Neo-Legion

After the Uprising, the Orcs decided that they were done with Gods. Instead of adopting any new faith, they took their own ancestrs as their spiritual protectors. Ever since, no mainstream orc society - not the kingdoms of the Darklands nor the states of the Diasporas - has raised a temple or graven an idol. With the fall of the northern kingdoms, however, many diasporic orcs were struck with a feeling of helplessness in the face of the Giants of Titania. Most still found comfort in the endurance of the Ancestral Unity, but a dark underculture began to grow in strength.   'Neo-Legion'is a catch-all term for a number of groups, of varying size, that have embraced the worship of the old, dead gods of the Legions; the Dark Lords. Most of these groups are composed of orcs, displaced from their homes and forced to live as refugees in lands where refugee is a poor occupation. The heirs of great kingdoms reduced to begging for work, this is fertile ground for the whisper that 'the orcs were strong once,' and the suggestion that at the time of their greatest strength, they were the trusted servants of powerful gods.   A Neo-Legion cult will transition from a concern to a threat when its members succeed in contacting one of the Dark Lords where they languish in the Abyss. While they are Dead Gods, the Dark Lords retain the vestiges of their divinity, and become a form of Culture God for the cult. Their gifts are limited by their dead state, but like the Neo-Legion itself, the bond with the Dark Lord is less about power than it is about pride.   The greatest check on the rise of these cults is that they do not like each other. Most follow charismatic leaders promising a return to glory, which means that two Neo-Legion cults are as likely to come to blows as they are to unite, especially if they serve different Dark Lords. When a leader of sufficient strength and charisma emerges, however, and manages to unit several cults under a single banner, they become truly dangerous. Most Neo-Legion cults have between twenty and fifty adult members, but a group with one hundred or more not only presents a threat to small communities, it is also significantly more likely to be able to absorb a rival cult whole. For this reason, orcs always take the threat of the Neo-Legion seriously.   The leaders of these cults are war priests of the Dark Lords who call themselves Legates, after the senior field officers of the Legion. They are supported by the Ten-Captains and their Legionnaires. Most of these neo-legion cultists are simply in search of a lost sense of pride, but the legates are devoted to the resurrection of their dead gods, and are the only ones who preserve the knowledge of their names.