Orcish fury

Orgrim was surrounded, his warriors had been ambushed by redguards from sentinel. He had retreated into a narrow pass his battleaxe hewing into redguard flesh with impunity.

He knew what was to happen, he knew there was no escape.

His back was against a rock wall, Gurz gro-Baroth and Borba gra-Rugdumph were still with him, having reaped a heavy toll in redguard lives. He turned to his last remaining companions, as the redguard warriors charged after them.

"I'm sorry, I have failed you both." he said with a tone of defeat.

"Nonsense" Gurz said, hefting his battleaxe onto his shoulder

"Gurz is right" Borba said, "We get to die gloriously now" she added, readying her shield and waraxe.

Orgrim smiled, as the redguards closed in. He prepped a powerful spell, and cast it into the redguard lines. The damnable warriors were thrown into the air and burned alive, as they were caught in the massive firewall.

"I suppose this is it," He said hefting his own enchanted battleaxe. His companions smiled and they all shook hands before readying themselves to unleash their most deadly ability, their birthright as the Pariah Folk.

a low growl came from each of them, building into a mighty roar.

Before their time was done, the redguards would feel the depth of orcish fury.

Orgrim's eyes were bloodshot, and his body shivered with rage.

"FOR ORSINIUM, MALACATH, AND KING GORTWOG!" he roared as he and companions charged into the redguard mass, their berserker rage giving them speed and strength unmatched by any other race.

The melee was furious, Borba and Gurz fought like heroes, and Orgrim wielded his massive battleaxe with one hand as he tore the redguards apart with magic and steel.

But even their rage could not stop redguard blades from piercing their bodies.

Gurz fell first, with Borba shortly behind. Orgrim felt the bite of blades but kept fighting, He was impaled by a spear but merely roared, grabbing the wielder's head and tearing it from his body. He pulled the spear from his gut and cast it with all his might, skewering a pair of redguards.

But it was not enough, his life blood flowed onto the dirt, and Orgrim fell, his armor ruined and his body a pincushion of blades.

I'm sorry Uncle he thought before the red darkness took him.

He awoke, surrounded by desert for miles. He had been in menevia, there was no desert there.

He looked at himself, he seemed to be the same, but he knew he should be dead. He looked to the wounds of the battle, and saw only jagged scars.

"Where am I?"

The heat emanating from the sun beating down on the golden sand below him would slowly begin to cook him alive. Waves of heat rolled off sand dunes, the grains shifting in the hot breeze that blew without relief. Of animals there was no sign. Only nature seemed to rule here. Harsh, hot and endless. A person would feel lost... would feel hopeless.

A stretch of sand rolled across the horizon, the haze of heat shimmering in the distance. From that heat, something began to take shape. A dark smudge that seemed to ride between the golden sands and the clear blue sky.

Slowly, it drew closer, the smudge beginning to be a smear, then a dash and finally a shape that shimmered and wavered on the horizon.

The trained warrior would recognise something approaching, and fast.

It was humanly shaped, though its colouring was beyond belief. A darkness surrounded it, tendrils seeming to flap in the air at its wake. A slender figure emerged and the colour was soon explained. It was swathed in clothing, black clothing.

A hood shadowed the figure's face at it came racing towards him. Its movements were sinuinely graceful, no energy wasted. Its speed was incredible and before he knew it, the figure had stopped before him - a few feet away - a complete halt that defied the previous movement of the figure.

There was no sound save for the wind whispering around the figure's ankles, stirring up small tendrils of sand that billowed attractively around the slender person.

The hood ended in a long cloak that enveloped the person. A long, rippling skirt of black peeked from beneath the cloak's hem. Slender, pale hands suddenly appeared, the fingers curving gracefully as they lifted up the hood.

A woman's face appeared. The curve of a smile painted faintly on her face. She did not seem at all winded from her head long rush at him. In fact, she held an almost amused expression. An eyebrow was cocked in question as well.

Her skin was the colour of smoothened alabastor. At odds with the heavy dark costume she wore. Her arms hung loosely at her sides, her fingers tapping against her leg, not in impatience. It seemed it was just an absent gesture.

When she spoke, her voice held a soft, soothing quality strangely mixed with a low undertone of menace. The menace seemed to just ooze from her, it was effortless on her part. But in her soft, warm brown eyes he could see that she did not mean it anymore than she meant to breathe.

"Welcome to the Vale, Stranger. I am called Wraith."

She did not extend a hand, rather a wariness had entered her gaze. But she smiled at him readily enough.

The big orc looked at the stranger. "Where am I? It feels like the Alik'r in Hammerfell, but i was in High Rock, not Hammerfell and I know I should be dead. If this the aetherius, i feel a bit cheated." he said looking around.

"I am Orgrim gro-Khaz, of Orsinium." He said, he jumped back, noticing that the words coming from here were not in orcish but in a language he had never heard, let alone spoke, but yet he understood, and had understood the mysterious woman when she spoke.

"Forgive my deportment, but I am a bit surprised to find myself in such a situation."

The woman quirked her eyebrow up at him once more and the amused curve of her lips became more pronounced. "My, you are a polite one aren't you?" she smiled, "That is good."

