#Ork Records

[viddybiblio]

Richard Hell - Another World B/W Blank Generation/You Gotta Lose

[bandcampsnoop]

8/22/23.

The Lou's (France) were part of the amazing punk scene of the late 1970s. The website for 45vinylvidivici has newspaper clippings showing The Lou's opening for The Clash, The Damned and Richard Hell.

When I listen to the first song "Back in the Street" I hear definite late 70s punk, but I also hear the melodies of The Velvet Underground or even early Feelies. This would have been right at home on Ork Records.

The Lou's were an all-woman band thus garnering comparisons to The Runaways. This is being reissued by Cameleon Records (France). They've also reissued a 7" from The Lou's.

[joanofarc]

carol mountain, modest blaise (2001).

carol mountain, i'll get over you someday

[barpsy-abaub]

Da New Boss!

Lord Inquisitor! It is with great regret that I inform you that the research group you sent to the planet 09-76C was attacked by xenos. Part of the group was captured by orks; may the God-Emperor have mercy on their souls. Fortunately, two weeks after they disappeared from the radars, we managed to intercept a fragment of the broadcast from the BONE implant of one of the captive ogryn bodyguards. We'll continue to try to determine the coordinates of the broadcast source. I have attached the translation of the broadcast to this message, in case you are interested in it. God-Emperor be with us.

RECORD: 09-76; code: BONE 56-533

"…Listen, boyz! Da Nob Humie iz dumb az squig, but iz Big. Da Smart Gobllo iz smol, but is Smart! Humie listens to us. Humie can be manni-pula-tid! Gobllo 'll make da Nob Humie da Boss, 'll make him orky and green, and no one 'll dare to stomp us grotz like dhey did before with such boss! We'll be stomping dhem all insted!"

"…Hey, you git! Stop chopping dis fing on 'is head, it may be…"

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Do you think geese are still a thing in 40k?

The geese have taken over their own planet in the Ghoul Stars. It’s the only planet in recorded galactic history to be so utterly hostile to outsiders that the Tyranids refuse to go near it and the Orks consider the fightin’ to be “a bit much”. Khorne has declared the planet, known as Tallgeese III, to be under his protection after Karanak spent a full month being chased around by swarms of geese until he expired. Destroyer cults strive to emulate the level of antipathy the geese display, and chaos sorcerers cannot scry Tallgeese III, lest they be riven with cluster migraines.

[calchexxis]

40k Femslash Appreciation Post

There isn't nearly enough good wlw in Warhammer 40k, and don't get me wrong, I understand why. Considering the majority of the narratives consist of manly men doing manly things while wearing a buick on their torso and a refrigerator on each arm, there's going to be an obvious skew, and that's okay!

But today, I want to highlight some of the ladies of the 40k universe, as well as the other ladies that those ladies like to kiss. For the record, all of these will be on Archive of Our Own.

In my own corner, I've contributed:

Ennui: A longform about a Dark Eldar Wych and a Sororitas who find unlikely love on a world plagued by Orks, and in the process, discover a much darker plot that will threaten the fabric of the galaxy.

From Afar: Local Eldar Pathfinder pines after a pretty PDF guardswoman from the distance in the months while the Great Devourer approaches.

Saintsbride: A series rather than a single fic, that creatively reinterprets Saint Celestine and Inquisitor Greyfax's relationship in the audio drama Our Martyred Lady as being very gay.

His Fury, Our Hearts: Three Sisters Militant of the Adeptus Sororitas Heavy Armor division do battle against cult elements of the Alpha Legion while defending an irradiated hellhole, and also they kiss each other.

More excellent femslash can be found in the hands of user OnTheHuh.

The Iron Tower: An unflinching look at the darker side of the 40k universe on the smaller scale through the eyes of the 'bedmate' of the Planetary Governor of a Feudal world. Absolutely mind the tags, but you're in the mood for some angst and Regency-era style lesbian pining, this is your jam.

Sister Militant: Some of the best Adeptus Sororitas work out there, follows the trials and tribulations of a haunted Sister Militant as she struggles with her worth, her faith, and the demons in her mind. Very much mind the tags, again, but also again, Lesbian Angst and Pining. Also some really top notch action.

Finally, some more excellence from user AncillaThings!

