Post by JMDavis ((Silver)) on Feb 2, 2017 13:26:59 GMT -5
Races
Humans – While they are not native to Durkar ('Home' in the dwarf-tongue), humans are one of the oldest races on the world – older than the elves, who arrived during the Age of Longing. Humans arrived on Durkar during the Dawn Age – summoned there by a young Fyruk who tore them from their places in time and space to aid his servants – the Jotun – in the war against the dwarves and their Earthen Gods. Roman Legionnaires, Viking Raiders, Chinese Soldiers, Japanese Samurai – all these and more arrived on Durkar at Fyruk's Howl. Immediately upon seeing their new masters, the Jotun, and the allies of the giants – the orcs – the human armies broke and ran, for they knew they could not battle myths.
The Jotun inevitably lost the war against the dwarves and their gods, and fled to the Lost Places of Durkar – simultaneously casting off the shackles of Fyruk. Eventually, over many Ages, the Jotun who survived became the gods of humanity on Durkar – the Malformed Immortals finding their divinity by those who originally spurned them.
At the end of the Waning Age, when dwarf and elf vanished from the world, humanity found the chance to claim the forfeited inheritance of their predecessors. On the continent of Erkhar-Karad ('God Land' in the dwarf-tongue) humanity flourished. Erkhar-Karad was not the land where dwarves or elves had settled, this land was on the other side of the world from Karad-et-Durkar ('Land of Home' in the dwarf-tongue). Erkhar-Karad was to be left to the gods – specifically at the behest of the elves. Humans there have mostly grown without the influence of dwarf or elf – here there are still vestiges of the life they once had on Earth, without muddling their own history with that of dwarf or elf. On Erkhar-Karad, at the easternmost point, a great wall is constructed to guard the land bridge stretching between Erkhar-Karad and Karad-et-Durkar. This construction – made by human hands – is guarded by the soldiers of the Third Kingdom.
Erkhar-Karad is the home of the Kingdoms of Men – moreso than Karad-et-Durkar which is the home of the Empire. Erkhar-Karad is truly a nation of humans, ruled over by the First, Second, and Third Kingdoms and the Council of Kings – the Three Kingdoms each hold sway over a different part of the continent – the Third Kingdom is chiefly responsible for the defense of Erkhar-Karad from any threat the orcs to the east might pose, the Second Kingdom maintains a vast naval fleet to prevent Imperial Warships (should any ever arrive) from landing, while the First Kingdom supplies both the Second and Third with craftsmen, laborers, food, and goods.
Across the Wailing Sea, or over the Trampled Bridge and through the Orcen City-States, exists the Empire of Man. Ruled over by the Senate and the Imperator, the Empire has been heavily influenced by dwarves and to a lesser extent the elves. Though much of what influenced these latter races was brought over by the humans, or granted to them in visions by their gods, the humans of this land fully believe it was purely the ingenuity of the Elder Races. The Empire initially had a burgeoning growth that was stymied by the Northern and Southern Tribes, the Orcen City-States, and then the vastness of the Wailing Sea. The Empire knows of the existence of Erkhar-Karad, but not that of the Trampled Bridge.
The Kingdoms of Men and the Empire of Man have had a rather strained trading relationship – neither side truly trusting the other, though it is the Kingdoms of Men who fear Imperial assault more than the reverse. Despite this, through trade, the Empire has slowly begun to build ships – and learn proper navigation – to help them in their explorations of the Wailing Sea, as the Kingdoms have all but stopped any exploration – seeing their lands as all they will ever need.
