Orcka (Orcs)

### Who are they?:

The Orcka (Orcs) are the descendants of a schism in the early Skylander peoples, forming one large army that briefly organized into a large military Junta with the Goblanti (Goblin) peoples in the Stone Tree Mountains, but disbanded after some time due to conflicting ideals, but they disbanded peacefully and as such remain close kin throughout their history. They are a tall race, roughly three meters in height and incredibly bulky with muscle. Often portrayed as howling savages wearing animal skins, they are a surprisingly complex race with their own distinct culture and society. Their name is taken from Skylandarus, where Orcka means “plunderer” or “theif”.

### Where do they live?

Their homeland lies in the surface caves of both the Skylander Mountains and the Stone Tree Mountains in Shamuun, with colonies once established on the continent of The Crescent inside modern Aklein, but due to anti Orcish sentiment they were pushed away and returned to their homeland en-masse after The Great War of the Splintered Crown.

### What do they build with?

Orcs often build their buildings from boulders and large chunks of rock stuck together with lime, tar, or molten crystal dust or sand (melted in great iron braisers) with roofs of clay tiles or thatch. Wood and dried grass bundles are used for roofing and insulation, however wood is more rare and held with more reverence than the more wealthy nations or peoples, to the point where if a structure is abandoned, the wood is harvested in order to recyle it. Bones and the hides of large animals and beasts are also used where wood is scarce to make simple roofs and tarps, and using bone structures as supports or as various other uses..

### What do they eat?:

They largely eat whatever they can steal, however they are known to herd mountain goats in small herds, maintaining a gentle relationship with the wild populations as a semi domesticated foodsource, with the goats learning to let the Orcs take some of their old in exchange for protection from the feral Theelgeth that occasionally wander west from the Woodlands and through the Skylander Valley. Other than goat, they seem to eat all that can be pillaged from their neighbors in war parties. Goat meat can, however, be used for broth, soups, smoked meat, salted meat, roasted meat, or in dire circumstances eaten raw or blackened in a firepit.  They also eat these foods with stolen crops, and shamans are known to make cheese as a form of communion bread in religious festivities. Goat meat is often roasted in its entirety as a great feast, with the remains of the goat being eaten throughout the next few days, however if the goat they catch or chose is small, it is often dried or smoked for jerky.

Other animals may be hunted: bears, deer, birds, and wildcats from the skylander side of the mountains are popular. Bears often take a warparty to gather, with a hunting party often arriving with usually one male or a mother and cubs to be split evenly among the families involved, or to be taken by the entire party if it was all from one specific clan.

Bear meat can contain diseases, so it is not roasted, rather skinned, separated from bone and meat, and the meat is boiled with stolen spices, or salt from trade with the Goblins. The tongue is smoked and eaten as a delicacy, often reserved for the head of the clan, while the paws are equally good and are blackened before being bickered over amongst the hunting party.

Deer are often hunted by a single hunter, either stalking the animal and falling down on it from the trees and crushing it or breaking its neck as with most small game, or by throwing a spear. The deer can be roasted, and they often are, however deer are more commonly skinned and then smoked for jerky, as are birds and most small game like foxes, squirrels, and rats, all of which are hunted by children in their formative years. Often, it is a sign of pride when a child manages to overpower a wolf and bring it home to eat. Wildcats are a difficult hunt, similar to hunting elephants in difficulty due to their dangerous habits. Often a chief will lead a hunt after a wild cat after goats have been slaughtered, and it is a sign of great honor to have a chief wear the skin of a slain wildcat, doubly so if the cat has specific tattoos and colored patterns on it’s fur marking it as one of the domesticated and therefore more dangerous Skylander Cavalry variety.

Fine breads and cakes, berries, jams, currants, wine and other delicacies are enjoyed as luxuries when they are stolen from their neighbors. They especially enjoy raiding their eastern neighbors the Skylanders, largely in part due to a lingering dislike from their ancient exodus but also due to the fact they have more stable supplies of food than their neighbors to the west. However they are also known to raid the underground Dwarvish and Shadowlander crops and to rustle herds of cave bears for meat and produce. However, in all of these things they leave small items that they feel are worth the exchange, but that those lost of their goods often do not share their opinion of the value of a half used cord of string for a cartload of bread. They drink milk from their goats, fermented mushrooms crushed into a paste and diluted as a cheap drink/drug, and stolen wines or fruit beers. Occasionally, if the goat is no longer making milk yet is still healthy, they will bleed the goat and boil the blood before drinking.

### How do they eat?

Orcs often eat with earthenware bowls, often pouring soups into the mouth or eating with the fingers of the left hand. There is only one true meal of the day, the evening meal or \_, meaning ‘late food’. All other food is either left over from the clan or family’s previous night meal or food gathered or foraged throughout the day by the individual. Those in the army hordes often have dried meats such as goat or pillaged farm animal that they eat while on the march. No meats of an intelligent being is to be eaten, and it is seen as incredibly taboo. Blades are used to cut meats and sometimes to hold large bits of meat before gnawing on them. Sharpened bones have also been used as a form of instrument only for food as opposed to a knife, with a large femur being commonly used to spear slabs of meat.

### How do they farm?

Orcs rarely keep seeds to germinate them to make bread, and often steal them in raids from their neighbors or through trade or Orcish Trade, which is essentially theft. Livestock is herded in small numbers, however any animal that is not a goat was likely stolen at some point of their life, as the herds serve mostly to feed and make hides rather than to serve any other purpose of transport. However, the prospect of eating a being that can walk and talk is considered foul, and the hunting or farming of captives for food is considered not only taboo but punishable by death and disgrace.

During such raids the warrior class will often round up livestock or chase away any soldiers, while the workers that accompany them will use their war-picks to harvest the grain from the farmer’s fields, truly leaving nothing to waste.

