Ogre Kingdoms

"We ate the Tall One's herds, Cavebeast is good meat. We climbed the peaks. Above the skies the giants dwell. The hungry flame sat in our guts. We ate the mountains to put it out. But the fire was still there, We climbed even futher"

- The Saga of the Ogres



The Ogre Kingdom, also known as the Mountains of Mourn is a land east of The Old World, west of the Kingdom of Ind , and west and northwest of the empire of Cathay , is the great desolate lands of the Ogre race. The lands of the Ogre Kingdom is very desolate, rocky, harsh, and mostly mountainous. The land as it mostly is called is ruled primarly by brutal tribes of Ogres ruled by a single tyrant, the most vicious and fearless ogre in the tribe, which in turn is ruled by the Overtyrant, the current being  Greasus Goldtooth. Although the Overtyrant has full authority in his kingdom the many diverse tribes of Ogres constantly fight each other for territories. It is said that the original homeland of the Ogres were the great steeples near Cathay, the lands where great plains, and rolling fields streched as far as the  "I can see". However the coming of the Great Maw has pushed the Ogre race to the Mountains of Mourn where  they live today.

Although Ogre are the dominant race in the mountains, there are several races that have made establisments or villages in or around the mountians. Orc's from the Darklands have settled in the less mountainess area's of the land, mostly near where the Mountains border the River Ruin. Near the most southern area's of the mountains, large groups of Gnoblar and Hill-Goblins live in the territory that borders between the mountains and the Haunted Forest where it is simply called as "Gnoblar Country". Cavebeast of all kinds usually roam the mountains in herds or packs, either hunting the larger herbivores such as Mammoths or Rhinoxes, or preying on any unexpecting group of Ogres or humans that managed to get within their hunting grounds.

Early History
"The War in the Sky began, They were strong and tall, But Ogre's were many. We ground their bones in their halls. The giant-feast lasted many moons. But it was not good above the cloud sea. We toppled their castles. We threw them down the skies."

- The Saga of the Ogres

In many ages past, a great race of humaniod Giants called Skytitans ruled the highest peaks of the Mountains of Mourn with benevolous. They were immensely large and powerful, fairly intelligent (more so then their younger generations today) and held much power in the lands. Unlike the Ogre race of the lands today, the Giant didn't interfere with the lands below, they instead keep to themselves in their mighty fortress in the highest peaks of the mountains, carved by massive stone stuctures and masonry. They would almost always keep to themselves only coming down to tend their flock of Mammoths and lived in peace, while other great events sturred below. As of all things, it never last forever and the greatest threat the Giants will ever face was the great Migration of the Ogre races. The Ogre's came to the land after their land has been destroyed by the Great Maw that obliterated much of the land and Ogre population. Both fearing and worshipping the Great Maw, the Ogre race marched unto a new homeland to call their own. And so the the Ogre's finally reached the Mountains and its there where the great war known as the "War of the Heavens" began.

The Skytitans fought this monstrous race, mighty and powerful they were, however they could not match the numbers the Ogre's had in their hands. Like a pack of wolves taking down a bear, the Ogre's crushed the Titan race, breaking down the great masonry of their fortresses and chucking them down to the lands below. One after another Titan fell, and soon the great civilization that lived in the heavens are now nothing more then ruins. Those that were killed, were taken to the many feasting halls of the fortress and the Ogre's had feast after feast to celebrate this mighty victory. The children of the Ogre race were taken and beaten to submission and were now and forever known as Slavegiants. The great flock of Mammoths that once roamed the lands were being hunted down, by their new Overlords. With those final acts, the Mountains of Mourn has now become the lands of the Ogre Kingdoms. When the Ogre tribes reached the Mountains of Mourn and at the highest peaks found the fortresses of the Skytitans. The Skytitans are the precursors of the Giants. The Skytitans were destroyed, their fortresses demolished and their children beaten, captured and chained to become the Slavegiants. The Ogres then set about establishing tribal boundaries in the Mountains, the Ogre Kingdoms were created and the beasts of the mountains were hunted by the Ogres. The mountains however soon affected the Ogre biology, some Ogre-children were born with no paunch and sacrificed to the Great Maw, becoming the stinking Gorgers and some becoming creatures of the ice, fierce beasts and peak dwellers, presumably the Yhetees. The Ogres soon attracted the attention of the Gnoblars, a race of Goblinoid creatures that came to the Mountains to search for safety under the fist and steel of the Ogre race, and in return the Gnoblar will provide for their new Overlords, and ensure that not all of them will be eaten as their next meal. With the arrival of hte Gnoblar's, the Ogre's has gotten information from them of a Caravan trail that leads from the Old World into Cathay. This important trade route was the only way for the merchants to buy and sell their wares from Cathay and was now an important raiding spot for many Ogre Tribes, and each attack, the Ogre's would plunder the Caravans, eat the guards, take or eat the beast and pack-animals, and hoarding the loot they found. Some Ogre's even went in an adventure of their own, sometimes migrating across the Badlands, heading across the world to seek fame, fortune, and Gluttony in the name of the great maw

