Granz is arguably the most famous Ogre in Heimerian history. Most Ogres know some variation of the story of how in the darkest day of their history a huge army of Ogres invaded Alzahir and freed their enslaved brothers from their elves masters. At the head of this great army was Granz and his champions. The stories of the Ogres tell that Granz was both the greatest warrior, and the greatest talker who ever lived among the Ogres. The name of Granz has later been adopted by the Ogres as the title for any Ogre strong enough to lead them.
The Berzerker Army
With his great words, Granz could ignite a mighty rage over the misdeeds of the Alzahirans. And with his great strength he and his champions could win the great Ogre brawl of mid summer, and get the other Ogres to listen. Many Ogre brawls end with a few tribes joining forces to march for Alzahir, but when Granz won the summer brawl, all the tribes who were there joined. Never before and never since had so many Ogres been united. The Ogres themselves never gave a name to their great army. But Asgardian historians have since named it the Berserk Army.
For more then a year, the Berzerk Army made their way through the territories of Alzahir, entering the kingdom in the south-western border with Utgard, pushing all the way up to the north and then moving back to the south-western border. The army pillaged every village, town or city they could get into without setting up a siege. Freeing Ogres wherever they could find them. The success of the army is often credited to the speed at which it moved from place to place. At the time Alzahir had not yet fully established a military cast. Armies were drafted as the need arose. But the sheer impatience of the Ogres made their army too fast and too unpredictable for the elves to organise an effective defence. Only pure luck or perhaps divine intervention prevented the Utgardian Military from capitalizing on this great success and permanently ending the Asgardian kingdom before it was even formed.
Sklash
Almost as famous as Granz himself is his great axe Sklash. Many different stories are told about how Granz came in possession of Sklash. Some claim it was forged by the ten great Talurian forge master. Others say that he bare handedly defeated a mighty goblin who wielded it and pried it from the goblin's dead fingers. What is clear however is that this mighty weapon was so heavy nobody but Granz could use it, and that with this weapon Granz was strong enough to break just about anything.
The most famous story of Sklash is about how after many ogres had tried to ram down the gates of the great elven city Dearaldia, Granz had come forth and smashed the gate to splinters with Sklash. Waiting on the other side were five thousand Alzahir warriors and mages. In the battle that followed the great axe Sklash was lost. But in the end the city had fallen to the Ogres and was burned to the ground. Many decades later when the city was rebuild Alzahir workmen discovered the axe. It has been kept for study by the historical society of Alzahir (now named the "historical society of Asgard").
Life After The Berzerk Army
Granz fathered many hundreds of Ogre children, and not a single one of them died during the harsh training Ogre children are put through. With his great strength, Granz lived to the exceptional age of 71 years. After the long campaign in Alzahir Granz tried several more times to go back, even going so far as to suggest a second invasion into the Alzahir kingdom, to find out if the rumours that the Elves had a hand in creating the magical items that enslaved the Ogres where true, and to avenge them if it was. But though his great words were able to convince the Ogres to unite to free their brothers, his words were insufficient to convince them to walk for more then a year just so Granz could go look for his axe again, nor to invade Alzahir.
Validity
The lorekeepers doubt that certain parts of the story are completely truthful, and they consider it most likely that the story is exaggerated, as many legends are. It has proven difficult to find good evidence concerning Granz, as most of the stories told about him are told in the oral tradition of ogre storytellers and susceptible to exaggeration or simply a forgetful mind. There are some Asgardian documents that concern Granz, but they only offer enough information to confirm that the ogres were indeed led by a capable general and mighty fighter named Granz who wielded the battleaxe by the name of Sklash currently in possession of Asgard. Although they have learned much about it neither the Elves nor the Fae have ever confirmed how Sklash actually operated when it smashed the gates of Dearaldia, it might be that the true power of the weapon is less than the legend state, or that the power has left the weapon after the battle somehow or that some other force was at work when the city fell.