This Illustration Codex may contain spoilers from the previous chapters.

  Origins & Myth

  The Gorgurs were once a hardy proto-race of giants who sought divinity. In the age before dynasties, their shamans preached that Luminary shards were god-flesh fallen to earth. Believing they could ascend by feasting on them, the giants devoured shards in sacred rites.

  Instead of transcendence, the shards rewrote their bloodlines. Over generations, their bodies swelled, their wits dulled, and their flesh warped into fat-crusted mountains streaked with crystal growths.

  Where once they had dreamed of thrones, they became creatures of appetite. Today, the races of Lumeris call them Gorgurs—from an old miner’s curse meaning “belly that devours.”

  Appearance

  Massive, fat-muscled humanoids, towering two to three times the height of men.

  Skin cracked and mottled, sprouting glowing shard growths along skulls, shoulders, and bellies. Some glow faintly when enraged.

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  Scrap-Bellies

  Core Shock Infantry of the Gorgur Host

  Appearance

  Scrap-Bellies are vast, fat-bellied brutes, built wide and heavy rather than tall. Their bodies are wrapped in mismatched scrap armour—rusted cuirasses, torn plate segments, broken shields, and scavenged metal bolted directly onto flesh. Some wear entire doors, wagon wheels, or iron slabs strapped across their chests and shoulders. Blue shard growths punch through skin and armour alike, jutting from backs, arms, and skulls.

  Weapons

  They wield whatever can be lifted and swung. Common arms include tree-trunks studded with shard spikes, wagon axles, bent polearms, and crushed blades torn from the fallen. Many weapons are half-handle, half-club, reinforced with nails, chain, or shard fragments.

  Role

  Front line Shock Infantry. Scrap-Bellies are pushed into the densest fighting. They crash into formations, absorbing blows and arrows through sheer bulk and layered scrap while battering enemies aside. They do not advance cleanly. They charge and grind forward, step by step, until resistance collapses under pressure and mass.

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  Chain-Gnashers

  Crowd-Breaker Infantry of the Gorgur Host

  Appearance

  Chain-Gnashers are heavily armoured brutes, their bodies wrapped in layer upon layer of chains, plates, and shard-linked restraints. Iron links are fused into flesh and armour alike, crossing chest, shoulders, and limbs until the Gorgur beneath is barely visible. Shard growths punch through gaps in the metal, locking chain and body together into a single mass. Many drag broken cages, anchor-frames, or chained trophies, clattering behind them as they advance—filled with bones, torn gear, or whatever was last caught. They move slowly. Every step pulls weight behind it.

  Weapons

  Chain-Gnashers wield massive flails, built from chained boulders, shard-laced wreckage, or spiked iron weights. Some fight with one-handed flails, others with a weapon in each fist. The chains are long enough to swing wide, short enough to snap back violently when halted. Once set in motion, stopping the swing is difficult—even for the wielder.

  Role

  Crowd Breakers. Formation Killers. Chain-Gnashers are driven into dense fighting. Their flails crush clustered troops, rip shields apart, and drag bodies off their feet. Against structures, repeated impacts crack supports, smash barricades, and collapse reinforced points through sheer accumulated force.

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  Maw-Fang berserkers

  Frenzied Infantry of the Gorgur Host

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Appearance

  These Gorgurs fight mostly bare, their bodies exposed and scarred. Armor is minimal and crude—scavenged helmets, dented caps, broken skulls, or shard-studded headpieces worn low over the brow. Blue shard growths erupt directly from scalp, shoulders, and back, driven through flesh rather than mounted as plates. Their bellies hang heavy and unprotected, smeared with blood, grime, and crystal dust from previous charges. Some wear jawbone masks or strapped bone fragments, others go bare-faced, teeth bared. Clothing is limited to torn wraps and straps meant only to keep weapons close.

  Weapons

  They wield dual cleavers, broad and heavy, hacked from scrap blades or butchered metal. The edges are thick, chipped, and stained. They are not thrown. They are used until they break—or stick.

  Role

  Frenzied Chargers. Panic Breakers. These units are driven ahead of the Host. They rush weak points, sprinting into gaps before lines can settle. They do not hold formation. They overwhelm through speed, noise, and proximity, hacking at anything within reach and forcing defenders to react too late. They are not meant to survive long.

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  Shard-Fang Crushers

  Line-Breaker Cavalry of the Gorgur Host

  Mounts

  Shard-Fang Crusher mounts are enormous shard-mutated war beasts, bred for charge and impact. Their bodies are low and heavy, layered with dense shard growths along skull, shoulders, and spine. These crystals glow faintly and grind against one another as the beasts move. Thick hides absorb blows while shard plates tear into anything pressed too close. Tusks and horns curve forward, many sheathed in nailed scrap-metal caps or wrapped in iron bands driven crudely into bone. Their breath steams through shard-lined nostrils as they run. When they accelerate, dust and debris lift in their wake.

