Orcish Early History and Invasions

The Orcish Legacy
While the current political and cultural practices in yeros were undoubtedly very heavily influenced by the yerid empire and is praised as being one of the greatest empires ever known, there was a long period thousands of years ago that a great orcish empire controlled the majority of the continent. Due to the scarcity of recorded documents from the time (due to orcish culture largely shunning such things) this period is only very vaguely remembered in the often highly embellished tales of the Orcs and on the few preserved tombs from the period. While the unified orcish empire was relatively short lived due to the fractious nature of the orcs, their influence as the dominant race on the continent lasted almost 1000 years. How is it therefore that in the modern era Orcs are far less populous and successful as a whole than humanity, despite their widespread dominance during the ancient period? The reasons are numerous and not fully understood to this day, however the primary reason for the loss in overall numbers of Orcs and the reduction of their influence is largely due to Orcish culture.
Such is the way of Orcs as true as it is today as it was back then, that Orcish society is completely based around primarily nomadic, martial groupings known as Orcish clans. These groups are totally reliant on the hunting of large game herds for the majority of sustenance and in the majority of cases have never embraced settled agriculture. Raiding from other clans and the holdings of other races also forms a large part of their culture and economy. It can therefore be seen that the orcish way of life was never sustainable for the upkeep of a large empire and the physically weaker but faster reproducing agricultural based humans quickly outstripped the orcs in population and technology, leading to the eventual isolation of orcish dominance to areas where the nomadic orcish lifestyle continued to be viable. In addition the absence of agriculture from orcish society (and the social and technological advances it brings) prevented Orcs from establishing large, organized state based societies with formal militaries, allowing humans to eventually outdo them militarily through organization, higher numbers and better technology despite their physical inferiority compared to Orcs. It is also thought that a number of great plagues contributed to gut the more developed areas of orcish settlement, hastening their decline in comparison to other races.
How were the Orcs therefore able to even build their empire in the first place without organized agriculture or governance? It is important to remember that during the period of the Orcish empire the majority of the human population on the continent were still living in small tribal communities similar to the Orcs and almost none had access to the cavalry humans are famed for using during more recent eras. Even the areas of settled agricultural civilization at the time in Ander and Kaldari only had access to bronze weapons and little in the way of cavalry beyond chariots. It is also known that at the time of the rise in orcish power, both of these regions were fractious, being divided into many small competing city states rather than larger organized nations. Due to these factors, the greater individual combat abilities of the Orcs, especially when coordinated under a great leader such as Tarloki or his successors was easily able to exceed the capabilities of humans at the time. However after the Death of Tarloki and his successors several generations after his death, there was little left unifying the orcs into large, semi-organized nations meaning most Orcs returned to their feuding tribal societies, spread across the continent. Only in a few places where the Orcs dained to live in close cooperation with humans did the Orcs establish any kind of settled, organized society. While these Orcish dynasties were all overthrown by humans or dismantled by other orcs who maintained a tribal lifestyle in the centuries after their establishment there are still a few locations across yeros with ancient ruins and tombs dating from a period of combined human and orcish civilization. Dangerous creatures and cruses are known to have crept into many of these long abandoned locations over the centuries and are therefore avoided by all save those seeking ancient riches or the true history of the Orcish Era.

The Great Orcish Invasions
The homeland of the Orcs has forever been the great plains that dominate much of northern Astritanos where they have largely continued their traditional tribal lifestyle since time immemorial. This is a lifestyle of contestant competition and warring between the innumerable tribes of the region, though on occasion a great leader will arise to unite many clans and lead them on wars of raiding and conquest beyond their traditional ‘borders’. Though large external raids are known to occur roughly every century, truly gargantuan invasions happen only once in 1000 years. Though smaller raids have had long lasting impacts on surrounding nations, it is only these millennial invasions that can completely change the political landscape of astritanos and yeros. Though it is likely that there were large invasions in prior years, only the last 3 are recorded in any form of detail, though even this is scant in accuracy.
The first of these occurred some time in the latter centuries of the 4th era. At this time there were no particularly large central powers on yeros, though the great yudonic empire of the high elves was at its height on astritanos. Though eventually able to halt the orcish advance it is known that much of the northern yudonic empire was left in tatters for many years after the initial onslaught. The knockdown economic impacts of this could possibly have spurred on the attempted yudonic invasions of ander in later years. In addition, many orcs were able to cross the Astrividos Mountains relatively unopposed and came to settle in the green plains region. Several of the more northerly andrean and kaldari city-states are known to have simply been erased from history due to this migration.
The next great invasion 1000 years later is recorded in somewhat more detail. At this time almost the entire continent of yeros was controlled by the Yerid empire, though it was known at this time that the empire was already beginning its decline, having split into north and south for ease of administration and beginning to be increasingly harried by numerous barbarian migrations as well as significant internal political strife. The yudonic High elves had also once again re-established themselves into a newer empire which had been largely successful in repelling smaller orcish invasions for many years. However the scale of this invasion dwarfed any they had encountered before and the empire was largely devastated by the invasion, never to be fully re-united ever again.
While the astritvidos mountain range offered much protection from many smaller orcish designs on yeros, truly large and determined forces were sometimes able to utilize some of the mountain passes to their advantage, especially in the spring or summer. At this time many of the modern dwarven kingdoms which now dominate the mountain range had yet to have been solidified. Though they were mostly successful in repelling smaller raids, many of the smaller dwarven kingdoms in the central mountain region were utterly consumed by the orcish horde, leaving the passage of the bulk of orcish forces into yeros wide open. As a result a huge force of orcish invaders crossed into yeros and set about pillaging the then much weakened yerid empire, spelling the beginning of the end for the once mighty state. Though the orcs never sought to conquer, only to raid and as a result eventually returned en mass to their ancestral homeland, their impacts were nonetheless widespread and devastating.
The most recent great invasion occurred a couple of centuries before the end of the 6th era. This time however the dwarven kingdoms of the astrividos mountains remained strong and though many dwarven holds were ultimately devastated by the fighting, mass incursions into yeros were nonetheless halted. As a result the Orcs sought to use a never before utilized method of invasion. Once again pouring like an unstoppable tide into the Yudonic homelands, the orcs uncharacteristically did not spend much time pillaging from the high elves, instead they set about capturing as many elven ships as possible and set about further swelling this force with new ships to create the single greatest armada in world history. With this they set about launching the largest ever naval invasion of the andrean coastline. It was only the combined efforts of the majority of the major powers in yeros lending their aid that the orcs were eventually repelled and their once mighty fleet now burned by the Etandi navy led to the utter destruction of the invaders, though again their impacts had been devastating. It was this invasion that caused the Andrean civil war and the disillusionment of the once mighty kingdom into three smaller powers, as well as the rather hardline and formerly minor Sejkis high elven family taking advantage of the devastation of the high elven kingdoms to carve out an impressive new kingdom in the old heartland of the high elves, further swelling in recent years from naval trade.