An increasing number of humanoid mercenaries have been employed within Aerdy. Originally, their use was confined to the Naelax lands, and especially in the North Province, where Bone March humanoids are used as troops. Ivid himself introduced the fierce Euroz into Rauxes as an elite guard. Recruiting humanoids from the Bone March has become an increasingly common practice outside of the southern lands; some are also recruited from the small enclaves in the Grandwood.

The advantage to the rulers who paid such armies was an instant manpower boost. While the new armies had to be paid, the full productive capacity of the land could still be maintained. Men who might at other times have been recruited forcibly into poorly-equipped peasant levies with wretched morale and training could stick with what they were good at – growing food and making goods – while the orcish militia arrived with fair equipment, fair discipline, and real eagerness for the fray.

During and since the wars, however, these militia and mercenaries have become a major menace in many Aerdy lands, even outside the holdings of those who originally recruited them. With some rulers penniless, some executed and leaving a power vacuum in their lands, and others insane or unable to act, the orcs and the rarer hobgoblins have often become freebooters. They raid, pillage, and go where they please.

Only in North Province, where Herzog Grace Grenell actively allied with the Bone March against Nyrond, are these troops still reliably under the control of the ruler. These roaming orc mercenaries are having a good time of it, especially in central lands where the opposition to them is weak and the pickings rich. The orcs have grown wily and smart, and they have altered the practice of warfare and skirmishing in Aerdy. The most famous example of this is the desertion of Prince Trellar’s orcish mercenaries to the city of Pontylver in an abortive sacking of that city in Coldeven, CY 585.

Against Trellar’s orders, the orcs put up their siege engines and sent a chieftain-emissary into Pontylver. Offered a better pay rate by the city’s ruler, the orcs spent two long days in financial discussions before they promptly turned right around and massacred Trellar together with his armies. This has set an interesting precedent for further warfare within Aerdy.

Indeed, in some lands the orcs have settled down and built towns. The most notable examples are the coastal orcs of Montesser on the Spindrift Sound. Thousands of miles from home, with few orcish priests to rabble-rouse them, these members of a non-influential orcish tribe simply decided that two years of marching was enough and a warm summer with plenty of sun and food in the belly was appealing. Such peaceability is distinctly unusual, however.

The Former Great Kingdom of Aerdy