Khaganates of Laghan

The **Khaganates of Laghan** is a region in southern Elyria. [Insert General Description Here]

### ***Region 1***

→ *Main article:Region 1.*

Description

* **Location 1:**
* **Location 2:**

## **Laws / Traditions**

### Religion

The primary god of the Laghan tribes is the sky god Aspan, although the storm god Osmon and god of music Qindush (Whom the races of the north call Quintus) are also worshipped by some of the tribes and confederations. Differing beliefs between some tribes is a cause of tension and disunity.

They are no permanent temples and their beliefs are passed on orally (primarily songs) and not through scripture. An important part of their belief is based on the smoke released by their campfire, due to which fire is therefore also important. Their traditions include the sacrifice of game and blood, through which they want to curry divine favor. Cremations are central to burials, since they allow the return of the soul to the sky. Singing and praying next to fire can also hopefully take the thoughts of people along to the heavens.

## **Demographics**

Multiple races live along each other within the same tribe, although orcs typically make the Khagans that lead them. An individual tribe is almost always a part of a loose confederation of tribes which aid each other in attacks against other confederation but otherwise maintain a cordial relation.

The tribe migrates throughout the year, avoiding the harsh climate and storms and in order to find the sparse prey to hunt. This is done on the back of the docile Megatherids, which are able to house several tents as they reach sizes over 14 metres in length.  Therefore they have no permanent structures on the ground.

## **History**

#### **General**

The “civilized” states which are too weak to endure the conditions of life on the steppe have always viewed the Laghan peoples as strange creatures living at the edge of the known world at best, and savage hordes of barbarians at worst. In reality both, either, or neither can be true at any one time. Given the conditions of nomadic life in southern steppes, the groups collectively called Orcs (an exonym used only by outsiders), rarely achieved the cohesion required for any general statements to adequately describe their society as a whole. Constantly changing alliances to both crush and protect each other, groups rising to power and being wiped off the map, assimilated only to be expelled, they should be of little interest and threat to the established dryad, human, and in the past Firbolg and other empires. The settled peoples don’t realise that nowhere in the world can one be as free as on the endless plains of the far south, where only the wind may whisper to the nomad what to do and where to go. Living in rugged independence makes for a tough but good life, where every man can be his own master. They neither have incentives to leave the steppes further than regular border raids, nor does the, for most of its history, barren and poor steppe make an inviting target for foreign invasions. Mostly. Woe be to those who make an enemy of the Laghan at those brief but glorious moments when a leader arises who can unite them under a common banner, a great khagan who will lead them to conquer the corners of the world.

#### **Myths and Historiography**

The History of the Laghan is not well recorded. Oral tradition is one of the few ways information is transferred across generations. Every child learns the epic songs and poems, dedicated to the god of music, Qindush (Quintus to the elves and humans), and of the sky, Aspan. The almost repetitive pattern of massive expansion, followed by a swift collapse of Orc rule in the conquered areas is rendered in romanticised and hopeful form by the myths and psalms. While they often exaggerate, the historicity of at least some of their content can be confirmed by the archives or collective memories of the races they interact with. The archetypal story tells of a virtuous man, wronged by others, who exacts his revenge and rises to unite by war or peaceful means, all the Orc tribes under the vast blue sky. Then inevitably the jealous and arrogant settled states to the north come into conflict with them, and by divine intervention or, more likely, by being unable to handle the lightning fast cavalry of the new confederation, are defeated by them. Every time this occurs some of the orcs give in to the temptations of settled life. They become envious of the luxury, security, and absolute power that rulers of the land they conquered enjoyed. Thus the next generation of leaders, carving out their own fiefdoms and ruling as kings, become as lowly and weak as the people they pretend to rule. If they are lucky they are slowly assimilated and replaced by local elites, but more often uprisings evict them as fast as they arrived. The sons of the steppe are protected there by the great sky god, but disloyalty to their traditions invokes only wrath.

#### **Brabzan the Great**

The peoples who in the process see their lands conquered and pillaged, are ironically those who enable any of the Laghan stories to be confirmed, by writing down their experiences with the "orcs". The story of Brabzan, most revered of the Great Khagans for instance is so fantastical that it is only through the records of the old Firbolg kingdom that we can believably substantiate it. Three thousand years ago Brabzan had started with only his close family, having been expelled from his tribe for a murder he was falsly accused of. With charisma, a knack for survival, and undoubtedly the not insubstantial backing of the gods of justice and the great sky, he turned from a fugitive to a leader of a minor clan. His career as a general began by leading around 100 of his tribesmen against another group, five times the size, who had assumed they could easily force his tribe into submission. His victory would set a precedent for all his future battles, all of which he won, and in all of which he had started with numerical inferiority. In fact, the Firbolg accounts, based on interviews of fleeing Drowad soldiers from his later wars, suggest that this was one of his less impressive victories. The armies of the south seemed unstoppable to contemporaries.

Once all the Laghan were united under Brabzan, Aspan gave them a signal that they must leave and seek glory out in the world. The sky god made this clear by making a volcano erupt, spewing dark clouds that obscured the sky over the steppe. In the darkness and cold of the south the Laghan could not survive. They had to fulfil their destiny; to conquer the North for Aspan and for the glory of their people.

Despite the merciless treatment of his enemies, the great Khagan was impeccable with his word, and spared anyone who peacefully surrendered. This, one assumes, is why the peace-loving Firbolg state had its records survive, and the previously dominant Drowad and Dryad states had little remain of anything not carved in stone. Similar stories occured for states further north, where only at the borders of the dwarves their rampage could be stopped. Even there it is clear that the mountainous, rather than the forces of the then dwarf King Torbald, forced a focus on consolidation rather than expansion.

While some orc Kingdoms survived for centuries, and one still exists to this day within the human empire, the project of consolidation was generally a failure. Those who stuck to their traditions soon found that they would run out of cities to sack, and that the local terrain was not conducive to their nomadic lifestyle, while those who adopted the customs of civilized states were, with the aforementioned exception, gradually degraded by divine misfavour, local revolts, and the ambitions of other states.

This story was told at length because, as previously asserted, it is emblematic of many of the legends and histories of unified Orc realms. While none have yet been as successful, similar stories of conquest, brief rule, and then withdrawal can be seen again and again particularly in the southern lands. Their repeated oppression by nomadic rulers may also be a reason for the development of ultra nationalism among the dryads in more recent times .

#### **Recent Developments**

The more recent history of the Orcs and their interaction with the wider world are coloured by this historical lense. For the last two centuries the orcs have been in their self occupied state, with the brief exception of an abortive attempt to conquer dryad lands fifty years ago. They seem content to move through the steppe as the seasons make certain areas more or less hostile, riding on gigantic beasts which carry their living quarters, and using their smaller mounts to raid each other and the occasional dryad outpost.

Howerver, reports increasingly arrive [ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ][ Совершенно секретно ]. Time will tell if they are correct.