[hider=The Ogre Kingdoms]
[b]NAME:[/b] The Ogre Kingdoms

[b]OVERVIEW:[/b] The Ogre Kingdoms is based off of the faction of the same name in canon, and naturally, it is inhabited by ogres, very large humanoid creatures whose culture primarily revolves around food, and the ways in which one can acquire more food in the future. As a result, they often fight for prime sources of good eats, meaning the "kingdoms" are usually more like maniple warring clans who happen to be able to cooperate with one another at times, though even then, many of their number strike out as mercenaries for other factions and adventurers in the wider world; currently, they are experiencing a period of relative unity, meaning their numbers are far more focused than usual, with consequent goals of expanding their territory outwards, and have already started with the Ash Ridge Mountains in the Dark Lands, near the World's Edge Mountains that mark out the eastern bounds of the Old World.

[b]RACE AND CULTURE:[/b] Ogres are humanoid creatures of significant size - their infants tend to be the size of a full-grown dwarf shortly after birth, whilst they easily stand at twice an adult human's height in their own adulthood at minimum, with plenty of bulk to back that height up. Their most notable appearance trait, however, is the massive gut each ogre cultivates like they would a personal garden, typically by eating as much food as they can get and adorning it with a thick metallic gutplate; this gut is not composed largely of fat, but of many layers of powerful muscle that can crush even rocks from the outside in, allowing ogres to eat nearly anything if they feel like it, though sustenance is another matter. Indeed, they are also able to live nearly anywhere where there is sufficient food, and the greatest concentration of ogres in the modern age is the Mountains of Mourn, peaks that are half-volcanic and half-arctic, and filled with enough giant creatures to at least attempt to sate the ogre's hunger.
Their heavy focus on food and their guts is the result of a significant event in the past - as a result of events that are now lost to them, their former homelands were obliterated by what they believe to be an angry god, along with most of their race; the resulting crater is believed to be the god's mouth, giving it the name of the Great Maw, and it is this that has cursed the ogres with an eternal hunger, unquenchable even when they are full to bursting. Thus, they were forced to travel from there to elsewhere in the world, reinforcing a prior nomadic tendency that persists to this day, though it has coalesced into more stratified levels of hierarchy within tribes.
Despite its origin as their nemesis, the Great Maw is also worshipped as the chief deity of the ogres, and indeed the Great Maw's priests are also the ogre race's chefs and butchers, gaining automatic status in ways that most ogres can't otherwise hope to acquire in their lifetimes. It helps that ogres are mostly immune to the ravages of Chaos, though some still manage to succumb to its wiles for whatever reason. Other than this, the ogres have a small coterie of mostly minor deities, largely believed to be bastard children or offshoots of the Great Maw itself; the next most important of these is the Magma Maw, supposedly the offspring of the Great Maw with the sun, and the cultists who worship this deity as their wargod are considered mildly strange in their own right.
Outside of the Ogre Kingdoms themselves, ogres are considered to be savage brutes who will gladly murder you and eat your corpse... and in fairness, this is not typically wrong, seeing as how they semi-frequently eat each other after a match in the fighting pits, their primary source of entertainment. The ogres outside of the Kingdoms proper, however, tend to at least try forging themselves into somewhat more civilised forms, at least enough so that they can participate in the society they have encountered, be it the Warriors of Chaos or the nations of the high elves. Their more intelligent members can even teach themselves to read reasonably well, and in doing this to integrate and so dine with polite society. Hopefully [i]on[/i] polite society, if they are challenged to a duel in the meantime.

[b]GOVERNMENT:[/b] At the bottom of the scale in the Kingdoms are the ogre's mutated Greenskin slaves and servants, the knoblars, which are summarily mistreated beyond measure, and taste so bad that even ogres are loathe to consume them, save the oversized ears and nose, which are considered a tasty delicacy. They are lorded over by all ogres, though depending on whether a high-ranking ogre remembers their name, or Maw forbid decides he likes them, they may gain some preferential status compared to their fellows. Above a regular ogre is an Irongut, an ogre strong enough to retain their own armour and weapons, who may then acquire some particular role such as the gun-toting Leadbelcher or beast-wrangling Tenderiser, as well as additional names describing their deeds the more prowess they show off.
