From the very first day Queen Laeral Silverhand appeared publicly in Silverymoon, the Kingdom of Silverymoon—once the strongest nation in the North—immediately reversed its decline and began responding forcefully on every front. The first to suffer were the Black Orcs, who had done nothing in response to the news of Queen Laeral Silverhand's return.
Perhaps the successful ambush by Orc King Huo Keduo and Church of Bane pontiff Magellan against Queen Laeral Silverhand last time had given them the sort of courage Liang Jingru sang about, making them mistakenly believe they could send Queen Laeral Silverhand to the Abyss once more. Thus, faced with news of her return, only the Black Orcs remained utterly unconcerned, continuing as they had before and launching relentless offensives against the kingdom's western territories in hopes of seizing more land.
Ever since Solam had given them a vicious beating last time, triggering a string of disasters and drastically reducing the Black Orc population, they had lain low for a while, consumed by internal strife. But Huo Keduo, a man of considerable talent and ambition, soon emerged victorious once again, and this time he centralized power even more thoroughly. Thus, after nearly two years of peace, the Black Orcs launched another invasion of the Kingdom of Silverymoon.
And this time, the Kingdom of Silverymoon could only rely on itself. There would be no second Solam to turn the tide.
Still, Lansi Noda had done genuinely well these past few years, so they had barely managed to maintain a balance.
But once Queen Laeral Silverhand returned, everything changed.
This hot-tempered Chosen of Magic made her first appearance by directly casting a legendary spell—Ultimate Deep Cold—upon the Black Orcs, turning at least thirty thousand of their soldiers into ice sculptures. Before such despair-inducing power, Orc King Huo Keduo