The Great Siege of Orsinium

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Ra Gada fought the tusky folk From Hammerfell they drove them In wrath withdrew they northward to Orsinium, Orc city Where found they welcome at the hands Of King Atop the Scarpment, Golkarr, mighty, Orc of wiles Who thought to take advantage To use infusion of new blood To broaden Orcish holdings Demands he made of Bretons south Along the Bjoulsae River For tariffs, tolls, ransoms, fees, Or down would come Orc hammer But Joile, the king in Daggerfall Rejected Golkarr's dictum Sent to Gaiden Shinji of The Order of Diagna Urged him with the Bretons join To siege and sack Orc city Marched they then to Wrothgar Scarp Orsinium invested They thought that Orcish walls could not Withstand their worthy weapons But city high upon the scarp Was triple-gate defended Obdurate Gates: each one greater Than the one before it Smelter, Hammer, Temper, they Were called, by Orcish stonewrights The folk of Mauloch stood atop And hurled down baneful missiles And Breton, Redguard, smitten sore Drew back to lower regions Laughed then the Orcs, and bared their tusks At warrior Men confounded While Golkarr smiled in high Scarp Keep And praised the Wrothgar clan-kin But Gaiden Shinji and King Joile Were not abashed or shaken They summoned grandees, knights, and counts To bring their armsmen thither Orsinium surrounded they And settled in to siege it While plots and plans were schemed and made The walls and gates, to breach them The Orcs were quite content to wait From Jugular well-watered And fed by fertile fungus fields In Caves of Dark Abundance The Men, they thought, would tire and leave To go back to their families They reckoned not the fire that burned In Joile and Gaiden Shinji Ten years their men sieged outer gate And finally Smelter faltered A decade more at second gate Till Hammer then was broken Ten years again were spent in toil Till Temper fell asunder Then wrathful Men at last went in Orsinium to plunder Golkarr prayed in Grudgement Hall For Mauloch to defend him But King Joile took him by the hair And Gaiden Shinji slew him