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Orcs – Also known as the Turraki ('Brutish Ones' in the dwarf-tongue), these are massive brutes, and one of the oldest races on Durkar – orcs have existed since the Dawn Age, though not in the same incarnation as they do now. It is also not known where the orcs came from – though it is known that they were born on Durkar, they had no gods prior to their discovery by the Jotun when they began to worship Fyruk, and thus nothing to shape them. A dominant theory holds that, much how Fyruk himself was forged of an errant strand of the Primordial Chaos the orcs were born in much the same way: errant magics of the Forging. Another theory holds that the orcs were present on Durkar before the arrival of Fyruk and the dwarven gods – a species that evolved into the creatures they were during the Dawn Age and what they are today. During the Dawn Age, and up until after the Waning Age, orcs were small-minded brutes of a very low cunning. Layered with muscle and standing head, shoulders, and chest above humans – orcs were a warlike species that served the Jotun as slave-combatants. When the dwarves began to devise ways to battle both Jotun and orc, the slave-warriors began to quickly become obsolete – for the dwarves were more than a match physically for most orcs. At the end of the Dawn Age, during the Last War of the Gods, Fyruk stood alongside the Jotun and orcs and called forth the warriors who would, as the Jotun hoped, win the war for them.
When the humans arrived, they almost immediately broke and fled. Still, with Fyruk on their side, there was a chance of winning until Braggi Orelord – dwarven god of Fate – banished the Demon Wolf to the far North, leaving the Jotun and orcs alone to face the dwarves. The orc hordes were decimated, breaking on the shield wall of the dwarves – looking to their masters for orders the orcs found the Jotun fleeing the battlefield, Durag Highmountain and Byrung Bloodbeard stood beside God-Thane Kurad Deepborn – the warrior-gods of the dwarves, and the High Thane of their Pantheon – having slain Skurd Wyrmblood – Warlord of the Jotun – and dispersed the Malformed Immortals to the far reaches of the world.
The orcs, without direction, fled the field of battle and were chased down by the dwarves – losing more and more of their number each day until the dwarves had pushed the orcs firmly into the Migda-Karad ('Middle-Land' in the dwarf tongue) between Erkhar-Karad and Karad-et-Durkar. The orcs reformed over the years, dispersing into warring tribes and left to their own devices until the Age of Scales when the spawn of Skurd Wyrmblood were finally born. The twisted creatures known as Gurrak (lit. 'Corrupt/Wrong/Foul' in the dwarf-tongue, generally translated to 'Demon' or 'Dragon') began their dominance over the orcs – the Gurrak would later be known as the Gods of Scale and Talon. These mighty god-beasts each took dominion over an orc tribe, and drove them to war and attempted conquest at a whim.
Despite all being born from Skurd, the Gurrak were not of a like mind – and frequently Gurrak would war against one another and drive their followers to the same. There are many tales of dwarven holds almost falling to the combined strength of the orc tribes, when the intervention of Thimbdul the Trickster would set one Gurrak against another with a simple word and the entirety of the horde would break to infighting.
This cycle continued for the orcs until the Waning Age when dwarf and elf mysteriously vanished from the world – many believing this to have been from a war between the two races and their gods, while others think they just withdrew further and further from the world to lands uncharted. No matter the case, the orcs ran wild through the lands that were now free to take – and it was in the Vault of the Deepborn that they found the item that would change their destiny. The Thanic Stone – said to be the Eye of Kurad Deepborn – was picked up by an orc shaman and all the knowledge of dwarf and elf flowed through the orc race.
With this burst of knowledge, the orc shamans joined together and banished the Gurrak to the Blackened Plain, shackling the god-beasts at the same time so they might never twist the minds and hearts of the orcs to their own ends again, while still binding them to answer the calls of the orcs for power. With the orcs freed from the yoke of slavery, they quickly developed into a mighty culture – still broken into separate lands with unique cultures, and still even warring against one another – the orcs still found a future they might not otherwise have had: one that they alone could shape. The Orcen City-States exist on the western half of Karad-et-Durkar, and well into the Migda-Karad, neither the Empire of Man or the Kingdoms of Men know the true number of the orcs.
