Orcish Empire created by Gorfang Deathdrinker
1700
The orcish empire created by Gorfang Deathdrinker - the Gorfangach - controlled all the ancient orc-fortresses in the northern Erean Mountains, and the population of orcs increased massively. The worship of the old orcish gods was completely supplanted by that of Hektis, now seen as an orcish war god, with small hidden cults of Sabath and Lynien operating in secret throughout the empire. A state of constant low-level war existed between the Gorfangach and the dwarvish kingdoms, although neither side could muster the strength to break the other's strongholds and hostilities were restricted to border fights, dirty tricks and assassinations.
The Gorfangach was also at war with the Kordasa. Quite apart from the cultural differences, two new and dynamic nations having war gods as patrons sharing a border made conflict almost inevitable. The eastern foothills of the Erean adjoining the Kordasa became a shattered no-man's-land, wracked by constant, merciless warfare.
Orcs turned out to be immune to the Elf Death of 1971, but with almost no-one left to fight or raid to the west, the three cities of the Gorfangach fell to discord amongst themselves and the empire splintered. All the cities except Gadhuvras and Kishshul returned to the Old Gods of the orcs and wars flared continually.
Ironically, with the population of the Kordasa decimated, Gadhuvras finally managed to invade the eastern marches and Karennal itself came under siege for a while. The siege was raised by an attack from Kishshul, where the worship of Ashmuzkor-Kord remains.