The world

The valley

Orkhold is a northern valley, closed in by mountains, with a river running through it. A hundred years ago the orcs raised their greatest stronghold there, the Orkhold: "the Orc Hold" in their tongue.

The last orc king died without an heir. The clans killed each other over the throne and the stronghold was abandoned. What is left today: ruins all over the valley, bands of kingless orcs and, beneath the ruins, the catacombs where the kings lie buried with their treasure.

Ten years ago settlers started arriving from the south, drawn by the valley's iron and by rumours of the treasure. They founded a village on the river bridge: Grey Ford. The settlers are the players.

In the village square burns the Ember: a fire the orcs lit when they founded the stronghold, and which has never gone out. Whoever falls in the valley wakes up next to the Ember. Nobody knows why. That is why nobody in Orkhold quite dies, and why nobody treats a fort raid as a war.

The Law of the Ford

Every settler keeps what they bring back from the valley in their own fort, in the Eastern Lands. Treasure attracts thieves.

The Law of the Ford was signed so settlers would stop killing each other for real over treasure: whoever enters another's fort and finds what they hid takes a share. The raided settler does not lose the fort: the Ember raises the fallen walls again.

Whoever defends well gets paid. The attacker pays a fee on entering, and if they leave empty-handed, the fee goes to the defender.

A kingless orc serves whoever pays. That is why fort defenders are orcs: they take payment in old orc coins, the only thing they respect.