User:Vraul/Grok'thar Gorefist

Grok'thar Gorefist is an aged Shattered Hand orc warrior turned death knight. He is a veteran of the Second and Third Wars. A former gladiator imprisoned deep within the pits of Highmaul, he has found it difficult to trust new allies and prefers to stay in the Cleft of Shadow underneath Orgrimmar whenever he visits.

Otherwise, he remains in Acherus, serving his Highlord - eager to spill blood and cause as much pain as possible.

Slavehood
Although Grok'thar may have been born to orcs of the Warsong Clan in Nagrand, he has very few memories of them prior to being enslaved by the ogres of the Gorian Empire. As he grew from a young age on to adulthood, he felt nothing but pain and agony from constant beatings and malnutrition within the pits of Highmaul. During each day, he was forced to fight both for his own survival and the entertainment of the ogre audience who watched him with glee. Along the way, he suffered many bite marks from saberon, fractured joints from ogron, and deep cuts from the axes of other orcish slaves. These were made in the little time Grok'thar was blessed to the sky and the sun, while standing upon the bloodied wooden floor of the arena.



Most of his time, however, was spent underneath, within the dank, dark pits of the coliseum. Therein, for most hours of the day, he was chained up and whipped by ogre slaves who barked in anger at him regardless of the fact that he would win his fights. By the time he had reached his early twenties, Grok'thar had become sullen and depressed. Thoughts of suicide constantly permeated his mind, and he had made only one attempt - for which he was punished dearly. When found, he was sent to the forge, wherein his shackled body was laid down on a hot anvil. The forgemaster took a searing brand, and as two ogres held on to Grok'thar's arms and legs, he placed it down onto Grok's back until he felt the orc had apologized enough.

From there on, Grok'thar would be bound to the wall and gagged when not in the arena or given meager, rotten scraps of meat that were forced into his throat to keep him at the brink of survival.

The Price of Freedom
After many years of constant torture and pain, a change came upon the imprisoned orcs within the pits. One particular prisoner by the name of Kargath had been fooled into thinking he could escape after killing one hundred foes, and he was sent down into the pits with the rest of the orcs. After bouts of laughter had erupted from the ogres, a fire had been ignited in Kargath, as well as a few of the other slaves. Seeking to escape, Kargath was the first to grasp for a blade and sever one of his hands from his shackles, and soon the other orcs followed - including Grok'thar. Though wary at first, Grok quickly realized that this was to be his one and only chance of finally escaping from his imprisonment, and believed that even if he were to be impaled outside of Highmaul's gates, at least he would die a free orc.

Following Kargath's command, Grok'thar joined the other slaves in bringing forth chaos and despair among their ogre slavers, and soon enough, the emperor himself was felled. Roaring in victory, Kargath had announced the birth of a new clan -- the Shattered Hand, and quickly the orcs fled out into the hidden depths of the Spires of Arak.



The Depths of Madness
Seeking to establish a permanent home, Grok'thar and a few others split off from Kargath's forces and set up a small camp just outside of the Sethekk Hollow. However, the Arakkoa had not taken too kindly to the orcs' presence, and the two forces began a constant string of battles throughout the years, constantly shifting their camps around the region. Grok'thar, just like the rest of his clan, had found to relish in the feeling of pain after growing up in constant suffering. Not only would he rip his own skin with thorns and spikes, but he would take great pleasure in the slow torture of his enemies. Upon weakening the Arakkoa forces, Grok'thar would sometimes rip their beaks clean off of their faces while they still lived, or rip their limbs off and watch them slowly bleed out in agony. While the orcs were greatly outnumbered the Arakkoa, these methods of cruelty were a psychological advantage they were able to use in order to not only survive but conquer for many years.

Uniting of the Clans
Years later, while talking to a few fellow clansmen, Grok'thar overheard that a powerful orc from another clan, the Blackrock, had stirred the hearts of many orcs of numerous clans into a single forces. Intrigued, he attempted to inquire further, but he had not truly believed such to be the case until orcs of both the Burning Blade and Dragonmaw clans had arrived within the Spires of Arak. These orcs, alongside high-ranking Shattered Hand forces, had rallied Grok'thar and his allies at the outpost, as they claimed that the Arakkoa would be taken down once and for all. Kargath, still leading his clan with an iron fist, had struck a bargain with a certain sub-sect of cursed Arakkoa known as the Outcasts. These bird-men were similar to their cousins in the higher reaches of Arak, but they were cursed to be without flight and swore vengeance within the shadows. Grok'thar then was eager to spill further blood, and joined the united orc and cursed arakkoa forces in slaughtering the forces of Skyreach. While rending flesh and bone from his enemies, Grok'thar overheard a massive explosion and after a few moments, peered to the sky to see it bathed in flames.

Not long after claiming victory against the high arakkoa, Grok'thar followed his people in betraying their cursed Arakkoa allies.