The Great Horde

Geography
Situated primarily on the northern coast of the Western Continent, the climate of The Great Horde’s holdings is, unsurprisingly, quite cold. Much of its territory is made up of tundra and taiga, with some grasslands and temperate forests to the south. Winters there are long and incredibly cold, the summers short and cool, and precipitation other than snow is rarely seen.

Flora in The Great Horde’s reaches is variable. The forests are primarily coniferous, while the tundra is made up of grasses, mosses, lichens, and shrubs. The harsh climate and infertile soil there make farming difficult; popular crops include rice, barley, millet, and roots.

Animal life there is similarly adapted to the cold, with many beasts possessing heavy fur, thick fat reserves, or the ability to hibernate to cope with the climate. The woolly variant of the mammoth is native there, as are bears, chalicotheres, sabre tigers, deer, dire wolves, serow, wolverines, unicorns, rabbits, indricotheres, entelodonts, and drekavacs. Although obviously numbering less than mammals, there do exist a few reptiles: namely, kappas and bukavacs. Eagles, hawks, vultures, and rocs share the skies above these regions; this is one of the few places in the world free of bats.

Of particular note is The Great Horde’s wide selection of marine life. The oceans are host to salmon, sea serpents, tuna, seals, krakens, orcas, sharks, whales, and sea turtles; strangely, these creatures can grow to sizes unseen anywhere else. One infamous specimen of these seas is the hafgufa, a massive, whale-like creature that camouflages itself as a moving island.

Although lacking in organic boons, The Great Horde is rich in mineral resources. Gold, platinum, and silver are all found in abundance in its rivers and mountains, a fact that the Imperial government is keen to exploit.

Society, Culture, and Economy
The predominant sort of Men in The Great Horde are known as Sea Orcs, or, in more recent times, Imperial Orcs. Perhaps the most distantly removed, in terms of physiology, from other Orcs, they possess dark blue skin, crimson eyes, and silver hair. The harshness of their environment and the difficulty of agriculture there has kept the population low, although urbanization, recent drives by the The Great Horde’s government, and an import economy have increased it to around 14 million. Conquered and incorporated Steppe Orcs make up a sizable portion of this populace: around 30 to 40 percent.

Uniquely, The Great Horde is also home to artificially created Men, created through alchemy, magic, and selective breeding. The most infamous of these are the Goblins, which resemble a mix between Orc and Dwarf, and, having been designed for cheap maintenance and expendability, number in the tens of millions. A much smaller subpopulation, a taller sort designed for stealth or subterfuge known as the Hobgoblin, exist, but the secrecy of their development makes accurate numbers hard to judge. Rumors abound of even rarer, more terrifying creations: tiefling shock troopers, man-beast hybrids, and even the current Great Khan himself are some of the speculations.

The living spaces of Sea Orcs can be divided into three sectors. The first, and where the majority of the population resides, is the urbanized city. Unlike most other Orc populations, the Great Horde practices sedentary living; these cities, located in the coastal heart of their territory, survive off of trade and fishing. The capital, which is known as Orkarum (The Great Shall See Far), is where the Emperor rules.

The second sector is the village-settlement. In contrast to the stone grandeur of the cities, these villages are small and simple, barely a step above the tents and yurts of their southerly brethren, being primarily composed of wood and straw. These hamlets are intended to take full advantage of the resources that can be found in the taigas of The Great Horde; they survive mostly off of hunting, lumber, and mining. Economic drives by the government have led to more and more of these popping up at the boundaries of the wilderness.

The third sector is the war party. The Great Horde is so militarized that a staggeringly sizable portion of its population is in the military; the war camps that they inhabit are perhaps the closest resemblance the Sea Orcs have to their relatives in the Grand Steppe. Temporary settlements, these so-called “tent cities” sustain themselves with hunting and the spoils of war.

Culture
Like most Orc civilizations, The Great Horde practices a warrior culture, but its uniquely sedentary nature and the strength of its central government have solidified these martial traditions into a codified system of honor; fees and redresses are paid with blood or action rather than gold or goods.

The Great Horde’s society is uniquely meritocratic; one’s usefulness to the nation matters much more than age, ethnicity, gender, or heredity. True citizenship (the right to hold office, own property, and take certain occupations) is conferred only to those who have served in the military or benefitted The Great Horde in some other way, and nobility is reserved as a reward for extraordinary accomplishments.