Geography
"The new mountains gave shelter, We made fire in their mouths. We killed many beast, the Tribe grew well. The Tribes split the lands. The Tyrants roared and fought. There were many kingdoms, It was good for many winters. But the tribes grew too much, now we follow the sun once more."

- The Saga of the Ogres



The Lands of the Ogre Kingdom is mostly mountainous with very little flat land for any large amounts of vegitation to grow. Due to this, the Ogre race is mostly carnivorous, but it hasn't stopped them from eating other things. Most animals and vegitations live in the more lower valleys of the mountains, where the freezing cold winds don't cut the already delicate ecosystem that dwells within the valley floors. There small groups of fern-tree's and lichen-encrusted rocks managed to eck out a living in the dire climate.

The land used to be the homes of an ancient race of large, powerful humanoid Giants called the Skytitan. Skytitans were the ancestors of the mighty Giants, larger and more intelligent than their disendents are today. They were the sole and undisputed rulers of the Mountains of Mourn, and during their reign, the animals of the valley grew many, where massive flocks of Mammoths roamed the land unharried by hunters or poachers who try to take their meat and ivory. The Skytitans culture is mostly isolatist one, and their holdings are few, but mighty, where their entire kingdoms and castles live at the very top of the mountains, which would pierce the sky, and would seem to be an island fortress in the sea of clouds. It was a near-impenderable, where even great armies of massive size could not hope to scale the slopes of such a daunting fortress. Yet, where whole armies failed, the Migrations of the Great Ogre race would soon test this theory. The Ogre Kingdoms themselves are situated within the craggy valleys and cave networks of the mountains of mourn. The mountains are of such size that they substain several distinctive groups of creatures, depending on the altitude - it takes a far hardier beast to weather the wind-lashed peaks than it does the rolling foothills around the base of the mountain ranges. In the upper mountains, the Yhetee's stalked their blinding white world of snowdrifts and merciless ice storms. Only a creature with a supernatural tolerance for the elements can surive in the upper peaks for any lenght of time, but a Yhetee is a creature born of the mountains in ages past when the Ogre race was young and adaptable. In their icicle-encrusted lairs, they pick the bones of men and beast that have fallen prey to their freezing breath or iron-hard claws. Below the icy peaks, greath mammoths through the lichen-covered passes; gigantic hulks of muscle, fat and matted hair that live for hundreds of years. Their tusk are highly valued by the traders of the silk road, but it is not only ivory that the Hunters climb amongst the peaks to claim.

A mature great mammoth provides enough red meat for an entire tribe of Ogres, and a Hunter that is able to slay such a beast and somehow drag its battered carcass back to the Ogre Kingdoms is afforded great honour at the subsequent feast, and awarded the privilege of eating the mammoths brain as an appetiser, and its heart for the next three cources. There are richer pickings still further down the mountain side, where the elements allow some form of flora and fauna to thrive, the great beast of the mountains shamble and prowl. Shaggy ice elk butt razor-sharp antlers in fierce leadership challenges. Sabretusk packs stalked the passes, pouncing on any unexpecting prey that wanders out of the herd, ripping them to pieces with a foot-long fang. Great wolly Rhinoxen thunder around the valley lands, charging or stomping their way across anything that threatens or blocks their path with a thunderous charge.

