The Isles of Nuz’dag

The Isles of Nuz’dag
The Isles of Nuz’dag is home to hostile and treacherous biomes, plant life, and species. These species include Boars, Ettins, Ogres, Trolls, Dire Wolves and primarily Orcs with even more monstrous creatures residing in waters surrounding the islands. The Orcs history has brought ceaseless bloodshed even from their earliest days. As it is commonly known, Orcs are notorious for fighting amongst themselves, this derives back from their early history.

Early History
It is said that the first Orcs emerged here, at Nuz’dag. These first Orcs formed the first Orc Tribes. During these times, these tribes constantly fought each other in an attempt to dominate the entire archipelago. These soon proved to be inconclusive and completely futile, as they always found themselves pushing each other back, gaining little to no ground.

The Murder Grounds
This all changed when a mighty Orc known as, Murzol Bloodtooth gathered all the tribe leaders to Ozgokh, the center island. Murzol motivated these numerous warlords by showing his faithful weapon, an Orcish relic forged in blood and fire, blessed by the divine's, the terrible warhammer known as, Earthbreaker! The sight of this relic inspired the tribes of Nuz’dag and they believed that this was a sign that Murzol’s plan promised great bloodshed. Murzol’s plan, also known as the murder-grounds were spread through word of mouth, all around the entire civilization until they all finally gathered at Ozgokh. There, the Warlords demanded Murzol to elaborate on his plan.

Murzol explained to the warlords and their fellow tribesmen that, here on his land, all will fight an all-out battle to finally settle who had the true birthright, to rule the Nuz’dag isles. As Murzol hoped, they all agreed eagerly unanimously. Each tribe gathered one hundred of their greatest warriors including their Warlord, and as planned they began to fight. They would fight until only one Warlord was left standing.

So, the Murder Grounds began. The Orcs piled onto each other viciously beating each other in the most savage of ways; some even resulting in using their bare hands, shattering bones and punching out teeth. Some even mistakenly attacking their own tribes members in the ferocious conflict. During the fight a lighting storm arose on the battlefield. The Orcs believed that the Orc divines approved of the blood they shed.

Murzol had failed to consider the fact that his considerable advantage wielding Earthbreaker, would also be one of his greatest disadvantages. The other warlords, including Groth of the Spine Splitters and Gra’gon of the Storm Riders, acknowledged the threat that Murzol was to their chances of succeeding, coming to the conclusion Murzol was a primary target. Despite this, Murzol managed to kill three other warlords before the conflict devolved into a one on one duel between Murzol and Groth.

In the Duel, Murzol was beginning to sense that his strength was waning, and Earthbreaker had suffered considerable damage in the fight. Groth could sense Murzol’s confidence dwindle, but Murzol knew better than anyone that this battle was all or nothing, this moment could change the future forever.

The two titans began to brawl once more, Bloodied and battered. Their weapons clashed each hit making tremors, inspiring the other Orcs to cheer and chant louder. Suddenly, as Murzol had feared, Earthbreaker began to fatigue, until finally, it shattered. When the weapon shattered it discharged an extreme amount of energy, knocking the other Orcs to the ground only to eagerly stand again to witness how this brutal fight would end. The two warlords would now result to hand-to-hand combat, concluding in Groth knocking down Murzol with an uppercut. Groth stepped over to him and decapitated Murzol with one of Earthbreakers fragments. With Murzol’s severed head he showed it to the other Orcs and took it as a trophy, along with the fragments of Earthbreaker.

In the aftermath of the Murder Grounds, the Spine Splitters were  proven to be the true rulers of Nuz’dag and Groth would be remembered as the Praetorian of Ozgokh. As by Murzol’s pact, the other tribes were exiled. Each Tribe that had lost, made their voyage in search for their new home, knowing that it could be their last. Many tribes were lost to the treacherous seas and sea monsters. The Spine-splitters continued to rule the majority of the Nuz’dag isles to this day.

Before the Stormriders left on their deadly voyage, an Orc by the name of T’orn Stormrider, son of Gra’gon Stormrider, looted the remains of the Earthbreaker, this enraged Groth. The Spine-splitters resent this even to this day. The weapon could have made a considerable difference during the seemingly endless War of Nuh’dunga that would occur years later. If Groth and his tribe had reforged the hammer for themselves, they could have been one of the most powerful civilisations in the realm.

Modern History
The modern Orcs of the Nuz’dag Isles, no longer resemble your typical orc. These Orcs more resemble the Goliath species standing from 7 to 8ft tall and are barbaric even for Orc standards. Tales tell of people going missing, dragged way to Orc ships and brought to Nuz’dag to be enslaved or to be thrown into “the pit” for Orcish entertainment, which his held at their capital island, Ozgokh. The Orcs fight a seemingly endless conflict with the Ettin, known as the War of Nuh’dunga.

