Orc

Work In Progress

Orcs are a race foreign to Azeroth, invaders from a portal to another world, instigators of a war with the denizens of the Eastern Kingdoms 25 years past, and have since made themselves a permanent fixture among the civilized peoples of the world. Fleeing from the wrath of the human kingdoms after losing against them decisively, the orcs founded a new home for themselves in the western land-mass of Kalimdor. Though suffering many setbacks, the orcs are a proud and strong people, possessed of a great will and hardy constitution. Thus, determined to forge a land of their own, a place where their new society may flourish, the orcs dedicate themselves to the defense and development of their faction, The Horde.

## Orcish History

The orcish people originate from the distant planet of Draenor, a harsh and savage world, a hard and unforgiving crucible from which the orcish spirit was forged. For as long as any living, and many dead orcs can remember, the orcs have lived on the face of Draenor separated between their many clans, from the nomadic hunter-gatherers of the Frostwolves and the Warsong, to the more cemented and agrarian Shadowmoon and Blackrock Clans, the many orcish peoples have lived in their own ways, exploiting their intelligence and organization in order to survive, and perhaps even thrive, within the landscape. These clans themselves likely do not remember a time when they did not exist, what histories they have of their founding are told in story and song, though for many of these stories, there is no hard proof of their validity.

Though the orcs were separated by clan, they bore many similarities due to their shared origin, and a kind of kinship with their fellows, despite differences in culture. They shared the same language, banded together to fight against common threats, maintained peaceful relations, and met every six months for the Kosh'harg festival, where important figures and leaders of the clans would meet in order to exchange greetings, news, organize, engage in revelry, and come to greater understanding with each other. Perhaps most critically, all the orcs of Draenor shared a religion of ancestor and elemental worship. Every clan had shaman, soothsayers and mystics who would use their power to tap in to the spiritual energy of the planet to communicate with the elemental spirits, the denizens of nature and other orcs, as well as the spirits of the ancestor orcs, who watched over their clan still, so that they might beseech them for aid or advice. Every clan honored these beings, and benefited from both the material aid and guidance provided by them. Every orc, through their experience in life, would come to respect and understand the power and importance of nature and the elements, thus ensuring the ubiquity of this tradition. With the many similarities between the orcish clans, it may be said that each clan is simply part of a category of orcish culture, rather than its own independent culture.

## The Gorian Empire

For many centuries, perhaps even thousands of years, the orcs would just barely manage to thrive on Draenor, growing in strength and numbers. During this time, they would face rivals to their supremacy, including the Ogron, great one-eyed cousins of the ogres, greater in size and strength and with rocky hides, but lesser in intellect, and the Gronn, massive giants who would travel the landscape constantly searching for food to sate their massive appetites, and possessed of unrivaled strength and power, but a near animalistic intellect. Chiefly among these came in the form of the Gorian Empire, a powerful country composed entirely of Ogres.

This ogre empire would seek supremacy and dominance over the face of Draenor, wielding arcane magics wrested from the ruins and dead hands of another race, the Arakkoa, who had previously risen in power and fallen to the depths of weakness and corrosive stagnation. The ogres would come in to conflict with the orcs on many different occasions, the ogre's expansionist policies bringing them in to battle with the orcs, as the ogres pushed to take their lands. Critically, the ogres would take an interest in the religious center of the orcish people, the Throne of the Elements, a temple carved in to a rock-face, and center for elemental and spiritual activity. The ogre sorcerers and their leader would seek to take this power for themselves, and deprive the orcs of their shamanistic abilities. They would capture and begin experimenting upon The Throne, but in attempting to forcefully take this power for themselves, the massive, unstable pool of energies deep within the Throne exploded, destroying the temple, killing multiple ogre sorcerers, and imbalancing the flow of spiritual energy in the world, and disrupting the elemental spirits. This would have a chain reaction, sending the natural order of the world in to chaos. Natural disasters would occur frequently and without warning, and the weather was now unstable, and unpredictable, changing with only the slightest excuse from a calm, cloudless sky to a hurricane. The orcs would retaliate against the ogres for desecration of The Throne and their careless, megalomaniacal interference with the natural order for their own gain.

The orcish clans would band together and unite against this threat, organizing a Horde to battle against the ogres, and eventually laying siege to their capital city of Goria. The orcs, unable to break through Goria's significant fortifications without devastating losses, dug in for a prolonged siege, depriving the city of its necessary imports of food and water. Unable to sustain themselves, the ogres, in a desperate bid to defeat the orcs, formulated a dark and malevolent spell, which would win them the day. Through dark, shadowy magic, the ogre sorcerers created a magical plague known as The Red Pox, which would only afflict the orcs.

