Timeline[]
Early Kingdom[]
| Era | Year | Significance/Description |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | 1AA - 28 AA | A True Giant city crashes into the Serpentspine amidst mass starvation among the ogres. Local tribes converge on the area and consume the inhabitants. As the giant corpses begin to run thin, the scavengers turn on each other and fighting breaks out among the ruins. Ghornma Gravelhide, chieftain of the Gravelhide tribe emerges as the sole ruler of the city. He declares himself Mengur’m, with the surviving chieftains bending the knee to his rule. His power consolidated, he turned his forces outwards and began the conquest of the nearby tribes. At the time of his death, the core lands of Maghargma were under his control. |
| 43AA | He is succeeded by his son Moghar Gravelhide. Moghar continues his father’s campaigns, with a renewed focus on controlling the Valak river. | |
| 55AA | Moghar finalizes his conquests up to Krotushtef. He spends the rest of his reign consolidating the realm. | |
| 65AA | Moghar Gravelhide dies, succeeded by his son, Otnug. | |
| Military Reforms and Expansion | 70AA | Otnug is killed in a brawl that breaks out in the feasting hall of Maghargma. Leadership falls to the nephew of Moghar, Nargh Gravelhide. Raised as a warrior, upon taking the throne Nargh immediately gathers a host and marches eastwards to the border regions between the ogres and centaurs, marking the first conflict between the ogre state and their centaur neighbors. The initial battles of the campaign result in pyrrhic victories at best, with the slow and undisciplined bands of ogres being easily outmaneuvered by centaurs on open land. |
| 72AA | Receiving news of a rebellion against his rule by tribes discontented with his lack of progress. Nargh pulls back his forces from the frontier and crushes the rebels. With his power once more solidified, he introduces a semblance of battlefield organization and tactics into the military. | |
| 73AA | The following year, Nargh sets out again into the frontier, newly-reformed army in tow. Where before the height of ogrish battlefield tactics consisted of the warchief pointing in a direction and ordering an all-out charge, Nargh succeeded in bullying his inferiors into organizing themselves into somewhat amorphous formations. Now able to more efficiently organize battlefield maneuvering, Nargh’s reforms proved highly effective in combating the centaurs. | |
| 75AA | Nargh succeeds in pushing out the centaurs, extending the boundaries of the kingdom out to Ghavatalur. | |
| Ogre Mountains Consolidation | 101 AA - 104 AA | A centaur horde forms and invades the whole of the Ogre Valley. The disorganized tribes of the north quickly find themselves on the back foot. Meanwhile, the armies of Maghargma, experienced in fighting centaurs, were able to more or less hold the line against the horde on their eastern border. Sensing an opportunity, Mengur’m Bezog called for a meeting of all the ogre tribes. At the gathering, Bezog called for a grand alliance of all ogrekind. In exchange for protection from Maghargma, the remaining tribes would swear fealty to the crown. While a great many tribes agreed to the deal, the wild tribes inhabiting the forests of the north refused the bargain, confident in their natural defenses. By carefully picking his battles, Bezog leads the unified ogre army to victory after victory against the centaur horde. The battles are hard-fought, but by 104AA the last warbands of the horde are pushed out of the Ogre Valley. |
Shatha Motsa Period[]
| Era | Year | Significance/Description |
|---|---|---|
| Maghargma Civil War | 121 AA | Bezog dies, rule falls to his son Roghrin. Envoys are sent out to the new subjects of Maghargma to collect tribute and oaths of loyalty. Sensing weakness in the new ruler, the chieftain of the Spinebreaker tribe orders his men to butcher and serve the royal envoy as a feast as it arrives in his lands. As news of the incident spreads, the Spinebreaker chief calls for a rebellion against the “tyrannical” rule of the Gravelhides. Many tribes answer the call, and a civil war splits the subjects of Maghargma in half. |
| 125 AA | After 4 years of war, Roghrin Gravelhide emerges victorious, striking down the chieftain of the Spinebreakers in personal combat. In the ensuing peace, the tribes of the south are dissolved, being placed directly under the rule of Maghargma. However, with their coffers and armies alike depleted by the incessant fighting, the crown is unable to reestablish rule over their old allies against the centaurs. During the conflict, the Kelaktar (fortified city) of Olkhalebur also managed to break away from centralized rule. | |
