| abstract
| - There are few places in the Old World free of Beastmen, and the cloven-hoofed abominations have found plenty of places in Mousillon to hide. Many tribes, large and small, reside in the Forest of Arden and sometimes emerge from the fringes of the forest to prey upon unwary travellers and fearful peasants. This is no different from the way Beastmen behave in the rest of the Old World. But within Mousillon, in its swamp-bound woods of rotting trees and tangled roots, the Harrowmaw Tribe has other ideas.[1a] The Bestigor Ograh is an exceptionally evil and corpulent Beastmen. He also possesses far greater intelligence than most people would ever credit to a monstrous, carnivorous predator. Humans consider Beastmen vile blasphemies who should be killed on sight, and that suits Ograh fine. This is because he has his own opinion about Humans—they are prey. But Ograh is not content to merely hunt his Human quarry. He is not an animal, he is the leader of a cunning and ambitious nation of Beastmen, and he is bringing his brethren one step closer to civilisation by having them farm their prey.[1a] Ograh’s vision involves the peasantry of Mousillon giving their own kin to the Beastmen of the Harrowmaw tribe, saving the tribe from having to scavenge and hunt like animals. Ograh has begun this process by playing upon the superstitions of the peasants. For generations, the villagers have left offerings of food at the edge of woods and swamps, to placate the various supernatural forces that might dwell there. Ograh has taken this tradition and, through simple dream-spells conjured by the tribe’s Shamans, moved certain village elders to leave their children as offerings near the woods where covens of Harrowmaw Beastmen dwell. These children are fattened in pens dug beneath the roots of particularly large sacred trees, until the time comes for them to be feasted upon.[1a] Ograh’s vision does not stop at a few easy meals for him and his brethren. He envisions a future where Mousillon’s peasants worship the Beastmen as superior beings and give them both sustenance and the respect that Ograh craves for his people. Some villages are already virtually ruled by the cloven-hoofed creatures in the woods, and for every such village that is razed to the ground by its neighbours there are two or three more who accede to the Beastmen’s brutal demands. Ograh takes their children not only to eat but to raise as his own, creating an underclass of Human slaves who can not only serve Ograh but also venture back out into the world and convince their fellow Humans to worship the Beastmen.[1a] By Beastmen standards, Ograh is an intellectual titan and master statesman. The majority of other Beastmen chieftains, however, would see him as perverse and weak-blooded, as he seeks power and strength through cunning instead of through warfare and hunting. It is true that Ograh came to prominence in his tribe through manipulating the less intelligent Beastmen into supporting him and killing his rivals. Ograh, however, benefits from Mousillon’s isolation, and his entire tribe, numbering thousands of Beastmen in dozens of enclaves, follow his vision with very few exceptions. Ograh fancies himself a shadow king of Mousillon, even a God, commanding an army of devoted slaves while he and his brethren become fat on the flesh of their young. Perhaps one day he will strike out and spread his vision to the rest of Bretonnia and even to the Old World at large, but until then, he is content to build an image of himself as a malevolent God in the minds of Mousillon’s peasants.[1a] Ograh is one of Mousillon’s least known and most dangerous villains. In the shadows of the duchy’s deepest, darkest woods, the Harrowmaw tribe are building a secret state to farm Humans for slavery and food, and perhaps, they will succeed one day. Perhaps, instead, some quick blade or strong lance will seek out Ograh’s corrupted heart and end the nightmare before it begins properly. But if that does not happen soon, Ograh will have devoted Human agents at his command, who will go out into the duchy’s villages and promise relief from the curse in return for a few newborn offerings. Mousillon is so twisted that with luck and cunning Ograh might actually succeed in creating a hidden Beastman nation, with Ograh as its king.[1a][1b]
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