Ancient orc-fortress in the Erean Mountains; the oldest fortress with the deepest mines. Abandoned during the Invasion, restored after the slaying
Abandoned while the Dragonrealms stood, the orcs were returned to Kîshshul by the efforts of Sack and Hildraft.
The ancient fortress of Kîshshul came back to life in 1602 after two hundred years' abandonment. Unlike most of the others Kîshshul had never been sacked, as the orcs fled before Varkar arrived, and was in rather better condition than Gadûhvrás and Shânauk. The survivors of the Orcish civil war were nowhere near numerous enough to fill the hold, but set to work with a will rebuilding and repopulating. They claimed the lands around their citadel as well, and named their new country Kîshshul after the city at the heart of it.
The other nations in the north-east braced themselves, fearing a return of the raiding parties and attacks that were the way of life for the orcs of the Erean Mountains before the Dragon came. To their surprise and disbelief, the expected attacks did not come. Instead, clearly at the cost of enormous mental effort, small parties of orcs begin to come out of the mountains laden with goods instead of going back laden with plunder, and offered to open trade with their neighbors.
This was greeted with enormous caution to begin with, as everyone was convinced that it was a trick, but despite a few unfortunate mishaps, commerce did begin, and settled into place as the orcs got the hang of fair exchange instead of robbery.
While there are few crafted items of orc make anyone would care to purchase, the new masters of Kîshshul were not without goods to offer. The stone of the northern Erean Mountains was once a famous export of Trialt, produced at constant hazard of orc disruption. In all that time the orcs had never made the mental leap from interference to competition; now, they were mining the fine building stone themselves and trading it for the things they cannot make. There were plenty of customers. Tarlanor, New Tellare and Dalaghendor were all rebuilding major cities and countless small towns. Much of the work on these was now being done with Orc-mined stone, by dwarf masons as like as not, a truly cosmopolitain way to build a city. Other products of the earth are equally valued. Some minerals and ores are only found within Kîshshul's borders, and the initial wariness of the dwarves of Kobur faded as they realized what the benefits may include. They began to do business, and went so far as to trade dwarfmade mining tools and some of their lore.
The ancient Trialtan border fortress Leotha, originally built as a defence against the orcs, was taken over and rebuilt by the orcs. Placed in the river valley where the Vileflow passes through the Tainted Forest, it was a natural place for a market town, equally accessible to the orcs, Kordasa, Enning, New Tellare and the Empire. The emerging road network links to it, and it became a bustling multicultural community.
In one respect, however, all the orcs' new trading partners remained cautious. Politely but firmly, they declined to sell the orcs weaponry or military technology superior to that they already possessed. Of course, with a sizable slice of their warriors having had training in the Imperial Absutii, there were elements of stable doors and horses here, but it would be many more years before the north of the world would be ready to relax completely in the company of their new neighbors.
The orcs made advances of their own however. A beastmaster named Krûkmat rediscovered the ancient skill of taming the brutal wargs, the dire wolves of the Erean Mountains. In the days before the Dragon, the orcs had been accustomed to ride these monsters into battle, but the gentle hills of Orcland were not terrain wargs were happy in, and the skill had been lost through lack of use. Now, returned to the old home, the orcs had regained their traditional mounts. Comparatively few so far, they are given to warleaders and generals to begin with.
No King emerged to rule Kîshshul, again an atypical result, but rather a council led by the four surviving clan-lords; Thend the Seer, Shuumash Death Tongue, Ramphaag Thunderslayer, and Maurend the Uncanny. Maurend was the last of the leaders from the southern civil war that erupted after Garkaur's death, whereas the other three were the leaders of the breakway faction who originally conceived the idea of returning north. Contrary to most people's expectations, these did not fall out and fight each other, but worked more or less in agreement, steering the Orc race on their new and surprising course.
On Thunderslayer's death in 1642, Maurend engineered the death of Ramphaag Thunderslayer and was crowned King. He died in 1648, and was succeeded by his son Luzmarz.