Ogre

General

Ogres are a race of sentient creatures inhabiting Heimr. They are considered evil by most of Asgard, but they're not inherently so. What they lack in intelligence, they make up with strength, toughness and endurance; they are the shock troops of Utgard. The Ogre language is a simple, guttural language; only a few phrases are known to outsiders and (almost) all of them are related to war and fighting.

Physical appearance

Ogres are large, bulky humanoids quite similar in appearance to normal humans. They tend to be very muscular, even female Ogres, much more muscular and taller compared to humans. Other distinguishing features when compared to humans are: lots of hair all over their body, one or more horns protruding from their head and large fangs in their mouths. Although nearly all of the Ogres have at least one of these features, it's not common to see an Ogre with all three. Most Ogres feature a combination of two of these features. Why exactly this is is unknown, it is rumored the chaotic nature of the Ogre Godess Wana caused this, although more scholared priests dispute this claim. Especially priests of Sin tend to dispute the claim of a chaotic nature of Wana, stating that Sin is the only true deity of chaos.

Ogres have a pink skin, with red and brown variants not uncommon. Their hair is often greasy and unkept, which causes it to be darker in appearance then it actually is. Even so, dark, earthen colours are the most common colours of Ogre's hair. Lighter colours, especially blonde, are rare and it is often seen as a sign of the gods if one such Ogre is born.

The clothing of Ogres is simple, often nothing more than is needed to keep them warm and protected from the environment. Their clothing consists mostly of animal hides and coarse cotton or linen fabrics, with belts, pouches and other utilities made from animal hide, leather and other animal parts. When going to war, they will sometimes don armour, especially those Ogres who have had more contact with races such as the tellurians?. Strangely, those Ogres who own armour take great care for this armour, possibly due to the relative cost of Ogre-sized armour.

Culture

The ogre culture is centred on warfare; the societal ranks of both males and females are decided by their ability to kill. Ogres are a tribal race, and each tribe is under the authority of a war chief. These tribes often fight each other as well as Asgardian settlements or cities. Ogres are known to fight both alone and in groups. Because their culture is based on fighting, they do not focus much on comfort. Their villages and towns are often under kept and unclean. Their lifespan totally depends on their skills in warfare; this gets harder for an older ogre. That’s why old ogres fight themselves to the death. This is another reason why Asgardians look down on them. Two ranks in Ogre society are the rank of Granz (noble) and Ganiriet (female leader). Individuals who have these titles are treated with great respect. But how you gain these ranks varies from tribe to tribe.

In most tribes when an ogre child roughly reaches the age of six years he or she and the rest of their generation will go to a temporary camp where they will fight one and other until at least half of the group is dead. this way they have removed the weak and unworthy from their tribe and are sure to be left with just the strongest of ogres. the winners will then return to the tribe, there they will be named based on their fighting skill, personality and life experience. In some tribes the males and females do these fights separated, other tribes don't care. After the fight Ogre tribes often ask Wana to give them stronger children by offering the bodies of the weaker in a grand ritual.

The Great Brawls

Main Article: The Great Brawls of the Ogres

Every Solstice, the Ogres hold large feasts known as the Great Brawls. These are massive rituals, featuring lots of screaming and fighting. The Ogres fight from sunrise to sunset, with the tribe with most Ogres standing at sundown declared the winner. This tribe will then become the ruling tribe until the next sunset.

Lifestyle

Most Ogres live a nomadic lifestyle, traveling around in small groups. Their main source of food comes from large herds of grazing animals. Depending on where they live Ogres will follow herds of buffalo, elephants, or elk. As these large herd migrate across the Heimr Ogres will follow them through the seasons. Picking off animals as they need and leaving large stone statues as they go. In places where there are no large herds to follow, Ogres will keep their own herds, usually consising of sheep or goats. Ogres are not known for any agricultural activities. Although they probably know how to do it, the amount of long term planning involved doesn't come easy to most Ogres.

History

Ogre history is often not documented and thus most is lost over the years, but one singly stories is known even to most Ogres. The story of how Asgard once tried to cultivate the Ogres and how this failed. Ogres are mostly nomads, there tribes travel all over the lands around and in Utgard. At one point in history the Ogres encountered the Asgardian races by traveling to far from their birth place. The Fae, more organized and centralized than the Ogres back then, captured several of the tribes that wandered to close and held them as prisoners. The Fae gave the stronger and leading ogres bracelets with magical power to hold them under their command. The Asgardians wanted to help the ogres to become more civilized and less destructive and tried forcing this upon the Ogres with magic. The ogres saw this as a way of turning their races into slaves, however so the whole plan would eventually fail. After a few years the ogre society banded together with a large amounts of tribes because they where getting information about what happened to their brothers and sisters. A large Ogre army was formed, combining several tribes, and marched towards the "captured" Ogre tribes. This is known as the largest all-Ogre army in history and the campaign contains some of the greatest battles the Ogres have ever faced. Most of the Ogres, if not all, where freed during this campaign, also because the Fae never truly intended to capture the Ogres indefinitely. The Ogres, holding the grudge and now bolstered with additional numbers, started raiding the Fae and elven indiscriminately, first because the difference between Fae and Elves was not clear to them yet, and after that because the elves? retaliated and because the ogres learned that the elven had a hand in constructing the braces (that the elves didn't knew what they where going to be used for was not known at the time, and is irrelevant in the eyes of most ogres anyway.) This war, that lasted for several years, is one of the main reasons for the hatred between Ogres and the races of Asgard.