The leadership proper of the Ogre Kingdoms is divided into the religious and political spectrums, as loose as those spectrums are amongst ogres, each a self-contained tribal hierarchy. Politically speaking, the most powerful ogres are the Bruisers, those with the size and strength to beat up any lesser ogre, and therefore doing what they like to their inferiors so long as they do not insult their social equals or superiors. Likewise, the Bruiser with the most strength is the clan's Tyrant, a mighty ruler in both strength and reputation, with the best gear, the most names, and the most children within his tribe. Yet regular challenges are made for these positions, Tyrants often falling to one of their Bruiser inferiors, and likewise Bruisers falling to a lesser ogre still, in both lethal and non-lethal fights for the positions, though an ogre can also be promoted to the position of Bruiser by a well-pleased Tyrant.
By contrast, the priests of the Great Maw suffer no such in-fighting, for they are also the mages of the Ogre Kingdoms - young ogres with even a hint of magic or blessing are taken into the shamanhood, fed copious quantities of meat throughout their childhoods, as well as poison and other inedible substances even by ogre standards, and are never allowed to bear gutplates, for the resulting Butcher is considered a direct channel between ogrekind and the Great Maw itself, with the greatest size among all other ogres and the essence of the Great Maw itself in their bellies (or so they say). Though a Butcher is technically on par with a Bruiser in their respective fields, Tyrants will rarely if ever dare to offend one, for they would quickly lose the rest of their tribe out of fear of a comet dropping on their heads. The oldest and most powerful Butchers are deemed Slaughtermasters, taking the seat of honour next to the current Tyrant and sharing in only the choicest morsels of meat among the tribe.
Ogre tribes are constantly bickering and fighting with one another, in search of the highest locations to rule from and the best sources of meat throughout their homelands. Rare is the case that a singular ogre tribe will manage to subdue every other tribe in the mountains, but when they do, the result is typically a sort of ogrish Golden Age, where every tribe unites its efforts to produce the best meat for every ogre, and even some well-favoured knoblars, and the Kingdoms United in such a manner may even consider a rampage or two in the wider world to expand the territory they rule over under the right circumstances. The Tyrant and Slaughtermaster leaders of the foremost tribe in these cases will be crowned Overtyrant and Maw Charnellist respectively, holding the Great Maw's personal favour and reigning as such for as long as they can hold the loyalty of each other tribe; ultimately, however, the Golden Age will end (usually with the death of one or the other of these leaders), and the tribes will once again devolve into infighting, returning to their endless nomadism and squabbling as is usual. The current Golden Age has been spurred on by Chardtagh and Magnohn Gutwrencher, a pair of ogres who essentially had a lucky realisation and cheated their way to domination, and now seek to use this to advance their agenda Westward, having already spread to the Ash Ridge Mountains, with the intent to begin invading the World's Edge Mountains as soon as possible.

[b]INDUSTRY:[/b] Ogres have a strange, almost schizophrenic relationship with technology. On the one hand, their own in-roads into advancement are practically non-existent, and in particular nearly all of their herding, farming and hunting is done by hand, or at best with the weapons on their person, which is a good thing under the circumstances because all they farm are massive animals, either for slaughter or as warbeasts. On the other hand, they have no problem whatsoever with stealing and adapting the equipment and technology of other nations as their own, leading to quite the excess of battlefield loot in the form of armour, blades, and guns of various sorts. The latter in particular is well-loved for its ability to kill things from far away, so they can be approached and eaten relatively safely later on, leading to the development of way bigger guns for Leadbelchers to use on large targets, or large groups of targets.
Money, on the other hand, is very well-known amongst the ogres, both within and without the Mountains of Mourn. The range's tribes vary from dirt poor to exorbitantly rich, generally depending on how powerful the clan is, and whether or not one of them has thought to take a location of great value from the previous owners. A particular rule of thumb for whether or not one owns a location depends on whether the area's ruling tyrant can see it from where they sit upon their throne, making the peaks of tall mountains extremely sought after for their immense field of view. By contrast, even the dimmest ogre mercenaries and adventurers often make it a point to learn exactly what any given currency is worth in any given nation, as well as how much any given job they perform will pay them, though they may forget to do so until after the job has been paid for, only to return to their former employer with their minds set on eating the poor sod who decided to so blithely underpay them for their work.

