Udrok (Ud rok)

Early Years

Udrok was born deep within the quiet and somber realms of death, nurtured in secret by his mother, Aggra, the Maiden of Death. His birth was a hidden event, kept from the other gods by Aggra's deliberate hand. She knew the dangers that awaited a child born in secrecy and surrounded by whispers, and so she protected Udrok fiercely, raising him in the desolate beauty of her domain. During his early years, he lived isolated from the greater pantheon, growing up with his mother’s cold love and the loneliness of shadowed halls. His father’s identity was a mystery Aggra refused to share, a fact that gnawed quietly at Udrok's soul.   From a young age, Udrok’s powers manifested in unsettling ways. Being born from a secret and within the cold grasp of death itself, he naturally found himself drawn to the hidden and the unseen. Shadows became his companions; secrets became his toys. The whispers of orcish mortals were like sweet melodies to his ears, and even in his youth, he extended his influence, listening to their darkest confessions and sometimes gifting them subtle blessings of concealment and deception. His mother’s realm was not one of affection, but he learned that power could substitute love.   As he grew older, Udrok’s nature twisted further. What began as an innocent affinity for secrecy slowly became a compulsion for manipulation. He whispered in dreams and inspired betrayal. Chiefs were slain by trusted hands, siblings turned on one another for power, and friends betrayed friends at critical moments — all fueled by prayers to the shadowy god they barely understood. Though known, he was never loved; most of the orcish clans saw him as a necessary evil at best, and a vile corrupter at worst. His cults stayed hidden, small bands of schemers and plotters meeting in concealed shrines carved into the earth itself.  

During the Empire

With the rise of the Empire of Oggurd Mul, Udrok’s role among the gods began to change. Though shunned and mistrusted, his dominion over secrets made him invaluable. In a grand empire full of political intrigue and dangerous ambition, someone was always needed to keep or reveal secrets. His temples, though initially clandestine, were finally given a measure of begrudging recognition. Within these temples, entry to the innermost sanctuaries often required an offering of a personal secret — one that the priests, called Whisperers, could leverage for power.   Scholars within the empire also began to obsess over Udrok’s mysterious origins. Some whispered that Krusk the First — the founder and uniter of the orcish empire — was his father, citing Krusk’s long-known fondness for Aggra. Others theorized darker connections, tying Udrok's existence to forgotten gods of death from faraway lands. A few, more dangerously, suggested that Grumush himself may have sired Udrok, a theory that enraged and intrigued the schemer in equal measure. His need to know the truth consumed him, turning his once playful scheming into something crueler and more bitter.   Throughout this time, Udrok’s cult grew steadily. Many orcs, needing someone to hear their sins and ambitions without judgment, found solace and danger in his temples. His Whisperers became infamous advisors, often holding the fates of entire houses in their hands. Udrok fed on the chaos he seeded, always probing, always planning. He had tasted the bitter wine of betrayal from his own divine blood, and he longed for the day he could make them all suffer in kind.  

During The Fall

The collapse of the Empire of Oggurd Mul had many architects, but Udrok's hand was one of the most deliberate. Over decades, he had sown mistrust among rulers, corrupted temples, and whispered lies into the ears of those most susceptible. He sabotaged alliances, engineered assassinations, and ensured that when the great 5th Slave Revolt came, the empire would be too rotten to survive it. It was all part of a grand design to wound Grumush, humiliate Aggra, and undermine the entire pantheon he despised.   His ultimate betrayal, however, was reserved for Shomat, the Seer God. Udrok plotted meticulously to trap and destroy his uncle, believing that Shomat held the secret of his true paternity. Using the chaos of the revolt, he lured the most powerful seers into performing a flawed summoning that ripped Shomat’s divine essence into fragments. Though Shomat was not truly dead, his spirit was broken, scattered among the minds of orcish seers across the lands. Udrok considered this his crowning achievement, his ultimate revenge on a family that had always kept him in the shadows.   But victory turned quickly to fear. When the truth of his actions was discovered, the surviving gods turned against him in wrath. Grumush’s fury alone would have been enough to end him, but combined with the hatred of the others, Udrok knew he could not stand. He fled into the deepest shadows, using every ounce of his divine mastery to disappear from their sight. From the ruins of the empire, he continued his work in secret, plotting a long and slow vengeance.  

After the Empire

In the centuries that followed, Udrok’s name became anathema among the orcs. His temples were burned, his Whisperers hunted like dogs. New tribes rose from the ashes of the empire, and almost all of them outlawed his worship entirely. Among the shattered descendants of Oggurd Mul, to even speak his name was often enough to earn exile or execution. Few dared pray to him, and those few who did so lived lives of constant danger and distrust.   Yet Udrok did not fade away. Hidden in the dark places of the world, he whispered still to the desperate and the cunning. His few surviving followers became more cautious, weaving their secrets into the fabric of emerging societies. Though diminished, Udrok’s hatred of the other gods burned hotter than ever. He plotted endlessly, caring nothing for the orcs' survival or prosperity, seeking only the destruction of those who had scorned him.   Still, one question torments him above all others: Who was his father? Even now, Udrok believes the answer is out there, hidden among the last ruins of the empire or buried within the bloodlines of Krusk’s descendants. And should he find the truth, he will not rest until all debts — imagined or real — are paid in full.