The Orcish Nations
Orcs may outnumber every other species on the surface of the Krond Heights. Whereas the giants are few, but mighty, and humans prefer to live near the rivers, the orcs range throughout the entire Heights, mostly in small bands that barely acknowledge relationships. In the east, common orcs are most plentiful, many filtering up from the Blood Drinkers and the predecessors, the Green Scourge, or fleeing the same. In the west, orcs from Cosdol and the Odril Hills push into the mountains, while snow orcs spill down from the high glaciers and from the north, and gray orcs bubble up from the Netherdeep. In the middle, they mix; green and grey, white and green, grey and white. Physically, the result is largely indistinguishable from a common orc; perhaps a bit lighter of skin, and more tolerant of the light of day, but no more distinguished. Socially, however, the Krond Heights orcs are a breed apart.
Krond Orcs
As is known, snorks do not subjugate their women completely; their smaller tribes and less abundant resources make this impractical. Even in the relatively rich lands of the Krond Heights, this social feature of snow orcs continues; tribes are seldom larger than 40 members, and the women, while not co-equal with the men, are not their chattel. They gather food stuffs, make the tools of the tribe, and defend the camp. Though slighter than male orcs, they are still strong, and many are skilled with spear, bow, or even the humble sling.
Smaller orcish tribes also lead to fewer slaves being kept, but here the grey orcish cultural influence becomes evident; whereas snorks might butcher all who oppose them for meat, Krond orcs take slaves and pass them along to giants and ogres, who will make use of them. This isn’t to say some slaves aren’t eaten -- no orc goes hungry while there are slaves about -- but they are kept alive until they can be sold, or are needed for food.
There are very few black orcs in the Krond Heights, and no spawning pools to create them; the underground spaces that might have been used to create them all belong to goblins. Since so many orcs serve giants alongside ogres, much of the black orc social role is filled by orc-ogre hybrids, the orgrons. With the greater independence of Krond orc women, some are born to orcish mothers from ogre or orgron fathers. Half-orcs are also not uncommon among the Krond orcs, with not a few orcish women getting them from prisoners before those are sold on.
Common Orcs
Common orcs are more abundant near the Sanakir Hills in the east and the Odril Hills in the west. The Broken Fang tribe of Cosdol, and the Blood Drinkers of the Sanakir Hills are two large, relatively traditional tribes of orcs. Massive, with thousands of members spread over a large area, the presence of the giants above and morlocks below have prevented their expansion into the Krond Heights in a significant manner; they are there, and they have subsidiary tribes of common orcs who operate in the Heights, but they must give at least lip service to the giants or face annihilation.
The Blood Drinkers are not exerting much outward pressure, though they are causing it. While they seek to consolidate their holdings in the Sanakir Hills, they have not been active in expanding that territory, instead forcing dissident common orcs out, including into the Krond Heights. The Broken Fang are in the midst of a war with the goblins out of Gold; the Fang believe the war is about to end, but do not realize quite how much opposition the goblins can muster. Add in the giants above, and their own growing internal religious strife, and they may have bit off more than can be chewed with broken fangs.
Common orcs contribute much of the metalworking of the region; snorks have lost the skill and the gray orcs rely on others to do the work. As such, common orcs have a significant material advantage in conflicts against other orcs; chainmail against wooden or stone clubs, metal swords and axes against furs (or, in gray orc cases, mere skin). However, they run into significant social problems in the Heights, as it is hard to maintain the larger groups; communication between groups breaks down in the mountains, and so tribes fracture and splinter, which the common orc social structure handles poorly. Absent authority figures, one orc will take control, and likely make himself the new chief of a new tribe, and often resent being “demoted” if the new tribe encounters the old.
Gray Orcs
Gray Orcs roil beneath the surface, sometimes making forays above ground, but largely limited themselves to the Netherdeep. Conflict with the goblins leaves them few avenues to the surface, and severe agoraphobia leaves them with little interest. The gray orc strain in the Krond Orcs comes from days before the goblins consolidated power, and occasional groups that become isolated and join with the surface orcs for survival.
