Ogrokh & Rab

These two are the orcs who first discover Cedric and Rowan, the morning after the luckless pair have fallen down a big hole and then fallen asleep as a result of the Slumber Fungus at the bottom of it.

Ogrokh Glug (left) is Draklan's second-in-command, an extremely down-to-earth individual with a cheerful disregard for other people's sensibilities. There isn't a malicious bone in his body, but he firmly believes that if people can't take him as they find him ("a big, mean bugger 'oo loikes a good foight," to quote the orc himself), then that's their problem. He lacks much of the cunning and subtlety of his chieftain, but makes up for it with sheer determination and a right hook that can flatten ogres (and minotaurs. And balrogs. And an uppity demi-demon, on one occasion); and despite being loud, crude and never happier than when he's thumping somebody, he has an uncanny knack for getting on with people, even the ones he's just been hitting. He is, essentially, a very traditional orc - immensely strong, ferociously loyal and always ready to start injuring others.

Ogrokh is about as big as regular orcs ever get, and his impressive size is the combined result of a lifetime's lugging of granite around mineshafts and a slightly over-enthusiastic fondness for food, in particular large quantities of beer. Indeed, whilst holed up in Castle Rukfar for the best part of three months, he turned one of the dungeons into a small brewery for the production of his own, very distinctive beverage - "Ogrokh's Old Irremovable", a beer that reaches the parts you were better off having unreached and which, when poured surrepticiously upon pot plants, has been known to cause them to erupt into flame. It is also best kept away from wooden surfaces, tooth enamel and, in all honesty, stomachs.

He and Draklan grew up together in L'arynjita, and have been friends for as long as they have known each other; when Draklan occasionally gets the urge for a quick explore somewhere, Ogrokh is always with him. The big orc is just the sort of person it's good to have on your side when venturing into the unknown, unless you're venturing into an unknown pub, in which case his presence is liable to lead to an impromptu re-arrangement of the decor.

It was on one such exploration that the pair first encountered Rab Glaschweg (right), on the outskirts of his native Highlands. Their meeting came at a time when the region was acting as a large, bumpy and thistle-strewn battlefield between the orcish and human inhabitants, and Rab was being held captive by a young and frankly rather dim Earl who, having successfully wiped out all the other inhabitants of his clan, thought it would be "rather entertaining" to keep the orc as a pet. This notion was particularly short-lived, however (so was the Earl, as it turned out), as the convoy transporting him across country was encountered by Draklan and Ogrokh and met with a forthright request that he should be let go. There was a certain amount of disagreement, but not for very long.

Some persuation was initially required to prevent him from charging back home to wage a one-orc war (helped particularly by Draklan administering a headlock and Ogrokh sitting on him), but after finally accepting that the cause was lost, the battered and bedraggled Rab agreed to accompany them back to L'arynjita. Thus, the Clan Pickaxe was founded - a title decided upon after much debate and several lost teeth.

There are very few Highland orcs left in the Firste Worlde as a result of the human occupation of their territories, and as well as being the principal cause of his ill-dispostion towards mankind, it is perhaps the main reason for Rab's overtly belligerent personality; he feels he has a duty to preserve his heritage, and as far as he's concerned, Highland orcs are supposed to be angry, aggressive and inclined to meet adversity with a loud voice and a constructively-delivered headbutt. He makes a persistent and often loudly vocal point of championing the Highland way of life, although there are some aspects of this that he has problems with - he considers the sound of bagpipes as something akin to a sheep caught in a combine harvester, and he refuses outright to eat anything that comes served inside an internal organ - but it's the principal that's important. This could probably be said to be jingoism, although not when he's in close proximity. They don't miss much with those ears.

Back to Main Page Back to ORCS!