Gerin Orcrend

**Gerin Orcrend** was a Castellyrian adventurer, known for killing thousands of orcs. He later became the King of Ovdal Lodhum.

## Early Life

Gerin was born on 4th of Nerament 1380, to unknown human parents in northern Castellyr, near the Serpentspine Mountains. Not much is known about his early life, apart from the fact that at some point he married and had a son.

## Adventuring Career

After his wife and son were slain by an Orcish raiding party, Gerin swore to avenge the death of his family, and became an adventurer. Over the years, he fought against several orcish skirmishes and raiding parties near the slopes of the Serpentspine and the caves past Khugdihr, becoming famous as Escann's premiere orc-slayer. This fame led to Fognir Asra recruiting him to his expedition into Ovdal Asra, which he agreed to after hearing that Dugorik Dragonbreaker, the orc that had killed his wife and son, had become the warlord of the orcs gathered in the abandoned hold. In the winter of 1410, he and the rest of the expedition party went into the Dwarovar.

During the expedition, Gerin fought hundreds of orcs in order to confront Dugorik, and eventually slew him in personal combat. Gerin was eventually brought down by the orcs and believed dead by the rest of the party. Unbeknownst to them, Gerin had survived, waking to hundreds of orcs dead by his hand, and Mintbrick dead next to him. Furious over the death of his friend and with no other goal in life after Dugorik's death, Gerin ventured deeper into the Dwarovar to kill and hunt down as many orcs as he could, swearing that he'd purge the Dwarovar of orcs.

## Time in the Dwarovar

Over the next two decades, Gerin would slay countless amount of orcs, becoming feared by them as the Trickster: a shadow in the night, whose traps and ambushes were as important to his deadliness as his proficiency with the sword. Gerin destroyed several orcish settlements by himself, and even ambushed an orcish horde led by Korgus Dookanson himself during their march towards Khugdihr, killing as many as he could before being forced to flee to the caverns by the orcs. He continued to follow Dookanson's horde to the gates of Khugdihr, harassing and ambushing them whenever he could, but broke his sword-arm while fighting a party of orcs, forcing him to sit and watch as the forces under Gurukk Siegebreaker's lead overran Khugdihr.

After the Greentide's department to Escann, Gerin stayed in the hold for two weeks, looking for survivors. Falsely believing that the White Walls of Castanor would be able to hold the Greentide back and the orcs would be butchered on the fields of Escann, Gerin had decided to return back to the Dwarovar to continue his fight against the orcs and seeing Dwarovar restored, and offered the surviving dwarves to join him. Only one of the survivors, a dwarf named Dagrin, took up Gerin's offer, the rest opting to take their chances in war-torn Escann.

Over the course of their adventures across the Western Serpentspine, Gerin learned from Dagrin how to speak the Dwarven language, and found the Sapphire Gem of the Dwarovkron while exploring the region. During their travels, the duo came across a dwarven camp, consisting of people from dwarven communities that had survived in isolated parts of the Dwarovar, who had who had banded together following the orcs' department from West Dwarovar. Gerin and Dagrin were set on the idea to find an intact dwarven hold which led the dwarves of the band informing them about Ovdal Lodhum, the home of some of the dwarves, giving the two an objective to head to and convincing the band to venture with them.

During the journey, Gerin met a married dwarven woman named Dwalra which he took a liking to, however the expedition had encountered an orcish assault which Gerin failed to hold off, resulting in Dwalra's husband's death. Devastated by the loss of her husband, and leaving her son Balgar fatherless, Gerin took responsibility for her husband's death and vowed to take care of them. Dwalra and Gerin ended up falling in love, and later got married, with Gerin adopting Balgar as his own son.

## King of Ovdal Lodhum

After marrying Dwalra, Orcrend returned with the dwarven band to his new wife's home, the Hold of Ovdal Lodhum. Following the death of the hold's previous King four years prior, the hold's assembly had been divided on the election of the new King. Due to his possession of a gem of the Dwarovkron, the sword that gave him the name Orcrend, and his vision of the reclamation of Dwarovar resonating with the members of the Assembly, Gerin was soon elected to the position of King in 1430.

As the King, Gerin's reign saw sweeping reforms across Ovdal Lodhum. Groundwork for the restoration of the hold's lower levels were laid out, several bureaucratic reforms were passed, and new festivals based on Esmari river-parties were introduced for stress-relief and raising the Dwarven population. Technological innovations from the surface and Khugdihr were introduced, and dwarves from remote, hidden villages started to enter the hold's gates. Gerin's experience against orcs also led to Ovdal Lodhum adopting a new military doctrine, focused on quickly securing new lands before the enemy could react instead of waiting in a defensive position for the enemy to take the initiative. Gerin also raised his adopted son Balgar, teaching him about rulership and warfare.

## Legacy

Gerin Orcrend remains a figure of great importance for the hold of Ovdal Lodhum, and is still regarded to this day as the man responsible of modernising the hold and laying the groundwork for the holds subsequent expansion.

The exact number of orcs Gerin Orcrend killed during his 32-year journey across the Dwarovar is unable to be objectively verified, but it is widely accepted both in popular culture and intellectual circles that he has killed more orcs than any other person in recorded history. Gerin himself claimed to have slain at least a hundred thousand orcs single-handedly during his time in the Serpentspine, although modern scholars have been hesitant to affirm these claims, with some scholars believing the number to be significantly lower.