Lore:Iron Orcs

"We are the children of the stones.
We are the people of the rock.
We are the Osh Ornim!"
—Blood for Our Enemies

Iron Orcs, also known as the Osh Ornim, are an isolated Orcish civilization native to the Dragontail Mountains of Craglorn. They are known for their stone worship and their savage brutality, and are based in the Nordic ruins of the Valley of Scars. They tame Welwas, Wamasu and Trolls as war beasts, and primarily use iron arms and armor. They were also adept at alchemy and usage of nirncrux. They are culturally separate from other Orcs, and tend to cling to the old words more than most other Orcish cultures.

Origins

The origin of the Iron Orcs is unknown. Similar to the Wood Orcs of Valenwood and the Orcs encountered by Topal the Pilot in High Rock, the Iron Orcs may have inhabited Craglorn since time immemorial. However, the creation story of mainstream Orc society claims that the Orcs were originally Aldmer followers of Trinimac, who were corrupted when their god was transformed into Malacath. The ancestors of the Iron Orcs were originally a peaceful shamanistic society of stone worshippers. These cave-dwelling Orcs had rich cultural exchanges with the ancient Nedes of the Deathlands sometime in the Merethic Era. By the late Merethic, however, the Nedes of the region had mastered basic metallurgy. After a long period of estrangement, war broke out, and the Nedes used their newfound weapons and arms to attack and conquer their Orcish neighbors.

Faced with assured destruction, the ancient Orcs were forced to defile their sacred stones in order to mine iron. It is theorized that this corruption of the stones led to a fundamental shift in Iron Orc society. The Iron Orcs became a civilization of miners, smiths and warriors, whose anger at outsiders was fueled by their own self-hatred. Contemporary burial pits show evidence of civilian corpses who had been crushed and brutalized in death by the Orcs. Over the years, this mentality continued to permeate their society, and the Iron Orcs earned an infamous reputation from pillaging the settlements of Craglorn. Early in the Second Era, the Blackcaster Mages Guild was said to have secretly hired a band of Iron Orc raiders to threaten Elinhir in order to surreptitiously take control of the city. When the Orcs laid siege to the city, the Blackcaster mages drove off the Orcs and won the approval of the populace. Some scholars dismiss these claims as dubious given Iron Orcs are supposedly intransigent in matters of cooperation and negotiation.

Iron orcs worshiped the stone, and swore "ten iron oaths". The practice known as the death of sun and feathers was a form of execution practiced by the Iron Orcs. The sentenced was nailed to the stone and cut once for each of the ten iron oaths and then the sun burned until the crows gather. It was considered a proper death for liars and traitors.

The Serpent's Corruption

An Iron Orc nirncrux mine

In 2E 582, the constellations fell from the skies over Craglorn and assumed mortal form as Celestials. In his plans to remake Nirn, The Serpent sought to raise armies to his cause. The Iron Orcs were among those targeted by his corrupting influence. The Orcish shaman, Lashburr Tooth-Breaker, attempted to advise chieftain Braadoth against allying with the Serpent and his Scaled Court, but he was deposed and replaced by his rival Agganor. Braadoth was indoctrinated into the cult and appointed as the Ophidian Exarch of Undulating Destruction. The Iron Orcs quickly began mining for nirncrux, and infusing it into the skin and armor of their trained trolls to make an army of titanic, primal trolls. Descending from the mountains to establish their mines, the Orcs quickly became a serious threat throughout Upper Craglorn, going so far as to attack trade caravans to feed travelers to their trolls. However, they were soon betrayed on both sides. Lashburr sought to restore his people's faith in the stones, and recruited the aid of the Vestige in driving the Scaled Court out of the Valley of Scars and placing Agganor's head on a pike for all to see. At the same time, Braadoth was betrayed by Regent Cassipia, who sent her companion Little Leaf to kill him and steal the Orcs' research on nirncrux infusion. Together, the Vestige and Little Leaf entered the Valley of Scars and killed the leaders of the Iron Orcs, ending the threat of a troll army.

Despite the removal of the Serpent's influence, it has been theorized that the cultural shock of ironworking is one too deep to ever truly recover from, and an internal shift in psyche remains a long way off for the Iron Orcs.

During the Interregnum some Iron Orcs could be found in the Black Kiergo arena in Senchal.

Gallery

• 

  Male (ESO)

• 

  Female (ESO)

• 

  Welwa are often domesticated and armored by Iron Orcs (ESO)

• 

  The Exarch's Stronghold in the Valley of Scars, the primary stronghold of the Iron Orcs (ESO)

See Also

• For game-specific information, see the Elder Scrolls Online article.

Books

• Orcs of Tamriel, Volume 3 by Grassius Vilco — A treatise on the Iron Orcs of Craglorn
• Blood for Our Enemies — A traditional Iron Orc hymn

References

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.