| Creation of the Shatha Motsa | 126 AA | Ruling over such large swathes of land proved to be untenable for the fledgling administration of Maghargma, so the solution was reached to delegate control of areas surrounding the capital to the most loyal of the royal supporters during the war. Meanwhile, a smaller-scale conflict breaks out among the now-free middle tribes. The new chief of the Spinebreaker tribe proves himself and his realm to be the mightiest among them, and is able to strong-arm the establishment of the Shatha Motsa (middle-land) confederation. The following centuries would see relations between the rival powers remain icy; both would encourage small-scale raids across their border, but neither wished to commit to another full-scale conflict. |
| Establishment of the Tributary System | 151 AA | Reports of a centaur tribe moving into the border regions of one of Maghargma’s subjects reaches the capital. An army is gathered in order to repel the oncoming invaders, but when the forces arrive they are met with no resistance as they approach the largest of the centaur encampments. With the ogre host halted mere miles outside of the main body of centaurs, a pair of mages are able to utilize illusion magic to communicate across the language barrier. The centaurs identified themselves as members of the Silver Cloud tribe, and offered goods to the lands of the ogres in exchange for protection from their rivals deeper into the plains. Unbeknownst to the centaurs, what they had on offer was of far greater worth to the ogres than they had anticipated; herds of massive wooly rhinos. Such an animal was far too nimble to be properly tamed by the ogres, but were easily herded and subdued by the mobile centaurs. Also included were exotic parts from elusive beasts from across the plains. The Mengur’m’s acceptance of the bargain marks the beginning of the Maghargma tributary system. |
| 151 AA - 171 AA | Rumors of the tributary exchange between Maghargma and the centaurs of the Silver Cloud spread among the centaurs. Increasingly large groups of centaurs head for the border regions in hopes of striking a similar deal. Most bring material goods, but two particular items stand out from among the rest. First, some bring slaves from raids against the Triunic peoples or less frequent Kukatodic incursions, marking the first contact between Maghargma and a human population in centuries. Second, all bring warnings of a gathering storm to the east: a massive horde is beginning to form in the heartlands of the plains. | |
| First Horde War | 172 AA | The ogres are called to make good on their promises of protection. The horde, led by a shaman by the name of Rhaeku, had fully consolidated the central plains under his control, and turned his eyes to the growing number of refugees on the border of the ogre kingdom. Personally leading his host into battle, Rhaeku’s army is smashed against the combined forces of the ogres and their tributaries. In the aftermath, many of Maghargma’s allies abandoned their tributary obligations now that the plains were once more safe to roam. |
| Olkhalebur Struggle | 291 AA | Long having stayed independent by playing the ogre domains to their north and south against each other, the Kelaktar of Olkhalebur was one of the biggest winners of the booming Valak river trade, with the iron deposits surrounding the city forming the basis of the region’s primary export. Both Shatha Motsa and Magharghma wished to take the city for themselves, and soon an opportunity would present itself. A pro-Shatha Motsa faction within the city would attempt to launch a coup against the isolationist Wallbuilder chieftains. The revolt was ultimately a success, with the old ruling family butchered and served in their own feasting hall. Though the triumphant faction immediately set about petitioning for entry into the confederation, relatives of the Wallbuilders were busy in the halls of Maghargma promising servitude to the Mengur’m should they be restored to their rightful place. Both Maghargma and Shatha Motsa march their armies out to the city to press their claims, and after multiple days of fierce fighting the Maghargman army is able to claim victory. Olkhalebur is subsequently folded into the Maghargma dominion. |
