The End of an Age

The Orcs had one last Kingdom after they had been driven out of their mountain fast by King Uffawick the Sword-Hand and his Paladin army. The Orcs had retreated far into the great Blackwald and built wooden castles and wooden cities there, in violation of the edict of the Speaker of the Sun (The god-King of the Elves) and for a time they were able to grow in numbers and train a new and fearsome Orcish Army. Their new Castle and City they name Kara'Garth the Great and they brought in captive hill dwarves as their farmers and herders. The fifteen Kingdoms ignored the Orcs and fought each other in endless wars to create a Second Empire. Castles became more complex than ever and city walls became thicker and thicker. The Barons found themselves invested with more power than their kings and their domains often crossed Kingdoms. The Paladin orders slowly disbanded as the need arose for more mounted, plate wearing Knights. The Barons spent no expense in hiring mercenaries, as archers and swordsmen. The Holy Church began a massive Cathedral and Monastary building campaign and the High Polemarch of the Church began a concerted effort to bring the Kingdoms under his rule. He summoned the remaining Paladins and organized them into the Order of the White Rose. The new Order went to their Monastaries and Abbies under the guise of peaceful monks and began to train and wait for the order to take over the Kingdoms and the baronies. At this critical juncture in history, a man came out of an isolated village in the south of the continent and began to show all the marks of being the next (and long awaited) Ethnarch. He gathered common men to his side and began to denounce the High Polemarch as a complete fraud and displeasing to the creator of men. He walked the continent, preaching thousands of sermons and finally met the High Polemarch. The High Polemarch fled in terror at the Light that the Ethnarch exuded and the Ethnarch took his seat as the head of the Church and called the Barons and Kings to himself. They obeyed and he ordered them to unite the Kingdoms into a Second Empire. He also commanded that the barons hand their armies back to the Kings, as what the other Ethnarch meant when he created the barons at the end of the First Empire. The Kings held a council there and Markus Augsburg was made Emperor. The Kings demoted themselves to be Electors and the last official act of the Ethnarch was to appoint new bishops and a council of Twelve Polemarchs to oversee the Church. He also kept the Paladins to himself and ordered that, on his demise, the Paladins would be under the control of the Emperor and the Twelve Polemarchs. The Ethnarch walked out and went back to his native village and continued to heal and preach from there. Emperor Augsburg then went to a nice area which contained rolling, unsettled green hills and ordered that the city of Augsburg be built there. Augsburg Castle was at the center of the city and everything was white to symbolize peace. The city grew as merchants from all over the Empire (and nobles) flocked there to build shops and homes. The whole city was built of white stone and was made as modern as possible for the time. The city soon boasted five churches, two Cathedrals, one University, seven abbys and a Parlimentarian Hall for the Imperial Reichstag. The armies were given to the Emperor and the Kings were also made the Marshalls of the Imperial Army. The Yarl of Nordlandia and the Yarl of Vyirmark heard of the creation of this new Empire and they formed an alliance with the Second Empire. The Yarl of Nordlandia gave his daughter in marriage to the Emperor Augsburg and the Yarl of Vyirmark sent his sons to study at the University at Augsburg. Then the Orcs, now having reached over a million Orcish Warriors, surged out of the Blackwald and attacked the Castles and cities of the Second Empire. The Emperor gathered his 2 million strong army and met the Orcish force at Dunfire and beat them soundly. The remaining Orcs fled into the forest but were picked off by the archer forces of the Speaker of the Sun. The Imperial Army then marched on the Orcish Kingdom and put Baron Galwick as the Governor and left a garrison there. Baron Galwick had the Orcs rebuild the city as a stone city and tore down the outlaying castles, as demanded by the Speaker. Thus the Orcs came under human rule. They were made serfs of the humans and over the next centuries, except for one revolt led by Orc'Mar, never again took up arms. They began to lose size and strength and gradually began to look more and more humanoid. They even gained in intellect as well. 


The End.

Not all solutions are solved by a wizard....

