Angar

Angar is famed not only for his ferocity in combat, but also his tendency to mock all and sundry. While this penchant for insults would later serve him well, in his early life it was a liability. He frequently provoked Orcs much larger and stronger than himself, but the beatings that followed never quelled his impudent streak. Instead, each pummeling only hardened Angar's constitution and will, while pushing his sense of humor in a more gruesome and profane direction. In Angar’s adolescence, an Orc named Bahrekk was his clan’s leader. Bahrekk was imposing, quick to anger, and even Angar didn’t dare to ridicule the Orc, who had been known to decapitate those who mocked or belittled him to his face. However, such was Angar’s nature that sometimes he could not control himself. In one instance, Angar appeared to have made a deadly error when his clan were chopping down trees. Bahrekk, working at a typically brutal pace, roared and grunted with vim and vigor with each swing of his ax. Angar did his best to ignore the sounds, but one particularly loud howl broke his resistance, and before he could stop himself he was making exaggerated groans and shouts in mocking imitation. Surrounding Orcs did not laugh. Instead they averted their eyes, for they were sure what would come next. Seizing his enormous ax, Bahrekk strode over to Angar and lifted the great weapon above his head, apparently ready to cut down the insolent Orc who ridiculed him. There was a long, agonizing pause as Angar waited for the death blow, his eyes squeezed shut, but then he heard the last thing he expected: Bahrekk’s full-throated laughter reverberating around the wood. Dropping his weapon at the younger Orc’s feet, Bahrekk declared it a fitting tool for one with as sharp a humor as Angar possessed. Angar carries that same ax to this day. As Angar grew up, his ability to use his devilish mouth as a weapon flourished. He was equally adept at enraging a foe with barbed words as he was at smashing their defenses with his ax. One of his favored tactics is to provoke such fury from his opponents that they abandon their strategy altogether. Never was this better displayed than in his defeat of the Wyrm Knight, a famed warrior of the Banner Lords, who went to war clad in resplendent armor of crimson and gold. By this point in his life, Angar was the leader of a small clan of Orcs settled in Kaerok. They lived peacefully, and strived to ensure the surrounding villages had no reason to distrust them. This, however, did not stop the Wyrm Knight and his household warriors from riding into the Orcs' camp one morning and demanding that they leave by the next sunrise, or all be put to the sword. Angar knew his clan were outnumbered, and very possibly outmatched, but they were all in agreement that they would refuse the orders of the knight, whom they saw as pompous and vain. Morning came, and the Wyrm Knight and his warriors duly arrived. Given one last warning, Angar and his Orcs were again ordered to leave. The stream of curses Angar unleashed in refusal has become legend in itself. It is said that the honor of the Wyrm Knight's mother, sisters, and even his horse were included no fewer than seven times, intertwined with comments about the knight's ancestral armor bearing striking similarity to stinking refuse Angar had once spied in a Skinwalker dump. His family and reputation besmirched, the knight responded by dismounting his horse and challenging the Orc to single combat. The combatants’ blows were vicious, the clash of steel deafening the forces of both sides watching on. Angar was strong and unrelenting, but the Wyrm Knight dodged each blow with supreme confidence. The knight’s stamina was impressive, but so was the Orc’s willpower. The knight sliced open the Orc’s thigh as he ducked under an almighty swing, but Angar wheeled the weapon around to punch a hole in the Wyrm Knight’s shoulder with the point of his ax. They exchanged blow after blow until finally the knight stumbled, and the Orc seized the opportunity to drive his ax through the knight’s breastplate, shattering ribs and slicing through organs. Within seconds, the Wyrm Knight was dead. Seeing their leader so brutally dispatched, the knight’s warriors promptly fled. For his victory, Angar took the Wyrm Knight’s head, to remind his enemies that his ax can always make good on the threats of his tongue.