| Greatfist Coup | 354 AA | Moshag Gravelhide takes the throne in 340 AA, and rules with a soft hand, ushering in an unusual period of peace among the southern ogres. However, as the peace drags on, tribal vassals referring to their ruler as Moshag “the Lean'' (a grievous insult in ogre culture) becomes ever more common. As tensions reach a boiling point, a group of truculent ogres storm the palace and challenge the Mengur’m. Though Moshag puts up a surprisingly tough fight given his reputation, one of the challengers eventually strikes him down. Their leader, Glutog Greatfist, immediately declares himself the new Lord of Ogres. In order to cement his rule, Glutog immediately demands a drastic increase in centaur tribute to be paid in goods, slaves, or flesh. Many tribes are unable to meet the new extortionary demands of the ogres, and are decimated by the “flesh tithe” imposed upon them. As the iron fist of the ogres tightened on their tributaries year after year, failure to deliver on tribute obligations would only grow more common over the following decades. |
| The Great Feast | 400 AA | As Glutog’s successor Rhogu takes the throne, the first years of his reign are met with the near total failure of centaurs as a whole to deliver upon their exorbitant tribute requirements. Wishing to uphold his father’s legacy of a hard approach to his tributaries, Rhogu declares that a great feast of centaurs will be held, revoking all prohibitions on attacking centaur tributaries and trading partners to the east. Striking with unprecedented aggression and hunger, the horde of ogres utterly demolish the largely unprepared centaurs. Thousands of centaurs are taken captive and served as the main course in a kingdom-wide feast. |
| 410 AA | With the frontier still almost completely depopulated from the great feast a decade earlier, the tributary network that had been providing for a large portion of the ogre mountains had almost completely vanished. As food shortages worsened across Maghargma, panicked tribes began to withhold their tribute to the capital. Eventually, Rhogu is publically murdered by his brother, Ozmog, in a fashion much similar to his own coup a decade earlier. Assuming leadership of the weakened kingdom, Ozmog personally visits chieftains that are behind on tribute; those who fail to fall back in line are challenged to personal combat, and many are slain at the hands of the new Mengur’m. |
Unification of the Valley[]
| Era | Year | Significance/Description |
|---|---|---|
| Leadup to Unification | 431 AA | An especially large and well organized raiding party crosses into Maghargman territory from Shatha Motsa. They strike hard and fast, devastating the border tribes before the royal seat has the ability to react; by the time an army arrives to repel them, the raiders have already slipped away. |
| 432 AA | Centaur tribes begin to trickle back into the depopulated regions along the frontier. Still reeling from the raid the year prior, Mengur’m Tugrot Greatfist approaches the most powerful of the centaur tribes with an offer: raid the Shatha Motsa and we’ll allow you to graze your herds in these lands without harassment. The bargain sees widespread acceptance among Maghargma’s new neighbors. The ensuing decades see relative calm along the Maghargma-Shatha Motsa border, as the confederation busies itself defending against the new centaur threat. | |
| 499 AA | Over 60 years of constant harassment along their eastern border strains the Shatha Motsa to a breaking point. A grand conclave is called in the Kelaktar of Upralbazur to determine the future of the confederation in the face of such adversity. After many sleepless nights of debate, intrigue, and multiple outright brawls, it is determined that all the assembled tribes would be given a span of 8 years to prepare, after which time an all-out invasion would be launched against Maghargma and their centaur allies to end the threat of outside encroachment once and for all. | |
| Second Spinebreaker War | 507 AA | The 8 year preparation window comes to a close, and the drums of war beat throughout all of Shatha Motsa. One of the largest hosts of ogres ever before seen assembles in Veghilmogh and marches south. Such a large movement of manpower could hardly go unnoticed, and Mengur’m Mokran assembled a host of his own. Having had much less time to prepare, the ogre contingent of the Maghargma forces alone would have been soundly outnumbered by the invasion force; however Mokran also had the centaurs on his side, and with their contribution the two armies were of approximately equal strength. When the two forces finally met, what followed was one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the Ogre Mountains. The battle would come to be known as the Battle of the Rotting Plain; so numerous were the corpses by the end of the fighting that the remaining survivors were