Samoblivion

Lukra looks up from her place at the fire, watching Kharak make his bloody finger necklaces and the dog like Olog waiting for the scraps. "Dam zun... datz zkahed ub..." she remarks as she absentmindedly picks some mummified skin off one of the skulls attached to her sword.

Lukra stood on a great crescent dune, whipping sand and the harsh desert wind that moved it lashing her features and armour, and lashing against War Maker, sword of Enrohk, embedded point down beside. Her face was still, and set as though in stone. As she beheld the endless expanse of sand and mesa, dyed silver in the light of the moon and the infinite tapestry of stars above, her face appeared serene. But this serenity was false, hiding a turmoil of thought and anger. Leadership was thrust upon her, she had not taken it in combat. She had little notion of why Kahn had ‘chosen’ her for the title of Wargoth, for she had never wanted such nor thought herself more worthy than others to hold it. Nepotism. That would be their first thought – Kahn passing his title to his only living mate. That fact, the lack of the closure of the leadership klomp, would haunt her own thoughts and mar her leadership of the Braduks, however long that may be. “Damn latz, Kahn.” The words were honest. A fine, fine mess he had left her, before cutting his losses. Her rhino, a slim and agile beast in comparison to the majority of his species named Lohkar, grunted, breaking her from her brooding. She grunted as well, spitting into the wind. She slapped a hand onto her bonded mount’s flank. “Yub, hozh azh night az aneh. Tik tu ged down tu bizniz.” A deep rumble emanated from within the beast, who flung back his bladed head let it erupt into the night in a deafening, braying roar. The call of Lohkar echoed out in the harsh night of Krugmar, his voice travelling as if cast from the Horn of Yar. It travelled far to many of the desert’s inhabitants, but further for those ones attuned to hear it. At oases and far flung parts of the great desert the call was carried to the Braduk rhinos, those wild due to neglect in recent years, those few in the pens of the clan, and those pair bonded with Braduk clansfolk. The call was answered and that night rang to the braying of the great rhinos. And so began a migration to the point of the first call, the call to gather – the call for council. First to arrive were a number of those left to roam wild, but still loyal in heart and breeding to the clan that forged them into the beasts they were today, and soon after came those from the clan pens of the Braduks, those who were awaiting uruks to bond with – a long wait, in recent years. Spying Lukra upon the ridge of the crescent dune they regarded her silently and with scepticism. The new Wargoth stalked down the dune, halted and roared at them. Her roar was joined by Lohkar. After moments of contemplation, the rhinos dipped their heads and hauled themselves into the crescent of the dune. They laid themselves down, as if to make an enclosure wall with their bodies, around the space of the dune and out, following the circular contour of the crescent dune. Lohkar called into the night once more, and the ring of riderless rhinos amplified it. Then they came, the Braduks. Drawn from all corners by the endless braying in the night. One by one she greeted them and motioned for them to get comfortable. The number was pitiably few, as she knew they would be compared to other clans – who were also represented in the small number of other uruks gathered to see the source of the cacophony that rolled across the desert. And so the uruks talked, smoked greenz, showed off war scars and klomped. The calls of the rhinos had died down and startling was the sudden roar of Lohkar to those settling in to the camp walled by slumbering rhinos. Eyes raised to see that Lukra had riden to the crest of the dune and planted her storied blade beside the rhino’s flank. Silhouetted by the moon, she spoke, her voice carrying to all present. “Az mozt gathered heyur will gruk, KAHN HAZ LEFT DEEZ ZHOREZ. 'Da Uzg is broken' wer hiz wordz. Dat Ubba’Ugluk iz flattin owur rayz agh peepul. Agh zu he haz gone, wiv many ub owur bruddaz az kumpanyunz. Hiz wordz wur dat mi zhuld bi Wargoth uv owur klan until hiz return. Hiz titul pazzed tu mi, agh all da authoriteh ub da Braduk klan leedur wiv id. “Bud deyur am azh faytul flaw in Kahn’z logic, agh in mi duminyun uvur da klan. Mi wuz ‘chozen’… ‘chozen’ bai azh uruk… dat am nub da wey ub uz, nub wey fur Urukz tu ruul demzelvez. Iv mi wuz latz Wargoth, mi wuld du zu ad da konzent ub da klan – Kahn judged mi ztrung enough tu leed, dat wuz wub mi pruuved tu him. Bud mi will nub bi azh zeet-warmur fur azh uruk hu haz zailed akrozz da ocean tu ezkayp hiz trubblez wiv da Rex.” “Mi will nub beg fur latz appruval. Owur klan iz bayurleh prezunt in Uzg lyf. Mok’han mi kub agh mizelf arr da ownleh urukz ub owur klan tu turn ub tu mozt ub da waagh agaynzt da ztowtz, dunamiz, agh znelvez… or even be zkahin peepd in da Uzg fur muur dan azh albai day. Mi wurthinezz owt uv all uthur Bradukz prezent in da warnation iz born ohn da zkarz ohn mi hide agh da trophiez mi hav lain ad da altar ub Enrohk, bai huum mi wuz beztowed da War Maker zult az azh mark ub mi devotion tu war agh blood.” “Bud mi deedz du nub guarantee mi da ryt tu bi Wargoth. Dat dependz ohn latz. Zu mi blah tu lat now. Mayk latz mindz known!" "MI AM LUKRA, WARGOTH UV DA BRADUKZ! Wub blah lat tu mi leedurzhip!?" She waited, sternfaced and impassive for the response of those gathered, replies prepared for whatever might come. ((Only Orcs allowed to post, all other posts from those who wouldn't be there will be removed.))