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Dwarves – Known as the Durraki-et-Erkharen (lit. 'Young Ones of the Earthbound Gods' in the dwarf-tongue, but generally translated to 'Children of the Gods'), or simply Durraki, dwarves are one of the Elder Races of Durkar. Born of the Erkharen (lit. 'Earthbound Gods' in the dwarf-tongue, generally translated to 'Gods') during the Dawn Age, the Durakki were an industrious and clannish people. They had a furious devotion to the Erkharen – who all Durakki view as their ancestors – and were a warrior-race, much like the orcs. The Durraki differed from the orcs in that they were intelligent creatures and were not enslaved by the Erkharen so much as they were honoured to serve. During the Dawn Age High-Thane Thurra Deepborn, descendent of the God-Thane Kuard Deepborn, lead the Dwarven Hosts to war against the Turraki and the Gurraga-Erkharen (lit. 'Twisted Earthbound Gods' in the dwarf-tongue, generally translated to either the 'Malformed' or 'Giants').
During the war, the Turraki earned the eternal enmity of the Durraki – during the War of the Shattered Plains the Turraki Warchief Gathhagg One-Arm slew High-Thane Thurra Deepborn in single combat. The Warchief shattered the Shield-Wardens of the High-Thane with his battleaxe, hurling himself against the Rune-Armoued High-Thane and shattering the Battle-Crown of the Durraki Thanes in a single blow – cleaving through Thurra's skull and into his chest. The battle swiftly turned in favour of the Turraki and their Gurraga-Erkharen masters – the dwarves fleeing the field with the body of High-Thane Thurra – though his helmet was lost to the Turraki.
Two-hundred years later, during the Battle of High Keep Pass the Durraki under High-Thane Mara Deepborn faced off against Warchief Haskkagg the Foul – the Turraki Warchief went into battle wearing the Durraki Battle-Crown upon its filth-encrusted skull. During the battle, High-Thane Mara ordered her Shield-Wardens forward, carving a path through the Turraki hordes and going into battle against Haskkagg the Foul. Mara's warnaul shattered the armour-like bones of the Turraki Warchief and his skull was taken by one of her Shield-Wardens and paraded before the Turraki horde – which broke and fled at the death of their warleader – not even the Gurraga-Erkharen were able to rally the orcs after the defeat.
Similarly, at the Last War of the Gods – High-Thane Mara Deepborn was captured by the fleeing orc Warchief Turg Bloodeye – as the dwarves pursued the fleeing orcs, High-Thane Mara was not found. It was not until near eighty years after the victory over the Turraki and the Gurraga-Erkharen that High-Thane Mara was returned. An ancient Turg Bloodeye approached the Gates of Dur-et-Bor-ak-Dan (lit. 'Hearth of Iron and Stone' in the dwarf-tongue, generally translated to 'Forgehearth'). The head of High-Thane Mara was tossed onto the ground alongside her befouled and rotten body, and Turg urinated on the corpse while shouting in broken dwarvish that the Gods would have their daughter back: coated in the victory of the orcs.
Turg was slain on the spot, and Mara's body was recovered, cleansed, blessed, and given to the Stone – in her place, the Reign of the Stewards had begun and now with the finality of her fate known the Stewards ended and High-Thane Gromthak Deepborn – known as The Grudge-Bearer – took the throne and began the Wars of Byrung Bloodbeard, taking forth the battle-standards of the Berserker God into battle against the Turraki in the effort of destroying them utterly.
As the Wars of Byrung Bloodbeard raged on (soon termed The Long War after the passing of Gromthak Grudge-Bearer, who ordered on his deathbed that no son nor daughter of the Deepborn shall end the war unless the last orc is to be slain) four Ages had passed: the Age of the Durraki, the Age of Iron, the Age of Blood, and the Grim Age with little change as the dwarves expanded their Kingdoms – leveling mountains or raising new ones, delving deeper and deeper into the world and bidding farewell to the Erkharen as they ascended to Highhome – the Resting Place of the Durraki after their bodies were interred in the Stone.
