Look back, orcling whelp. Look back before your father's birth, or your grandfather's. Look back to the father of all your fathers and the mother of all your mothers. Look back to Father Darkness and Mother Night.

In the time before the first dawn, Father Darkness and Mother Night ruled all there was: the earth, the lands beneath the earth, the sky, the forests and the fertile plains. Then from the waters was born the sun-god, full of arrogance and deceit. With his fire and light he slew Father Darkness and stole half the world.

Coiled in her cave, Mother Night dreamed of vengeance. With anguished groans she birthed the sons of Father Darkness: blind Shargaas, eldest of all; silent Yurtrus of the white hands; cunning Gruumsh of the ever-vigilant eye.

"Kill the day," Mother Night whispered to her sons. "Take back what he stole."

The three waited until the world turned over. Mother Night emerged from her cave to embrace the sky. The time had come for Darkness' sons to strike.

The three brothers descended into the cave of the sun, which was simply the cave of night seen from the opposite side of the world. The sun's rays blinded them, but Shargaas brought darkness to light their way.

The cave walls, so familiar to them during Night's reign there, now seemed transformed, violated. The way to the throne room that had been the throne of Night mere hours before seemed alien now, and if not for Shargaas' dark they might not have found their way at all. They might not have seen what was coming.

Scattered around the seat of the sun-god like so much excrement were the first of the dayspawn gods: Corellon Larethian, Labelas Enoreth, and Sehanine. Braying like cattle, the dayspawn attacked the sons of darkness.

The brothers ably defended themselves against their attackers. When Labelas Enoreth withered Yurtrus' face, Gruumsh gouged out the dayspawn's eye. Confused by blood and pain, Labelas fell back. When Corellon Larethian slashed at Gruumsh with his tiny claws, Shargaas occluded half his face in darkness. Corellon, his feeble eyes blinded, fell back. When Sehanine tried to mislead Shargaas with webs of illusion, Yurtrus made her sickly and pale. Gasping for breath, Sehanine fell back.

Still the fight lasted till the world turned over and day broke free from the caves, stealing the sky once again. The dayspawn retreated with their creator to the lands above, and Mother Night returned to the lands below the earth to join her sons and nurse their wounds.

The following night the sons of darkness ran outside, to the other side of the world, to meet their foes before they could hole themselves in their nest. While the sun-god cowered, his spawn glowed with only a feeble silver light, their brightness diminished by their wounds and Shargaas' power. While Shargaas countered Sehanine's attempts to attack and Yurtrus dealt with Labelas, Gruumsh and Corellon dueled with blades. For the whole night they fought, Corellon tiring more and more and Gruumsh only growing in strength. When the world turned over and the sun-god finally began to rise, his light distracted Gruumsh for the smallest instant. In that instant Corellon scratched Gruumsh's face, scarring him to the right of his single eye. Roaring, Gruumsh castrated Corellon Larethian, leaving him forever sexless and impotent. From Corellon's seed, spilled in Sehanine's light, was born the race of elves. From Gruumsh's blood, spilled in Mother Night's darkness, was born the race of orcs.

The dayspawn cried in shock and terror at the sight of their brother unmanned. Seeing Corellon's bloody thighs, the missing eye of Labelas, and Sehanine's wasting illness made the sun-god scoff. "You are no longer worthy to call yourselves my children," he said. "Go from the lands of the day. Hide in the realm of your enemy Night. I disown you. I will bear new spawn."

Their heads bowed in defeat, the former day-spawn slunk off to shine their feeble light in the shadows.

The next night the sons of darkness were confident of finally defeating the sun-god and taking back the lands stolen by day. Venturing to the sun-god's lair, they instead found a meeting going on without them. Day's new spawn were busily talking to the children of the earth and their exiled older siblings, dividing both the lands of night and day between them. The castrated, defeated ones claimed the forests for themselves and the elves, while the children of stone claimed the mountains and the lands beneath the earth and the new dayspawn claimed the fertile plains. They looked up at the sons' of Darkness unexpected arrival.

"Where is our portion?" Gruumsh asked them sarcastically. "As all this is ours by right, I would expect something in payment for what you steal."

The new gods looked at him, guilt in their treacherous hearts.

"Then I will take this portion!" Gruumsh shouted, hurling his spear at a forest and turning it to ash. "And this!" he cried, hurling his spear at a mountain and turning it to rubble. "And this!" he growled, hurling his spear at a fertile plain and turning it to barren waste. "I will destroy all you create until everything is mine once more!"

The gods scattered in fear until only Gruumsh, Yurtrus, and Shargaas remained. Together they returned to the lands of Night to plan their campaign.

Then it was when they met their final betrayal. Without a husband their mother Night had spawned another set of children, even as her enemy Day. One was female, comely like her mother. The other two were twin brothers: Maglubiyet with his fire stolen from the sun and bloated, hairy Hruggek, silent and aloof.

Maglubiyet looked Gruumsh directly in his eye. "Night's lands are your domain no longer, sons of Darkness. Go now, for I have claimed it."

"Is this how it is?" Gruumsh raged. "Even the children of Night have stolen from me?" He threw his spear at the throne of Night, which shatttered. "No! I claim this for my own! Henceforth, no one is trusted! I will take what is mine in my own name and none other!" Night looked sadly at her broken seat. Since then Night has no home, but wanders the far side of the world during the day.

"What of you?" Gruumsh asked his brothers. "Will you betray me too?"

"No," said Shargaas from the darkness. "We are with you." The wasted face of Yurtrus could be seen to nod.

"Very well," said Gruumsh generously. "Then we will divide the universe between us as the allies of Day tried to do. Shargaas, as the oldest, may take the first lands beneath the earth. Yurtrus may have the realm of the dead, though the best warriors must come to me." The sons of Darkness spat on Night's broken throne, sealing their pact.

Seeing the unity of the three, Maglubiyet and Hruggek fled. From the safety of the tunnels, Magliyet vowed to return.

"You!" shouted Gruumsh, pointing at his sister with his spear. "What is your name?"

"Luthic," she said, bowing meekly.

"Because you come from an accursed generation, your kind is likewise cursed. Those like you will bleed, even as my enemy Corellon bleeds, during the time of his sickly light. But you are pleasing to my eye, so you are mine, and your kind belongs to my kind. You will dress our wounds as your mother once did, and if you try to betray me as have your brothers I will destroy you just as I will them."

Luthic nodded. "It is good," she said.

"Then gather the creatures born from my blood," said Gruumsh. "I will teach them to be strong before Maglubiyet returns with creatures of his own. We must prepare for what must be."

Look forward, orcling whelp. See the destruction of the goblins of Maglubiyet, of the elves of Corellon Larethian, of the dwarves and gnomes of the earth, of the humans and halflings of the day. Look forward to the victory of the orcs and the endless night of their reign.