Nemain's Bellum: A story that follows the ascension of a Sister Novitiate by her mentor, Palatine Caddel, through her first war and onward, when I said 'Sister Militant' is some of the best, this would be the rest of the best. Great sci-fi action and more girls kissing. Also trauma, but that's what we're here for, right?

Pigeons and Eagles: For fans of the truly excellent Rogue Trader game by OwlCat studios, and who maybe wants to see Sister Argenta being cute and gay with the God-Emperor's weirdest perfect princess, Cassia Orsellio, this one is for you.

[voices-of-favor]

Super rushed pic of this new marine

First of the Maledictii, frontline specialists of the Voices of Favor

A relatively recent greenskin invasion into the Malto sector showed that the standard chapter tactic of digging in and shooting at things until they die isn't perfect

Mixedteams of mortals and marines would get surrounded and overwhelmed by hordes of pesky orks, who made up for their lack of speed and strength (compared to the Astartes) with a sea of choppas, which made short work of many defenders, dozens of Voices included

The Maledictii are an experimental attempt at keeping charging hordes at bay, and judging by their current track record, these rag-tag teams might eventually become a staple of every VoF expedition against the mutant, alien and the heretic

[drunkenskunk]

So, I'm laying in bed, waiting for the painkillers to kick in, with an ice pack strapped to my knee, and I'm letting my mind wander. And I'm thinking about Warhammer 40k, because of course I am, this is what I do when I'm bored and in pain.

While laying here, I got to thinking: when were the first "official" conflicts between humanity and the all the other Xenos factions? So I'm just delirious enough to be like "let's figure this shit out."

And I'm already needing to start off with a mulligan, because the Orks, the Eldar, and the daemons of Chaos have always been ubiquitous in the Warhammer galaxy ever since humanity first walked upright, so trying to pin down "first contact conflict" is a mugs game. It would all be pre-Dark Age of Technology. Who the fuck knows for sure.

So who else is there: in terms of "major" Xenos factions (that is: armies with a codex), we got the Tyranids, the Tau, the Necrons, and the Leagues of Votann. Which is less than I hoped, but about what I expected for James "SPESS MEHREEN" Workshep.

So: the Tyranids. The First Tyrannic War was in 745.M41. However: if we really want to be specific and pedantic (and I do), then the first time the Imperium ran into the Tyranids was "sometime" around 500.M41 when genestealers were first encountered on the moons of Ymgarl. Then again, I'm not actually sure we should count that, considering that the Imperium wouldn't even make that connection themselves until much later.

Next: the Tau. Technically first "contact" was in 789.M35, when an AdMech explorator ship, Land's Vision, found the planet that would eventually be named Tau, and recorded a primitive species that had mastered simple tools and fire. But because that planet became inaccessible due to a warp storm, and the records got lost in the chaos of the Age of Apostasy, we (again) probably shouldn't count that. First real conflict was the Damocles Crusade, between 742.M41 and 745.M41... and it only ended because the Tyranids showed up.

Moving on: the Necrons. Technically, they've been "around" even longer than the Eldar. But they've mostly all been fucking asleep in their tomb worlds, except for a select few who woke up early (looking at you Trazyn). So, really, if we're ignoring shit like Szarekh the Silent King returning from his self imposed exile in response to the Tyranids showing up (are we noticing a pattern here?), first "official" conflict with the Imperium was the Sanctuary 101 massacre in 897.M41.

And finally: the Leagues of Votann. And, again: they've been "around" for who knows how long. It's heavily implied that their generation ships left Earth for the galactic core before even the Dark Age of Technology. But they mostly kept to themselves and didn't venture outside the holds in the galactic core until Cadia exploded and the Cicatrix Maledictum cut the galaxy in half, forcing them to leave. Finally, an "alien" faction being introduced to the setting that has nothing to do with the fucking Tyranids.

And, y'know... looking at all that? That really does kinda put in perspective why everything seems to have gone to shit in 40k, doesn't it?

Between the end of the Horus Heresy in 014.M31 and the start of the Damocles Crusade in 742.M41, the only things the Imperium of Man had to really worry about were Orks, Eldar, daemons, and renegades/traitors. Like, none of that is great (and a lot of it is self inflicted), but that kind of setup seems manageable. The Eldar never show up in huge numbers, and daemons require incredibly specific circumstances to even manifest outside The Warp. Hell, even the Orks for most of that time are basically just a nuisance, since a warboss on the scale of Urlakk Urg wouldn't be seen till Ghazgkull. Really, the most dangerous thing the Imperium had to worry about during that stretch of time was regular humans rebelling (rightfully so) in the face of the Imperium being a nightmarishly oppressive theocratic fascist state.