### What do they worship?:

Once they worshiped their ancestors as spirits, however due to The War of Shadow, the spirit of Methu, Avatar of the Builder and maker of the world of this story was stripped of his body and cast down to earth. Due to this, he sought refuge in the very caves the Orcish tribes resided in, and they came to worship him as a great spirit, and they knew him by his true name of Methu. There are various shrines to him, but he himself resides within the deepest caverns under the Stone Tree Mountains. During rituals, they often prostrate themselves before an alter while a shaman leaves an offering of a wheel of cheese to be burned in the name of their ancestors or to Methu himself, who - not eating food - burned the cheese instead of eating it as he cannot consume food, which the orcs took as a way to pay homage to him. A second wheel is carved and eaten as a form of communion bread after each ritual.

### What hardships do they face?:

They are often an ostracised people, the few ‘soft’ Orcs wishing to travel down their mountains and engage in honest trade or provide small bits of aid are turned away and spat at, especially in the Skylander cities. The Woodlanders are generally more friendly, in the way that they simply ignore them and leave them to live in the villages of the Mixed. The weather is often cruel company, and their way of life is not meant for the weak of spirit. Due to lack of resources they are always in want of items, meaning a merchant would make a great deal of business working with the Orcs, who are honorable as to not cheat in a trade and not steal goods they just sold, unless they felt they themselves were cheated and their protests ignored.

### What is their history?:

The Mighty Orcish people descend from the Three Houses of the Elves; now the Skylander, Woodlander, and Darklander peoples with evidence to suggest from their oral history that they came from the mountains, suggesting that they descent largely from the early Skylander City-states. But what is not refuted was that this band of warrior Elves, Elves that practiced the - at the time - dark arts of war, violence without reason, tests of strength, and other practices such as living in the woods or caves that were universally seen as barbaric by their elven counterparts. They revered the glory of a kill and seeing death in the face, which retains in their tribes today as they seem to shun any and all ranged weapons other than the throwing spear, which in itself cannot be thrown at monumental distance.

This schism was led by Okolis, a commander of soldiers who brutally pacified a revolt and, as a result, begame exceptionally bloodthirsty, often looking for any source of issue to attempt to provoke an uprising just so he could lead men to crush it again. Unsurprisingly, this led to his exile from the larger Skylander population. He led his followers, some twenty thousand men and women, and their accompanying families and possessions, to the mountains to the north west. There they founded a settlement in a gigantic cave that let wind blow through it in a constant whistling stream. They named the settlement Okoli, after their founder Okolis. Over time, the line of Okolis granted commanders to lead small groups on colonization missions through the mountains, with said commanders often granting the same honor to their lieutenants. Over time, the tribes and settlements grew to number in dozens. At some point, the exiles of the Woodlanders who would become the Goblins were permitted and welcomed into the cities and towns of the proto Orcish peoples. However cultural differences and eventual tensions led to the Goblin’s peacefully withdrawing deeper into the caves. Granted, this includes all from single families living at the foot of the mountains to great city complexes in the mouths of caves, they all numbered one hundred, and as such were recognized as the “one hundred tribes” by the time of the Great Winter. During the great winter, an alliance was struck with the Goblin Kingdom and the One Hundred Tribes of the Orcs to confederate, and march across the frozen Central Sea, known at the time as The Great Southern Ocean. They had heard of the Lost Lander Exodus, and of their prosperity on a distant island as large and in the shape of the crescent moon, and desired to gather resources. At the Battle of the North and South, the Orcish-Goblin horde crushed the human army trying to travel north, and the Orcs and the Goblins began to execute their wishes; the Orcs wanted land to settle and farm and the Goblins wished to raid and pillage all that could be had.

The Goblins had pressed deep into the southern half of the Baran Empire when the Winter ended abruptly, returning the heat in a manor of days. The Goblins took to the newly restored seas in newly crafted warships and withdrew to their lands, happy and flush with ill gotten wealth. However the “Distant people” that surged out with the horde remained there, harvesting and starting large homesteadings and farms on Akleini Lands, leading to a tense exchange with the locals. However they were all prevented from bloodshed, as the king swore fealty to Jimhet I, first king of Wicc, founder of Wicc, and The One Who Awoke The Sun And Stars. The Orcs, both at home and abroad, found peace in this new way of life. However, the terms of subservience to Jimhet was damning on the old Orcish way of life, with Jimhet outlawing any army or group of soldiers not alligned with his new Empire - masked as a confederation. The home-Orcs would revolt on many occasions, leading to many a warrior High Chief being elected to lead the Orcish Confederation. They often would fight the peoples of the Skylander Elves and the large forces of Jimhet’s son and grandson Jimhet III in the mountains and valleys of the Skylands. This did effect the new Orcish way of life in The Creascent, as word trickled down of their violent and savage ways, seeming to move as a monsterous horde on armies and towns alike, the people of Aklein began to resent sending their sons to die when Orcs resided on their shores. The Day of Black Rain, a horrendious massacre of the Akleini Orcish populations, with mistures of organized armies and rabid mobs storming Orcish communal farms and slaughtering all within, and going so far as to brutalty torture and kill all that they could out of seemingly nothing but venomous rage. By the time young Jimhet IV sat on the throne, the mighty population of Akleini Orcs had dropped from nearly two hundred fifty thousand to only a few thousand, in the span of three days. With this, the Orcs of Aklein fled south, gathering under a leader named Uggrah to guide them. A crafty and sage Orc, he sent riders out to gather the orcs near the coast, and bid them turn their ploughs to spears. With that done, he had his people dig defensive works, and work on crafting ships from the woods that they inhabited while the Akleini set in for The Siege of Or-castle, as the makeshift holdout was called.. However Uggrah’s attempts were poor, and they never could make a ship that could hold enough people without sinking. The neighboring nation of Lehe, observing the terrors that had ensued, took pitty on the stranded Orcs, and the Shogun of Lehe led a fleet of warrior Pearl ships empty of all but a crew, to transport the Orcs home. Aklein was naturally furious because of this, with a final battle between the remaining Orcish settlers and the Lehe Fleet breaking out on the shore of Aklein’s coast. However, the Shogun of Lehe had anticipated trouple of some sort, and landed a company of the famous Wolf Guards to aid in the defense of the works, leading to The First Battle of Or-castle, a costly victory for the Akleini army, and a strategic victory for the Orcs and their allies the Lehe, who had evacuated most of their force in time, with only a squadron of Wolf Guards and a few dozen Orcish Warriors that volunteered to remain behind in a desperate last stand in the knee deep waters of the coast. Uggrah met with the Shogun and expressed his gratitude to their aid, but explained that as his people were so far away across the sea, it would be difficult for him to arrange for a suitable gift be given in thanks for his help. The Shogun shrugged this off, saying that “as a strong people, it is not in our interest nor in our nature to let another nation, weak in the moment, to be bullied by opportunistic rivals”. He bid Uggrah well, allowing him to keep the ships for his own disgression.