At the beginning of the Age of Longing – as the Durraki began to miss the closeness of the Erkharen – the Ektarraki (lit. 'Ghost Ones' in the dwarf-tongue, generally translated to 'Elves' or 'Fair Ones') arrived. Called here by their gods from a dying world, the Ektarraki and the Durraki initially had a stained relationship – neither fully trusting the other, as the Durraki had so long warred against the Turraki and occasionally Rekrakkari (lit. 'Reckless Dull Ones' in the dwarf-tongue, generally translated to 'Heathens', 'Barbarians' or 'Humans') that any other new arrival was viewed with suspicion. Similarly the Ektarraki seemed to be uniformly closed off – though with a gift for languages, they had seemingly mastered the dwarf-tongue after the first meeting – a gift they eventually passed on to the Durraki, but only after the Battle of the Black Fjord when a massive Turraki horde lead by Warchief Blackmane appeared.
Not since the Dawn Age had the Turraki gathered in such numbers, Warchief Blackmane was astride a Gurraki-kurga (lit. 'Foul-Spawn' in the dwarf-tongue and used for the children of dragons and demons) and threatened to shatter the Durraki Hosts with the kurga's infernal breath when an Ektarraki army appeared from the woods they had claimed. Arrows from Ektarraki archers fell like dark rain, blocking out the sun above the Turraki horde – the points all seeming to find their mark. Warchief Blackmane met his own end when an arrow from an Ektarraki archer pierced his skull and hurled him from the back of the kurga. The beast itself turned to flee when arrows tore apart its wings and sent it crashing to the earth for the vengeful Durraki warriors to carve open its hide and slay it.
Warchief Blackmane's body was found, and the Battle-Crown of the Durraki Thanes was recovered from the Turraki's corpse. The Battle-Crown was taken back to Dur-et-Bor-ak-Dan to be reforged. High-Thane Malgrim Deepborn – known as Bale-Eye for his rune-carved left eye – met with Queen Alfinwe of the Ektarraki who told, at his question of aid, that she had witnessed one world die: she would not see the same happen to her new home.
From that day Durraki and Ektarraki swore the Eternal Oath, an alliance between the two peoples until the world was once more at peace.
The Eternal Oath seemingly lasted for another six ages before both Durraki and Ektarraki vanished from the world.
In truth, the Durraki were told by their gods that their time – while not over – could not currently continue. That the Rekrakkari needed to find their place and could not with the Elder Races continued activity. With this news High-Thane Fergus Deepborn approached Queen Alfinwe to inform her of this change. Queen Alfinwe – still as youthful as she had been during the age of Fergus' grandfather – told Fergus, in a surprising turn of openness, that her own gods had decreed the same. She promised that, through the Long Years, her people would keep to and remember the Oath if Fergus' did the same, as the dwarf readily agreed Queen Alfinwe gave him a kiss and departed in a swirl of autumn light.
After the meeting the Durraki began the Last Work: carving alcoves for themselves in the Deep Places of every Hearth. There, the Durraki took their place and were turned into stone by the Erkharen – a hibernation from which the Durraki would awake when the time had come.
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Y'Shal – A mysterious race, the Y'Shal, also known as the 'Star Nomads', are a race of creatures who traveled amongst the realms of the gods before becoming stranded on Durkar when the greatest of their magic deserted them. Stranded since the Age of Lost Souls, they have been known as another name: the Chroniclers. They kept themselves apart from the world – as much as they could – having arrived an Age after the elves. The Y'Shal crafted a vast archipelago off the southwestern coast of Karad-et-Durkar, which remains a tropical climate despite its nearness to polar caps. The warrior-caste of the Y'Shal were the ones to first encounter the dwarves and elves an Age after the arrival of their race. Initially fearing them to be demons, heated skirmishes took place between the warrior-caste and the combined forces of the elven rangers and the dwarven mountaineers.