They would unleash this terrifying disease upon the orcish camps, leaving them to rot and dwindle in numbers as the days went by. The orcs, realizing this spell was an attack by the ogres, and that their siege would soon be broken, pleaded with the elements in their hour of greatest desperation, to destroy Goria. The Elements answered the call of the orcs, and in their fury, unleashed their full and terrible might upon the ogres. The city was obliterated, every ogre was wiped clean from the city, and for many of them, not even their bones remained. This would event would permanently shatter the Gorian Empire, and leave it to rot and fade in to weakness, and though the Gorian Empire would remain a force to be reckoned with for centuries more, it would eventually succumb to becoming little more than disconnected ogre city states, which would fall one by one to war, infighting, plague, orcish assault, and any number of other disasters. The orcs would continue to fight against the remnants of the empire for centuries, the Warsong Clan in particular would spend a great deal of time fighting the ogres due to their shared proximity within the plains of Nagrand. The Red Pox would reappear and devastate the orcs every half a century or so, a constant reminder of the horrors of the war.

## Rise of The Horde

Two centuries later, an event would occur that would change the course of orcish history forever. Fleeing from the wrath of the demons of the Burning Legion, the draenei would crash-land upon the planet of Draenor, for reasons unknown to the orcish clans.The draenei would grant the world its name, "Exile's Refuge", and settle across various locations across the planet, but chiefly within Talador, the central mountainous, forested region of the continent, and in the eastern parts of Shadowmoon Valley, sharing the land with the Shadowmoon Clan. Their main cities would be Shattrath of Talador, built up from the ruins of Goria, and Karabor a temple-city within Shadowmoon Valley. The Draenei and Orcs would remain amicable in their relations, interacting with each other rarely, but almost never in a hostile manner. The orcs and draenei would share Draenor together peacefully for nearly 200 years. The main event of note during this time would be the attempts of the current Imperator of the Gorian Empire to retake the remains of Goria from the Draenei, before being easily rebuked and defeated by the draenei forces, humiliating them, leading to the death of their Imperator, and further cementing their decline.

190 years after their arrival on Draenor, the draenei are discovered by the Burning Legion, in particular, by a demon lord named Kil'Jaeden, who bears a personal vendetta against them. Previously, the draenei had fled before Kil'Jaeden's army could destroy them, and thus now seeks to destroy the draenei in a more subtle manner, and without dirtying his own hands. Kil'Jaeden begins to manipulate events in order that the might use the orcs to fulfill his desires. In particular, Kil'Jaeden, using his magic, comes in to contact with a disadvantaged orc, known as Gul'dan, and brings him under his wing as his apprentice. Kil'Jaeden, sensing the darkness within Gul'dan's heart, knows that he will be the perfect pawn. Gul'dan is taught the dark magics of the Burning Legion, and instructed to claim a place of influence within the Orcish Clans. He would travel to the most politically powerful of all the clans, The Shadowmoon Clan, home to the greatest number of shaman in any clan, and the most spiritually enlightened. It is the Chieftain of the Shadowmoon Clan who takes the place as High Shaman, the one orc who is most blessed and favored by the spirits, and the single individual capable of wielding the most influence over every orc. Gul'dan would ingratiate himself with the clan, and within the company of the current Chieftain and High Shaman, Ner'zhul.

With this dark powers, the demon lord Kil'Jaeden set in to place the events that would lead to his ultimate goal: The destruction of the draenei. Kil'Jaeden knew of the ancestral worship of the orcs, but more, he knew of the emotional vulnerability of Ner'zhul, caused by the recent death of his mate, Rulkan. At the same time, Gul'dan, using his fel power, would throw the elements of Draenor in to chaos. Cut off from the spirits, who would now no longer be able to interfere with Kil'Jaeden's plan, and his life-mate Rulkan, Ner'zhul was sufficiently prepared. Kil'Jaeden would contact Ner'zhul through his dreams, as ancestral spirits sometimes did. Taking the appearance of his mate, Kil'Jaeden would gain Ner'zhul's trust, before warning him of the danger and evil of the draenei. "Rulkan" would convince Ner'zhul to organize the orcs to war against the draenei. Kil'Jaeden had also manipulated the dreams of other shaman of every other clan, in order to ensure the conflict. Once the clans had organized, Ner'zhul warned them all of the danger of the draenei, and that they must make a preemptive strike. The other gathered shamans confirmed it, and soon, many of the orc clans would move to war. The greatest exception was the Frostwolf Clan, lead by the chieftain Durotan.

Though organized the war, Ner'zhul would have doubts about the honor in killing the draenei. In particular, after going to war, the elemental spirits would no longer answer the calls of the orcish shaman. Ner'zhul believed this was a sign that the orcs had faltered. He would visit a place sacred to the orcs in order to confirm his suspicions, the Mountain of Spirits, Oshu'gun, the home of the ancestor spirits. He would speak to the spirits, asking for their guidance in the matter. They would tell him of his folly, that he had been deceived. The draenei were innocent, and he was a disgrace to the orcish people. Horrified, Ner'zhul returned to the Shadowmoon, only to discover that Kil'Jaeden had already learned of his treachery from Gul'dan. Gul'dan and Kil'Jaeden would force Ner'zhul to concede his office to Gul'dan, who would now lead the orcs in spiritual matters. Gul'dan would begin forming a circle of loyal warlocks from the now powerless shaman, creating the start of the Shadow Council. Not long afterwards, Gul'dan and his Shadow Council would curse the Mountain of Spirits, in order to prevent them from interfering in their plans. The ancestral spirits would be trapped within, unable to warn or give guidance to the orcish clans.