Then she shook her head, all wariness banished from her liquid brown gaze, "Do not worry yourself. You will make many blunders in this new world and I assure you, I am far too old to take offense to anything you say."

Then she waved a hand around, distracting him with the view of the desert around them while she extracted a small skin of water from beneath her cloak. "Here, this will refresh you. Drink sparingly, I don't have much." She handed him the skin.

"I do not know the names of the places you mention. I have not encountered them before, but I can assure you that you are in no place you have ever seen before. This -" she waved around again, "Is called Illusion Vale and I am what passes for a ruler around here. Actually I like to call myself the Caretaker."

She grinned, the menace that dripped from her voice dropped momentarily as she spoke of her beloved Vale, but soon returned with her other words. "Come, I should take you to the city. I'm sure you have questions. And you can be sure I will answer them."

Then she turned, her bearing obviously spoke of being obeyed as she moved onwards. She did pause to look back to see if he was following, but he would get a sense that she only made the gesture for his benefit.

Orgrim smiled and accepted the waterskin, he took a small gulp and handed it back.

"I made a point of perfecting my manners, My people are treated as uncultured barbarians and mere brutes. So i decided i would be perfect in etiquette, speak every Tamrielic language, and learn to wield magic as befit a battlemage instead of a shaman." Orgrim said, "Shall we away?"

(ooc) damnit all to hell, dan is at my house and used my computer and didnt tell me that he had signed me out. He's gonna catch a beating

She didn't bother to answer, using her actions as answer enough as she began to walk away, leading him across the desert.

"I assure you, you will not be treated in that manner here, but all the same, it is always a benefit to be so pleasant," her soft voice floated back at him.

"So, you have further questions? Or would you like to tell me of yourself?"

"I would like to know more about the other people here, do you have need of a battlemage? does magecraft even exist here? I attended a fascinating lecture about the possibility of other worlds through the fabric of the aetherius, I wish i could return and tell Archmage Ocato about this, he would be astounded." Orgrim said, "Being in a new world... i never imagined... in my wildest dreams" he said, seeming to be speaking to himself.

Wraith smiled to herself as she heard him mutter to himself. She was rapidly growing to like this newest addition to the Vale. He seemed to have an honest, kind and adventurious spirit. It was refreshing from some of the other confrontations she had been having lately.

"I think you will find this world interesting to say the least." A shadow fell across her face, "I cannot say for certain if you can go back, but it has not been possible for many years. I am trying to return those their homes however... it is slow going."

She shook her head and sighed, addressing some of his other questions now, "There is always room for one more Protector in this land. There are many savage creatures we need to tend to. Especially in there," she nodded in towards the west and along the horizon a dusty smudge could just be made out.

The closer they wandered towards it, it more it resembled a lush forest. Impossibly so, it would seem as the desert ringed the rainforest on three sides with a rocky mountain range looming on the fourth.

"Through there, is Vale City." She said proudly, unable to keep that key element from her voice. She was proud of her little community, saddened because she could not take care of them better, but proud she had brought them this far, at least.

"I dont' know about Battlemages, but there is magic here. Some of us can access it in abilities, some others cannot. You will most likely find that your previous abilities will either have decreased or disappeared completely here. I've learned that some merely need to be relearned, or others aquired." She shrugged, "I have never had an Orc here, so I cannot tell you, I am sorry. You will have to discover it yourself."

"It is most pleasant, although I am distressed to think i might not be able to touch magic anymore. I feel incomplete without it." he said. "Now that we've arrived, might i trouble someone for a pair of trousers? I feel a bit exposed."

Wraith laughed as they began to cross into the lush forest. It would be some time yet before they met up with 'civilisation' - at least another half hour.

"Yes, I will get some clothing fitted for you. In the meantime, there is someone near your size and I'm sure he would not mind lending you some of his,"

She mused and wondered if Akaron Corvus really would be that generous. Given his previous reaction to finding her a Vampire, Akaron had been having not a hard time, but a difficult one, getting rid of his old predujices - what with the enormous variety the Vale brought with it.

She shrugged delicately, "You may still be able to. I would suggest, however, if you do try, do it somewhere out of the way as these abilities are often more unexpected than not."

"I will endeavour to do so, I have some skill in smithwork, as all orcs do, should you require it. I am a fast learner, and i'll do whatever you have need of." He said, "Will we arrive soon?"

Wraith nodded, "We will be there soon. It is just through those trees -" she pointed at the lush rainforest that was just in view.

"I must warn you, stay to the path and you'll be fine. For a while, I would ask that you don't wander off on your own too often. Take another Valian, or I could escort you if needed. There are things in the forest, animals that you need to be aware of and learn to avoid."

She looked at him as she smiled, her powerful sexual aura seeping into the edges of his mind, "So, tell me of your world. I do not believe I have ever heard of it before."

He felt a strange pull on his mind, a tingle in his loins as well.

