The life of the ogre

These are my made up reports on the nature and culture of ogres, carefully written after reading all there is to know of ogres from the first army book. (keep in mind these are presented as if written by an imperial scholar)(you can take these seriously or not; either way, please comment your thoughts )

Chapter I
The Little round ones
Born with a stout structure, an insatiable hunger and the size of a horse, ogres are the largest creatures known to create independent and successful kingdoms, with tribes expanding from north to south of the Mourn mountain range, and beyond. Yet how much do we really know about the natural facts of ogres? After carefully studying the reports of many autopsies, live observations and discussions with the actual creatures I have put together a report of the unkown facts of these beasts.

New born ogres are a sight that truly belies what they can become; Fatter than any adult, the creatures are literally unable to clap their hands across their body, hands that only have small bumps that will later become fingers. The legs seem like stumps, with their small feet completely gobbled by the fat in their legs. The skin is almost of a pure white, and the eyes are shut with strength, and the skin is no harder to pierce than that of a full grown man. The size from head to toes of this creature is about 1.5 times the size of our own newborns, yet the weight can even treble that of our offspring, and the screech of their cries as they breath air for the first time is truly unbearable to human ears. Yet this fragile state is not long-lasting, for it takes one to two weeks for the whole creature to change radically. At the end of the second week after birth, the creature has developed hands with fingers, visible feet, and the genitals begin to emerge from their fat bodies, yet at this state the creatures are still much wider than they are tall. Ogre whelps remain in this state for a long time before entering the next stage of development that will take them into childhood. As the ogre whelps grow fat and strong with the milk of their carers, it takes 4-6 years for the creature to begin to enter childhood and become independent.

At the point when the whelp is 4-6 years of age, it will begin to develop defined muscular tissue and bones that can hold the weight of the creature; a process that will take the first two years of this stage. After the ogre whelp has reached the point in which its height is about the same as its width, the true marks of a grown ogre begin to appear. Teeth will begin to grow, yet they will only be blunt stubs of bone hatching from their gums. It is at this point that the child will open its eyes, squinting them for about a whole day before they are accustomed to light. After 4 years of this stage (when the creature is about 8-10 years of age) it has developed into a fully independent creature, able to eat a human whole, chew on raw meat, and walk and run as a human child would, having reached about half of the full height it can get to. At this stage of their life the whelps look very much like balls of fat, hence the name given to them by their mature kin; the little round ones. After this comes the change that will take the creature to full maturity, and full might.

At the age of 12-13 years of age, the child will begin to truly develop the strength and size of a mature ogre, after 10 years of being round, the creature's bones begin to stretch and the muscles begin to mature. The skin begins to harden, and the teeth fall and are replaced by powerful structures of bone that can take apart iron without breaking. The facial hair begins to grow, and the genitals will reach full maturity, already being able to bare and create more whelps. When the creature has reached the age of 20, it may proudly call itself an ogre.

Even after the ogre has reached this age, its bones will continue to harden for many years to come, yet the height is unlikely to change by this stage. Ogres will most commonly die in war, sickness, hunger and in their brutal games, but reports tell of ogres that get to reach 150 years of age before dying of natural causes. If such a weary lifestyle can take these creatures to live over a century, I cannot imagine how much they could live with a balanced and healthy environment.

End of Chapter I: The little round ones.

BRILLIANT and just what I was after. 
Is this based on actual fluff ?
The round ones sound like grubs.
150years, is the an actual figure ... of do ogres live longer ?

Well, I'm sorry to tell you that it is mostly made up. But I did read a lot from the original army book, over and over to make it all match with the actual information you find in there (for example, 'the little round ones' is actually used in the army book).

