Orcs were spawned almost five hundred years ago during the era of Expansion. When humans from the Middle Kingdoms were first traveling, exploring, and colonizing the Free Coast.
It was at the end of the First Frost Giant war in the North, when the Dwarves abandoned their southern holdings to consolidate their power in the North after ousting the Giants in the brutal war.
This prompted humans to migrate into the vacuum left behind by the mighty Dwarven empire.
The Giants swore revenge and consorted with some of the Demon Gods and gave rise to the race of orcs
The Giants launched their assault from the Frozen Lands to punish the Dwarves and their Elf allies with the orcs forming the spearhead of their invasion.
Frost giants led their slaves along with many barbarian hordes of the Endless plains against the Dwarven Holds of the North and the Elven Kingdom of Irandal in a 100-year war.
With the help of an Old White dragon, Pagos and a small flight of his young ambitious dragon followers, the Major Dwarven Hold of the Stone Gut Clan and Elven City and of Irandal were razed
The orcs and barbarians descending on the citizens and slaughtering anyone that could not escape.
The Hordes of orcs numbering in the ten’s of thousands, with the aid of hundreds of Frost giants, thousands of ogres, and their dragon allies looked to be unstoppable and their next target was the Human Kingdom of Caramdor.
The Humans of the Free Coast as well as Caramdor had allied themselves with the dwarves and elves and the Frost Giants sought to punish them for their interference.
It was after the fall of these great cities that an orc chief by the name of Marak-Khar of the Frost Axe Tribe would make his everlasting mark on the world.
The arrogant Frost giants did not imagine that the creation of a new race could spawn the birth of new gods to represent the specific interests of their chosen mortals.
Virtus the Truths seeker had chosen Marak-Khar, looking into his heart and proving him worthy. He would speak to Marak-Khar in his dreams and open his eyes to the truth.
Marak-Khar saw the Frost giants for what they were.
Slavers that would drive the hordes of orcs before the cannons, guns, bows, and wizards of man before meeting the shield walls of the allies’ forces to be slaughtered in their thousands.
His forces were ordered to assault the Dead Goblins Pass and assault the Northern fort of Caramdor as well as the Fortress Monastery of the Order of the Red Dawn.
He had seen enough of his people slaughtered and would not sacrifice his peoples for the gain of their cruel masters.
History tells of how Marak-Khar defeated a Thane in single combat.
Seeing the Chief slay one of the Giants, an act that was thought to be impossible his orcs believed him to be an avatar of their god of war Ogrul. Following their War Cheif’s example, his army fell on the rest of the Frost Giant and their bodyguards at no small cost to their own forces.
Over two thousand orcs perished to kill just a dozen Frost giants and their lesser giant allies.
A Scout of Caramdor had witnessed the revolt and returned to report the incident.
At the time though the Forces of Caramdor would not understand the significance of what had transpired.
Marak-Khar would let his wounded orcs recover before withdrawing from the pass without attacking the humans.
The Caramdor scouts were not the only ones to witness the act of Marak-Khar.
A then Young Adult Gold Dragon, Mymren, who had no love for the Frost Giants and their White Dragon ally, approached Marak-Khar.
What deals were made or what transpired is unknown to historians, but the following morning Marak-Khar and his orcs would disappear into the endless plains not to be seen for many weeks.
The war on the Western front would rage with orcs defeating the armies of Caramdor as they began to lay siege to the great Fortress of Aspitha which was the last bastion of human resistance before the Capital of Evandross.
The War Wizards of the Caramdor and the mighty cannons of the fort held the orcs, giants, and dragons at bay but it was evident that the Fort would fall in short order, eventually paving the way to the capital city of Caramdor.
The frost giants absorbing the artillery from both cannons and Wizards with their conjured frost shields and ice walls protecting their slaves long enough for them to build their own siege weapons emplacements and return fire.
Pagos, the great white dragon, and the surviving young dragons strafing the battlements with their breath weapons distracting the war wizards even further.
With giant mangonels able to fire endless ice boulders back at the Fort the wizards inside could not mount their own magical offense with the continual joint harassment of dragons and artillery fire. All they could do was erect their barriers and pray for a miracle.
The War wizard’s magic would not last forever though and the fort’s cannons were low on ammunition.
The continual pounding of the walls without rest created a breach. The end had come.
As a section of the walls of the fort finally collapsed the orcs poured into the breach and slaughtered the defenders to the last man and woman.
From there, the orc horde and Frost giants rampaged through the country on their way to the vulnerable capital of Evandross.
As they came into range of the city that was defended by green soldiers the end was all but assured.
