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For those of us who Awoke, for those of us who fled from the Outrings, this place is passing strange. It is a barren desert, but filled in places with life unlike that which we have encountered.

The Spring's Gift elves that are born of water of the Spring, not water of the womb. The Latent, beings created by the Colossi. The Anima Forges of the Orentids, broken devices that were once capable of inserting a true soul into inert matter.

Here we find true source of the Orcs that we have fought in many places elsewhere in the City of Rings, and their origins as a soldier race, a weapon forged by the Giants.

Orcs, Inheritors, and other servants of the Giants are a Legacy. One we can use to understand their creators. When we do not document our foes, we misunderstand them to our peril. And when we do not share the truths of our friends, others misunderstand them, to the peril of all. Life on this disc can spring from the blood of Titans, the Orentid forges, the giants's workshops. This is unknown elsewhere in the City. Understanding life brings us closer to the guiding stars of Izdu.

This book is a primer on life that is made not born. It will reference other books that provide a deeper look into these subjects.

This compendium is a living document, loosely bound. It will be updated as needed. DO NOT remove from the Sandstone Library. Print editions will come later.

Orcs: Forged in Fire, Beloved of the Axe

While serving as a mustered volunteer in the war against Iakmes, I have noted worrying knowledge gaps when it comes to what an orc is and why we fight.
As such, I have created a simple overview on Orcs, their Physiology and their tactics

What are Orcs?

• Orcs are a humanoid, asexually-reproducing species, adept at war and smithing.
• They are naturally resistant to fire.
• They were originally created by the Colossi to serve as defenders

Where do orcs come from?
"They are forged in the old Silverworks of Bet Nappahi". Source, Acolyte Narwen of the Sybilline Sisterhood, who reports seeing this in a Vision.

"Bet Nappahi, where there worked Cyaraxes, of silver and bronze, and there was much clanging": Quote from this vision by Ramez Hour Sohby.

This seems probable, based on the following evidence. One, no female or juvenile orcs have ever been found, nor have any villages. Only war camps. Two, we have further proof of asexually produced life on the Disc.  Given all this, plus the fire resistance, the idea that they are forged is a compelling one.

Origin Of the Thousand Clans
"Attendants to the Feast at the Har'pas valley may remember the strange words shared with some  silvery figures, large and almost gigantic in appearance. They refered to a conflict between "Silver" and "Bronze", with the first seemingly standing for peaceful reflection and the second for war, and the scourging of the world. This interaction echoes what is known as the Heinous Dialectic: a tragedy in which some giantkin led the orcan Cohorts which had once defended the Ramparts, and turned them against more peaceful members of late-Colossi society."
-Source: Balstan Gloamingdaith's Examination, Essay question, written by an entrant who apparently attended a mass feast with the Thousand Clans"

Further corroborating information may be found in the Cursed Crypts of Rampart Nusrum. Bring a good diviner and some folks skilled at undead-slaying. This information can be compared to that in the book "A Theory on the Ruin of the Giants" This book suggests that the Orcs were followers of the gardeners and creatives who dwelled around that crypt. Of people who preferred the world remain a garden. Rather than be developed into Cities, or The City of Rings as once there stood.


Orc Mutations
During the push into the Scald, we have observed variant orcs. Some are huge, powerful, and lacking the symmetry and clear form of the baseline orc. Others are weak, twisted and wasted-looking.

The orcs appear to be deliberately manipulating the 'forging' process in order to create beneficial mutations. Based on their occasional apparently failed creations, they may not fully understand the nature of whatever engine or process constructs them. However, they appear to be increasing their skills. They have produced minor Giants akin to ogres. The Chosen of the Axe, the Behemoth, the Hurler. They have produced flaming giant hounds of flesh and bronze.
(Source: Recluta Khazadun's Scout Account, as yet Unpublished. Personal observation)


Orc Culture:
Their leaders are not born into this position, for they are not Born. They instead appear to claim leadership via challenge. Accounts from an orc fort in rampart Nusrum appear to describe Iakmes claiming the leadership of the Thousand clans in a succession of challenges.