The thing about 150 is an estimate derived from the following story you find in the army book.
There is this tyrant that ruled for 90 years
In the book it says ogres take 20 years to reach full maturity (that's already 110 years)
Let's say the guy took some time to build up the strength to defeat the tyrant, lets add 10 years (so it makes 120)
He died of chocking, so we can assume he would have lived longer.
Thus I came to the conclusion that 150 years would be an accurate estimate.
And as said in the end of the Chapter, they could probably live longer if they took better care of themselves, but no instances of this ever happening are known.
Take it as seriously as you may buddy, and stick around for some more.
Next up:
Chapter II
The Ogre Wifes

Chapter II
The ogre wifes
To the scholars of the old world they go by many names- Ogre females, ogre women, ogrer wifes... But I prefer the temr ogresse. Just like in the human races and the elven races, there are male and female ogres to be spoken of, yet unlike in our own society, the ogresse's are by no means weaker than their male counterparts, being able of the same phisical deeds.

Just like male ogres, ogresse's are ten foot tall, have thik leathery skin, have great tusks, have litle hair, no neck, facial hair and have a remarkable pounch. Yet even though they are diferent, there are some major diferences between the two ogre jenders. On an avarage, the male ogre is about 4 inches taller, yet the height variation in both of them renders this avarage almost obsolete, The female ogre is also capalble of growing facial hair, probably for the same purpose of leting less food escape their gaping mouths, however this will usually be limited to short mustaches, but the majority will shave these off. The hair on their scalp is more common that for the males, and it will usually be grown into a single short ponitail, yet this is mainly an isue of fashion, as some prefer to let it loose, grow it long, or shave the whole of it. The ogresse's also have eyes more squinted than those of the males, but the main thing that will diference the females to the males are their breasts; Large, stout and perked organs growing from their pectorals wich will commonly match the size of their bellyes. Ogresse's share the same custom of the males of wearing gut plates, yet covering the breasts is mostly about choice, though there is a correlation of wearing more clothes for the wealthy. The breasts of the female ogre, much like for human females, are meant to provide a healthy and apropriate diet for new-borns, yet to put a human baby to be nursed by the milk of an ogre would lead the infant to a cruel fate. The milk given to ogre whelps is a thick and viscous paste secreated by the breasts of the females, almost imposible to swallow for human beings, yet irresistible for the little round ones. This 'milk' contains a high amount of fat and carbohydrates, which will be nesesary for the first 6 years of the whelp's life.
Other than the above mentioned, the main diferences between the ogre and the ogress is mainly social; a theme that will be discused in a future chapter.

I'm absolutely loving this! Keep up the good work! Can't wait for chapter 3!

Thanks all for taking the time to read this, and I'm very moved to know you apreciate it.
And now...

Chapter III
The Gnoblars
Like the common Goblin, Gnoblars reproduce through the production of spores, that will then leave the body of the host, land on a fertile or protein rich surface, and then grow into the creature, already fully mature and ready for the dangerous world they inhabit. Yet, there is one major difference between the other greenskins and this unfortunate group.
While these spores are usually released upon death, the Gnoblar spores do not, instead being released voluntarily by the host (probably caused by evolution, since the death of a Gnoblar usually finds its way into the stomach of one or more of the deadly creatures in the Mourn mountain range). After the spores mature, the teaching of language is purely auditory, the creature being born with an insanely powerful ability to learn the control of the mouth and lungs that will only last one or two weeks. It is also during this period that they will learn the cultural values of the tribe they will serve (or feed as a snack), being turned into foul, filthy and rather annoying individuals by the influence of their piers.

Once having learned language and other basic skills, the Gnoblar's first priority will be to find itself a place in society, either as a fighter, a torch, or even the odd tooth. If the subject fails to find a place in it's masters' society, it will face abuse from the more useful of his kin, which will many times lead to death. Once under the service of it's fierce masters, the Gnoblars will do everything in their hand to scale the power ladder under the shadow of titans, to become the best of the worst in an un-forgiving environment.

If I got anything wrong about goblins above, please tell me and I shall correct it immediately.

Chapter IV
The Meaning of the Feast
As we very well know, ogre festivals revolve around food and sports, with vast quantities of suplies that could feed a human village for months being consumed in mere hours, and enough blood spilled to bathe a giant. Even in small tribes of one or two hundred ogres the feasts resound in the depths of the valleys, waking many beasts and travelers in the dark of the night, while the larger kingdoms will bring avalanches and landslides with their unending bellows. Yet as erratic as these festivals seem, the fact is that these have a correlation as to when they take place, and a very important function for the developments of tribes.