On the walls the defenders of Evandross were confused and in shock to see what was about to transpire.
On the eve of their annihilation, their salvation would arrive in the most unlikely of forms.
Mymren, with Marak-Khar on her back, plummeted out of the sky like a golden comet towards the Grand Thane of the Frost Giants and Pagos.
Pagos seeing the threat leaped to the air to intercept the Golden dragon thinking it an ally of the Humans.
But Mymren was already within range to launch a devastating fireball.
Mymren’s fireball would smash into the Thanes raised ice shield, conjured to protect himself. The shield shattering and melting but doing its job.
The fireball though hid the form of Marak-Khar who had leaped off Myrmen’s back in a free fall with his great axe help up above his head.
He timed his fall and strike with perfection. The weight of his strength with the velocity of his dive allowing him to drive his axe into the exposed forehead of the thane with a thunderous strike.
At the same moment, Mymren would collide with Pagos in mid-air. The impact causing both dragons to fall from the sky and assault each other with Fire, Ice, fangs, and magic.
Orcs, humans, giants, and the two remaining young dragons stopped in awe at the sight unsure as to what to do.
The great thane lay dead with an axe sticking out of his head and Marak-Khar, who should have been dead from the fall, standing on the dead Thanes chest completely unharmed.
Pagos seeing the dead Thane disengaged from Mymren and retreated taking the remaining young dragons with him.
Marak-Khar once again mounted the Golden dragon who lowered his head in a bow to allow the Orc chief to straddle her like the avatar of a god that he was.
With the help of Mymren’s magic, he projected his voice across the Orcish horde to tell them that the days of their servitude had ended commanding them to fight for him for their freedom.
Most of the orcs howled beating their drums of war and turned on their Frost giant masters.
However, even with the weight of tens of thousands of Orcs, the hundreds of Frost giants and their thousands of their lesser giant bodyguards were formidable and the battle would see the orcs slaughtered in droves.
The human commander on the walls seeing an opportunity was about to order the canons of Evandross to open fire indiscriminately however a young Knight, Alexandros, an acolyte of Aris, the nephew of the slain King would belay that order and demand the main gates of Evandross thrown open to lead a sally.
The human forces green and inexperienced though were enough to help swing the battle.
Ranks of crossbowmen could hardly miss with their weapons against the giant foes who were assaulted on all fronts now unable to erect ice shields to defend from all angles.
The cavalry lances of Alexandross’s squire knights crashing into the frost giants and their lesser giants’ bodyguards.
During the fierce fighting, Mymren would fall close to death a thousand orcs perishing by her side to protect her from the giants in her time of need.
Meanwhile, history tells how Alexandross fought side by side with the great Marak-Khar. In those moments a bond that can only be forged in war was sealed.
With the surviving frost giants in full retreat, the armies of men and orcs tensely waited as Marak-Khar and Alexandross faced off unsure as to what would happen next.
With a simple nod to the young knight, Marak-Khar turned his back and shouted to his now silent Orcs.
The war was over and now was the time to make their claim on this world as free folk and not as slaves. The orcs would cheer and their war drums would sound once again to the horror of the humans but the attack never came.
The treaty of men and Orcs was signed shortly after this event.
Marak-Khar the God-Chieftain of the Kingdom of Broken Shackles and King Alexandross of Caramdor sealed the agreement with their signatures and oaths to the gods to honor the treaty for as long as they lived.
Marak-Khar would claim the land north of the fallen kingdom of Irandal as the new home of the orcs of the Kingdom of Broken shackles.
Any non-orc found within the confines of the claimed domain without permission would be slain. In return, Marak-Khar swore that no orcish tribes and clans within the kingdom would be permitted to attack the lands of the other races.
A great Statue the size of a Titan straddles the entrance to the Orc city of the same name.
Upon his death, Marak-Khar would ascend and be elevated to godhood by Protos as a champion of Virtus to serve the Orcish Pantheon alongside the new Orc deities created.
Marak-Khar is the Orchish Demi-God of strength and honor.
The kingdom of broken shackles is largely reclusive but honors the treaty with men.
While the orcs of the Kingdom of Broken shackles honor the treaty of two hundred years ago, many rogue tribes do not follow the faithful of Marak-Khar and did not settle in the new Orcish Kingdom.
Many orcs believe that Marak-Khar’s words at the conclusion of the battle “it was time for the orcs to make their claim on the world as free folk” meant to inherit the position of their former Frost giant masters and dominate the world as they had set out to do as slaves.
Thousands of orcs broke ranks from the Kingdom of Broken Shackles and scattered across the continent to find their own way in the world. Many worshiping the Demon gods that helped create them.
