The Orphanage

Map of the Orphanage

HISTORY: The first shrine to Tyrogatore was built when the orcs first took control of Lynkeed.  After the shrine, came a temple, which was built on the same location as the shrine.  This temple was built by the Wugs when they took control of Lynkeed.  When the Wugs were driven out in 682, the orcs razed the temple, along with any building that had been constructed by the Wugs.  The city, ravaged by war, had very little coin and the lone cleric of Tyrogatore could do little but wander the remains of the city offering his services.

In the following fifteen years, the lone cleric, a human named Afian, managed to construct a small shrine and saw to a following of nearly one thousand.  In 699, he was given the honor of selecting a participant in the Graplore of 700.  Although he had a limited number of selections, he had an Orcish orphan of the Jumping War that he had been partially raising for a decade who had become a proficient wrestler.  He nominated the orc, Brucatus, and wished him well.  After a year, Brucatus returned, but he was not alone.  While at the Graplore, he had befriended the eventual winner, Marcas Valarius.  Marcas came to Lynkeed with Brucatus and with him he brought fame and travelers.  He stayed for a year.

During that year, the temple earned much of the reputation it currently has.  Many items that had been kept in small shines for hundreds of miles were brought to the safety of the newly built reliquary.  Seeing the great success Brucatus had been, Afian decided to turn the temple into an orphanage.  It quickly swelled to capacity.  With the fame came more clerics, some from elsewhere, and some from Lynkeed, which was also growing quickly at this time.

Unfortunately, when Maracas left after a year, Afian began to lose his way.  Fame and coin began to cloud his mind.  Although he had built halls and dormitories and a reliquary, there was no good arena.  Although he had a large group of faithful, he had few good combatants.  Although he was a good friend all ally of the merchant lords, he spent little time with the other clerics of the city.  This continued for 23 years, until it came time for Afian to nominate a participant to the Graplore.  The temple of Lynkeed, which had come to be known as the Orphanage, was now one of the great temples of Tyrogatore.  It was then that Afian had a revelation.  He had trained no expert monks.  He had no one to represent the temple with the honor that it required.  His nominee was beaten in three rounds.  Afian was disgusted and disgraced.  He did not even attend the Graplore, which was unheard of for a cleric of his prominence.  In 726, Afian appointed a lesser cleric to watch the temple and left.

With the sudden lack of leadership, the forces of Lynkeed moved in to usurp the influence notoriety of the orphanage.  The merchant lords succeeded in resting control of the orphanage from the clerics of Tyrogatore.  Alfian’s delinquency had left no allied faiths in the city and not enough devoted warriors to prevent it.  For nearly a decade, only the Reliquary and the arena remained under the control of Tyrogatore.

In 736, after fifteen years away, a former orphan named Devin returned to the temple.  He had left to bring Tyrogatore’s vision to the great forest.  After many successful years, which included converting and batting the wugs, he decided to give back to the orphanage that had given him a life.  What he saw horrified him.  Outraged, he marched into the next meeting of the Merchant Lords.  He demanded that the temple be turned over to him.  When they laughed, he killed their guards and beat all of the merchant lords into unconsciousness.  When enough of the lords awoke to make a decision, the temple was returned to Tyrogatore.

Devin became the third high cleric of the orphanage, a position that has come to be known as the principal.  Within five years, he returned the orphanage to its glory days early in Afian’s leadership.  After five more years, he had made the orphanage one of the best places to teach martial skills, especially to the young.  For the next 13 years, up until the fifth Jumping War in 759, Devin dominated the Orphanage and the direction of Lynkeed.

When the Jumping War began, Lynkeed was thrust into the spotlight.  The Orcish Empire passed though and around the city and brought great wealth to Lynkeed.  For Devin, the war was a call to action.  He opened to doors of the temple to all orcs that would take his training.  He sent every orphan he could train into the war as part of Lynkeed’s small contingent of soldiers.  Then, in 767, as it appeared the war would end soon and the orcs would have gained little, Devin went to fight.  When he left, he announced to the faithful: “Even at my age, I believe I can accomplish much.  I will turn the tide of this war and press the wugs so far into the Boiled Forest they will not creep out for a dwarven age.”  Unfortunately, that was all he said.  He left no instructions on a replacement, and he took all of the most skilled clerics and monks with him.  He was killed within months and none of the monks or clerics he took returned.  After three months of mourning, the temple was on the verge of chaos.

Luckily, the merchant lords remembered what had happened the last time they tried to take control of the orphanage, and they did not try again.  This time, the threat came from the other faiths that sought to siphon away the temple’s followers.  For four years they had some success, as the remaining clerics, and some newly arrived ones, fought over who the next principal should be.  In 772, the title was finally awarded to Adrian, who became the fourth principal.

THE ORPHANS: At any given time, there are between 8 and 12 clerics of Tyrogatore at the temple.  There are usually about 200 orphans at the temple, who are split into two groups.  Three quarters of the orphans are very young and are watched by females.  Usually the females are relatives of the male clerics of Lynkeed.  Those that remain at the orphanage beyond their very young days, or those of strange origin, are looked after by the clerics of Tyrogatore and indoctrinated into his faith.

LOCATIONS WITHIN THE ORPHANAGE:

IMPORTANT PEOPLE: