Orgoth in Cryx

[Pumanca]

I seem to recall having read that there is a small amount of Cryxian populous that has Orgoth blood
(obviously the witches of Garlghast),
but (not being familiar with too much WarmaHordes fluff) I'm just curious about what percentage of Cryxians today may be of partial Orgoth blood.
The witches serve Toruk, so obviously he allows their continued existence...
Is the average Cryxian even familiar that there are Orgoth among them, and if so how are relations?
Makes me wonder if there could be a small group that still recalls their heritage and perhaps have long-term goals for a pilgrimage back home. (Makes for a good possible story seed)
Anybody?

[jdripley]

Well firstly, as for your story seed, if you as GM want to say that there's a small group of Orgoth who still wish to be Orgoth instead of Cryxian, then go for it! That sounds like a great plot hook!

As far as published info goes - Basically Toruk wiped out the Orgoth from Garlghast. As a political, military, or other form of entity, they ceased to exist. However! Orgoth Warwitches - at least some of them - were spared and offered this choice: Join us and teach us your secrets, and you get to live in service to Toruk; or, we'll kill you and divine your knowledge through our necromantic arts. To witches chose to join Toruk voluntarily. Now, that was a very long time ago. Several hundred years in fact. No doubt those original witches are long gone by now. But the arcane tradition of the War Witch has remained. So if I were to try to blend established canon with your plot idea, that's where I'd start: with the Warwitches.

It's also worth noting that the feared Cryxian Black Ships that are used so successfully in pirate raids on shipping and on the mainland are Orgoth in origin. My understanding is that those ships were left over after Toruk wiped out the Orgoth on Garlghast, but I may not be accurate there. So perhaps the paltry few who defended the boats while the Orgoth army was crushed chose to lay down arms and join Cryx when they saw that the battle was lost and only death or enslavement were left as options for them. So perhaps another way to connect your plot hook would be through some sailors who are descendants of the sailors of the Orgoth Black Fleet?

[HerrDeux]

Doesn't it remain unclear whether or not a Lichlord or two were formerly Orgoth warwitches? My limited recollection of the "serve me or die" offer from Toruk resulted in some of the warwitches submitting to the Dragonfather, with nothing definitively stated that would have limited the positions of power the warwitches may have ascended to.

Given the peculiar background and ulterior motives of some Lichlords & Cryxian Bigwigs (the former trollkin hero Horfar Grimmr, now Bane Lord Tartarus, the former elf, now Goreshade, the former Cyrissian priestess, now Mortenebra, or the former druid...now, uh, Asphyxious??) it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities that one of the Lich Lords was originally an Orgoth before undergoing the necrotech transformation.

[StJason]

The Coven, though not likely Orgoth themselves, certainly take after them. (And it's implied they might be...)

Also, the Cryxian warwitches are based directly upon the Orgoth warwitches.

[The Happy Anarchist]

As a note, there are likely large numbers of people in the Iron Kingdoms that have Orgoth blood. Probably extremely diluted, but there none the less.

[Babbington]

If you go with the descendants of the Orgoth story seed (and you totally should, it sounds awesome), I would shy away from any "journey back to the Orgoth homeland" adventures. Putting aside the fact that the books say that only the Orgoth themselves ever managed to cross the oceans because of how awesome they were, part of the mystique and creepiness of the Orgoth is wrapped up in how alien and unknown and mysterious they are. Going to the Orgoth homeland and seeing all the Orgoth butchers and bakers and candlestick makers going about their lives would make that scariness difficult to maintain.

An alternative idea might be to go hunting for Orgoth artifacts or lore in old ruins and temples. It's a natural sort of thing for someone who is descended from the Orgoth (or at least thinks they are) to do. It's also something the Cryxians are very involved in, so it wouldn't be hard to set up some kind of evil Cryxian overlord as the party's patron or whatever. Orgoth ruins are all over the place and make for great dungeon crawls, and you're liable to bump into all of the other people who are interested in the ruins and their artifacts. You could run into Khadoran Greylords looking for weapons, Fraternal Order researchers looking for magic lore, or just straight up tomb-robbers. It would be easy to make the campaign either a traditional beat-'em-up dungeon game, or an intrigue based game, or just play up the sheer horror of the Orgoth and make it scary. It sounds like a lot of fun.