The wheat fields of the Yensen farm were ripe to harvest, being the fall of that year, three years before the Second Great Orc War. The Yensens soon discovered that all of their sickles had been stolen and worse, all their prize cattle had been stolen. "Sabotage!" cried Kyle Yensen the Elder. "And no human would do such a thing either!" and the old man went back into the thatched hut, cursing his luck and lord Demming for demanding 50% of the profits of the harvest for rent. Hoth, the eldest son, vowed to find the thieves and return the stolen items. He ran into the house and grabbed the sword and shield that hadn't seen use since the last Great War. "Just get the items we need back, don't go sallying off on a great adventure." warned Jensen Sr. The stubborn young man nodded and took off towards Bandits Cave. 


He reached Bandits Cave that afternoon and discovered the family tools mixed amongst other farm tools. The odor reeked of Troll. He gathered the chests and started for the entrance when he was hit over the head by a big club.


He woke up in shackles in a dungeon. There were several men like himself, all groaning that they had been ambushed. "Where are we?" asked Hoth to the others. "This cell reeks of Orc and I suppose we are the uninvited guests of some local Orcish warcheif." said Vearne the Right-Eyed. "Slavers. Miserable slavers the lot of them!" spat Hoth. "Ah, but we can jump the jailor. Just hit him right bellow the left ribs, he keeps putting his hand there." said Vearne. The ugly Orcish Jailor came alone and even laid aside his weapon. He began to unlock the bracers of Hoth when Hoth punched him bellow the left rib cage and the jailor went to the floor, cursing. Hoth seized the chance and took the keys and quickly freed the other men in the cell. Hoth seized the jailor's weapon and the others went to the weapons racks and took weapons they needed to defend themselves. They scoured the dungeons, killing Orcs and freeing humans, dwarves and elves. The band of escapees reached 2,000 and the band elected Hoth as their General. "We can take on the local garrison." some argued. "No, we march home and we fight any Orc that opposes us. We need to rally our Kingdoms and our nations!" said Hoth, General of the milita. The band agreed and they fought their way out of the tunnels and outside to freedom. 


Hoth quickly returned to the cave with a band of 20 men and took the farm tools and whatever weapons they could find and left. Hoth returned to his farm only to find a smoking ruin. He discovered the bodies of his family, burnt bones and he vowed revenge. He buried the bones and gave them the last rites before leaving. "We need to find the baron's army. He will be the first one to detect any Orc troop movements." said Hoth to his irregulars. The original 2,000 met him on the road and declared that the Orcs were moving by stealth. "We shall need a wizard then." said Hoth and the men tried to talk him out of it. "The Paladins would be better!" they cried. Hoth then declared that he would try to enlist the aid of the local chapter of the Hand of Light, several of their number were skilled trackers. The irregulars marched to the local Abby of the local order and the Paladins there quickly let them in. "What happened?" asked Hoth. "The Orcs burnt down the Royal Castle at Davenham and burnt Davenham to the ground and massacred all the inhabitants." said the Polemarch. "They are moving by stealth, we hoped we could find some trackers from amongst your number." said Hoth to the Polemarch. "Hard to miss them now! They have 1 million Orcs and we are behind the lines!" said the Polemarch. 


The men sat down and the Polemarch brought Hoth up to date. "The only thing that is protecting this Abby is a Light Shield, once that goes down, we'll be massacred by the concealed Orcs in the fields around the Abby!" said the Polemarch Addison. The irregulars, alarmed at their plight, vowed to join the Paladins and help fight the war. "Hoth, take 300 men and harrass the enemy. Kill them in small numbers, hit and run. Then we might be able to distract them long enough here for the other Kingdoms to gain strength." said the Polemarch. Hoth then took the men, all armored in hard leather and well-equiped for the fight and provisioned. went into the deep, dark Bralewood and set up camp. They dug traps and built a pallisade wall around their forest camp and sallied forth to the roads to harass Orc patrols. They robbed many Orc resupply caravans and slaughtered many Orcs in the process. The gold and the silver they took was put into a general chest and the men kept any food they could get. 