That's 10,000 years or so that you could almost call relatively stable, where the vast majority of issues were problems that it inflicted on itself. Business as usual.

AND THEN

In the span of just over 250 years, there's several wars with the Tau, the Tyranids show up over and over again, the Necrons start waking up, and... then the Leagues of Votann are also here now lol

Something, something, decades where nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen, etc.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Television - Summer 1975 Demos

One more summer re-run ...

The very first release on Ork Records was Television’s “Little Johnny Jewel” single, which arrived in September of 1975. The unreleased tracks we’ve gathered here today (which appear on the classic Double Exposure bootleg) are from those same “Johnny Jewel” sessions, recorded at a place curiously called Wartoke Concern.  

The details from the Numero Ork Records set: 

In two hours of August 19, 1975, Television cut a handful of demos on an infirm TEAC 4-track owned by Jay Dee Daugherty, drummer for Patti Smith’s group. “The entrance was behind the ticket window in an older movie theater, up five flights,” Verlaine wrote of Wartoke Concern’s 46th & Broadway office. “Just a few mikes and checkin’ to see that the machine worked, which it didn’t. It was supposed to be in stereo but it was out of sync so we had to put it in mono … I played an old maple-neck Fender Duo-Sonic which belonged to Patti Smith.” 

So, what we have here are early versions of: “Hard On Love,” “Friction,” “Careful,” “Prove It,” and “Fire Engine.” All very interesting! All very cool. And “Johnny Jewel” remains an inspired choice as a debut – other bands would’ve gone for a more accessible number, but Verlaine went for the oddest, most singular thing in his band’s repertoire. And the world was never the same!

Also interesting and cool – the Ork liners also tell us that Arista Records funded a Television demo session later in 1975 recorded by Blue Oyster Cult’s Allen Lanier! Have those tracks ever made it out into the wild? I don’t think so, but I could be wrong…

[nevesmose]

A PURPLE-DRAPED MEETING ROOM SOMEWHERE ABOARD THE PRIDE OF THE EMPEROR. A BORED-LOOKING DAEMONETTE IS STANDING BEHIND A LECTERN WITH THE III LEGION SYMBOL ON IT. SHE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF A SPEECH.

D: and so while it's true that Primarch Fulgrim has taken personal control of the Medusan alloy's production, I can promise you, chitinous claw on heart, that he has taken that decision based solely on what's best for humanity with no thought at all regarding how the hot, weighty fluid might feel as it was pumped uncontrollably into his quivering, sweat-soaked body. I think we've been very open and pliant with you about that fact. Next question, please.

AN ORK IN A POORLY FITTING HAT AND OVERCOAT STANDS UP.

ORK: Krog Readzanritez, Daily Gorkanmorkian. Innit roight dat da big 'umie has once again made da choice to contrib... contry... do more of da increasing deckydence and corruption wot some 'umies say is affectin' da Fird Legion? Fank you.

D: Well first of all I want to go on the record and say that there is no evidence at all of any decrease in decadence and corruption within the Third Legion and I would argue that if you could see what was happening under this podium you would agree.

SHE WINKS AND DOES A FINGER-GUNS GESTURE.

D: Secondly I think you need to keep in mind that looking directly upwards and clenching your fists has been widely thought to...

A CHAIR SUDDENLY FLIES INTO VIEW, MISSING THE LECTERN BY SEVERAL FEET. PAN RIGHT TO REVEAL THE ONE RESPONSIBLE - A SPACE MARINE OF THE IMPERIAL FISTS.

IF: The filthy greenskin described increasing decadence, not decreasing! Even just in the course of this press conference I personally have been offered illegal narcotics rendered down from captive civilians multiple times!

D: Well, I...

IF: By you!

A CLAMOUR BREAKS OUT AMONG THE ASSEMBLED JOURNALISTS DURING WHICH A SINGLE BOOMING VOICE DECLARES "LEMONY BOY CAN'T HANDLE THE GOOD STUFF."