  Riders

  Crusher riders are frontline Gorgurs, leaner than Tyrants but no less violent. They wear spiked harnesses, scavenged helms, and layered scrap armour, stripped down for movement. Chains bind rider to saddle and mount alike—not for control, but to prevent separation during the charge. They lean forward as one mass, riding low and tight.

  Weapons

  Crushers favour heavy cleavers, shard-axes, and scrap lances built from broken war machines and reinforced beams. Some carry weighted chain-nets, hurled mid-charge to entangle prey and drag them beneath hooves and tusks. Their strikes are fast, repetitive, and merciless.

  Role

  Shock Cavalry. Line Shatterers. Shard-Fang Crushers are unleashed to break formations. They slam into infantry, trampling, goring, and scattering ranks through sheer momentum and pressure. Against fortifications, their mounts ram gates and walls repeatedly, grinding stone and wood until cracks spread and defences fail. They do not hold ground. They clear it.

  Feeding Frenzy

  Crusher mounts share their riders’ hunger. After a charge, both beast and Gorgur instinctively stop to feed—on corpses, shards, or shattered weapons—unless driven onward by whips and war calls. Unchecked, a Crusher wave will devour the battlefield before moving on.

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  Shard-Tusk Tyrants

  Elite Monster Cavalry of the Gorgur Host

  Mounts

  Shard-Tusk Tyrant mounts are gargantuan shard-mutated behemoths, bred for mass and forward momentum. Their hides are thick and uneven, armoured by jagged blue shard growths erupting along spine, skull, and flanks. These crystal plates turn blades and shatter on impact, spraying fragments into anything nearby. Massive tusks curve forward, bound in rusted iron, chains, and shard-spikes driven straight into bone. Their eyes sit deep and dull beneath heavy ridges.

  Riders

  Tyrants are drawn from the fattest, most vicious veterans of the Host—warriors swollen by endless feasting and shard consumption. Their bulk slumps over their mounts like living battlements. Skin is scarred, cracked, and often studded with embedded shards. Armor is layered scrap, hammered together from looted gates, shattered helms, and ruined defences. Chains hang from their bodies, bearing hooks, bones, and torn banners. Many wear jagged crowns or shard-studded helms—marks of gut-kings and glutton-priests.

  Weapons

  They wield colossal polearms, shard-lances of absurd length, or massive cleavers torn from conquered fortifications and reforged just enough to swing. Rivets, chains, and structural scars are left intact. They strike one-handed, the other arm buried in hooks or chains anchoring them to their mount.

  Role

  Shard-Tusk Tyrants are unleashed where resistance must end. Against troops, they crash through formations, trampling and goring while their riders clear wide arcs of bodies and metal. Against fortifications, tusks batter gates while shard-lances punch into stone. They do not breach quickly—they break things until they fail.

  Glutton-Priests

  Each Tyrant claims their mount is divine flesh made manifest. Before battle, they feed their beasts shards, bones, and enemy remains, grinding offerings into mouths, wounds, and armour seams. With each campaign, the mounts grow denser, larger, and more violently shard-mutated. To the Gorgur Host, this is sacred communion.

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  Tyrant Champions

  Shardlords’ Chosen ? Command Cavalry

  Appearance

  Tyrant Champions are massive even by Tyrant standards, their bulk reinforced rather than encumbered. They wear heavy, fitted Armor layered with shard plates and jagged crystal ridges grown directly through metal. Unlike lesser Tyrants, their gear is intentional and unified—matched pauldrons, reinforced greaves, and chest plates built to carry weight without collapse. Blue shard growths crown helm, shoulders, and spine, flaring brighter and denser than those of the Host. Chains are worn sparingly, used as anchors and symbols rather than restraints. Each rides a shard-armoured war beast, its hide plated in overlapping crystal scales and its tusks polished to killing edges. Banners and standards rise behind them, fixed rigidly to saddle frames.

  Weapons

  Tyrant Champions wield command weapons—massive axes, polearms, or hammers built from reinforced beams and shard-latticed heads. These weapons are not scavenged. They are assembled for purpose, balanced for mounted strikes and crushing downward blows. Many bear shard inlays that pulse faintly when raised.

  Role

  Elite Bodyguards. Command Breakers. Tyrant Champions fight close to the Gutlord or Shardlord, forming a moving wall of mass and authority. They intercept elite threats, crush counterattacks, and anchor the Host’s advance. Their presence stabilises surrounding Gorgurs. Lesser units press harder, hold longer, and die slower when a Champion is near.

  Shard Effect

  The shard density of a Tyrant Champion distorts local Vitalis flow. Spell effects weaken or fracture near them, while shard-driven creatures and Gorgurs gain unnatural cohesion and endurance. This effect is passive, constant, and strongest when Champions ride together. Casters report pressure, interference, and loss of fine control.

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