Lukra sat upon her Rhino's back, watching the ships leave with bitterness and anger. How the mighty Kahn had fallen. Fleeing from his battles? Raging and sulking like some kub, believing himself the saviour of the Uzg? No, a saviour the Uzg was unworthy of? "Yub, Kahn, mi'll be Wargoth. Bud nub az latz playz howldur... Iv deez am latz truu kulurz, den da Bradukz agh da Uzg are bettur off withowt latz." She rides off into the desert, to inform those who needed to know and to make preparations for a Braduk clan - for better or ill - without the Iron Rhino. ((See ya Bow, have fun on your break. I'll do my best. Word of advice, don't use other people's characters in your posts without asking them - Lukra wouldn't have acted in that accepting a manner of Kahn's actions, as evidenced by this post and posts to come.))

Lukra seems a bit puzzled to recieve an invitation but sends along a response that she'd attend as well. She re-reads the note, raising an eyebrow. "Lukra da Payzhunt? Da zkah am dat zuppozed tu meen?"

Lukra halts over the abandoned snelf banners, sniffing the ground. She nods and stands. "Albai urine, ztowt tu. Dey pizzed demzelvez!"

Yes please. Fits with what I've always assumed about Wood Elven lore and fits with how I've RP'd Kaelin's wood elven upbringing. Support, definitely.

((Take care bro.))

"Skah." Lukra grumbled slightly as she fiddled with the hip straps on her leather armour. It had been 8 months since the birth of her son and although her body had mostly recovered some elements of her physique seemed to be permanently changed, much to her annoyance. Stretch marks were scars to be proud of as any other, but differences in bone position and centre of gravity, minute though they may be, required work - adjustment of the armour that she wore as a second skin. She was sitting on the stepped sides of her blarg, the eternal sun of the Orcish deserts beating down above, providing her with adequate light for her task. Her attention was divided between the movement of her unwieldy fingers and the activities of her kub a couple of meters away. Mok'han had grown fast and was larger than any kub had any right to be at his age, but he was still a very young kubbie at heart - sitting in the sand and playing raider with some wooden figures. He let out a rumbling woop each time he crashed the big green figure with red eyes into the weedy little pink ones, making happy gurgling noises as he did. Lohkar, the agile Braduk rhino that Lukra was bonded to rumbled in applause, his head set down in the sand next to Mok'han. The rhino did this at great discomfort to himself - when she was in the throes of nesting at the end of her pregnancy, Lukra had contructed an elaborate defensive palisade around her blarg. She dismantled it mostly, but kept some of it to server a kub-proof pen to allow Mok'han to explore outside without too much supervision - Lohkar had his head stuck through one of the larger gaps. Lukra couldn't help but smile - they made a ridiculous pair, the oversized newborn and the ponderous rhino. As she watched the kub's fist descend toward a fracturing pink stick-man her mind's eye flashed forward to some distant battlefield in years to come. A towering dark-skinned green warrior of strong blood and stronger skill, destroying all before him, heading a charge of his brothers and sisters into a pack of some unknown foe. His mailed fist, an axe clenched in it descended down upon a broken foe-man as his blue eyes tinged red with boiling rage. Such a future for their child would frighten and cow a mother of another race, but all Lukra felt was pride. Pride and the will to be at that battle, to share in the slaughter and her son's glory.

Back at the end of Asulon I was an amateur lore writer. I wasn't that good but good enough to be recruited by Gaius for his massively hyped secret 3.0 developmentgroup 'Occultus'. The unreleased Zil'Maktum event race are the most well known and well polished creation of that abortive lore team but there was another creation, one that I amongst others was assigned to, a project with repurcussions even to this day... https://docs.google.com/document/d/1icVufte27Egl5ml97fQ57H7Q6z9RyxqddjAxD1bKwH0/edit?usp=sharing We invented the Snow Elves. A horrific truth, one I swore to take to my grave, but here it is. The original Snow Elves - or Vallei'Feta as they would have been known, rather than Mali'Fenn - were an event only race of tribesmen and women living in the frigid South (yes, South not North) and acting as quest givers and objects of intrigue. Descended from a group of ancient elves allegedly dispatched to the sea from Aegis by Malin during the conflict with Iblees, their ancestors fell through a natural portal to the Verge and somehow ended up shipwrecked in Anthos. The race was scrapped along with the rest of Gaius's lore, for what I assume was that the races and storylines made in it were too convoluted to be properly translated into a minecraft RP server. Which is pretty understandable, that document's a little confusing (an entire magic subtype for an event race) and even at the time of writing I don't think I believed what we were writing would make it onto the server. The rest of it's all there in the document. Elements of modern Snelven culture seem to take from this and other Vallei'Feta documents, from what I've heard. Feel free to look it over, it's an interesting look into what could have been and one of the many many many development phases of Anthos (take from that comment what you will). To modern Snow Elves, this is meant to be tongue in cheek and not to be taken to heart. No real offense intended. I just found this file in my google drive from the old days and wanted to reminisce. Don't lynch me :)