Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

In the Orc Empire, the Half-Orcs were an embarrassing group.

Unlike the fantasy novels that Sui Xiong had read before, in this world, the distinction between the Orcs and the Half-Orcs was based on their blood, not their faith.

The Orcs were the creations or descendants of the Orc gods. Because of the influence of their blood, they had been born as the believers of the Orc gods. Their souls were controlled by the Orc gods.

This situation was unique. Although the creator of other races also had a strong influence, they definitely couldn't control the souls of their creations. For example, the Mother of Sea, the creator of humans, had little control and influence over the humans. That was why she had been killed by the God of Light.

Because their souls were influenced and controlled, the Orcs believed faithfully in the Orc gods. However, this situation was not absolute. Sometimes, some Orcs would wake up for various reasons and could get rid of the control of the Orc gods. In the Orc Empire, this was called Deterioration. There were also some mixed-race children who had the blood of the Orcs and of other races. Because of the insufficient blood concentration, they were naturally not controlled by the Orc gods.

Whether congenital or acquired, once their souls were freed from the control of the Orc gods, they were called Half-Orcs.

In the Orc Empire, the situation of the Half-Orcs was not good. Even if they still believed in the Orc gods, the Orc gods wouldn't respond to them. For the Orc gods, believers who weren't under their control were not qualified believers. They treated such believers in the same way how farmers treated weeds on the roadside. They might consider eating them during a famine, but they would never put them on their recipe.

For devout believers, it was a very painful thing to have their faith be ignored.

However, they had to suffer more pain. The Orcs didn't have a friendly relationship with these types of believers. In the past years, more than one campaign for slaughtering the Half-Orcs in order to purify their faith had happened. Every time, it had caused thousands and even tens of thousands of Half-Orcs to be massacred.

Fortunately, this situation hadn't happened in the last one hundred to two hundred years. That was probably because Junero, the ambitious and outstanding leader, was secretly controlling the public opinion. However, even Junero was not friendly to the Half-Orcs. Not only did they suffer heavy exploitation and oppression, but also in the wars, they were organized into a single group. They were asked to carry out the most difficult and dangerous tasks, but the reward was not much.

Half-Orcs were not idiots nor were they masochistic. Therefore, many Half-Orcs changed their past beliefs after being educated by their cruel reality. They also changed their lifestyle and left their homeland, going far away to a new place.

In the continent of the Main Plane, the Half-Orcs were the most common wandering race. These wanderers had the blood of the Orcs, but they couldn't get their creators' response like the Orcs. Among these confused wanderers were the best mercenaries and the most ferocious robbers.

After losing their faith, a small number of powerful Half-Orcs regarded honor as their life creed. According to their behavior, even the proudest knights had to admit that they were upright and noble. However, many powerful Half-Orcs completely indulged in material desires after the collapse of their faith. They became ferocious robbers and did evil things everywhere.

A large number of Half-Orcs had no ability. They couldn't do good things nor evil things. They lived ignorantly, constantly wandering and working part-time. After saving some money, they continued to wander to find a place where they could have peace of mind. However, most of those Half-Orcs couldn't find a place where they could feel at ease. They could only grow old during the constant wandering and finally die in poverty.

In general, most Half-Orcs were very unhappy. They were eager to find a place where they could live and work or learn something that could make themselves feel safe and live better.

In recent times, the climate of the Orc Empire was not very good. Although there were no large-scale natural disasters, the grain harvest has been declining.

It was said that this was because the new generation of the Sun God had a good relationship with the human gods. The Sun God deliberately embarrassed them. Moreover, after the fall of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, this priesthood hadn't been inherited.

In the past, the Orc gods had often given the Goddess of Bumper Harvest a lot of benefits in exchange for the fertility of the Orc Prairies. Relying on the richness that they had purchased, they could maintain a large number of the Orcs. Since the death of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, they couldn't buy any more crops. The Orc Prairies had lost its extra abundance and the population that it could support had naturally reduced.

In the battle of Sun's Death Day, a lot of Orcs had died. A large number of the population was eliminated. Otherwise, the situation of the Orc Empire might be even worse, and the population pressure might be even greater.

When the population pressure was greater, food was naturally insufficient. When food was insufficient, the Half-Orcs would be the first to starve.

In recent years, many Half-Orcs had even starved to death.

So this time, when they heard that the new technical school in the Republic of Northwest didn't have tuition fees, a large number of relatively strong Half-Orcs went to the Republic of Northwest. Regardless of danger, they followed the merchants, who preferred money over life, to go through the desert and through the canyons of the Mountains of Barrenness.

In the Republic of Northwest, they met their fellow villagers, the Half-Orcs who had lived here for a long time.

The Republic of Northwest didn't discriminate against the Half-Orcs. Sui Xiong was usually very kind, but he was quite strict in front of some problems, one of them was racial discrimination.

This was not a policy established after the founding of the Republic. It had been a basic national policy since the establishment of the Church of Void Mask and the establishment of the Void Mask Land. In the Republic of Northwest, racial discrimination was a high tension cable. Anyone who stepped on it would be shocked by electricity. This was not a description or a metaphor. The penalties of the Republic of Northwest really had an electricity penalty. Sui Xiong was inspired by a guy who had a bad reputation on Earth. That guy's name was Yang Yongxin, and he believed that electric shocks could cure internet addiction. The penalty was used to punish the people who had problems in thinking, and racial discrimination was one of the key problems.

Over time, everyone's attitude naturally changed.

In the current Republic of Northwest, many Half-Orcs were living here. A few of them had moved here before, and most of them were born and raised here.

In theory, the Republic of Northwest and the Orc Empire were neighbors. However, they were actually separated by the world-famous dangerous area, the Gobi Desert. For common Half-Orcs, that was like a natural moat blocking their way. Therefore, in the past few years, few Half-Orcs had moved here from the Orc Empire. Now the Half-Orcs in the Republic of Northwest had either moved from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins in the South or were the relatives and friends of the Half-Orc masters.

Among them, even the relatively weak ones had left their home and wandered for a while in the past. Mentally, they were much stronger than the Half-Orcs who had just left the Orc Empire. Besides, they had lived in the Republic for a long time. They had been influenced by the enlightened, friendly and positive atmosphere here. Their mental attitude was completely different from that of the newcomers.

The bigger difference was between them and the new generation who was born and raised in the Republic from an early age.

During their childhood, those Half-Orcs had never been taught that "only the ones who believe in the creators can really gain happiness" and had never suffered any discrimination. On the contrary, because of their respective blood, they often had some advantages in different parts of their bodies. Some were tall and sturdy, and some had great physical strength; some were agile, and some were very fast. They behaved well among their peers, so they were full of confidence. There was a happy and positive atmosphere around them as if they were in a state of high morale.

When those Half-Orcs were standing alongside those Half-Orcs who had recently moved here, they looked like two completely different races. Although their appearances were similar, their temperaments were totally different.

Just in a few decades, I've got such a result, Sui Xiong thought. He was invisible in the air, looking at these different Half-Orcs. He couldn't help but smile, feeling a sense of accomplishment and pride in his heart.