The Otherside

The Otherside is a world much like Gurtha, but often shrouded in mists and filled with strange lights. Distances are deceptive and great plains may be crossed in a single breath whilst a narrow stream remains forever uncrossable. When the Orks sleep, the Otherside wakes, and when the Otherside wakes, the Orks sleep. The seasons are also reversed, and it is sometimes said that Orks who die in their sleep during the winter have been seduced by the summer of the Otherside.

The inhabitants of the Otherside are powerful and mysterious. Sone are allies of the Orks, some are dark creatures which might be the result of elven sorcery or might be even older than the elves. The animal spirits of the Otherside are usually well disposed towards Orks, especially if the Ork has a totem connection to the animal.

The afterlife is somewhere beyond the Otherside. In the Otherside Orks may occsionally meet the ghosts of Orks who died without a proper ceremony, or who were lost on a dream jouney, doomed now forever to wander the Otherside. Some of these lost souls want only peace, some have been driven mad and may try to steal the sleeping Ork's body.

Bodelay are the only Orks who can walk confidently in the Otherside. A dreaming bodelay can use all his skills and attributes at full strength. All other Orks have their skills rated as Poor, although any totem or magic bonuses apply.

As Orks cross the to Otherside in sleep, so the creatures of the Otherside can make their way to Gurtha during their sleep. Mysterious breezes, rustles in the thicket, shadows or movement caught in the corner of the eye might be dreaming spirits. Spirits have their own bodelay who can appear in Gurtha as solid forms, often unusually large or oddly marked animals.

Sometimes an Otherside bodelay appears to an Ork in the sleep, appearing in dreams night after night. The bodelay will also manifest in Gurtha during the day in the same shape they did in the dream. If the chosen Ork can hunt down the bodelay's form and kill it, he will gain Tala and perhaps something magical from the body. A tooth, bone instrument or pelt from a bodelay animal is a fine heirloom.

The spirit bodelay is not destroyed when the body is killed. The hunt is a test set by the spirit bodelay to see if the Ork is worthy of their gift.