August 15, 2024
Hi everyone,
Every week we're highlighting the lore of a few factions for each of our games, and this week we're focusing on Age of Fantasy factions!
Orcs
"Orcs are the powerfully built green-skinned humanoids. Some tribes are heavily armed and armoured, while others charge into battle clad only in paint and fury, relying on their faith alone.
Following one of their two Gods, some of the Orcs left the steppes to attack and conquer the Dwarves, establishing an Orc empire. While some viewed this a rejection of their old ways, these Orcs grew rich and powerful, until the opening of the rift destroyed their realm. Now driven back out to the steppes, both Orcish cultures must learn to coexist in their ancestral lands again.
Orcs settled in the steppes, as despite their individual strength and prowess, Humans began to push them westwards and away from the fertile lands of the east. Here, the Orcs began to worship a pair of sibling gods. The elder was the God of the Hunt, who commanded its followers to learn to fight and live in the wild, and the younger was the God of the Hearth, who asked that his followers learn to build and farm. Most Orcs embraced the God of the Hunt and lived according to his laws, hunting and raiding as they pleased. They viewed farming as beneath them and only asked the God of the Hearth that their foes have plentiful harvests for them to take.
When the Havoc Wars came, the God of the Hunt commanded his followers to seek out any worthy foes they could find, fighting both sides alike. However, the God of the Hearth’s followers saw another opportunity: they sought to conquer the Dwarven Holds in order to create a powerful empire of their own. The God of the Hearth and its followers gathered and assaulted the Dwarves who remained behind, seizing their holds and routing the Dwarven army when it returned.
These Orcs turned their plunder into trade, and built a prosperous realm for themselves in the mountains, reigning over their Dwarvish subjects. Yet the God of the Hunt believed that these Orcs had abandoned their old ways, and commanded its followers to remain on the steppe. The Orcs suddenly found themselves divided in two, as some settled in the mountains and others remained on the steppe.
When the Great Rift opened, it cut directly through the mountains, destroying some of the Orcish strongholds, and killing many Orcs in cave-ins. The God of the Hearth suddenly vanished as well, abandoning its followers. The Orcs, confused and weakened, were easily defeated when the Dwarves rose up against them.
The mountain Orcs were forced to seek shelter in the steppe. Many struggled to return to their ancestral land as they had grown up in the mountains and forgotten many of their traditions. Desperate, they sought reconciliation with their former kin and remaining god. While the God of Hunt accepted the returning Orcs, peace has been uneasy. Mountain Orcs remain bitter about what they have lost, many of them still wearing salvaged armour and dreaming of building a new empire. Steppe Orcs view their lost cousins as unwilling to accept the demands of their true home and god.
Which path will you guide your people down?"
Chivalrous Kingdoms
"The Chivalrous Kingdoms are populated by stalwart knights, commanding masses of impoverished peasants. Massed peasant infantry move to hold strategic positions and screen enemy attacks, while knights bring down powerful enemy threats.
A collection of feudal Kingdoms governed by knights who pride themselves on their monster hunting skills, the Chivalrous Kingdoms have become blinded by their vanity and petty rivalries, and have abandoned the spirit behind their code of chivalry. Once defenders of the people, they have become little more than big game hunters and oppressors of their own people.
Legends say the Chivalrous Kingdoms were once the realm of dragons and other monstrous creatures. The fertile lands of the their Golden Vales drew early human clans, but these people lived in fear of the dragons who roamed the land, which often destroyed their home and harvest. The people of the Vales lived in constant fear of the creatures, and looked to anyone who might offer them salvation.
A mysterious goddess, known only as the Fair Lady, came to the people of the realm in mortal form, and walked among them. She pledged to protect the people against the monsters, and drew many new followers from throughout the realm. She named her most loyal and skilled followers as her knights, and through her blessing and their faith, the Lady's knights slew many of the monsters that plagued the land, and for a time, there was peace. Yet, shortly after her greatest victory against the last dragons, the Lady disappeared.
When the Lady left the knights, it fell to them to maintain order. They began to compete amongst themselves for prestige, slaying and hunting every creature they could find. The most influential claimed the title of king, carving out kingdoms throughout the Vale where their rule was absolute. Their power and greed drove the peasants into poverty, and some bitterly compared them to the dragons.
It was then that the Lady returned to the people of the Vales. She gave the kings and knights a chivalric code, which laid out a strict code of conduct, demanding knights act with honour and grace. The knights now pride themselves on following the code to the letter, creating elaborate new ceremonies to demonstrate their honour and skill, yet they rarely extend the respect demanded by the code beyond their fellow knights.
For a time, the rival Chivalric Kingdoms were subdued by their southern neighbours in the Great Empire. The Kingdoms were seen as backward by many in the Empire, but their knights were the best cavalry in the Empire even if they seemed to prefer their code of honour over pragmatic tactics. During this period, the Havoc Wars devastated the Vales, as the forces of Havoc sacked much of the lands on their way to the capital. This created an enduring bitterness within the Chivalric Kingdoms towards their southern neighbours, and when the Rift formed and the Emperor died, the Kingdoms were quick to declare their independence. Now, the newly independent Kingdoms seek to build their power and prestige in the Fair Lady’s name.
