The Viragonate of Avengiir

The Viragonate is the collection of unified Orc and Oroc tribes and clans that follow the worship of Lorkhan One-Eye, the last children of the Mor'Goron line. Residing in the mountainous high-land country of Avengiir, in control of the regions of Czeloné and all within the eastern boundaries of the Korognas Mountains. The ruinous and stormy badlands are where they reside, taming the great Rothé and Aurochs, making every day count against potential starvation, slaughter and raids from the many foes that surround them. Drawing strength from their great and colossal ancestors, paying homage before their raids and hunts into the wilds to their spiritual shrines, the Ancestor Cairns. Honing the strengths of the battle art of Siphoners, the rousing cry of their skalds.
The Viragon Kovach Grim-Maw leads the many clans, sustaining his leadership by the promise to end the threat of the Chimeradonis and uphold the Summers Bounty of harvests, herds and iron-reclaiming - facing hardship from the Oroc's that wish the eventual return of their own homeland in the north, and to revive the sacred site of Mor'Goron away from the interloper Goliaths that had robbed them of their land. The Orcs worry for the future, fearing a return of the starved winters that made them turn upon one another. Cohesion and strength in number, is becoming more difficult to maintain now that the harvest has come out short.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

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The Great Viragonate is made up of a collection of many Orc and Oroc tribes, nomadic and settled, and each one is ruled by an individual chieftain, known by titles deemed appropriate by their actions as leaders and skilled warriors. There are seven main tribes, each one defined with its own traditions and culture.

• The Tribe of Thrakas, or the "Many-Fangs"; the tribe that lives out more in the wilds, hunting regularly in the Blightholme and Breakfront, but also fish out into the sea, claiming great trophies of the sharks and beasts of the land. They ritualistically sharpen their fangs and take great value in meat consumption - not seeing the value in herding animals, rather tracking them through the Terror Trail. Their territories are known as the Shattered Hills, on the western rim of the Korognos mountains by the Breakfront.
• The Tribe of Zurona, or the "Bold-Axes"; the tribe that lives out more in the wilds, taking obsidian weapons and fights off against the natural forces of Czelóne - the remnants of the Verdiant folk. They favour finding sights of precious metals to take, and to win from the battle against other foes - their most proliferous areas reside as stone quarries and mines in their homeland. Working to bring metal to their clans from the cores of the Korognos Mountains. They live and reside in the old cyclopean territory in Czelóne, known as Morg-Zuron, a great cave system in the central heart of the Korognos Mountains.
• The Tribe of Goro'thal, or the "Fire-born"; they ritualistically brand themselves in the warmth of a volcanic vent leading into one of the Korognos Mountains, the best forgers and metalsmiths in the Viragonate, working as both furious warriors and even engineers of the Orcs. Building their great weapons of war, and practising shamanistic magic. They reside within the southern mountains and valleys by the eastern coast of Czelóne, in the Kor Gothal cavern systems.
• The Tribe of Oragnathal, or the "Giants-blood"; the largest of the orcs, mostly consisting of Orocs and Ogres, with the meanest band that fight for pride and strength, with a great hatred of the north for taking their sacred land around Morgoron, and compete further against the Goliaths of the land. They hold the lands known as the Spine Valleys, in the west to north-east mountains of the Korognos Mountains.
• The Tribe of Berekka, or the "Storm-Herd"; are the most fervent worshippers of Lorkhan, and take their worship to the storms, sacrificing food, grain and potentially weak children to bring good harvest and aid to their people - they are the clan that holds the largest herds of Aurochs and Rothé in Czelóne, helping provide for their community; but are vicious fighters that work in the lost Cyclopean arts of lightning smithing and rune-magic. They live in the eastern valley of the Korognos Mountains, in Spine Valley, but their lands also extend into the savannah - their lands are known as the Kor Lokhan.
• The Tribe of Morusk, or the "Sons of the Wild"; the more feral of the tribes, that come into contact with the Gnolls and Tiefling bands more - believing in Might is Right, and are the more savage of the clans. They have a vehement hatred of the elves to the south and tend to launch great raids against them. They live within the southern west-facing valley connecting to the Breakfront and on the peninsula reaching toward Gwynngilliad, known as the Knivesedge.
• The Tribe of Hundezpar, or the "Tusken-Raiders"; peruse and travel up and down the mountains and valleys of the land, and preserve the oral histories and pride of the clans from the ages lost to them, led more so by strong matriarchs. The territories they hold stretch between the Clawsedge Mountains and the northern mountains connected by the Blightholme river system, known as the Terrors Frontier.