Docking on a small Dwarvish outpost that would later become the holdout for the Merchant Lord of Gems, Uggrah arranged for the ships to remain there and to be maintained. Returning to the Council, he was celebrated by all who brought their extended family and clan members home, and he earned respect by many of his peers and betters in the cheiftain’s council, for strength of wit is honored just as well as strength of body. He was promoted to Owsha, or strategist, to the High Chief himself. Unofficially however, he used his powers of oratory to good use, welding enough power to rival even the High Chief’s individual clan. Upon his final ascension to Chief, he set to work with his ships, building a coastal city far lower down the mountain than anyone had before him, and naming it Leheko, or Lehe’s treasure. It was completed when he was beginning to grey, and he had a navy trained and ready, as well as a strong army in full plate armor in the Lehe fashion (replicated solely from memory). Upon his death ten years later, his son Oogi, ascended to chieftain and proposed to the Chieftain’s Council that the might of the Orcish Confederation be brought down on the small Dwarven Colony to their south and the new city of Leheko. The council voted down the suggestion, and the brash young chieftain called together all of his father’s allies, and his own people, to marge in a great horde, nearly a hundred thousand strong, to raid the Gem Coast. The Battle of the Gem Coast was more a skirmish to be frank; the Orcish fleet of unarmed transports several generations out of date were no mach for Merchant Lord vessels, and was quickly destroyed along with the elite navy. With the seas open, the Merchant Lord of Gems sent word to the other Merchant Lords, and they descended on the attacking force and on Leheko with two overwhelming hordes. They took Leheko by storm and destroyed it utterly, mages melting the very rocks and taking everying of metal, and burning everything else before releaseing diseased animals upon the land to poison any who might attempt to resettle the ruins. The Battle of the Gem Lord’s House was cleaned up rather easily, with the stern mercentile veterines countering the orcish horde with a wall of pikes, while the orcs went largly unarmored (the armor of Uggrah having long since been melted down to make more axes), and were gored on the spears. Out of the great horde of nearly a hundred thousand only had thirty three survivors, and out of those they offered their leader, Oogi, was offered in exchange for peace. The Merchant Lords, humored by this, accepted, their officers sent to retreive the disgraced cheiftain stripping him naked and binding him in chains before tethering him to their horses. When the Orcish Confederation heard of this, a few of Uggrah’s remaining supporters were incensed, but they no longer had any power: they had given it all to Oogi, and he had squandered them. With that, many of the greater familes that were poised to break away from their tribes and form their own tribes and clans, were pushed back down into obscurity, and the fourteen remaining tribes became thirteen. This attack was the final straw however, as the Merchant Lords pressed their case to the King of Wicc; Centaro, Son of Jimhet IV. They threatened to cease trade with Wicc and all of Shamuun if the king did not take action, and the king directly annexed the orcish confederations, declaring the Confederation councils disolved, and ordered an army of two hundred fifty thousand Skylander Elves and Crescenti humans to occuby the Orcish lands. This enraged the Orcs, as it did not strike them as too horrid at first until they realized that their tribal councils including the election and position of High Chief would be disbanded. Chieftains would have to consult with a Wiccan judge if they wished to dictate laws, they were not aloud to raise soldiers of any sort, and the Order’s soldiers would occuby their land. They were furious, and raised forces to stop them at the foot of the mountains, and prepared for the eventuality of a seige, extending raiding parties into Skylander territory to take everything edible that they could, and raised walls at the mouths of their caverns. It took the army a month to assemble and another half month to assign a commander, and aditional several weeks to train and then march the army to the Orcish mountain outposts. The Orcs engaged a sharp guerrilla war in what was known as The Hundred Days War, as it was a series of on-and-off engagment, with the brash commander attempting to send troops up the narrow passes, and Orcs quickly springing traps and pushing rocks down to crush their foe. Then, the army was orded to assemple at the foot of the mountain by orders from the new King of Wicc, King Berrui the Mad. He instructed his father’s general to make immediate peace with the Orcs, and offer in compensation him and his force, as well as a contract to employ Orcish armies to use in his conquest, and an abolition of King Centaro’s eddict. The Orcish tribes jumped to accept, and the Orcs accepted. Later, they would find a similar situation had played out with their cousins the Goblins, and they had accepted to become an elite navy in service to Wicc. Eventually the blatant military expansion exploded into war, with the Orcish Armies marching into the Woodlander and Skylander kingdoms, raiding and pillaging as they went. Wraith armies came down from the north and killed many of the enemy, while the Goblins pillaged the Dwarves and the Merchant Lords. The First Union of the Red Worm formed, and fought against The Order of the Golden Light in The War of the Splintered crown, with the Mad king’s son Mildir leading the Union. The Wraiths were pushed back from their holdouts, and forced behind the Skylander mountains, while the Orcs were heavily pushed back on all sides, eventually resigning themselves to a defensive war in the mountains. What is more, the army Berrui had promised went rogue and joined the Skylander front early in the conflict. The Merchant Lords held out against the Goblins at sea, but such wars were meant to build up their economy, and such wars were costly, so the Goblins made peace independently, and agreed to pay a tribute to the Merchant Lords for a human lifetime. An infant slave was born to keep count of the tribute. Eventually Wicc itself had fallen, and in a duel Mildir slew his father and claimed the mantle of King for himself. Horrifically to many, his first act was to disband the Order as a body entirely, cutting off the head of the snake. Many wished him dead for this, but the evening after he announced this change, he vanished, along with the heirloom of his house and abandoning his kingdom. Stories were abound as to what happened, of course. But a supposed heir to the throne did emerge some time later, and the Lord’s council that ruled in his sted proclaimed him king of Wicc. His first act was to declare the Order of the Golden Dawn established, a tributary confederation with Wicc at the head. He immediately reached out to the old parties, including the Orcs, and the Chieftains councils voted to join. Many a ruler would rise and fall in the old ways by either combat or by challenge in the pit. Five rulers, Kowas the Brave, Okko the Wise, Urshik the Strong, and Ugghra the Black all ruled in turn, with Ugghra the Black retaining the throne through The War by illegitimate means of rigging the election duals, and ruling the chieftains until Wicc fell to King Aji, descendent of Mildir and newly crowned king of the Wiccan Kingdom. This treachery would lead to one of the thirteen tribes leaving the confederation entirely, burning their homes and ravaging the land, killing all animals and starting great fires before declaring themselves to the Union. The Orcs would fight a hard stalemate in the Woodlands, and fight a few halfhearted attempts at the Skylander vallys, but seemed to decide that it was too costly to commit to a second front. They were surprised but glad to hear when the Skylanders denounced the Union and joined them in war, and their numbers were bolstered for a time in preparation for the infamous Battle of Nitchisar. Four armies descended, with a fifth acting as a deterrent against the Woodlanders. Goblin Ancient Nimji crawled outwards, while an Orcish army swarmed the walls and ascended them, all the while the final two armies of Navish and Makkun used magic to turn the strait between Navish and Nitchisar to salt, allowing the army to cross and climb the undefended flank on battle lizards. However through the odds, the force prevailed, as Aji slew the commander of the Navishi-Makkunian horde with the White Sword of Jimhet, forcing the commander of the Orcki-Goblanti horde to flee in terror back to Wicc. Seeing their leader flee, the Navishi and Makkunian forces retreated back to their lands. The Goblins and Orcish forces broke and fled to the woods, where they were decimated by the surviving force, and harried by Woodlander Guerrillas. The Skylander army held up a defensiveline while the Orcish horde fled into the safety of the stone tree mountains before rallying more forces and preparing to destroy the Woodlanders. Raiding parties would often sally out in the night, either encountering entire woodlander villages and destroying them entirly, or encountering a theelgeth and being scuttled for the night. When Aji was crowned king, they declared the Order of the Golden Dawn a treacherous order, and denounced it, refounding the Union of the Red Worm into The Golden Order, before turning their sight on their neighbors. They learned through one of the tribal chieftains by the name of Gruul, and set out to sabotage Uggrah’s attempt to drug the oppositon, before bringing it to light through covert agents. Once it was made clear, Gruul returned and successfully claimed the throne, and the Orcs became allies to The Golden Order, and to their former foes.

