Lore:The Great Siege of Orsinium

Book Information
Seen In:	Elder Scrolls Online

The Great Siege of Orsinium

On the famous First Era conflict between Orcs and their neighbors in the Iliac Bay

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Ra Gada fought the tusky folk

From Hammerfell they drove them

In wrath withdrew they northward to

Orsinium, Orc city

Where found they welcome at the hands

Of King Atop the Scarpment,

Golkarr, mighty, Orc of wiles

Who thought to take advantage

To use infusion of new blood

To broaden Orcish holdings

Demands he made of Bretons south

Along the Bjoulsae River

For tariffs, tolls, ransoms, fees,

Or down would come Orc hammer

But Joile, the king in Daggerfall

Rejected Golkarr's dictum

Sent to Gaiden Shinji of

The Order of Diagna

Urged him with the Bretons join

To siege and sack Orc city

Marched they then to Wrothgar Scarp

Orsinium invested

They thought that Orcish walls could not

Withstand their worthy weapons

But city high upon the scarp

Was triple-gate defended

Obdurate Gates: each one greater

Than the one before it

Smelter, Hammer, Temper, they

Were called, by Orcish stonewrights

The folk of Mauloch stood atop

And hurled down baneful missiles

And Breton, Redguard, smitten sore

Drew back to lower regions

Laughed then the Orcs, and bared their tusks

At warrior Men confounded

While Golkarr smiled in high Scarp Keep

And praised the Wrothgar clan-kin

But Gaiden Shinji and King Joile

Were not abashed or shaken

They summoned grandees, knights, and counts

To bring their armsmen thither

Orsinium surrounded they

And settled in to siege it

While plots and plans were schemed and made

The walls and gates, to breach them

The Orcs were quite content to wait

From Jugular well-watered

And fed by fertile fungus fields

In Caves of Dark Abundance

The Men, they thought, would tire and leave

To go back to their families

They reckoned not the fire that burned

In Joile and Gaiden Shinji

Ten years their men sieged outer gate

And finally Smelter faltered

A decade more at second gate

Till Hammer then was broken

Ten years again were spent in toil

Till Temper fell asunder

Then wrathful Men at last went in

Orsinium to plunder

Golkarr prayed in Grudgement Hall

For Mauloch to defend him

But King Joile took him by the hair

And Gaiden Shinji slew him