Urzud Factions
by John CalvinMogre Bale
When the disaster hit, the main keep of Uthorrad was charged with arcane energies, transforming many of its current inhabitants. Uthorrad’s general, Mogren Balfor, and many of his top lieutenants, saw the catastrophe coming and were able to complete a ritual transforming themselves into techno-liches. Most of the other Blackmoorians were not so lucky. A majority of them were slain by the arcane energies released, but a few did survive as lightning zombies. Many of the active warforged seem to have been unaffected by the disaster and remain loyal to Mogren (now Mogre), although something strange did happen to those warforged who were coming online at the time of the arcane backlash. These warforged awoke with darker demeanors and bony spikes and horns growing through their armor. Transformed in both mind and body, many of these “darkforged” have fled the central keep to live among the humanoids in Urzud.
Techno-liches: While Mogre Bale himself remains steadfast in his mission to wipe the beastmen off the planet (an attitude which may exceedingly be applied to anything non-Blackmoorian), many of his lieutenants have shifted their priorities over the centuries following the Great Rain of Fire. Only a handful of these creatures remain, with some keeping to their crusade, some wanting to dominate the beastmen, and some wishing only to flee Uthorrad and escape Mogre Bale’s embrace.
Lightning Zombies: Those Blackmoorian soldiers that survived the catastrophe, did so as lightning zombies. Although technically ageless, their numbers have diminished over the following centuries due to violence or accidents. Most have no allusions that “Blackmoor will rise again” as Mogre Bale constantly declares, but there is nowhere else for them to go. A small number of them dreams of making a peace with the beastmen one day, but their chances are limited.
Greater Undead: Some of the lightning zombies have transformed over the years into forms of greater undead (either through sheer willpower of their own, or by the hands of one of the techno-liches). Most of these greater undead are loyal to their techno-lich masters, but a few have wandered far from the central keep (into the depths of the Shadowdeep and beyond) in search of a new purpose and meaning to their unlives.
Warforged: Like the lightning zombies, the warforged were all former soldiers in the Blackmoorian crusades against the beastmen. Also like the zombies, their numbers have diminished over the centuries and have not been replenished. Most are content to stay at the posts and carry out their duties, though some chafe at the disdain that Mogre Bale and the other Blackmoorian leaders view them.
Darkforged: These warforged were created at the moment of the catastrophe, and most have since fled the central keep to live with the beastman populace. There they are greatly valued by warriors looking for intel on the central keep.
Undead Hordes: To replenish his forces, Mogre has been collecting the corpses of fallen beastmen and animating them as his servants. He and the other greater undead under his control have been building up an army of zombies and skeletons in order to bolster the defenses of the central keep. One day they may burst forth to try and retake Uthorrad.
Black Roc Wokani
The Black Roc Wokani are A group of secretive and terrifying beastmen mages, based out of the Roc's Nest in the central city. These wokani mark themselves by wearing jet black feathers in their headdresses and robes, and are one of the few groups who can enter the sacred ground of the central city freely.
Graaw: Graaw is a warg* skinshifter that spends just as much time in the form of a raven as he does as a warg. In fact Graaw and his apprentices are masters at changing their shapes, those in the know are wary of watchful animals in their presence, fearing they may be spies of the wokani or even his servants taking different forms. Graaw has some influence over Wawrag’s clan, though the warlord himself hates the wokani.
In his natural form, Graaw drapes a black feathered cloak over a wizened and emaciated canine form with chalk-like skin and sparse patches of white fur. Bone charms and fetishes strapped to his torso are interchanged with rattling totems made of Muur. Graaw has spies throughout the city, and across the land, reaching both the southern and eastern seas. He is the most likely of the Black Roc Wokani to treat with outsiders, though his real goal is conquest of the central keep and the plundering of its secrets.
*A warg is a wolf-like humanoid. Use stats for a gnoll. This line will eventually transform into modern day worgs.
Tallog: Half of Tallog’s face and a good portion of his left torso, were burnt to a crisp after a failed attempt to usurp power from his wokani master. Barely alive, the mortally wounded beastman crawled into a hole hoping to find a quiet place to die. Instead he found a shining jewel calling out to him in many voices. Placing the jewel in the ruin of his left eye, Tallog found renewed vitality… as well as a surge of arcane power.
The jewel, a fragment of a Blackmoorian heirloom brooch, just happened to contain the combined souls and knowledge of the Vandamien family, a powerful house of mages from ancient Blackmoor. Now their spirits compete for control of Tallog’s body, shifting goals and allegiances like a leaf blowing in the wind.
Malyn: Tall and wiry, Malyn is one of the few Black Roc Wokani who walks the streets and back alleys of Urzud openly, her black, feathered headdress fully proclaiming who and what she is. Less concerned with delving into the secrets of the central keep, Malyn instead spends her time studying trinkets and artifacts from the old crusade, and slowly feeding important discoveries to the Muur Smiths. She is always accompanied by at least 5 Muur Smith bodyguards, and can draw on even more of their clan if the need arises.
Malyn seeks to gain control of the central keep by gaining control of the city itself (with the help of her Muur Smith allies). While she relies on her allies to keep her safe, she is no slouch when it comes to combat, and her magical prowess compliments her natural strength. Malyn is known to always carry several blackmoorian artifacts on her person, though what they are or what they do is a mystery.
Others: There are at least a dozen or more Black Roc Wokani in Urzud, all with different goals and abilities. Feel free to flesh out the group to fit your campaign.
Ragar's Horde
One of the first hordes to form from a “true” breeding species of beastman, Ragar and his orcish followers have faced many challenges in Urzud. Less than half the orcs in this horde are related by family or tribe. Most are orcs born to beastmen that have been shunned by their original families.
Ragar: Born to beastman parents, Ragar is one of the oldest orcs in Urzud. He knows that his time is ending, and that a younger generation of orcs will unseat him soon, but nonetheless Ragar focuses all of his energies into strengthening his horde and creating a world which will one day be dominated by orcs. His skin is stretched and splotchy, sometimes making him appear as little more than a corpse, but his eyes still shine brightly with an inner flame.
While he cares little for the scheming shamans that surround his horde, Ragar sees them for what they are - a means to strengthen his own position in Urzud’s humanoid hierarchy. Openly he pays lip service to the Tuskers, and is welcoming to the Dark Pact cultists that have begun taking root in non-beastman populations, but in truth if he thought he could maintain control without them, he would.
Hoorgun: Chief shaman of the Tuskers in Ragar’s Horde, Hoorgun is blessed with a rotund girth, and a double row of tusks protruding from his lower jaw. Like many of the orcs in Ragar’s Horde, Hoorgun had a miserable childhood, and takes extreme delight in making any non-orc suffer. He is extremely sadistic when it comes to dealing with beastmen, and rumors abound that the Tusker inner sanctum is constantly seeking new victims for their sacrificial altars.
What Hoorgun lacks in subtlety, he makes up for in gross brutality. With this tactic, he has been pushing his way into the inner council of the Dark Pact cultists, attempting to sway the rest of the council to follow his lead. Unfortunately for Hoorgun this has had the opposite impact that he originally intended, and every single member of the Dark Pact is actively plotting his death.
Tuskers: These orcs are led by Hoorgun, and follow the teachings of the Tusk God - a dark figure whose adherents preach that orcs are the pinnacle of humanoid development, and that Hel’s old beastmen lines are doomed to extinction. This has not endeared them to the entrenched priesthood of Hel.
Press Gangs: In recent years Ragar’s followers have become more forceful in filling the ranks of their horde. Orcish agents often abduct orc younglings born to beastman parents, and spirit them away to join the horde.