13 Jul 2011
(After selling my old Ogre army almost a year ago [long story], I've decided to reinvent my tribe as I begin the slow process of collecting models and preparing for the new, long-awaited Ogre Kingdoms Army Book.
I invite any fellow Ogre Kingdoms players to use the setup I have below to add more detail to their tribes. Rise up, Sons of the Maw! Our time is soon..!)
The Guthammer Tribe
Tribe Symbol: A hammer, beer stein, and Maw teeth
Tribe Colors: Bronze, Gold, Red, and Black
Background
Thin-beards tell us to fight
Green skins die a lot
Give us metal suns and meat
We took the stone castle
And ate everyone else
Ogres too smart for thinlings
- Excerpt from a popular Guthammer drinking ballad
Like all Ogre tales, the history of the Guthammers is full of boastful exaggeration. A rough translation of their legends suggest that at once time the Guthammers were mere mercenaries fighting under an army of Imperials and Dwarfs. The Ogres helped reclaim a Dwarf hold - Karak Bolg - and decided to claim it for themselves. Often these tales include fanciful depictions of giant-sized Dwarfs, Men riding metal dragons, and massive Daemons, none of which could stand up to the might of the Guthammers. The Book of Grudges has perhaps the only credible reference to the fate of Karak Bolg, a renewed grudge against the occupants of the hold, though the book fails to mention who the occupants are, or why the grudge was renewed.
Character
The Guthammers live for three things: drinking, feasting, and fighting, and in no particular order (but preferably all at once). From Karak Bolg, the tribe has access to smithies and have learned how to forge bronze gut-plates and weapons. More importantly the hold has its own breweries, from which the Guthammers have begun producing their own brands of ogre beer. While still as toxic (if not more so) as the viscous stuff brewed in the Mountains of Mourn, most Ogres see Guthammer beer as superior, and travel vast distances for the chance to enjoy it. Butchers search high and low for rare and exotic ingredients, filling their brews with with grains, fruits, spices, blood, fresh-squeezed goblin, and more.
During the Spring season, the Butchers will gather samples of their finest brews in copper-bound kegs and carry them to a crumbling ruin the Ogres call the Maw's Table. Forged by some cyclopean race in times immemorial, all that remains of the site is a circle of jagged, shattered pillars which mimic the appearance of the Great Maw. As the first storm clouds of the season begin to spit and rumble, the butchers leave their kegs in the circle of stone teeth and await their god's judgment.
If the Maw favors a particular brew, it will consume it in a burst of lightning that causes the keg to explode spectacularly (a common occurrence considering its contents). If the Maw disapproves, the keg will remain untouched through the heaviest storm, and its brewer is unceremoniously killed by his fellow Butchers and eaten as a sacrifice to regain the Maw's favour. On occasion, a keg will be struck by lightning, but for some reason fail to explode. These kegs are seen as holy relics, and their contents blessed by the Great Maw. The Butcher who brewed it will be given a place of honor in the celebration to come, and the keg is then passed to the tribe's strongest members or used to create a variety of magical (and highly intoxicating) potions.
Territory
The Guthammers rule out of Karak Bolg, high in the World's Edge Mountains. The area is cold, rocky, and heavily forested, home to many fearsome beasts including those brought into the region by the Ogres themselves. A crumbling, lonely, twisting trade road leads to Karak Bolg, and while the tribe claims much of the region, in practice they only protect the road and the valley around Karak Bolg itself. Feasthalls, lodges, and taverns line the road leading all the way to the High Pass in the north, while solitary Hunters stalk the wilderness.
The area is crawling with Greenskins that, depending on how badly the Guthammers crushed them in previous years, may attack in rag-tag raiding parties or full-blown Waaaghs! This suits the Guthammers just fine, as it provides them with an endless supply of fighting, meat, and slaves. The tribe's Gnoblars in particular take a sadistic delight in tormenting their bigger cousins in the copper and tin mines that provide the tribe with its supplies of bronze.
Tyrant: Bolgrund Guthammer
Bolgrund is the only descendant (or so he claims) of the first Bolgrund, who "outsmarted" the Dwarfs by taking Karak Bolg for himself. While not particularly clever, Bolgrund knows a good thing when he sees it, and has begun trading Guthammer beer to other tribes, quaffing a steady stream of it into the Mountains of Mourn. Karak Bolg's vaults begin to fill with gold once more, and Bolgrund and his inner-circle have started wearing ostentatious jewelry to show off their wealth. The laughing, jovial Tyrant is rarely seen without his favorite drinking mug; a massive golden stein that doubles as an off-handed club, and rumor has it the stein has been enchanted to never run dry of cold, frothy refreshment no matter how deeply Bolgrund drinks.
