A Brief History of the Ourok

The history of my people is perhaps the longest of all the peoples of the world, but here I will be focusing on three periods in particular: the First Conquest, the Decline, and the Second Conquest, followed by a brief description of the transition to our society's current iteration. This essay will hopefully be a useful tool for educating those non-Ourok who take interest in our culture and history.

 

The First Conquest began when a great warrior named Azahina the Warmother began uniting the disparate Ourok tribes of my own homeland: the Eastern Continent. It is said that at some time prior they had been forced out of their holy land by the High Elves who they had shared the Oro Forest with. With the full force of a united people, she managed to do what was thought to be impossible and drive the Elves into a remote corner of the vast forest, where they were forced to learn to hide their settlements with illusion magic.

 

Azahina's thirst for war was not slaked by the Elves, and the turned her attention to the east, where she began a campaign that would last long after her ascension to godhood. It was during this time that the Ourok formed what could be considered our first civilization. Azahina enacted policies to develop agriculture to feed her soldiers, trade routes between tribes to transport supplies, and generous welfare policies to spread the spoils of war evenly amongst the tribes, so that even those unable to swing a blade could reap the fruit of conquest. Morale was high, victories were numerous, and before long nearly the whole continent was dominated.

 

With her empire established, Azahina was revealed to be the Goddess of War, and her title of Warmother was passed along to a highly decorated hero of the war named Katerina, who had won the hearts of the warriors she fought alongside. Katerina gave up her birth name to symbolize that Azahina herself was acting through her. It was after her death that the Decline began.

 

The First Warmother decided that her title would be passed down through honorable combat. A Warmother would be expected to accept duels throughout her rule from warriors that the church of Azahina deemed worthy. If the challenger won, they would surrender their own name and take on the mantle. This tradition continued for the next thousand years, gradually producing less and less competent leaders.

 

During times of plenty the church would vie for more direct control over the Warmother/father by approving more duels from challengers they believed would be easier to control. This meant that popular and independent leaders did not last long, and public faith in the position waned over time. When the endless war turned against the Ourok, the Warfather of the time eliminated much of the public charity that had persisted from the time of Azahina's reign in order to better support the flagging military. At the same time he introduced an Ourok currency so that the tribes could trade amongst themselves, mimicking a primitive practice of the conquered. Tribes with plentiful resources produced strong warriors who in turn brought great wealth to the tribe. Less fortunate tribes struggled to feed and train their young, leading to weaker warriors who perished on the front lines. Morale in the military dropped as vassals were lost one by one and the flow of wealth into the empire slowed to a trickle. The Ourok people despaired, and it did not take much for one man to turn their rage against their rulers.

 

Verthag was never a warrior. He learned to fight as all young Ourok did, but he suffered from a poor constitution that left him unfit for the military life. Fortunately he found that his interests were more academic in nature. He studied philosophy, economics, and politics, and he became known in his tribe as a wise and learned man. This knowledge served him well as a trader; a job which allowed him to travel to the many Ourok tribes as well as the remaining subjugated regions of the empire, where he continued to study. He came to believe that Ourok society would need to be majorly restructured if they were to survive the slow collapse of the empire. Verthag began spreading his ideas during his travels, telling anyone who would listen that the end was neigh and if they had any chance of surviving, they would need solidarity. The warriors and laborers of the empire needed to demand to the Warfather with one unified voice that the eternal war that was the foundation of their society needed to be brought to a close. Over the next decade his ideas spread from tribe to tribe, and each battle lost brought the Ourok empire closer to full-on revolt.

 

When Verthag's ideas reached the Warfather, he was promptly hunted down and thrown in prison for sedition. On that same day, the Warfather announced a new conquest against the people of the southeastern swamps, who had thus far never been challenged by the Ourok empire. What followed was a humiliating series of defeats that saw the greatest number of Ourok casualties in the history of the empire. Our people had finally had enough. The furious warriors of the Ourok army joined the poverty-stricken tribes in a revolution that began with the freeing of Verthag and ended with the death of the Warfather. Verthag agreed to lead the restructuring of their society, and under his instruction the empire began its Second Conquest.

 

Verthag was a genius when it came to trade, and soon the Ourok nation's sphere of influence enveloped even more of the world than Azahina's empire at its height. For the first time, Ouroks sailed beyond the shores of the Eastern Continent to establish trade routes with distant lands. (As an aside, I've learned recently of a short-lived Ourok trade colony on the Southern Continent, or Xengus Sud as it is known to the locals. Unfortunately it drew the attention of the god of beasts, Xengral, and it's unknown if any Ourok stuck around.) Verthag did away with the Ourok currency, preferring to barter with foreign nations using physical goods rather than coin, as he had observed that the introduction of coin had led to the practice of lending money to those in need and then demanding it be returned with interest, on penalty of imprisonment. He ended the tribal system by asking each settlement to specialize in a particular industry. Each Ourok would be surrounded by those that shared their passions rather than strictly their blood. He distributed the fruits of these industries among all the settlements before trading away what was left over. When all was said and done, the new Ourok nation was much smaller than before, but it reached further than it ever had. It wasn't until after Verthag's death that his divinity was revealed, and the Ourok people decided that he would be their last ruler.

 

Of course anybody reading this with a passing knowledge of our people knows that things have changed since those days. We have returned to some of the old ways since Verthag's passing, living in small communities often centered around family units, while still specializing in the production of a small variety of goods. We have lost contact with our cousins overseas. We have returned to living in the places of the world that are too hostile for most other races to fight us over. We serve Azahina by training our young to defend their homes and caring for the least of us, and we serve Verthag through the pursuit of knowledge and industry. A history bookended by gods. We Ourok are a fortunate people.