Imperial Orcs have a tenuous relationship with Astrolatry, no doubt due to their rather sacrilegious use of dark alchemy. Though they pay enough lip service to the Celestials to maintain a corps of clerics and to avoid all-out war with more devout forces, religion is more of a means to an end to them. The Sea Orc wise women have evolved into the The Great Horde’s alchemist and sorcerer corps; having shed their religious duties, they support the war effort indirectly through their engineered soldiers and directly with combat magic.

Perhaps in reflection of their barren surroundings, Imperial Orc art and literature is sparse and minimalist, to the point that some would call it melancholic. Artists make it an objective to communicate as much as possible with as little as possible. Common themes in their works include duty, sacrifice, battle, and valor; ostensibly, the Great Horde government has a heavy hand in the creation and consumption of media.

Sea Orc architecture is blocky and utilitarian, primarily made of carved stone and interlocking wood to preserve metal for the war effort. The Great Horde enlisted Dwarven architects and engineers for construction; this accounts for high efficiency and organization of their cities. Defendability is also an important factor; every city and settlement is heavily fortified, laden with strategic chokepoints and walls.

Sports and other athletic pastimes are encouraged by the Great Horde’s government as a way to keep citizens fit and war ready. Although most in the Horde play Kokenball the same way as their southern brethren (large sticks and iron balls), a unique variant, played on ice with skates and an even more astonishing degree of violence, has gained popularity. Other original sports include sled dog racing, ice water plunges, swordsmanship, and rowing.

As with most Orc cultures, wrestling has great importance in the Great Horde, which has, over the centuries, developed its own styles and systems of grappling. The most famous of these is the Yielding Way, which, in contrast to its highly ritualized and spiritual ancestor, places practicality as its greatest concern: adherents practice ground techniques and armed and armored fighting. Mastery in these techniques is signified by a series of belts; white being the lowest rank and black the final.

Sea Orc cuisine is primarily based around fishing and aquatic agriculture. Fish, whale, and seal are prepared in hundreds of different ways; roasted, fermented, stewed, candied, even raw. This seafood is supplemented with meat (primarily mutton and chicken) and dairy supplied by Steppe Orc subjects and hunted game from the forests. Vegetable-wise, root vegetables and rice are favored for their economic efficiency, while spices imported from the Horde’s Wood Elven allies are hot products indeed. Famous dishes include sashimi, lobster hot pot, deep-fried whale, and roast fish.

Although the Great Horde has a reputation for pillaging through conquest, they are not above trading peacefully, if only to fund the first pursuit. Barren as their lands are, their primary exports are in mined resources (gold in particular), lumber, furs, and labor rather than crops. In fact, food is their top import, followed by textiles, dyes, and texts.

Government and Military
The Great Horde is ruled by The Orkhan (Great Chief, or Emperor), who acts as supreme leader of the military. Succession in this office is not decided by inheritance or election, but through ritualized, melee, single combat, with the victor claiming the title of Emperor. Although superficially such challenges seem like a recipe for internal strife and civil conflict, numerous provisions exist to ensure a smooth transfer of power and to preserve the strength of the Empire.

A noble title is required to even attempt a challenge at all; this prevents foreign powers and the rank and file from vying for the title, and guarantees that any applicants are already both allegiant and accomplished. In addition, the Orkhan’s symbols of office, the armor set Giantshide and the ancient cleaver Giantsfall, are incredibly powerful magic artifacts, and the Emperor, having had to win the title themselves, is one of the most skilled melee combatants in the world. The difficulty of the challenge and the likelihood of death further deters the incompetent or self-interested. The majority of successions have occurred against Emperors indisposed by advanced age or sudden madness; challenging a sick or poisoned incumbent is seen as cowardly and dishonorable, and the resulting reign is bound to be short. In the rare cases where the Orkhan dies of causes other than ritual combat, their highest general assumes command until a tournament can be held in Orkarum.

As supreme commander of The Great Horde’s military, the Emperor is responsible for the direction of the army and navy and the incorporation of conquered territory. As such, the Orkhan is rarely seen in the actual borders of the nation, instead traveling at the head of the largest concentration of troops. Civilian matters (if indeed there exists such a thing in the Great Horde) are left to a cabinet of ministers, who are elected through a combination of democracy and the vetting of the Orkhan. These ministers answer to the Orkhan; although they have almost unlimited power within their spheres of influence, their power is tempered by fear of their commander.

