Help on: area orcan clans

Stay and harken to the origin of Orcs, cousins to the cruel goblins, and their tireless war, which even the elves were eventually drawn into.

The history of the Daelon and the spawning of the goblins, gnomes and hobbits is a long tale of great adventure and misfortune, which I will not now recount. Suffice to say that all three races are akin and yet distant, but while the hobbits and gnomes coexist peacefully they are bitter enemies with the goblins. Finding no rest or succor in the forest that spawned them, the cruel goblins sought long for a home.

After a time the wandering goblins found there way to the great pinewoods that cover the foothills of the northern mountains and stretch west, almost all the way to the great sea. The currently uninhabited wood felt almost familiar, especially further southwest when the pines began to give way to great redwoods and oaks, and they halted. However it was not long before the malicious nature they inherited from their forefath, Urgurr, began to show its teeth and the goblins fractured into clans and turned upon eachother.

One clan saw the mountains and desired its strength. They venerated the great winged eagles that made their eyries high in the peaks and worshipped the ferocious cold and terrific storms and sought to harness their power. They made their strong place upon the cliffs that overshadowed the great forest and over time, adapted. Thick brown fur grew to withstand the cold and they grew powerful in both build and magic as they studied and learned from their new home.

Another clan retreated deeper into the forest, away from the looming and hostile mountains and into the more familiar and life filled country of the great deciduous trees. There they met and befriended the wolves and learned from them the arts of stalking and hunting, of working as a pack to destroy ones foes and grow strong. The orcs of this clan greatly revered the proud predators and took as their own the mighty Wolf God, Maugrim. Over the years they grew somewhat like to their adopted brethen; their limbs lengthening, their bodies growing wiry and lean and their eyes turning golden and reflecting light.

The last and final clan was forced to flee far to the west; unable to turn east to the hostile elves, gnomes and hobbits, north to mighty mountain clan or south to the vicious forest clan. Eventually they found a home at the base of the river Telemacus. They remained much the same as their ancestors and enter no more into this tale.

It is the first two clans; the sorcerous goblins of the mountain tribe and the prowlers of the forests who remained and still remain to this day, locked ever in a ceaseless war. Over the years they earned a new name, Orcs. It is thought that this name comes from a perversion of the ancient name of Urgurr, whom the hobbits of Ingeen still remember and curse.

Thus ends the telling of the history of the Orc clans. However, it is a history that is still being written and I must now speak of the Elvish migration and what part it plays.

    Most know of the history of Elves and the great conflict to the east and
that some elves fled west to escape it. The main group, whom would eventually
found the colony within the forests of Evermore, traveled west through the very
forests of which we have already told. As you can imagine, both orcan clans
were quick to respond with aggression to intruders upon their land and harried
the elven caravan all throughout the forest of Jharet. Finally finding refuge
in Evermore, the elves rested and built their home, but they never forgot the
loss of friends and family along the trail.

Eventually the elves of Evermore grew strong and sought to secure the route through the forest to their eastern kindred and seek revenge upon the orcs. A large force set forth on a quick and brutal campaign. The orcs fled before them, unable the stand before the surprise assault and the elves were able to establish a stronghold upon on of the tall foothills near the edge of the orcs territory.

Before long, hostilities redoubled and there was almost a semblance of peace between the estranged clans as they sought to drive out the invaders. Finally, one night, they succeeded. Raiding in the cold hours just before dawn, the wolf clan surrounded the entirety of the hill and set fire to the trees. The billowing smoke forced the elves, bleary and disoriented, out into the waiting jaws of the raiders. Only a small number came stumbling back to Evermore. The tower was ravaged and broken and the orcs returned back to their war on eachother.

It is rumored, however, that elves still seek revenge and even now a small advance force has crept back into Jharet.

-Paiele, wandering historian

NOTES: Recommended Levels: 13-18 Group Size: 2-5

Search within the great Jharet Forest if you seek to find the orcs. Be wary, however, they have lost none of their malicious nature and the ancient forest has dangers of their own. A wise adventurer would be prepared for all situations before seeking a conflict with either clan.