go to war against the draenei, the Blades were, like their chieftain, eager advocates for conquest.
Following Hellscream without reservation, the Blades went to war. Their purpose as a ceremonial bodyguard was disregarded in the face of such an extensive, all-inclusive war. They threw themselves into the conflict, and their armour and bodies became so stained with blue blood that it seemed that they might never be clean. When the spirits of Draenor turned away from the orcs, and the shaman were replaced by Gul’dan’s new Warlocks, some of the Blades saw it as freedom from the charge, giving them cause to follow their personal ambitions free from the traditional duty of their order. Still, having represented the symbiotic union between warrior and shaman in orc culture for so long, some of the Blades were hesitant to trust Gul’dan’s new warlocks, their otherworldly pets, or the magic which took orc children and stole years from their lives to age them prematurely.
One such Blade was Sarog Thunderfang, a renowned ogre-slayer born of a shaman mother. Though he did not question the war against the draenei, he disliked the new magic that was subverting their age old religion. He continued to honour the spirits in his own, private way while at the same time keeping a distance between himself and the warlocks. Despite the warlocks, he remained a faithful son of his clan; he had no cause to doubt Grom Hellscream’s leadership, nor did he have any reason to shy away from the war being persecuted against the draenei. Ultimately he had no recourse but to swallow his distaste and follow the new order, hoping that when the draenei were beaten things would return to the way they were. He was resolved that no one would be able to say that Sarog Thunderfang was afraid of war or made timid by change, and he stoically bore his doubts in silence even as his skin began turning green.
When the clans assembled at the behest of Gul’dan and the newly elected Warchief, Blackhand, Sarog and the Blades were among the warriors who accompanied Hellscream. When Gul’dan offered the chieftains the Chalice of Unity, bidding them to drink and taste power, Hellscream snubbed Blackhand by being the first to drink. At first Sarog had thought this to be an empty ritual, but seeing the transformation that overcame Grom dispelled any such illusions among the gathered orcs. When Grom offered the cup to every Warsong warrior present, the Blades were among them. Despite any suspicions or distaste they may have had, every Blade present drank the mysterious fluid, Sarog among them. In part because of their loyalty to Grom, and in part because none of them were immune to the promise of power and glory, none of them questioned the act. Their skin turned green, and their hearts swelled with fury.
After that, the Blades became even more engrossed in the war, though it soon became less of a war and more of a butcher’s spectacle. The power of Mannaroth’s blood had turned each of them into a juggernaut, and they culled draenei until they lost count of the slain. The slaughter reached its climax when Hellscream commanded the assault on the draenic capital of Shattrath. The Warsong swarmed through the streets in a red haze; putting draenei to the sword and axe, impaling heads on spears, throwing entrails to their wolves, and dashing infantile heads against the walls. When the day was done, each Blade had slain more draenei than all the ogres and prey animals they had ever killed combined.
The victory against the draenei left the Blades without direction. They draenei were broken, and there more than enough blood hungry orcs available to hunt down any remaining stragglers. Their original charge, to serve as honour guard to shaman favoured by the chieftain, was now obsolete. Practicality dedicated that they simply discard the tradition, but the Blades were loath to give up the name and its honours. Meanwhile, Draenor became increasingly barren and hostile to life, and the clans grew dangerously close to turning one another.
As the result of losses during the war and the lack of a shamanic charge, Sarog became the leader of the remaining Blades, and it fell to him to restore purpose and direction to his Blade brothers while the chieftain had other things on his mind. Sarog’s solution was in the arenas of Hellfire Peninsula. Gul’dan had promised the orcs another war, even grander than the last, to seize fertile new lands, and Warchief Blackhand was able to keep the clans together by compelling them to prepare for new conquests. The orcs built new arenas where they would hone their skill at arms and further glorify the increasingly militant culture of the Horde. Sarog and the Blades threw themselves into this process; honing their skill at arms and training new Blades. The thrill of gladiatorial combat gave the Blades the opportunity to test their mettle against orcish warriors every bit their equal in strength and skill, and the battles proved to be a good diversion from the deteriorating state of the land.
