The First War-Mother
The tale begins in a time when the ancestors of the orcs were still nomads from warmer lands, wandering north to escape a great firestorm that ravaged their homeland. Harsh blizzards, starvation, and monstrous creatures thinned their numbers. It was then that a lone orc woman—her name lost to time—stood against despair.
Climbing the Stormspire Ridge, she bellowed a challenge into the winds, calling forth the frost giant known as Hrungaz the White-Blooded, said to have ruled the cold wastes since the Age Before Ash. The battle that followed lasted for seven days and nights, with mountains crumbling beneath their blows. In the end, she tore open Hrungaz’s chest with her bare hands and devoured his heart as it still beat with the power of eternal winter.
Her skin paled, her eyes turned to ice, and the blizzard kneeled before her.
Summary
The First War-Mother is a foundational figure in the oral traditions of the Icy Wastes Orcs, revered as both the progenitor of their bloodline and the mother of their culture. According to legend, she was a mortal orc of unshakable strength and spirit who challenged and slew a frost giant, tore out his ice-bound heart, and consumed it to gain power over cold and war. From this union of flesh and frost, the Icy Wastes Orcs were born—hardy, frost-marked, and destined to thrive in the cruel cold of the glacier wastes.
Cultural Reception
The First War-Mother represents more than physical power—she is the embodiment of defiance against death, resilience, and the sacred bond between blood and land. She is considered the first to "bind the blizzard to her bones", a phrase now used to honor mothers, warriors, and chieftains who endure extreme hardship for their clan.
Her legend is carved into the Ridge-Spires of An'Khul, etched in runes made of blue-ice and blood-stone. Chants of her name are passed down during winter solstice rites, and young warriors must recount her deeds from memory as part of their Coming of Ice trial.
In Ritual and War
- Bone-Crowned Mothers: Matriarchs in Icy Wastes Orc clans often wear antlered helms or bone circlets, invoking the War-Mother's power in times of war or childbirth.
- Heart-Rending Ceremonies: Some warbands reenact the legend by slaying a great beast, carving out its heart, and offering it to the War-Mother’s shrine before a battle.
- Frost-Touched: Children born during fierce snowstorms are believed to be her spiritual descendants and often rise to positions of leadership.
Some orcish scholars and shamans argue the story is metaphorical—a symbolic tale of surviving hardship by embracing the land rather than fighting it. Others believe the War-Mother still sleeps beneath the ice, her heart beating in tandem with the glacier’s slow crawl.
A splinter belief among Wyrm-Blooded shamans even claims the First War-Mother mated with Hrungaz rather than slaying him, and their offspring were demigods of war and winter. This is considered blasphemy in many clans, but persists in secret.
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