| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
KanzenAU
Senior Scribe
Australia
763 Posts |
 Posted - 17 Nov 2015 : 05:43:17
|
I've been reading a bit about the history of the Sword Coast to get a handle on upcoming campaign ideas, specifically looking at big events in the history of the cities north of Amn. The impression I get from the Grand History is that not only is the Black Horde of 1235 DR the largest orc horde ever seen in Faerun, it's also the hugest threat the Sword Coast has faced in the modern era. It raged all the way from the Spine of the World right down to Calimshan as far as I can tell.
Yet all I can find on it is the political upset that it caused in Silverymoon, and that it was the impetus for the formation of the Griffon Cavalry in Waterdeep. Seems like such a grand event should have all sorts of heroic figures, legends, and upsets associated with it - does anyone know of any?
So many questions...
Was the horde just the inevitable result of the lack of protection previously offered by the Covenant? If so, that might imply that another one should rise again...
How in the Hells was it defeated? Did it just overdraw itself?
Seems a bit strange to have the most massive orc horde in history, and there to be no information on it... I found another thread on this from 2003, but it was entirely empty. Hoping somewhere out there knows something!
edit: apologies if this is in the wrong area... something tells me I should have put it in the Sages of Realmslore area, but I is noob.
|
Regional maps for Waterdeep, Triboar, Ardeep Forest, and Cormyr on DM's Guild, plus a campaign sized map for the North |
Edited by - KanzenAU on 17 Nov 2015 05:45:54
|
|
|
Brylock
Acolyte
USA
43 Posts |
Posted - 17 Nov 2015 : 06:54:37
|
Read the history of the North region and the Western Heartlands in general (as in not in the Grand History), though ESPECIALLY the North.
To sum up, every once in awhile the orcs overpopulated the Spine and then gather into a huge horde which goes down and destroys nations and ruins everything before collapsing upon itself because big messy destructive forces ruled by bloodthirsty wackos are inherently unstable and self-destructive; after the orcs win they turn on each other, then the process of settling the region starts all over again. If I recall correctly Waterdeep is sitting on the remains of at LEAST two kingdoms that were around in the region before it just became it's own city, both destroyed by attrition from orcish hordes.
Interestingly, the creation of the Kingdom of Many-Arrows seems to have sort of stabilized this recurrent problem; now the orcs have a reasonable amount of land that isn't an inhospitable mountain range and even though their numbers grow they seem to be able to control it better and thus the kingdom is really just like any other nation, albeit a very territorially aggressive one compared to it's neighbors. |
"It's almost like whenever you talk you flip through the dictionary and pull out words at random or something." |
 |
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
The Black Horde