===The Dark Portal===
At Gul’dan’s bidding, the Horde built the Stair of Destiny and the Dark Portal that led to Azeroth. Blackhand marshaled the Horde for the conquest they had been preparing for. For the Warsong Clan, and the Blades by extension, the war they had been waiting for was denied them. Gul’dan arranged for the Warsong Clan to be held back from the war, fearing that he would not be able to control Hellscream if he unleashed him.
While Blackhand, Doomhammer, and the clans that crossed the portal waged the Great Wars, the Warsong Clan was left behind to watch as Draenor turned into a lifeless husk. It was a time of waiting and hardship. For the Blades, it was also a time of great frustration. Their preparation for the war, and all the pride they placed in their martial skill, came to nothing while they struggled to feed themselves and their clan members. Sarog resolved to keep the Blades strong, and had them continue training. It was not uncommon for the Blades to clash with the ogre tribes that still opposed the Horde, but such battles were brief and unsatisfying.
In the aftermath of the Second War, after Doomhammer had been defeated by the Alliance and the clans were placed in internment, Ner’zhul took command of the Horde on Draenor. The former Elder Shaman commanded the Warsong and Bleeding Hollow clans through the portal into Azeroth, where they raided and pillaged human lands in order to retrieve magic artifacts for Ner’zhul. The Blades were eager to finally be doing something active again, and eagerly followed Hellscream to do Ner’zhul’s bidding. After their victorious return to Draenor, Ner’zhul used the plundered artifacts to open a series of portals, hoping to open the way to the conquest of fresh, bountiful worlds. But Ner’zhul’s portals began to tear Draenor apart, and the Warsong Clan had to fight through a human invasion force to reach the portal and escape to Azeroth.
===A new Horde===
After they escaped the destruction of Draenor, the Warsong Clan made their way north, avoiding Alliance forces every step of the way. They arrived in the wilds of Lordaeron, and spent nearly fifteen years making a meager existence in hiding as one of the last free orcish clans. It was a hard existence, and the young and the weak rarely survived. Their strife was amplified by the blood curse; with the warlocks, demons and their influence gone, the orcs were suffering withdrawal from the energies that had powered their bloodlust. Suffering from both physical and spiritual weakness, the Blades were faced with the memories of all the things they had done since the war with the draenei began. They might have succumbed to lethargy like the orcs in internment if not for Grom Hellscream’s passionate refusal to allow himself and his clan to give in.
Like his chieftain, Sarog Thunderfang of the Blades began to realize how the orcs had created their own downfall. Sarog regretted how they had turned from the old religion, and his dreams were divided between fantasies of strangling warlocks with his bare hands and nightmares of smashing the skulls of draenei children. The Blades were in the same boat as the rest of the Warsong, and it was all they could do to remain strong and free for fifteen years.
When a young, human-reared orc named Thrall found the Warsong Clan, everything changed. Soon the young Frostwolf had seen to the restoration of the Horde by freeing the captured orcs from internment and uniting them as their new Warchief. For the Blades, it meant a chance to fight for their people, regain their future, and restore their old faith.
In time, Thrall led the orcs to Kalimdor to find their people’s destiny, and the Third War was waged. The Blades were there when Hellscream defied Thrall and brought battle to the humans, and they felt the old fire in their blood just as he did. When Thrall sent Grom north to clear wood and build a settlement, the Blades followed as was their duty. When the Warsong arrived, they began harvesting lumber, earning the ire of the night elves and starting a series of battles that would lead to a defining moment of the Third War.
When the forest demigod Cenarius assaulted the Warsong lumber camps, he struck with overwhelming force. Sarog Thunderfang was at one of the western camps closest to Cenarius’s assault. Seeing the demigod leading the onslaught, Sarog rallied as many Warsong warriors as he could, some of his Blades among them, and led a charge against him. Sarog and his warriors were crushed by the Cenarius’s might, and Thunderfang died beneath the demigod’s hooves.