Then the Orcs came for them. The attack was at twilight in the morning and a force of 100 Orcs attacked the camp. The humans were almost overwhelmed but fought bravely and pushed back the Orcs. The 270 men and Hoth knew they had to move camp so it was decided to climb Skybreaker mountain and camp up there, away from any attempted Orc attacks. They walked the trail up to the midway part of the mountain and camped in a forest meadow up there. Strewn all around could be found the stone remains of the titans. The humans knew the story and they called their new camp after the famous battle that ended the titan race. They began to erect a wooden castle and then after a few months of construction, began to build a stone tower of uncut stone in the center of the wooden castle. They called the Castle "Skybreaker Keep" and declared Hoth to be the lord of it. The local dwarven King challenged them about their construction of that keep but they truthfully replied that it was only for the duration of the war. The King, who was trying to stay out of the conflict, finally decided to pitch in with the humans and he committed 100 dwarven builders to rebuild the flimsy wooden castle into a stronghold of stone. Once the keep was finished and the irregular band had grown to 600 men, they began to set up other camps in order to keep the rebellion going against the Orcish Warlord, T'mand-kun. The war was now going badly for the Orcs and all the Warlords began to withdraw their forces into their mountain fast of Orgirum. The last Warlord gathered 800 Orcs and assaulted Skybreaker Keep and lost all 800 Orcs while the humans only lost three. The humans took the remaining Orcs prisoner and captured T'mand-kun and locked him up, hoping for a ransom. "Kill me. I am dishonored." said the Orc in the language of the humans. Hoth took the Orcish Warlord out to the Courtyard and beheaded him, despite the protests of the Paladins. Hoth then had the head sent to the Orcish King in a basket as a severe warning. With the war over, the barons came to Skybreaker Keep and asked him to give up the Castle and discharge his remaining men. He agreed, although it meant returning to a lower social order. 


The Dwarves occupied Skybreaker as Hoth and his now unarmed men rode off the mountain. "lord Hoth! Fear not! Your name is much published and we have you to thank for slowing the Orcs down to a slow crawl." said lord Demming. "I am still a lord then?" asked Hoth. "You earned the title. The King wants to meet you himself." said the Baron. The party rode to the Camp of King Altheling and the King greeted him as a lord. "lord Hoth! My newest baron, made in the valor of war. Take 800 knights and proceed to Carl's Pass and hold it at all costs. The Orcs are coming back!" exclaimed the King. lord Hoth bowed and rode to the large group of Knights waiting for him. "Provision and follow me. The Orcs come again!" said lord Hoth. The Knights saluted and began to load their horses up with bags of food and skins of wine and bluestone water. "And take Magus Ikan" said the King. The Magus reformed as a human, he had been in the form of a battle-gryphon. "Greetings." said the Magus. "I would have helped earlier but the Orcs give me the chills." said the Magus. "We got on just fine without Mages." said lord Hoth. "You need me this time, the attacking Orcs have a powerful wizard. A Red Magus named Kal'lath." said the Magus. "Fine, join our ranks." said lord Hoth. Not being a fool, lord Hoth seeked out the King and asked for 300 Paladins. "Granted. The Polemarch of the Order will join you with 300 Paladins." said the King.


lord Hoth and the others rode directly into a trap at the pass and were all taken prisoner by the Orcs. lord Hoth was seperated from the group and taken to Ma'gath'Or'goh Castle and locked in the lowest level of the dungeon. He looked for opportunities to escape but none came, since he was in a dark cell without a light and his jailor would shove the food through a trap in the door. He began to pray in earnest to the creator of mankind when a rogue fairy made it's way into his cell. It ignored him but he was able to see the whole room now and he saw a boarded up door, rather crudely boarded over, down a tunnel into the darkness. "You!" he whispered the the fairy. "Nordaman." said the fairy, surprised it was noticed. "Get the key!" he whispered. "For what shiny trinket I get?" asked the fairy-sprite. "Anything! Just get me out of here!" whsipered lord Hoth. The fairy nodded and returned after what seemed an eternity with the keys. The fairy-sprite loosed him and he rubbed his wrists as he looked at the boarded over door in the cell. "Here goes nothing." he whispered and he kicked in the boards and a cold wind came up from the descending tunnel and he shivered. He walked down and kept his eyes open, the Pixie followed him closely. He saw a skeleton of a dead Orc, clothed in ancient chainmail and a sword was rusting on the ground. He took the chainmail and the sword and continued down the steep incline. He came to a massive underground canyon and he looked around and was surprised to see a village and a huge ceiling light. "Dwarves" he whispered. He made his way down to the village and the first dwarf to recognize him called out his name in a friendly manner. "Hoth! You freed me and I fought beside you during the last war, remember me?" asked the dwarf. "Isander? I thought you died!" said lord Hoth merry that he found his old companion after all these years. "Nah, you can't kill a dwarf." said Isander. "What do you think of our hidden home down here?" asked Isander. "It works I guess." said lord Hoth. "I have second shift in the mines tonight. You are free to stay as long as you like." said Isander. "Thank you, but what I need to to gather a force to free the other captives." said lord Hoth. "The war is on again? Let me get the Thane, you can tell him." said the dwarf. Isander ran off and the Thane ran back with Isander. "The war is back on? I can give you 200 warriors and myself." said the Thane. The Thane whistled and all the male dwarves of the settlement came out of the buildings and the mines. "To ARMS!" said the Thane and the dwarves went to their weapons racks and armed themselves. "Follow me!" said the Thane and lord Hoth led the way back up the long ramp to the Orcish dungeon. They marched through the Castle and found it empty of any Orcs. They freed all the human prisoners and the prisoners armed themselves with the Orc weapons. The huge force marched down to the pass and found bones of Orcs and humans lying scattered about and fire burn marks on the walls of the mountains. "They brought out the mages." said one warrior. The force marched to Gatwick only to find that the city had been taken over by the Orcs and the humans there had been made into slaves. The army then retreated into the Gatwick Wald and began build seige machines. 