[b]MAGIC:[/b] [i]Lore of the Great Maw[/i] - The prime magical style of the Butchers and Slaughtermasters, though certainly not the only one; its main focuses are ensuring the caster's fellow ogres can better destroy their enemies, ranging from increasing strength or toughness to outright regeneration of wounds on both themselves and their allies. Most significant among these is The Maw, a spell opening a chasm in the ground itself that can harm the Butcher's allies just as readily as their foes if miscast.
[i]Lore of Death[/i] - Represents the all-consuming nature of the Great Maw; spell focuses largely involve targeting individual beings for destruction, though some support spells also exist. Widely praised is the spell called the Purple Sun of Xereus by other races, for few other powers represent so effectively the hunger of the Great Maw, even when it consumes the caster's own allies in combat.
[i]Lore of Beasts[/i] - Represents the creatures the ogres live to consume, relying largely on boosting the power of the Butcher's allies and in particular the creatures they use as mounts, as well as a few significant attack spells. Most notable is the Transformation of Kadon, literally allowing the shaman in question to transform into whatever monster he desires, be it a chimaera or a full-blown dragon, albeit for a limited time.
[i]Lore of the Heavens[/i] - Represents the comet brought down upon the ogres so very long ago; this is a lore that is a sort of jack of all trades, though the comets that powerful Butchers can call down are certainly one of the biggest threats that any enemy can face.
[i]Lore of Fire[/i] - Unique to the Firebellies that worship the Magma Maw's might, this lore's spells are considered to be its wrath made manifest, and focus on sheer firepower over all else. Though the Fulminating Flame Cage is a particularly nasty manifestation, trapping foes within what are believed to be the Magma Maw's own teeth, even a basic Fireball can be overcharged to destroy entire platoons or even armies, if the Firebelly can handle that much of the Magma Maw's power without themselves being consumed by it.

[b]MILITARY:[/b] Ogres are typically quite limited in numbers when engaging foes other than themselves, and their military might often focuses on this aspect, utilising their significant bulk and that of the beasts they control to overwhelm their more numerous foes without being destroyed themselves.
[hider=Core]
[hider=Ogre Bull]
Ogres in general have a somewhat bullyish mentality - if they want something, they will try to take it, and if you aren't showing them enough respect, or they feel they haven't reminded people to respect them lately and see you as an easy target, they will rough you up or worse. The only way to stop them is to prove you are better than them - and simply being bigger is only likely to make them attempt to eat you so they can be the biggest, meaning they prize skill just as much as strength. That said, many ogres are incredibly dense, and those with the capacity to learn lessons tend to advance out of this category sooner rather than later. To wit, "bull" technically refers to male ogres only, but can apply generically to all combat-fit ogres, which is the vast majority.
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[hider=Irongut]
Ogres with permanent equipment, be it modified farmhand tools or dwarf-crafted gear handmade for a mercenary. Naturally, such an ogre tends to be quite skilled or physically fit, since lesser ogres would otherwise have successfully challenged them for their goods, and they are therefore looked up to by the average bull. That said, charismatic ogres may also be able to persuade the Bruisers or Tyrant of their clan to grant them Irongut status by default, since they are the ones who tend to divvy out the spoils of war.
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[hider=Knoblar]
The indentured mutant slaves of the ogre race, knoblars were once goblins, but have since been rendered down to little else than big-nosed thralls to the beings they now see as living gods and eternal masters. Naturally, they are rarely if ever seen as better than servants, if that, and their numbers are practically legion, marking them out as cannon fodder in battle to distract foes from the oversized beasts that all but control their very fates.
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[hider=Yhetee]
During their nomadic pasts, some ogres found themselves stuck in very cold locations, and over time and generations evolved into a form that is not only white-furred, but even less intelligent than the average ogre, their minds more instinct than intellect. Even so, the ogres do see some use out of their mutant cousins, for their speed and low cunning are often surprising to foes, and they possess a unique affinity to the cold that allows them to freeze flesh, and even harm supernatural opponents with their bare hands.
