Kul

Domains: Knowledge, Life, Sun, Trickery, War

Kul, Father of Flames, Lord of the Forge, the Cleansing Fire who put fire and magma within the world at its creation.

He saw his sibling gods creating their own children and placing them within the world, and so followed suit, creating the orcs, the last of the original five speaking peoples.

Kul's fire is the fire that destroys, but it is also the fire that creates, the fire of the forge, the fire that makes meat safe to eat, the fire that cauterizes wounds. Kul teaches that action is the defining characteristic of being. Kul's heroes are not philosophers or poets, but warriors and hunters.

Uniquely among the Elder Creator Gods, Kul does not desire worship finds it distasteful. Orcs still call out to Kul in desperate times as "Kul Who Once Spoke." But in those moments, they do not call out for aid—only that Kul witness them, and that they might prove worthy of his attention.

Heroes of the Orcs

The following heroes are venerated by many orcs and others who follow Kul.

Khorvath Who Slew a Thousand

Domains: Sun, War

When Khorvath, warleader for the Lightning orc clan set out with her warband of bloodrunners, they numbered less than fifty. When they finally arrived at the Heliopolis, seat of the pharaoh of Khemhara, they had grown to over two thousand orcs from over thirty orc clans, all eager for battle. Legends later swelled that number to ten thousand.

Upon their arrival, the bloodrunners found their prospective employer embattled and surrounded by enemies, the pharaoh's brother having raised rebellion against him. Principally due to Khorvath's help, the pharaoh's brother was killed and his army defeated. But the pharaoh died in the battle, and Khorvath found herself and her warband without a patron in an alien land surrounded by enemies fighting a war of succession.

"What do we do, warleader?" Her death captain asked.

Khorvath oriented herself and pointed northwest. "Home is that way. We march!"

Death Captain Voyrik's eyes went wide. "It's three thousand miles," he pointed out—and the journey to Khemhara had not been uneventful!

"Best get started," Khorvath said, and set off.

How long it took the bloodrunners of the Lightning to cross the desert is not well-attested. It took four or six months depending on which accounts you read, but even six months would make their march a legendary journey.

Opposed at every turn by the local noble houses and then eventually the desert clans who sought the bounty placed on Khorvath's head, the ten thousand grew in battle prowess as they demolished any enemy foolish enough to get in their way. Given the many tens of thousands of warriors the bloodrunners dispatched over the course of four (or six) months, it may well be that Khorvath's sobriquet was literal.

Success was a double edged sword. The more victories they earned in battle, the easier they were to follow. "Our enemies walk the red road," Voyrik once said, looking at the vast swath of blood they left in their wake.

"We have nothing to fear," Khorvath said. "These people fight for pride, or a bounty. We're fighting for our lives. All it takes is one good punch in the nose and they retreat." And indeed this proved true for many weeks.

Eventually three of the desert tribes allied themselves and this was a coalition that could take a few bloody noses without giving up. They cornered the bloodrunners in a ravine that led to a mountain pass. It was possible to navigate the narrow pass, but only two or three orcs at a time. It would take hours to retreat that way. And the three tribes blocked their way out.

Khorvath saw the way. She unwound her mother's hand wraps from her forearms and wrapped them around her own fists. The brown stains on the knuckles made Khorvath proud.

"I will take the best warrior from each of the 30 tribes," Khorvath pronounced, and word spread almost instantly. Within minutes, the thirty best warriors among the ten thousand stood with Khorvath. "We thirty will hold the pass."

Death Captain Voyrik, eyes wide, whispered Khorvath's name.

Khorvath removed her torque of leadership and handed it to Voyrik. "When you arrive home, give this to my son." She looked at the torque in Voyrik's hands. "Tell him my last thoughts were of him. And that it is my wish that this torque inspire him to great deeds."

The tale of Khorvath's Thirty is still popular among the orcs, though everyone listening understands the "three days of war" is pure fiction, as none of the thirty survived. It is nonetheless broadly taken as true.

Khorvath's Thirty bought the bloodrunners the time they needed to escape through the pass, and onward unimpeded.

By the time they reached the eastern side of the Myr, Khorvath's name was already a legend, and many bloodrunners wore her clan fetish as their talisman. Scaling the slopes of the Myr was not easy but as the orcs descended down the western face, through the clouds, and saw the endless sea of green that was the Great Wode, they cried out together "Cekana! Cekana!" The trees! The trees!

The ten thousand were not home, but they were home free. For this was territory held by their allies. The church of Khorvath Who Slew a Thousand spread quickly and now all orcs invoke her name whenever faced with a seemingly impossible task.

Khorvath, like most orc heroes, teaches the virtue of endurance. That great problems are often just many tiny problems in disguise and that by fighting each day as it comes, great battles can be won.

Khorvath Who Slew a Thousand would probably prefer to be remembered as she was in life—Khorvath Who Brought Ten Thousand Home, but even as one of the chief orc heroes, she has little influence over the way the people choose to remember her.