THE IMPERIAL FIST LOOKS OVER, FURIOUS, BUT IS KNOCKED DOWN BY THE BLURRED SHAPE OF AN IRON WARRIOR FUELLED BY BITTERNESS AND ENTITLEMENT. THEY ROLL OUT OF FRAME SLAPPING INEFFECTUALLY AT EACH OTHER. PAN BACK TO THE DAEMONETTE.

A HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS GREEN-EYED METALLIC BEING IN THE BLOODSTAINED, OBVIOUSLY STOLEN HOOD AND CLOAK OF A TECHPRIEST SPEAKS UP. DESPITE WEARING A FALSE ROGAL DORN MOUSTACHE HE IS CLEARLY TRAZYN THE INFINITE.

Trazyn: When will your fellow "humans" in the "priesthood" of "Mars" receive a sample of the alloy?

HE MAKES CONTEMPTUOUS AIR-QUOTES AS HE SPEAKS AND VISIBLY STRUGGLES TO HOLD BACK LAUGHTER. THE DAEMONETTE STARES AT HIM WITH DEEP HOSTILITY.

D: This press conference is over.

[shadowron]

The Ork Influencer, a Better Ork Archetype for Shadowrun (1st Edition)

This recent spate of archetypes was inspired by the art of @skullchicken, and when I saw the above images, your first thought might be “Ork Rocker”, but I opted against that because:

The Rocker is the most useless archetype of all time.

I’ve already made an Ork Rapper.

Instead, I’m stealing an idea from the excellent 2nd Edition Podcast Pink Fohawk and the NPC of Faye Feelzall, who is the Sixth World version of a Social Media Influencer. It admittedly could be better if I included some cyberware from the Street Samurai Catalog, but still sticking with core rulebook. They will be moderately cybered, focusing on cybereye/ears and filling a surveillance niche on the team. In addition, they will be the first character I’ve ever made that has followers:

“As many as five archetypes come when you call. Roll 1D6+1 to see how many are available at any time. They are willing to die for you. They have standard Archetype Ratings and Cyberware, but you supply the gear.”

Emphasis mine.

Because let’s face it – makes sense for an influencer.

Attributes:

Body: 4 Quickness: 3 Strength: 3 Rizz: 5 Intelligence: 3 Willpower: 5 Essence: 3 Reaction: 3

Skills:

Armed Combat: 2 Etiquette (Media): 6 Etiquette (Street): 6 Leadership: 6

Cyberware:

Chipjack Cyberears (with Damper, Low Frequency, High Frequency, Recorder) Cybereyes (with Camera, Flare Compensation, Low-Light, Thermographic Imaging) Datajack Datasoft Link Display Link Headware Memory (40 Mp) Retractable Hand Razors Telephone

Gear:

Armor Clothing Eurocar Westwind 2000 Fine Clothing Language Skillsofts (all Rating 3, choose 3) Tres Chic Clothing Micro-Camcorder

Contacts: (Choose 4 extra, for a total of 6)

Bartender Dwarven Technician Fixer Gang Boss Mechanic Media Producer Metahuman Rights Activist Squatter Street Doc Troll Bouncer

Followers: As many as five archetypes come when you call. Roll 1D6+1 to see how many are available at any time

[bandcampsnoop]

11/19/23.

Wowii were a Miami, Florida based band that perfected the power pop sound of the late 1970s. This really could have sounded perfect on Ork Records. They released 3 singles, but now, thanks to Reminder Records, we get their entire recorded output.

This is power pop in the vein of Big Star or The Raspberries. More modern bands mining similar sounds are The Lemon Twigs, and Gentleman Jesse. The Bandcamp page also mentions Milk n' Cookies, The Brats, and The Marbles.

We previously posted about The Jacks - another Reminder Records release.

[caiusmajor]

Warsmith Kalkator Part 2: Zerberyn

In the last post, I talked about the adventures of Warsmith Kalkator with Marshal Magneric of the Black Templars in the War of the Beasts.

Now, we're going to talk about Zerberyn. When we meet Zerberyn in Echoes of the Long War, he is the First Captain of the Fists Exemplar. The Fists Exemplar are a First Founding Imperial Fists successor chapter, but you may never have heard of them because they were later wiped out of the historical record for reasons we'll get into below.