physically unable to consume them all, leaving the rest to rot. (To ogres of that time, to rot away was seen as a great desecration upon the body and soul. Many today still believe that the site of the battle is cursed by the corrupted spirits of the rotten warriors.) As the dust settled, it was clear that the royal forces of Maghargma had carried the day. Their will broken and their armies depleted, the surviving chieftains of the Shatha Motsa bent the knee to the Mengur’m, marking the end of the confederation. At the same time, Maghargma was nearly bankrupt, and had nowhere near enough troops to maintain order throughout the whole of its new lands. On paper it may have appeared that the civilized ogres had finally been united under a single banner, but in reality the Battle of the Rotting Plain marked the beginning of one of the most decentralized periods of rule in the history of Maghargma. |
| 513 AA | War breaks out amongst the centaur tributaries to the Mengur’m. When the ogres are called upon to fulfill their obligations to their subjects, the centaurs receive only silence in return. With the ogres’ weakness now revealed, the centaur tribes openly repudiate their relationships with Maghargma. | |
| Reign of the Glutton King | 621 AA | Far away from the machinations of power in Maghargma, a mage of immense potential by the name of Almokh takes power in the kelaktar of Loethrklerd. With an appetite to match his magical prowess, he commands his troops to begin raiding the surrounding territories. However, where most ogre raiding bands seize only the strongest and most fit for their prisoners, Almokh’s raids leave their targets completely desolate. The endless stream of captives flowing into Loethrklerd soon becomes alarming enough to elicit a response from the capital. None of the envoys sent to the city return, further enraging the Mengur’m with each successive attempt. Finally, the decision is made to send the royal army north to deliver an ultimatum, led by Mengur’m Dako himself. However, by the time they reach the kelaktar, they find it completely deserted, save for a single inhabitant: Almokh. Engorged on thousands of victims, yet still hungering for more, he turns his immense power onto the approaching army. They suffer heavy casualties, but are eventually able to reach the walls of the city under the cover of their surviving abjurers. As they breach the gates, Almokh’s trap is sprung, and thousands of reanimated ogre skeletons descend on the battered royal forces. Only the Mengur’m and his honor guard are able to make it to the tower from where Almokh is commanding his defiled army. Engaging the mad mage in hand-to-hand combat, a tribeless ogre finally manages to strike him down, but only after the Mengur’m had been dealt a mortal wound. In celebration, the remaining army proclaims the hero the new Mengur’m, dubbing him Waeruk Magerender. Consuming the corpses of both Almokh and Dako, the ogres back in Maghargma City are quick to recognize his rulership, fearful of the power he is believed to now possess. |
Imperial Period[]
| Era | Year | Significance/Description |
|---|---|---|
| 693 AA | Taeshurg’s invasion in Triunic Lakes ends in catastrophe, leaving a massive power vacuum amongst the centaurs of the Forbidden Plains. Sensing an opportunity to once more assert the authority of the ogres within the plains, Mengur’m Rhojlot Magerender assembles an army and marches east. To every centaur tribe they encounter they present an ultimatum: bend the knee, or be destroyed. The demands placed upon the centaurs that submit are far more exorbitant and one-sided than previous iterations of ogre-centaur agreements, save only to the Greatfist tithes in the 4th century AA. | |
| 760 AA - 769 AA | The new network of centaur tributaries continue to languish under the demands that they are placed under. Generations pass, and the tribes regain their strength, and begin to forget the circumstances that brought them to this point. As an ogre envoy arrives at the encampment of the Splintered Horn tribe, a charismatic huntsman named Emren Mountainvoice rallies his kinsman and ambushes the envoy on their way back to the capital. Word of the insurrection spreads, and tribe after tribe joins the cause of “the Liberator.” Determined to make the ogres pay, a massive horde of centaurs drives straight to the heart of the kingdom, besieging the City of Giants itself. The royal hosts are caught completely unprepared, and are forced to retreat inside the city walls. Numerous ogre tribes answer the call to defend the capital, but they arrive piecemeal and are quickly done away with by the freedom fighters. As supplies dwindle, and the survivors within the city contemplate a suicidal charge into the centaur horde, a massive ogre army crests a nearby hill, led by the chieftan of the little-known Stoneheart tribe. As the capital had held out, the Stonehearts had assumed leadership of the remaining forces of the kingdom. Their charge down the hillside breaks the now-trapped besieging army, killing Emren in the process. The centaur army scatters in the aftermath, and is easily tracked down and defeated in the following months. As a reward for their valor, the Stonehearts are awarded a swathe of land north of the capital. |
