Book One – Chapter 13

She found him at last. All paths converged on a single figure standing amidst the storm, hidden behind a barrier of reflective ice that rendered him invisible to ordinary sight. To Midnight, he stood in stark relief. His skin bore an unnaturally blue hue, like frostbite made flesh, while deep-carved runes scarred his body, marking him as a one of the rare spell-wielders among ork-kind — an orich.

The emergence of elemental magic among the orks was a twisted evolution spanning the past two centuries. With the cessation of human expansion into the Northlands, ork magic had begun to creep out from its primitive roots. To wizards, it was a shameful taboo, a transgression against established arcane codes, a grotesque violation of the natural order and the sanctity of magic.

Initially dismissed as crude manipulations of rock and earth, their magical capabilities seemed insignificant until, a decade ago, patrols in the Albweiss Mountains uncovered the vast scope of the Haraak’s abilities under Gorak’s leadership. The reports revealed a powerful elemental magic — calculated devastation realised on a grand scale.

Within the domain of the Albweiss Mountains, that very crudeness became an unassailable advantage. The mountains, wild and unforgiving, with their frozen peaks and jagged cliffs, were hostile to all who dared cross them. Here, the cold itself became a weapon in the hands of the orks, with the blizzard sharpening their every strike and fortifying their defences. The terrain granted them an infinite supply of snow and ice, requiring neither crafting nor subtlety, only the brute force summoned by the orich’s command.

Perched high above the battlefield, the orich’s scar-laden hands moved with an erratic rhythm as they wielded his grand staff. Their gestures seemed to tear at the fabric of the storm itself. Embedded within the staff were gems of glacial blue. They were frosthearts, symbiotic artefacts that served as catalysts and conduits for potent elemental energy. Each was a crystallised fragment of the legendary Mountain Eye, bridging the orich’s will with raw power.