The Land That Bleeds
Gor'tharak
Twelve hundred miles from ice-scarred peaks to sun-bleached coast. A continent shaped by violence — geological, magical, and political.
The Greenlands
The word "grahk" in Old Orcish means both "green" and "ours" — a claim disguised as a description.
The Central Plains
Heartland of Clan Ironfang. Deceptively flat — hills conceal ravines, sinkholes to goblin tunnels, and remnants of ancient Underthing structures.
The Greenvein River
Four hundred miles north to south. Wide enough that a strong orc swimmer cannot cross without resting. Marks the divide between traditionalist and independent clans.
The Thornwood
Impenetrable thicket forest. Buffer zone, place of exile, network of hidden paths. Things live here that predate the orcs.
The Blacktusk Plateau
Volcanic rock rising like a clenched fist. Only three paths to the summit. A natural fortress — and whoever holds it controls the interior.
The Hollowdeep
A civilisation built in darkness, spanning three hundred miles.
Twelve Major Warrens
3,000 to 20,000 goblins each. A courier can cross the entire network in four days through tunnels that never see sunlight.
Hidden Entrances
Orcs know perhaps a dozen surface openings. Goblins know hundreds. This asymmetry is the foundation of goblin survival.
Meritocratic Culture
Status determined by what you’ve made, not birth. Warren-Master earned through the Thisseling — a public demonstration of skill.
Below the Hollowdeep
The Undercrypt — sealed, forbidden, far older than any goblin tunnel. Stone doors carved with glyphs no one can read. Yet.
The Coastal Kingdoms
The smallest territory by area. The wealthiest by far.
Higharden
Capital city of the kingdom of Aldhelm’s Reach. Forty thousand humans. White limestone and iron on a natural harbour. The Iron Citadel’s forges burn day and night.
The Shorewall
Four hundred miles of fortifications. Never breached by massed orc assault — but goblins can simply tunnel beneath it.
The Wildite Forges
Hidden in the southern hills. An incendiary that burns underwater, clings to flesh, and cannot be extinguished. The most closely guarded human secret.
The One God Faith
A single open eye wreathed in flame. Teaches that greenskins are gur’thaal — ‘soulless beasts wearing the shape of people.’ Aldhelm wields it like a weapon.
The Ashwood
A forest so ancient its oldest trees predate every civilisation.
Two hundred miles of ironash trees growing over two hundred feet tall, trunks wide enough to hollow for shelter. The canopy creates permanent twilight. Claimed by both orcs and humans, controlled by neither.
Clan Ashfang lives in the canopy itself — platforms and shelters built among the branches. The Ashwood is where the war’s bloodiest engagements take place, and where certainties go to die.
The Undercrypt
Below everything. Below the roots of the oldest mountains.
Not a place in the conventional sense. A sealed realm containing the remnants of a civilisation that predates all surface races. It underlies the entire continent, and the magic sealing it is woven into Gor’tharak’s bedrock.
The heartstone beneath the Moot of Bones is the keystone of that seal. If anyone were to disturb it, the land itself would respond. The question is not whether the seal will break — but who will be standing when it does.
These positions have determined the outcome of every major conflict on Gor'tharak.
The Ashwood Gap
Six-mile break where the Greenvein cuts through. Only easy passage for large armies.
Three Paths of Blacktusk
The only routes to Brakkar’s plateau. Each one a killing ground for defenders.
The Bone Bridge
Natural stone arch spanning a gorge. Traditional meeting point for secret negotiations.
The Sinkhole Ring
Seven sinkholes providing surface access to the Hollowdeep. Control these, control goblin movement.
Silvercrest Mouth
The harbour at Aldhelm’s Reach. Only deepwater port. Control it, control human resupply.
Stone-Singing
Gorrath (Orc) · Thissel-work (Goblin)
The original magic of the One Folk — an innate resonance between flesh and stone that allowed them to reshape the world through harmonic vibration. Lost in the Sundering. The sound a tuning fork makes when pressed to granite.
The Heartstones
Ten survive of the original seventeen
Vast crystalline formations at intersections of geological faults. They amplified thought and feeling. They still resonate — making orc teeth ache, aiding goblin alchemy, anchoring Underthing consciousness. Their reactivation causes the blight.
The Blight
Not a disease. A symptom.
A creeping petrification turning living tissue to stone. Appeared twenty years ago in the lowest goblin tunnels. No one knows what causes it. No one knows how to stop it. But something deep beneath the world is stirring — and the blight is spreading.
Wildite
An abomination
Human-developed incendiary. Burns underwater. Clings to flesh. Cannot be extinguished. Forged in secret using stolen goblin alchemy. Its existence is unknown to the orcs until the Burning of Warren Ashenmaw reveals it with devastating clarity.