Beneath the surface, the gray orcs are a constant source of small problems for the goblin kingdom, but they lack the organization to significantly affect stability. A thousand orcs will briefly overrun an area, or break into a goblin city, and they will be squashed and the survivors will be enslaved. The orcs lack an awareness of goblin strength and organization, seeing them only as foes to throw themselves against, territory to be taken, not as a nation that will resist them. And so the gray orcs are enslaved en masse by the goblins, their warriors, women, and whelps laboring to goblin glory.
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Sidebar: Deep Half-orcs
Deep Half-orcs are relatively rare, largely occuring only as slaves of the goblins. However, a half-orc of deep stock may exhibit the agility of his orkin heritage, as well as their greater night vision. At the player’s option, they may replace the standard half-orc +2 to Constitution with a +1 to Dexterity, and/or replace standard low light vision with extreme low light vision and a -1 penalty to attack and defense in twilight, and -2 in full sunlight.
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White Orcs
The white orcs, also called Snow Orks or Snorks, are hugely influential in the Krond Heights. Many ally themselves with the Hoar Frost Giants, serving as a mixture of shock troops and foresters; they hunt the lesser game that doesn’t interest the giants, track the greater game that does, and harry the giants’ enemies with raids. More pragmatic and less lazy than their common orcish kin, their tribes are also smaller, seldom more than forty at a time, and with few, if any slaves.
As a result of giantish patronage, the snorks have a great reach aboveground, and can be found almost anywhere above five thousand feet in elevation, and not uncommonly down to three thousand feet, especially in winter or where the glaciers extend. Their lack of penalty in sunlight makes them more adventurous during the day, but still prefer the night for many operations. Their homes tend to be clefts in the rock, where they can acquire shelter at minimal effort. This puts them into conflict with kobolds, who also like these clefts, but the snorks don’t consider this a particular problem; kobolds are, after all, technically edible, and that’s the sort of technicality a snork can be counted on to take advantage of.
Snorks prefer raids and hunts, but some groups also attempt trade with humans under the same giantish master. These trades are seldom, as the orcs don’t have much the humans want, but selling a few yearling llamas or iron knives for hard silver can be a good deal for the villagers. The orcs, for their part, prefer to head over to another giant’s territory and steal twice as much, while keeping their silver for important things.
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Sidebar: Half Snorks
Half-orcs of white ork ancestry are also not common; the orcs keep few slaves, and the people of the Krond Heights keep few half-orcs. Half-snorks, however, may purchase the Temperature Tolerance (cold) talent for 5 BP.
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Lake Vrasten and the Ladies of Salt
In the center of the Krond Heights there is a large, glacier-fed, salt lake. Named for a Brandobian explorer, Lake Vrasten has no aboveground outlets, and its underground outlets are little more than seepage; as a result it is quite salty, with a salinity that ranges from 100-320 g/kg, depending on the season (by comparison, sea water averages around 35 g/kg). It is least salty in the late spring (around Declarations), when inflow from the glacier-fed rivers is at its greatest; it is most salty in late Arid/early Reaping, when most of the summer evaporation has occurred, but before winter snows begin to moderate the salinity. The spring thaw also greatly increases the lake size, doubling its surface area as it spreads shallowly over the salt pan surrounding the deeper waters at the center. Over the summer, these shallows evaporate, until it settles on its winter size. Depth in the spring is relatively shallow; 3 feet is not uncommon for broad stretches, with occasional “ponds” of 20 feet. The central waters, however, are deep; while never properly sounded, they are definitely more than two thousand feet deep, and may be as much as a mile. The ancient dwarves, and the modern goblins, do not mine too close to the lake, for fear of flooding. Both have had accidents that resulted in massive destruction, and both, independently, developed deep superstitions about halite (rock salt), considering it unlucky.
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Sidebar: Halite and Superstition
Dwarven characters (or others with significant mining experience) with the Superstitious quirk might choose to replace result 3 “Thinks the world is flat” with “Considers rock salt to be unlucky”, similar to number 7 on the Superstitions table.