The Feasts of the ogres take place around two main points throughout the year (though outlyers are common); in mid-spring and in mid-winter. The festivals of the spring will usually come to happen due to increased cave-beast growth after the cold winters, when the tribes find their bellies stuffed with the fresh meat of easy prey after a long period of hard hunting in the cold. As such, these festivals will stay much more true to the purpose of eating and drinking. On the other hand, much like in most sentient civilizations (including our own), the tribes hold festivals in mid-winter as a way of re-invigorating the spirit of the tribes populace; a way of saying 'congratulations, we are half way through the shadows!'. Under this context, these festivals will consume a vastly smaller amount of food compared to the spring festivals (though it still is a large amount), being more of spiritual importance than of any superficial factor. In these festivals the butcher of the tribe will prepare delicious meals and feed them to the tribe in long spiritual rituals where the tribe screams loud blessings to the Maw to salve their guts from the emptiness they once suffered, and showing their deity the joy of the feast, so that it may feel satisfied.

In both occasions, the feasts will hold many of the most well known ogre sports, from the relatively light-hearted Rhinoxen lifting, Belching, face cracking and fistsplintering competitions, that usually take place around the tables where the food is served, to the more deadly and brutal sports such as the brutal pit fighting or the honored Gut-Barging. While it used to be tradition for the later sports to take place in the maw pit; centre of all feasts, many tribes grew too large for all the audience to be able to witness the blood of a fight, and many competitors were not too eager to wait so long until their turn arrived. It was due to this need for multiple fights to take place simultaneously that the Maw-rings came to be, a small space of land where the less important fights will take place. The area of these rings can be marked in a variety of ways, from the area covered by a spilled bucket of blood, to the stench caused by ogre by-products, which cause the audience to willingly keep a distance. These Maw-rings will usually be created in the feast and be rubbed out after it, keeping the importance of the Maw-pit above any other.
Unlike in our own sports, where only fully grown men will take part, ogre sports are practiced by any and all members of the tribe. Male ogres will bring their blood to boil in their competitions, and not any the less acclaimed or violent will be the fight staged by the ogresses, who will be as common to take place against men or women. The little round ones will also engage in these violent sports, bringing about the other young-lings who where un-able to shove their way into an adult game, so all audiences will be entertained.

Perhaps an even more important function of the feasts than the consumption of food and the hosting of sports is the mating. Though ogres will engage in the sexual act throughout the year, the most prominent seasons for reproduction take place around the feasts. A commonly un-mentioned prize of the sports held during festivals is the right to lay with the winners of other contests, yet those who lose will still get together with other powerful specimens, having shown their worth even if it did not bring victory. Those who do not engage in sports will not get the attention of price winners, yet there will still be many willing ogres and ogresses with which to top up the day; ogres seeming to feel a strange need to finish such active days with an even more tiresome and wearily act.

After the Feasts have ended, and all ogres have had their fill of meat, violence and pleasure, the Gnoblars will swarm the feasting grounds scavenging great amounts of leftover food and body-bits to take back to the shanty towns to be consumed in the Gnob-fests as they are known - days in which the bickering and high pitched laughter of Gnoblars is particularly prominent.

Chapter V
The afterbirth
With humans, pregnancy is a period that can take roughly around 9 months, in which the female subject will have to keep a balanced diet, refuse the consumption of drugs, and take great care of her body, if she wants the baby to be born healthy and strong. This is not at all like for ogres. Through natural selection, the ogre fetus has developed an incredible ability to withstand toxins, drugs and impacts from within the gut, and the ogresses have bellies that will greatly increase their durability during pregnancy. This was probably due to ogresses being less than joyful about having to take care of their bodies during a whole year (the average time taken for ogre birth). Even with all these protections the ogresses will still have to take a slight change to their lifestyle if the baby is to be born strong enough to survive, and it is probably due to a year care, that none - and I mean not one ogress will be willing to take care of the child after birth. After the child has been born, it's mother will traditionally wrap it up in a blanket, put it next to a random Gnoblar shanty, and return to the drinking and eating that was her life before conceiving a child.