The Fists Exemplar were formed of the Imperial Fists that thought the Codex Astartes was a great idea. In addition to this, they have a fine chapter tradition of insubordination, which explains some of Zerberyn's actions.

At any rate. Zerberyn's small fleet of Fists Exemplar, as well as Kalkator's single ship, both escape from the void battle of Vandis, but none of the ships are in good shape. Kalkator offers to bring Zerberyn to a place where they can all repair their ships and then be on their way.

Zerberyn agrees. Unfortunately, the first place Kalkator takes Zerberyn, the world of Prax, has already been colonized by the orks, who are using it to process human captives en masse into food to be distributed to the ork war effort. (War of the Beast orks are more civilized than most; this is part of why they're such a problem.)

So they fight their way through Prax, which was conquered by the Iron Warriors way back in the Great Crusade, along with some human stormtroopers that...unfortunately have to be killed when they discover that the Iron Warriors are traitors and try to kill them. Zerberyn at this point is getting along well enough with the Iron Warriors that he cooperates with this, and even condemns some of his own Fists Exemplar to death to cover up the Iron Warriors' involvement.

Also Kalkator calls Zerberyn "little cousin," which is cute.

Anyway, it turns out that Perturabo had installed a self-destruct button for the planet Prax. So Kalkator hits the self-destruct button, killing a lot of orks and their human food/slaves and hopefully disrupting their war effort. And Zerberyn and Kalkator and their Iron Warriors and Fists Exemplar fly away together.

After Echoes of the Long War, Zerberyn and Kalkator show up briefly every book or so -- half a chapter in The Hunt for Vulkan, a whole chapter each in Watchers in Death, The Last Son of Dorn, and Shadow of Ullanor.

By the The Last Son of Dorn, Zerberyn's Fists Exemplar and Kalkator's Iron Warriors have set up housekeeping together on a moon of Immitis VII. They're sharing supplies, working together on defenses, and even raising neophytes together:

A pair of bulky, muscular youths, perhaps eleven or twelve standard years of age, hovered behind [the Apothecary]. They looked sickly from blood loss and enforced genhancement. [...] Zerberyn could not tell just from looking whether they were Iron Warriors or Fists Exemplar. (The Last Son of Dorn, Chapter 11)

The Fists Exemplar and Iron Warriors continue to be allied and grow gradually closer (and Zerberyn closer and closer to severing ties with the Imperium), but the next really important developments are in the final book of The Beast Arises, The Beheading.

With the War of the Beast over, Zerberyn finally sends word to the other sons of Dorn of where he is and asks them to "come in peace and bearing the markers of truce." (The Beheading, Chapter 7)

Chapter Master Bohemond of the Black Templars arrives instead, determined to kill the Iron Warriors. When the Fists Exemplar won't give up the Iron Warriors, the Black Templars' ship attacks and Marshal Bohemond himself teleports onto Zerberyn's ship and tries to kill Kalkator.

After some fighting and intense discussions of philosophy, Zerberyn kills Marshal Bohemond to protect Kalkator and orders his fleet to fire on the Black Templars' ship.

At this point, some of Zerberyn's own Fists Exemplar subordinates rebel against orders and fighting breaks out between (and on) the Fists Exemplar ships. One ship gets away and returns to the Imperium; more on them later.

Zerberyn himself? He's made his choice.

‘A Fist Exemplar is never mistaken,’ he said. He knelt [before Kalkator]. Behind him, the crew and Space Marines of the Dantalion followed his example.

‘Iron within, iron without,’ he said.

And this is the last we see of Kalkator and Zerberyn! So, as far as I know, they're still living together as Iron Warriors, somewhere in the galaxy.

As for the rest of the Fists Exemplar, the one ship that defied Zerberyn and made it back to the Imperium shows up with 22 surviving warriors. In the meantime, the Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar, Maximus Thane, had become the Chapter Master of the reconstituted Imperial Fists. (The previous incarnation of the Imperial Fists had all been killed by orks.)

Because of the shame of Zerberyn's betrayal, Thane has the Fists Exemplar chapter dissolved and all records expunged. Surviving Fists Exemplar not in the Iron Warriors were inducted into the new Imperial Fists chapter.

So that is the story of Kalkator and his sons of Dorn! Please do take a look at the original books if you are interested -- there's a lot of details I didn't have time for here.