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The area around the lake is not well-inhabited. Some clans of kobolds live on the edges, as salt is the only flavor they really taste, but the shifting water levels and high concentrations of salt make it a poor home for most life. Goblins, too, do seasonal salt gathering in a few places, mostly in the late summer. The salt flats are home to small crustaceans that thrive when the lakes are high and hibernate when they are low, as well as the birds and small mammals that feed on them. The deeper water is home to a number of species of shrimp and some few fish, capable of metabolizing or passing the salt. Aside from birds, who feed on the crustaceans and the ever-present brine-flies, there is little wildlife over 12 inches in length.
What is present at Lake Vrasten is magic. Lake Vrasten seems to draw magic out of people; any effect using spell points cast within the area of the lake (either on the water or on the salt flats that mark the greatest extent of the lake in spring) has a percent chance equal to its level of automatically double in cost, with no additional effect; only Apprentice and Journeyman spells and effects are immune. This applies to spells cast by mages and sorcerers, wands that emulate these effects, or any magical items that draw upon Spell Points. Even Rogues, should they possess Supernatural Affinity, may find themselves drained of their few spell points when using some of their tricks. Keyholders who will visit Lake Vrasten during the day roll 2d6+4 to determine how much magic they should expend; they are never instructed to cast all their magic, and quite often told to expend none.
Despite this hunger for magic, the area is rich in ley lines. Attunement to a nearby line ceases the drain of magic from the land, provided one can access the line while casting spells. An Ore line twists and shifts through the salt with the seasons, rearranging itself with the flood and retreat of the water. The deeper parts of Lake Vrasten reportedly have a Water line, though that can be difficult to access. And a certain point on the shore of the lake, near the edge of the perennial deep water, has a single, powerful, Blood Line rising from the ground and into the sky. The Ore line is always tied to this Blood line in a vortex; the Water line will, at times, connect to form an Evran Knot. While most Blood lines dissipate after a few days, this line has been present for as long as dwarven histories exist; the first records of the lake mention the Blood Line, and the Ladies of Salt.
The Ladies of Salt are a covey of hags of ancient power, dedicated to the Riftmaster. Their membership is not constant; there have been as few as three and as many as eleven hags at any one time, as some members choose to leave or new members join. Fanatically devoted, they attune themselves to the Ore and Blood lines, and attempt to keep others from doing the same. Unlike many hags, they are not profligate users of magic; they know the value of a well-placed enchantment, no doubt, but do little with magic that flesh can accomplish, and prefer alchemy to incantations. Currently, the Ladies are only three in number, and they maintain some alchemy workshops and shrines to the Riftmaster around the periphery of the lake’s greatest expanse (some watched over by the local kobolds, or home to other servants).
They tolerate no shamans or witch doctors; even those with minor shaman gifts (such as the Spirit Favor Talent) will be given at most a single warning before being killed. Spirit favors requested in the Lake have a chance equal to the level plus the absolute value of the reaction roll to draw their attention, and rumors from shamans nearby state that they have killed the spirits of the Lake and Salt within their domain. How this could be done is not known, but it is also said that even spirits avoid the place now.
The Ladies are not expansionist; they exert little power outside of Lake Vrasten, save to protect their homes and against those who would interfere with their charge. They do, however, consult with other, nearby, powers; giantesses are known to come to them, as are some women of the human and halfling populations. They have, in the past, had members who were not proper hags; demi-human, humanoid, or giant women who have joined them, or tunnel hags who have lived nearby, but, at present, there are only three, and all are hags of the usual sort. It is not that they do not deal with men, but, traditionally, consulting them has been the privilege of women, and most communities have stories of the evil fates they have inflicted upon men who displeased them. It is known that they have extensive libraries, taken in trade over the centuries for other bits of wisdom, and that they treat fairly with Keyholders and those anointed to the Riftmaster; one of them is always a cleric of his, in addition to her other magic, and the others are acolytes.
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Sidebar: The Mystery of Lake Vrasten
No one, perhaps even the Ladies of Salt, know what lies beneath Lake Vrasten. Rumors and theories abound, of course, including ancient Titans, dead Gods, slumbering undead, or the first dragon. All that is known is that Lake Vrasten is hungry for magic, and that the Ladies have dedicated centuries to keeping it from getting enough.
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