The Bah’haraz

Orcs are often seen by the other peoples as brutish, savage, and violent. In many cases this stereotype has a foundation in truth, but few outsiders have ever heard the story of the Bah’Haraz.
Long ago in the early days of the Orcish enslavement the tribes almost ceased to exist. Gone were all the elders who could recall their days of freedom, and even their great grandchildren were growing old and their stories were beginning to fade. The names of tribes began to fade as their children forgot their ancestors and themselves. In these days the Emptiness claimed many young orcs and their numbers dwindled. The elven taskmasters relentlessly pushed the remaining members of the tribes even harder in return to maintain the same workload regardless of numbers. Into this time of great weakness and hopelessness Ur’duz was born. 
Ur’duz was born clanless, his mother unknown so no clan could claim him. His father, Goruk, a stone splitter working in the Goraz foothills found him one day sitting skinclad in the barren stony soil. In one hand Ur’duz held a piece of flint hard and sharp as a dagger and in the other a dead stone viper its head cleanly sheared off by the babe. Knowing then the miraculous nature of this child Goruk thanked his ancestors and the gods for he had not yet forgotten. Ur’duz was gathered and hidden from the elves so as not to rouse suspicion and Goruk brought him home to the elders of his tribe speaking loudly of the miracle and showing the snake skin. 
Ur’duz was raised by many mothers and therefore by none. His name was Tribeless and he was often to be found wandering alone while other orc children played at Hunting or Swords and Spears. As he grew it became evident the gods had made him differently, he grew long of limb and slender for an orc and whispers arose about his parentage and blood. Soon it came time for his Ru’duvk, his coming of age. Goruk was old now being over fourty and he worried greatly for his son. The Ru’duvk had claimed bigger and stronger orcs than Ur’duz and though he knew his son was wise beyond his years he knew the desert was a dangerous place and the gods could be fickle. Come the day Goruk could hardly watch as Ur’duz was stripped and sent into the desert at mid-suns to show his prowess.
Ur’duz was gone for ten days. One for each year since his birth and on the morning of the eleventh at the rising of the yellow sun he returned. Clad in shining mail and carrying the carcass of a great desert poloum on a sledge behind him he bore now a tall spear he used for walking and a wine skin from which he drank. It was said he had communed with the gods rather than suffer in the desert and proven his strength in their halls of war and cunning. For this feat he was named Ur’duz Godtribe and word of him spread far and wide among the enslaved orcs. 
Ur’duz grew into a strong orc by his fifteenth nameday and though Goruk passed in his 47th year he died proud of his son. While Ru’duz worked with the stone lifters during the day building the palaces and statues of the elven lords he spent much of his evening alone in his hut while others drank themselves to sleep with grek. The rumors grew once more, he reads, he sleeps, no he never sleeps but communes with gods all night. 
For a year this continued until in his sixteenth year Ur’duz Godtribe revealed his secrets. In his evenings he had spent time with the stories the elders had taught him. Committing them to memory and searching their meanings. Now he had all the tribes bound in his mind and soul and he began to teach. Teach not that battle and war were the only way back for the orcs but teaching the quiet strength of one who serves without reverence, those who bend but don’t break. Soon the young orcs warmed to his teachings, learning to bare their tusks at the overseers backs and sing the chants of their ancestors in the deep of night. The iron hearts of the orcs returned.
It is said even now that the Bah’haz will visit the children of Bahak and Rojek on the night of the ancestors. Singing the old songs and leaving gifts that strengthen mind and spirit as well as arm and tusk. For the orcs he is the spirit of hope, the knowledge that they would survive the Enslavement and now that they have, a reminder that their strength as a nation must come from the soul as much as the arm.