warren

His birth and childhood uneventful: an otherwise unnoteworthy clan of orcs, fighting eachother, killing eachother. Somehow it didn't appeal to Warren. While the other boys staged mock battles, he'd always happen to be elsewhere, by a riverside, quiet.

The habit continued, and was noticed. He was mocked and bullied, and in the orc way, beat. His aversion to violence grew.

 

One distinct occassion stands out. He was cleaning the wounds of adolescent bullying in a eddy by a river. He caught sight of his reflection, cringed from the bloodied and bruised grimace that looked back at him. In doing so he caught sight of a set of figures across the way - female orcs, bathing and relaxing. In the same moment he was set upon by another male of his age, who shouted to his compatriots, "found him!"

 

He was leapt upon, and the commotion set the girls screaming and running for their clothes. The boys, rowdy, turned their attention from Warren, laughing and enjoying the view. "So this is where you've been hiding yourself! You horny dog!" Within a stroke his position among the young men of his clan was elevated to equality. Rowdy, they cracked lewd jokes, bustling him back to their encapment with an arm draped over his shoulder.

 

Yet it wasn't the rare nudity of the girls that had caught his attention - his eyes and passed straight over the bits men usually lingered on even when clothed - it had been one woman on a far bank, kneeling by the water and combing her hair. She had looked directly at him the moment he had looked at her, hand paused mid-brush of her hair. A beauty like he had never witnessed - fresh facepaint applied in the distinctive way the orc women did, that accentuated the subtleties of their face rather than the way men did to appear more fearsome. Unmarred by scar, bruise or cut, she had seemed to him a divine being, unearthly perfection.

 

Something to strive for - not to own, not to seek her - the woman herself was incidental, in fact he had seen her mere hours later and she seemed, though beautiful, nothing like the being he had witnessed by the riverside. He was convinced he had seen divinity, and from that moment forward strove to cultivate it within himself.

 

He stayed with the clan a while longer, participated in the games of the boys and men. Though abhorring violence, he threw himself with unmatched gusto at the games of strength. The divinity by the river had presented a feminine form of beauty, thus he would endow the realm with a masucline form. He grew in size and strength and the respect of his clan and former tormentors.

 

Until there was war. Until his camp was raided, and the young men distinguished themselves in battle, and though some honored themselves by falling, when the opposition was repelled, chased down, and slaughtered, there was cause to rejoice. His absence was noted - he was discovered by the riverside, hiding and cringing, fearful of the true violence of warfare.

 

His clansmen were too disgusted to execute him. They didn't want his death that day marring the martyrdom of his brave compatriots, so they gave him a greater humiliation: banishment. Orc-kind were hated across the realm. To survive, a lone orc would have to disgrace himself and his strength, and would inevitably die a dishonorable death of starvation, disease, or exposure.

 

So he fled, and found a hole in himself. He hadn't realized his attachment to his brothers and friends had grown so strong until it was gone. He hadn't realized how he had enjoyed the comradarie of the contests of strength. Alone, cold, and within days starving, he wandered the wilderness, sustained only by the same vision of beauty that had always driven him.

 

After mere weeks he knew death was close. He'd been living off of scant berries and mushrooms. He once had caught a fish but couldn't bring himself to kill it, thoughts flashing to the night of the raid and the great gushes of blood that had driven him to abandon his clan and run in childish fear for the river. Delirious, he sat himself on a riverbank and waited for death to take him.

 

All of time passed him and he, startled, glanced up. Across the river was the beauty he had seen so many years ago. She spoke thus: "I am the goddess Sune," to which he replied: "I have only hours left of life, but I give all of what I have remaining in service to you."

 

He awoke in a mule-drawn cart, looking up into the three hairiest faces he'd ever seen. Hairy yet, incredibly well groomed. "Han awakens," one said, in an unfamiliar tongue. "Han tinkast" replied another. He recognized the tongue now, from the traders that sometimes visited his camp - dwarves.

 

They hailed from a local monastery, devoted to the goddess of beauty - Sune. When he discovered this his purpose was renewed. As a young man he had been dedicating himself to beauty and thus the goddess herself, unknowingly. Now she had saved his life, directing her worshippers to discover him on the riverside. He had pledged his life thinking it nearing its end, and now felt gratitude that he could perhaps instead spend years giving himself to worship of the goddess.

 

The dwarves gave themselves to worship in much the same way he had with the Orcs - pursuing a perfection of form in their bodies. They played games of strength that put the Orcs' fumblings to shame - games that would cause him to weep in pain and rapture. They showed him arts of grooming and body painting that exceeded even the most high-ranking Orcs of his clan. In every act, every movement, he served his goddess.

 

Many happy years he spent with the dwarves, formally becoming a cleric and learning not only the art of physical beauty but also that of spiritual, learning to call upon the favors of his goddess to heal the marred forms that pilgrims would carry through the gates, spreading the gift of Sune's beauty to many thousands.

 

Many happy years, until word came of an Event of possible divine portent, a new religion. Sune would know of such things, and so it was determined that Warren, having become the most devoted cleric of the monastery, and furthermore being quite simply the largest and most likely to survive the unknown dangers of the realm, would go on expedition to discover for the church of Sune, what could be learned of these strange rumors.