Gruumsh

Gruumsh is the most powerful of the orcish deities, the one-eyed god of war, conquest, and survival through strength. Known as He Who Watches, Gruumsh is the unblinking eye of judgment upon the orcish people - creator, patriarch, and divine warlord. He teaches that strength is its own justification, and that the world belongs to those bold enough to seize it in blood and fire. Gruumsh is also known as He-Who-Watches, the One-Eyed Warlord and the Ever-Wakeful.

"Take what is denied. Burn what cannot be taken. Leave only what remembers your name."

- Gruumsh.

Appearance

Gruumsh is depicted as a towering, muscular orcish god clad in brutal, jagged armor forged from the weapons of fallen gods. His most defining feature is his single eye, blazing like a molten sun - the other torn from him as the cost of standing defiant before the gods. His skin is the color of storm-forged iron, deep green-gray and marred with battle scars, and his war-banner is said to bleed eternally with the blood of vanquished pantheons. When he walks, the ground cracks and war drums echo across the wind.

Godhood

In the oldest myths, Gruumsh was not given a domain - he took one. When the gods gathered to divide the world among themselves, Gruumsh was offered nothing but the barren wastes. Rather than submit, he drove his spear through the heavens and claimed the right to conquer. His eye was torn from him in the war that followed, but he laughed through the pain, declaring that vision is not needed when the path is clear and the will is strong.

From that moment, Gruumsh became the divine embodiment of unyielding force, brutal resolve, and ancestral vengeance. He watches all orcs without rest, judging their worth, marking those who fight with honor and scorning those who falter. He is not worshipped out of fear - he is followed out of pride, a symbol of orcish resilience and the right to thrive in a world that denies them peace. He teaches that to be strong is to be free, and to be weak is to be prey.

Gruumsh is not mindless rage; he is strategic, cunning, and relentless. He values warriors who think as much as strike, and leaders who crush not just armies but hope. In rare moments, he respects strength shown by non-orcs - but only if it is unflinching, unrepentant, and earned in battle. He is said to have created the orcs, guiding them with his strength and fury. Among his faithful, he is the divine patriarch, unquestioned, ever-present, and forever watching.

Worshippers

Gruumsh’s followers are warriors, warlords, raiders, and survivors who carve their destiny from the flesh of a hostile world. They often mark their bodies with ash, blood, or carved scars—ritual symbols of past victories or oaths of vengeance. Weapons are sacred; forging them is an act of devotion, and breaking one is considered a dire omen. Temples are rare; his places of worship are battlefields, scorched camps, and blackened stones stained with war and memory.

Tenets of Faith

Take what is yours. No god, law, or lie may deny you.
Strength is the only true measure of worth.
Never forgive a slight. Vengeance honors your ancestors.
Let weakness burn. Let fear teach. Let blood guide.
To die fighting is to die whole. Let none forget your name.

The Uhkuvrik – “Those That Were Stripped”

Among the orcish peoples, none bear a heavier shame than the Uhkuvrik, a cursed lineage marked by divine judgment and disgrace. Their name literally means “those that were stripped”, and their very existence is a reminder that Gruumshis as much a god of wrath as of strength.

During the height of the Dragonborn wa,r in the time just before the Cataclysm, the orcish warchief Bahrah, also known as the Grav’Kuliavhas (the Great Uniter), rose to lead the divided orcish clans against the terrible extraplanar threat descending upon the realm at Terntolgalan. Blessed by Gruumsh to bear the mythical axe Gurzthrak – “The Deathbringer”, Bah’rah sent out a call to arms to every orcish tribe to stand together.

Most answered.

But the Uhkuvrik did not.

Rather than join the war camps to defend the realm, they turned their eyes upon the weakened lands left behind by the unified clans. Seeking plunder and conquest instead of kinship and survival, they attempted to seize territory while the others shed blood to hold back the annihilation of the world.

Outraged by this betrayal, the assembled tribes called out to Gruumsh for judgment, their prayers echoing with fury and fear. They did not just accuse the Uhkuvrik of cowardice - they claimed the very defiance of Gruumsh’s chosen was an affront to the god himself. Though the One-Eyed God heard the truth in their cries, he was loath to extinguish an entire line of his blood.

Instead, he cursed them twofold: once for their cowardice, and once for their treachery.

He stripped their flesh of all color, leaving them pallid and ashen—as though their blood no longer burned with the orcish flame. He clouded their minds, dulling their reason and speech, that they would be feared but never followed. And yet, in his final act of cruel mercy, he left them strong - granting them great physical size and endurance, knowing they would need it to survive the scorn and derision of all others.

Since that day, the Uhkuvrik have wandered the Outlands, alone and despised. Their brutish forms, pale skin, and dim eyes mark them at a glance. Some rage and destroy in despair of their abandonment by their god. Others cling to broken fragments of myth, hoping one day to prove worthy once more. But for the rest of orcish kind, they are a living warning: what becomes of those who turn their backs on the blood and the banner.

April 15th, 2025

Gurzthrak – “The Deathbringer”, Axe of the Orc-Lords

In a time of great division, Gruumsh saw the risk in the scattered nature of his people. The orcs, fierce and proud, had no single banner to unite behind, only grudges, feuds, and forgotten glories. He recognised that the orcish future required more than strength, it required a symbol. However, to simply give them such a symbol would encourage weakness, so Gruumsh conceived of a weapon that would embody his will, yet would not be gifted freely.

To do so, he turned to the god Gond, divine master of invention, and commissioned a weapon that would be unlike any other: one that could destroy kings, unite warbands, and carry divine judgment in the hands of a worthy champion. The result was Gurzthrak – “The Deathbringer”, the Deathbringer.

The axe is forged from a dark, near-black metal said to have been quenched in the blood of titans. Orcish runes crawl across the blade’s surface, glowing faintly when gripped by one of true orcish blood. Its handle is wrapped in the deep crimson leather of an ancient dragon's hide, and its pommel takes the form of a triangular eye - a reflection of Gruumsh’s own surrounded by jagged bony protrusions that mimic a sunburst of bone.

Gurzthrak cannot be wielded by any warrior - it must be earned. Even orcish warlords have been driven mad or slain by the axe when found wanting. For centuries, the axe passed from champion to champion, becoming not just a weapon, but a badge of office among the unified clans. It ended blood feuds with a single strike. It answered insults with absolution or annihilation.

But in time, greed poisoned unity. A brutal civil war erupted over who would claim the weapon, not for the good of the people, but for the power it bestowed. Gurzthrak was lost in the bloodshed, its location fading into myth. For centuries it remained hidden, a story told around firelight, or a goal pursued by wandering champions and reckless adventurers alike.

Then came Bah’rah.

A young orc from the future, displaced by ancient magic, Bah’rah had been forged by inspiration birthed by tales of the Grav’Kuliavhas—the legendary Great Uniter. When flung backward in time, he realized the terrible truth: he was the very figure he had revered. Knowing what must come, Bah’rah sought out Gurzthrak, risking everything to reclaim the weapon that could bring the orcs together before the coming of the Cataclysm.

He found it.

And Gruumsh watched.

Not with pity, not with favour, but with judgment.

Bah’rah passed every trial. His cause was righteous, his will unshaken, and his strength tested in blood. When he took up Gurzthrak, the axe flared with crimson light. Gruumsh, in his divine silence, granted Bah'rah its power, and the clans rallied to the ancient symbol once more.