Even with the deaths of the Iron Orcs responsible for enchanting, equipping, and training the trolls, the threat of a savage troll army overrunning all of Craglorn is not yet over. It seems to end this potential peril once and for all we must cut the head off the snake as it were, and in this serpentine case that would be the Ophidian Exarch of Undulating Destruction; or Braadoth to his parents.

That rather too grandiose title was awarded to the Iron Orc chieftain by the Scaled Court; who knew that the way to an Orc’s heart would be through his ego?  Well the Orc shaman Agganor for one, for it was he, whilst ruthlessly overthrowing his predecessor, who managed to convince the tribal leader to ally with the Celestial Serpent’s cult and build for them a barbarous army.

As the Bosmer diplomat Little Leaf predicted, we found the shaman Agganor, Ordooth the Corruptor, a huge nirncrux-infused troll, and Exarch Braadoth himself, inside an ancient Nordic stronghold set into the foothills of the Dragontail mountains. With our slaying of Exarch Braadoth and his lieutenants, the Scaled Court’s plans for a troll army, and the questionable process with which it was to be constructed, hopefully died with them.

So were we right to punish the Iron Orc’s so harshly for the crime of falling for the deceptions and lies of the Celestial Serpent? Did not the Scaled Court play upon the Iron Orc’s troubled history and their resentment towards the men of Hammerfell. When our diplomacy had failed, was it indeed unethical of us to violently punish them when they themselves were but victims of manipulation? Also I can’t help thinking is there really so much difference between what the Iron Orcs were doing here at the Valley of Scars, and what the legendary horse breeders of the Aswala Stables did when they breed and trained their fearsome war steeds? Or even the Lizards of the Black Marshes who have a reputation for breeding the most uncannily fearless and ferocious Guar, pound-for-pound a match for any war-beast. Perhaps the only difference is that Argonians or Redguard don’t tend to feed their beasts upon the flesh of man or mer… as far as I am aware.

And therein lies the crux, for when they choose to waylay travellers upon the road and feed them to their trolls they crossed that line into evil, and I found no evidence that their heinous atrocity was part of any bargain with the Scaled Court. This most evil misdeed was theirs, and theirs alone.

So how do we punish evil, what does it fear most? Not our ethics, for when has fighting the unethical with ethics ever triumphed? With vengeance perhaps, an eye for an eye? No, for does not their outcast God teach them that such deaths of twisted merit offers a pathway to the everlasting? It is only by the indignant retribution of the righteous that such evil can be punished, both eyes for an eye. And once overcome to stop it rising again we must shred its ego like leaves in the autumn wind until it is nothing but its own conscience, for what evil fears most is its own reflection.

S.K

To the wayfarer passing by on the road from High Rock to the heartlands, the Orc settlement at the Valley of Scars in Upper Craglorn might look much like any other Orsimer stronghold from Wrothgar to Skyrim. Set against the foothills of the Dragontail Mountains, which together with the valley walls provides the camp with its natural fortifications, a river runs like a vein through its heart offering the settlement plenty of agrarian potential.

If the wayfarer were to linger a little however, they might notice the considerable amounts of nirncrux being mined and excavated. It is unusual because the crimson stone in its natural state is known to be too brittle to create weapons, armour, or to build anything durable. When pounded down into dust however it possesses many properties which the Iron Orc’s use for nefarious purpose. From creating potions to enchanting runes and the imbuing armour. It was even used by the the Scaled Court in the spawning pools of the Serpent’s Nest to create the fearsome Mantikora.

The next thing the wayfarer might note, even above the constant clang of pickaxe upon stone echoing across the valley, is the bellowing and growling of trolls. Whether their grisly clamour is beget from temper or torment is difficult to tell. The Orsimer have always sought to make use of powerful and hardy creatures as war beasts, but the particularly feral nature of the troll makes them almost impossible to fully tame as they have the Welma or the Echatere.

Finally the wayfarer might observe that every member of this tribe is armed and set ready for conflict. Indeed, this seems more a garrison then a settlement. Separated from their cousins to the North, the Iron Orcs have always been an isolated society, even developing their own language. Their often brutal culture has been chiselled by this isolation and the rugged land about. Their ancestors were believed to be originally a primitive society of stone worshippers, but after savage war broke out with their more progressive Nedic neighbours, and faced with annihilation, the Orcs were forced to mine their cherished stone for iron. This only led them to become ever more isolated, withdrawn, and resentful of the outside world.

Their onerous history however is not enough to explain just how far this tribe has now descended into depravity. For before I entered this Valley of Scars I encountered a group of travelling merchants waylaid upon the roadside. They claimed that the Iron Orcs had attacked them and dragged off a number of their comrades. It is not long before I discover their fate as I find a huge pit littered with the bones of human, feline, lizard and mer. It is in this shameful crater where Gulzog the Butcher feeds his trolls.

This wayfarer has seen enough, and shall endeavour to put an end to this most wicked practice once and for all.

S.K