While compiling the in-game lore, I noticed that the issue of Hieronhorte wasn't well explained, so here's a Lore post about it to fill in that gap.
The protectorate of Hieronhorte, to the north of The Steppes, encompasses at the same time the most mysterious and most dreadful lands of the known world.
On the surface, the rocky, mountainous terrain is covered by a layer of ice and ash and is nearly totally barren of life. What appears to be out of control volcanism deeper into the protectorate causes the sky to be constantly darkened by clouds of ashes. These thunderous clouds cause hail the size of golf balls when up in the sky, or a thick, noxious black fog when they are closer to the surface. Fortunately for The Steppes, regular southern wind patterns keep most of the ashes at the other side of the mountain range.
This territory is also known as "The Predatory Lands" because there are virtually no plants and therefore no herbivores. Those few, bizarre creatures that still cling to life are all predators trying to eat each other first. Most of these creatures inhabit the hieronhortean underground, where the environment is slightly more bearable. Hieronhorte appears to host a sprawling underground system that remains largely unknown to The Steppes, but harbours both the hieronhortean savages and the ogres.
These hieronhortean savages barely amount to a civilization. They lack a language and live in isolation from each other, rarely and only reticently gathering in large groups. They absolutely hate noise, as in their predatory native land, being noisy usually means getting eaten by some lurking creature. The only way in which a regular hieronhortean savage communicates is by for example banging two rocks together. The message would be roughly translated as something like "leave now or die horribly".
While these savages show themselves, in their own way, friendly towards humans of The Steppes, the so called ogres further north, arch-enemies of the savages, chose to take the opposite stance. Large, ponderous, ugly, hairy and with tiny eyes, the ogres seem to be starting their own evolutionary path away from regular humans. Unlike the savages, ogres seem to have accomplished a certain degree of civilization, a language and the construction of primitive tools.
They seem to hail from the so called Deep Hieronhorte, a barely trodden region well under the sea level and therefore featuring a highly increased atmospheric pressure and greater temperatures. According to what few accounts exist, which can be counted with the digits on one hand, the experience of walking in these lands is literally nightmarish, as it feels almost like walking underwater.
Most humans captured by ogres probably end up in this place. Ogres love regular humans a little too much and in the wrong way. While beastfolk despise humans and capture and torture them out of spite, ogres are naturally cruel creatures with a taste for human flesh. Any human that happens to be captured by an ogre is kept as something in between a plaything and livestock.
This doesn't look like a place worth settling into, but as the exploration of Hieronhorte got underway, huge deposits of oil and gas were found practically all over the place. These resources are scarce in The Steppes, but of the utmost importance for maintaining the defensive effort. Unfortunately, the presence of humans also stirred the ogres and, with human livestock apparently becoming more fashionable after the first captures, warbands started to descend from the north with the express purpose of enslaving more humans. Presently, the most daring ogres have reached as far as the mountains of Ill-Vess.
Many claim that the exploitation of these resources has therefore done nothing but open a second front for the already besieged Steppes. The hieronhortean oil and other resources are at the same time indispensable to keep the beastfolk menace at bay nonetheless, and simply abandoning the oil fields won't be enough to appease the already prodded ogre hordes, so there is no turning back for The Court in Hieronhorte anymore.
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