Wild Clan Resurgence[]
| Era | Year | Significance/Description |
|---|---|---|
| First Incursion | 806 AA | An especially harsh blizzard sweeps through the north, lasting for months on end. While the tribes under the protection of Maghargma are able to last it out with the support of their less-impacted southern neighbors, the wild ogres fare far worse. As the weather finally abates, the wild ogres are seized with the same suicidal hunger that led had led to the doom of the Sandmaws. Convinced that only the dregs of strength left in the blood of the residents of the City of Giants could save them from their predicament, a horde of crazed ogres poured out from their forests, heading directly south. Unprotected herders and outlying villages along their path are annihilated, though the kelaktars are left largely unmolested. By the time the horde reaches the imposing walls of Maghargma City, they are starved, encircled, and depleted from cannibalistic infighting. Though they are quickly crushed by the royal army, the psychological scars left on the kingdom’s populace are much more enduring. |
| Butcher Wars | 808 AA - 849 AA | Following the wild ogre incursion, the ruling Magerender dynasty saw a massive hit to their legitimacy in the eyes of their subjects. Long long relegated to the fringes of power, the leaders of the Spinebreaker tribe saw their chance to reclaim their former glory as the foremost members of the Shatha Motsa. Through bribes, threats, and old familial ties, the Spinebreakers rally nearly half of the nobility in the Ogre Mountains to a faction bent on deposing the Magerenders in favor of a ruling family that will actually protect their subjects. In the spring of 808, they gathered their forces and marched on Maghargma City to press their demands. Needing to prove his own strength, the Mengur’m marched out at the head of his own forces. As the battle lines met, what started as disciplined formations soon dissolved into disorganized pockets of brawling ogres. By the time the dust had settled, the claimants from both sides lay dead on the battlefield. As the two armies retreated to their camps, the battle clearly a stalemate, the gravity of the situation began to dawn on the surviving combatants: for the first time in 800 years, the throne of Maghargma was empty.
The subsequent decades would see what have been dubbed “the Butcher Wars.” Without any single favored claimant to the throne, the tribes would all vie to install their own chief of Maghargma. By the time peace returned to the Ogre Mountains, a total of 14 different dynasties would have claimed dominion over Maghargma City. Though the fighting was done by the chieftains, the brunt of the cost was borne by the common folk. Some will attest that the victorious Roundgut tribe was able to attain their position through the tactful conservation of their resources until they could strike a decisive blow, while others say that they were simply lucky to take the throne when they did. Regardless, when Kenesu Roundgut took the throne, no power remained in the Ogre Mountains to oppose him. |
Great Skurkokli War[]
| Era | Year | Significance/Description |
|---|---|---|
| The War | 977 AA | In the centuries that followed the first wild ogre incursion of 806, the defenses that had been built to prevent a repeat had fallen into disrepair. However, starting in 970, northern tribes were increasingly menaced by raids of ever-increasing viciousness; a typical encounter leaving a single survivor alive to spread news of the coming storm awaiting the “soft bellied weaklings'' of the south led by great chief Kolk Fleshmaw at the head of the Great Clan of Skurkokli. As the winter of 977 rolls around and the kelaktars close their walls and batten down for the cold, Flsehmaw makes his move. With the settled ogres cut off from calling for aid by the cold, Skurkokli armies simultaneously strike a number of cities, quickly breaching their gates and decemating their populations.
