Tal'Gah, City of Sand

Written by Salen

This large town sits in the Plains of Gah and has for centuries. The inhabitants are from a faild expedition sent centuries ago that became stranded. They have survived on the principals of Gnash, but to the extreme. Eat to live and live to eat is their motto, and that is how they have survived all these centuries as a self sufficient community, sealed off from the rest of the world. There are no more living members of the original expedition, nor is there any recods that have survived all this time for them to remember where they had come from. Young orcs dream of seeing what may lie beyond the sand, but to their knowledge, it is endless.

Ocean Border

Though they can see the ocean to the south of the great desert plains, they might as well be looking at another planet. There is nothing that they could fashion into any kind of boat, nor do they know how to sail if they did. They do have rude rafts used to fish the shallows during low tide, but after several of them have been dragged out to sea and their occupants lost, they do this infrequently.

Orc VS Wurm

The main source of food to the orcs of Tal'Gah is the great wurms that live under the sands. The meat from one wurm can last the community for up to six months and there seems to be no end to the great beasts. bringing one down however is a different story alltogether. It takes a group of fifteen orcs to bring down a great wurm, but only one or two for a younger wurm. The Wurmlord is rumored to be able to take down an adult by himself, but it is ever done in solitary exclusion so no one knows how they do it.

by Bumhand

Demographics

Mostly Gralen orcs with a small percentage of Grenan. No slaves.

Government

They adhere to no warlord, instead they are ruled by the Wurmlord. The Wurmlord is the strongest orc that can slay a wurm alone and return with a piece of its hide to be fashioned as a cloak.

History

Centuries ago an expedition of orcs and slaves traveled to the far southwestern corner of Farthtusk to explore around the great mountains. They thought they were prepared for anything, but a great sandstorm hit the expedition, pushing them deep into the Plains of Gah and when it was over they were helplessly lost. Alone, cut off from any help and low on supplies, they struggled to find a way out, to no avail. As the slaves died, they ate them for food, staying alive according to the tenants of Gnash, God of Hunger. When the first orc died, they too were eaten for survival. They found water in the small cacti that tried to grow at the edges of the plains, and finally they had to erect some sort of shelter to keep the wind and sand away. They used their wagons for wood and cloth, digging into the deep sand and burying them to make a kind of buried home. They struggled, year after year to make some sort of living in this barren, harsh, environment and finally one orc killed a wurm.

Architecture

Structures are half buried houses or underground shelters to protect occupants from the cutting wind and sand storms that ravage the plains of sand.

Geography

Tal'Gah sits in the Plains of Gah and is surrounded by arid sand and harsh rock. Nothing grows in the sand here and survival is hard won.

by scottpelico

Type

Large town

Population

600 orcs

Location under

Plains of Gah

Extreme Worship

The extreme worship of Gnash, God of Hunger. led to the survival of the original orcs, as when they were stranded in this inhospitible environment they had no food. One thing led to another and the first slaves died, they served as the food that saved them all. Eat to Live and Live to Eat became the mantra of these canibals and this practice sustained them beofre they found out how to kill the wurms. Even now though, they do not bury the dead. the dead are sacrificed in a great ceremony to Gnash and eaten to survive.

May the sands blow from behind - saying for good travel

The First Wurmlord

This first Wurmlord, whose name has been lost to the ages, slew the first wurm and in so doing saved the entire orc population in the growing city of sand. The great carcass was dried (rather quickly in the arid heat) and used to make a roofs and tarps for other homes, and its meat sustained them for long months. hey soon found an underground river near the mountains and had a better water source. Nearly five hundred years later and the large town is still there, living off the land and fighting the wurms for space.