[joanofarc]

can't go out, hercules (2004).

can't go out because it's raining not a cloud in the whole sky but it's raining on me

[codexmaledictus]

The Rot Tide Gambit

Ah, Typhus, Herald of Nurgle—the Betrayer of the Death Guard, bearer of the Destroyer Plague, and one of the most infamous figures in the galaxy’s long and tortured history. Yet even a being as monumental as Typhus possesses tales that have slipped through the cracks of recorded lore, whispered only in the darkest circles of Chaos.

One such story concerns The Rot-Tide Gambit, a lesser-known episode early in Typhus's service to Nurgle, before he became the towering figure of despair he is today. The tale speaks of a bizarre and ill-fated alliance between Typhus and an Ork Warlord known as Gorrak Pustuleskull, a beastly greenskin infamous for his grotesque physical deformities, which Typhus saw as the perfect vessel for spreading Nurgle's blessings.

The Plan:

During a campaign on the pestilent world of Glotthus IV, Typhus sought to weaponize the feral Orks that roamed the planet. Glotthus IV was a quarantined Imperial agri-world, already suffering from widespread blight and disease. Typhus, seeing the potential for corruption, approached Gorrak and promised him the strength of the Plague God—a boon the Ork mistook for "morky trickiness" (Orks rarely understand subtleties of Chaos). Typhus's plan was to infect the Orks with a refined strain of the Destroyer Plague, making them unwitting plague-carriers that would overwhelm the beleaguered Imperial defenders.

The Alliance:

Gorrak accepted Typhus's gifts eagerly, his Warband swelling in size and power as the plague took hold. The greenskins thrived amidst the pestilence, their crude physiology allowing them to spread Nurgle’s blessings without succumbing fully to its decay. Typhus watched with satisfaction as this living plague tore through Imperial forces like a virulent storm, overwhelming their defenses with sheer ferocity and infectious chaos.

But Orks are Orks—unpredictable, self-serving, and utterly alien to the plans of gods and men alike. The more the plague spread, the more the Orks began to worship their infected forms, viewing their rotting flesh and swollen pustules as divine gifts from their own gods, Gork and Mork. Gorrak declared himself "Da Prophet of Da Plague Waaagh!" and began gathering other Ork tribes to his banner, threatening to turn Glotthus IV into an uncontrollable Ork empire of filth.

The Betrayal:

Realizing he had created a monster too unstable to control, Typhus intervened. He unleashed his Terminus Est upon Gorrak’s horde, raining diseased bombardments that annihilated entire mobs in festering clouds of filth. Gorrak, however, proved surprisingly resilient, wielding an enormous, plague-encrusted klaw and bellowing defiance in Typhus’s direction. The two clashed in a brutal duel, with Gorrak’s raw physical power pitted against Typhus’s tactical brilliance and Nurgle-blessed resilience.

Though Typhus eventually triumphed—impaling Gorrak with his manreaper, Silence, and reducing the Warlord to a seething pile of sludge—the battle cost him more than expected. Many of the Orks fled, taking their twisted, diseased bodies to other systems and spreading the very plague Typhus sought to contain.

The Aftermath:

The Rot-Tide Gambit was both a victory and a failure for Typhus. While Glotthus IV was left a lifeless husk, a testament to Nurgle’s dominion, the plague-born Orks that escaped would plague systems for centuries, creating unforeseen complications for both the servants of Chaos and the Imperium. To this day, certain warbands of plague-infected Orks—known as "Rotboyz"—can be found in the galaxy, a grim reminder of Typhus’s hubris in attempting to weaponize the unpredictable savagery of the greenskins.

It is said that Nurgle himself found great amusement in this debacle, for the chaos and entropy it wrought were delightful to his diseased mind. Typhus, however, learned a valuable lesson about the perils of relying on forces even more unpredictable than himself.

Thus, this obscure tale of Typhus stands as a testament to the capriciousness of Chaos, where even the best-laid plans can fester and decay into unexpected consequences.

[nocifer]

Lore: The elves, masters of seas and magic

Among the many mortal species of this world, the elves have always been the wheel around which the rest turn. Or so they would like to believe. They elves are and have been many thing, heirs of true magic, prime servants of the dragons, scourge of the central continent... scattered, divided, broken.

