The Orc War was a conflict fought between the orcish clans on one hand, and the humans and elves on the other hand.
History
Prelude
The Orrin Empire was a prosperous human empire led by Arthas Hart, bordering the elven Kingdom of Lórien led by Lireesa Windrunner.
The army of the empire were well-trained and maintaining a lasting peace, while the elves had recovered from the lich's invasion which ended in 1564 BD.
Rise of the horde
Gul'dan a crippled orc offered himself in the service of whatever would end his anguish. Rejected by the spirits a demonlord, Baphomet, began to whisper to him. The demon lord offered Gul'dan power in return for becoming the harbinger of his fury.
Baphomet needed a public figure to unite the orcs against the other mortal, but Gul'dan could not inspire or lead his people by example. The Demon lord ordered him to ally with someone who could. Careful to hide his demonic powers, Gul'dan approached the Shadowmoon clan, whose shaman commanded respect from all orcs, perfect for Baphonmet's plan.
Orcs accepting newcomers into clans was uncommon, but the Shadowmoon took pity on Gul'dan and did just that. Gul'dan carefully observed the clan's shaman for one that would work, and eventually settled on the chieftain Ner'zhul. He was dedicated, forthright, and persistent, but also held turmoil and sorrow because of the death of his mate Rulkan and the recent trouble with elemental spirits. Gul'dan preyed on Ner'zhul's inner darkness and convinced him to take him on as an, unbeknownst to him, pretend shaman apprentice. Through Gul'dan, Baphomet now had access to a public figure. As the demon began to manipulate Ner'zhul, he tasked Gul'dan with making the orcs see the humans and elves as enemies.
As Ner'zhul rallied the orcs for a war against the humans and elves at the behest of a powerful ancestor referred to as "The Beautiful One" (in truth, Baphomet in disguise), Gul'dan supported Ner'zhul fully. However, when Ner'zhul began to notice that they could no longer call upon the power of the elements or the ancestors, the shaman began to sense something was amiss. He discovered that he had been duped by Baphomet and attempted to back out. To Ner'zhul's horror, he discovered that Gul'dan had seen everything and told Baphomet of it all before Ner'zhul returned, as his clan treated him like an outcast.
As a necessity of his bid for power, Gul'dan trained a number of like-minded and powerful orcs, whom he named the Shadow Council. The Council was soon using its power and influence to direct almost every aspect of orc society, so as to distract those few who opposed his dark ideals from their true masters, Gul'dan and Baphomet. He opened schools of demonology and necromancy to teach shamans new power to replace their lost connections to the elements. To seal the bargain between him and Baphomet, Gul'dan and the Shadow Council offered the clan chieftains the Blood of Baphomet. The first chieftain to accept his gift was Grommash Hellscream, with majority of the remaining following suit right after. The resulting Horde was bloodthirsty, barbaric, and evil, an extension of the demons whom they now worshiped.
With this new horde, Gul'dan and the shadow Council guided the orcs into battle, facing the elves and humans. The Orrin empire wasn't preapred for this assault, nor was the kingdom of Lorien, rumors spread through the streets talking about orcs as vengeful spirits. The horde marched on the lands of Orrin, murdering every single being they could find on their path of destruction. Filled with the demonic blood of Baphomet, the orcs lusted for war and would destroy anything that prevented them from reaching their goal; to conquer the west of Toriel.
The War
Early stages
The orc assault and raid were numerous and common those since Gul'dan started to corrupt the orcs. But, now the orc started to march as a united force.
First on the path of the orcs' horde, the empire sent a small forces of knights to scout the movement of the orcish army, resulting in the knights clashing with the orcs in a series of bloody skirmishes. Orrin scored a number of small victories, yet for every orcs killed two more seemed to take its place. The humans were more outnumbered in each subsequent battle, and eventually forced to pull back. The Orrin Empire readied itself for a full-scale war.
Warchief Blackhand ordered raiding parties to cut deep into the empire's lands to drive panic into the human populace. Entire village fell, their inhabitants either killed or forced to flee. By the time thee Empire's patrols rode to defend the villages, the Horde was already gone. Studyin the pattern of targets the Horde would strike, the human retaliated, setting up ambushes along their paths of retreat. In some cases, small units of human knights were able to bring down entire orc raiding parties without any casualties.
