Black Orc

**Black Orcs** are an ethnic group of Orcs native to the Serpentspine mountain, and are the oldest known group of orcs in Halann. They gain their name from their pigmentation, which emerged as a result of the- now defunct - ability for orcs to change the color of their skin to camouflage in their surroundings over the course of generations

## History

### Creation and Early History

Orcs as a whole are believed to have come into existence deep within the hold of Hul-Jorkad, potentially created by the precursor elf Ducaniel, as a weapon to assist in his continuation of the war against Aul-Dwarov, the unifying empire of Dwarven kind. They broke out of the lowest levels of Hul-Jorkad, devastating the hold in the year 6000 and beginning the thousands year conflict between the peoples.

They quickly spread across the caves, and cut the empire in twain with blockades, pushing north with presumable command from their creator, reaching Verkal Kozenad, and pushing past it and sieging Er-Natvir in 5990, eventually wiping out Verkal Kozenad in 5970 and finally breaking the starving Er-Natvir in 5934, sieging Mithradhûm in 5925 before arriving at Amldihr in 5920.

Records further indicate that the orcish army broke into the Serpents Vale in 5914 creating the Orcsbreach, and further cut off the remaining western dwarven holds from the rich agricultural bounty of the Vale.

Some records and evidence from hold archives suggest that at this point, the orcish army began to splinter due to the sheer size of the force, and its commander is unable to maintain a cohesive strength over it.

Amldihr would fall just slightly later in 5888, after the last ditch effort of the Western holds failed in 5895. This also spelled the end of a cohesive orcish army in the Serpentspine, as they grew too numerous, a million times too much, for Ducaniel to control, and cementing a period of orcish power in the region.

Roughly around this time, their leader and creator would disappear, leaving the Orcs with no strong leadership, to do as they pleased, and many of them splintered into many myriad directions, and under many myriad causes.

### Leaderless, and The Breaking of the Western Holds

The vast majority of orcs would continue to follow their instructions from their leader, and continue to assault and break the last remaining holds of the Western Dwarovar, starting with Mithradhûm, which would fall and break at 5860, after yet another bloody and costly battle, an impressive feat from the already devastated and starving hold.

Orlazam-az-dihr would follow in 5850; breaking the devastated and shattered hold, which had nothing left to stand for, and no hope, and Ovdal Astra would be forever lost as the king collapses the hold and a section of the Dwarovrod utterly to stem the invasion of the orcs, and prevent their passage into the lands of Khugdihr, saving them from the same destruction that would visit upon the rest of the Dwarovar, for many millennia.

Shortly after Haraz Orldhûm would fall in 5870, easily destroying the incompetently led and massively reduced armies, despite the change of leadership in the hold  after a slave revolt. When it was captured, the slaves inside found their chains held by new masters, marking the first prominent example of Black orcish enslavement of goblins.

Further assaults on Krakdhûmvror would begin in 5738, but minimal progress would ever be made, and the hold would never fall to orcish hands, despite setbacks and being reduced to little more than the hold proper.

### Migrations across the Dwarovar

The orcish warbands wouldn’t be so easily stymied, and divided as they were, various actions, assaults and battles occurred simultaneously. The road to the Middle Dwarovar was a contested battleground between the Segbandal and the orcish warbands, with no significant ground made, as orcish numbers and ferocity ground against the ingenious and violently defended dwarven encampments.

A similar story would unfold on the road to the Serpentsreach, with the forces lead by  Arg-Ôrdstun holding out for centuries, only failing in 5400 when the orcs finally managed to push into the Serpentsreach from the Argrod junction.

The orcish forces were much more disorganized compared to their previous successes, and thus the conquest of the Serpentsreach was a slow and bitter defeat. They, in contrast to the Western Dwarovar, only managed to destroy a few holds directly, mostly forcing the Serpentsreach dwarves to huddle in their holds, and wait. Ovdal Lodhum would retreat in 4624, Verkal Skomdihr in 4611 and Arg-Ôrdstun in 4538.

By 3800 BA, not a single stretch of the Argrod remained in the control of the dwarven holds, who had either perished or retreated into their holds. In 3641 Gor Burad would fall in the wake of a particularly violent eruption from the volcano below the surface of the hold.

For a time, stymied in the east by the Segbandal and unable to siege the remaining holds of the Serpentsreach and Western Dwarovar, the Black orcs simply wandered and fought amongst each other and against the remaining Dwarves and Goblins they came across, vying for dominance and the thrill of war.

Conflict in greater and more terrifying iterations would respark with the shocking fall of Orlghelovar in 2686, and the later successes the same warband had in pushing the reclaimer dwarves out of Hul-Jorkad, and forcing them back to their defenses. There was a brief time where it seemed possible for another wave of orcish success, but these fears proved unfounded as for almost two thousand years afterwards, the successes they would find would be minor at most, such as pushing Krakdhûmvror back to their hold.

The first records of orcish warriors on the surface are estimated to be from this time period, postulated to be from the same warband which destroyed Orlgehlovar and Hul-Jorkad, likely looking for a way around the fortifications which protected the Middle Dwarovar from the orcish warbands.

