Dark Lords
The Dark Lords were a cadre of Young Gods who craved worship and dominion, and who rose to power and prominence in the wake of the Colossus War. They created the Orcs to be their worshippers, their servants and their army, but they also took on powerful, material forms to rule over the orcs as divine leaders. By so doing, they became the first recorded red divinities.
Where other Gods guided and influenced their creations from afar, they Dark Lords took a direct hand in shaping the orc race into the conquering culture that came to be known as the Legions. They drove the Legions to expand from the Darklands where they were fashioned, to enslave their human and goblinoid neighbours to create the slave armies of the Horde, and to push north and south across the sea, absorbing smaller cultures until they came into contact with those strong enough to push back, most notably the Elven Regime, whose own expansionist agenda was in direct opposition to that of the Legions.
The Dark Lords intended to use the orcs as tools to make them the masters of the World, even gifting some with a part of their power to create Divine Champions, but underestimated that which they had created. The leader of the Dark Lords, the Giver of Banners, was overthrown by her own elite guard, the Rising Storm, and slain with a blade forged in righteous anger and primed with all the rage of the orcs' centuries of servitude. After that, the remaining twelve were slain, one by one.
There were thirteen Dark Lords, whose names have by dint of great effort been forgotten to history. They are remembered only by their titles, in the names of the months of the Legion Reckoning.
- Giver of Banners, the greatest of the Dark Lords.
- Master of Shields, who taught the Legions to forge steel.
- Marshall of Spears, the vanguard of every campaign.
- Keeper of Wargs, who bred the first wargs.
- Sender of Bats, most circumspect and cautious of the Dark Lords.
- Driver of Boars, who raised the great boars of the Darklands.
- Lash of the Hordes, who transformed the fighters of conquered lands into the Horde.
- Kindler of Fires, who looked on fortifications as a personal afront.
- Warden of the Marches, who kept watch upon the borders so they could not contain him.
- Chainer of Thralls, the Dark Lord responsible for subjugating conquered peoples.
- Honer of Blades, the assassin of the Thirteen.
- Digger of Graves, the master necromancer.
- Binder of Boots, the organised one.
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