Seeking the Karass
Introduction
In the wake of Bloodcrow Knott's declaration of his highest calling, the Unshackled Assembly responded enthusiastically to the push by many shamans and mystagogues for outreach to septs and nations of orcs. Their first choice, at the Winter Solstice, is to learn of the ancestors of a sept of orcs who have had little to do with the Imperial Orcs - the Karass.
The Karass are a sept disliked by essentially every other group within the Barrens. There are persistent allegations of collaboration with the Druj during their rule that seem likely to be true. More worryingly, as of late, there has been a suggestion that they may still be in contact with the Druj, and plotting to betray the Empire.
Whatever the truth of this, they are not going to be an easy group to learn more of. Indeed, when the shamans and mystagogues led by the Imperial Orc preacher known as Jim first approach the Karass settlements in the Bleaks, they are told in no uncertain terms to get lost. It seems they know of the Imperial Orcs of the Unshackled primarily as friends of the Rahvin - and the Karass certainly detest the Rahvin.
The view of the Rahvin
It is often said that one might know another by their enemies. As the descendants of the many lost septs of the Barrens, forged anew by Rahvin before his death, the Rahvin certainly know something of the Karass's ways.
The occupants of Bitter Strand are clear they don't think of the Karass as different to the Druj - distinct - but not different. The life the Karass had when the Druj ruled the Barrens was a comfortable one, at least compared with other septs. The Druj left them to handle their own affairs and often employed them as enforcers, spies, or thieves when such skills were required. This is not altogether a surprise - the Karass have never said as much, but they pointedly haven't particularly denied it beyond a token effort.
In a strict sense - the Karass are not Druj. Nobody can ever become a Druj - you are either born into a sept that is considered Druj, or you are not. Moreover, the Druj are clear that they believe their septs to be spiritually superior to all other orcs. There are testimonials given from members of the Rahvin who grudgingly confirm that they have heard Druj talking about the Karass in the same dismissive terms they use for the other septs. The Karass may have been trusted collaborators, enablers of evil not unlike the Ketsov or Menrothat in Ossium - but they were not Druj - and that is a distinction that seems to matter a great deal to the Druj - but rather less to the Rahvin.
Of the ancestors of the Karass, the Rahvin know little. The Karass are an intensely private people, and the Rahvin have little idea what they believe - and they don't much care. There is a suggestion that their secluded nature may be linked to their spiritual beliefs, but the simplest explanation is that nobody in the Barrens liked them. The Druj are known to believe that they have a religious and spiritual imperative to take Dawnish and Highborn lands for themselves, reclaiming them as their lost territory. The Karass do not share this - the Karass don't seem to have a particular animosity for the Dawnish. They don't seem to like them much, but only insofar as they don't like anyone.
The view of the Great Forest Orcs
The Orcs of the Great Forest are close friends to the Navarr and regard the Imperial Orcs as reliable allies. They have always been clear that they regard the Karass as Druj by any other name, too - but their perspective is different to that of the Rahvin.
Still, little of what they have to say is kind. The Karass are fundamentally treacherous snakes who have survived throughout the years by currying favour with the different Druj septs. The Karass are known to have had many visits over the years from the Buruk Tepel themselves, the leaders of the septs and of the Druj people. In particular, they have worked with Buruk Tepel of septs that hate each other. The Great Forest Orcs were of the view that the Karass delighted in a close meeting with the leaders of one sept just as their star was falling with another. "They played a very dangerous game for a very long time, and maybe they're still playing it. It was evil they did, but they could play that game well. Better than any other could ever have hoped to."
How were the Karass able to gain influence with the Buruk Tepel? The Great Forest Orcs claim it must be based on the Black Lotus plant that the Karass are widely believed to possess. It is assumed this fabled plant is hidden somewhere in the marshes or forests of the Barrens. Perhaps the Karass were able to use the doses extracted from their plant as leverage? If so, a concerted effort by the Druj would have surely eventually uncovered it. If the Karass do have a Black Lotus, they would have to have played one Druj sept off against another in some way to prevent that happening.
One aging orc says that when she was small, her grandfather told her a story about the time, long since, where the Great Forest still reached Axmure and Elvette in Semmerholm. At that time, the Great Forest Orcs lived in those woods, but they did not control them. Instead, they were ruled over by a sept of orcs dwelling in the fortress of Arnet, in Ulvenholm. These orcs were driven from Arnet in the early years of the Empire by the Dawnish. Their sept fled into Boar's Dell and thereafter after harrowing journeys reunited with their fellows in Peytaht. The orcs of Arnet were mostly destroyed. In her grandfather's story, however, remnants of the orcs of Arnet survived - and these remnants are the people known today as the Karass and the Menrothat. This may be a fragile lead - a memory of an old story - but it is a start.
