Orcs and Elves (1)

There are two theories regarding the birth of this monster. One claims that when two sovereign deities clashed, their blood mingled, and the creature was born from that divine union. However, many scholars deeply versed in theology find this hard to believe; even for deities of Greater Power, the notion that a mere drop of blood could create a monster that even the gods cannot handle is hardly convincing.

The other theory is far more scandalous: it suggests that the Orc sovereign deity Gruumsh forcibly took the Elven sovereign deity Corellon during a battle, and Corellon subsequently gave birth to the Ityak-Ortheel. The Elves vehemently deny this, of course, but as for the other races... heh.

One must understand that Corellon's private life was quite chaotic. This entity was a "dual-plug," capable of being both male and female. Among the current Elven pantheon, there are offspring born directly from Corellon, leading many to believe this theory is not without merit. Furthermore, legend has it that the moment Corellon gave birth to the Ityak-Ortheel, he abandoned it, which is why the creature harbors such intense hatred for Elves. Subsequent events bear this out; the monster shows almost no interest in other races. If someone summons it to cause trouble for Elves, it responds with eager alacrity. In fact, the Orcs have summoned this monster many times when fighting the Elves, which indirectly corroborates the legend.

Still, just imagining Gruumsh and Corellon getting intimate—ugh, good heavens, that image is truly too beautiful to contemplate.

In truth, many scholars and mages are curious about what the Ityak-Ortheel actually is. It resembles a divine abomination, yet it is entirely different from the typical sort; it has no interest in destroying the world, nor does it possess any particular resistance to the divine power of other gods. In practice, the primary way Elves deal with it is by enlisting other gods to beat it half to death before banishing it. Even if it is reduced to ash by other deities, it eventually crawls back out to wreak havoc, so to conserve divine power, the gods usually just beat it into submission, as the recovery time is essentially the same. The creature only cares about Elves; many evildoers have tried to utilize it, but it shows no interest in anything unrelated to them. By definition, such a monster should be considered a divine abomination—as everyone knows, an abomination is a mistake, a product of unforeseen divine power that should not exist. This is the perfect annotation for this monster. It does indeed consume divine power like other abominations, but only that of Elves...

Because of this creature's existence, a legend has persisted across the continent that any half-breed of Elf and Orc will inevitably bring disaster.

During the long-drawn-out wars between Orcs and Elves, other races quietly rose to prominence. At that time, the primary conflict on the continent was between Orcs and Elves, while other races buried their heads and focused on development. By the time the Elves realized what was happening, the continent was no longer their domain. Consequently, the Elven gods made an incredibly clever move: they retreated entirely from the continent into the forests and Evermeet, ceding vast tracts of land while helping other races develop their civilizations and stoking hatred between those races and the Orcs.

In short: territory can be ceded (team fights can be lost), but the Orcs must die. The Orcs of that era were foolish, happily declaring, "I've fallen for it." Back then, the Orcs thought they had finally defeated the accursed Elves and could rise from serfdom to sing songs of triumph. Their ambitions inflated rapidly, and with their chaotic, dim-witted gods egging them on, the Orcs began to emulate the Elves by establishing an Orc Empire across the continent, preparing to conquer other races and enslave the entire world just as the Elves had done.

But how to put it? The Orcs of that time had no civilization to speak of, and with their own idiotic gods dragging them down, the newly established Orc Empire collapsed with astonishing speed. Do you know how the Orc Emperors were chosen? According to the whims of those moronic gods, strength was everything, so to gain status, Orcs had to challenge others; thus, the selection of the Emperor was decided by the blade. Consequently, the most ridiculous scene in the history of Faerûn occurred: the turnover rate of Orc Emperors was so fast it was jaw-dropping. In a single year, over seventy emperors were replaced. One poor soul had just killed his predecessor in the morning, bandaged his wounds, and hadn't even had time to enjoy the imperial harem before being hacked to death at the entrance of the royal tent that afternoon... (Orcs were so barbaric back then that having a tent to live in was considered a royal privilege; it was enough to bring tears of joy).

The so-called Orc Empire collapsed in this farcical scramble for power, and the Orcs began tearing each other apart before the other races even had to exert any effort. These idiots simply fell on their own.

