Crucible

This page contains spoilers for the following products: In Glorious Battle, Cleansing the Flame.
You can disable this banner in your personal preferences. A Vow Mark is a visible symbol that appears on the body of a deceased orc who is challenging a deity in a combat to destruction. This posthumous challenge is known as the Crucible and can take days or months to complete; disturbing the body during this process can result in a curse.

If the challenging orc is victorious they ascend to godhood, and if they fail their soul is permanently and irrevocably annihilated. The deity being targeted does not have to be the one that they worshiped in life.

Ascended orcs

Pathfinders witnessed a Vow Mark on the corpse of Burning Sun tribe leader Mahja Firehair after she led a victory in battle against the wight forces of the demilich Geir, a subordinate of Tar-Baphon, near Freedom Town in the Hold of Belkzen. The mark was described to the Pathfinders by the Sarenite orc Uirch.

Uirch later himself died and entered the Crucible, and both he and Firehair subsequently ascended to divinity after the death of Gorum in 4724 AR, as did the assassinated warlord Grask Uldeth, the hunter Jukha, and the firearms master Wulgren. Among the orc deities deposed in the process was Zagresh, god of death and destruction, who was defeated by Uldeth.

References

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