Origins of Ogre Lore

By Shaman Ghanima

The exact origins of the original stories are not really known, but Ulvat the Beerguarde is kind of universally credited with the creation of the lore with Goron assisting. Goron is the alternate ogre persona of Arioch Hellhammer, the founder of Hellhammer and more commonly known these days as Goat. Thoroganya was the first, and for a while, only ogre tribe. It was made of the Hellhammer ogres, many of them only playing Ogres part-time. This was the origin of Ogre nomadism. Ulvat was I believe the first and only full time ogre for a while. The Thorogonya ogres were the only ogres of Belegarth, so there was not much branching out or changing of the lore for quite a while. The lore was heavily Ugangi centric, as Ulvat was a shaman of Ugangi. Another key facet of the original lore was that it stood very much on its own and was not connected in any way with the other monster races’ lore and histories. It was very concise and the characters had little expansion. Here it is in essentially the form I received it.

The first ogre god Uron was killed for an unknown reason. (I heard two versions, one he just died for unknown reasons, and the other he was murdered by the other gods). 4 ogres were found by his body, and they became powerful shamans. Una loved Ugangi, but he did not reciprocate. After a time of prosperity, Ucronos jealous of Ugangi’s strength killed his brother by stabbing him in the back. Ungangi ascended in a blaze of fire and killed Ucronos who became the wind. Una in despair over the loss of Ungangi threw herself into a well and drowned and became the water. Utenzi descended into the earth to forever chase after Ucronos.

Based off of this story, Ucronos was universally hated and feared. Una was nearly universally feared for her mood swings, and Ugangi was nearly universally praised as the greatest of the 4. The shamans were people touched by a god to exact their will upon the earth. Goron’s story was that he was a rare instance where he had been touched by all four deities, an exceedingly rare occurrence, and was the very first inkling that there could be more to Ucronos than just the ogres’ judas/satan figure. At that time it was stated than any worshipper of Ucronos should be killed outright, but since Goron was touched by all 4 he was tolerated. Along with this, it was said that ogres would only eat food after it had touched the ground for fear of Ucronos cursing it. (IE only eat an apple after it has fallen from the tree etc.) This thought has been largely abandoned, and may have been Thorogonya specific.

Astrologically (Una was the moon, Ugaingi was the sun, Uchronos was the stars, and Utezni as always was the earth). Originally there was more of a love story between Una and Ugaingi with their astrological bodies representing them always chasing each other but never finding each other.

(Utezni, and even Una to a certain extent seemed like kind of an after thought. This was in large part due to the fact that the emphasis was on Ugangi and the hatred of Ucronos.)

This has come to be a facet of Ogre culture. Tribes will be shaped by their leaders as far as what knowledge the tribe acts upon. Thorogonya was shaped by an Ugangi shaman and many warring generals, it makes sense that they would be very Ugangi centric. It is also why it has since become important for the Shamans to learn all of the Lore, because it is very easy for stuff to be lost or twisted based off the ideas of the people telling the stories. It is important to keep track of the accepted variants, as these add to the depth of the Lore and provide other avenues to pursue. The original ogres I encountered when I started were

Tuatha, known today as Killian—ogre general, leader of goblin packs

Ikichi, known today as Keichii—the smallest ogre, came from a land far away and was not afraid of water, first instance of UNA not being completely feared, saved Tuatha from a river

Goron—co-creator of the original lore, touched by all 4 gods

Ulvat the beerguarde—creator of the original lore, touched by Ugangi. Ulvat died several years ago.

Rudzock/Cane—Ogre general, leader of goblin packs ( also the one who convinced me to be an ogre)

Katina—first female ogre I knew of, I think I was the 2nd?

Alcon switched to being the ogre Bhakdar at just after Gorlock started. He claimed to be touched by Ugaingi as a shaman but I think maybe he meant he was more of an avatar of Ugaingi, as bhakdar was probably the best fighter on the field, but did not seem overly into the Lore. He was like a god on the field and I think Avatar of the god of war is quite fitting.

You can still talk to most of the people who played these characters, but the fighters have moved on to other things and largely do not do monster stuff anymore.