Orc Religion
Orcs worship Agaslakku. Obviously really. They are born of Fire and made for War, he is their natural patron.

The Anima Forges: Stars Bound to Stone

The source of the true Lions of Orentes, not the beasts used for executions in the Well.
A Lion is a construct, but a living construct. With baleful eyes that shoot the burning light of the stars. They were built in the Anima Forges. Orentid facilities, now lost to the sands, that were capable of putting a true soul into inanimate matter. Not merely the appearance of life that a construct may have.

Accounds in Anima Forges speak of 'binding a star into a construct's heart'. You may note, with the impact and polution of Goreheart and the Astral Rifts opening lately, how risky and perhaps reckless such an undertaking seems. But the clear power available from doing so, if the accounts of True Life From the Inanmate bear up. Certainly, these Lion Constructs are reported to be a cut above the mere Lamplighters.

A competent archaeologist can often unearth these Forges by triangulating Orentic artefacts, but the services of a skilled arcanist are required to determine if one's find is truly an Anima Forge. Sadly, all such devices I have ever found or heard off have been broken beyond repair. Possibly they are fine tuned and lacked upkeep. Possible put out of order deliverately by the last Orentid keepers, to deny them to the Sultanate.

Spring's Gift

Accessible from the Caravans beyond the Lovers' Gap is the oasis of Spring's Gift. The elves there refer to themselves as Spring Elves or Springborn. They trade in plants, tools and masterwork weapons and equipment, though most is disctinctly sized for an elf's lithe form. Bring as little iron as possible when you visit. Leave none behind, for it is a bane to them. Each reacts differently to the metal. From discomfort, to headaches, to siezures. But none tolerate it.
As a note, the Colossi appear never to have mastered Iron, only Bronze. The elves of Spring's Gift likewise are experts in bronze working, but for different, obvious reasons.

Interview with Acolyte Narwen Alendiel of the Priory of the Sybilline Sisterhood

Acolyte Narwen hails from Spring's Gift. I informed her of my work. My desire to see Izdu's Light on all sapient peoples of the disc, and rumours sent to ash on the wind. She was kind enough to allow me to interview her for this work.

I asked her if they called themselves Sping Elves because of the Oasis, or the season and its connection to youth. For they are a young people, born this century. Not ancient, as we tend to see elves.
She told me:
"There are winter elves, too. And I have heard tales from other Rings and other Lands of different Courts of Elves... Summer Elves and Autumn Elves and Winter Elves. And there is certainly symbolic meaning in it, too, For born in the season of spring we were."


The Creation Tale of The Springborn, As Told by Narwen Alendiel
"My people have a Mother and a Father, whom we only know in myth and dream. Our Mother longed for children to call her own. Yet her womb was barren, and for this she wept. She wept and wept. And so, Father and Mother set out on a great journey to call upon the wisdom of their Master, who was wise and learned in many things

For many years they walked the many lands. Until they stood before their Master. And they spoke to him, and poured their hearts out. And he listened, and contemplated. And he raised his hand and reached out into the golden sands. And there he plunged his hand into the sand and dug. He dug and dug, through sand and ash, until he reached the clay beneath. And he dug through the clay setting it aside.

And he dug through the clay and found the Spring which bubbled forth. And as the Spring rose up, he shaped the clay into the bodies of the children of the Spring. He placed those nascent forms into the waters of the Spring and he breathed the breath of fire and life into them. And they too, rose up. And he turned to Mother and Father and said to them, "Here are your children.". And there we were, taking our first breaths of air, thinking our first thoughts, wondering our first wonders.

But we did not not hear the words of our Mother, Father or their Master. Their words only came to us in myth and dream and through the songs of the Spring. The first words we heard were that of the Spring itself, singing and sighing to us. Ynys Bilir.  It was a sound carried upon the wind, found in the waters, even the flowers and cacti and trees that had begun to sprout up around the blessed waters sang it."