With almost 100% abandonment rate, it is down to an unlikely creature to raise the children. These creatures are known as Nurse Gnoblars. The Nurse Gnoblar is usually of the size of a fighter, standing tall amongst the lesser of it's kin, and forfeits a great amout of agility and speed for strength. These Gnoblars commonly make groups of five or ten members to better fit the extreme needs of the whelps, and keep a wide web of contacts so as to know when and where a whelp needs care. Their tasks are many and varied. When the child is small and only need three or four nurses to carry it, the Gnoblars will take it on long strolls around the tribe, getting their skins more accustomed to sunlight (if the tribe does not inhabit caves), and inviting weak diseases so it can develop an immune system. During these walks the Gnoblars will often look for ogresses who are less than bussy to take a little break to milk the whelp. Even though she will have no obligation to comply, the ogresses see no problem in feeding a child as they rest or sleep. However, asking for the help of a complete stranger is not without its risks, as some ogresses will be rather angered at the suggestion of taking a break from eating and drinking, and the Maw help a child that bites too hard on the breast.

When the time comes when the child will grow too fat to be carried around, the nurses will accommodate them in their shanty towns, and will begin to buy, scavenge or hunt food for the whelp, as it grows with every passing day. Eventually the Little round one will be ready to walk about by itself, and it's curiosity will take it out of the shanty towns, and into the streets of the tribe, as they discover a whole new world of brutality and violence that will undoubtedly attract them. After they have left the comfort of the shanties, the nurses will still take some risk to check the health of the infants around the tribe, making sure that they grow big and strong.

As is shown by this report, the Nurse Gnoblars a most important part of the growth of the tribes, making sure that it will continue to increase it's numbers through thick and thin. Yet the respect given to this group is no greater than that given to any other Gnoblar, and their efforts go without gratitude to the children who are alive thanks to them.

Im loving this.  I always login the read the next post.  Have you read wild kingdoms?  It gives a great insight to Ogre life.

First of, thanks again for your appreciation.

I found it in google, but there's some error with the backround immages wich makes it nigh imposible to navigate the threads.

If you know the forum well, could you post a link to any particular thread you're refering to please?

loving this fluff, must have more.

I would like to discuss the abandonment of ogre whelps though. In the fluff on Butchers, it is said that a whelp that draws blood rather then milk from its mother is marked by the Maw and is taken to be raised by the tribe's Butcher. This implies that ogres do tend their offspring after the fashion of other creatures.

Also, the Ogre Tyrant that choaked to death on a skull, the skull was explicitly stated as being his grandson's. If ogres abandoned their children there wouldn't be any recording of who was the child of who.

I like that you refer to official fluff when determining the validity of my fiction.

Indeed the abandoning of the whelps would not allow for this to happen, but as previously stated, I have carefuly read the official stuff and worked my way to compliment them.

Before we begin this argument, wait for me find some time to give the next chapter. This might take a while, since I'm very busy lately, and have not much time to tend to my duties/hobbies.

Can't wait

Another problem would be that it wouldn't have worked before the Gnoblars came, relativly late in Ogre history. Although you could explain it that Ogres used to care for Whelps, but the arrival of the Gnoblars resulted in the almost complete delegation of Parental duties.

I also like the idea of daddy ogre telling the kids about his days as a Maneater how he at an entire regument of marauders and their horses, while the Rhinox roasts over the fire, and mom is in the kitchen cooking, and having to tell the kids that dads a big fat lier. He really only ate 8 men and their horses, the rest of the regiment was eaten by his 5 Maneater buddies, of whome one was mom.

Well, what'a'ya'know. I found time sooner than I expected.

