Beliefs of the Great Forest
Introduction
During the Autumn Equinox 385YE, the Assembly of Pride took advantage of an opportunity to send missionaries and wayfarers to other nations that did not share their understanding of the Way - not to covert them, but to increase the Empire's understanding of their beliefs. Their mandate was enacted by Neala Blackhawk, who encouraged priests versed in Pride to visit the Great Forest Orcs. The timing seems propitious, given the Navarr and the orcs were working together to recover their homes in the Eaves of Peytaht. Unfortunately, events quickly spiraled out of control when news of what had happened at Hope's Rest, and later among the Black Wind reached them.
The priests visiting the Great Forest Orcs were able to increase their understanding of the Great Forest Orcs spiritual beliefs before events overtook them and what began in celebration ended in anger and fear. Apparently Chief Vallack has instructed his people to have no more discussion of spiritual matters for fear that the Empire use their beliefs and traditions as justification to declare them heretics.
The bulk of this report comes from the (primarily Navarr) priests of Pride who accompanied the Great Forest Orcs back to their homes in the Barrens, with a few notes from priests who have spoken to orcs settling in Therunin, and later Miaren and Hercynia.
Virtues
It's clear that the orcs of the Great Forest have been discussing the Way with our people – both their neighbours in Therunin and with people from many other nations while walking the trods. Their general consensus is that it has little to interest them, being primarily concerned with the souls of humans. Interestingly, however, they don't deny the value of the virtues although they don't enumerate and distinguish between them the way Imperial citizens do. Rather they have a small number of teachings that lay out a route by which they might seek to avoid the Howling Abyss - although their conception of it is different to that of the Imperial Orcs. These teachings are very close that what the Empire would consider Wisdom, Vigilance, and Loyalty in particular.
Spirits and Trees
When the Great Forest Orcs fist came to the Empire as refugees, there was a belief that they believed in “invisible spirits” that live in the forest and protect them from the Howling Abyss. The main breakthrough in recent discussions was regarding the nature of these spirits.
Unlike the Imperial Orcs, and many of the other septs the Empire is familiar with, the Great Forest Orcs do not believe that their ancestors “cross” the Howling Abyss. They do not believe in the concept of a world beyond this one; for the orcs of the Great Forest only the material world exists. They do believe that the world has spiritual aspects that cannot be understood by any living mortal, however. Speaking with some of their shaman can apparently be a challenging experience because they employ a great deal of metaphor and symbolism. One of the priests involved in discussion, a mystic from distant Wintermark, apparently had some success teasing out these symbols and did good work exploring their parables and proverbs.
It is reasonably well know that the Great Forest Orcs conceive of the "Great Forest" as being an immense primaeval woodland that once stretched across all of what is today the Empire and the Mallum. They've spoken of this before, and part of their reason for travelling the trods was to "reconnect" with pockets of this ancient woodland they say still exists especially in the wild woods of [{Varushka]]. The "Great Forest" is also apparently manifest in any number of weirwood groves, and the orcs have several times demonstrated a particular facility for working with the towering trees.
The belief in the Great Forest leads them to believe that the Howling Abyss is a consequence of the destruction of that forest; that it lies in the gaps between the remaining woodlands and as they widen the Abyss becomes more potent. After death, the Howling Abyss will seek to consume their spirits. Those who are strong enough to resist will remain in the world, and become part of the spirit of the Great Forest. They conceive of this state as being part of a grand gestalt of every Great Forest Orc ancestor. Unlike many other orcs, those of the Great Forest don't usually differentiate the voices they hear as belonging to one ancestor or another. Rather they think of them all as being the voice of the Great Forest. A chorus of voices, made up of all who have gone before who had the willpower and “silence of the soul” to resist the Howling Abyss.
Weirwood Groves
This is one of the reasons they are drawn to weirwood groves. They believe that the groves are the hearts of the ancient forest, or the most profound expression of its original expanse. They use rhythmic music and dance, as well as the more traditional bouts of physical prowess, to increase the volume of the ancestors' words but they believe that being in living groves of weirwood makes those voices clearer. They consider their prowess with weirwood, both in harvesting it and shaping it, to be a consequence of their connection to their ancestral spirits.
Doctrine
The priests of the Pride assembly who spoke with the Great Forest Orcs have tentatively proposed that their beliefs are not at odds with either the Doctrine of the Howling Abyss or the Doctrine of the Ancestors. They don't quite agree that an orc must be "known for their deeds" - rather there are several routes to becoming strong enough to resist destruction in the Howling Abyss, and their conception of the Howling Abyss and what it means to cross it is certainly different to that of most Imperial Orcs, but the fundamentals appear similar. In some ways there is similarity with the beliefs of the Yerende sect, but where the Ossian sept values "diligence" the Great Forest Orcs focus seems to be more around concepts of clarity, awareness of the world around them, self-knowledge, and commitment.