Gul’roks

History
A Gul'rok is an orcish warrior which posesses a special set of skills acquired through the teachings of the Gun'thok fighting styles. In the ancient days of Dreanor among the fueding orcish clans, before the arrival of the Burning Legion's corruption, the Gul'roks emerged in a time of constant territoral feuds to fulfill the unconvientional roles of spies, infiltrators, saboteurs, and assassins.

Gul'roks were considered highly dishonorable by the majority of orcish clans and their ideals, due to the Gun'thok fighting styles placing an emphasis on elements of surprise, deception, and stealth - counter to the popular code of honor of fighting commonly accepted among the orcish clans. So dishonorable were these Gul'roks in the eyes of most orcs that if it were discovered an orc was one, they would be executed on the spot. Due to this the Gul'rok masters deliberately shrouded their origins, teachings and pupils behind the shroud of history so well that they almost wiped themselves from it and became a folk-myth to most.

Gul'rok, was originally a derogatory term coined by the mainstream largely warrior cult society of orcs meant to describe a warrior who is "a former shadow of themselves" for having given up ideals of fighting honorably. Indeed many of the Gul'rok fighters were first hunters and warriors who first followed the widely accepted path of combat and service to their clan. The masters and students of the Gun'thok schools later embraced this term, making it their own, and adapting the title to mean "Shadow Warrior."

Gun'thok is the terminology which came to encompass and descibe the various techniques, stratagems, and fighting styles often used by the Gul'roks. The Gun'thok fighting styles were devised and taught at rare hidden away fighting schools to avoid backlash from the rest of Orcish society. These schools' locations were kept secret by every member swearing an oath to not reveal them or be delt the punishment of death by their Gul'rok brethren. Despite there secrecy, sparse evidence from within the Gun'thok schools were chronicled and have survived to this day.

The earliest known account of the first Gun'thok school hails from a recess in the mountains of Nagrand shrouded by a dense forest. An ancient orcish scroll tells of a legend in which an unnamed orcish Chieftain claimed the stronghold of a gronn and his ogres he defeated after a bloody battle, but at the cost of losing nearly his entire clan in combat. So stricken with fury, and remorse was the Chieftain that he swore to his few remaining survivors that he would develop a way to defeat his enemies from that day forth without losing a single orc to needless bloodshed. Legends says the Chieftain retreated into the mist blanketed summit of the mountain, alone, to commune with the ancestors for thirty days and thirty nights. The tale depicts that for twenty-nine days and nights the ancestors were silent, and then upon the thirty-first morning's dawn he returned to the survivors of his clan at the stronghold having shed his traditional warrior and chieftain garbs for simple cloth and leathers, and a mind filled with profound knowledge unheard of by orcs before.

And so the the first aspects of Gun'thok evolved with a warrior Chieftian turning his back on conventional combat to devise methods of espionage, infiltration, sabotage, and assassination. The Chieftain teaching these methods to his survivors and they becoming the first Gul'rok masters. Having developed their techniques the masters, except the former Chieftain, dispersed into the lands of Dreanor to found several secret schools across the world to teach their craft to other orcs willing to learn. They called their new order the Gul'rok "clan" declaring their Cheiftain as the leader. From then forth the Chieftian was most commonly known as "The Old Orc in the Mountains," or simply "Grom No'gor," orcish for Grand Master, and The Grand Master continued to train the most formidable of Gul'roks. They were not a traditional clan, having members across several orcish clans acting as spies. Soon the masters contracted their specially trained Gul'roks discreetly to orcish chieftains, warlords, and clans providing their clients with a subtle upper-hand, preventing massacres, and of course gaining in secret, alliances, wealth, and building a network of spies.

With each founding of a new Gun'thok school the tecniuqes were refined, further developed and added to but forever remaining loyal to The Old Orc in the Mountain. It was said that each school placed an emphasis on learning a specific prime aspect of the Gun'thok fighting styles and philosophy. Indeed there was a school dedicated solely to the what was considered the fundamentals to Gul'roks, the art of invisibility, stealth, disguise, infiltration and moving as silently as a leaf on the wind. As well there was a school which specialized in sabotage, the use of poisons, and deception, a school for combat unrestrained by honorable notions and assassination, a school that focused on inter-clan political manipulation, learning to read and write orcish calligraphy, battle-field strategy, and perhaps more. The Gun'thok schools were often disguised as relatively peaceful gatherings of refugee orcs who had taken up farming as a way of life. So, often the Gul'roks wore practical garments often associated with those who toiled in the soil, as well as learning to fight with common farming equipment. When a student learned all they could from one school, the Master of that school, would then direct them to the location of the next school, of which only the masters knew, to train. This training succession at the various schools would continue until the pupil reached the final and original school to then train with The Old Orc in the Mountain.

It was at the Grand Master's school where Gul'roks learned the most coveted techniques of their clan from the Old Orc in the Mountain himself, that of ancestor invocation to imbue themselves with unnatural prowess and abilities. It is said that after they complete their training a master Gul'rok can invoke the ancestors to give him the capability to commit incredible feats such as running across the surface of water, or falling from incredible heights unharmed, to move with such speed they appear to be in one place then suddenly the next, or even deflect the barrage of a thousand arrows.