Magic Weapons - The Gorhine

The Gorhine are a set of 13 magical weapons created at the time of the Grutharin Dominion's founding to be used against the Lokusi Swarm.

## Description

Originally crafted by the Ogre Overlord Muzash and his champions, the Gorhine are weapons composed entirely of black metal, their default states are traditional Grutharin designs, but once attuned to a wielder they can be made to take any desired shape or design. While extremely durable, the weapons are not unbreakable, but their ability to absorb their broken pieces to repair themselves after being damaged typically mitigates this flaw. The Gorhine also take on magical properties based on their wielder, which manifest as colored flame.

Attempts to make new Gorhine have all failed, and thus only the original set of 13 exists, carried into battle only by the Dominion's most skilled forces.

## Origin Legend

Due to a lack of organized record-keeping in the Dominion's early years, the following is merely one of many stories regarding the creation of the Gorhine.

Even before the Lokusi overran the southern half of the continent, Muzash was a hero amongst the ogre tribes. He began life as a hunter of incomparable skill, assaulting beasts even larger than the ogres themselves, who otherwise largely contented themselves with harvesting the plantlife of the coastal swamps and southern forests, and the easy catches of smaller animals in the region. It was not long before Muzash found his place amongst the warriors of his tribe, earning prestige in battle against orc and bogrin raiders from the north, and spurring his people to shake off what he saw as a slothful malaise. Eventually he made a formal challenge to the chief of his tribe. In an act of benevolence unusual for the time, Muzash spared his predecessor, uttering only these words when questioned by the stunned former chief: *“You think I cannot beat you again?”* Indeed, the elder ogre would never challenge him again and became one of his staunchest advisers.

To commemorate his victory Muzash was presented with three finely made clubs of wood and stone, as was traditional for new leaders. It was then that the first Devourer first made its appearance at the southern edge of the ogre’s lands amidst swarms of Lokusi. For weeks there had been reports of goblins fleeing their lands in the deeper jungles and swamps, gibbering in their language of ‘giant bugs’, threats that none of the Ogres had taken seriously at the time. Now though, hundreds of bleakhorns and other Lokusi led by a massive Devourer overran swathes of the tribe’s land and several of its outlying villages in a matter of days. Infuriated, Muzash rallied his tribe’s warriors, as well as their spellcasters, intending to crush this blight in one decisive battle.

At first the Ogres seemed well poised to end the Lokusi threat then and there, wading through masses of bleakhorns and crushing them beneath their clubs and axes, or with massive earthen blocks and spikes hurled by the ogres stonecasters. When the devourer took the field though, it began to massacre the ogre warriors, no weapon could so much as scratch its hide, and Muzash himself broke all three of his clubs upon its skull to no avail. The ogres were forced to retreat, and found to their growing horror that the Lokusi feeding upon the dead grew in size and strength, making further attempts to drive off the Lokusi more and more difficult, until finally a frustrated Muzash was forced to yield their lands and lead his forces north, soon finding them pressed against the northern mountains alongside swathes of other refugees.

Muzash had finally reached his breaking point, he would not run from the 'Hungerers’, any further. He and several others among the gathered tribes of Grutharin began to feel with certainty that if they continued to flee and the Lokusi were left unchecked they might consume the world. In a mix of ceremonial duels and short, brutal, conquests, Muzash seized control of a vast army and began planning their defense alongside the council of chiefs that would become the first Thar'zash. Most pressing was the need for a weapon that could kill the devourer, no weapon or magic thus far had been able to injure it, modern scholars question whether this is the result of this particular devourer being resistant to magic or simply if the magic users at the time were simply not learned enough to injure it, though most believe a mix of the two to be most likely.

Amidst the numerous ideas brought forth was a type of rare, incredibly hard ore that the goblins had found in their former homes. It was typically not used in battle due to its weight and the difficulty in shaping it, and thus was usually made into tools or architecture, but in the hands of so many gathered craftsmen it was possible to begin turning it into a weapon. And so the desperate work began, racing against the oncoming swarm, new forges were built, spellweavers from every tribe and clan gathered together, imbuing the weapons with their people’s enmity for their foe, and their own will to live. After many failures, a set of masterfully crafted weapons were made, and distributed amongst the most skilled warriors of the Grutharin. Axes, spears, swords, and maces of dark metal, all made with the sole purpose of slaying the devourer, they cut through the swarm like a scythe as they drove out from the Irongut mountains to meet their foe.

Arrayed at the foot of a deep valley in the southern hivelands Muzash and his elite waited, bait in their own trap. When the vicious masses of Lokusi finally came, Muzash and his council fought, butchering the lesser breeds of the swarm by thousands to draw out the devourer. When the beast finally appeared, the Grutharin spellcasters triggered an avalanche to close off the rest of the swarm behind it, isolating the beast and allowing them to corner it while the rest of the army fell upon the swarm to buy them time.

Each champion brought their weapons to bear against its shell… but no matter how hard they struck, they could not pierce its body. The devourer had glutted itself upon the strongest beasts of the land and some of the mightiest warriors of the Grutharin, it seemed to have become invincible. Even as the champions desperately tried to blind the beast, pierce its underbelly, or sever its joints their strikes harmlessly glanced off of it, until finally their weapons began to crack, chip, or snap from the force of striking the beasts body.

On the brink of despair, with the swarm tearing through the avalanche and beginning to pour in like a tide around them, Muzash raised one last defiant rallying cry, heaving the mace that had been made for him and slamming it against the devourer’s maw. The weapon shattered, pieces of it flying back and embedding in Muzash’s body… but it had left a single massive crack across the devourer’s skull. For a moment, Muzash and the elites thought they had failed, for all their efforts they had barely been able to scratch the beast. Yet the devourer staggered, shrieking, it was uncertain, it had never known true pain save from hunger, yet the ogre had finally hurt it. Muzash was struck with an epiphany, all battle was ultimately decided by will, so long as it remained unbroken, victory remained within their grasp. As he heaved his shattered mace in the air, to strike again something began to happen, the other elites rallied with him, their warcries filling the air with a strange boiling heat. Their broken, battered weapons, began to glow, the scattered pieces bubbling as if in the heat of the forge and flowing like liquid to reform upon them.

Muzash and the others found their weapons carried new might, each strike carried magical energy, and every blow sent feathering cracks all through the devourer’s body as they fell upon it with renewed fervor. Muzash caved in the devourer’s foreleg as it attempted to parry his blow. Its seemingly unbreakable body falling to pieces, the devourer attempted to fly out of the valley, knocking back the Grutharin and spreading its wings, only to find Muzash hanging from its leg, weighing it down, soon joined by the bogrin and orc champions while the others leapt upon its back and began ripping its wings from its body, sending it tumbling to the earth.

Muzash shoved his mace into the creature’s maw as it shrieked in pain, causing it to grow spikes to rip into the creatures throat and neck muscles, before grabbing its head and twisting it slowly in a gesture of titanic strength, snapping its neck and at last killing the devourer. Muzash let out a victorious roar, tore his mace from its skull, and drove the Grutharin forces to victory over the remnants of the nearby Lokusi which were scattering from the death-rattle of the devourer.

## Attributes

The Gorhine are famed for their ability to alter their shape to suit the wielder's desires and add the wielder's strength of will into their striking force, taking on new properties for each individual wielder.