War of Nuh’dunga
For many years the Orcs of Nuz’dag have been at war with the Ettins just as much as they have been at war with themselves. Needless to say none of the Ettins were pleased about this as they were to some extent a peaceful race only staying to their island and bickering amongst themselves over small things such as loot and food.

The Ettins could never devise a strategy, as the constant bickering amongst their own conflicting split personalities, and other Ettins made it impossible to co-operate. That is until Nuhdug realised how clever he was. Unlike the other Ettins, he had three heads, as opposed to two! Not only that, but his three heads worked in unison, due to this, he had outsmarted every Ettin that had tried to take is food and loot, by either talking to them into confusion or predicting the simple movements of a normal Ettin, and following up with a swift devastating blow and taking as minimal damage as possible. Most fights often lead to the other Ettins not even getting a single strike on Nuhdug as he would use the terrain to his advantage such as taunting angry Ettins to close to precarious ledges and watching them fall hundreds of feet whilst all three of Nuhdugs heads laughed in unison as the Ettin explodes in a glorious gory fashion upon impact with the ground. It’s this kind of cunning that allowed Nuhdug to rise to power. The three heads of Nuhdug decided that becoming the first organised ruler of the Ettin species, would allow him to become the ruler of all of the Nuz’dag isles the fastest.

Doing this was simple for Nuhdug as it seemed. Persuading another Ettin took minimal effort, as the other Ettins were not as smart as him, getting them to agree to Nuhdugs ideals worked flawlessly. This had never been achieved in Ettins history before. Nuhdug proclaimed to the Ettins that if they were to listen to his orders and make him in charge and promised that if they did, they would be able to defeat the Orc’s. The Ettins, already under his control at this point, let out great cheers and held a massive feast and Nuhdug made himself the first crowned Hill King. Under Nuhdugs rule, the Ettins began to push back the Orc’s out of their homeland and renamed the island, Nuh’dunga, named after Nuhdug himself. They were able to claim ground back because, Nuhdug could devise strategies unlike the other Ettins. Nuhdug was able to organise Ettins into groups and standard formations, instead of random Ettins wandering into a group of Orcs to their doom. The Orcs were not prepared for this, as they had never seen this level of intellect from a tribe of Ettins. Within a few short months Nuhdug and his army of Ettins, took back the whole of Nuh’dunga. From that day forward, the Orcs learned to never underestimate the wrath of Ettins.

The legend of Nuh’turt
After they had taken the whole of Nuh’dunga, they then set their sights on the smaller islands that  surrounded the island. The only issue was, they had no way to get off shore. The Ettins being huge creatures, would sink the Orcs boats. To Nuhdugs amusement, a few of them tried, and failed. Nuhdug, in his ever cunning ways, told the Ettins to uproot lots of trees and to tie them all together to attempt to make a giant raft. They were then told to push it out to sea and ride upon it to the next island. This of course didn’t work, it sank and pulled the Ettin riders to their watery graves.

Not all of the Ettins drowned, a huge turtle-like creature was seen feasting on the helpless Ettins stranded and flailing in the ocean. It was a Dragon Turtle. This gave the genius Nuhdug an idea. He commanded the Ettins to gather at the coastline of Nuh’dunga and told them to wade through the ocean as far as they could (without drowning) and entice the Dragon Turtle. Beforehand, they were told to gather all the dead mountain animals they could find and all of their shiniest loot and make lots of noise to get the creature's attention. The terrible racket alerted the Dragon turtle, just as  planned, it surfaced. It became extremely confused. As it swam closer to the coast to investigate, all it could see was these strange two-headed creatures shouting towards it banging pots and pans together. The true plan of Nuhdug was revealed! When it was close enough to the beach, the Ettins ran to the creature and tried to get on the back of the Dragon Turtle. Some of them succeeded in climbing onto the back of the Dragon turtle, but the dragon turtle submerged into the ocean without any difficulty; dragging even more Ettin into the ocean, only to drown once again.

Nuhdug, in his infinite wisdom, realized that brute force wasn’t the way forward. He figured out that once again talking his way to success was the answer. He ordered the remaining Ettin from the last plan to gather all the loot on the island. He then bellowed out to the dragon turtle. The Dragon Turtle resurfaced and was wondering what the Ettin wanted. Nuhdug tried to communicate with the dragon turtle, but didn’t realize that he didn’t speak the same language. However they both did have one common interest, loot. The dragon turtle wanted the years of Ettin “relics” that had been amassed on the island and in exchange, the Ettins wanted to be able to be transported to the other island. Although no agreement was established by word of mouth they both came to the same conclusion and understood what each other wanted. Nuhdug dubbed the Dragon Turtle: “Nuh’turt”.

Now that the Ettins had a way of traveling on the sea, they now started to send small bands of Ettins to start fighting the Orcs on the smaller surrounding islands. This leads us to present day in which there is a constant war between the Orcs and the Ettins over the smaller islands surrounding Nuh’dunga.