Khravila Who Ran Forty Leagues¶
Domains: Knowledge, Trickery
Khravila Who Ran Forty Leagues, The Eternal Runner, Khravila The Unstoppable.
On the eve of a war between elves and humans that would certainly result in the death of many orcs caught between the two great powers, Khravila's dying father had been incapable of deciding what should be done. Equally incapable of choosing who should succeed him as chieftain—his son or daughter.
At the moment of his death, when the god-caller rang the bell of souls officially announcing her father's passing to the tribe, Khravila looked at her brother and saw hesitation. Khravila had never known doubt.
She snatched her tribe's oriflamme from her father's dead hands... and ran. For many leagues she ran and the tales of the creatures—manticores, griffins, chimeras—who barred her passage passed into legend. Orc children still delight at the tricks and wordplay Khravila employed to thwart the beasts, avoid fighting, and continue her epic run.
Less than five hours after her father died, Khravila arrived at the Astragalus Court, forty leagues from home and while many elements of her legend are certainly mythical, the time and distance are well attested. Khravila held forth the oriflamme and announced that, should the elves continue their assault on the humans, there would be war between them and her tribe. "Chose quickly," she said. "My people are right behind me, and eager for battle." They could not have known she was bluffing.
The elves called off their attacks and Khravila brokered peace between them and the humans. When her brother arrived with their kin folk some hours later—itself an impressive feat—Khravila handed him the oriflamme, and collapsed, dead. It was Khravila the chieftain who ran. It was Khravila the Unstoppable who died, a legendary orc hero.
Khravila teaches the virtue of persistence, endurance, and—above all—wits. Not only the wits necessary to foil the tests that barred her way, but to conceive her legendary plan in the first place, and the dedication to pull it off. "Perhaps another orc could have run," her brother said. "But only Khravila could have bluffed."