I invite any fellow Ogre Kingdoms players to use the setup I have below to add more detail to their tribes. Rise up, Sons of the Maw! Our time is soon..!)
The Guthammer Tribe
Tribe Symbol: A hammer, beer stein, and Maw teeth
Tribe Colors: Bronze, Gold, Red, and Black
Background
Thin-beards tell us to fight
Green skins die a lot
Give us metal suns and meat
We took the stone castle
And ate everyone else
Ogres too smart for thinlings
- Excerpt from a popular Guthammer drinking ballad
Like all Ogre tales, the history of the Guthammers is full of boastful exaggeration. A rough translation of their legends suggest that at once time the Guthammers were mere mercenaries fighting under an army of Imperials and Dwarfs. The Ogres helped reclaim a Dwarf hold - Karak Bolg - and decided to claim it for themselves. Often these tales include fanciful depictions of giant-sized Dwarfs, Men riding metal dragons, and massive Daemons, none of which could stand up to the might of the Guthammers. The Book of Grudges has perhaps the only credible reference to the fate of Karak Bolg, a renewed grudge against the occupants of the hold, though the book fails to mention who the occupants are, or why the grudge was renewed.
Character
The Guthammers live for three things: drinking, feasting, and fighting, and in no particular order (but preferably all at once). From Karak Bolg, the tribe has access to smithies and have learned how to forge bronze gut-plates and weapons. More importantly the hold has its own breweries, from which the Guthammers have begun producing their own brands of ogre beer. While still as toxic (if not more so) as the viscous stuff brewed in the Mountains of Mourn, most Ogres see Guthammer beer as superior, and travel vast distances for the chance to enjoy it. Butchers search high and low for rare and exotic ingredients, filling their brews with with grains, fruits, spices, blood, fresh-squeezed goblin, and more.
During the Spring season, the Butchers will gather samples of their finest brews in copper-bound kegs and carry them to a crumbling ruin the Ogres call the Maw's Table. Forged by some cyclopean race in times immemorial, all that remains of the site is a circle of jagged, shattered pillars which mimic the appearance of the Great Maw. As the first storm clouds of the season begin to spit and rumble, the butchers leave their kegs in the circle of stone teeth and await their god's judgment.
If the Maw favors a particular brew, it will consume it in a burst of lightning that causes the keg to explode spectacularly (a common occurrence considering its contents). If the Maw disapproves, the keg will remain untouched through the heaviest storm, and its brewer is unceremoniously killed by his fellow Butchers and eaten as a sacrifice to regain the Maw's favour. On occasion, a keg will be struck by lightning, but for some reason fail to explode. These kegs are seen as holy relics, and their contents blessed by the Great Maw. The Butcher who brewed it will be given a place of honor in the celebration to come, and the keg is then passed to the tribe's strongest members or used to create a variety of magical (and highly intoxicating) potions.
Territory
The Guthammers rule out of Karak Bolg, high in the World's Edge Mountains. The area is cold, rocky, and heavily forested, home to many fearsome beasts including those brought into the region by the Ogres themselves. A crumbling, lonely, twisting trade road leads to Karak Bolg, and while the tribe claims much of the region, in practice they only protect the road and the valley around Karak Bolg itself. Feasthalls, lodges, and taverns line the road leading all the way to the High Pass in the north, while solitary Hunters stalk the wilderness.
The area is crawling with Greenskins that, depending on how badly the Guthammers crushed them in previous years, may attack in rag-tag raiding parties or full-blown Waaaghs! This suits the Guthammers just fine, as it provides them with an endless supply of fighting, meat, and slaves. The tribe's Gnoblars in particular take a sadistic delight in tormenting their bigger cousins in the copper and tin mines that provide the tribe with its supplies of bronze.
Tyrant: Bolgrund Guthammer
Bolgrund is the only descendant (or so he claims) of the first Bolgrund, who "outsmarted" the Dwarfs by taking Karak Bolg for himself. While not particularly clever, Bolgrund knows a good thing when he sees it, and has begun trading Guthammer beer to other tribes, quaffing a steady stream of it into the Mountains of Mourn. Karak Bolg's vaults begin to fill with gold once more, and Bolgrund and his inner-circle have started wearing ostentatious jewelry to show off their wealth. The laughing, jovial Tyrant is rarely seen without his favorite drinking mug; a massive golden stein that doubles as an off-handed club, and rumor has it the stein has been enchanted to never run dry of cold, frothy refreshment no matter how deeply Bolgrund drinks.
