The Iron Orcs of the Dragontail Mountains are thought to be the most barbaric and savage of the Orsimer tribes. Even their kin to the north who claim to fear aught, maintain a leery distance and have little communion with their most brutish cousins. In Belkarth I had been warned about barbarous clans coming down from the mountains to attack travellers and caravans on the northern roads. But it wasn’t until I stumbled across the Iron Orc camp of Inazzur’s Hold that I was to learn first-hand that their fearsome reputation was indeed well earned.

If I were a prudent man I would have bypassed this camp on my journey and headed straight for the near-by wayshrine. But uncertain as to the impetus of the Orc’s recent incursions into Craglorn, I wanted to discover whether they are acting as agents of the Celestial Serpent, or merely reacting to the region’s conflict, picking at the weak and wounded like packs of Hammerfell Jackals. My enquiries was soon answered when I found damning correspondence between The Scaled Court and the chief of this stronghold, Inazzur the Mighty. Becoming a chief of an Iron Orc tribe has nothing to do with inheritance, political acumen or who is the wisest; you must simple prove yourself the strongest and most brutal of all your clan.

I could still walk away from this dangerous camp and none would question my mettle, and in truth if I were the prudent soldier I was before the insidious Mannimarco ripped my soul out with his bodkin, I would have. Yet neither am I still the shriven-man that strode into Heart’s Grief to challenge the Prince of Brutality in his own palace. I am but the sum of my past, somewhere betwixt and between.

Would I make that same walk into Molag Bal’s palace today knowing the price of almost inevitable failure would be an eternity of torture in his Vestibule? Probably not. Yet it is also true that my convalescence back in Daggerfall was hindered by an unrelenting restlessness in the very pith of my soul. I choose to walk into this stronghold and challenge the mighty Inazzur because having fought so hard to retrieve my soul, I cannot now let it wither in acedia.

S.K