The newly-united Wild Clan is driven by an extremist outgrowth of the Iskerag Vulshor faith shared by all Fathides. While the civilized Fathides still do believe that consuming the strength of others is a necessary practice to maintain one’s own soul, their wild brethren had twisted this concept to believe that it was their moral imperative to consume everything lesser than them, their first target being the ogres of the south. The chieftain that united them, Kolk Fleshmaw, was determined to consume the entirety of the Maghargman nobility, who he thought to still possess dregs of the strength of the giants. In his mind, the Gravelhide founders of Maghargma squandered the opportunity that the crashed Sky Giant city provided them; the blood of the giants was spread thin amongst the surviving ogres, when it should have been concentrated in the gut of an ascendant ogre king, capable of leading ogrekind to claim their rightful dominion over the world. With the kelaktars of the north broken under their might, the Skurkokli armies continued south, with a renewed focus on the city of the giants itself. The main body would travel down along the banks of the Velak river, splitting off tribes to raid east and west into the ogre heartlands. For each settlement captured, the nobility would be rounded up and delivered directly to Fleshmaw. As of 978, it seemed as if nothing would stop the advance of the Wild Clan. By Yshdament, the bonfires of Skurkokli were visible from the battlements of Maghargma City. As the Roundguts and their forces prepared for a last stand, developments were unfolding in the Skurkokli camp. While feasting on conquered ogres with his subjects, Kolk lost his appetite. Minor gut wounds sustained while he led his forces had begun to take their toll, scarring on the inside of Kolk’s stomach made eating in large quantities difficult and painful. What may have appeared as a minor annoyance to an outsider, was a devastating blow to everything that Fleshmaw’s legitimacy relied upon. At first it was merely rumors and whispers amongst the Skurkokli warhost, but as time went on, minor rebellions and defiance grew increasingly common. On the night of Ydashment 23, Fleshmaw called another war council to make an announcement. His siege preparations were complete, and Maghargma City would be assaulted in the morning. It was there that a group of dissatisfied chieftains vocally dissented, instead desiring to continue to pillage and feast on the developed countryside to the fullest. The dissent soon devolved into shouting and personal insults; not soon after an outright battle broke out in the feasting hall. When the dust settled, Kolk Fleshmaw lay dead on the ground. As the gravity of the event settled upon the minds of the surviving chieftains, only further chaos would ensue. Fleshmaw was effectively the only thing holding together the disparate wild ogres, and without him each tribe quickly moved their own direction. Many splintered off to continue feasting upon the easy pickings outside of the city, while a small contingent made a halfhearted assault on Maghargma City as planned. Once again divided, the wild ogres were quickly isolated, hunted down, and defeated. In the chaos the body of Fleshmaw had disappeared; though no one could determine its fate for certain, chieftains of the wild tribes would claim to descend from those that consumed his power for centuries afterwards. Though the conflict was nominally a victory for Maghargma, the population of the Ogre Mountains had been utterly decimated, and the legitimacy of the Roundguts was in tatters. Maghargma as a unified state would effectively cease to exist in the centuries following the Skurkokli War. |
| 990 AA | In the cultural and economic malaise surrounding the fallout from the Skurkokli War, a faction within Maghargma city would begin to coalesce around deposing the ruling Roundgut dynasty for their weakness in the war. In their place, the plotters aimed to install Kerag Mountaincrusher as the new Mengur’m. The coup was executed quickly and efficiently, though it did little to solve the issues plaguing the ogre kingdom. | |
| Return of the Gravelhides | 1185 AA | The elderly Mengur’m Kojal Mountaincrusher dies without an heir, leading to yet another succession crisis within the City of Giants. Amongst the subterfuge and outright violence between contenders for the throne, a dark horse candidate emerges at the forefront of the politicking: a distant descendant of the venerable Gravelhide family. Thought to have been driven extinct in the Greatfist coup of 354, remnants of the family had in fact escaped deep into the mountains to the north of the capital. Though there was no way to definitively prove the legitimacy of his claim, the dominating physical presence of Taarg Gravelhide was enough to cow most challengers into acquiescence, those who still chose to fight against him were quickly killed in personal combat. In just a few short months he would be crowned as the new Lord of All Ogres. |
The Bloodletting[]
1204 AA - 1233 AA: Following the Battle of the Open Skies, the Triunic coalition takes the opportunity to raid further into centaur land and seize great deals of wealth for themselves. Consequently, what little centaur tribute that Magharagma still controlled fell to a centuries-long low. When a drought struck the Ogre Mountains in 1206, resource scarcity in the kingdom erupted into a region-wide free-for-all battle for survival between tribes.
