Heartcleaver Keep

Heartcleaver Keep is the oldest of the four cities of the Helm's Gate Alliance ranging back to a time before the Wars of Betrayal when the orcs were a great people. Then led by one of the greatest leaders they had ever known Heartcleaver himself, the holder of the Armlet of Strength, the orcs founded the Keep.

The orcs were beating back the elves and dwarves as their empire rose to replace that of the older races. The elves and dwarves sent armies to fight especially to protect races such as the humans, halflings and catlords. Heartcleaver Keep eventually saw the arrival of a human knight named Faithsblade, whom Heartcleaver would later name Whiteskin. This contact changed Heartcleaver and his orcs. Whiteskin honoured the orc leader and swore fealty to him as he would have a human monarch. He was loyal and worked as a servant, then a bodyguard and then as an advisor to Heartcleaver. Eventually, the two became fast friends and during the attacks by the Chaos Lords, when all races suffered from their terrible attacks the orcs of Heartcleaver Keep were so changed as to act in directly the opposite way to the rest of their nation.

The orcs in general found Chaos to suit them. It demanded little and promised appraently everything, it was wild and dark and delicious to the battle loving race. The Chaos Lords seemed to not strike at the orcs like they weer at others and so the orcs used that to their advantage sending armies against their enemies whilst they were weak from fighting the Chaos Lords. The dwarves especially were the victims of this tactic.

However changed by his years with Whiteskin, Heartcleaver decided to stand against the wanton, heedless destruction of Chaos. He saw that they were intent on actually wiping out races from Karandia. So he and his orcs rode from his keep to draw a line against the Chaos Lords and dare them to cross it. Faithsblade rode by his side and every knight and paladin he could gather who would ride with the orcs.

At the battle of Helm's Gate the Chaos Lords were defeated, the catlords and kenchillians' races preserved. Heartcleaver was killed and the Helm's Gate Alliance was formed. But the Armlet of Strength was lost. As a result the mighty orc empire would fall, but due to these events the orcs of Heartcleaver Keep retained their civilisation. Even today scholars and even wizards can be found among their number that are not anywhere else to be found. These orcs know honour and speak the civilised languages, including those of the elves and dwarves and their allies from Helm's Gate.

Heartcleaver Keep is a large imposing structure. With six towers and a high wall it is the western rampart of the Helm's Gate Alliance. It looks out to the Barkarin Mountains. If the kenchillians are the helm and Faithsblade the shield surely Heartcleaver Keep is the sword of the Alliance. The orcs have the same strength and blood-lust of their kin but they have the civilisation, tactics and training to control and channel these attributes.

These days there is a mix of half-orcs, humans, ogres, half-ogres and goblins, living inside Heartcleaver Keep. Those who live there are accepted by the alliance as equals and no less than than they. These greenskins seem to be able to maintain being as they are treated. Some throwbacks from other tribes, who do not fit into the savagery of the current orc lifestyle, still come to Heartcleaver Keep as outcasts, they are welcomed, as long as they can learn to live by the tenants Heartcleaver set down. There are also some of the orcs who live here who cannot bear the civilsation and feel the need to return to a wilder, more bestial way. These orcs either seek to serve until death as a Bleeder or return to the wilds in search of other like-minded orcs. They are always allowed to go without hatred as all the Heartcleaver orcs understand the pull of those primal forces, they simply do not yield to them.

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