Tag: A’Tarans

(continued from “The A’Taran-Orc War, Part 1“)

The Orc Nation had no fixed defenses—had never needed them. Their remaining military forces were overwhelmed on the verdant plains of their heartland as the A’Taran horde swept east from the gate. The Orc capital city had no walls. The A’Tarans sacked it with great slaughter. The new Orc King died there, but more than that. The entire ruling class was wiped out. The remaining Orc people, shattered and leaderless, fled for their lives into the mountains beyond the capital.

Perhaps shocked by their own savagery, the A’Tarans did not pursue the Orcs further. They abandoned the Orc capital and returned to the gate.

The gate still existed, though. To protect the Empire, they would have to fortify the Rhydin side. And so they did, keeping a portion of the former Orc Nation. The horror of the war also reshaped the A’Taran psyche, but that is not my tale to tell.

For the Orcs, those thirty years brought even greater change….

(continues in “A New Orc Culture Rises From the Ashes of the Old“)

(continued from “On the A’Taran Race“)

Fate had brought the A’Taran to the planet Rhydin III via the dimensional gate. Cruelly, to an area recently conquered by an expanding nation of Orcs. The Orc Nation was for only Orcs; they killed or drove all other races out of their lost lands.

First contact between the Orcs and the A’Taran could only end in violence—and war. More prepared and eager for new conquests, the Orcs slew all the A’Taran in Rhydin and pushed through the gate into the Empire. The A’Taran could only retreat, trading land and blood for time. But time was all they needed.

While currently a peaceful people, the A’Taran had always had a warrior caste. Furthermore, the average A’Taran was taller and stronger than the average Orc. Faced with an invading enemy slaughtering without mercy, the entire A’Taran people rose to fight. The tide turned at the walled capital of the Empire. The Orc army was not repulsed; it was destroyed. The Orc King died there, as well.

The war now reversed completely. An A’Taran horde seeking revenge retook all lost territory and flooded back through the gate….

(continues in “The A’Taran-Orc War, Part 2“)

My primary roleplay collaborator, Brian, has a homebrewed race of anthropomorphic wolves called A’Taran. The race is divided between a star-spanning Hegemony and an unknown (to the Hegemony) splinter polity called The Empire. The Empire’s technology has devolved to a “Medieval” (fantasy) level. They had no knowledge of magic.

The Empire existed upon a single planet until about 35 years ago. That was when they came across an “alien” artifact: a dimensional gate. The first A’Tarans to venture through found themselves in a thick forest with an identical gate behind them. The gate proved both stable and two-way. The A’Tarans began logging the abundant trees, and established work camps.

The Empire had not seen war in living memory. The work camps had only a few proper guards, and their concern was only the possibility of troublesome wildlife. They were not prepared for what was about to befall them….

(continues in “The A’Taran-Orc War“)