Messengers were dispatched to the elven kingdom of Lorien, warning of mysterious, fearsome red-skinned invaders. And the elf of Lorien answered their call.
The siege of the Orrin Empire's Capital
Three years after the beginning of the war, in 1212 BD, the orcish raids on the countryside had razed farms, towns, villages, forges, and trade houses, causing ruin to the Orrin Empire's economy. Even more dire, many sources of food supply had been destroyed or fallen into the Horde's control.
Warchief Blackhand decided to bring the Horde to surround the empire's capital. Thousands of Horde soldiers marched and encircled the capital, cutting off all access except for the sea. As it seemed the capital would fall that day, there were suddenly cries of an attack from the Horde's rear lines.
Elven knights from Lorien had moved around the horde by sea. As the orcs tried to push back the knights of Lorien, the capital's large gates opened and the empire's kninghts poured out of the city to flank the orcs in a counterattack. Outflanked on both sides and suffering many casualties, the orcs were left with no choice but to flee. This was the greatest disaster to ever happen to the Horde.
The empire had received information about the Horde's plans from Garona halforcen who worked with the Hesian order.
The Empire retaliates
The Orrin empire sent emissaries to the orcs hoping to negotiate with them but if any returned, they did so in pieces. Lireesa, queen of Lorien suggested a guerilla agains the orc outpost. Sending her scout and rangers, they whiped the orcs' raiding parties and secured the empire's capital region once again.
A group of scouts were sent into the remnants of the cities wipped by the orcs; they reported back that the survivors had been taken to a hidden orcish compound to serve as slaves.
The Hesian order also confirmed that all the slaves were grouped together in a offsite location and that an enclosure had to be destroyed in order to make a path for the prisoners from which they could escape from. Elven scouts also reported of two orcish outpost south before the orcish encampment in which the prisoners were held. A plan was devised to attack the outpost and free the slaves.
The elven scouts reported that the key to a victory for them in this confrontation would be to hold back the orcs forces at their outposts while strengthening the empire's attack force to prepare for a massive all-out attack.
The empire's war mages burned the orcish outposts, and the elven knights slaughtered the orcs' warriors. The outposts were laid to waste as all the orcs troops were slain.
A detachment of knights from the empire was sent to the encampment and managed to crush all opposition, destroying the orcish encampment in the process. With the peasants set free, the rebuilding of the region could start.
Split army
After the fiasco of the siege on Orrin empire's capital, and the destruction of the horde's outposts and encampment in the region, Gul'dan set out to locate the queen of the elves to enact his revenge. Gul'dan's thirst for revenge proved to be the Horde's undoing. With nearly half of his standing forces suddenly gone, to attack the elf. This would ultimately give the Orrin empire time to regroup and retaliate.
Gul'dan did indeed manage to attack queen Lireesa windrunner as she was, with her troop, on a journey back to the elven kingdom. Gul'dan used his demonic power to kill the queen and her troops.
With the death of Lireesa, the
Sylvanas Windrunner called upon the dragons of the
Golden Five, calling upon their help to end this war and to avenge her dead mother.
But
Kueli, who answered the call, refused to help a cycle of endless vengeance that would only bring war and destruction to Toriel.
Orrin's and Lorien's troops gathered like buzzards to carrio, as the moment of destiny was close at hand. The earth shook as the knights mounted griffin and horses. fiery rocks falling from the sky thanks to humans' mage as the bulk of the knights marched to the orcs camps. Within moments, the horde's camp was ablaze with shadow dancing on the walls. While orcs were busy trying to put out the fires, and the orc started to flee, the orc had lost their morale and will to fight, the war was lost.
Those who managed to flee sought Gul'dan, whom they considered, and those who joined him on his quest for vengeance, as traitors. When the fleing orcs finally met with Gul'dan and the survivors of their attack on the elves, their bloodlust took over, and they slaughtered Gul'dan and the remainder of his clan.
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