A Primer for the Uninitiated

Welcome to the World Focis,
or Tai'Sans Hearth as it is known by the orcs.
That is what this world is. Home to the Orcs, the wild displaced beings of the cosmos. Here, they found their home.
The year is around 250000 since the first arrival of a sapient outsider species. We have just entered the Era of Heroics. The first kingdoms of man sprout up from their roots as nomadic hunters or simple farmers. The second dwarven generation reclaims the homes of their progenitors. The elvish princes of the dawn lead their children to greatness.
And right in the middle of it, are still the Orcs. Focis is a world of adventure, of struggle between your place in the world and your dreams, and of the ever encroaching newcomers and their interactions with the orcs. It is also a place of danger, of hulking beast of fur and teeth, and of fantastical beings.
Focis itself is a miracle, a toroid shaped planet, with a mystical inside world and a classical outside. The two sides rarely interact but when they do, it is always the starting point of something incredible.

Walking the land that they deem home
so hopeful for their life.
The Other take their heart and roam,
experience and write their tomes,
to document their strife.

They do not know,
Tis not their home,
no matter where and how they roam,
their trespassing in our biome,
wakes monsters down below:
BAARUUUUUM!

— An orcish song about the human race.

"The planet focis adrift in space. Artists interpetation (both moons are missing). The shimmer of Tai'Sans Veil masks the planet against the backdrop" by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

Below you can find a in world text, describing the orcish creation myth and their relation with the other sapient species. If you'd prefer to immediately start reading articles, click here.

Echoes from the future haunt these pages! Click these only if you wish to learn what happens after the Era of Heroics.

An apocalyptic event is looming over the Era of Heroics. In around thirty milennia, a discovery will cause the exctinction of all Others on Norian soil. These spoiler tabs contain the history as it stands today and any changes after the heroic era.

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Herein follows a transcript of a conversation had by the Lorechronicler Tarabatius with a shaman of the orcs. As is practice, the content was not altered, no matter how upsetting it may be. Take note not to leave this account open to anyone of Librarian rank or lower.

Greetings Stranger!

I am Forg, wise-orc of my tribe: the mighty Thornbringers. You have come for answers have you not? This worlds seems confusing to you. And you do not understand why. Well there are answers to your questions, but you may not like them. This is of course just because you do not know any better. Everything on this world, our world, has its place and follows the rules and divine will of Tai'San.

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Where We Came From

To really understand Tai'Sans Hearth, you first need to understand that you are a mere visitor to this place. The Hearth is the world of orcs. Our histories spanned endlessly, uncounted lives spent well and full, before even the first Others arrived to join us.

Of the Making of the world

It all begins with Tai'San, you see. He is the beginning and it begins with Tai'San ripping the Something from the Nothing. Our dreams tell us, that Tai'San did come from somewhere, but whereever it is, he does not want us to go looking. He hides his Something from where he came and cleanses our souls, which he brought with him from his origin. In the cleansing, he took all the pain and suffering the souls had accrued onto himself and finally, truly became our father.
Then, he made the world in the image of a ring to show his eternal devotion. It is because of this, that we use rings to this day to show our loyalty to each other. Tai'San made his dreamers and with them he made the world, sowing beast and plant alike, shaping land and sea, blowing out wind and lighting it with star and sun and moons. During this time, our souls dreamt with him and we dreamt of the Dragons, which came into the world by our dreams. Tai'San finally made our bodies and imbued some of us with his spark. Then he placed us in the world, to spread out and claim the Hearth for ourselves.

Something from Nothing by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

Before the Others

Is our way of recounting these times. During this time, Orc were the Tai of all creation, none matching our skill at mastering the world. Our traditions stem from this time. Even when the godspawns, the Elves as they call themselves, first came into the world, and we had to share rule with them, things were not much different. You see the Godspawn are the only wise folk we don't consider Other, because they were the sons and daughters of Tai'San himself and Rinushka, the Elfmother.
Our Year-Counters tell of a wholeness to the world, inside and out unseparated if only by the beasts and dangers already present.

After the Others

It began with the Starfall. Even our most wise mystics have yet discerned where the fallen ones came from or why they came to our world, but the will of Tai'San can be indiscernible sometimes.