At some point the goblins and the orcs had emerged as distinct peoples, and began to move away from one another due to differing ideals. The Orcs revered strength and power, as well as physical strength, while the goblins supported a more crafty and stealthy ideology, which led to them peacefully separating, with the Goblins finding comfort in the deep parts of the caves while the Orcs lived in the mouth portions of the caves.

They had grown in number by the time of The Great Winter, numbering in their thousands due to a limited confederation with the then one hundred Orcish Tribes made a pact with the Goblin King to march across The Frozen Sea to explore and invade the human kingdoms of Aklein and Makkun. Much of these armies were rebuffed, however in the smaller settlements other then provincial capitals and nation capitals, smaller cities and towns were burned and the people forced to live as slaves. Many an Orc would settle down in this frigid land at the behest of their leaders, to install friendly peoples that could possibly provide aid in future raids. These scattered Orcish towns and settlement strongholds did not have long to consolidate their power, as The Great Winter was ended by the great wizard Jimhet of house Het of Lehe, and he founded The Order of Dawn.

Seeing the incredibly power being used for such good upon the world, the Orcs reluctantly swore loyalty to him. It is unknown if this was done after threat or promise of gold, but regardless the remaining chieftains knelt to their new Emperor. The settlements and towns that had been resettled by former Orcish Warriors and their families did try to live peaceful lives, despite the resentment that followed them after The Thaw. The Orcish people began to settle and become master gladiators and bodyguards to foreign kings. The most violent went on to become gladiators, winning honor and glory to their Kin and to their Tribes. Their society underwent little change, light resurgences of Tribes abandoning the halls of their towns and returning to the hills to hunt as their forefathers did, but they were only a small majority, while those in the halls of the human kingdoms abandoned their homes due to the constant distrust. When the mad king seized the throne, taking The Cloak from his father’s dying hands, he tried to steer the Order to a warlike state, desiring to expand his forces to extend to rumors of great lands to the north of Shamuun. The Orcs at this time were undergoing a conservative shift, Shamans and Chiefs giving fiery speeches of the great warrior ways of their past and of the honor there was in spilling the blood and gore of a foe upon one's chest. The Orcs were one of the first to join his ranks, followed swiftly by the Goblins. The War of the Splintered Crown was a largely Shamuuni Affair, as the kingdoms of Men were not affected, only that they now had large openings in society - especially in Aklein, where a great deal of Warrior Orcs had settled - as members of the various races abroad began to rally to their homelands to fight in the war. Fought on one side by the three kingdoms of the Elves and with Dwarven mercenary companies forming a large bone in the skeleton of the army, against the new Orcish Confederation\* , the Goblin Kingdom, and the city of Wicc, founded by Jimhet himself. Led by the mad king’s own son, the order of Elves crushed all resistance and slew the dark king himself. However, the king’s son never took the throne, desiring to live a quiet life in obscurity. (\* The Orcish Confederation: Formed at this time, smaller clans and tribes began dissolving and swearing loyalty to other, more powerful tribes. Their number went from nearly fifty existent tribes to a massive host of fourteen tribes, each led by a Chief, who in turn served The High Chief, the leader of the Confederation.) The Royalists were dissolved, and The Orcish confederation, content with their new way of life, returned to the hills only to descend in order to sack and raid small towns on the edge of Woodlander and Skylander territory. They briefly attempted to raid the settlement now known as the stronghold to the Merchant Lords of Gems, only to have the entire host of the Merchant lords destroy the offending tribe, reducing the number of the Confederation to just thirteen. When the dark child of the mad king’s son returned to the throne and claimed The Cloak for his own, he set out to rebuild what his grandfather had, and to expand to the whispered lands beyond the wraiths. And the first people he called to his bannor were the Orcs, who gladly took up arms as heavy shock troops, and the conflict known as The Great War began. However, the new Order of the Golden Dawn could not afford for a chief sympathetic to the plight of the newly formed Union to take the seat of power, and thus rigged the ancient Confederation election battles by imbuing their puppets with great potions and salves to increase their strength and energy reserves, ensuring that they would survive to claim and retain the title until our story begins. One such tribe discovered this a mere twenty years before the events of The Cloak of Shadow, and pledged their loyalty to The Union, as they saw them as a fair and true organization now that their faith had been broken, reducing the number of the confederation to twelve of the thirteen Orcish tribes. By the time Aji was born, a deadly Warchief named Ugghra had held the reigns of power for over half a century and would remain a thorn in his side while he ascended to the throne of Wicc. Using similar tactics, Aji used magic that would weaken Ugghra’s magic while the loyal Orcish Chieftain to the Union, Gruul, slew him and claimed the mantle of High Chief by right of conquest, leading the confederation to ally with the Union and bring about a golden age for the Orcs. They were the first of the Imperial New Order to set foot in the lands of the Hebi Lok, and their battle cries were songs of victory by the end of the campaign. Land was set aside near the time of Aji’s death in the northern mountain ranges for them to permanently settle. And work began on a city - a true city, of the orcs. Their warriors would be revolted by the return of the decayed and seemingly unstoppable Lostlander Elves, decaying and invading the human realms. They rallied their new economy to the construction of warships and sailed great amounts of warriors to establish a beachhead at Aklein and to cleanse The Crescent, now The Claw, of these invaders. They would slaughter great numbers of their forces causing heavy damage, each warrior shattering at least five before they died, before that same perverted magic claimed their bodies and pressed them into the Undead Horde.