The seige began on a rainy day and the human archers spent the next several hours picking off Orcish wall-guards. The skies began to open as lord Hoth came out of deep prayer and he ordered the Army to attack. The Army made it's way up the gangplanks and onto the walls and massacred the weakened Orcs. After the secured the walls, they came down into the city and went house to house, massacring the Orcs and freeing the humans enslaved within. They entered the Castle by a tunnel that lord Hoth's dwarven friend knew about and surprised the Orcish Garrison inside and after a fast battle, the Orcish Garrison was put to the sword. The Orcish Baron Gar'Mesh'Ger'Doth was captured and was beheaded on the orders of lord Hoth. The freed residents of the city reclaimed their homes and went to the city Cathedral and took out the Orcish idols of Gar'Mosh and cleansed it of the uncleaness of the Orcs. The new lord Mayor asked lord Hoth to garrison their city and to remain as the city's lord protector and lord Hoth agreed and sent a small force to find the main army. The scouts came back several days later with the news: Ten kingdoms had been overthrown, ten remained and the allied Army was confused and on the retreat. "So, we'll have to hit them from behind again. We will liberate each Kingdom, leave it in the hands of the people for now and recruit all males except for those needed for defense." And the growing Army of lord Hoth set out with their numerous dwarven allies and began to recapture all the castles and all the cities from the Orcs, having no mercy on the enemy and sparing no expense to win a complete victory. They stumbled into the litter of the Emperor Dagan Kara'Goth and they put the Orcish Emperor to the sword along with his nobles and vassals. The Red Magus came and tried to fireball the Army but an ancient White Wizard by the name of Omesius fought the Red Magus to a standstill in a long wizard's battle until the Red Magus was burnt to a crisp. 


The main Orcish Army heard the news and disbanded. The Allied Army retook the remaining Castles and towns, just 10 of them left. The Orcs ripped off their armor, threw down the weapons and headed back into their mountain fast. The Allied Army, headed by the 15 Kings, chased the Orcs into their stronghold and laid siege to it. lord Hoth was entrusted with a tiny force of dwarven engineers to undermine into the courtyard of the Orcish Fortress of Groma'Gol. The main force entered the tunnel and poured into the Castle. The defenseless Orcs surrendered but the Kings knew better. They put the entire garrison to the sword and they executed the Orcish Crown Prince and his brothers and cousins. They spared Mith'na, the daughter of the late Emperor and the Kings conferred on her the right to sit as queen of the Orcish Domain. They also forced her to swear that she would never send another army into the human, or allied realm again and she reluctantly agreed. The Allied Army marched out with the freed prisoners, some of them having never seen the light of day since the war began. 


lord Hoth was given twelve baronies as his reward and he used his position to ensure that the people had the rule of law. He rebuilt the cities with white stone and modernized the defenses, roads, sewers and even opened major Universities and Libraries, something that had not been seen since the time of the Old Republic. lord Hoth died at 103 and his son succeeded his title and his lands and was crowned King of Alveria on the death of the old King. 


The End.