Many conspiracy theorists, upon reading this history in ancient texts, believe the Elves never had good intentions from the start. They withdrew from the continent specifically to let the other races and the Orcs slaughter each other, allowing the Elves to recuperate so they could make a "return of the king" and rule the continent once more. But this is why the Orcs are the Elves' mortal enemies—even at the very end, the Orcs didn't forget to screw the Elves over. The other races on the continent were ready to fight, but the Orcs finished themselves off first, leaving the Elves with no choice but to begrudgingly abandon the continent, with no excuse to return. That Elven obsession with saving face has existed for a very long time.

Later, as the Elves recovered over the long ages, humanity rose to power—the era of Netheril had arrived. The Elves assessed the situation, concluded they couldn't win, and decided to stay put.

The era of Netheril finally collapsed, and the human gods rose to power...

Poor, miserable Elves. Too much courting of death will eventually bring retribution. Coupled with their mortal enemies, the Drow and the Orcs, occasionally dealing them heavy blows, the Elven strength never truly progressed.

Then, an even more miserable event occurred. The Elves had barely survived the dangerous Time of Troubles, but in its aftermath, a major deity among the evil gods, Bhaal, the Lord of Murder, fell. He had foreseen his own death, so he divided his divinity and divine power among all his offspring, forcing them to slaughter one another so he could resurrect within the final victor.

This was the Throne of Bhaal conflict. However, when the Throne of Bhaal was selecting a successor, perhaps fate played a joke: the final victorious Child of Bhaal did not choose to inherit the Throne of Murder; instead, he conquered Bhaal's will and shattered the throne.

Thus, the God of Murder died for good. Another major evil deity, Bane, the God of Tyranny, was much luckier; he resurrected through his divine son.

Another major evil deity, the Lord of the Dead, simply changed identities and defected from the revolution, becoming a neutral deity...

Add to that the mad god, the Prince of Dark Sun, and the Prince of Lies, Cyric, who was frantically sabotaging everything, and the power of the evil gods was unprecedentedly weak. As for Cyric, he was a standard psychopath, absolutely the number one "death-courter" since the dawn of time. His story is for another day; it is incredibly fascinating.

The evil gods already disliked each other and constantly sabotaged one another. By this point, the Dead Three, who had always been allied, were either dead or gone, making them even less of a match for the more unified good gods.

Thus, Bane, the God of Tyranny—the leader of the evil pantheon and the only survivor of the Dead Three—felt the evil side was too weak and needed strengthening. He orchestrated a massive conspiracy, hoping to create several new evil deities to oppose the good gods.

Consequently, a massive catastrophe befell the Prime Material Plane. Even Bane, the instigator, did not expect his evil plan to cause such a colossal disaster.

This period is known as the Age of Dark Boiling. This era directly created several powerful evil deities. More importantly, it saw the largest-scale war since the Elven Crown Wars.

During this catastrophe, the Elves were blindsided by the Drow and driven back to their stronghold, Evermeet, nearly meeting their end.

The Elves on the continent were also hunted by their other old nemesis, the Orcs. This time, the Orc gods secretly committed a grave error: they prepared to open a portal to the ancient Orc homeland to bring an endless stream of Orcs into this world to conquer the continent. But idiots will be idiots; the Orc gods, for reasons unknown, went to cooperate with devils and, predictably, were betrayed. They had planned to use all the captured Elves in an unprecedented, massive blood sacrifice to open the portal between the two worlds, but due to the interference of devils and other races, it failed. The captured Elves were either rescued or snatched away by the devils. In the end, the completely insane Orc gods betrayed their own race, using their own people and believers as a blood sacrifice. This caused the vast majority of Orcs to abandon their gods; the ancestors of the Avalon Orcs abandoned the Orc gods during this period and fled to Avalon.

Can gods without Orcs to worship them still be called Orc gods? Predictably, the Orc gods fell. Only two Orc deities managed to survive by falling into the Abyss, but they completely abandoned their divine status and reincarnated as demons. These two were truly bizarre.

The Orcs split apart completely thereafter. Although the Elven sovereign deity Corellon finally achieved his wish and personally slew the Orc sovereign deity Gruumsh, this did not mean things were easy for the Elves. Their hard-won strength, having been stirred up by the Drow and the Orcs, returned to square one, leaving them severely wounded once again...