The White Orcs of the North
Location: Continent of Brun, Hyborean Steppes, north of the Zuyevan Empire and the Midlands. WB
Area: 6,000 sq. mi. (15,540 sq. km.)
Population: 160,000 white orcs with a number of other monsters including a particularly nasty ice demon (Kazukarzash). The white orcs are also allied with local dire wolves, which they train as hunting companions. There are perhaps 50,000 dire wolves in white orc territory. Roughly 50,000 humans live in white orc territory in a besieged river valley known as Azganizband. These Azganiz people are descendants of an offshoot of the great Yevo Antalian migration of the second millennium BC.
Languages: Orcish (Graktur dialect).
Coinage: None. Barter is the norm.
Taxes: Whatever the ashakturs exact in tribute from their vassals would probably count as taxation of a sort.
Government Type: There are six principal clans, each led by a war leader called an ashaktur.
Industries: Iron mining, basic crop farming, warfare and weapons production.
Important Figures: Each clan is led by an ashaktur (war chieftain). Occasionally, if the white orcs feel it necessary to band together to face a major threat, or if they just want to engage in widespread destruction and looting of human settlements, they will meet at Furkash to elect an angrashaktur (supreme war chieftain) to lead the armies.
Flora and Fauna: In the southern steppes, tall, hardy grasses predominate, which, in the short summer months, provide the white orcs with marginal croplands (primarily wheat and barley). As one progresses northwards, or towards the foothills of the Endworld Line, the plains give way to hilly country, dotted with stunted shrubs and coniferous trees. Here, blueberries and raspberries manage to grow during the brief summer. Towards the east of the white orc territories, forests begin to predominate, though these are still conifers.
In terms of animal life, this region is home to several herds of elk and deer, as well as caribou towards the north. In the eastern woodlands, the occasional moose can be found. On the open steppes, many varieties of hare, lemming, and fox make their home, as well as ptarmigans. In addition to dire wolves, larger forms of animal life include polar bears (in the far north), grizzly and black bears (in the eastern forests), and lynxes. More exotic animals include white dragons in the far north, and atop the higher peaks of the Endworld Line in this region, and small herds of woolly mammoths, again in the far north.
Further Reading: Previous almanacs.
Last Year's Events: Thanks to the
worsening of the weather in the region propagated by the ice demon Kazukarzash,
the orcs of the White Death Clan were emboldened to the point of conducting a
daring raid into Douzbakjian, killing the king and possibly leaving the kingdom
open to Hulean expansion or further orcish raids. The orcs also extended the range of their raid all across northern
Brun, from Klagorst in the west to Zuyevo, Douzbakjian, Hule and even Sind and
Glantri in the depths of winter