### The Dragonwake and the March East

When in 472, Gor Vazumbrog was destroyed by the Hunter in the Deep, a notorious dragon- who had awoke as part of the larger Dragonwake - the orcish warbands poured into the Middle Dwarovar for the first time in history, scouring the lands once protected by Gor Vazumbrog, stopped at the gates of Hehodovar by the Segbandal’s combined forces.

In 816, however, a conflict from within the Segbandal would cause many of the armies to retreat away from Hehodovar, to defend their own lands against the possibility of an all out civil war within the alliance, Hehodovar was forced to bar the gates and isolate themselves within the hold forced to retreat into the depths of the hold. This forced the remaining holds of the Segbandal to retreat into their holds, and hide away from the rampaging orcs who swept east, into the tree of stone, as the forces of the eastern gate, Gor Ozumbrog, were in part stationed in Hehodovar, and were thus trapped.

### Skewered Drake

In 894, a warband lead by the infamous orcish chieftain Gorrath the Wrathful would march into the Middle Dwarovar and would settle into the ruins of Gor Vazumbrog, taming and making uses of the drakes there as weapons of war, and as materials for surprisingly sophisticated weapons, tools and armor. They would remain entrenched in the hold for nearly a millennia proving the most resilient of the Black orcish tribes, and the Skewered Drake tribe exists in some form to this day.

Sometime later, a group of Black orcs dubbed heretical by the leading religious figures of the clan would be forced east, becoming the Shadowdreamer clan, feared for their subterfuge and masterful use of the dark of the Dwarovar to harass and terrify the travelers through the land.

### Korgus and the Greentide

For hundreds of years afterwards, the Dwarovar was a land of orcs, the holds that remained cowering behind their walls whilst goblin tribes were fought in brutal combat or enslaved enmasse.

This would only change with the arrival of Korgus Dookanson, who made a movement out of claiming to be the son of the god of the orcish peoples Dookan- often believed to be a half-remembered and mythologised version of their creation Ducaniel- and would rally a huge number of tribes behind his martial genius and brutal conquest, claiming that it was the gods of the outside world who had imprisoned their god, and that the only way to free him was with violent, bloody conquest.

A huge amount of the warbands of the Western Dwarovar, by choice or not, would come to rally under his banner and march on the gates of Khugdihr, laying siege to it in 1415, with a level of control and efficiency not seen since the fall of Aul-Dwarov.

This siege would see the establishment of the Siegebreaker clan, and later- and more famously - in 1426, when Khugdihr finally broke, the Greentide, which would change the face of the world forever as orcs in the thousands swept out of the Dwarovar, devastating Escann; and setting into motion the chain of events which would define the world for generations.

The orcs who remained were far lesser in number than the orcs who poured out of the mountains, and set the grounds for the reclamation of the Dwarovar.

### The Modern Day

In 1905, most of the Black Orcs of the Dwarovar existed only as small war-bands, at the edge of societies, wandering the caves, huge sectors of the population wiped out in the conflicts of the post-greentide Dwarovar. The only surviving state under their leadership being Skewered Drake, which persists to this day.

## Culture and Religion

The Black orcish peoples are diverse in their beliefs and practices, something which can be attributed to the vast distances and isolation of the groups. A few things remain common culturally.

A strong competitive and violent system of social advancement and glory. Evident in practices such as the trophy hunts of the Masked Butcher clan which terrorized the Serpentsreach and in the desperate search for glorious violence exhibited by the maddened Roadwarriors. This system meant that for the most part, advancement within Black orcish tribes was determined by your ability to fight and win glory above all else. If you could beat those stronger than you, then you deserved to rule and those weaker than you deserve to be ordered and commanded, for they are lesser than you.

An extension of this was plundering, which proved to be a key aspect of many Black orcish societies, with the belief being that if you weren’t strong enough to protect what you had, then you didn’t deserve it. Those who could take the most, and make the most of it were held highly, whilst the actual production and making of new riches was treated as less impressive and worthy of respect.

A strong cultural faith is another common aspect of Black orcish culture. Much of their actions fighting and combating the dwarven holds after the absence of Ducaniel can be attributed to both a fight for survival and for a desperate want for glory, honor and out of a desire to fulfill their religious commandments which developed over time, which held the dwarves as the ones who took their god away from them, and imprisoned them. These factors combined to make the destruction of the holds an act of almost religious importance.

For almost all of history, the entirety of the Black orcish peoples were followers of the slowly evolving religion of Dookanism, which was the mythologised telling of their divine quest and their creation at the hands of what they would come to know as Dookan- often believed by modern scholars to be Ducaniel.

This is less the case in the present day. Whilst most Black orcs still are quite fervent followers of Old Dookanism, some in the Middle Dwarovar have been converted to the Jadd by missionaries, others now follow Corinite, inspired by their Grombari rulers and some- in the lands of Kuxhezte - have converted to the worship of dragons.