The Orcish Beastcart

During the Great Strife, most of the Orcish people followed the priests of their deity Ghaa’raagh the Render - the Astralar being that was singularly responsible for the outbreak of the god-war. Most of these followers perished in the fighting. But the Orc People survived because a few did not follow their war-gods, but instead embraced the ways of Mhaaggh’maacch the Shrewd.

As the conflict dragged on, these Orcs were able to see how the cooperation prevalent among the forces arrayed against their kin provided an advantage. Thus, when the conflict ended, it was these Orcs that tried to bring about a change in the way Orcs saw the rest of the Folk of Cartyrion. Rather than obstacles or enemies, these "others" could be useful. The most obvious way to demonstrate this would be to initiate trade with their non-Orcish neighbors - trade that would not have been practical without the development of the Orcish Beastcart.

The Beastcart

The Orcish Beastcart is essentially just a large wagon modeled on the vehicles that other Folk - especially the Humanfolk - relied upon for moving large quantities of goods with a minimum of effort. Much larger than the horse-drawn wagons of the Humans, the earliest carts were little more large boxes mounted over four large wheels. Made from the hardwoods available in the Lanlokan forests, they were sturdy and capable of transporting a lot of weight.

The Beasts

After the Great Strife, the draft horses drawing carts employed by Humans and other Folk were the largest creatures being used for this purpose. Smaller folk used even smaller creatures such as sheep, goats, and even dogs to pull small carts. The Taxlatl had employed massive carts pulled by their domesticated Armored Trihorns, but these disappeared completely during the Taxlatl Diaspora. But the Orcs had access to a creature that rivaled the Trihorns: the great Wooly Bison that roamed the plains south of the Lanlokan forests. The Orcs had been hunting these creatures for meat and skins since their Awakening, but now they would find another use for the beasts. Yoked in pairs, two of these creatures could pull weights that required teams of eight horses -- and the Orcs often employed as many as three pairs to pull their largest wagons.

The Impact on Orcish Society

It would be easy to believe that the ability to acquire iron goods and other refined materials not readily available to the Orcs of the Lanlokan plains and forests resulted in a significant change to the lifestyle of those Orcs. While true, the availability of goods was not the most significant impact resulting from the development of the beastcart. This impact was a social awareness of a much larger, and far more cosmopolitan world beyond the trees and grasslands of the Orcish homes. The "lands beyond" had cities... and people... and libraries... and institutions of learning. There were ships carrying Folk across the seas to even more far-off places. There were Opportunities!

Even before the first beastcarts were crudely crafted, the Orcs who decided to take up the lives of travelling traders learned this, and brought that knowledge back home. Other Orcs, especially the young who were restless and bored with the monotony of village life listened eagerly to the stories told by the traders about exotic places unlike anything they had seen before.

Many a young Orc left home, never to return, and this caused some of the elders to refute this new way of life. But some did return, and they brought with them not just goods, but skills and knowledge that Orcs had not possessed before. More importantly, though, they brought back an understanding that other Peoples were not enemies... were not "them". The change was gradual, but in the two thousand years since the Great Strife, the change did occur. Today, when an Orc refers to "the People", "the Folk", or even "we", they are not just referring to other Orcs. They are referencing all the sentient races.