Xi Shan, Who Is Steel
Xi Shan is said to have been the first half-Orc of Skaldoran blood. The legend of Xi Shan states that his mother was an Onirgrundi chieftess who had become infatuated with a passing Gemaite samurai during Skaldor's Great Migration to Illiria. The chief, who had not much standing among the other Onirgrundi clans for being thrice a widow, convinced the warriors of her clan that capturing this samurai and his charges was sure to bring much glory to their lands. The battle was glorious, and a ship was captured, though the others made their way to Illiria in what would become Coppershore.
The samurai and captured Gemites were held as prisoners for a month and four days. Despite himself, the samurai felt himself sharing the feelings of the chief, and their intimacy become known to all when the chief began to show signs of quickening. By this time, the rest of her clan had decided that it was too much to have a cursed chief and a bastard heir besides, so they invoked the Rites and banished her and her prisoners and her followers. So it was that the Onigrundi came to Illiria, forty strong warriors and their chief with a samurai and Gemites who had learned to speak the tongue of Orcs.
Skaldor welcomed them with open arms, to the shock of the samurai, who had not been gone long yet the boy Skaldor had become a man grown, a full Khan in his own right for love of battle and rightful conquest. Skaldor had been seeking allies, and those of his blood who knew the tongue of Orcs would go a long way towards bringing the Olona into his One Horde. The samurai and the Onigrundi chief were wed just in time for the birth of a healthy baby boy who was named Xi Shan, after his father's grandfather who was a smith. So strong was Xi Shan when he was born that his wails shattered glass and his lashing fists dented his father's armor, and there was no doubt that the boy would be a smith himself with such strength.
It was Xi Shun who forged many of the weapons that would go on to shed the blood of elves and create the armor that would save hundreds of soldiers from hidden archers. Xi Shan could work the forge for weeks without rest, only needing five big meals a day and a nap once a month. But as the years dragged on, Skaldor's One Horde began to lose momentum, were fighting too many enemies, and so the Great Khan asked Xi Shan for a weapon that would inspire his troops.
Seeking perfection beyond perfection, Xi Shan left instructions with a hundred apprentices and said goodbye to his mother, then melted himself down into the iron so that he could tell the steel how to behave personally.
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