Biography Variant 1 (ZBT).

Urzag began his adult life as a slave- gladiator of the Bloody Arena who earned his legendary status chiefly by winning 99 consecutive victories in the Arena’s “duo” category alongside his wandering swordsman friend, Zachary. Urzag is far stronger than almost all other humanoid races in Aurelica who can offer little, if any, resistance against his great war axe, but years of fighting eventually tired Urzag. Although an easy means of acquiring a comfortable life as a slave, Urzag’s frustrations with his slave-gladiatorship prompted Zachary to break Urzag out of the Arena. A newly freed orc, Urzag can now walk his own path under Crisas’ hot sun…

Biography Variant 2.

The peaceable, rational, kind-hearted Urzag presents a very different picture to the stereotypical bloodthirsty axe marauder of the Horde so often portrayed by imperial warmongers. Urza’s unique development as an orcish warrior has had much to do with the events of his life, and unprecedented access and exposure to humane society for a member of his people.

Urzag’s early years were spent as a refugee when his parents and brother Bruszakk were forced to flee in the mass exodus inflicted upon the Horde when the Hirschbuck Empire forcibly occupied the Windtalker Plains. Years of life on the run ended in the Crisas Desert, where Urzag’s parents were brutally murdered by a band of human slavers who kidnapped the young Urzag and sold him into hard labor as a serf on a wealthy imperial estate. Urzag’s rage against his unjust human masters always singled him out for particularly brutal punishment, and it was during one such public flogging that moved a wandering swordsman to have mercy on the abused orc, who purchased him from his cruel owner for a hefty son. The wanderer nursed the badly wounded orc back to health on the long wagon journey west to the Crisas Desert and to the surviving remnants of his Horde.

Urzag’s initial hostility to his mysterious benefactor soon abated in the face of the powerful proof of the warrior’s kindness, who although clearly a military man rarely unsheathed his weapon to assert dominance. The travelling warrior left the young orc at some distance from the hoard encampment for fear of his own safety, leaving Urza with a set of directions to follow. As fate would have it, Urzag misinterpreted the directions and ended up wandering into the areas local “melting pot” of a town – the border city of Billton. The wondering orc was taken in by an elderly orcish shaman who had pity on the poor isolated Urzag and helped him navigate the difficult and often dangerous web of relationships that governed the sometimes unstable bordertown for several months before her untimely death. Urzag packed up his belongings on the day of her funeral and then set out in search of the orcish encampment of which he’d heard so much to find his relatives. Urzag’s journey was brief, however, as he was quickly taken by another band of raiding slavers who forced him into a type of legal indentured servitude to fight in the Bloody Arena as a gladiator owing to his prized physique and exotic appearance.

Urzag found himself yet again in captivity, in some ways worse than on the imperial estates as he was forced into difficult physical combat. Fortunately, Urzag possessed extraordinary natural talent in the Arena, and he soon found himself a minor local celebrity, the recipient of occasional rare gifts and honours. Urzag’s next taste of freedom came with a victory in the hallowed Arena Championships alongside the so-called “free gladiator” Zachary who, as a free man, had come to the arena for his own private gain, during which time the two struck up a friendship. Victory in the doubles category allowed Urzag to legally reclaim his freedom and then, at last, he was finally able to return to his tribe and the much-awaited sense of peace and security only to be found among his own brethren. Urzag arrived to find the joyous news that his long-lost brother Bruszakk had not only survived the slavers but even ascended to the Warchief Orakh’s right-hand! Urzag was immediately impressed by Orakh’s depth of vision and passionate concern for the future of the Horde, a cause for which Urzag was delighted to present himself as one of Orakh’s senior captains. It was here that Urzag finally felt that the long journey of his life from the ultimate outsider to an orc with friends and brothers could finally be completed.