Cleaver Lands

The land of the Cleaver Orc Tribes, a harsh desolate land full of danger.

History
This has been the land of the Cleaver orc tribes as long as any can remember, and few would dare to question their right to this land. Still, conflict with the neighboring humans and elves go back for millennia, the people living on the border of the Cleaver Lands were always fearful of when the next orc raid might come.

Of course the elves and humans gave as much grief to the orcs as they got with large-scale punitive expeditions organized into the Cleaver Lands to "finally teach them". Of course these campaigns had little-to-no long-term effects.

It was around the time the Imperium was founded when the neighboring human kingdoms came up with a "final solution" to the orc problem. Large scale expeditions were organized into the Cleaver Lands, but not to destroy their forts or villages, but to capture as many as possible to be later used as slave labor in Rubia, Ilorin and Cascadia. After a few decades this practice slowly weakened the fearsome Cleaver Orcs, so when the Imperium arrived even the united Cleaver Tribes could not resist them.

During the imperial occupation the orcs were systematically enslaved, only those who hid in the mountains o fled to Orchaven could avoid that fate. After the Century of Conquest the Imperium abandoned slavery, except for criminals and orcs. For three centuries orc slaves were used to carry out the most arduous labors (e.g. most of the imperial highways were constructed by them).

When the Imperium fell in 400 the general instability allowed most orc slaves to rebel. With the locals hunting them, most formed tribes and either moved back to the Cleaver Lands or withdrew into the mountains and forests from where they keep raiding.

Present day there are dozens of tribes in the Cleaver Lands with no apparent leadership, but united in their loathing against outsiders.

Life
The Cleaver Tribes are a collection of "dirty barbaric orcs, set on extinguishing the light of Civilization". At least that is how the imperial propaganda described them to justify their continued enslavement. In reality the culture of these tribes is extremely varied, from belligerent war-bands to peaceful hunter-gatherers.

It is a common misconception to think that only orcs live in the Cleaver Lands. While most of the tribes are in fact dominated by orcs, there are several human (and even a halfling) tribes of barbarians living in these lands. In the Cleaver Lands strength is the one thing that matters, race is secondary.

Despite three centuries of imperial occupation, forced reeducation programs, forced labor camps, magically induced famines and thousands of foreign settlers the tribal society of the orcs remained intact, the Imperium's attempts to "civilize" the orcs failed. After the Imperium fell things more or less reverted to the old ways of raids and tribal infighting.

The Imperium managed to create a few cities along major trade routes, but most civilized people consider these lawless orcish societies as mockeries of real cities, and non-orcs usually avoid them. The orcs have an extremely bad relationships with their neighbors, the mutual mistrust comes from the orcs' tendency to raid their neighbors and the old Imperium's atrocities along with the human tradition of rounding up orcs and using them as slave labor. Still, under the guarantees of warchiefs, several trading companies have established lucrative trade routes through the Cleaver Lands.

Cleaver orcs often wear a piece of chain around their arms or legs. These are family heirlooms of great importance, always passed down to the strongest child, these are the very chains their ancestors wore during the time of the Imperium. The wearing of a these old, rusted chains is meant to convey two messages: that their ancestors broke their shackles and that no one shall ever take their freedom away.