Starfall

Starfall by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

When the stars had fallen and brought destruction in their falling, it became clear that they were egg-vessels to a new type of folk. As the star-rock cracked open, forth spilled creatures made of rock and molten metal, gemstones for hair and pearls for eyes. These starfallen were small in height, but mighty rivals for the supremacy of Orc and Godspawn. They dug themselves into the rock and earth they had fallen on, claiming their own realms and so we came to war.
Since then, the world is no longer whole and each folk seeks to preserve what they have and gain what they lack from others. Even so, a unsteady balance eventually came to the lands and things recovered in ways we had not thought possible. That is until you, the Off-balanced, came.

The Mages

At last, something, nay someone, was able to breach the cocoon of Tai'San around his something. A fissure in it allowed your mages and spellmasters to establish a route to our hearth. You brought magic none save Tai'San had

previously been able to achieve. Back then you called yourselves the Elder Mages, masters of the universe and your fate, inheritors of what you found, despite our own claims. We came to a head and found that despite your unassuming outside appearance, you had teeth and claws that cut and pierced deeply. With your might, you expanded your influence, but as you did, Tai'San took notice.
For the first time in time itself, our god actively took part in the petty squabbles on this world. In a way you should consider it an honor. You made Tai'San intervene. And that he did: Tai'San razed your civilizations from the maps. You put up a valiant effort, but how can the beaver hold back a tidal wave? In the end, all your mighty cities were gone and most of your people slain. None could withstand our father and the boar. But then, in his indiscernible wisdom, Tai'San showed mercy. Your people were spared. But Tai'San could not risk another breach of his cocoon. So to ensure the safety of the world, he took your memories. You forgot your magic and your crafts, and you forgot your origin. Tai'San sent you hurdling across the world, scattered people, living not unlike us orcs, from which you learned to live with the world. Tai'San relented and since then guards his borders with more caution and jealousy, the cocoon now nigh impregnable.

Balance and Unbalancing

As we move through the past, my knowledge focuses more and more on home, as a result I can not speak much of all of the world, but at least here, on Noria, at last a balance of sorts was restored. Your people eventually recovered, which brings us to now: The time of heroics. You built your petty kingdoms, striving for greatness, struggling with other folk, with the Starfallen and their hard halls, with the Godspawn and their eternal homes, and with us, who remain as we were since long before your came, and our hearths.

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Us and the Others

Us

Orc-Kind

Orc on the Hunt by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

We are the memory of this world, stranger. We have walked these hills since the dawn of time. I have seen some of your kind call us primitive, as if it was an insult. Meanwhile you still struggle to make steel like we do. Our arms are strong and our skin is earthen. We are this world, stranger, you just live on it.

Godspawn

When his children had grown into their own, they each asked of Tai'San to have their own people so they could make their own homes in the world. The godspawn are sacred and live eternally. We reluctantly let them claim their own in the world. Unlike others, they have a birthright to this world, like we do. In some ways we are different, but in more we are the same. Our blood runs blue like theirs. Only in mind we are completely unlike. Theirs are of empathy and shared meld. Ours are not.

Uthelins folk by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

The Other

Starfallen

Dwarven Noble by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

We killed the original Starfallen. They were hard to crack, but when you are made of stone and can not birth any offspring, eventually your doom is extinction. When we did defeat the last, you had arrived and we had more pressing business, so we did not notice the intervention by their Stargods. They remade the Starfallen, but this time in flesh. There still is rock in their bones, but now they bleed red just like you do, and they make offspring just like everyone else does.

Off-balanced

At last we get to you. Tai'San took your memory and your power, but he did not take your skill with the arcane. Even now, as you struggle to establish your place, your exceed expectations. I for one do not know, if I should pity you for the need to prove yourself, or if I should fear you for your hunger for more.

Elder Mage by Ninodonlord (via Midjourney)

Note of the Library - Orcish heresy is not to be spread among the impressionable populace.

— Signed, Great Librarian Regulon Arkand.

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Why not instead read one of the following pieces of higher repute?

About Orcish Traditions

About Dorralian or Jadiran magic

Longer prose about history