Faced with the demigod’s phenomenal power, the Warsong were faced with annihilation. So it was that Grom Hellscream led them to drink the blood of Mannaroth a second time. Along with their fellow Warsong, the remaining Blades swelled with demonic power as their skin turned red and their minds clouded with rage. With Hellscream’s mighty battle cry cutting through the air, they fought back and defeated the demigod’s force, with Cenarius losing his life to Gorehowl. But the satisfaction of victory was short lived, because the Warsong had bought their survival at the cost of their free will. The Pit Lord Mannaroth enslaved the clan through the power of his blood, and turned them into servants of the Burning Legion. Warchief Thrall’s forces were later able to subdue Grom and cleanse him of corruption, and side by side they fought the demon. Grom slew Mannaroth and ended the blood curse, thereby restoring the Warsong clan to normalcy. Grom did not survive his triumph, but would live on in death as the saviour of the orcs.
===Aftermath===
The aftermath of the Third War was a time of doubt for the Blades. Sarog was dead, leaving their order without a leader. Furthermore, no new Warsong chieftain was named. The clan was absorbed into the rest of the Horde, becoming one part of a larger nation ruled by a Frostwolf with dreams of peace and compromise. The Warsong were left to fight skirmishes in Ashenvale to procure the wood needed to build the Horde’s new capital, but were never given leave to push more deeply into the forest. Thrall believed that in order to atone for their past, the orcs had to build their home in barren, unwanted land and suffer hardship rather than seizing more fertile lands. The Blades, like all Warsong, knew much of eking out an existence in a barren wasteland, and did not care for it.
The Blades had lost many during the war, Sarog being merely one of the casualties. At the time of Sarog’s death, the three most senior surviving Blades were his sons; Nazrug, Katalmach, and Krusg. Nazrug, a shaman and the eldest brother, was missing in the aftermath of Mannaroth’s death. His brothers had regained their free will only to find him gone, and assumed that he had fallen.
The remaining Blades once more considered going their separate ways, but decided against it. Of Sarog’s two remaining sons, they chose Katalmach, the next eldest, to fill his father’s role as their leader. Katalmach’s first decision was to find a suitable way to honour his father and the other fallen Blades. It was decided that they would build a hall in Orgrimmar, the new capital, which would be both a headquarters and a monument. It would be a place for the living Blades to sit and drink mead and tell stories of their fallen brothers while surrounded by their trophies. And it would give them a home; a place to start anew and rebuild.
The remaining Blades traveled to Orgrimmar, still early in its construction, and in the Valley of Honour they built the Hall of Blades. It was not a grand structure; simply a typical orcish Great Hall with added worg stables. But the bloodied, broken weapons they left behind were all given a place of honour in the Hall that promised to be a new beginning to those who remained.
It was an empty promise, however, as there was much to be done apart from rebuilding the Blades, and what efforts could be made met political resistance. Katalmach was brash and often contemptuous of the Horde’s Frostwolf leadership, and considered many of Thrall’s decisions to be meek, apologetic and not in the best interests of the orcish people. Many of the Blades, spartan as they were, shared these views. The Blades’ political opinions made them an inconvenient force in Orgrimmar, and Katalmach’s efforts to rebuild the order met precious little support and significant opposition. The Hall of Blades was left to sit empty and gather dust, never housing more than one passing Blade at a time, while the remaining Blades were dispatched to the provinces by Katalmach’s military superiors.
The Blades spent the majority of the following years among the Warsong Outriders, fighting in defense of the Horde’s border and lumber operations. Katalmach and Krusg continued searching for their lost brother, hopeful that they might find Nazrug alive, or at least recover his body.
