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The Orc Wars
In the year 5201, after years of battle and death known as the Orc War, the orcs and goblins were driven back beyond the Rift to the Orclands. Peace finally settled on the more civilized lands of the west as the threat of war faded. The Rift protected the western lands from invasion, while the elves of the Sylvan Realm kept the orcs from moving around the Rift to the south. Populations recovered and many people eventually forgot about the terrible times of the Orc War. In 5332, the orcs began to increase their raids outside of the Orclands. In 5333, they began to attack the villages and cities of the western lands of Tesh, Alatha, Oreth, and the Horselands. A new Orc War had begun. Led by such deadly warriors as the Goldfang tribe and their ogre allies, the orcs conquered the western lands in only ten years. The great city of Ravenport was the last to fall to the evil armies when its queen was driven into hiding. Many powerful wizards and priests were killed, while many others disappeared. Rulers of the kingdoms were publicly killed by their orcish captors. The lands descended into darkness. It has been more than four decades since the fall of the western lands. The western lands are a much more dangerous place than they used to be. Dangerous monsters are more common. Orcs brutalize those they have conquered. Most people are now virtual slaves of the orcs...many are forced into demeaning labor for their orcish masters. The orcs have established a new empire in the lands they have conquered. K'Nort Scrar, the empire of blood, now covers all of the lands that were once the Orclands, the Horselands, Tesh, Alatha, and Oreth. They have not expanded beyond the Snake Mountains, ignored the tiny Delta Colonies, and have not yet dared to enter the Sylvan Realm or approach the Calithian Empire. The most feared and most powerful of the orcs are the Goldfang tribe, whose members all sport at least one golden tusk and are almost purely evil. They rule over other orcs with no mercy. They hold other races in contempt and shun even half-orcs as weak and impure. Temples and shrines to good deities are now well hidden by the few people that have managed to evade the orcs all these years. Non-orc wizards are usually hunted with no mercy by the orcs. Humans (and other non-orcs) are forbidden from owning weapons or armor by their orchish masters.
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