"My world is called Nirn. Nirn has, or rather had, 5 continents. Atmora, meaning "Elder Wood" in the Aldmeris, is to the north. Most of the humans came from there originally, but it is now thought to be covered in ice and uninhabitable. To the west was Yokuda, the original home of the Ra'gada, who we call Redguards. No one but they know what Yokuda meant, if it ever meant anything at all. They migrated some thousands of years ago, driving my people from our home. To the south is, or was once thought to be, Old Ehlnofey, from whence the elves came. Some say that it didn't actually exist, and is rather a mythical sort of "promised land" in the elven consciousness. To the east is Akavir, the "Dragon Land", home of many mysterious peoples, they have twice tried to invade Tamriel, "Dawns Beauty", the continent from whence I hail, but were both times driven off." he said as they walked.

"Tamriel is the home of the Tamrielic Empire, ruled by his Great and Terrible Majesty Uriel Septim VII, long may he reign, and I am from the kingdom of Orsinium, in the province of High Rock. My uncle, King Gortwog gro-Nagorm, rules Orsinium. He has fought for years to have Orsinium recognized as its own province, apart from High Rock, with whom we have great conflict. Tamriel is made up of provinces, starting from the middle, we have Cyrodiil, home of the Emperors and heart of the empire. Northwest of Cyrodiil is High Rock, home of the effete Bretons and my own hardy Orcish folk. It is a a verdant and fertile place, with great mountains in the west, In those mountains and down around the Iliac bay and even into Hammerfell is my country. East of High Rock is Skyrim, a cold mountainous place, home to the fierce and proud Nords, who are a sort of "High Men" they possess the purest strain of pure human blood of all the Nedic races. To the East of Skyrim is Morrowind, home to the dour and proud Dunmer, also called the Dark Elves, they are an ancient people and have bitter hatred for the Nords, who once ruled large swathes of land in Morrowind, they are the only true warriors among the "true" elven races, though still inferior to my own people in strength and endurance. I say "true" elves, because my own people were once elves, though corrupted by the Daedric Prince Boethia, who consumed our god Trinimac, and made him into Malacath, turning us into the creature you see before you. To the south of Morrowind is Black Marsh, whis is mostly foul and foetid swampland and home to the Argonians, a beast race of lizard men, who hate the Dark Elves, because the dunmer have raided them for slaves since time immemorial. To the west of Black Marsh, and the south of Cyrodiil, lies Elsweyr, a primarily desert province that is home to the cat-like Khajiit, who are little more then thieves and bandits. West of Elsweyr is Valenwood, home of the Bosmer or "Wood Elves" a diminutive, weak people, good only as archers and thieves. Southwest of valenwood, a short while across the Abecean Sea is Summerset Isle, home of the Altmer or High Elves. My own people descended from Altmer in the ancient days, but since then the Altmer have become soft and arrogant, unsuited to the rigours of war and entirely obsessed with magic, and finally, north of Summerset Isle is Hammerfell, my people former home, until we were pushed out by the overwhelming numbers of the Ra'gada invasion. Hammerfell is home to the dark skinned, wiry haired Redguards, who claim to be the greatest warriors in Tamriel, although between the two of us, Queen Wraith, I have never met a Redguard i could not master in single combat." Orgrim said, his eyes blazing with pride and fury. "My nation is at war with Sentinel of Hammerfell, Daggerfall and Wayrest of High Rock and several smaller petty kingdoms from both, in fact, before i arrived, i was fighting a desperate last stand against a redguard regiment that ambushed my small skirmishing force. I and my last two warriors, Gurz gro-Baroth and Borba gra-Rugdumph, were backed up against a cliff facing the charging redguards. We opened up our mental blocks and used our war-fury, but there were too many and the last thing i remember was the feel of countless blades piercing me, I remember a spear in my gut, and tearing the head off the man who had used it, I remember pulling the spear out and casting it, and then blackness, and i was here." Orgrim said, though he had been distracted he still felt the growing pull on his mind and he looked down to see he had grown erect whilst looking at her and feeling her pull on his mind.

"By Malacath! My apologies my queen, I....this is most unseemly, please forgive me, i cant seem to help it. Oh princes of oblivion, this is embarrassing" he said, blushing the way only an orc could. "i humbly beg your indulgence, what must you think of me? I'm sorry my lady I'm very sorry!"

Wraith only served to compound his embarrassment by giving a low, dark chuckle. "There is nothing to forgive, Orc, it happens all the time." She waved a dismissive hand and made a point to not stare at his... predicament.

"Do not worry, truly. I have this effect on people... something to do with Vampyres and because of my age, I do believe its grown stronger. You'll grow used to it as well as lesser strains in other vampyres. The men as well," she again chuckled, not having the heart to restrain herself. It really was quite funny.

Seeking to distract him from his blushing, she continued to walk, the forest surrounding them now as they'd gone rather deep during his long description of his homeworld, and said, "Your world sounds both terrifying and wonderful at the same time. Only until I came here did I appreciate the diverseness of different creatures. On earth, we had no such beings. Just humans and animals...."

Then she gave him a little smile, her aura pressing in on him even more, "And please don't call me your queen. I am no such thing. I simply look after the people here as best I can. If anyone can do a better job, they're welcome to it. Though...." she frowned and muttered to herself for a minute.

A second later, she came out of her reverie and smiled again, "I am simply 'Wraith', no more, no less."