Time and again during these skirmishes, the elite light infantry of the dwarves, and the elite warriors of the elves found themselves on the losing end of battles – for the magic of the Y'Shal was still in existence, if only a fragment of its former self. Briefly flickering through the god-realms, the warrior-caste were able to account for the deaths of multiple rangers and mountaineers while only suffering minor losses.
It wasn't until the beginning of the Age of Long Night, when a new orc horde arose, that the Y'Shal turned their attention to this new foe. The orc horde – larger than the one headed by Warchief Blackmane – swept forward, no less than eight dragonspawn accompanied the force. The orcs, directed by their foul gods, had crafted ways to turn aside elven arrows. So great was the horde that it not only besieged Dur-et-Bor-ak-Dan and the dozen other dwarven holds, it had also managed to encircle the Green Sea, blocking the elves in their forests. The Y'Shal initially saw this as just recompense for the unprovoked assault by the elves and dwarves, but soon saw the brutality of the orcs and knew that this was a far worse option than their former foes.
Wielding their otherworldly magic against the orcs, the warrior-caste and the starseer-caste swept through chunks of the orc forces, Caste Autarch V'yru – leader of the warrior-caste – did battle with Warchief Thuruk the Devourer – the two clashing above the battle as V'yru maintained a form of flight by constantly dipping in and out of the planes, mystical blades carving apart orc and dragonspawn alike – the Caste Autarch working to alleviate the orc siege around Dur-et-Bor-ak-Dan.
Meanwhile, at the Green Sea, Caste Autarch S'rul – master of the starseer-caste – called down the wrath of heavens and gods against the orcs, while directing his starseers to summon forth quenching rains to drown the fires that had been set within the Green Sea. The unknown power of the Y'Shal prompted something that had not occurred on the mainlands since before the Age of Longing – a god appeared on the face of Durkar. Efrit the Fire-Forged flew down from the heavens – the dragon-god of war scouring the starseers with its infernal breath. S'rul ended his assault, shaping a shield to ward against the flames, though too late to save all of his caste – ninety starseers nothing more than ash on the wind.
S'rul lowered his shield and faced Efrit – the dragon-god twisted for another pass when the Autarch spoke a single word. As the dragon-god flew forward its body disintegrated, consumed by its own flame, until a skeleton composed of ash crashed into the ground and burst apart. The death of a god is a hard thing to achieve, and as its essence began to escape, S'rul spoke another word, reeling in the now frightened essence of a malevolent god before seeming to devour it. With the death of a god presented to them, the orcs broke and ran from the 'Curra'thok' – 'god-eaters'.
With the defeat of the horde a peace was made between High-Thane Malgrim Bale-Eye, Queen Alfinwe, and Exarch T'kyl – leader of the Y'Shal. Initially, the High-Thane and Queen sought to bring the Y'Shal into the Eternal Oath, but Exarch T'kyl declined after seeing the details, explaining that she did not believe her people would remain on this world for too long. It wasn't until the Age of Twilight, when the Y'Shal crafted their archipelago home, that Exarch T'kyl ventured to Dur-et-Bor-ak-Dan and joined her people to the Oath, stating that the Pathways were silent, and that she feared they would remain so until the stars died.
Queen Alfinwe bore the message of the decree of the gods to the island homes of the Y'Shal, asking them if their gods had made a similar declaration. Exarch T'kyl only told Queen Alfinwe that they had not, and assured her that the Y'Shal would keep to the Oath even while their allies had left the world. When Queen Alfinwe departed, the Exarch wondered at how any species could remain enslaved to the will of gods – considering the Y'Shal had killed their gods long ago.