Chapter VI
The Family of the Ogre

In human standards, the family is most commonly made up of the parents and a number of children that follow the rules of a patriarch - a king of sorts to the group that is defined as 'family'. Sometimes the family is made of one male subject and a number of females, with a common pool of off-spring where the male is the leader. In other instances the family consists of one male and one female with the off-spring they have themselves produced. In rare instances, whether cultural or unfortunate, there will be but one parent taking care of the children by him or her-self. When it comes to Ogres, all these structures can be adopted, it depends entirely of the members involved. Yet there is one crucial difference that differs the Ogre's family to that of most species in the planet.

As has been previously stated, upon birth, an ogress will abandon the child to it's luck in her  persuit of food and drink. This means that unlike in the case of humans, the family is not made through blood links, but rather through pure love and choice. Mentioning love in a report of the nature of ogres may seem rather odd, but the truth is that ogres can feel such a feeling, even if very rarely and very lightly.

This strange 'family' is created when one ogre begins to feel an attraction towards another member of it's tribe - whether it be an ogress feeling a romantic attraction towards a Tyrant, or an Irongut getting fond of a little round one. The request will then be presented to the subject involved by the one interested clearly stating the intentions. Since this ambiguous concept of family can come to exist through a number of reasons, there are no traditional or moral obligations for any member of the family. This means that the proposal can either say 'I wish us to have a close relationship where I will bring you food and wealth in war and you will take care of a number of children' or 'I wish to take care of you and grow you into a strong and healthy specimen that will make me proud', note that though not all families are founded with children in mind, it is most commonly children that will in some way or another incite the desire for a family within an ogre's heart, and the vast majority of families will at some point adopt children, as well as a common residence for all the members to use. After the initial proposal is issued, the receiver will either make some changes on it, accept or refuse. Whatever the initial intentions are, the truth is that within ogre families there is a warm fondness that immediately blurs the vision one has of these brutes of nature.

Within the family, the patriarchs are the ones who began the group, with anyone that joined later having only a secondary voice. This means that in a family, the patriarchs could be an ogresse and a child, with an ogre being a secondary member. Even within families, the ogresses will continue to abandon their babies, since they are not expected to take care of any more children than they are willing to take. Within this family, ogres will receive names, a relative education, training as soldiers and lots and lots of food, which would explain why so many tyrants come from families.

The hierarchy of the ogre family comprises a number of groups with decreasing levels of importance. First there are the founders, which are the ogres who originally created the family. Then there are the elders, who are the the members who joined the group after it was formed. Then there is the first generation, the first bunch of children the family chose to take care of from an early age. Then comes the second generation, and then the third, and so on. Once the founders die, and if there was no elders joining before it, the authority is passed onto the first generation, which will in turn pass the authority to whichever elders or generations came first, and so on.

The major difference that occurs in the ogre's family is the trust and love shared between all the members. In our empire, it is expected of children to love their parents, even if they are horrible people, and vise-versa, as well as the relatively common member who will do everything in his or her power to become the head of the family. With ogres in the other hand, if any member of the family turns out to be aweful even for ogre standards, the member will be immediately beat up and forfeited from the family, and any member that does not feel comfortable in the family is free to leave or join another family. This leads to ogre families sharing an absolute trust and love towards the rest of the members, forming a powerful structure within a tribe.

Even Gnoblars can find their place in ogre families; in fact, it is very common for wealthier families to secure themselves a number of Nurse Gnoblars, and all families will have an amount of Gnoblars to tend to their needs, of which some will even receive names as a display of affection. For a Gnoblars, nothing secures survival as much as an ogre family; if they are accepted into their ranks of servants, they will secure for themselves security, leftovers and shelter, which are the only things a Gnoblar needs to make a living, as well as a higher chance of becoming a preferred Gnoblar to an ogre or ogresse.

To deliver better understanding of ogre families and their diversity, I will note down a number of families that I came across during my research in their tribes.

