ND/Sven Hurtigruten's Saga

Sven is an old hand at rebelling, he never liked doing what he was told by anyone, be it his father or an orc. His family are farmers working the fields outside of Bergen. He grew up learning to farm as well as read and write from his father Harold. Harold had sneaked south to fight in the Engenstut County Uprising the year Sven was born and he shared his dreams of a free land with Sven. Harold also met Finbar Gullvan, an upcoming leader in the Engenstut Resistance during the failed Uprising.

By the time Sven was 26 he was a hard worker, and a hard drinker, but mostly he had become a man who didn't know how to shut his mouth. He talked loudly and openly about the need to overthrow the orcs, and had he lived in the city someone surely would have gotten him killed. But in his village folks looked out for each other. Most of the older peasants ignored his diatribes, having seen the results of rebellion first hand; however young, brash, and persuasive, Sven could hold spell-bound the younger folks of the village with his talks about a free and equal society.

In the year 487, Finbar had come north to visit Harold to recruit him for another rebellion. Harold, feeling his years as well as the scars of the last rebellion refused, but Sven was enraptured with the thought. Finbar appreciated the revolutionary zeal of the young Sven and the two of them immediately got along. Rather than going south with Finbar, it was decided that Sven would recruit peasants from the nearby Tiwanskine area and start second rebellion at the same time as the one in Engenstut County.

Sven was able to mass nearly 300 young recruits from the surrounding villages. They would drill at night with bill hooks or whatever other implements could be found at hand. After about a month of work the time was ready for Sven to launch his rebellion in coordination with Finbar to the south. The Tuesday Rebellion did not in-fact take all day, but was rather crushed before noon. Sven's forces were scattered and he would find out later that Finbar didn't start the Engenstut County Revolt for a full three more days.

Life got much worse for Sven after the Tuesday Rebellion. While the orcs never found him after the battle, his neighbors, many now missing one or more children, all knew his involvement. Sven had to put on hold any plans for glorious revolution and see to the more immediate task of helping his neighbors and avoiding orcs. He quit drinking and spent all of his spare time and money helping his neighbors with their farms.

Life continued on this way until Feburary 1st 508. While traveling into the city with his father Harold to deliver grain, Sven continued to make remarks about the lack of justice in the system. As Bergen and the surrounding fields were the assemblage point for the Orc Legions, shooting off his mouth was dangerous. Some orcs overhear Sven and decided to summarily execute him. Sven was dragged onto an impromtu stage while two orcs made a show of debating which axe to behead him. Unable to watch, Harold rushed the orcs, tackling the one holding down his son. The orcs lost their jovality, and dealt with Harold who yelled for his son to flee. Sven, now loose, ran from the scene, turning back to witness his father being taken apart with a bearded axe.

Well aware that he or at least his village might be identified by the orcs based on the goods that he had carted in, Sven decided to flee the city. He headed north to Dunsoo which he found relatively empty of orcs: only a few companies instead of the full regiment. Rumors pour in over the next month that almost all of the orcs left for the Capitol. Sven realised that this is his chance, now that the country was undefended he could liberate the people. He started to raise an army again with the intention of taking the castle and Dunsoo before marching south to take Bergen. His words take root and by the second week of March he has 500 troops willing to follow his banner.

However his unruly mob was no match for the castle's forces. They were heavily out armed and unprepared to deal with cavalry or magic users. The lone orc garrison company was able to tear his army apart. Hounded by goblin riders, his forces scattered back to their homes. Separated from his army, Sven and a core group of soldiers were harassed by orc forces and were continually pressed north. It wasn't until they had traveled two days north into the desert that they finally appeared to have retreated beyond the interest of any Dunsoo forces.

While traveling west through the desert before turning south back into Hanist, Sven and his men were ambushed at an oasis by a much larger force of Reptilians. Before any bloodshed could begin, Sven was able to convince the reptilians the men meant no harm. During their conversation, he discovered that this is a war party formed of three different tribes of reptilians. They had gathered together because the orcs had captured some of their children, including a child of the chieftain Tsaj-Maz.

Eager to get back into the fighting, Sven requested to join Tsaj-Max in their fight. The reptilians were uncertain that beaten human refugees could be any help, but Tsaj-Maz was convinced of the men's sincerity and his opinion apparently outweighed the concerns of the others. Sven and his men traveled with the Reptilians for two days before arriving at Camp Ganagut, a small outpost in the desert created to keep an eye on reptilian activities. The camp was clearly using human and reptilian labor.

On April 11, the combined human and reptilian force sneaked into the camp to retrieve the hostages. The orcs discovered them and struck back hard. Tsaj-Maz fell in battle, leaving the reptilians in disarray. Sven led his men in a desperate charge into the camp and the reptilians rallied and eventually joined him. The surrounded orcs were forced to surrender and the captives were freed. Tsaj-Maz recovered from his wounds and was reunited with his daughter. Sven crucified the surviving orcs while the reptilians retreated into the desert with their freed tribesmen, not wanting to hang around for the inevitable orc reprisals.

Sven's forces after the battle stood at nearly 100 strong plus a small train of civilians who are eager to follow him out of the desert. Camp Ganagut had a significant number of mounts for patrolling the desert and proper steel weapons were obtained for most of those willing to carry arms.

Needing to take care of his non-combatants, Sven decided to scout ahead to see how well secured Vukdarned was to the West. The fortress turns out to be too strongly held. He finds a better prize: to the south of the fortress is a ranch where the orcs were raising and breeding Pegasii mounts! The company of orcs at the ranch would be too strong a force to take head on, Sven and his men decide on a raid. They would sneak into the camp at night and poison their provisions. After the orcs were at reduced strength then they would attack.

With surprising luck, the raid goes well and the following day the orcs looked sick and miserable. Sven ordered an attack, and his men charged the ranch to discover to their suprise that the pegasii have begun their own revolt against the orcs. The human and pegasii forces were able to quickly overpower the orc forces. One of the pegasii studs, Magnus, was supernaturally intelligent and capable of human speech. The humans and pegasii agreed to join forces against the orcs and again Sven recruited the human laborers at the camp and liberated the supplies and more conventional horse remounts of the orcs.

For the next two months Sven and his new troops and mounts conducted hit and run raids on orc forces and caravans, all the while improving their skill and supplies. Herdsmen flocked to his banner and his army grew into a formidable force. But the orcs responded to his attacks by consolidating their farflung garrisons and holding the Imperial Highway in force, escorting caravans with three or four companies at a time. They also risked counter-raids, aiming to kill his less mobile camp followers and recapture the newborn generation of Pegasii. Running low on supplies, unable to risk open battle against large orc forces, and increasingly stymied by the impenetrable fortresses at Catonodo, Curoca, and Vukdarned, Sven returned to the land of his birth with plans to link up with The Liberation.