Congress of Shamans

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A Congress of Shamans is a special event in the society of the Orcish Nation, and a marker of troubled times for the nation. Called at the insistence of The Firemouths, the congress is a gathering of heroic orcs from all the tribes and hordes of the nation, at which all speak and live as equals. The Congress is a highly ritualized affair that consists of moments of prayer and sacrifice (especially to The Fire-Keeper, whose laws instituted the practice), physical and spiritual trials (including trials of combat), and periods of debate. A congress of shamans lasts for seven days and often ends in the election of one of the participants as the Warlord of the Great Horde, a combined military body of the entire Orcish Nation, with the authority to deal with whatever crisis caused the Congress to be called in the first place.

These convocations take place extremely rarely, and are usually only called in times of great crisis. The expansion of Bastonia into what is now their Frontier Counties was not enough to rate such a gathering, but it's quite possible that the subsequent collapse of the Mighty Northern Horde did.