Prologue: Orcs Overwhelming

Queen Alera looked off in the distance. The Queen was perhaps one of the most feared generals in all the continent of Zorela. She defended her kingdom more than once and while her husband was one of most gifted mages in the continent, she was the one who would repel any would be invaders. In fact, it had only been three decades since an alliance of four human kingdoms decided they would subdue the elves in some sort of religious crusade.

Queen Alera, repelled the invasion killing two of its kings in the process. But now a new threat was at the doorstep of her beloved homeland. Gargon Doomfury the new orc Grand Warchief had once again riled the orc horde to battle declaring a new age for all orcs. He already conquered two human kingdoms to the North. The two Kingdoms of Crownhaven and Stormfall underestimated the orcs it was thought. The two Kingdoms banded together to try and use their joint might to thwart the invasion of the orcs. The battle of Crown Heights saw the combined army utterly smashed. Both Kings had disappeared and both Kingdoms fell entirely within a span of two weeks after the battle as both Kingdoms no longer had the ability to mount a defense.

The Elvish Kingdom of Verdansi sent scouts to see what was happening in the now orcish lands, none of had returned. The Verdansi were in the dark and knew it was only a matter of time before they were attacked.

One Year Later

A year had passed after those events and many prayed that the orcs would be satiated with the new conquered lands and their appetite for conquest would be satisfied. Others like Queen Alera knew better and began mustering a defense and expanded her army. She planned out strategies to try and trap the orcs when they decided to attack.

Now Gargon, King of the Orcs had decided to use Alera’s Kingdom of Verdansi to be his next target. Like most who invaded their lands, he wanted the jewel of the northeast continent, The Elven Kingdom of Verdansi. Verdansi was a very abundant Hinterland with farmlands that were some of the most fertile in the Continent of Arcanna.

One of the greatest assets they had was their queen. Alera was the best tactician in all the entire world. Her tactics were legendary as some of her most famous maneuvers ended wars on more than one occasion. In battle she was second in command only to Lady Karen herself. Most elves knew her as the General more than their Queen, but Alera didn’t mind this at all.

King Gargon on the other hand was considered a young upstart amongst other Kingdoms, before he invaded the kingdoms of elves and man, he was an unknown. He shocked the world when his Horde overran the bordering Kingdoms to the elves in six months and continued their advance until they reached the Great Mountains. Invading both simultaneously.

If Queen Alera paid more attention, she might have noticed that this rendition of the Horde was something new. Orcs were using tactics not seen before against her forces. It wasn’t long before Alera discovered that Gargon had hired mercenaries from all across the continent to fight for him. Something was indeed changing in Gargon’s mind, but Elves considered themselves smarter than any other race. Success can create its own blindspot. Queen Alera was confident that she would outsmart their brawn with brains, as she had done many times in the past. After all, orcs were just dumb beast with no strategic value who only kill, rape, and pillage.

Two Weeks Later

Battle of the Glenn.

The initial skirmishes went just as Alera planned. Alera’s initial regiments funneled the enemy into the mountain pass. They were ripe for the trap Alera planned. If all went according to their strategy Elves riding in on the entire Kingdom’s flights of Griffons would descend upon the orcs from above and her armies would box them into the mountain pass and use the already charged lightning spells to hit them when they are bunched up. The hope was to kill an enormous number with one surprise attack. Then execute two simultaneous charges into the orcs.

The Queen’s brother himself would lead the griffon riders while she would be charge of the land armies on the side closest to the capital. Her Uncle would lead the forces to the rear. Queen Alera gave the order to shoot the signal into the sky. The Queen’s golden bound hair escaped through the bottom of her helm.

“Steady now men. When the griffins hit them with the lighting they are going to try and charge their way out of the pass and into our line. When they do cut them down!!!” Alera shouted a roar erupted from the elvish warriors.

The plan had been a good one, theirs unfortunately was better. About two hundred griffons descended from the sky. The Queen smiled her plan was going to work, until it did not.

As soon as the griffons cleared the mountain to dive into the orc Army nets appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The Griffon riders dove right into nets that sprang up at the last possible second and all their air units were promptly ensnared. With no lightning spells hitting the mass of orcs the horde front cleared the mountain pass and now moved unhindered. If that was not worse, they were reinforced by a swath of orcs and hobgoblins that were hiding in the caves. This was not a trap for them but a trap for us, the queen thought.

Then out of nowhere two entire orc Armies appeared on either side of them. She did not think of worrying about orcish tactical prowess as they never possessed any in the entirety of their previous conflicts unless they were martialed by another race (orcs were very sought-after Mercenaries).

“Oh! No, to me warriors! We cut through the rear lines and carve our way back to the capitol. Attack! “The Queen yelled rallying her army to attack the army at her rear to escape the trap.

The Queen had committed about half of her Kingdoms Army, she returned with just 120 men. It was a rout never experienced by the Verdansi. The Queen did impress the horde with her regiment killing about 10 times the number that she lost. Unfortunately, she did not lead every other unit. The ones not led by her were wiped out entirely. The Queen had to run away from the battlefield as fast as she could.

The victory was a roaring success for Gargon and he should have been celebrating, if it were not what else happened on the battlefield. Queen Alera clash with the leader of this horde was all he could think about. The elf bitch sliced his face Gargon thought to himself. Hell she even knocked him off his Warg and almost had him. If she just had more time, she would have slain him. Gargon snarled violently at the at the Queen in a frenzy as she barely made it out alive. Gargon although victorious felt humiliated. In his mind he was basically bested by the elf. He was overcome with Bloodlust shortly after.

Two Months Later...

The road to the Elf capitol had been a bloody one. The Horde’s brutality pushed all the elvish citizens in front of them towards the capitol. Indeed, the last Elf stronghold was overflowing with refugees who lost their homes and were just trying to stay alive.

Chapter 1 »