But it is in the valley where the most dangerous denizens of the Mountains reside. The great Ogre Tribes of the Mountains of Mourn are the now undesputed rulers of the mountains. There is simply no single species of beast in the mountains that has not been hunted, killed and eaten by the Ogres in the past. With fire, iron-shobed Club, and a determination burning inside their very stomach, and even inside their very soul, they hunger for any meat from anything has made the Ogres a terrifying sight to see in the valleys. A whole party of Ogre and kill anything they see fit, whether it would be cavebeast or mammoths, or even other Ogre Tribes, they would bring back their kill to their tribe and celebrate the victory with bouts of pit-fighting and an ogry of eating and drinking. Not a day goes by without a network of bloody trails staining the snow, as the Ogres bring in supply of fresh meat back to their caves.

Nestling amongst the cracks and crevasses of the Ogre Kingdoms are the shanty towns of several Gnoblar clans. These variant of the Greenskin race has migrated from the foothills of their ancestry to live in the dubious protection of their Ogre Overlords. The hills are still infested with these small creatures, stealing, spying, and occasionally even raiding the caravans of nations that try to pass through the Mountain passes.

Ivory Road
"The thinlings came in great wheel huts. We ate them and took the shiny thigns. They gave us small metals suns. Bad to eat but good for trade"

- The Saga of the Ogres

The continent-spanning trade route known as the Ivory Road is often said to be the only traversable way from the Old World through the hazards of the East and into the heartlands of Grand Cathay, and even then the journeys is fraught with danger. The caravan that travels it are almost like nomadic towns, such is their scale that a Great Caravan can reach a full mile in lenght. They are heavily defended, as they have to travel through some of the most dangerous and hostile area in the face of the world. Caravans are regularly beset by marauding wolf riders, Chaos Dwarf slavers, Hobgoblin  raiders, Giants, Goblins, Ogres, Black Orcs , cave-beast, Giant Scorpions and several more innumerable species that seek to plunder the richest of the caravans. As a result, a Caravan will typically employ whole families of Ogre mercenaries to act as caravan guard -- very prestigious occupation as  far as Ogres are concerned, for the combination of gold, good food and a near-constant danger is a powerful draw, although this can go both way's as an Ogre is the strongest protection you have in the mountain pass, but they will also be the deadliest raider's the caravan will met in the mountains.

The Ivory road passes various cities of the Old World through the World's Edge Mountain, past the dwarven holds of Karak Drazh and along Death Pass. It winds through treacherous, haunted mountains until they  pan out into the Dark Lands, where it passes to the north of hte Goblin-Infested  Mount Grimfang and angles north-east towards the Howling Waste. These desolate plains are plagued by near-constant gale force winds that shriek and scream across the blasted heath - some whisper that these are the voices of those that have died in this evil land. In the midst of this realm stand the gigantic standing stones known as the Sentinels. As the journey to this landmark passes through the heart of the industrial wasteland that are the Chaos Dwarfs domain, only a heavily guarded caravan stands any chance of arriving one piece. A pair of enormous rock formations jutting out of the ashen plains, the Sentinel are deep in the Howling Wastes. They are the only relative safety in the nightmarish landscape, despite their relative proximity to the Black Fortress and the Daemon's Stump a ghastly citadel where the scions of Chaos gibbers prowl. The Sentinels act as a trading post for Rhinoxen, fur, provisions, and other equipment necessary for a substained trek through the mountain and a caravan will often change guard in location before the heading off on the next leg of its journey. The sheer face of the standing stones, eroded by centuries of harsh weather, have countless winches, lantern tunnels. Gnoblar nest, smuggling holes and poll system set into them, and harbour so many adventurers and entrepreneurs that they teem with activity night and day.

Races
The races and creatures that lived are all brutal. Some consist of
 * Ogres
 * Gnoblar
 * Sabertusk
 * Great Mammoth
 * Yhetees/ Gorgers
 * Giants
 * Orcs
 * Goblins
 * Rhinoxen

Source

 * 8th. Edition Ogre Kingdoms Army Book pg    6, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 20,
 * Warhammer Fantasy Battle rulebook, 7th edition