Ashenvale still suffered from demonic infestation; there were several pockets of demons that were well entrenched in various corrupted glades and barrow dens throughout the forest. The Blades made it their duty to hunt down and slay as many of the beasts as possible to keep their presence contained and under control. Several years after Nazrug’s disappearance, the Blades led an assault on a demonic lair suspected of hosting agents of the Burning Blade. The lair held several orc captives, recognized as Warsong missing from the aftermath of the war. Among them was Nazrug, alive, who had spent the years since the Third War held by an agent of Mannaroth. The Blades rejoiced at the return of their brother from the dead, and as Nazrug rejoined them they redoubled their efforts to thwart the lingering demonic threat.
The Blades remained most active in Ashenvale for the next few years, contending with military and political opponents alike. Cobwebs filled the Hall of Blades, but the Blades themselves stayed strong.
===The Warsong Offensive===
Several Blades were dispatched with the army to Thrallmar when the Dark Portal reopened, though Katalmach remained in Ashenvale. When the Blades returned from Outland, they bore news of the long lost sufferers of the Red Pox, the Mag’har, and of Hellscream’s living son.
When Garrosh arrived in Orgrimmar, the Blades were swift to identify with him. He was the son of the beloved chieftain, and his pure, brown skin was a living reminder that the orcs had a past before they were corrupted, and that they might have a future free from the guilt-politics that were so touted by the reigning Warchief.
The Blades went to Northrend as part of the Warsong Offensive, and gained many new members from within the Offensive’s ranks. To many of the Horde’s sons and daughters, the war against the Lich King was the first real war they had fought, and having cut their teeth in battle against the undead they represented a promising recruitment pool to the aging veterans of the Blades. Battling undead, vrykul, and the Alliance, the Blades spent the long, cold months of the war in Northrend most active in the Dragonblight and the Grizzly Hills. Northrend was where the Blades most distinguished themselves, and their efforts there gained them new respect and support, as well as earning Katalmach the military rank of “Warlord”.
===A New Order===
At the conclusion of the Northrend war, the Blades returned to Orgrimmar with the rest of the triumphant Warsong Offensive. The cobwebs were cleared from the Hall of Blades, and they celebrated the Horde’s victory and the success of Garrosh’s campaign while drinking in the warmth of Durotar.
The joy was short lived. Durotar was struck by drought, and Warchief Thrall signed a truce agreement with the Alliance that brought a ceasefire to every battlefield. The Horde neared the brink of starvation, denied the bounty of nearby Ashenvale and was limited to the meager resources of the barren wasteland Thrall had chosen for their homeland. The Blades shared Garrosh’s view, and, judging by how beloved Hellscream was in Orgrimmar, such was not uncommon. When Thrall chose to leave Durotar to tend to spiritual matters and left Garrosh to lead in his stead, the Blades were well pleased, and renewed their commitment to serve Grom’s son with their lives.
A nihilistic cult, later revealed to be the Twilight’s Hammer, grew stronger and more influential as the drought and food shortage worsened. The Blades focused their efforts on combating this cult, forever hateful of profane magic and concerned that the dire state of the land heralded the return of the Burning Legion. But the Blades were not immune to cultist subversion, and traitors from within weakened the order. The Cult’s depravity brought about the elemental invasion of Orgrimmar, and the Hall of Blades was extensively damaged in the resulting fires.
Katalmach resolved to rebuild the Hall, and this time he had the means and the influence to do it properly. Remade in the new, imposing architecture of Orgrimmar, the Hall was expanded and fortified in a way that dwarfed its previous size. More of a keep than a hall, it represented how far the Blades had come and what they could achieve under Garrosh’s leadership. Like their hall, the Blades were remade in Hellscream’s service.
With the coming of the Cataclysm, and the resulting chaos which has all but consumed the world, the Blades are now determined to ensure the political future, military dominance, and spiritual purity of Hellscream’s Horde.
Category:Guilds
Category:Horde Guilds
Category:Military Orders