Orcish Bog Leather

Written by Lokrow

The Orcs of the Hold can be traded with to obtain some really high quality leather wares and armour they produce. Most Seed Clans are able to turn hides into a soft and pliable leather using a technique called brain tanning. However any hides that orcs want to turn into armour require them to pass through one of the only wetlands of the Hold of Belkzen in order to commission work from the orcs of the Flayed Skull.
Nestled at the foot of the Tusk Mountains lies the Dry Skin Lake a valley bog upon which the Flayed Skull clan of legacy orcs has settled and specialised themselves in the processing of hides into Orcish Bog Leather.

History & Usage

Discovery

The discovery which led to the development of orcish bog leather is the same which gave the Flayed Skull clan its name.
After a defeat which rendered their clan witchless, the orcs arrived to and hid in the bog's water in order to ambush their enemies who were chasing them. Surely enough, the desperate ambush succeeded. And in the days that followed, as they were fishing the bodies of their opponents out of the bog, they discovered the Flayed Skull Orc.
This orc, which had likely fallen and drowned in the bog had been extremely well preserved by the bog's highly acidic waters. As its skull had been partly consumed by those very same waters, the orc looked as if it had half of the skin of the face flayed off which the clan took on as a name.

Development and Technique

As the clan adapted to sedentary life, they experimented with using the bog as means of tanning hides into leather and eventually mastered the trade to the point of every clan of the orc seeking to commission leather armour from the Flayed Skull Clan.
The orcs of the Flayed Skull found out that they could soak rawhides into the streams that ran through the Dry Skin Lake to render them supple after they had been dried. Additionally, they discovered that doing so also made the hair slip off the hide with little effort and that to leave the hide too long in the stream would cause it to deteriorate.
After dehairing the hides and wringing the water out, they found that dumping the hides into the bog's water turned the hides into leather. That technique was further refined by digging troughs into the edges of the bog to let them fill with bog water, adding salt which the clan obtained by trading with the Murdered Child clan from across the Flood Road and throwing hot stones to bring the water in the troughs to a boil. They then let hides soak into the trough while stirring them around for two days.
Finally after letting the now tanned leather dry, they finish the leather using oil which they obtain by rendering fat from game animals, which gives the leather its distinctive scent of fried meat.
Once this is finished, orcs from the clan will then work the leather further depending on its intended use.

Properties

Due to being tanned in a highly acidic solution, the leather can irritate the skin if worn directly as is. As the orcs often wear another layer of lighter brain-tanned leather, this does not bother them.

Manufacturing & Products

Everything that uses leather, orcish bog leather can be used for. The main commissions which the Flayed Skull Clan takes on are for armour and sheathes, however orcish bog leather can be further worked or refined for other purposes as well. An example of which is book-binding and covers, a rare order which comes mostly from non-orc members of the seed clans the Flayed Skull receives.

Add-ons to armour

Whilst orcish bog leather armour in and of itself provides sufficient protection, some clans add to it. Most notable examples of additions are the use of bones to be layered on top of the leather to provide further protection.

Distribution

Trade & Market

The Flayed Skull clan is the only clan who can produce orcish bog leather within the Hold. They often accept commissions from seed clans who arrive with dried hides acquired from hunting game in exchange of the seed clan hunting and gathering resources for the orcs of the Flayed Skull.
They are closest with another legacy clan, that of the Murdered Child, which provides them with salt they gather from the Dirt Sea. However, due to both of these clan's sedentary nature and the unwillingness or legacy orcs to stray too far from their main dwelling, they often conduct these trades by way of intermediary and nomadic seed clans.

Type

Biomaterial

Value

Orcish bog leather is most commonly exchanged for 2 days of labour providing the clan with food or other resources they cannot acquire by themselves and need to import from outside the Dry Skin Lake.

Rarity

Common (within the Hold). Uncommon to rare anywhere else.

Odor

Orcish bog leather has a distinct earthy smell. Along with the smell of fried meat.

Taste

the oils used on the leather make it taste of meat and if one were to bite further into it, it would taste of sphagnum moss.

Color

Reddish-brown.

Related Locations

• Dry Skin Lake

Related Species

• Orcs