God of Nature. He is reputed, in legend at least, to have servitor spirits - forestals - who live in the deep forests and protect them from unwarranted invasions. This is poo-pooed by many unbelievers, who argue that if He was protecting the forests in such a way then forests would still stand everywhere, untouched. He is the father of Elysia.

The Oakbrother is usually portrayed as an old male face sprouting from the trunk of a tree, most often an oak. The Oakbrother, like Elysia, has followers among the rural people. Oakbrother has no large temples, only small shrines and chapels. Oakbrother, though respected by the people, is not widely worshipped, as being seen as not very interested in mortal affairs, or at least in the affairs of humans and their kind.

The senior officials who assist the monarch in governing the realm. Prince-Regent Erling's officers are currently-

• Lord Chancellor—Lord Giles Grenier.
• Lord Treasurer—Lord Harcor.
• Marshal—Lord Raymond du Plessey, Duke of Aguiliers.
• Lord Chamberlain—
• High Constable—
• Lord Admiral—Sir William de Harsigny.

The Fendal-Montese word for Orc. Now rarely used.

the Archfiend, God of Lies, hate, strife, wickedness, tyranny, plagues and evil of any other stripe. He is the prime evil in the world, as far as the religiously minded are concerned. He is the father of all demons, and many a mortal (in legend) has been begotten by him to wreck evil upon the world.

The Old Man also has many forms. A pair of eyes in the dark, a demon or a smirking, handsome man are His most common depictions.

Secret cells of worshippers of the Old Man and his servitors are located throughout the realm, all of them plotting for the greater glory of their master and for themselves, though not necessarily in that order. There are at least three separate hierarchies of His churches, and cooperation between the sects is almost non-existent.

A warlike humanoid race, orcs are found in various places on the borderlands, especially in the Ramosh Arkab mountains (where they have occupied the old dwarfen kingdom of Durgaron) and in the Orclands southwest of them, and north of Breakingdale. Orcs are a constant danger to civilisation, and in their last large-scale foray into human lands almost managed to completely overrun Thestria and inflicted great damage on the Voors and Montese as well. Fortunately they are a disunited and quarrelsome race, usually fighting amongst themselves rather than looking outward. Orcs are disciplined and well-organised - if given the right leader. In rare cases orcs live in a form of peace with the humans around them, engaging in desultory trade (the orcs are nearly as good workers of metal as dwarfs), but such periods never last long. Orcs can breed with humans - evidence some scholars have put forward to claim the two races are related - but this rare.

Orcs stand more than 7 feet tall and weight much more than a human. They have rough, craggy features and pointed ears. They have prominent canine teeth, and grin like vampires. Their skin is rock-grey. Their hands are bigger than what humans would find aesthetically pleasing.

It has been surmised that the orcs, though a long-lived people, have periods of frenetic population growth, when females spawn offspring in great numbers. If so, it may be population pressures from such spawning that causes expansionistic conflicts with their human neighbours.

Military campaign. In 140, while King Gregory was ruling Montour, the denizens of the Orclands crossed the mountains in unprecedented numbers to attack the humans of Voorland, Thestria and Montour. The human realms, in the face of this assault, eventually joined forces, and with help from the dwarfs and, surprisingly, the Fairies, were able to push the orcs back to more or less where they came from after 16 years of fighting. The entire region was weakened. Thestria took the brunt of the attack and suffered the most. Its mountain settlements were all destroyed, several of the inland towns were abandoned, and the land connection to the rest of the Empire, via the Geth Khakor passes, was cut. Montour suffered its own great losses, however. King Gregory disappeared and was presumed dead, after his bodyguard of Knights Protector fled from his side. In this way the sword Thesuril, which was such a symbol of unity for the kingdom, was lost. Gregory was without direct heirs and Montour suffered several decades of civil strife and instability before royal control reasserted itself under Robert I and his son Robert II.

However, the only realm that fell as a result of this war was the old dwarfen kingdom of Durgaron. In the immediate aftermath the dwarf kingdom seemed as strong as it always had, but it had been grievously wounded. Less than 20 years after the Orcwar ended the Thestrians were amazed to find a ragged column of dwarven refugees stumble down from the mountain city. The Megaduke gave these refugees lands in the Ore Hills outside Shalgreth, where they created a realm-in-exile.