I say to you now that I am most proud of an orcish heritage, for, as a champion of my temple in Dread, I proclaim that there is no other race that adventures the land so close to Deori's first child, the Dark Lord Vagma. No other race so ambitious or driven. It is in our roots.
We are an ancient race.
Our historical origin is first discussed long ago during the entrapment of Vagma, who by Zir's hand was entombed deep beneath the earth of Bellegost. Though Vagma was encased he was not without opportunity, for the insatiable greed of the Dwarves was just that, insatiable, and they were called deeper into the earth in pursuit of precious metal and ore. Vagma preyed upon them in that moment, promising them metals beyond compare, and so further they dug. The Dwarves dug far too deep, heeding the call of Vagma and eventually releasing Vagma from his prison. Thereafter, were the first orcs made manifest. It was in that same moment of great revenge for Lord Vagma against Zir, Alvogyl, and the others he had sworn vengeance upon. Vagma twisted the Dwarves and their king, creating our ancestors who were superior in every way to the Dwarves of the time. This was a showcase of Vagma's purpose and power, blood and ancestry that flows to all orcs of date. Thus, the first of us were born of Thordin Stormhammer, his closest royal advisors, and all the loyalists who followed him in his prideful quest.
We established a kingdom.
There was a place for us there, at the top of those mine shafts, and we took it. The first orcs were beings touched by great power, and it was not long before they realized their strength far outmatched that of the Dwarves who desperately clung to their great fortress of Bellegost. Yet, all know the tale of Bellegost and its fall. The orcs swiftly ascended upon Bellegost from the mines and took it as their own kingdom in the mountains. Eventually, after many years, we would come to a rare moment in our history of diplomatic resolution by settling upon the name, "Black Fang."
We honored a code.
In many of the aforementioned years did we have our reign and remain a prominent source of various enterprise throughout the era. Originally, the first-born orcs of the Vagma timeline aforementioned followed a code, which for greater or worse could best be described as "Don't kill, and, don't steal," with the implication of course that this was only applicable to other orcs. This made for perfect harmony and honor among our race.
We had division.
Time passed and our code that had worked for over a century began to fail, a great divide became us. Our ancestors' ambitions led them to different paths, realizing they had attributes that stood out from others around them at the time. Spellcasters joined together and the cult of magic was the first to declare itself a formal organization. Those of the cult of magic tried to institute new rules and laws "beyond the code" but were opposed by the orcs who valued toughness and brute might, and whom in turn formed their own alliance to counter the spellcasters and what they deemed undesirable. This led to great division and unease in Bellegost.
We had civil war.
Tensions soared among those of might and those magic, their differing opinions and their selfish virtues. And then, a great civil war among the orcs and their partitioned forces took place, leaving no true victor, albeit the cult of magic suffered the greatest casualties. In the wake of this war, a passive aggressive state fell over the race as a whole, they began to mistrust one another, and seeds of discontent were sewn. The code that once bound all orcs to a singular moral compass and respect for kin became more of a loose set of boundaries, especially outside of Bellegost, as some of our ancestors chose to stay out of the conflict entirely.
We began to question ourselves and what it meant to be an, "Orc" at all.
In that great state of doubt and mistrust following the civil war, it was a time of some heated deliberations for our ancestors. The principles of the old code became lost and new quarrels began. Of those quarrels, large ones involved whether or not copulation with other races ought be allowed, or whether this was a treason to the blood? Whether "Half-orcs" ought be regarded equal to those of pure blood, or if only those who could trace their lineage to Thordin and his kind without blemish ought be given proper standing? In effect, this further separated our ancestors, forcing those not of like mind to move from the capital of Black Fang and form their own associations, or become nomads. It made the matter no less frustrating given that the official view of Black Fang was ever changing. Even worse that some of the "Half-orcs" who had been rejected from modern culture began to form their own like-minded "clans" among themselves, outside the main organizations sanctioned by Black Fang.
To date, the question of "Whether or not those orcs of mixed lineage should be accepted?" is still a great topic of debate among the entire race, whether full-, half-, or percentage- orc. Even as an opinionated scholar it's not an inquiry I desire to answer. For it has divided our kind before. Yet, there is one point of view from the Race God Turag that ought shed some light on the matter from a different perspective, and is certainly worth mentioning.
We had a champion.
When pride, past, honor and the code had all but failed for our race, a being showed himself to us, bearing the banner of a great red eye which bled. Venrub Guhnz gut, Turag, or "Turag, the Red Eye," we called him. Immediately he commanded respect and armies. Union among us, for though stubborn as many of us had been, we all yearned in some ways for the camaraderie we once shared. His banner was of curious design, and we speculated as to its meaning. Many surmised that his banner was the eye of the foe, pierced during combat as orc steel split bone and flesh. Others argued the eye was a witness for the martyrs who came before us, celebrating those which we had lost. I'd like to think it wept the blood for those sins we've commit against our own race, in our trivial divisions we've had throughout history that weakened it. I justify my position merely by stating Turag would often invite not only orcs of pure blood but also half-bred orcs into high offices, embracing all those of our lineage as his children. I believe his cause, although violent, strove for a united and proud heritage, at whatever the cost.
We will feud, yet ought remain proud.
Turag cannot heal all wounds, for again we are ancient, we are opinionated beings. Division among us as it is, we should remember it has been left in such a state by our ancestors; hence, the reason for internal strugglings against one another still. Provided we all have desires passed down to us through our bloodline, those deeply ambitious, or those otherwise equally insatiable goals we set for ourselves, it is hard to admonish anything with respect to how one goes about handling themselves as an orc. For, each of you will go forth and do as you must, which of course is admirable in and of itself. And yet, do remember that it is only that our strive for independence and excellence among one another we owe to blame for leading us to an eventual division among our kind in the first place. Not at all a despicable background, as some historians will argue otherwise. Rather, we have deeply entrenched greatness in each of us.
Simply, I felt only that you of my kin ought be aware of your proud history.
The Proud History of the Bloodline
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