Each tribe is led by a chieftain, usually referred to as the Warchief, deciding on where the tribes raids and hunts will take place, and training new generations of warriors and pride for the Viragonate - they are independent leaders who control their tribes as they see fit, and are won in positions by competition and ritualistic combat at their Trial Arenas. These war chiefs need to win respect by rightful combat amongst their kin, and usually, the war chief remains war chief for life, until they die of old age (an unnatural position) or when succeeded by a stronger rival under the rights of honourable combat. They are usually the strongest and largest of their clan.
With each Warchief, is an honorary matriarch or partner-patriarch, the chosen second-in-command of the tribe known usually as the Great Mother. Their position is second only to the chieftain, usually indebted to raising and guiding the clan in the absence of the chief, protecting their lands and raising the home guard, the younger warriors of the tribe, and training them to become the next generation. Positions such as this have been given to males, and they are referred to as the First Mate. But the orcs do not hold marriage as sacred, and many hold polygamous marriages to more than one partner, hoping to bring more life and children to their people. Though they have biological parents, they are raised by their communities and their tribes - they are not allowed to marry their own biological relatives if they have direct ties through one parent - but can marry their step-brothers or step-sisters should they wish. Marriage is also not lifelong, and can be annulled by claims of unsatisfied wives or husbands, who have not fulfilled their duties to their respective tribes; most women are expected to give birth and raise a single child into the clan, but not to mother them. Rather, they are mainly raised by the Great Mother or the Speakers, or shamans.
Other noteworthy positions are the Orcish tribes eldest and most knowledgeable warrior or skald, the Speaker, the one connected to the ancestors and the watcher over the dead. They tend to keep the histories of their clan and train the next Speaker, known as the shamans, fostering worship to their gods and teaching the clans its stories, legends and ancestry. Without them, the Orcs and Orocs would have no history to remember, and no ancestors to honour - they keep records of the law and deal with criminals as impartial judges.
Each tribe also has a Herdmaster, keeping control over their respective trade and herds of beasts; tending to be a master breeder, in control of the pack animals, domesticated beasts and lead expert in hunting the wild beasts - but also, the keeper of slaves, should a clan give this a chance, but would treat them much like second-rate people.
Each tribe also has an Ironmaster, the most skilled and talented teacher of metallurgy and smithing in their clans, stocking and creating the weapons, defences and fortifications of their lands - noteworthy for potentially being taught the workings of stone, the language of the Cyclops' and other giants.
Each tribe is led by the Viragon, the chief of chiefs among the tribes, and hold annual festivals where warriors from each tribe would meet, prove their strength and pride against one another - the Great Moot is considered a sacred ceremony where all rivalries, vengeance and fights can be taken under oath amongst the storm and the sky - and no one would challenge these offences, and no vengeance is allowed afterwards, those who succeed can retain honour, those who fail have followed the code of the Moot. The Viragon can call upon all tribes to work together towards a common goal, and issues laws or decrees that all must follow unless challenged to a duel to offer disagreement. They are the ultimate power amongst the Orcs. Besides the Viragon, is another great position, and it is that of the Great Elder, the chiefest of shamans who offers advice and friendship from the Viragon - they win this respect by trials amongst the other shamans of the tribes, in a competition known as the Storm Trials, where they prove their superiority over the powers of magic, knowledge of all tribes, and act as a herald to the god's messages and voice of the ancestors.

RELIGION

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The Orcs mainly worship their creator god Lorkhan, but they also pay homage to the wild spirits of the land, in their own animistic religion - they pay credence to Gazenaroc and to the Season Riders, hoping for good harvests or good weather from them as the year waxes and wanes. Looking for good hunts and for clean kills.
The Orcs and Orocs also worship their ancestors, all the way to their ancestors in the Morgoron line - including Cyclops', Ogron, Ogres, Agron and the mythical Morgoron. And honour them all through their stories, poems and songs. They would usually honour their tribe by naming their children after their grandparents, their grandmother or grandfather - bringing honour to their names. But each orc that achieves a great feat, will be given a 'immortalised' namesake - the Hunter, the Storm Herald, the Warrior, the Great, the Defender, the Strong, etc.
They hate and abhor the worship of the Feral-Tieflings, the demons of the Abyss and Asmodeus - they hate the Gnolls of Yeenoghu and the Minotaur of Baphomet. They also do not worship Erathis, and the gods worshipped up in the north in Anga-Volka. They do not recognise the other Prime Divinities and the creator gods as powerful, as they did not recognise their creator god Lorkhan, the Storm Lord.
They abhor all gods that relate to the Elves and the Fey - most particularly, Lolth, Eilistraee, Shelúne. However, they do not consider the same forms of the Season Riders as being fey, or patrons of the Eladrin - they consider them the natural forces of the changing seasons.

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GEOGRAPHY:

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Residing within the eastern coast by the vast and stormy Nepoltic Ocean and southern lands of Vangolia, dotted across the Korognos Mountain range.