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[hider=Devourer]
Weak ogre children, those lacking either strength of limb or the signature paunch of their race, are maligned by all "real" ogres, and are summarily tossed into the caverns beneath the Mountains of Mourn to die. In spite of their supposed weakness, a rare few do manage to make themselves live for an extended period of time, desperately eating whatever scraps they can find, and in the process mutating and degenerating into blind, feral freaks with distendable jaws and a powerful sense of smell. These Devourers are sometimes lured out of the caverns they developed in for more sturdy ogres to use as rampaging shock troops, and are frequently mistaken for some form of ghoul by those who don't know any better.
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[hider=Elite]
[hider=Leadbelcher]
The logical conclusion of the interest ogres have in long-ranged death: if a small gun can kill one thing really well, a bigger gun, such as a looted hand cannon, can kill lots of things really well, or one big thing really well. This tends to be hampered by the fact that ogres like to shove in whatever jagged object they can find as ammunition, as well as the use of the cannons as clubs and the tendency for Leadbelchers to become heavily scarred by their own recklessness, but only marginally so.
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[hider=Maneater]
When you hear tales of ogres wandering the world, adventuring in service of human nobles or acting as mercenary soldiers in exchange for food, this is usually the type of ogre being referred to: typically the very smartest of their tribes, who realised there were better eats elsewhere than the mountains and promptly ventured out to get their fill of the other nations, taking the tribe name of a famous ogre warrior for their own. They are skilled in many ways, the particular skillset and their appearance often depending on where their travels have taken them, and are somewhat uniquely the only type of ogre that is as liable to appear in the armies of other nations as in those of the Ogre Kingdoms.
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[hider=Sabertusk]
Sabertusks are essentially what you would get if you took a tiger, put it in the mountains, then gave it massive lower canines and the mindset of a wolf. A pack of these is therefore terrifying to behold, for they are experts when it comes to harrying their prey, and incredibly strong beasts even disregarding their bone-crushing jaws; yet like the wolves they emulate, they can be intimidated, or even bred, into the allegiance of a more intelligent or just plain stronger creature, and ogres often use pairs or individuals to kill the crew of large and otherwise-threatening war machines, or at least get the workers to waste some shots on the creatures bearing down upon them so that the ogres themselves can finish the job up close.
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[hider=Firebeetle]
Part of the test that allows a Firebelly cultist to advance to a full-blown adherent of the Magma Maw, these ogre-sized creatures are almost never fielded by ogre contingents that don't contain at least one Firebelly who has the training to control them, for they are otherwise nearly impossible to command around due to their skittishness. Though their thick shells are fairly tough, and their jaws can break through bone if necessary, the real danger they pose comes from their innate magic, which fuels and heats their body to extreme temperatures, and allows them to spit gouts of flame and small fireballs at anything they consider either sustenance or a threat, which is most things of notable size. Naturally, it is a fool's errand for most to so much as approach a beast of this sort, and non-magical ranged attacks have a tendency to melt or turn to ash before even reaching the beetle, though this is as much of a problem for the ogres they are made to fight for as for their enemies; even so, they see some use as walking shields, albeit very hazardous shields that will probably burn everything nearby in insectile panic if their controllers perish, and have thrived in the volcanic environments of the Dark Lands since being introduced to them, rather boosting their numbers amongst those ogre armies with access to adherents of the Magma Maw.
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[hider=Fangbreaker Cavalry]
The mournfang seems to represent a blend of the sabertusk and the rhinox, a large and ferocious beast whose charge can break even an ogre in half, prefers to fight in packs like the sabertusk, and in many cases will continue to bite and slash even after its brain ceases to function. Naturally, the ogres have noticed how strong they are, and at great risk of their own lives often use it as a rite of passage to Ogrehood to try and tame one to their will, the general process involving striking when they are weakened from one of their territorial disputes or battles for pack leadership, followed by repeated clubs to the head to normalise the ogre in the saddle. Failure means certain death; success means great fame amongst other ogres, as well as a combination of steed and rider powerful enough to make even Chaos Knights fear for their lives.
