The Bloodgorger Clan is a clan of Green Orcs in Inner Castanor led by Chieftain Zog Bloodgorger. The Bloodgorger Clan was one of the prominent orcish clans in The Greentide. They were known for their brazen berserkers who would ceremoniously hunt down strong animals and drink their blood. This ritual bounded animal spirits to their will and allowed them to enter primal rage in battle.
History[]
Pre-Greentide[]
Little is known about this clan from the times before the Greentide. A few things that can be said for sure is that the deep and complex rituals of the clan have appeared long before the Greentide, which must be indirect proof of its rich history. However, the written sources of Seprentspine of this time are lacking and doubtful, mixing facts with fiction.
Chieftain Zog 'Redmist' Bloodgorger was the leader of the clan, when Korgus proclaimed his divine heritage. The sources say that the two entered personal combat, and despite calling to the spirit of the various animals in battle Zog was not able to overwhelm the Child of Dookan. Documented narrations of this battle are widely overblown, contradicting in both scale and length, agreeing only on one - the victory of Korgus was clear and sound. And it earned him support of the Chieftain of Bloodgorger Clan.
Greentide[]
During Greentide the clan served as the advance guard of the invasion, accompanying Korgus to the heat of battle in every war. The most notable of them was, of course, battle of Rottenstep. Even shot by Marchers’ bullets, the Bloodgorger berserkers did not stop fighting, falling breathless from blood loss only after taking several Marchers with them.
This bravery and recklessness were their strength, but also their weakness. A year later, during the battle of Castonath even after Korgus’ death, many berserkers continued to fight in the battle lost and were put down like mad dogs by adventurers. Their leader, Zog Bloodgorger, fell in that battle as well. Clan retained only a small portion of its warriors, all thanks to the actions of Gurzan, son of Korgus, who gathered remnants of the clan around Castonath and retreated to the ruins of the city of Elderlan, making them a new clan’s base.
This action saved the clan from oblivion and the Bloodgorgers quickly elected Gurzan as their leader. But to truly become their chieftain, he first himself needed to become a Bloodgorger.
Gurzan Bear-Heart[]
In order to prove himself to the Bloodgorgers, Gurzan had to perform a ritual hunt. Equipped with nothing, but a ritual two-handed axe, Gurzan hunted down a giant direbear Grizzlemaw, the decades old terror of Ederlan. Grizzlemaw would take his eye and half his arm. Gurzan would take the beast’s heart. In doing so, Gurzan was born again as Chieftain Gurzan the Bear-Heart of the Bloodgorger clan.
Without much manpower to spare, Gurzan, son of Dookanson, had to rely on cunning to solidify the position of his clan among the Green Orcs. He sent out orcs to other clans, to not let fame of his father die, and encourage the growth of the cult of Korgus to bind clans back together, while the memories of Dookanson are still fresh.
With its generations-old reputation for might and bravery, Clan Bloodgorger had long held the respect of other clans, especially that of traditional clans like the Bladebreakers. It was this respect, combined with his now famous ascension to chieftain and growing popularity of his father’s cult, that enabled Gurzan the opportunity to gather leaders of the surrounding clans on the 4th day of Silversight. The day he picked was one of great significance that was not yet lost on the other chieftains. Decades ago, on that very day, the Greentide first emerged under the command of Korgus.
The details discussed between Gurzan and the other chieftains have been lost to time, but what is known is that this would not be the last time they would meet; for a seed had been planted. A seed that whispered a promise - a new Greentide was coming.
New Greentide[]
One of the first to react was Laurens sil Place, the leader of Sword Covenant, who were the first to feel the strike of the new Greentide. Sword Covenant suffered major defeat, which pushed Laurens to delve even deeper into dark mages, starting to kill and harvest souls of every orc who crossed his path. In secret, he and the rest of the Sword Covenant made their way to Ionntras.
Lothane made a call to the Marcher Lords to unite under Corin's banner once again, but many of them were caught up in fighting with local orcs and goblins, not answering his call. A small help was sent by Sons of Dameria and Order of the Ashen Rose as Lothane's close allies, but no more than that. However, he did get help from his other friend - Arosha Oakshield has united Clouded Eye and Dogeater clans under her rule and brought their force to Lothane's aid, when fellow adventurers let him down.