How will you bring glory to the Lady?"
Ghostly Undead
"The Ghostly Undead are incorporeal beings who venture into Tyria from the Empyrean Plane. Their armies are made up by lines of ghostly warriors wielding rusted weapons, supported by banshees and wraiths, driven forward by their ghostly jailers.
These spectral creatures have been thrust from their blissful state of delusion by their Gods to harvest fresh souls. Tormented by the reality of what they have become, the Ghostly Undead lash out furiously at mortals, desperately trying to seize captives so that their Gods will allow them to return to their eternal delusion.
The Ghostly Undead enter Tyria from the Empyrean Plane, which some in Tyria believe to be the afterlife, ruled over by a pantheon of Death Gods. In truth, the gods of this plane draw their energy from the souls of those who live there, gradually draining their memories, thoughts, and personalities, until nothing remains but the shadowy husk of a soul.
The gods of the Ghostly Undead each rule over their own part of the Empyrean Plane, where those trapped inside see the world around them as their god wills it: whether it’s a magnificent and heavenly kingdom, a warrior’s paradise, or a place of pain and torture. Those few mortals who have gone to these lands and escaped to tell the tale see something else entirely. They return with tales of shambling spirits lurking over desolate ruins, playing out mortal lives which have long been lost. Many of these spirits have completely forgotten their mortal lives, while others remember only scattered fragments.
The Ghostly Undead are sometimes sent out to other planes by their gods, tasked with seeking out souls to bring back to the plane. The spirits only faintly understand their purpose, some believe they seek worthy souls to reward with paradise, others believe that they have come to bring divine retribution on the foes of their gods. The Ghostly Undead only know for certain that they may solely return once they have taken enough souls to satisfy their masters.
As the Ghostly Undead wander the outside of the Empyrean Plane, their gods’ glamors come undone, causing them to gradually become aware of their true appearance and surroundings. Many Ghostly Undead are horrified when confronted with their true nature, which drives them to a spiteful madness, where they lose any sense of self and lash out furiously at any living creatures. Others become convinced that they have been trapped in an illusion, as a punishment for displeasing their god in some way, seeking desperately to redeem themselves so they may return to the Empyrean Plane.
The Ghostly Undead have begun to pour into Tyria ever since the Grat Rift opened many once hidden Voidgates in Tyria. Once thought of as mere legend, it is now not uncommon to see large processions of Ghostly Undead prowling through the forgotten fringes of Tyria, seeking to claim those who have strayed too far from their homes. Sometimes they have also been known to bargain with mortals of Tyria who can offer them magic, souls, or a means of return to their home.
How will you find your way through the mortal planes?"
Ossified Undead
"The Ossified Undead are creatures of bone and magic in human shape. Their legions march slowly and with terrible purpose, cutting down any who oppose them.
The Ossified Undead destroyed all life on their world in order to escape the influence of the Havoc Gods, preserving their people as deathless constructs. When they discovered Tyria, they hoped to escape their lifeless plane, but were betrayed and banished back to their home. However, the Great Rift opened new portals to Tyria again, and now they are determined to avenge their betrayal and claim their new home by force.
The native plane of the Ossified Undead was a verdant and tranquil place until the eye of the Plague God fell upon it. Under the malign influence of Plague, the world began to rot and wither. As the world around them fell into decay, the remaining Sages gathered to make a plan: they studied strange and dark magic that would allow them to transcend the weaknesses of flesh that the Havoc God preyed upon, and they would become beings of bone and spirit beyond death. Some rejected this, but many more were desperate enough to embrace the idea and become the Ossified Undead.
While those who rejected the Sages died out to disease and corruption, the Ossified Undead began to purge their lands of life. They drove back the Plague God’s servants until their plane was saved, but no living thing remained. After this, the Ossified Undead lived in peace for a time. None are certain how long this was, as without life, time soon began to lose meaning. Some fell into insanity or despair. The Sages were once more charged with seeking a solution.
The Sages’ hopes were lifted when they discovered a Voidgate created by a strange sage from the plane of Tyria, who begged for help to protect his people. After some discussion, the Sages agreed to offer their knowledge, and in exchange they asked for the right to settle in Tyria. While they provided their knowledge willingly, the Tyrians betrayed their side of the deal, and severed their link with the Ossified Undead plane once the Havoc Wars were over.
The Ossified Undead and their Sages tried to reopen the link many times without success. Their opportunity only came when the Great Rift devastated Tyria, and they were able to take advantage of the sudden surge of energy that created the rift in order to open previously lost Voidgates throughout Tyria.
The Ossified Undead began to enter Tyria, returning once more to a land of life, but now view other factions with distrust, remembering their previous betrayal. Yet they are determined to make their home for their people in Tyria, even if they have to fight every other faction in Tyria to do it.
How will you carve out a new home in this plane of life?"
That's it for this week, we hope you enjoyed this lore focus. :)
Happy Wargaming!
– OPR Team
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