The origins: The first age of the elves is shrouded in mystery even to the oldest remnants of their kind, whether through ignorance or hubris few records were made of their true origins. What remains, distorted, biased or entirely undecipherable, leaves place only to speculation or superstition.

Some believe the first elves were scions of the fae world, conquerors from beyond the veil who entered the material plane to seize it from undeserving mortals. In truth, it would be more likely that the elves were weak fae, too close to mortality for the realms of the fae and therefore rejected for their weakness were exiled into this plane. Or that the first elves were mortals touched by the powers of the fae, or taken by them and warped into beings half-mortal and half-fae. Regardless of lowly or lofty origins, the elves are a pale shadow of this supposed original glory, while innate sorcerers they possess nary a trickle of the font of power of a true fae.

But if there is any truth to the old stories, the first elves were the stuff of legend. Gods in their own right. Tales speak of kin born attuned to the elements, treading the world light as a feather, blades carving empires from nothing, wielders of the primal flame, dancers within the winds, favored of the lands and seas. Wherever this almighty elven empire is now, what we know of it is a sad and withered parody.

Dragon Worship: In the ancient times of draconic dominion over the world, the elves were the first among the mortal races that bent to them. Worshiped them even, for the dragons were as gods to them, incarnations of the true flame of chaos, the raw might of the elements, older even than the elves.

But when the end of dragons came, the Dracomachia, the elves stood powerless as fellow mortals, even some of their own, betrayed the dragons and took to them with sword and sorcery, with vile technology brought about to shatter their wings and pierce their hearts. "Tyrants" the dragonslayers called them, "monsters", "slavers", few other mortal races shared the elven love of dragons.

And when the dragonslayers' dark deeds were done, the old hunters gorged on the blood of the old dragons were rejected in turn by other mortals, driven away for their cruelty and never-ending thirst for more of the primeval power of dragon blood, slaughtering even the most benign or youthful dragon and leaving their broken and drained bodies in their wake. In a way that none but them could bear to watch. The last dragons were allowed to flee beyond the ocean, to reach more peaceful lands of their own.

But the fall of the dragonslayers brought no comfort to the elves who remained loyal and saw their wise masters dethroned and broken before them. Nourishing a lasting and venomous flame of hatred against the mortals who betrayed them.

Dominion: Their kind did at several points come close to dominating the West, during the Age of Sorcery they swept across the world, tide of blades and flames, stopped only as they crashed into the hordes of the orks and the sorcerer-kings of mankind. Their chance at absolute control swept from below them as the sorcerer-kings were slain by the champions of mankind, and the age of sorcery left in the dust for the Age of Might.

The end of rule through sorcery was replaced by the Sword Rule of the True Kings, and so were the elves pushed back to their islands

Reckoning: The long lived elves feed their grudges for millenia, generation after generation inspired by the outrage of their ancestors at the mortal betrayal of their draconic masters, the arrogance of other mortals who denied the elves rightful rule of the world, who denied their power and wisdom, their knowledge far superior to any of the primitive, disgusting lesser races that kept pushing them away.

"No more." so spoke the Bearer of the Eternal Flame, he who drove his brethren to one final war against the lesser races, this time not for domination, but for extermination. They carved a trail of ash and blood across the coasts and drove their swords deep into the hearts of the realm of men, but through alliance of men and orks were once again broken and humbled, their mighty god-king shattered upon the knee of the Warlord Gor Sur'ataruk, shaman leader of the Eastern Horde.

Blame fell on all but the leaders of the suicidal invasion, as all those who opposed the war were branded as traitors and exiled into the wild deep woods of the western shores, making up the first wild elves in history.

Yet time erodes all, the genocidal leaders of the War of Reckoning were soon replaced by wiser rulers, recognizing that any chance at elven dominion had long since passed them by.

Irrelevance: With the fall into irrelevance of the most xenophobic parties of elven politics came a new regime, no more kings, no more sole rulers driving their kin to insane wars. The Republic was born, the Senate of the elves made great strides towards mending relationships with the realms of men and orks, but the rift seemed impossible to cross... yet.

Elves had all the time in the world and they were ready to accept a momentary setback, if they could not triumph through might, they would exploit other, more insidious means.

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And that's all for now, I think that's enough to digest right now. I'll make a new poll for the next one when I'm ready, hope you enjoyed my little expose!