07 Aug 2006
The Menelaouns, like all other Ogre tribes, often came into contact with the peoples of Cathay. However, the tribe spent more time in Cathay than most by involving themselves in the Cathayan Civil Wars. Due to years of fighting alongside the highly disciplined warrior class of Cathay, the Menelaouns (named after the Tyrant Menelaous who devoured an entire regiment of Cathayan swordsmen in one sitting) developed a rudimentary ability to strategise and an ordered battle system.
After the Civil Wars ended they returned to the mountains, but found that their ancestral territory had already been claimed by another tribe. The Menelaouns fought bravely, but were vastly outnumbered. The only thing that allowed them to survive were the skills developed in Cathay.
Eventually, after a disastrous battle, in which a full half of the remaining Menelaoun warriors were killed and devoured, the tribe was expelled from the slopes and up into the peaks. As a last act of spite, the butchers of the foe wove a terrible curse. The effects of this were not seen until the first whelp was born without a paunch. From then on, every whelp born to the Menelaouns was paunchless. With the tribe crippled by war, every child born a freak, and facing starvation, it appeared nothing could save them.
But it did. The Menelaouns shared their new barren home with several Yhetee packs. All it took was an idea to manifest itself in the new Tyrant Gharag. He proposed that the tribe should extend the hand of friendship to the Yhetees, to learn from them how to live in the harsh wasteland. In return, the Ogres offered the services of their finest hunters to teach the Yhetees in more effective techniques of catching prey. One pack in particular went as far as to interbreed with the Menelaouns. The tribe was delighted when a child was born paunch and all. The only sign of his unique parentage were the horns adorning his head.
Immediately, Yhetee mates were prized. The spiritual link the Yhetees had with the mountains weakened the power the Maw had over the tribe. With the diminishing of the Maw's power, the power of the curse over the tribe gradually eroded. Due to the higher numbers of Ogres, the Yhetee parentage had few side effects apart from the horns. Eventually the dividing line between cultured (from an Ogre point of view) Yhetees and more primitive Ogres disappeared, and a new race was born.
It was Ghworg, the first Yhetee-Ogre hybrid, who led the tribe now. He had learnt of the injustices inflicted on his tribe by the lowlander Ogres from the Butcher loremasters, and hungered for revenge. But first he would need an army.
Ghworg swiftly began to organise his clan. From the memories of the loremasters he retaught his tribe the skills gained in Cathay. He hoped that this, in conjunction with the enhanced hunting skills the amalgamated peoples had developed, would ensure his success. This was proved as he quickly cemented alliances with the remaining Yhetee packs, using a mixture of gifts and threats to bring them in. Then he began to expand his influence. He found an abandoned Sky Titan ruin, the lair of a dispossessed Giant. Ghworg enslaved the Giant and occupied the fortress. Then he expanded downwards, enslaving all he encountered, until he had reached his ancient homelands.
The tribe that held them had not recovered its former status after the crippling war. Ghworgs elite Pureblood (those Ogres whose appearance most closely resembles Ghworg's), his baying Troggs (Ogres with the bestial strength and appearance of Yhetees and the ferocity of both), his swift Yhetee allies, and dozens of captured slaves and cavebeasts annihilated the pitiful forces arrayed against him. Those that were not devoured were enslaved. It was on this day that the Menelaouns became simply: the Ghworgan
The war's outcome gave Ghworg a strange view. If his tribesmen, he reasoned, could beat Ogres so easily, then they were superior to Ogres. As Ogres, he further reasoned, were stronger and so better than the thinlings, and his tribe was better and stronger than Ogres, that meant his tribe was better and stronger than everyone. This view, when declared, shaped the entire society, with the Ghworgan on top and everyone else at the bottom.
Today, the kingdom of Ghworg is still growing. Thousands of slaves from many different races toil under the whips and clubs of the Pureblood. The entire tribe is composed of warriors, elite, disciplined and powerful, and able to draw on limitless supplies of bestial allies and legions of slaves. Ghworg has begun to use terror tactics to bully weak tribes into submission and slavery, through the spreading of rumour by his Gnoblar Snitches, and acts of gargantuan brutality. In his high fortress Ghworg dreams of an entire world under his control. A goal that he will strive endlessly to obtain.