As humanity began to rise, the Y'Shal surrounded their home in a veil, a deterrent from human explorers, waiting to see how the savages they once encountered in the occasional battle would develop. It is only recently, during the Age of Empire that the Y'Shal have made themselves once again known to the world. Though they keep their archipelago home a close-guarded secret, merchant-caste and warrior-caste Y'Shal are common in port cities of the Empire of Man, the Orcen City-States, and the Kingdoms of Men. Occasionally, even the members of the starseer-caste can be seen in these cities, or even traveling further into the respective territories – save when it comes to the City-States, as the orcs still distrust the Curra'thok.
In appearance it is impossible to distinguish a male and female Y'Shal apart – truly, it is only a deviation in the castees that distinguishes them. As a race they are all uniformly tall and slender – save for those members of the warrior-caste and laborer-caste. Those of the starseer-caste, the merchant-caste, and the navigator-caste tend to wear long robes, sometimes augmented by armour-mesh, hiding the fact that members of these castes have no legs and instead move around through use of levitation. Meanwhile, members of the warrior-caste, builder-caste, and highborn-caste retain their legs which are powerful, digitigrade limbs ending in two clawed toes with a dewclaw on the side of their ankle. Beyond this, all castes retain the same features: colouration in the 'cool' spectrum – typically darker colours to better absorb light needed to sustain themselves, no visible mouth or nose, two pairs of eyes: one pair centered on their skull, and the other pair on either side of their skull, and long limbs ending in a three-fingered hand, each finger tipped with a dark talon that has proven to be strong enough to use as a weapon without breaking.
The Y'Shal are known by the dwarves as the Gruum-thur-Braggi (lit. 'Writers for Braggi' in the dwarf-tongue, generally translated to 'Writers of Fate', though taken by the Y'Shal and converted into 'Chroniclers'). The orcs still refer to them as the Curr'thok. The humans tend to call the Y'Shal by their racial name or as the Chroniclers – for that is what they have come to be known as: during the Waning Age, the Y'Shal busied themselves by taking the history of the dwarves and elves and writing it all down: while editing the parts neither race wished others to know of.
The Y'Shal kept the master copies, but allowed the brief version of events – up to the Waning Age – to be entered into circulation for humanity and the orcs, letting them know the history of this world and their place in it.
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The Jotun – Long after Fyruk had claimed the world, the Jotun were born. Corrupted by Fyruk and forged of earth, iron, frost, and flame – they were immortal demigods who bestrode Falak (lit. 'Land' in the jotun-tongue, name for the world). The Jotun enjoyed their dominion over the world – until their kin were formed. Where the Jotun were corrupted their kin were not – the Gods of Earth and Stone arose after the Jotun had reigned for many years, and they looked upon the world and decided this was not meant to be. For the Jotun had stripped the world of life and left behind barren wastelands of ash and scorched stone.
As the Gods began to reshape the world, the Jotun stirred into anger at this challenge to their dominance – and thus began The First War. Though the war was initially fought over the perceived desecration of the Jotun dominion, it soon became fueled by the desire of the Jotun to steal the essence of the divine from their kin. The Jotun initially had the edge against the Gods – after three hundred years of battle the Gods finally gained their footing. The advantage of the Jotun had been to rally around the leadership of Skurd Wyrmblood, most ancient of the Jotun, and under his direction the Gods had been slaughtered in droves.
It wasn't until one of the yonuger Gods, Kurad Deepborn, stepped forward during one of the battles. When his father, Oramar Deepborn fell, Kurad retrieved his father's weapon – an artfully wrought warhammer and battleaxe combination – and rallied his brothers Byrung Bloodbeard and Durag Highmountain. Together, the three dwarves charged into the heart of the Jotun lines. The three brothers managed to stagger the Jotun lines, and their call to arms resounded and drew forth others of their kin to send the Jotun into flight.