### What is their reputation with outsiders and what is their view on outsiders in turn?:

Due to their warlike nature and reputation, and largely in part due to the fact that the first thing they do when they meet a new group of outsiders is to steal from them, they are often not viewed with much more light that as brutish thugs and mindless beast-men. In turn, the Orcs with their values of strength find that these peoples are weak and that if they cannot rebuff their attempts to steal from them, then the items they take should be theirs. They hate all magic that is not used to heal, often calling it monstrous and unnatural. Goblin woman who flee their oppressive life in the Goblanti kingdom are allowed to marry into their various clans. Any child between an Orc and any other people is often shunned by their respective kingdom, however they are welcomed with open arms to the Orcish peoples as long as they respect their lifestyle. Many of the physically weaker of the so called “mixed” or those without incredible resolve flee from the orcish tribes to the Goblanti kingdom, where they work in the slave caste.

### What relationship do they have to the world around them?:

As previously stated they live largely in caves, and due to this as well as the issue of constant raiding between neighboring tribes or even neighboring villages, resources are always in high demand. Periodically they will offer stolen jewels or gold in exchange for raw goods such as strong stone for building and lumber. Water is harvested either from wells, mountain run-off in springs, or rain water collected in special rock funnels that let water drip down into the deeper caverns. They do not have any beasts that they fear or have a natural repulsion to, but they note that pests such as rats and venomous serpents have little use to the world and will simply kill whenever they catch one (often, rats are caught and either boiled or fried in fat on a stick as a form of small meal by entrepreneuring Orc wenders within a Tribe’s main villedge.

### What do they make their tools, armor, clothes, and weapons out of?

Their weapons are made with wooden handles, while the blades are given metal heads of either stone, steel, iron, black iron, or elf-gold in that order of value. Tools are mostly the war-scythe or war-pick, a tool-weapon with a meter long handle and with a triangular shaped head that is usually made of stone or obsidian. They can be used as a scythe to harvest grain with the sharpened inner blade, as a pickaxe due to the blunt point that makes the tip, and the weight makes it a heavy club that can easily split open someones head. Clothes are often made from fur or leather, if not cloth and wool. Silk is often worn as a shoulder cape by leaders, as well as the furs of Skylander great cats. Armor is made from furs to keep warm and to hide amongst the brush, while metal is used to protect vitals by the warriors, with bone used by the lower caste of their people.

### How do they fight in one on one combat?:

The Orcs do not see any form of fighting as dirty or clean. If you kill someone and the weapon in your hand becomes bloodied, it is an honorable kill. However, each tribe does have rules about outright murder, usually discouraging it in favor of challenging someone you feel is weaker or that you feel has greatly wronged you to a duel. What humans would call ‘fighting dirty’, biting, kicking in the groin, throwing dirt or dust into an opponent's eyes, slaying an opponent after he is disarmed, those are all seen as worthy ways to gather a kill if you have done them in an agreed duel with one to act as witness. Poison and killing another being from a distance is seen as dishonorable.

### How do they fight in battle?:

Orcish war parties are largely tribal, and therefore rely on raiding, pillaging, or else foraging when they do anything outside of their main fortified towns. Due to this they are more maneuverable and an Orcish force is just as potent when in contact with it’s homeland as it is cut off from it. They can eat a great deal of food and can eat food after it is past its proverbial shelf life. However, due to this reliance on foraging and raiding, should their parties be killed the force would be crippled, leading to companies of warriors often accompanying the foraging party, strengthening the foragers yet leaving the army diminished. They prefer to sweep into a city or a town before the alarm can be raised, creeping inside then attacking before an alarm is raised while the lower ranking fighters (workers) take everything, however if there is a siege they will wait if the foe inside has offered great insult or used dishonorable magic. Yet, if they are simply fighters, they would send their workers to gather plunder from the surrounding countryside while the enemies hide inside the walls. They know how to make siege weapons such as siege towers and battering rams, however due to the high expense of such a tool they are often not used, instead a simple ladder is taken to the walls and an attempt is made to scale the walls.