The Great Horde is the most militarized state in Adrastea. Owing to its mastery of dark alchemy and genetic engineering, its army has numbers in the millions, the bulk of it Goblins, purpose-bred infantry and cannon fodder. Requiring only a six-month gestation period and scraps of meat for sustenance, the proliferation of these creatures often outpaces the creation of arms meant to equip them; one of the Great Horde’s sources of income is selling shiploads of these to warlords and mercenaries across the globe.

The Orcs that serve in the Great Horde’s army are primarily horse archers and shock troopers. Owing to the wealth of their nation, they are often better equipped than their southern brethren, with access to metal armor, firearms, stronger horses, and stricter organization. Favored weapons include axes, asymmetrical bows, arquebuses, cleavers, kanabo, and glaives.

The elite troops of the Great Horde are many and varied. The Spearhead, the Orkhan’s imperial guard, is made up of the finest warriors in the Horde’s reaches. As the Orkhan often fights at the head of the army, they are often equipped with enchanted arms and armor in order to bear the brunt of a frontal assault.

The Great Horde also breeds and employs Hobgoblins. Designed for stealth and subterfuge, immune to all poisons and potions, and able to shapeshift with the help of a special alchemical substance, they often act as assassins, skirmishers, and snipers. The Oni, another extension of the Horde’s foray into dark alchemy, are tiefling troopers who, thanks to their resistance to heat, wield incendiary arms and equipment. The Great Horde has even created its own version of the Dwarven Einherjar, although their replications are crude wooden prototypes compared to the ancient originals.

Having originated as a confederation of seafaring raider tribes, the Great Horde boasts the most powerful navy in the world, rivaled only by the arcane flotillas of the Infinite Empire. Although they maintain and have mastered the use of sailing ships, the true strength of their fleets lies in the Orcish galley, otherwise known as the dragon ship, a direct descendant of the longships of their ancestors.

Although rowing ships have become outdated in other navies, the sheer strength, speed, and skill of Orc oarsmen have kept the galley up to date with the latest developments in naval warfare. Able to equip iron plating and cannons while retaining speed and maneuverability, these ships are agile and deceptively strong, capable of slipping into the ranks of an enemy fleet and wreaking havoc with fusillades and ramming attacks.

The Great Horde has maintained a state of perpetual conquest for the entirety of its existence. Although their efforts are primarily focused in the north (they have subsumed large parts of the Grand Steppe and the western tip of the Eastern Continent), their influence can be felt around the world; colonial outposts exist in the Sea of Mu, and they have formed a strong alliance with the Wood Elves fighting the Infinite Empire.

History
The origins of The Great Horde can be traced to the Sea Orc clans, a subset of Orcs that lived along the northern coast of the Western Continent. Native to a barren land and skilled at sailing, the Sea Orcs quickly carved out a niche as a raider people, riding upon longships rather than horses and plundering the seas instead of on land.

The fractured existence of the Sea Orcs would come to the end with the birth of Temurin, the first Orc Emperor. Although much of his life is now shrouded in myth, it is known that he was born in a time of famine and war. A blight had spread amongst the fish that the Sea Orcs relied on for sustenance, and the Orcs of the Steppe, sensing this weakness, took to raiding and conquering their northern brethren. The orphaned son of a Jarl, Temurin was given as a hostage to a great Steppe Orc tribe and raised as a prince. Returning to his homeland under the guise of aiding its subjugation, Temurin used his unique knowledge of Steppe Orc culture and tactics to unite the Sea Orcs and drive the invaders from their land. By 1771 SC, he had slaughtered the tribe that “adopted” him and united all of the clans. Temurin called his new confederation, composed of both his own people and his former enemies, The Great Horde.

Since then, the Orc Empire’s history has been one of steady conquest and expansion, with several waxes and wanes in controlled territory. In 1899 SC, they had wrested control of Tir Tairngire from Human barbarians; the island to this day is the greatest of the Empire’s overseas holdings.

2065 saw the unveiling of the Goblins and Hobgoblins, the first alchemically made Men. Although censured by almost every other major nation, these new soldiers bolstered the already impressive military and economy of the Great Horde, enabling them to stretch their reach even farther. The Orc Empire has made allies with several Dwarven strongholds and the Stone Men cities of the Wood Elves; the former for their expertise in engineering, the latter to aid in combating their chief rival, the Infinite Empire. The bulk of the Great Horde’s forces, however, are focused on fighting their eternal enemies; their Steppe cousins to the south. Should they prevail, they could potentially unit an army that could overtake the world.