War Mother

Ogryn are a naturally self-reliant people. Some Ogryn are quite happy alone, others in small groups. Tribes of Ogryn, however, are not uncommon, especially in the more inhospitable parts of Peltas. Such communities fought hard in the Gaellen War, and many served the Gaellen Pact. But loyalty to the Pact among the tribes is not what it once was, and many tribes now make war against their former allies. One of these is the lrontusk Tribe, and they are led by the fearsome Ogryn known as War Mother. Within Ogryn tribes, elder females often receive great respect as rulers, advisors, seers, and healers. Few, however, combine so many of those roles as War Mother, for to her people she is all these things. The lrontusk Tribe is one of the most brutal and militaristic Ogryn groups to be found in Peltas, and under her leadership they intend to become the most powerful of all Ogryn tnbes. War Mother is descended from a long line of Ogryn warrior—women. According to the stories of the lrontusks, she was the seventeenth daughter of Gramar the Prodigious, the matriarch of the powerful Bonegrinder Tribe. The Bonegrinders were wiped out almost entirely during a Sacred Order crusade, but Gramar and a number of her offspring survived. According to the bone-tally lineages kept by the tribes, Gramar was herself the seventh child of Bruzor the Most Prodigious – though she is reported to have eaten at least one of her siblings. Bruzor was a senior commander within the Gaellen Pact, and famously carved a swath through Anhelt at the height of the war. Thus War Mother is the descendant of some of the mightiest Ogryn of recent centuries. Some say that she has the ability to foretell the future, though only after particularly immense feasts, while others say that she is a cunning alchemist and potion-forger. According to the boldest Ogryn, she seeks to build a legacy that will rival that of her grandmothers, uniting the tribes in the strength of the whole, rather than through the prowess and gut-size of any one individual. Her role in creating such a future goes unquestioned by the lrontusks for, as they are fond of saying, ‘War Mother knows best’. A point of great curiosity, at least among non-Ogryn, is the creature strapped securely to War Mother’s broad back. It is quite clear that whatever the thing is, it is no Ogryn. Small, weak, with vestigial horn-nubs and fangs and wide-open eyes, it seems out-of-place among the hulking brutes that comprise War Mother’s extended family. Some say this impish creature – no true child at all, but known as the Horn-Son – is a spawn of Siroth, and certainly on first glance it seems likely. No one knows where it came from, but anyone who knows of it knows to treat the Horn-Son with the utmost care and respect, lest they incur not only War Mother’s wrath, but that of every lrontusk. According to the tribe, the Horn-Son is the very personification of war itself, a creature given flesh and form by the raw, destructive power of the Ogryn when they seek out conflict. For now it is small, just like the lrontusk Tribe. But they will grow, swelling their ranks with new recruits and their lands with new conquests. With every new foe that is pulverized or consumed, they say that Horn-Son’s stature and power will also grow, until he is ready to ascend as a new demi-god of devastation, and the leader of both the tribe and all of Ogryn-kind.