In the Goldtooth tribe, I found a family of ogres that had been founded by a now diseased Irongut and a Girl he had decided to take care of. After a number of years the girl went off into far Cathay and came back as a renouned Maneater. She them became the head of the family and adopted a vast number of whelps after her parent's death who are now Ironguts for the Goldtooth's and often march to war along Greassus himself.

In the Feastmasters tribe, the Tyrant - Blaut Feastmaster had been borne into a family founded by the previous Tyrant who ruled and his beloved. When Blaut became old enough, he and his parent - the Tyrant -  had grown so close, that the Tyrnat decided to become a Maneater so that he would not have to fight his boy, leaving the head of the tribe free. Then Blaut through sheer strength fought all other bulls who thought themselves worthy of the throne, and proclaimed himself the new Tyrant. After his father died fighting in Lustria, Blaut adopted his parent's second name - Feastmaster, and renamed the tribe with it.

In the Blu'Stones tribe, a family that had been founded by two little round ones held tall statues of the two founders outside the family hut, now long gone, in honor of their feats in war. This family is no well respected in it's tribe, and raises ogres strong and able for war.

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See what I did there Noctis?


There you go Grey Templar, your dream has come true - This family structure will allow for such situations to happen.
The thing about this system not working without Gnoblars will be looked at in a later chapter which will cover major changes that happened during the migration.

Makes more sense now. Nice stuff.

Sorry about taking so long to post more stuff, I had a guest using up the computer room. 

Chapter VII
Gender Roles

As has been previously mentioned, male and female ogres don't have much of a physical difference when it comes to acts of brutality. The main differences between genders are found in the roles they commonly take within their tribe. As a starter, it should be stated that there is no such thing as tradition or morality to incite these social differences, they happen purely due to convenience.

Ogresses will commonly take on roles that do not require them to stride too far from their home, so that even during pregnancy they will not become a burden to the tribe. These roles are commonly hunting, scavenging, agriculture (the term here referring to the ripping of anything green that might have managed to grow in the mountains), ripping apart meat from bone, building huts, taking care of the odd herd, etc... While these are more common for ogresses, male ogres are thought not less for taking on the same tasks.

Due to the fact that male ogres have no need to remain close to their homes, they will take on the roles that require long hours of striding the valleys, taking them many days away from their tribe. Such jobs can be exploring, diplomacy, and most popular in their culture; war. To this end, male ogres are commonly found to be slightly more resilient and aggressive than the females, and it is the harsh environment of war that brews the potential tyrants and bruisers. Like the roles of the ogresses, the roles that take place away from home are also popular among females, so in the end gender roles are a very diluted concept for ogre culture.

Enjoying this quite a bit. There's only one thing that bothers me. If ogre children are essentially completely helpless for the first 8 years of their life, how can the ones abandoned in caves possibly survive long enough to become gorgers? I guess it might be possible if they are sufficiently thin enough to actually move around, but still. What do you think?

Good point Ranokin, I honestly hadn't thought about it. , but it can be fixed.

In the case of a whelp born without a paunch, though they still have feeble bones and muscles, the missing organs change the structure of the young-ling, making it able to begin to learn  motor actions such as walking before normal whelps due to the fact that they need not wait for their limbs to out-grow their belly.

A bit of a stretched explanation... 

Hello. I know I haven't been updating this for  quite sometime, so I felt the obligation to inform people of the reason.

I recently acquired the new army book, so no new posts will come until I've read through it so I can make sure not to clash with GW's fluff.

Thank you all for your interest and patience.

Chapter VIII
The Taming of the Elements

Ogres can hardly be classed as a civilization when observed through technical and ethical eyes; Although they do gather in groups called tribes, their culture holds very little native origin, with most of it being a crude combination of the western world's culture mixed with what little they brought with them from the east. The way I would describe the ogre kingdoms would be an obese child: The growth of their numbers and the development of armies and hierarchy not a product of their social evolution, but rather of the influence of the greater empires surrounding them, from whom they have either stolen or traded with. Were it not for the brutish and resilient nature of the creatures, they would probably be one more of species such as giants.