They have no navy or cavalry, nor do they have archers or assassins. Such things are viewed as cowardly and crude; not worthy of the art of warfare. However, should a siege be necessary their Shamans have been known to cast great bolts of fire or lightning to break open gates or clear walls of defenders. Raiding strategies often follow a two front strategy; sending in warriors or physically imposing workers to frighten people away from their homes, valuables, or fields, while workers come with sacks and either collect their crops, or seize the now undefended valuables or any prisoners that tried to hide instead of flee. The one with the most treasure, or with a living prize, would most certainly be recommended or whispered about in the war camps for the possibility of promoting.

### What are their natural defenses?

Orcs live within caverns, close to or within the mount of cave systems, and in the mountains. As such, they are remote and hidden enough that most would not know where the war parties come from, however the homes and bodies of the lower caste of clans often shield the larger tribe from conflict. The thick woods of the Woodland often keep them safe from the west, while the east is a ripe prize yet not well populated with caves as the western side.

### How do their govern?:

The Orcish Confederation is a large body of tribes that at the time of Aji numbers at 12 member tribes. Each tribal group is led by a Chief and their second, usually their child or sibling. The title of Chief is received by the son or daughter of the previous chief, and during the coronation at an allotted time, any member of the Tribe’s Families may challenge him or her for the right to rule. If the rightful heir wins than they continue on to the next challenger, until all are satisfied. Should the chief's child be slain or yield, then a great tournament will be held between all those who desire to hold the title. However, if the late chief’s rule was one of prosperity, few will take the challenge in the first place, much less dare to challenge the child of the chief. But if his or her rule was weak, nearly every family in the tribe would be intrigued enough at the possibility of their family becoming leaders of the tribe, and nearly all familes would send a representative (if not the head of their family) to partake in the contest. The contest is a great series of duels, either until one side yields or bleeds, then moving up and up the tiers until only two warriors remain, with the last one standing taking the crown. Yielding however, is a great shame for an Orc, and the late Chief’s child would often watch the proceedings until a winner is chosen, and then be slaughtered by the victor of the contest in a ritualistic killing. This contest is mirrored in how the overall confederation decides a High Chief to lead the confederation as a whole, where the victor’s tribe is often given status and recognition higher than those of the other confederation, so nearly every chief - regardless of affiliation - will challenge the High chief. Every fifty years the contest for High Chief is held, where the High Chief awaits a challenge. The sitting chief of any tribe - for if they die his second becomes the chief in his stead, unless challenged through the previously described process - will step forward and try to bring down the High Chief. The key difference is the duel is to the death. Should the High Chief be slain, the one who slew him becomes High Chief and is given the helm of Elf-Gold, a relic from the time of the Skylander Junta. A note to remember, is that while this great moment only lasts once every fifty years, the process takes well over a year and a half, due to the healing of the wounds of the High Chief between duels. This is to ensure that if someone is to beat him he must be at the height of his possible strength and not felled by a cheap trick due to exhaustion or blood loss.

Treaties or agreements are to be ratified by at least two thirds of the Confederation. The hypothetical treaty - for this instance a proposed trade for fanciful bone charms and totems for steel chunks - would be copied and given to the Orcish Confederation High Council, held once every three months. From there, depending on the urgency of whatever treaty is being voted on, it is sent to the different Tribes to be discussed in the Clan-house, and a vote of 2-1 will be needed to pass the vote (however each tribe has their own rules, this is the most common.). From there, the tribal representative - usually the Chief’s heir - meet (either for the first time or again in 3 months) to vote. Once two thirds of the council vote for ratifying it, then the treaty would receive their open circle of approval. For a serious threat, such as a dangerous perceived threat at their borders, an emergency session would be called to deliberate the threat. The tribes that say yes will aid in defeating the threat, while the tribes that say no will not provide aid. However, at the end of such a session the high chief has a vote, and if he votes to aid in attacking this force than every tribe will contribute. We see this play out in their history when the tribes numbered fourteen, and one tribe deemed the target of the Merchant Stronghold of Gems to be a worthy asset, as it would provide them with access to the sea and great mines. The other tribes and the High Chief did not agree, and so they stubbornly went out to attack them on their own, and the entire tribe was destroyed, leading to the surviving clans assimilating into the other tribes and transforming the former Tribal settlement into a base for military maneuvers and defense.

### What is their language?:

Orcish is a strange language, comprising of several letters that center around a circular sidgel in the center and various combinations of lines going through the circle. There are over 2000 recorded words in Orcish, with the possibility of being those unknown to the Orcish Language Lexicon (hopefully included to the back of this.). The Languages rules are quite simple, but because of this they are quite broad. For example, the first letter of the Alphabet is Ok, pronounced Ah-k and written roughly like this: -(-)- or as a circle with a line going through the center horizontally. Now, this word can mean treasure, trade, plundered goods given to the writer, or gift. However, you can color in the central circle to make a black dot skewered on a spit to get the negative of that word: Ko, or steal, items stolen from the writer, tribute, or gift to another. Furthermore, you can combine those two words the positives or negatives of other words in combinations of two to form whole new words. Take the second letter of the alphabet, Ku (need an upside down V over the U.) means possession of a drink or good drink, while Uk means no drink or bad drink. Combined with the word Ok, you get the word Okku, meaning “Gift of drink”, or shared drink. There are three other combinations, each wither either a positive or negative of the other word. Leading to Okku Koku, Okuk, and Kouk. All meaning: Gift of drink, stolen drink, given no drink, and taken no/bad drink. This system can be applied to everything in the Orcish Alphabet, with all symbols automatically being positive while the negative symbol (collared central siegel) turns it to a negative. They adopted this language as a bastardized form of Goblanti from their Goblin allies, simply rotating the runes 90 degrese. And using a circle as the central symbol instead of a square. Furthermore, the shamans and special officers were the only ones who write, while nearly all could at least read their tongue to some degree. These officers were often called Owsha, or Night Planners, due to them writing by using their hands to form an O with their hand and press it to the page, and to blacken their fingers with ink and use them to paint the lines instead of using a brush as the Goblins did.