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[hider=Sparkspitter]
The Magma Maw as a deity is a strange thing, supposedly taking the form of a volcano and acting as the ogre's war god. The cult it has spawned is stranger still, and its adherents are often either insane, or in search of magical ability, for the tests of the Firebelly are numerous and terrible to behold. A Sparkspitter is but an initiate, one who has passed the first and least dangerous of these tests: consuming a chilli pepper hot enough to act as a substitute for boiling oil, as well as a horribly strong laxative. Survival is but the first step, and most Sparkspitters are essentially ogres equipped with naturally-produced fire in some form or another, not yet possessing magic of their own, though still highly dangerous to those without any form of flame resistance.
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[hider=Rare]
[hider=Mourncrusher Cavalry]
Unsurprisingly, even tougher to tame for combat than any mournfang are the beasts known as rhinoxen - though not carnivorous in their own right, they are significantly larger than their mournfang counterparts, have especially bad tempers and stubborn outlooks, and compensate for poor eyesight by possessing keen senses of smell and the instinct to charge at anything that doesn't smell like another rhinox, leading to legends that no obstacle in existence can hope to stop them once their minds are set on getting somewhere. Naturally, it is slightly easier for a normal ogre to "ride out" a rhinox's initial rampage, but far, far harder and more tedious to convince them to accept the ogre as a rider outright. Lingering success marks the ogre's eternal glory as "one who has crushed the greatest challenges of the Mountains of Mourn", or at least until the ogre's verbal history regarding the individual fails to pass between generations.
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[hider=Scraplauncher]
Sometimes, groups of knoblars decide they don't like being lorded over by the bullys that are ogres, and promptly strike out in search of a way to make themselves a legitimate threat. They do not usually succeed in this regard, being killed either by their foes or by the first ogre they annoy; once in a while, however, they will manage to "acquire" a pre-tamed rhinox, attach a chariot to it, place a catapult on that chariot, and then be bullied into using it to fight for the ogres anyway, forming what is typically called a scraplauncher on account of having no ammunition other than the copious quantities of scrap the ogres throw away. It is more effective than some may think, given what ogres generally consider to be "scrap".
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[hider=Ironblaster]
An ogre once saw a knoblar scraplauncher unit and thought "I could do better than that". He tamed a rhinox, attached an especially sturdy chariot to it, and then placed on that chariot an extremely large cannon. Thus were born the Ironblasters, both a tribe lasting to this day and a warmachine utilised by just about any ogre tribe that can loot or afford to purchase a cannon, the larger the better. Naturally, this object of war finds use as both a charging chariot and a piece of mobile artillery, and is all the more terrifying to face down as a result.
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[hider=Stonehorn]
Some people find it hard to believe that beings even larger and more dangerous than the rhinox exist within the Mountains of Mourn, and yet the stonehorn is a prime example of exactly such a being. They are huge, strong, violent, and rock hard - that is, their bones are literally composed of ultra-dense rock, down to their horns and skulls, the latter of which is rarely more than bone by adulthood. Naturally, ogres treat them with much more respect than most other beasts of war, as they are everything an ogre aspires to be, but they still find ways to trap, train, and eventually master these monstrosities, generally thanks to a Tenderiser taking out one of their eyes and forcing them to follow them back to the ogre's camp by yanking on the spear giving them their first taste of pain.
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[hider=Thundertusk]
Once, the entire world was sheathed in ice. Natural and unnatural evolution alike has led to beasts that are, in essence, throwbacks to these times - walking, mammoth embodiments of winter itself, that have adapted to the increasing temperatures of modern times by emitting a permanent field of sub-zero chill around themselves, cold enough to congeal blood and slow the very movement of any foes foolish enough to charge into its range. This chill can even be condensed into orbs of Warp energy and arctic ice that, when flung at distant opponents with the sound of a thunderclap, detonate on impact into wide sprays of deadly icicles and eldritch lightning. They make great meals for hungry ogre tribes, but are considered to be even better when it comes to both eradicating their foes and keeping their meat fresh and frozen on long journeys - the rise of the term "fridgerated" amongst ogres comes from an ancient thundertusk named Fridge.