As such is the nature of the ogre kingdoms, they still to struggle against the odds commonly faced by young civilizations: the taming of the elements. The 'elements' as they are referred to in this chapter are the natural circumstances and basic resources needed for progress. To be specific, the elements would be: Water, Weather, Fauna/Flora, and fire.

While their bodies are built to withstand the most fierce of circumstances, the Mourn mountain range has conditions un-imaginable to people who live in the comfort of our cities. The extreme cold faced during the winters holds the lives of many ogres in it's freezing grasp. During this most un-forgiving season ogres struggle to find appropriate shelter for all the members of the tribe, and many times the weaker members will be beaten out into the cold and left to freeze. Even tyrants sometimes see themselves forced to share their great huts with it's tribes people. As such, during autumn, the tribes will head out into the wild in great hunting parties looking for the greatest of beasts, who can provide meat for the winter, as well as strong bones and thick leathery skins; two common building materials used by the kingdoms.

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I ran out of time, so I will have to edit this to finish it...

Continuation to Chapter VIII

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The rest of the seasons are not as harsh as are the winters, but the spring does signify a period in which the tribes will need to work harder than usual to recover from three months of ice and death.

The Fauna and Flora of the Mourn mountain range is known to be of an extreme nature; yet many don't stop to think about what makes this such a difficult environment for life; the food chain. In any common environment the chain will be simple - herbivores eat plants, carnivores eat herbivores, hunters eat anything, and once dead, all feed the plants - But what of those lands were the land offers not grass nor fruit?

The vegetation of the mountains is of such little nutritional value, that only a select group of creatures can process the stone flavoured product. These creatures are commonly tremendous in stature, since they are the bottom of the food chain, and in their shoulders lies the pressure to support a ravenous environment riddled with predators of the highest calibre. The ogres are not within this group, so they must compete for supremacy amongst some of the greatest beasts the world has ever witnessed. Any civilisation would be crushed to dust by the mere presence of the beasts; all mighty and all willing to kill on sight, yet the Ogres are a match to this relentless environment - destroying anything that is of no more use, and eating anything can be found. This does not go to say that ogres have tamed their environment; if they inhabited any other they would consume without pause until naught would be left but themselves, yet in the mountains their numbers are kept at a relative limit by the infinite perils.

Water is not an issue for Ogres; they obtain their liquid sustenance from the fresh and bloody meat they love to feast on, and in case of thirst, Ogres are more than happy to have a big gulp of snow. Fire on the other hand is a whole different subject.

Fire for ogress is a resource as precious as the need for leadership. It is an element that can bend steel, ruin flesh, and erase cities; it is something that consumes and leaves nothing behind - it is a living child of the Maw to the Ogres. Fire is used for many rituals, and for the preparation of meat for the feast; it is used to light the night and bring the sun into the deepest caves; it gives warmth and joy to be around it - it is precious. The keepers of the flame are the Butchers; the secret is passed from master to student of how to create from the spark to the fire, and of how to use it for any and all purposes. It is one of the many attributes that places them on a pedestal amongst the rest of their kin.

In conclusion, the elements still pose a threat to the kingdoms, but the kingdoms are slowly overcoming them through sheer force and might; a might that will see them through many winters, above any beast, and beyond the nature of their homes.

Chapter IX
Gnoblars

The gnoblar is the creature at the bottom of the food chain in the mountains of Mourn; that they can scavenge a living in their thousands is nothing short of a miracle. The Gnoblar faces an infinity of predators in it's habitat that would drive normal humans insane; mournfangs, mamoths, daemons, thundertusks, chaos dwarves, wolfs, and even ogres, to name but a few. Yet the Gnoblar stands as one of the most numerous of the greenskings, plaging every corner and every crack they can find in the mountains. From north to south they spread, either as slaves for the chaos dwarves or servants of the Ogres, taking many different roles to fit into the society they suck from.

This is a report on the chores and lives of these creatures. The information was gathered through observation and enquiries to the creatures (a task that proved nigh-imposible).