Now in the highest position of political power, the orcs focused on the conflict, and the elements abandoning them, the fields were ripe for corruption to fester, and Kil'Jaeden to deepen his influence. The orcs would organize once again to discuss the topic of the loss of their contact with the spirits, and in turn, Gul'dan would arrange for the election of a single executive leader for all of the orcs in their war effort against the draenei. Through the manipulation of the Shadow Council, it would come to pass that Blackhand, Chieftain of the Blackrock Clan and pawn of the Shadow Council would come to claim the position of Warchief. Gul'dan and Blackhand had been conspiring together for months prior. At the same event, two days before, Gul'dan would introduce fel magic to the orcs. Blackhand had "donated" some of his now powerless shaman to Gul'dan, whom apprenticed under him, and were now capable warlocks. These warlocks would demonstrate their new-found power upon draenei captives, and quickly, the desperate, unscrupulous, and megalomaniacal orcs, who desired magic, flocked to these new warlocks, learning the arts of fel magic.

With the aid of the powerful magic of the warlocks, and a supreme commander guiding them, the orcs would unite in to a single military body. The Horde. Together, they would ruthlessly crush and decimate the draenei, wherever they went, or wherever they lived. Over time, the traditions and values of the orcs would be eroded. Focused on war, cut off from the spirits, and the whims of the Shadow Council deciding their destiny, the orcish warriors would lose themselves in the conflict. The fel power of the warlocks would begin to suffuse the land and the orcs themselves with continuous use. The skin of the orcs would turn green, and the land would slowly begin to die. Distracted from these concerns, years of war would pass, before the time would finally come for the orcs to siege the last stronghold of the draenei, Shattrath. Fortified and garrisoned with the last and mightiest warriors of the draenei, The Horde quickly saw that this would be a bloody and terrible siege for both sides. Gul'dan would concoct two schemes by which the conquest of Shattrath would be made simpler.

First, he and his Shadow Council would change and mutate the Red Pox disease,creating a strain which would afflict only the draenei. Second, Gul'dan would make a pact with Kil'Jaeden and his subordinate, the Pit Lord Mannoroth, to bind the orcs to the Burning Legion. The Pit Lord would provide his blood to Gul'dan, which when drank, would fill the orcs with fel-fury, mutating them in to larger and stronger warriors, filled with a rabid bloodlust. Both sides were pleased, as this would render the orcs simple to manipulate, and forge the Horde in to an even more powerful war machine. Gul'dan would call for a summit of the warriors of the orc clans to a mountain overlooking the city of Shattrath, and offer them to drink from a pool of the demonic blood, promising them power and glory as warriors would come to them if they did. Out of either desperation, peer pressure, lust for combat, or desire for power, the orc warriors would one by one come to drink, with Grom Hellscream, Chieftain of the Warsong Clan, being the first. The only exceptions would be the Frostwolf Clan, and Orgrim Doomhammer, immediate subordinate to Warchief Blackhand.

Soon afterwards, the orcs would march upon Shattrath. With great siege engines, demons, the spell-casting of the warlocks, and charging orcish warriors, the city would be broken open, its contents, those draenei denizens who did not flee, slaughtered. The blood mist of the Red Pox would be unleashed upon the city, weakening and degenerating the bodies and minds of the draenei it infected. Those who survived would mutate in to the forlorn Broken and Lost Ones. The Demon Lord Kil'Jaeden, satisfied, and feeling that his vendetta against the draenei had been completed, left the world of Draenor, abandoning the orcs, leaving them to their fate.

Without an immediate threat, the concerns of the abuse of fel magic would now take the forefront. Famine struck every clan, and orcs were clamoring for food. Water had began to dry up, the herds and prey animals were sickly and thin. The world of Draenor had began to die, and the now bloodthirsty orcs took every opportunity to fight and kill. Orcs would fight each other for food, order held together only through the dictatorial authority of chieftains and the Shadow Council. This period would be known as The Dying Time, and would last for three years. It would come to an end however, once Gul'dan, desperate for a way out, would be contacted by a mysterious being.

## The First War

Through his dreams, Gul'dan would be contacted by a human wizard named Medivh, from a planet called Azeroth. The wizard would make Gul'dan an offer. He would grant him passage to Azeroth through a portal, which he would create from his own location on Azeroth. Gul'dan and his orcs would create a portal from their side, Draenor. Gul'dan would magically be taught the particulars of the spell by Medivh, and instructed to begin creating the portal immediately. Gul'dan would do so, gladly.

Saved by the mysterious wizard, the Horde would begin construction on a portal, the Dark Portal, within the Tanaan Jungle, now becoming the Hellfire peninsula, as the particularly vicious fel magic wracked it of its life and the soil of its fertility.