The view in Ulvenholm
The ancient fortress of Arnet broods over the light woodlands of Ulvenholm. Restored in the Dawnish style in the centuries since its capture, it is primarily notable today as a place for pilgrims devoted to the path of Adelmar to travel. Adelmar is known as the Lion of Arnet for his role in the taking of the keep. He is said to have engaged in personal combat with a warlord known as "Tu'Chak", possibly a leader of the orcs of Arnet, and in doing so won the favour of the Empress Richilde and the reward that allowed him to establish his famous academy.
Of the history of the orcs of Arnet little is actually known for sure. Semmerholm was of course their heartland, holding Arnet as they did - records of Arnet go back as far as Terunael, and indeed there are Terun ruins in the foundations of the keep. It seems likely, then, that the fortress was built or held by the Terun and then taken by the orcs of Arnet thereafter. There are some Dawnish tales which talk of the orcs of Arnet also holding parts of Astolat, though famously the Druj also claim Dawn as their ancestral lands: the historical record is fairly clear that the orcs of Arnet were not Druj, however.
They are called the Ulvenkin in some Dawnish ballads, especially those that date from the period around the Highborn civil war and the reign of Penni the White. Recent historical research has records that show Penni as having bested Morza the Crimson at Arnet Keep, in a dark mirror of the victory of the exemplar many centuries later, but that is as far as it goes. Generally speaking, the orcs of Arnet are remembered in Dawnish story and song as having a dark nature, though less like the Druj and a little more like the orcs of Branoc in Karsk: willing to engage in treaties with dark powers, perhaps, but not practitioners of terror and fear as the orcs of the Mallum are. However, little is thought to remain of them - some of the bandits who prey on the wilder parts of Semmerholm are said to have some relation to Arnet, but this may simply be fancy. Here, the trail grows cold.
The view from Farweald
The clearest lead towards the Karass is surely the Menrothat. If they do represent a remnant of the orcs of Arnet, perhaps they have insight into the Karass. They were collaborators in Ossium, everyone knows that, like the Ketsov were, who used their expertise and affinity with the Bone Hives to broker a favourable relationship with the Druj septs known as the Amber Scorpion and the Bone Serpent. They are often said to be cousins to the Karass in some sense, and it is here that the trail is found again. Here, they remember Arnet.
Saroso Menrothat is an elder of the sept who resides at the Centipede Stump in Drownbark - she has been the point of contact for the sept before. She's cautiously welcoming of the travellers. It is clear that some here have a measure of wary contempt for the Unshackled, but they do not voice it. There are some muttered remarks about the septs of Ossium now being enslaved under new Imperial masters who do not even deign to chain them, so comfortable they are in the obedience of their serfs - but Saroso silences this talk with a glance. When the Kingdom of Arnet is brought up, she smiles. It is clearly a familiar name to her, but not one they often hear from outsiders.
"Yes", she says. "We Menrothat once ruled in Arnet. We were driven out by the Dawnish and their allies long ago, but few remember the details of such things now. The Karass? Yes, they were of Arnet. They were rebels... traitors and thieves to an orc. They took that which ought to have been ours and fled before the fall. There's nothing to be gained from learning about the Karass. Either you use them like the Druj did, or you have no use for them at all. They believe strange things, you know? Their so-called oracle of the Creator of the world... stupid games, for children, you see? Foolish lies invented to justify their thievery."
The view of the Karass
Rather than approach the Karass, it seems that the sept have decided to approach the mystagogues. Shortly after the encounter with the Menrothat, a message finds the expedition. It bids the collection of ancestor-seekers to meet the Karass at the crossroads where the Carmine Fields meet the Untrod Groves. When they arrive they find a lone Karass waiting for them. She is young - maybe fifteen - and if she is bothered by the well-armed travelling party who approach her, she gives no sign. On Jim's approach, she stands square. She introduces herself as Lenna Karass.
Somehow Anka has become aware that many questions have been asked of the Karass lately in many quarters. Lenna refuses to say how Anka knows this, but she has some things to say on behalf of Anka. "You've been asking around a lot, and it was clear you weren't going to hear anything good. Anka decided it was time for you to hear our side. We ain't Druj. Leaf to leaf they are obsessed - we're root to root. You wanted to know about our ancestors? It's the Oracle who matters most. The Old Voices... you shouldn't listen to them. Gets you killed, lost. Stops you from being karass."
