Orc King of Blackmoor

The realm of Blackmoor has many enemies. Four major Orc Tribes each control their own corner of the North. The rise of the Orcs followed the destruction of the Temple of Id. Although chaotic in nature, all Orcs follow a single king. King Funk III. Plotting the destruction of Uther's Realm from the depth of the 10th level of the dungeons below Blackmoor, the Orc King is an ally of the Egg of Coot. Although Blackmoor is an important enemy, the Orc King also displays particular hatred towards the race of Dwarves. Through their history, six wars have been fought between Orcs and Dwarves, the sixth is still ongoing.

Under King Funk's rule, the Orcs have greatly expanded on the Blackmoor Dungeon, creating the dangerous path called the Orcian Way. Unfortunately, the Orc population of the Dungeon has taken a heavy toll against adventurers from Blackmoor. One such hero who has caused severe annoyance to the Orcs is the Great Svenny who gained the name Orcsbane from his heroic battles in the dungeons. This has resulted in King Funk placing a a hefty ransom on Svenny's head, though none have yet to collect this reward.


In the original campaign, the Orc King was played by Frederick (Freddy) Funk who sadly passed away in 2011. As with many of his players, Dave allowed Freddy to bring his creativity to the world of Blackmoor. He expanded the dungeon with areas such as the Orcian Way where one could hear God Save the Queen played backwards. Freddy also created his own fantasy world known now as Fred's World sharing some traits with Blackmoor.


What is more formidable than an Orc King with ideas?








Thanks to purple purple purple purple for reminding me of the music heard in the Orcian Way.

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-Havard

Orcs of Blackmoor

The Temple of Id was destroyed roughly five centuries after the foundation of Blackmoor. With the destruction of the Temple, many hoped that the North would not see such foul manifestations of pure evil. They were wrong. The Gods of Evil had felt cheated it seemed, for they sent a new race of evil to terrorize the lands of Blackmoor. The Thonians would call them Orcs, or Goblins, but they were not like Orcs and Goblins found in other realms. Beastmen, some would call them for pure chaos ran in their veins. This would manifest itself physically causing the Blackmoorian Orcs to take on many grotesque forms. All humanoids, they would wary in size. Most have hairy bodies and some even have horns protuding from their beast-like heads.

Over the centuries, the Blackmoorian Orcs split into many different tribes. They had come from beyond the lands of the Skandaharians, and while many continued on southwards, five major tribes remained in the North.  One tribe, the Crimson Orcs, settled near Ohmfet, which would later become part of the Realm of the Egg. These Orcs worship Thanatos, Patron of Death. The second tribe, the Steel Orcs, settled in the Dismal Swamp. They worship Volketh, Patron of Murder. The third tribe, the Orcs of the Black Hand follow Hella, Queen of the Underworld. These settled in caves deep beneath the lands of Blackmoor. The fourth tribe were the Stormkiller Orcs, settling in the mountains which gave them their name. They follow Tyrhm, Patron of War, and they reign terror on their neighbouring races from their Black Castle.The last tribe are the Death Orcs. They settled in the far west, in the mountains later called Goblin Kush. There they were enslaved by the Afridhi and joined the cult of Zugzul. Recently they have began to return in the service of their former masters.

While split into tribes, all Orcs follow a single King. When the Egg of Coot rose, the King of all Orcs swore allegiance to the Egg. While a chaotic lot, the Orcs always answer when the Egg requests their aid. Many a time, the Orcs of the North have been part of the Egg's offences against Blackmoor. From the Egg, the Orc Shamans learned to summon demons, and demons would even interbreed with Orcs. This resulted in the so-called Baleborn Orcs, who make up the generals of Orc armies. The Egg gives these demon-breed Orcs special weapons and armor and they are feared among their own kin.

 The biggest enemy of the Orcs remain the Dwarves of Blackmoor. Since their arrival in the North, the two races have been almost continuously at war. The sixth war started recently when the Orcs of the Black Hand managed to abduct the Dwarven King! The dwarves have desperately attempted to free King Khazhakhum, but to no avail. The war continues and the Orcs have in that way removed the Dwarves from Uther's list of available allies. The Dwarven race is slowly being wiped out, and the Orcs dream of the day when they will feast on the skulls of the last of the mountain people.



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-Havard

Birthday Present for JRR Tolkien

Seeing as today would have been Prof. Tolkien's 118th birthday, I decided to take a new look at the Professor's influence on early Blackmoor. As with most of D&D, Blackmoor was originally filled with Hobbits, Ents, Orcs, Balrogs and even references to Saruman, Sauron and Mordor! Ofcourse, these were removed from later printings of D&D, and were also dropped when Blackmoor returned to TSR with the DA series.

Arneson relied heavily on Chainmail when populating his setting and many of the Tolkien references were brought over from there. Greg Svenson confirms that

"Tolkien was a major influence, otherwise the primary races would not have included elves, dwarfs, hobbits, orcs and goblins; but, at the same time [...] there were many 'major' influences on our games. We all read lots of Sci Fi and Fantasy. Remember there was no cable TV or VHS and DVD players for entertainment in those days..."

While TSR were not able to use Tolkien's trademarks in their later published works, there is no reason that fans should feel bound by this. So let that be our present for Tolkien! Lets bring back the Balrogs, Hobbits and Ents to our games, in honor of the Professor who affected our lives in so many ways.




-Havard