Voyrik gave his warleader's torque to her son, who grew to lead the Lightning first as warleader, then chieftain. He was a good ruler for the Lightning.

Grole the One-Handed

Domains: Life, War

Grole the One-Handed, Grole who Slew the Saint of Skulls, lost his left hand at the Battle of Dur Mothe where he stood alone against the horde of deathless and their master, the living saint Morath of Many Tendrils. Grole thought to buy time for his army to escape the flood of death, but when they saw their warleader grappling alone with the Saint of Rot, they reversed their retreat. When Morath lashed out with his greataxe Viscerator and severed Grole's left hand from his arm, Grole's army surged forward, breaking the tide of deathless.

His army watched as Kul's light descended on their wounded leader, and they knew Grole had been chosen by Kul in that moment. At the last, Grole and Morath fought as equals. Orc hero and dark human saint grappled atop the ancient hill. With his one good hand Grole plunged the Green Fire, his grandmother's saber, into Morath's heart, ending the Saint of Many Tendrils.

Grole teaches the extraordinary deeds common people can accomplish if they cast fear from their minds. It was Grole who said, "Even should an orc be pierced by many arrows, they should still be able to perform one last act of revenge."

Grole is the orcish hero of those facing impossible decisions. He is favored by most orcish leaders. Grole teaches that, even alone, even against impossible odds, extraordinary victories are possible. Censors of Grole often dip their left hand in ink before battle to symbolize Grole's missing hand.

Khravila Who Ran Forty Leagues

Domains: Knowledge, Trickery

Khravila Who Ran Forty Leagues, The Eternal Runner, Khravila The Unstoppable.

On the eve of a war between elves and humans that would certainly result in the death of many orcs caught between the two great powers, Khravila's dying father had been incapable of deciding what should be done. Equally incapable of choosing who should succeed him as chieftain—his son or daughter.

At the moment of his death, when the god-caller rang the bell of souls officially announcing her father's passing to the tribe, Khravila looked at her brother and saw hesitation. Khravila had never known doubt.

She snatched her tribe's oriflamme from her father's dead hands... and ran. For many leagues she ran and the tales of the creatures—manticores, griffins, chimeras—who barred her passage passed into legend. Orc children still delight at the tricks and wordplay Khravila employed to thwart the beasts, avoid fighting, and continue her epic run.

Less than five hours after her father died, Khravila arrived at the Astragalus Court, forty leagues from home and while many elements of her legend are certainly mythical, the time and distance are well attested. Khravila held forth the oriflamme and announced that, should the elves continue their assault on the humans, there would be war between them and her tribe. "Chose quickly," she said. "My people are right behind me, and eager for battle." They could not have known she was bluffing.

The elves called off their attacks and Khravila brokered peace between them and the humans. When her brother arrived with their kin folk some hours later—itself an impressive feat—Khravila handed him the oriflamme, and collapsed, dead. It was Khravila the chieftain who ran. It was Khravila the Unstoppable who died, a legendary orc hero.

Khravila teaches the virtue of persistence, endurance, and—above all—wits. Not only the wits necessary to foil the tests that barred her way, but to conceive her legendary plan in the first place, and the dedication to pull it off. "Perhaps another orc could have run," her brother said. "But only Khravila could have bluffed."

Heroes of the Hakaan

Most hakaan in Orden are animists. They know and respect the four Elder Gods who created the world and believe these gods watch the world and see what happens within it. But the Hakaan do not create churches or formal belief systems around this attitude.

Instead they believe the world is filled with innumerable nature spirits. Each river, tree, stone, has their own spirit, which the hakaan revere. They have no organized religion in the way the other ancestries in this chapter do, though a hakaan brought up in a city, or among another people, would naturally venerate in whatever gods and saints are worshiped by the folk who raised them.

The hakaan know they are descended from stone giants, but they do not think of themselves as stone giants. They know their ancestors were tricked by Holkatya, one of the gods of Vanigar, into trading some of their great strength for the doomsight. But while they respect Holkatya, they do not worship her. Nor do they resent her. She's merely a detail of their history.

Hakaan conduits and censors venerate hakaan heroes who, after doing great deeds in life, were chosen by the gods to take their place among the stars, becoming constellations. They see the stars at night as a complex map of legendary hakaan heroes, and their own ancestors who watch from above.

Mahsiti the Weaver

Domains: Creation, Knowledge, Trickery

Mahsiti the Weaver was a fresco painter and mathematician of the hakaan who discovered, or invented, a way of drawing very precise geometric shapes following patterns that repeat at any scale. Believing it could be a new way to devise spells, she took to weaving tapestries using lines of thread to better understand the numerical relationships within the patterns.

It took time to master weaving, but she took to it quickly and produced a series of essays, each a tapestry, proving correct her suspicions. The Tapestries of Mahsiti are a series of thirteen legendary artifacts of varying sizes, one as small as a napkin, one over two hundred feet long. Each has a powerful spell written into it, available for use by anyone who can read the patterns.