### How is their society structured?:

Orcish Society is surprisingly open, with the prospect of advancement welcome to all who try to ascend. Each tribe is centered roughly around a central area, either a mountain clearing, an indentation, or a large cavern, where they set up a main village; a stronghold of sorts with heavy walls and strong defenses. There are other towns and villages outside of the main compound, but they are usually quite close to the main town, giving these orcish communes a very urban feel despite their remote location. Goats are given free reign of their towns, yet in the Orc’s eyes should one wander into a house, they are sacrificing themselves for the betterment of their herd, as they are giving themselves to the Orcs to use as they see fit; usually to kill and then use every piece of. Each Orcish tribe is comprised of different families, or clans, who are all generally good friends. There are larger clans made of warriors, while smaller clans usually are the herdsman and do the smaller, more menial work for the betterment of the tribe. These small clans are important however, as it would be dangerous for any of the larger clans to wed and break the balance of power, therefore the smaller clans provide daughters and sons to be given away or - in terrible cases - sold by dowry to a leading clan, in order to prevent inbreeding between clans and to ensure two clans to not join and become too strong.

Strength is a key part of Orcish society. If one is strong enough to wrest something from another, than the previous holder of said item is clearly weak and should not have it. This philosophy leaks into every aspect of Orc life. Those goats seen as sick or weak, unable to keep up with the herd are often abandoned by the remaining herds, and therefore the Orcs take the sick and consume it.

All of the clans and their Chief meet and govern from a Great Clan-house, designed to be a place of peace where all the leaders of all the clans meet, eat, drink, and discuss issues befalling their clan. A way to have the brotherly relationship between the clans, yet underline that they are allies for the moment and that should the time come a challenge will be needed to keep the tribe strong. Games are often encouraged in these monthly meetings; spear throwing, hunting games, tests of strength, and - in more extreme cases - duels. Shamans are known during this time to herd the children to their huts and dazzle them with stories and pretty smoke images and shadow puppetry, as they are not old enough or strong enough to partake in the other games.

### What is the caste system in this society if they had one?

The Orcs have a tiered system, with society spread amongst three tiers, with a clear way for advancement.

First are the workers, usually the smaller or less powerful families, or larger families that may have faced great shame or who’s patriarchy or matriarchy had failed their chieftain or the confederation as a whole (or never held great power and influence to begin with). These are the Orcs that do most of the work for the tribe; hard labor for mining, woodcutting, grinding obsidian shards and collecting sand for brasiers, building projects, herding, and the last and more honorable of the worker’s jobs: smithing weapons and armor. This tier of workers often sign up for military service, or at least offer themselves to be a part of a band in any raiding situation. For one, it counts as an exciting escape for any young Orc away from labor, and for another if they serve with distinction, they face the prospect of advancement. They are dressed in fur loincloths covering their waists, with a frayed rope belt loop on his or her hip to hold a War-Pick, a curved tool like a scythe that could act as a weapon, farming scythe, or pickaxe. Wealthier workers have knives as well as this tool, usually the head of a broken spear.

Next, is the warrior tiers. Those who serve in previously described raids and battles are promoted to the class of warriors, and are no longer pressed into labor, rather are used for labor or ritualistic labor by shamans only if the need is great. They are armed with halberds or throwing spears with molten spear heads made in a mold, the weapons often made using the reforged items they have stolen, such as Elf Gold blades or simple iron, steel, or black iron from mines or trade. They are known for different warfare with kills marked in knots tied into an Orc’s mane, with promotion to the final tier coming when an Orc has no more hair on his head or beard to braid.

The Rulers are a broad group, including military strategists (Owsha, usually former warriors), the chief’s ruling family and council, and the shamans, with the military minds at the bottom of the top tier.

### What cultural arts or artifacts do they make?:

Often, the Orcs are known for their simple weapons with obsidian or stone blades that were used to fund revolutions by the various mixed peoples of the different nations, due to their lack of rights. However, when the Mixed were welcomed by the Woodlanders, the market crashed and the cheap obsidian bladed war scythes were no longer used for anything other than tools for mining, farming, and for skirmishes. They carve figures and wind instruments out of bone and horns, using the bones of goat or seized animals. Paintings are non existent, as all sheets of paper of cured animal skin are used for written messages.

A main artifact is the Elf Gold Helmet, used as the main crown and sign of leadership by the High Chief.

### What resources are readily available to them?

The Orc lands are rich in obsidian due to The Stone Tree Mountains past as volcanos, sharp stones for tools, and various metals either stolen or scavenged from raided foes or defeated enemies, traded from the goblins is exchange for weapons or bones fashioned into fishing spears, or mined by their own troops and processed in their great ceremonial braisers. They have a constant need for raw goods such as iron, wood, and crops, which are often traded with the Goblins or - in very rare cases of extreme need - the shadowlander elves, who the Orc Chiefs and Shamans reason are not the Skylander Elves yet are still elves, making it a necessary sin for times of need. They have various sources of fresh running water in the form of streams and underground lakes that can occasionally act as canalls for the Orcs to use to better and easier travel between tribes deeper in the cave systems.

### What customs do they have? What ceremonies or festivals do they observe?:

Marriage custom dictates that an aspiring husband or wife - when he or she she has reached the point of 30 years and wishes to be married - will wear the top portion of a goat’s skull as a form of veil. From there aspiring suiters will at appropriate times partake in tests or challenges of strength, with either the strongest or the craftiest being chosen to be their mate for life. Usually, if the woman or man is of a higher clan, he or she is recommended to chose one who is not of another higher clan, as that would lead to the two clans joining their halls and making a greater clan, upsetting the balance. As such, each clan wears their hall’s color as a declaration of their hall, while lower clans who are either too weak or too poor to afford or steal colored clothes wear fur capes with different patterns of bone sewed into the coat.

