The Festering Marshes

To the east of Yore festers a great stinking swamp that stretches for hundreds of miles and collects much of the run-off from the Icespire Mountains to the north and west. Lying in a great bowl hemmed in by the Cloud Hills to the south near Qualimor and the jagged headlands of The Dragon Coast to the east, the marshes have long been host to a plethora of vile creatures and unquiet dead. Much of the marshland is navigable by shallow-hulled boats, and other areas are interlinked islands of raised land plagued by mosquitoes and worse.
Many nightmarish entities have emerged from the swamps over the centuries, but amongst its most feared inhabitants number the Urzin tribe of Orcs, a nomadic nation that traverses its fetid realm on the backs of gargantuan turtles called Horizonbacks. The Orcs build precarious ramshackle villages on the shells of these huge beasts and wander the marshes in tribal groups, accompanied by Ogres and Goblins. For the most part they bicker amongst themselves, but on occasion they emerge briefly from the swamplands to raid bordering human villages.
During the latter part of the 16th century NE, the Orc Wars saw many of the tribes splinter and a host of Orcs retreated to the mountains. They have been spreading throughout the Icespires’ peaks and caverns ever since. Chief Golak of the Mountain Orcs (Akrin), whose stronghold is thought to be hidden deep within the Icepires, is sworn enemy of Chief Grommsch of the Swamp Orcs (Urzin). The people of Yore should be grateful for this rivalry, for it keeps Orcish numbers down and keeps the attention of the Orcs on internal struggles rather than on the (relatively) peaceful civilisations of humankind.
Not all in the marshes is evil, however; a tribe of peaceful Tortles makes its home at the southern fringes, led by the wizened and kind-hearted Shaman, Jo'deh.