After the Civil Wars ended they returned to the mountains, but found that their ancestral territory had already been claimed by another tribe. The Menelaouns fought bravely, but were vastly outnumbered. The only thing that allowed them to survive were the skills developed in Cathay.
Eventually, after a disastrous battle, in which a full half of the remaining Menelaoun warriors were killed and devoured, the tribe was expelled from the slopes and up into the peaks. As a last act of spite, the butchers of the foe wove a terrible curse. The effects of this were not seen until the first whelp was born without a paunch. From then on, every whelp born to the Menelaouns was paunchless. With the tribe crippled by war, every child born a freak, and facing starvation, it appeared nothing could save them.
But it did. The Menelaouns shared their new barren home with several Yhetee packs. All it took was an idea to manifest itself in the new Tyrant Gharag. He proposed that the tribe should extend the hand of friendship to the Yhetees, to learn from them how to live in the harsh wasteland. In return, the Ogres offered the services of their finest hunters to teach the Yhetees in more effective techniques of catching prey. One pack in particular went as far as to interbreed with the Menelaouns. The tribe was delighted when a child was born paunch and all. The only sign of his unique parentage were the horns adorning his head.
Immediately, Yhetee mates were prized. The spiritual link the Yhetees had with the mountains weakened the power the Maw had over the tribe. With the diminishing of the Maw's power, the power of the curse over the tribe gradually eroded. Due to the higher numbers of Ogres, the Yhetee parentage had few side effects apart from the horns. Eventually the dividing line between cultured (from an Ogre point of view) Yhetees and more primitive Ogres disappeared, and a new race was born.
It was Ghworg, the first Yhetee-Ogre hybrid, who led the tribe now. He had learnt of the injustices inflicted on his tribe by the lowlander Ogres from the Butcher loremasters, and hungered for revenge. But first he would need an army.
Ghworg swiftly began to organise his clan. From the memories of the loremasters he retaught his tribe the skills gained in Cathay. He hoped that this, in conjunction with the enhanced hunting skills the amalgamated peoples had developed, would ensure his success. This was proved as he quickly cemented alliances with the remaining Yhetee packs, using a mixture of gifts and threats to bring them in. Then he began to expand his influence. He found an abandoned Sky Titan ruin, the lair of a dispossessed Giant. Ghworg enslaved the Giant and occupied the fortress. Then he expanded downwards, enslaving all he encountered, until he had reached his ancient homelands.
The tribe that held them had not recovered its former status after the crippling war. Ghworgs elite Pureblood (those Ogres whose appearance most closely resembles Ghworg's), his baying Troggs (Ogres with the bestial strength and appearance of Yhetees and the ferocity of both), his swift Yhetee allies, and dozens of captured slaves and cavebeasts annihilated the pitiful forces arrayed against him. Those that were not devoured were enslaved. It was on this day that the Menelaouns became simply: the Ghworgan
The war's outcome gave Ghworg a strange view. If his tribesmen, he reasoned, could beat Ogres so easily, then they were superior to Ogres. As Ogres, he further reasoned, were stronger and so better than the thinlings, and his tribe was better and stronger than Ogres, that meant his tribe was better and stronger than everyone. This view, when declared, shaped the entire society, with the Ghworgan on top and everyone else at the bottom.
Today, the kingdom of Ghworg is still growing. Thousands of slaves from many different races toil under the whips and clubs of the Pureblood. The entire tribe is composed of warriors, elite, disciplined and powerful, and able to draw on limitless supplies of bestial allies and legions of slaves. Ghworg has begun to use terror tactics to bully weak tribes into submission and slavery, through the spreading of rumour by his Gnoblar Snitches, and acts of gargantuan brutality. In his high fortress Ghworg dreams of an entire world under his control. A goal that he will strive endlessly to obtain.
2 Pet Gnoblars! I dub them Itchy and Scratchy, for reasons that are too private to divulge.