CZELONÉ

The homeland of the Orcs and Orocs (pronounced Chay-low-nay). In the far, southern-most portion of the land of Vangolia, are a series of bare woodlands within flood-land valleys, steeped hill-tables and shorter Korognos mountains that seed seasonally frozen and melted glaciers across to freshwater springs into salt-lakes - a more fertile zone amongst Vangolia, warmer and less agitated, bar the great winds that kick up violent thunderstorms that bolt into these regions and its sparse woodlands. Home to many wandering herds of Rothé and Aurochs, and the beastly mammoths and woolly rhinos that migrate up and down the entirety of Vangolia. Seemingly in perpetual combat between desolation and overgrowth, teeming with different forms of life - dangerous as most of the trees have developed from already fallen Treants and Dryads, but harbour a hardier wood found for the Orcs and Orocs.
Otherwise known as Avengirr, or more commonly known by its local Orcs, Czeloné (Polish: Zielony for 'Green'; Che-lon-ya).
Surrounded by the Nepoltic Oceans, the southern fringes of Czeloné hold a series of broken islands that once formed a land bridge to the southern region - devastated and destroyed by the awoken Tarrasque centuries before; known as the "Knife-Ear Bridge", as it connected to the elven nation of Gwynngilliad, a home of swarming insects, dark elves and wood elves. The site of many border wars between Orcs and Elves. Both sides have both won and lost a great number of their people to this unending conflict... and both have maintained their distance when necessary, both swearing to be the last ones standing.

KOROGNOS MOUNTAIN RANGE

The massive and expansive line of mountains that line the main eastern coastline of the Vangolia continent, are vast and widespread, with more wintery northern peaks by the borderlines of the Minotaur territories, reaching and rising deep within the Orcish territories - the greater mountains being known locally as the "Lorkhan Peaks", devoted to their deity - reddened grey stone, white peaks, and the southern rocks turning a darker tone of red and filling in a great mesa range.

THE SHATTERED BAY

In the destructive wake of the awakened Terror unleashed upon Vangolia, destroyed the land bridge between Gwynngilliad and Avengiir and Gammordah. Broken, beaten and washed by a flood of the sea - reduced to a salt flat and shortened almost great lake of blue-green saltwater. Flanked by the Forloria Peninsula. Set within the far south of Vangolia.

THE BREAKFRONT

Further south and stretching within the hinterlands, is a more open range of warmer landscapes and flood-lands, with the quakes more frequent in this region, and the land split and divided - not much vegetation grows here except for resilient and deadly flora and desperate scavenger beasts; the Breakfront. All that is known in this area is that it is the home of many banished and divided Feral Tiefling's that hunt, gather and take shelter in these regions - most suffering from a great madness, preaching to the old banished gods, worshipping in the dark, riding horrid beasts and taking what they want wherever they can. They cross into the lands of others, more so the Orcs than any other to do trade, become mercenaries, or simply survive the badlands. Most believe that they are the descendants of the fallen magocracy that crashed into the continent, and have had to fend off the wilds for hundreds of years, devolving into their primitive barbaric state. Bordered to the north-west by the Grey-Fingers Peninsula and the Clawsedge Mountains and to the east the Korognos Mountains to the territories of the Orcs. Connecting to the Gammordah Desert Peninsula.

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PERILS:

Work in progress.**

• Dangers of the violent storms that pervade this region.
• Dishonour means exile or a death sentence.
• Starvation if one does not hunt, shepherd or fish in dangerous territories filled with wild animals and dangerous environments.
• Landslides, cave collapses, earthquakes, avalanches.
• If they do not remember their ancestors - they lose them and their history, and therefore, lose their strength and honour.

JOYS:

• Hunting proliferous across the regions and bringing home a large wild beast for feasting.
• Fishing in the wild seas.
• Worshipping their ancestors, bringing strength and vitality to their tribes.
• Worshipping in the storm and devastating weather.

PRODUCTS:

• Conjuring the power of thunder and lightning into physical objects.
• Siphonism and Savantism.
• Bloodstone.
• Primal Stone.
• Spirit Totems.
• Iron, Copper, Tin, Flint, Gravel.

HOPES:

• To reclaim supremacy and keep the tribes united under their one great leader - to unite all ancestors together and gather all their strength as one.
• To reclaim the lost shrine to Mor'Goron, the primordial ancestor to all Orcs and Orocs.
• To defeat and take vengeance against the Great Terror.
• To destroy all elves (Drow, Wood Elves, Moon Elves, Eladrin and High Elves) that stand in their way.
• To live peacefully in their lands and worship the storms without risk of potential raids or threats from demonic or beastly or holy enemies.
• To reach the other lands and reach the storms to reunite with the lost Orc tribes of the lands.

Type

Geopolitical, Country