Throughout the conflict, the numerous tribes of the ogre mountains would begin to coalesce into much more significant power players:
- As the fighting dragged on, opportunist centaur tribes took the opportunity to launch raids along the eastern border of Maghargma. In response, the Mengur’m issued a proclamation granting full recognition and royal support for any ogres who would migrate east and settle the frontier. The promises were empty ones, intended to thin the population of Mahargma proper, but nonetheless effective. Starving and desperate ogres manage to establish fortified settlements under constant centaur attacks, surpassing all expectations. Impressed by their fortitude, the Mengur’m grants their leader the name “Strongrock.”
- The already-established Stoneheart tribe remains steadfastly loyal, and plays a crucial role in protecting the northern border of Maghargma proper from roving bands looking to pillage the more developed capital region. Furthermore, they were entrusted with the protection of the Valak river, being granted the trading Kelaktar of Krotushtef.
- The Steelgrinder family within the wealthy kelaktar of Olkhalebur seize control of the majority of mining and smelting operations within the city amidst the chaos. Where before individual firms were supplying weapons to whomever had the coin for them, the Steelgrinders were quick to sign an exclusive arms deal with the capital in exchange for an expanded domain and monopoly rights on Olkhalebur iron.
- The Chainlords of Onathalkir would similarly seek to carve out their own monopoly amidst the flames; but instead of iron, they would make their fortunes from flesh. While many of the other ogre tribes were busy fighting each other, the Chainlord family constructed a massive slave trading scheme. Tribes low on manpower could buy the services of the many slave armies of the Chainlords in exchange for transferring the ownership of all the buyer’s slaves to the Chainlords. The land allotted to Achtejardon was not conquered by the Chainlords during the Bloodletting, but instead was purchased directly from the crown in the aftermath.
- The kelaktars in the northern reaches of the kingdom faced near total depopulation as their food supplies continued to dwindle. When it seemed as if all would be lost, the typically reclusive and outcast tribe of zealots known as the Doomhungers made a proclamation to the surrounding kelaktars; their stores and silos would be open to all who would accept their authority and rededicate themselves to a life of piety and preservation of their souls. Many ogres would flock to their banner, establishing the Doomhungers as prominent powers in the region.
- The venerable Spinebreaker tribe would do what they do best: wage a brutal campaign against all of their neighbors. With all the guile and grace of a greatclub, the Spinebreakers were quick to establish dominance in their corner of the Ogre Mountains. The brutality exhibited by their warriors brought about a strange paradox within the Bloodletting, the lands of the most violent tribe were some of the most peaceful throughout the conflict, as their campaigns left few able or willing to stand against them.
1233 AA: With the whole of the Ogre Valley teetering on the edge of total systems collapse, the Mengur’m calls a council together with the six most powerful chieftains within the de jure territory of Maghargma. The administrative structure of the kingdom would be reorganized around the six Great Clans, with Maghargma ruling over them. Under the new system, clans would have much greater power and autonomy under the crown than the previous tribal system had. However, by establishing the clans as intermediaries between the tribes and the crown, the realm as a whole could be governed much more efficiently, and threats to stability addressed much more effectively. Emerging from the council in a rare moment of harmony amongst ogres, remaining belligerents would be quickly dashed against the might of the new royal army.
The Centuries of Opulence[]
1233 AA - 1440 AA: With their internal threats seemingly done away with, foreign policy could once again be directed out into the plains. Unburdened from internal distractions, Maghargma was once again able to establish an expansive tributary network spanning large swathes of the Forbidden Plains. The lords of Maghargma believed themselves invincible. These ~200 years would come to be known as the Centuries of Opulence. Though blessed with relative internal peace (save for the occasional border skirmish between clans), the administration would suffer from increasing corruption; subjects increasingly shirked their duties, and the military would lag behind.
1440 AA: Centaur invasion of Maghargma.