Toskirakk & the Rallosian Empire

Ogres made to rule

Rallos Zek made the ogres near the end of the Elder Age, long after his giants, out of sturdy bone and olive-green flesh, and set them in the Serpent Spine Mountains of Tunaria. The ogres themselves boast that the Warlord made them the best of all his races, better than giants, goblins and orcs together.

The ogre capital

Toskirakk was their first capital and the strongest fortress of the Rallosian Empire. Inside it lay a platinum slave-mine from which much of Norrath’s future currency is said to have come. The empire was so dominant that few outsiders were still free, and its slave warrens were overcrowded.

Murdunk’s first failure

From this empire came both invasions of the Plane of Earth. In the Elder Age the ogre Murdunk led the first Rallosian army into the plane, egged on by Rallos Zek’s son Eriak, because he wanted to prove he was worthy to lead the forces of Zek. Many earth guardians died, but the Rathe could not be beaten: when a councilor fell, another took its place. The council’s wards threw the surviving Rallosians out.

Furious, Rallos Zek put the master tacticians Tallon and Vallon in charge of the second assault, and brought the scarred Murdunk along for what he knew of the plane. Their road to the council chamber ran through the Korascian Warrens, named for Korascian Prime, a great frog who has guarded that approach for centuries and turns the Rallosians’ slave fodder into his thralls by mesmerising them.

The price of victory

The second invasion was only partly successful. The Rathe’s power source stayed out of reach, but the councilors were captured and brought to Norrath, where one was executed. The Rathe Mountains rose where that councilor fell, and Lake Rathetear formed. Dying on Norrath was permanent, so the council never got its thirteenth member back. Rallos Zek was scarred by the same wards that had banished Eriak and lay regenerating in the Plane of War, while the reborn Rathe took revenge on the army’s leaders, and Murdunk, leader of the ogre nation, was slain.

Discord’s chance

Seeds of Destruction made that war the moment Discord chose to strike. If the Rallosians destroyed all thirteen councilors and seized the source of the Rathe’s magic, war would rule Norrath for good; and is war not just another kind of discord? Discordians had already blasted Korascian Prime’s old lair open, exposing the Plane of Earth’s crystal core and letting out crystal monsters that hate all life.

The empire returns

In EverQuest II the ogres’ curse is lifted and a Second Rallosian Empire marches again. “We no longer suffer the curse of the Rathe,” writes the lieutenant Dergud in 289 AS. “Now we will have our vengeance upon Norrath.” Gerrog’s logbook has the army marching through the Feerrott toward the Rathetear Mountains, to “stomp on the bones of the gods we once defeated.” In one dream the shaman Woomp sees that army conquer the Temple of Cazic-Thule, only for a green mist to kill every soldier.