They have some religious festivals roughly around spring, when the goats give birth, and winter solstice. As well as religious gatherings in which entrails and the flowing of blood down an alter from a captured animal were used for fortune telling and to gather if raiding those people was to provide great wealth, or if the treasure was ‘cursed’ by their deities. If it was cursed, it would be the first to be traded away.

Birth and death are celebrated by the tribe or at least by the clan. When a child is born seeds are thrown on a chart of letters by a shaman, and the seeds that land on or closest to a letter or rune become the child’s name, with the first letter being changed to a negative version of the word. The Orcs do not have earth to bury their dead, nor do they have ample wood to spend on a funeral pyre. Therefore they resolve to bury those that die in their care in funeral mounds made of stone. After cutting off their head and burning it and their hair so that their spirit might find its way to the winds, they dress the headless body in salt traded from the goblins, and by using small rocks build a shape around them with stones and binding it with molten obsidian as they make their homes, then covering them so that another body could be placed on top. Most clans have many great funeral mounds of at most five members within them. Should a family member die in battle, a weapon or possession of theirs is placed within a hollowed out portion of the mound and molten obsidian is poured to fuse it to the mound.

### What is their relationship with crime?:

Crime as we think of it can largely be waived. Fights and tests of strength are commonplace, and theft is often excused as a stronger individual taking from a weaker one. However, if two weaker individuals conspire to not just beat but murder and steal from one weaker than their combined strength but stronger than them both individually, or if something is stolen using only discrete means, then the tribe’s leadership gets involved hands on to discover the culprit(s). Overall, most forms of crime are generalized with their philosophy of strength, to the point where even rape can be excused, much to the horror of those witnessing the society.

### What do they admire/value as a people?

The Orcka admire strength of both body, sprite, and will. One who is physically weak/not as strong as most warriors yet able to survive intense mental strain is honored just as much as a warrior able to crush boulders. They admire strength of all kinds, and combat in the form of using instruments of your own hands in dispatching a foe. However, strength of body is the most outwardly seen, and you are expected to strong in one way or another.

Wealth is measured similarly: the knots tied in an Orc’s hair after a kill are seen as a status symbol, with the more knots usually signaling a higher status. Clothes can also be a symbol of wealth, with the pelts of wild cats and silks worn by the cleverest and strongest warriors. They recognize the importance of precious gems and metals, so they hoard such things less as a currency in their own right, but as a deliberate intention to flaunt their supposed power to those they view. Orcs wear chains of gold and have polished gemstones (often polished by the Merchant of Gems, in exchange for food) to use for trade with outsiders, should such a time be necessary. Otherwise, the Orcs have a usual barter system, with tools, animals, food and drink, weapons, and armor to be paid for items, if not in gold gems and other precious stones and metals.

### What do they dislike as a people?

Magic, in almost every form, is universally shunned by the tribes. Using magic for anything other than the art of healing the sick and wounded is seen as a forbidden act by the Orcs and causes them to either flee or drive forward in a frenzy. They are also known to dislike ranged weapons such as catapults, trebuchets, ballista, bows and arrows, and crossbows. Slings and throwing spears are permitted however, and the Orcs are known for their pointed sling-shots. Mounted riders, such as the Goblanti Nimji riders, are looked on with disdain, but they will not ostracise their allies if they ride on the field of battle with them on a mount, or using magic, or using ranged weapons; it is them violating their personal code of close quarters fighting, not the Orcs.

### What do they hate as a people?

Magic is hated by the Orcs, and all forms of magic - especially of the type used in war - are seen as dark (except those used by their shamans). Cannibalism and the consumption of intelligent beings is viewed with disgust, and with dishonor and capital punishment to be awarded to those who commit the deed.

### What are their opinions on magic?

The Orcs are famous for their dislike of magic, and view it with the highest scorn. Their shamans are the only mages within their people, casting spells fueled by their ancestors and using alchemy to strengthen iron and fuse rocks together, and to heal the sick and wounded.

### What do they do for fun?

Orcs have various games that they play with one another and to amuse themselves. Tests of strength are quite popular, and during the The Thaw that the great peace that happened after, they benefited from gathering board games and cards, however when The War of Splintered Crowns and eventually The Great War began, these items obviously stopped being given to the Orcs and they began to hold onto them and attempt to preserve them, with games of strategy and card games of sheer wit being popular. Games of chance are also popular amongst children and are common games to play over dinner. They are usually dice related and can either be liar's dice or simple wagers on which way the dice will fall. Dice are carved from bone, or are the cleaned knuckle bones of sheep or goats. Games of chance, arm wrestles, body wrestles, and hunting contests are quite popular with war parties and armies.

### What medical abilities do they have (mental and physical)?

Orc Shamans have various potions and poisons, however they are used exclusively to heal or to kill sickness or those with a plague in a humane fashion. No deadly potion will ever find its way into an orc’s hand on the battlefield. The Shamans have a rudimentary understanding of surgery and nerves, as well as muscle therapy and general exercise, however the rest of their medical knowledge is based on the humors, with the core belief of curing an illness by suffering through or, or by taking a salve that caused the one ingesting it to vomit.

### How are they schooled?

Orcs learn their letters and numbers by catching the eye of a Shaman. Those considered crafty or strong are seen as worthy of being schooled, and it is a great honor for a child to be beckoned forward by the shamans. However, Orcs know little else other than simple letters and their meanings to their words, and how to recognize the numbers.

However, those seen to have a gift with magic are taken in by the Shamans as an apprentice, and are to be schooled to become a shaman. There they study rigorously, learning letters and numbers in their entirety, the art of magic, the crafting of potions and medicinal salves.

### @What is their flag?

The Orcish chieftains largely have their own standards and war banners, with each tribe having different specifics that vary from tribe to tribe, with many clans possessing their own flag or seal that, should the leader of the clan become chief in one of the duels, they implement it as the new marker of the tribe. Often seals are changed or added to showcase the clan’s history, such as adding small flairs from one dynasty that perished as well as the successor dynasty. Meaning the seals are often very eclectic and messy.