Mount Orsinim
In one short day, it would be five years since they had been broken. Since they had been taken and crushed, mind, body and soul. The clans of the peaks had died on that day, as the will of a peerless tyrant took them all in his merciless grip. What could these daughters of the peak say, as HE remade them in accordance with his grand design? What else could they do, but to plumb the depths of their changes, of the alterations that had been done to them, to prepare them for what was to come, as he made them understand.
They had been blind and ignorant children, swaggering around and presuming that they knew the truth, that they had any real understanding. That they had any right to call themselves orcs. Even now, as she looked on the army, as she looked on the throngs of warriors and killers, of the former clans orcs, of goblin tribes, trolls and ogres pressed into service... it was a taste, a shadow of the glory they would yet become. So, she lifted one of her swords up, and the horde grew silent, watching her, bloodlust and need radiating out from each of them, a forest fire that merely needed to be directed.
"All right you lot! You know how it is! The last time, we were found lacking, unworthy." She spat the word, as there was a howl of grief and desire to please coming from a million throats. A deafening scream, begging to release. "But! Its been five years! We have gotten harder, gotten bigger and stronger! And so, we is not gonna start some prissy humie or pointy ear war! No!" Her voice was a bellow that took everything, a wall of sound and meaning that slammed directly into their minds.
"We is gonna have the biggest WAAAAAAGH! this world has ever seen! We gonna smash down everyone that gets in our way! We'ze gonna fight till there iz nobody left ta fight, and then the Over Tyrant gonna show us new worlds!" The stomping of their feet, the bellowing of their roars was enough to shake the very foundations of the peaks, to be felt and heard in the nearby realms. War drums pounded and rocks miles away fell, rock slides and avalanches as words failed, as the horde was roused! "And den, we gonna smash them too! So whatcha say girls!"
A wave of sound erupted, a bellow of wrath as they began to move, a green tide to ravage civilization, a single super-organism bound by a single shared will, a shadow of the impossible biology of a distant universe imposed, however crudely, however simply, on their minds and souls. All from a young mans experiments, all from a young man trying out some things on a few test subjects while attempting to improve their lives. Alas, the reverberations of those actions would spill into the lowlands, a single word on their lips, as they sought their Over Tyrant.
"WAAAAAAAGH!!"
The Rosengale Estate
It had been a stressful week for Lady Annetta Rosengale,. and indeed the Rosengales in general, as they were going through with informing others of the fact that, unfortunately, their son had been Disowned With Cause. Because even if they did not go into the details, other than citing his long history of rebellious behaviour, defiance and now the injury of his fiancé? Other nobles would know enough that her son would not be able to shelter with them, an outcast without fully becoming an outlaw. In one sense, it could be seen as petty, but frankly?
She was DONE with him and did not want to deal with the headaches any more. In a way, the fact that he had been in part behind an orc city state had been bad enough, even if they had not done anything since he left them. In a way, it was the absurd fact that his virginity stone had never broken that had been behind the fact that an ambitious dark elf house was willing to make an offer. She had expected that she would have been able to make him their problem instead of her own. And instead?
Well, the paperwork was signed and dispatched a copy would be arriving at the palace soon, making it all official. And then, there was a crash, the door to her study slamming into the wall. "What up bitches?" Her blood chilled, because there was only one person who talked like that. And indeed, The Celestial High Arch Mage walked in, her clothes more fitting of a bedroom than proper company, but given how her full list of titles would take the better part of a day to recite and mostly boiled down to 'if anyone has a problem with how I act, can you also take on an army or are you going to get on your knees and eat me out before I wipe out you and your family line?'
Then again, she was the queens elder sister, who turned down the throne because it would take her away from her studies into magic. "So, I came by before my adorable little niece did, because I've heard about and seen enough of your boyo to decide that hey, I'm actually in the mood to grab an apprentice like Tiriana keeps saying I should." There was a twinkle in her eyes, as the predator in the shape of an elf smiled, teeth gleaming. "So, where is he? Cause from the feeling, he's either somewhere else or finally fixed that leakage problem."
There was a glint to the powerful sorceresses eye as she said that, as she licked her lips. There is a sense of dread in her heart, as well as internal screaming, at the need to track down and shred the submitted paperwork. A royal apprenticeship? That was... her lips were dry, and all her internal voices went silent, as she spoke, not sure why she did so. "I am not sure. I disowned him with cause and banished him from the estate a week ago after he performed what he claimed was an alchemical ritual to bridge the link between mind and soul."
She was not sure why she spoke, how the words were dragged out of her, the elf seeming to be not flesh and blood, but a living constellation, looking at her flatly. After a moment, an ear twitched. "Okay. I'm not sensing any necromancy around here, and trust me, that has a particular feel to it." The words were friendly, even as a hand was placed on the matriarchs shoulder, squeezing painfully. "That said? Before I go and hunt my apprentice down, let me inform you of what you disowned him for." There was a weight, an imperial truth that could not be denied to her words.
"He managed, without assistance or instruction, pulled off the ritual that marks a High Arch Mage from a Arch Mage with delusions of grandeur. And before he reached sixteen years old? Lady Rosengale?" Being addressed formally? For some reason it only drove in the absurdity of all this. "The previous record holder was two hundred and twelve years old, with two hundred of said years having access to the royal academy library and its resources and teachers." The hand squeezed again... before she was patted on the head like a dog.
"That said, see you later, as..." She snorted and giggled. "Yeah, I'm going to get me one hell of a young man." Again, she licked her lips, giggling as she departed, a bound star attached to her chariot. Leaving the Lady Rosengale alone, in the disaster zone of her study, staring blankly at a wall.