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[hider=Slave Giant]
It is believed by ogrekind that they once fought beings called sky titans - far greater than any modern giant whose ancestors they are believed to be, it is said their solitary nature led to their downfall at the ogre's hands, bringing them low and leaving the survivors to devolve into the giants of today. Naturally, a tribe that manages to defeat a giant at all often celebrates the reprisal of their history with a feast of many weeks and much giant flesh, but they are considered by most ogres to be perhaps superior to their own ancestors if they instead succeed in enslaving the giant, chaining it both physically and mentally, and forcing it to fight for the glory of their tribe.
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[hider=Firebelly]
A full member of the Firebelly cult is rather an interesting sight, clad in items evocative of flame and lava as they are, and often bearing skin seared ashen grey or even coal black by their trials. Most notably of these is the test needed to achieve their full magical prowess: in the caverns of the volcanic peaks of the mountains is a type of insect as large as any ogre, whose association with flame is intense enough to use as self-defense, even lasting well beyond its death by heating its body to temperatures capable of melting iron and setting flesh alight. A Firebelly must have found, killed, and consumed such a beetle, and in a process of uncertain origins will consequently take in the beetle's magic as their own permanently, granting them magical flames of various sorts.
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[hider=Heroes]
[hider=Bruiser]
Bruisers in the Ogre Kingdom are the equivalent of another nation's bourgeoisie. The difference is that Bruisers, being innately superior to their inferiors, can effectively do what they like, so long as they don't upset their Tyrant or other Bruisers, as they typically wind up fighting to resolve the matter, frequently to the death if the insult is grave enough. It is evidently rare to see a Bruiser without a multitude of scars in all sorts of locations, most notably their immense and muscular bellies.
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[hider=Butcher]
The priests of ogre society, trained to bear the Great Maw's essence from childhood, and so obligated to both the holy implements of their deity (which happen to double as chef's tools) and the best cuts of meat from any given kill, making them the largest members of their tribes by default. Though they are technically equivalent in rank to a Bruiser, no Tyrant dares to risk offending them, as the entire tribe may then desert them for fear of a comet dropping on their head, or worse, as the magicks of the ogre shamen are many and varied, ranging from simple worship of the Great Maw to command over the beasts themselves. Furthermore, unlike most mages, they are just as capable of holding their own in close combat as any other ogre, being that they are enormous brutes in their own right, though a fair few do lack dedicated close combat weaponry.
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[hider=Tenderiser]
Sometimes, the animals ogres have farmed are not enough to sustain their tribe, and one of their number must be sent out to hunt, for food or for new broodbeasts. This is the field of the Tenderiser: either trained by another of their number, or innately keen when it comes to mastering the creatures of the world, or both, a Tenderiser is hunter and beastmaster alike in the Ogre Kingdoms, just as able to kill the toughest creatures alone as they are to cow them to their will, and perhaps one of the few with the will and skill to break creatures like the Stonehorn under them. Indeed, whilst they have their pick of creatures to use as mounts, the Stonehorn is typically the mount of choice for a great variety of reasons, and they may well be accompanied by groups of lesser creatures in the process, be they mournfang, thundertusk, or firebeetle. For the same reason, they usually get enough respect from their fellows that challenges to their position are unnecessary, though along the same lines they rarely feel the need to actively challenge either Bruiser or Tyrant for the respective positions, and mostly shy away from actually leading their fellow bulls into combat even if they'll join it as readily as anything.
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[hider=Magmagorger]
The leaders of the Firebelly cult, these ogres are hardly recognisable as their original selves, in some cases even seeming to be made of solid black rock themselves. Such a brute is named very literally indeed: the final test of a Firebelly of this degree involves being dunked into the very volcano they worship, consuming a mouthful of magma from it, and coming out alive, a feat requiring nigh-impossible durability, incredible control over fire magic, or both. Naturally, they are quite rare to behold, but nonetheless extremely dangerous foes capable of searing the flesh from any lesser foe's bones as well as rending them apart in combat proper.
