The Darklands are a brutal badlands in the far south of
Cathlaea. Thick jungle and fog-shrouded swamps surround rocky promontaries, valleys and mountains. The rough, barren terrain is dotted with the broken remnants of vast towers, which were once the fortresses of the Dark Lords. The lands around these fallen citadels are tainted by dark magic worked within them, and by the corrupt, yet still divine blood shed upon them. They were not, for the most part, rendered barren by the uprising, but their very nature is hostile to their inhabitants, and the flora and fauna of the region throng with abberations and monstrosities.
This bleak country is occupied by the remnants of the original
Orc Legion, under the banner of the The
Orc Kingdoms. The Orcs of the Kingdoms consider the taint on the Darklands to be their doing, and thus their penance to overcome. In this endeavour, they have forced life back into the land and built great and powerful kingdoms, ruled by pairings of an orok Queen and uruk King, the one responsible for military and foreign policy, the other for pastoral and domestic rule, and supported by a powerful priesthood of the ancestor cults. The leading cities of the Kingdoms provide support for fortified towns and farmsteads, which in turn protect areas of tamed land. Beyond these areas, the Darklands are wild, rife with monstrous plants and animals.
The First Diaspora
In the early years after the Uprising, the orcs shared the Darklands with many
Goblinoids of the
Horde. There was much resentment in the goblinoids, however, as they had always been deemed lesser than the orcs, and many orcs perpetuated the divisions between the races, pushing the goblinoids into menial jobs. Between 20 and 28AU, therefore, more than 90% of the goblinoids in the Darklands decamped to join their erstwhile comrades in the
Domain of War. The resulting loss of their labour pool forced a significant shift in the social economics of the Darklands.
The Second Diaspora
In the first century of its independence, the population of the Darklands boomed. Between 109 and 136, a series of expeditions, set out north in search of new lands. The smallest of these consisted of one or two dozen orcs, including children; the largest over a hundred. Some stopped in the Riverlands east of the
Great Shield, but most continued north and established the northern kingdoms in the
Auroran Wastes.
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