Chapter IX.I
Ownership
Ogres have a custom to claim rule over one or more Gnoblars. These are marked in the name of their master, and other Gnoblars will have them on a higher regard. the respect gained depends on the owner of a Gnoblar; for example, if a Gnoblar is owned by a random child, it will receive almost no regard, but if the owner is the Tyrant himself, then the Gnoblar will be regarded even above bulls. If an owned Gnoblar should die, then it's master will take care of making justice; an example of this is found in the story of 'When Bolgut Fell Ill', which shall be described at a later date. Other than respect from peers, and a sort of social security, Gnoblars become very much like good friends and pets to the Ogres. They will entertain their master in boredom, feed him or her in hunger, care for them in sickness, revel with them in health, and some will even fight with them in war. Being creatures that share so much of their masters life, Gnoblars are known to resemble their masters in many ways after a number of years of servitude.

Chapter IX.II
Fighters
A relatively common type of Gnoblar is the Fighter, which marches along the Ogre lines, to aid in battle. These Gnoblars are commonly owned by Ogres that make their office in war, such as Bulls and Ironguts. Like their masters, these Gnoblars grow larger and more aggressive than their peers; some even learning how to wield a sword. When their masters march to war they will readily group themselves under the command of veterans and march towards almost certain death. Of course, there are some Gnoblars without owner that join the ranks of the fighter; in fact for an un-owned Gnoblar, the fighter might be the way to go if they hope to be respected even in the smallest fraction.
When I interviewed a Fighter to know about why he would choose to march to war, the greenskin replied; "well, ain' it clear? ay can eat as much as ay can, kill as much as ay can, take as much as ay can! its parodise, tha's why!"

ChapterIX.III
Trappers
Gnoblar trappers are commonly outcasts of their tribe, who scavenge a living through cunning and quickly learning to hunt small creatures. Trappers are indeed mischievous creatures; obsessed with playing pranks on any who approaches, and daring enough that they will take their chances fooling an Ogre just to get a merry laugh. These defiance to their condition keeps only the strongest alive to tell the stories of the Trappers. Amongst Gnoblars, Trappers are as hunters are to Ogres; admired for their solitary aura, and envied for their skill to kill. Trappers use a variety of methods to tease and kill their prey; pointy bones, rough bows, broken glass, bear traps, stone axes and small blades are favourites amongst them. Yet as important as is the skill to slay swiftly, even more important is the ability to hide and set traps. Trappers use a variety of different techniques with which to lure prey; some hide within a wolf's carcase, others clamp bear traps to their feet and begin to cry out in agony to attract predators, some even manage to get their hands on a juicy piece of meat that they are willing to risk in order to get a bigger one. These Gnoblars also march to war readily, I supposed to try and make up for whatever crime led them outside of their home, but when asked, they replied; "To make up? For wha'!? I ain't never done nothin' wrong!" After that sentence, the whole group shared a hard-bellied laugh...

ChapterIX.IV
Torches
Torch Gnoblars are members of an unlucky group owned by Leadbelchers; the marksmen of the ogre kingdoms. Leadbelchers are ogres with a strong love for gunpowder and explosions, and use their Gnoblars to help them cause havoc in battle. Torches have many tasks around the canons of their masters; when not in use, they are tasked with polishing them (inside out - literally), hammering dents, scavenging ammo (such as broken weapons, silverware, boulders or the odd cannonball) and grinding powder. In battle they are charged with helping to reload, spotting targets, and lighting the canons. Torches have a livelihood based around loud bangs and fire, and as such they are mostly as deaf as bricks and severely burnt to black. It took long to find one who had enough heating left to answer my questions, and the reply that I received was nothing short of unexpected.
"WOUL' AY LIKE ANYTHING BE'ER THAN THIS!? ARE YE JOKIN'!? BEING A TORCH IS DA BEST! I MOVE A LI'LE SHINY STICK, AND AY CAN BLOW A HORSE TA SHREDZ! I AM GOD!" the reply I received was mostly screamt through the creature's burnt lips.

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Once again, this Chapter will have to wait to be finished at a later date.