Kurnhuelde, homeland of the orcs, an industrious and stout people.

Geography

Located in the Northeastern portion of Voreld, Kurnhuelde is a relatively triangular territory that spans slightly further north than the most northern island in the Forellian Archipelago. While the southern portion of the region that borders the Serran Desert contains savannahs and harbors a temperate climate, the rest of Kurnhuelde including its rocky shores are mostly taiga and tundra. The shorelines are jagged and descend rapidly into deep water, leaving few beaches along the coasts.

Dominating most of central Kurnhuelde are expansive pine forests. These ancient forests are most dense near the center of Kurnhuelde, where there rests the tallest mountain, named colloquially by the orc denizens as Kresh Garuul. The rest of Kurnhuelde contains many mountains and slopes, but none of which are as massive as the famous landmark. The northern regions of Kurnhuelde harbor less and less dense of pine forests, until the growth ends abruptly at the Frjelnian Fissure, where the continent technically ends. However, a massive, ancient glacier is jammed against the tip of the mainland, and the terrain seems to continue on top of the glacier. Time and the elements have eroded it to be quite a smooth transition, despite there being no soil or organic life growing past the Fissure. Despite being atop a massive glacier, a few orcish communities stoically make their home here, impressively thriving in a seemingly uninhabitable environment.

People

GRUNT SHRIEK

Culture

CRUSH KILL BURN PILLAGE

Origins

The beginnings of the population of Kurnhuelde is mythologized to have started with the dispersal of orcish clans native to the area after they were created by the Gods at Kresh Garuul. They gravitated toward splitting up into several clans based on their own ideologies. The orcs, settling evenly throughout most of the region, established rough colonies and villages from their natural skill with hunting, stone quarrying, and woodcutting. Trade, albeit limited and neutral, happened between the various clans as the differences between them grew, in both leadership and ideology.

Around this time, the Serran Empire was in a golden age, and sought to covet the adjacent lands to expand its influence. One of its forays was into the savannah and eventually forests that connected the Serran Desert and Kurnhuelde, and many of the orc clans defended their territory with a deep passion and ferocious combat. No counterattacks were made by the orcs, as they realized that they were at a steep technology disadvantage, so they simply defended the borders the best they could and the Serran Empire backed off decades before its eventual collapse in the 3rd Era.

Despite banding together in a neutral fashion in order to rid the Serran footholds in their territory, the different orc clans refused to unify in the fashion that the Tulrissian communities did so later. The respect and pride for their clan history and the refusal for the clan chiefs to submit to a higher leader dissuaded any attempts at alliances that spread throughout Kurnhuelde.