Monday, August 08, 2005

Story of the Orcs in the First Age.

This is NOT from Tolkien. I am using his story as base and then telling the Orcs view of the story.

Orcs arose in the middle earth about same time as the Elves. They all claim descent to one of the of the eight Orc fathers. The chief and the mightiest amongst them was Gorukh and as homage to him the orcs call themselves Oruk or Orc to outsiders.
It was a member of his tribe that first met the Elves and formed relationships with them. Soon there was trade and even bonhomie between Orcs and the Elves.
By chance or by design, there was a long winter in middle-earth and the supply of food and resources dried up. A war erupted in middle earth for the control the resources and what was left of fertile lands. Gorukh not wishing to make war and to stop more hardship in the hard winter negotiates a ceasefire with the Elves. To complete the formalities he goes to the Elven capital. But not all amongst the Elves, wished peace. A group of rebels led by Golmandu assassinated Gorukh. Thus, ceasefire breaks and full-fledged war breaks out. Gorukh’s heir Moorukh succeeds him. This is a time of long stalemate with no side being able to force a decisive victory. The Elves make advances in the day but had to suffer reverses in the night.
Sometime during this time, the Valars enter middle earth, looking for the children of Illuvatar. Being diurnal, they first meet the elves. They wish to meet the Orcs too and arbitrate in their disputes and bring the war to an end. To this end, they call the king of orcs Moorukh. But by this time orcs were wary of all day creatures and remembering the treachery of the Elves to Gorukh, Moorukh refuses to meet the valars.
Valars wrathful at this high handedness of the Orcs, lend their aid to the Elves in their wars against the Orcs. Orcs are greatly outmatched and suffer great reverses. Moorukh is slain in the battle of Barad. Moorukh’s heir Rookh realizes that he could not fight against the combined forces of the Elves and the Valars. He with the remainder of the Orcs retreats to his underground cities. The Elves could not pursue the Orcs in darkness and so give up the chase.
In the safety of their undergrounds, they first meet Melkor and forge an alliance. With his help, the Orcs launch an offensive against the unprepared Elves. Rookh regains his lost territories. The news reaches the Valars and they worried over the Elves seek to cut off the supply from Melkor to the Orcs. With this end in mind, they attack Utumno itself.
As Melkor had sent all his might to the help of the Orcs, he could not hold on against the might of the Valars. Melkor is caught and Utumno is destroyed.
The supply from Melkor to the Orc dries up, while the Elves get new war supply from the valars. Orcs suffer reverses again and had to retreat again. But this time, Elves attack the underground cities too, with the help of the newly forged Silmirils (pebbles of light). Rookh dies in the siege of Un-barad. Left leaderless and outmatched, Orcs run away on all sides. Heirs of Rookh and his household move away in secret.
This was a time of great suffering and hardship for the Orcs. They were left leaderless and homeless and were on run on all sides. It is a testament to the “jeejewisha" (the will to live) of the Orcs that they survived this time and came out stronger out of all this. At this time, all their cities were destroyed or besieged. They were being hunted down like wild beasts.
The Orcish horde now destroyed and diminished, the valars got confident that the Middle-Earth was safe against the Orcs and the league of the dark valars. So they asked the Elves to come to aman and to live with them. Most of the Elves go to aman, but some remain behind and easily fend off against the weak orcish horde.

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