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[hider=Dragon Ogre]
Occasionally, a firebelly decides they want to skip all the hassle involved in making themselves immune to magma consumption, or simply craves more power even after becoming a Magmagorger, and decides that the simplest way to do this is to kidnap a young dragon (a foolhardy task in and of itself, bear in mind), decapitate it, then use a powerful magical ritual to merge their body into the stump, in theory becoming an avatar of the Magma Maw itself in the process. Alas, they tend to lose much of their magical ability and the classic ogre gut in the process, which is replaced with merely a set of shredded abs just above the join between skin and scale, but in exchange, the resulting dragon ogre is rendered incredibly strong - not only do they cease to age, merely growing bigger as they grow older, but they also become functionally immune to heat from any source, even absorbing it in sufficient quantities instead of needing to eat, though they still greatly enjoy doing so.
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[hider=Lords]
[hider=Tyrant]
The Tyrant rules their tribe through strength, skill, and reputation, acquired through constant challenges to his position by lesser bulls, always "guts out" in nature, sometimes literally. It is said that a Tyrant's territory extends as far as he can see from his seat of power, and so it is that ogre tribes are constantly spurred to combat for control over the tallest peaks, or else for locations of extreme value that they can use to extort money, food, and other tributes out of their fellow tribes, such as the Challenge Stone or the passage into the ex-homelands of the Ogres, where the Great Maw itself now resides. Logically, Tyrants have the most names, the best gear, and the most children of any other ogre in their tribe.
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[hider=Slaughtermaster]
A Slaughtermaster is a leader among Butchers, equivalent to their Tyrant and in many ways superior, though as far as ogre society goes they are content to allow the Tyrant to do the actual ruling, even if they are prone to cutting up lesser ogres for offending them, or simply if they need specific cuts of meat for their dishes. Evidently, one does not become Slaughtermaster for being weak: as what amounts to a high priest, they are also the most magically skilled members of their tribe, capable not only of assisting their allies with magic, but also of dispelling the magic of lesser mages almost on their own, and alongside fellow Butchers having the ability to do so almost casually.
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[hider=Dragon Ogre Shaggoth]
As a dragon ogre ages and grows larger, it also requires more and more energy to keep itself awake. Therefore, they take to resting in lava pits for increasingly long periods of time, absorbing the heat of the molten rock to eventually use up in extended battles against the enemies of the ogre kingdoms. Though the Shaggoths, the very largest of their sort, are worshipped by the Firebelly cult as a minor deity in their own right, these beasts rarely care overmuch for the praise, their time-warped minds merely seeking out the next good fight whilst awake, or else to be left alone when inactive; few beings exist that can provide the former, and many ogres believe they are even a match for the legendary Greater Daemons of Chaos, titanic in form and with renewed flame-wielding prowess.
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[hider=Dragontaker]
An ogre's status is generally determined by the size of beast they can take down alone, for a larger creature requires more strength and skill to defeat. The ultimate embodiment of this would be a dragon: rarely do the two races interact, as the dragon usually just gets a free meal of ogre as a result, but sometimes a Tenderiser, Bruiser, Tyrant, or even an entire ogre tribe is mad or overconfident enough to give it a try, and winds up actually beating the dragon into submission in the process. The ogre who takes control over a dragon typically finds themselves in charge of their tribe and others, for there are few who can challenge a dragon being directed by an ogre. Rarer still are those ogres who, inexplicably, succeed in gaining a dragon's respect and even trust, for most ogres do not particularly exude these qualities, but such a combination is far more dangerous as a result, the bond of near-friendship giving them a much greater synergy in combat which usually proves the bane of all lesser foes.
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[hider=Named Characters]
[hider=Overtyrant Chardtagh Gutwrencher and Maw Charnellist Magnohn Gutwrencher]
One day, the Tyrant and Slaughtermaster of the Gutwrencher tribe, so named for the founder's habit of disembowelling ogres in combat and leaving them to die slowly and horrifically painfully, spied a dragon's cave, and promptly avoided it because no sane ogre fights a dragon. They did, however, happen upon the same idea at the same time as a result: why would they need to fight a dragon, when one of them could in theory [i]become[/i] a dragon? Training for long periods of time, Magnohn gradually learned not only how to transform into various types of dragon with his mastery of the Lore of Beasts, but also to prolong the time he could stay transformed for to near-indefinite, and to ease his ability to transform until it became second nature. Once his practice was done, Chardtagh promptly began to use Magnohn as his personal mount, and with their combined strength promptly subdued the entirety of the Mountains of Mourn in a matter of months, becoming the first Overtyrant and Maw Charnellist of a brand new Golden Age of the Ogre Kingdoms United. With their newfound power, enchanted gear of incredible quality, and a question on some lips as to who really controls the tribes, the Overtyrant declared that they would not be limited to the Mountains of Mourn for long, and so initiated a sort of crusade into the wider world, all but leading the charge Westward to test their might on the nations that would soon oppose them.
