Lost Civilisation of Qipatikkut

Summary

Deep in the jungles of Qipatikkut are said to lie the ruins of a great city, once home to a long lost civilisation of Orcs. What little is known about either Orcs or city is written in ancient texts and scrolls or told as legends and myths by the various jungle tribes. Though the stories vary greatly in who they were and what happened to them, several points remain constant across all the tales.

1. There did indeed once exist a population of Orcs in the jungles.
2. They built a great city and ruled over the lands for miles around.
3. The city and the Orcs vanished nearly overnight .
4. All attempts to find the city have failed.

Historical Basis

Ancient scrolls found in ruins of fallen nations speak of a great city of Orcs, one says they were just and fair rulers another that they were cruel and meddled with dark magics.

The journal of a court noble, found in the Great Library tells of a delegation of Orcs from the far south who turned up in shining gold robes, bearing exotic gifts and fine words.

A tome of stories by a bard who travelled the jungles collecting the legends of the tribes, regales us with many a tale of the green skinned people, each as fantastical as the next.

Spread

Tales of the great jungle city can be found all over Paneus if you care to look, however, few ever do. Scholars, historians and treasure hunters are the only ones these days who seek to learn more of this lost city. Every now and then a new morsel will turn up in a dusty library or forgotten tomb that will set learned tongues to wagging again for a brief time. Over the years many an adventurer has plunged into the jungle seeking the great wealth of the Orcs, as some tales claim them to have had. Some return merely disappointed, others never return and some come back raving mad and delirious only to die a few weeks later. Even these expeditions dwindled over time, and none has gone seeking the legend for decades.

Variations & Mutation

Scholars and historians have written theories over the years as to how these people disappeared and many a heated debate has occurred over the validity of these varied theories. The mentions and snippets of information to be found in ancient texts differ greatly on who the Orcs were, depending on the hand that wrote them. Some paint them to be wise and noble, others as fearsome warriors, some as simple savages and others still as meddlers of dark forces. The legends of the jungle tribes paint a similar varied picture of their history with the orcs, they do all agree however that the Orc nation was extremely powerful and some of their ancestors even revered them as Gods. There seem to be very few corroborating facts about this lost civilisation and for now it seems they will remain lost to the mysteries of time.

In Art

Some of the older jungle tribes have cave murals drawn by their ancestors which depict images of their interactions with the Orcs. Once again these also vary between tribes, from scenes of heavy tusked orcs slaughtering people to images of them sitting on thrones of light while people bow down to them. One particularly reclusive tribe even has a scene of Orcs in a fierce battle with strange tentacled beings. The scholar caught sneaking a look at this apparently sacred mural had his eyes put out and was thrown bodily from the village, fortunately he lived long enough to tell his research partner of what he saw.

A great city

Tales of the lost city of Qipatikkut come mainly from the jungle tribes. Most agree it was a large stone built affair, with many great wonders or horrors depending with whom you speak. It contained tall towers and spires and was surrounded by a great pale-stone wall. The tales speak of beautiful gardens and fountains, but also deep dungeons and torture chambers, of bright welcoming halls and dark and dangerous alleys. As with the stories of the Orcs who lived there, very little consistency can be found in those of the city either.

Walking in circles

Those who have returned from expeditions to find the city all claim that the jungle has a way of turning you around. You think you have been travelling in a straight line when suddenly you find yourself back at a place you were hours ago. Navigation equipment gives false readings or is simply useless in the dense jungle, even location and navigation spells lead you round in circles. Teams have spent weeks wandering the jungles without seemingly getting anywhere but lost, their equipment and spells once more working only when they decide to go back home.

..it is obvious the city was simply swallowed by the earth.........Nonsense, the people of the jungle would remember an earthquake of that magnitude in their histories.....Exactly it had to have been divine in nature.....pffft you and your stories of the Gods lifting the city into the sky......no more nonsensical than your theory of it being sucked into another plane........he's not wrong you know, the Druids would have intervened in a planar occurrence of that scale.......The Druids were barely formed then, has the wine addled your memory?.....

— an overheard conversation during dinner at the scholars conclave.