The Religion of the Orcs of Oerth
Gruumsh, the one-eyed, is the leader of the orcish pantheon. The
similarity between his symbols and his powers and those of the Dark One has
occasionally brought them together as allies.
Founding Story of the Orcs
In the beginning all the gods met and drew lots for the parts of the
world in which their representative races would dwell. The
human gods drew the lot that allowed humans to dwell where they
pleased, in any environment. The elven gods drew the green
forests, the dwarven deities drew the high mountains, the gnomish gods
the rocky, sunlit hills, and the haffling gods picked the lot that gave
them the the fields and meadows. Then the assembled gods
turned to the orcish gods and laughed loud and long. "All the
lots are taken!" they said tauntingly. Where will your people
dwell, One-Eye? There is no place left!
There was silence upon the world then, as Gruumsh One-Eye lifted his
great iron spear and stretched it over the world. The shaft
blotted the sun over a great part of the lands as he spoke: "No! You
lie! You have rigged the drawing of the lots, hoping to cheat me and my
followers. But One-Eye never sleeps; One-Eye sees all. There is a place
for orcs to dwell ... here!" He bellowed, and his spear pierced the
mountains, opening mighty rifts and chasms. "And here!" And the
spearhead split the hills and made them shake and covered them in dust.
"And here!" And the black spear gouged the meadows, and made them bare.
"There!" roared He-Who-Watches triumphantly, and his voice carried to
the ends of the world. "There is where the orcs shall dwell! There they
wiil survive, and multiply, and grow stronger, and a day will come when
they cover the world, and they shall slay all of your collected
peoples! Orcs shall inherit what the world sought to cheat me of."