Despite her tender years, it is clear that Lenna is a shaman. "I hear the voice of the Oracle strongly: more than most. And the Old Voices, ear to ear, but they lead you astray, strike to strike." She asks probing questions of those present, determined to discover what they have been told of the Karass, and after a little hesitation, the stories that have been collected are relayed.
Lenna confirms that the Karass once called Arnet their home - "but we were not karass then". She acknowledges that the Menrothat ruled Arnet, but is disparaging of their rule. At that time, she claims, there was unrest in Arnet. Probably if there hadn't been unrest they wouldn't have lost to the Dawnish. But they deserved to lose, she says. "They were sick. Obsessed with their little kingdom. Unable to see that the world was changing. The Oracle saw this. He spoke against them. He told them they did not deserve their spiritual inheritance. Brick to brick, Arnet fell. We fled before the inevitable end, saving what was worth saving."
She seems to stop herself but her tone is proud. One listener asks if "we" means the Karass and she nods. She says that the name of her sept is a word in the old cant of Arnet. It means "purpose" - not a worldly purpose, but a divine one: a state of spiritual grace that comes from being bound together by fate.
"We became karass - we are the Karass: when the Oracle spoke, we listened. We are still listening. We still hear the words. People don't like it... they don't like us. They are blind fools." There is something in her voice - a devotional focus that is convincingly intense. It seems like something is being revealed here. The sept have always maintained, when asked, that they don't really believe in anything. It seems this, at least, is untrue.
A member of the Illarawm, an elderly orc called Nerru, asks if they can form the bridge and hear the words of this "Oracle". Lenna laughs. "Anka said you'd ask. She said I'm to show you. But... you hear his words, you listen, you're karass. If you listen, you could be Karass. If you hear his words and you don't listen, then you're lost." She allows Nerru to approach her and a few others to approach her. Nerru asks if the Oracle has a name? "Yes, probably," comes the reply, "but you don't speak the name of an ancestor, do you? It's bad luck. Most Voices are just bad news, anyway."
An unfamiliar belief, but one seemingly expressed sincerely. A silence descends - the elderly Illarawm and the others with him reach for the voice of the ancestor, the one Lenna calls the Oracle but whose name she will not give. For a while it seems as if the attempt will end in failure, the quiet stretching out to fill the void. Then it comes, quiet at first, calm and focussed, intense but steady, with a slightly musical quality to it. A tenor recorder playing a constant melody, an unrelenting cant.
Eventually, Nerru and the other orcs allow themselves to tune out of the words. They are still there beneath conscious awareness - a rolling chant that seems to sing on and on and on.
"You heard it?" Lenna asks the assembled orcs. "You did? Root to root and life to life... you are karass, if you listen. Your lot" - from the way she gestures it is clear she means the Illarawm - "want to build a bridge, yes? A bridge is a bridge: stone to stone and plant to plant, we think we can build something better. What do you think? Karass is those that hear the voice of the Oracle and listen. Will you listen? Will you join us? Rahvin only wanted to build things that would last in his lifetime: hero to hero, death to death. Tsk."
She makes a noise of contempt and then falls silent. She is swaying a little. Her words are cryptic, to all but perhaps those who heard the ancestor's voice. She composes herself, and suddenly she seems to settle back into the persona that the Karass have tended to adopt previously: cynical, supine. It is like she has hidden part of herself away.
The words of the Oracle
Since the Spring Equinox, the Illarawm Nerru has made themselves available to form the Bridge with any orc who hears the story of the Karass and is interested in hearing the voice of their "Oracle". Some of the other orcs who made the bridge at the same time have done the same. As such, it is possible for any orc within the Empire - including Apulian orcs, though normally they do not tend to take an interest in the voices of ancestors - to roleplay that the Illarawm have helped them bridge to the voice of the Oracle. It is impossible to share in this experience as a human.
We have produced an audio recording designed to give a strong flavour of the experience of hearing this ancestor. Any player of an orc character may listen to this. Please do not listen to this if you are playing a human character - if your character is interested in such things, then seek out orc characters in the field to hear their descriptions of the experience. The voice is fragmentary; this is not a single coherent spoken piece but a collage of words. It's appropriate to draw on any element of this for your roleplaying around your own character's experience of this voice.