Far from beaten, the Jotun found strength in a warrior race that had appeared on the world known to them as their Thuratok (lit. 'Slave-meat' in the Jotun-tongue). The Thuratok – orcs – were enslaved by the Jotun and used as fodder and for their overwhelming numbers. The Gods, struggling against the combined might of Jotun and Thuratok – even under the leadership of the new God-Thane Kurad Deepborn – the Doom of the Gods was closing in, as their numbers had been cut down to just twelve: God-Thane Kurad Deepborn – King of the Gods and Master of Runes, Byrung Bloodbeard – the God of Berserkers, Durag Highmountain – God of Warriors and Honour, Braggi Orelord – God of Fate, Mara Orelord – Goddess of Destiny and wife of Braggi, Snorri Strongarm – God of the Forge, Thurri Goldfist – God of Merchants, Brynhildr Deepborn – Goddess of the Hearth, Morag Helsmouth – Goddess of the Forgotten and wife of Byrung Bloodbeard, Morgrim Mountainlord – God of Mountains and Valleys, Valla Helsmouth – Goddess of the Fallen, sister of Morag, and Thimbdul Blackbeard – God of Deceit.
With this threat looming, Kurad called his kin together and began a ritual – slashing open their hands to bleed into the very rock that had birthed them and gave rise to their descendants: the dwarves. Though they were not divine creatures, the dwarves were still a force to be reckoned with. After the first few engagements, the Jotun began to lose and their own numbers began to dwindle. During the Last Battles of the Gods, when Fyruk himself took the field alongside Jotun and orc, it was all but assured that Skurd would find victory: especially with the advantage of surprise allies.
However, the allies that Fyruk called fled the field before battle had even joined, and the Demon Wolf himself was banished by the might of Braggi to leave Jotun and orc alone against the Gods and their dwarf children. Skurd, not one to give up, ordered the assault and flung himself into combat against God-Thane Kurad Deepborn, while his personal guard gave battle to Byrung Bloodbeard and Durag Highmountain.
During the battle, Skurd mocked Kurad, telling him of how easily his father had been slain and that Kurad would fall just the same. In a rage, Kurad beat back Skurd's attack, crippling the Jotun with a vicious two-handed blow that shattered Skurd's knee. With another blow, Skurd's head was taken from his shoulders, just as his guards fell to Byrung and Durag. With the Jotun Warlord dead, and the orcs fleeing the field, the Jotun ran to the far corners of the world to hide – and so began the time of the dwarves.
Hidden from the gaze of the Gods – despite both Byrung and Durag constantly searching for the Jotun – the remaining Jotun nursed their wounds and stole from their hiding spots to find the spots where others of their kind, and even those of the Gods, had fallen. From these spots the Jotun feasted on the remnants of divinity and imperfection and over time found the lurking holdouts of humanity. The Jotun initially thought to leave them to their own devices, until the Jotun Juros watched as humans from Rome rallied together to repel an orc assault and protect the camp followers from harm.
Taking pity on the frail creatures, as the orcs slowly began to buckle and smash their lines, Juros stepped forth and called down thunder and lightning to smite the orcs and drive them from their attack. Initially frightened, a human leader approached and knelt – speaking in the odd tongue of their kind. It took Juros a few moments before his divine-granted insight allowed him to understand the human, thanking the mighty being and calling Juros a god. From that moment, Juros found worship from the humans and was granted offerings of food and drink in exchange for his protection.
The Jotun found ways to contact his kin, and let them know that other humans might do the same: and so, with time, the Jotuns became gods of humanity. As humans populated and spread out, the divine blood of the Jotuns raised them from the earthly plane and into the realm of the gods – and as Juros was the one who brought about this revolution, and had been worshiped for so long that his strength had grown considerably, he became king of the gods and the realm became known as the Court of Juros. Juros is the God of Order and King of the Gods, Shan is the Warrior-God and God of Peace, Falain is the Goddess of Murder and the Underworld, Magram is the God of Merchants and Industry, Ythar is the Goddess of Crops and Disease, Halyn is the God of Healing and Magic, and Uluuran is the God of Lore and History.