One of Mahsiti's weavings, titled The Shepherd and the Sheep, was used by her whole clan when war came to them. The hakaan had no doubt they could defend their home but were equally certain there would be enormous loss of life. Mahsiti suggested they use the tapestry, but the people of her clan did not understand. Use it how? It was simply a picture of a tree in a field with many sheep gathered around it.

But this image, as Mahsiti showed, was formed out of thousands of repeating geometric patterns. The tapestry had been a gift from Mahsiti to her chieftain who hung it in their great receiving hall. Mahsiti cast the spell within the tapestry—and walked into the tapestry. The people were amazed and followed.

When the enemy army arrived, they found the clan's villages empty, and did not notice the tapestry with hundreds of hakaan depicted within. Once the enemy left, Mahsiti finished the spell, and her people emerged, safe.

Mahsiti teaches that art and science, creativity and knowledge, are the same thing. Those who follow her teachings believe that the act of creating, of bringing a new idea or work of art into being, is the act of participating in the same process the gods used to create the world.

Prexaspes the Stargazer

Domains: Nature, Protection, Sun

Prexaspes Stargazer, the Astronomer, the Sun-sage mapped the skies and was one of the first people in all Orden to correctly calculate the repeating pattern of Orden's three moons. Because of his growing mastery of the cycles of nature, he predicted a coming famine and prepared his clan. When the famine came but the people had storehouses of food ready, he became a hero of his tribe.

After receiving the doomsight, Prexaspes turned his attention to the sun itself. He studied ancient tomes written by scholars of many people, believing eclipses were predictable events. His research yielded a pattern, but his insight led him further. What if, he wondered, an eclipse was more than a celestial event? What if it was an opening, a portal? Prexaspes studied the stars and prepared a ritual.

Years later, Prexaspes' tribe was besieged by hobgoblins and all hope was lost. He begged his chieftain to continue fighting—not abandon their homes. The Astronomer promised an eclipse, and though none doubted his calculations, no one could guess how this could help the beleaguered and besieged people.

But the hakaan trusted their sage, and kept up the fight. When the eclipse came, Prexaspes performed his experimental ritual opening a portal to the sun. A line of golden fire erupted from the portal, evaporating many hobgoblins, but this was just a side-effect of the ritual.

With his people watching, shielding their eyes from the brilliant light, Prexaspes entered the portal, and emerged on the surface of the sun. In that moment, the people knew this was his doom. He was only gone a few moments, but when he emerged from the portal his flesh was solid sunstuff, and he waded into the remaining battalions of hobgoblins, destroying them with rays of heat and purifying flame.

Though he died in the act, Prexaspes saved his people becoming a hero of all hakaan, taking his place among the stars as a new constellation.

Prexaspes teaches that nature is a moral good and is worth defending, and that the sun is the source of power for all life on Orden.

Atossa the Shepherd

Domains: Fate, Protection, Trickery

The great dam built by their ancestors that created Lake Tospah was going to fail, Atossa's doomsight said. The people would not listen, they said she read the signs wrong.

When the rains came and would not stop, and the water in Lake Tospah rose putting more pressure on the dam, Atossa opened the gates to the sheep pen and let the tribe's herd of sheep out.

The people ran after them, effectively evacuating the village. But the rains stopped, and the damn did not burst. The people returned to their homes, put the sheep back in the pen, and blamed the shepherd for worrying too much and leading them on wild goose chases.

The next year, the rains came again. And this time the lake was already near capacity. When the shepherd tried to warn the people, they reminded her that it had rained the year before and there was no danger—and so would not listen.

When the first cracks appeared at the base of the dam, Atossa knew her wyrd was before her. She took a piece of the broken dam back to the village to show the elders. They frowned and wondered what Atossa was up to now, but agreed amongst themselves to go up the valley and inspect the dam in person.

Atossa tried to warn them they were walking to their doom, and became even more agitated when the rest of the village followed. When the elders reached the cracked dam, they sounded no alarm. Instead, they argued and debated, "Chewing their beards"-rish javid-the hakaan say about elders who argue instead of acting.

Desperate, Atossa climbed to the top of the dam, and dove into the water, swimming down to the bottom of the lake where she could see the stone cracking. Her people were on the other side.

When the crack widened and water began to pour through at incredible pressure, the people panicked and ran. But Atossa was not worried. This was her doom. She knew what to do.

She let the flowing water carry her toward the widening crack until her body slammed against the stone, blocking the water. The hakaan are famed for being able to hold their breath, but though her people ran as quickly as they could, there was no way Atossa could block the water long enough.

When the dam eventually burst and washed away the village, the people were not there. Atossa had bought them the time to run to safety. They walked among the ruins and found her crushed body among the rubble. They knew they would see her again.

That night, there was a new constellation in the sky.

Atossa teaches that it is not for the shepherd to judge the flock—only to protect and care for them. Even though they might be foolish, or cowardly. "Let the gods judge," Atossa said. "We have sheep to worry after."