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[hider=Radzmus Monsterlord]
It is mildly rare that any ogre possesses habits of both magic and beastlore. Radzmus Ironblaster was one such ogre, and though he was put through the full training of a Butcher, he always felt drawn to the role of a Tenderiser, respectable as they were... and it occurred to him that he could, or even should, merge the two roles into one, and that such an ogre would surely be a master over his own kind. What actually happened was that his tribe declared him a heretic, forcing him to flee into the caves before they ate him alive, and promptly found that his magic worked especially well not only on the native creatures of the mountain, but also on the feral Devourers that had long since been left to die by their tribes, and later still upon the Yhetees that were the cousins of the ogres. Mildly insane by ogre standards at this point, he came to the revelation that he could control just about any creature that wasn't especially intelligent, then promptly declared himself Monsterlord, master of a tribe whose only truly sapient member was himself. Whilst he and his ever-growing pack of both beasts and semi-sentients are often appreciated when they show up to a fight, they are rarely appreciated afterward when they insist on dining with the tribes they fought beside, since it usually also involves dining upon the tribes as well.
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[hider=Grunsha Coldsteel, the Daemonblade]
Most Maneaters, whilst particularly intelligent by ogre standards, are not especially notable as anything other than very skilled amongst ogres, for they rarely acquire exceptional status within a tribe. Grunsha is the exception that proves the rule, so to speak, largely because he returns to the Mountains regularly, almost completely unscarred despite minimal armour and many long years of fighting all sorts of entities throughout the world, from Brettonians to Norscans, from skaven to orcs, and from ghosts to Chaos Daemons. Some ogres believe that he is faking his many exploits. The truth, as those who have challenged him learn, is that he is simply far too agile for a creature of his size, moving with grace and speed that seems almost precognitive by ogre standards, and by the standards of most other races at that; those who watch him fight believe this may have something to do with the weird two-handed greatsword he carries, a presumed-magical weapon that inexplicably glows bright white and pitch black and every other colour of the rainbow at various times, and which is generally believed to have a tightly-bound daemon inside of it, for any other truth would surely be stranger by far.
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[hider=Kroll Smashmouth, the Mawpyre]
Most Magmagorgers appear to be made of volcanic rock, but bleed just like any other ogre when cut deeply enough. Kroll Smashmouth may therefore be the only member of the Firebelly cult who truly is made of volcanic rock, for his eyes and mouth glow with volcanic heat, and when he is cut, the only thing that bleeds out- spews, actually, with significant heat and force- is more molten rock, quickly hardening into a new outer layer of craggy "skin" and "muscle". Lesser Firebellies believe he has been blessed with this form by the Magma Maw itself, a purer avatar of its wrath than the dragon ogres themselves; other merely believe he has cast a unique protective spell upon himself, but nonetheless treat him with quite a bit of respect, for he is certainly one of the most accomplished Firebellies the Ogre Kingdoms have ever seen.
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[hider=Krakanrok the Black]
"I am he that you seek. The original dragon ogre. The very oldest and largest Shaggoth in existence, consequently. If memory serves, I created that ritual out of foolish pride and a desire to outdo my peers in serving the Magma Maw, and I watch it now in common demand with ever-dawning horror... I think the Mawpyre has done a better job of becoming our god's avatar than I, all things considered. Kroll's view of the world is less bleak than mine. Less clouded by the fog of ages, too, for his relative youth. I don't think Krakanrok was even my original tribe's name, let alone whatever other names I accumulated. But it hardly matters, for my awakening means that I am bound to once again seek my doom in the name of my race and the Maws. I think I'm unlikely to find it this time around, either."
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