Diet

The diet of an ogre varies greatly, as they are willing to eat just about anything that comes in range of their mouth. This includes raw meat, cabbage, a glass of ale after it has been emptied, and with some frequency sand, pebbles and smaller rocks. This last one is used by ogres to improve digestion.

Language

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Art, music and literature

Ogres like sculpting. The simple art of hitting rocks, with other rocks to create rough outlines of identifiable shapes, such as their goddess Wana, ratmen, leaders and their enemies (these rocks don't stay this shape for long) is something that simply appeals to an ogre. Most of these sculptures are larger then 3 meters, and one or two have been found that where more than thirty meters in height. The larger once tend to be constructed of several large rocks or hacked from sides of mountains. The important and well done statues are usually decorated with blood during special seasons and other parts of the year. Most tribes of ogres have a variation of a form of ritual that strengthens their bodies with harsh treatment, like hitting each other with rocks, burning sticks or running each other trough bushes and small tress. Screaming and chanting are next to a form of training the lungs, also a form of communication, stress release and mating ritual. During ogre mating season, sometimes a large tribe picks up the screaming and chanting at such a rate and rhythm, taking turns, that there is never a silent moment for several days, scaring away most wildlife in the region. Like most Utgardians the Ogres also enjoy large quantities of food, sleep, sex and other untamed carnal pleasures.

Magic

Ogres don't use magic. The Ogres have an ingrained hatred for arcane magic, like all Utgardian races. The stories of the weak ogres that have not yet escaped the clutches of Asgardian magic and still rot under the rule of the enemy frequently and variably travel from mouth to ear. Biologicaly speaking some members of the Ogre race could learn magic. If these individuals would practice certain force of mind pushes long and hard enough the spark might develop, but this training is rather alien to the ogre mindset and nobody takes the initiative to teach them how to do this. Arcane magic is outlawed in most of Utgard anyway, and if magical talent was discovered by a child, it would surely be killed by its tribe. Divine magic is practiced, although rare in comparison with other races, by the shamans and priests of Wana.

Religion

Ogres worship Wana as a form of standard worship, if ogres go to organized war, switching from their hunting, bashing and random acts of killing the bypasser elf to a more semi-formal mob, they frequently but temporarily switch to worship of Ratish as a higher worship form. This also happens when they have to make a difficult life choice and they have time to think on this choice, although this is very rare for ogres.

Private and family life

Outsiders know very little about the day to day life of Ogres. They are commonly percieved as simple minded blood thirsty brutes. Even tough this is a fair observation, there is more to their life then these simple brutish acts. Ogres are very private creatures, any kind of emotions or feelings are hardly ever shown to other ogres. They're life is one of constantly keeping up an appearance of strength, but they feel pain, sorrow and sadness just like any other race. An ogre will often have a few close companions with who he or she is not engaged in a strugle for strength. These companions often are close relatives such as parents or siblings. This tight bond is also the closest thing Ogres have to a marriage. Although if such a bond does exist between unrelated ogres, it rarely results in a monogamous relationship. The idea of monogamy is something rather foreign concept to ogres. Most young ogres don't know who their actual father is, due to the large number of partners a typical female ogre has.

Canabalism

Most Ogres are cannibalistic. They will eat the flesh from other strong Ogres. Hoping that the strength of the ones they eat may be added to their own strength. Because of this the flesh of the weak is rarely sought after, except when there is little other food available.

It is common practice for Ogres to eat their parents or siblings after their death. Ogres tell the story of how at the beginning, Wana herself was eaten by her children, and that this chain of cannibalism has gone down the generations in an unbroken chain. Eating a parent does not only symbolize taking on the parent's strength, but every ancestor including that of the great goddess herself.

In same rare cases Ogres have even been known to part with an arm while still alive, so a child can draw strength from it's consumption.

Age and disease

Ogres will grow for the better part of their life. Becoming ever larger as they grow older. On average a human size Ogre would be around 20. When they turn 30 Ogres will often reach heights of 2 meters or taller.

Few enslaved Ogres will live to the age of 40. Because they are constantly challenged to fight for their lives, once their strength fades with age an Ogre will eventually be unable to stand up to the younger generation. The age of an Ogre at death is by many considered the final test of strength. An Ogre's ability to remain strong while facing the decease of old age.

By many Ogres, old age is considered a disease send to them from Wana as a test of their strength. It is commonly believed that a strong body will remain strong against any disease. While the weak will fail and die the test of Wana. These trials of strength are often purposefully undertaken. It is common practice among the shamans to seek out diseases to show their strength to Wana. Ultimately though, Wana's disease of old age will defeat any Ogre.