Together Laurens, Lothane and Arosha pushed their way into Inner Castanor, defeating Gurzan's Advance Guard in the battle of Southgate. Second Greentide was put to an end in the second battle of Castonath in 1472. Like his father twenty years prior, Gurzan crossed his blades with Lothane and Arosha. In the middle of the battle Arosha cut off his hand and forced the orc to run for his life, together with the rest of his defeated army As Gurzan made his way out of the ruined city, he crossed his path with Laurens sil Place. With one spell, the human ended the wounded orc's life, harvesting the soul of last Korgus' son for his grim collection.
End of the Bloodgorger Clan[]
With the death of Gurzan, the Bloodgorger clan vanished from the historical sources. The clan was decimated in the second battle of Castonath, and held no more influence over the rest of the orcs. Many of their former allies sworn their loyalty to Arosha instead, allowing her to rise as new leader of orcdom and leading to proclamation of the kingdom of Unguldavor a few years later.
The remaining members of the Bloodgorger clan, who avoided capture, joined bigger clans, quickly losing their identity over less than half a century. Already in the 17th century the Bloodgorgers are mentioned like nothing more than a scarecrow for human children.
Culture and Customs[]
Most famous aspects of the Bloodgorger culture were fury, blood and spirits. While Green Orcs in Greentide times are well-known for their ferocity, Bloodgorger clan elevated this to a completely new level.
For an orc to join the berserkers of Bloodgorger clan, it was not enough to be born into the clan or fight well. Those who wished to call themselves Bloodgorger had to follow the clan’s tradition, tracing back to the times the clan lived in Serpentspine. Alone, the orc had to find a ferocious beast and slay it with nothing but their bare back and one of the clan’s famous two-handed axes. Should they survive victorious, they were to return to the clan with the blood of the kill. There they were to drink the crimson liquid in ritual with a shaman. If the orc was worthy, they were said to consume the spirit of the slain beast and gain its might in battle.
Some sources of that time claim that there is truth to these claims and that blood magic was quite advanced in this orcish clan. Besides binding spirits of animals, there are records of members of this clan also drinking blood of humanoids, binding their souls to their will and gaining prey’s strength and knowledge. While this ritual is certainly magical in nature from a modern point of view, orcs did not see it as shameful or dishonest. That was a unique application of the ‘rule of strong’ - if old owners were not strong enough to protect what belongs to them, the orc had their right to claim it if they proved themselves stronger. Be it goods, people or even their souls.
But the orcs of the Bloodgorger clan did not let the bodies of their prisoners go to waste. Bodies, with bite marks and souls drained from them, still were able to walk and obey commands. They served as simple workforce to the Bloodgorger clan, unable to perform complex tasks, but still useful in setting up camps or dirty work. These soulless husks were called kolbods, the ‘dead bodies’.
Despite multiple sources of this practice existing, it was not something common. The Bloodgorgers considered drinking blood of enemies their way of showing respect, admitting enemies' strength. Drinking blood of deserters, non-combatants or weak fighters was considered a sin and own blood-muddling - because by drinking blood of the weak, you yourself became weaker.
A lot of sources on the Blood Magic of the Bloodgorger clan are coming from Esthili papers, which might suggest that Esthil's own study of magic used a lot of knowledge of this clan, most likely studied from slaves and prisoners, caught by the mages.
Legacy[]
Despite being short-lived in it’s dominance, the Bloodgorger clan managed to leave its mark that can be traced to this day. Mostly, it is connected to their last Chieftain, Gurzan, son of Korgus. In his effort to bind orcs together, he created several celebrations and customs, which survived to this day.
With his encouragement his tribe at first, and then eventually most of Orcish tribes in Escann started to mourn Korgus' demise on 11th of Nerament. On this day orcs gathered around the rivers throwing broken chains and mushrooms in the waters of lakes and rivers. Chains served as symbols of Dookan and Korgus, while mushrooms referred to the life in the caves that they left behind thanks to Korgus. With the spread of Corinite faith, the chains and mushrooms were replaced with wooden swords, and Korgus mourning was replaced with the mourning of Corin.
After that Gurzan slowly started to introduce more and more celebrations, aimed to bind orcish clans together, as they were under his father, but not through force and authority, but through soft force and common bonds and enemies. During the Suren month orcs gathered for ritual celebrations around Silvermere to show their appreciation of the new home, given to them by Dookan. That led to eventually orcs renaming Suren among themselves as "Korgoshak", Korgus' Gift. With the fall of Greentide and Unguldavor taking leading positions as the bastion of orcdom, the month was renamed to “Roshak”, trying to distance it from Korgus’ legacy.
Grim reputation of the clan lead to Escanni people creating stories of Nightgorgers - fearsome monsters of the night, that assault and devour anyone who is unlucky enough to be on their way in the night hour.