The conquerors
“ Your beloved homeland belongs to us now”
- Famous gork saying
If you have never seen a gork in your life, you should consider yourself very lucky. There are only two reasons for not knowing about them: either your land has no riches they’re interested in, or they simply haven’t gotten there yet.
The gorks are thin creatures, around one meter and a half tall, with skin colors varying from light to dark green or yellow. Their noses are almost non-existent, mostly represented by two small holes on their long faces with strange long chins. Their ears are pointy, but not long as goblins’, and gork fashion often cover them with hats and exuberant helmets. Beware of their cat eyes (some say cats are descendants of Gorks), because they are keen and can see in the dark.
Now that you have no excuse on how to picture a Gork, this story might begin. The story on how the Gorks became so much feared around Absurdia
It was long past noon when General Livus saw the strange shape of a wooden ship flying in the sky. He was the fourth in the line of succession in the Atemperaki kingdom, one of the three that ruled over the Sakbana fracture, the greatest silver deposit in Absurdia.
“Ready the bows!” he shouted to the two thousand archers that swarmed the Great Wall of Hambrara.
His men (the population of Sakbana were mainly humans) pointed their weapons towards the ship. They had never seen such a strange vehicle, let alone flying.
The ship got closer by the minute, flying without its balance system, going left and right without much control, like a drunken man.
“Fire!” General Livus ordered.
Two thousand arrows flew towards the ship. Most of them missed. One of them hit the Captain in the head. He should’ve paid attention to his father: “Never listen to grock music during a raid, you stupid child”.
As the gork fell from the vehicle, the remaining gorks started to scream in fear. He had taken them there, and gorks usually need leadership to follow.
Now, pay close attention to this: do not take them lightly because of that. They are extremely intelligent and industrious, and whenever there is a vacant space, there is always a new gork ready to lead his friends.
“Fear not!” Trokke Paladan, the second in command, shouted. “We lost our leader, and we must avenge him! All silver for the Gorks!”
“All silver for the Gorks!” they chanted, and started to work again.
A new storm of arrows hit the ship, now much closer to the Wall. New Captain Trokke raised his arms, and a small object was thrown. Metal, magic stones, fire. Never a good combination, even worse in the hands of gorks.
As the small object hit the ground, a hundred of curious soldiers walked towards it, trying to understand why that was the only retaliation after taking so many arrows. Sakbaneses were usually good at trades and diplomacy, so that might have been a note or something alike…
Well, it was not. The bomb exploded, taking the hundred stupid beings and most of the Great Wall. Captain Trokke laughed hard at the remains of General Livus, by then only a ghost of a sad wartime story.
They threw more of those expensive bombs, and more men died. Eventually the Atemperaki army had no organization left, and the men started to flee for their lives against the fiery objects being dropped from the sky.
The ship carried on to the heart of the Atemperaki Kingdom, and forced the Royal Family to give them all of their silver, plus a tax that would be collected every few years. The silver lining?
If the other two kingdoms tried to attack the Atemperaki, they would be doomed by the gorks. After all, they were very protective of their eternal taxes.
When all the negotiations were finally done, the gorks came back to Gorkia with great pride: that was the first successful invasion they had ever tried. Before that, the gork race used to fight among its own. After that, they could attack and loot the other races, so weak and frail!
A silver statue was raised for Captain Peep, who died a martyr of the gork cause named “Hello, your beloved home is just being invaded” (there were no mention to grock songs though), and Captain Trokke became a fierce and very rich Admiral.
The gorks became a destructive force, subjugating everyone who was unlucky enough to cross their paths. Only a handful few were capable of countering their infestation, and their new unified empire remained powerful, conquering other fractures riches with their flying ships. They also were muses for one of the best pop songs of all times, such as the “I think I kissed a gork”, by Hoppy Windy from Nova (already in stores).
