The first memories Thud possed were of his mother's laments about the events that led up to his birth. Ombla was an uncommonly beautiful she-orc, as things go. The youngest daughter of the clan chieftain, she was the most fought after female in the tribe; every male wanted to add her to his cave of women. Not only would she add refinement and beauty to their home, but the man who won the favored daughter of the chieftain would gain great power among the clan.  

While she enjoyed the fighting for her hand and honor, choosing a different favorite each day, and cheering them on, they also made her feel uncomfortable. No man could enter the trials for her hand without a certain kill count, and every day there were more young orcs coming back from the raids on other clans - both dwarven and orcish - claiming their right to enter the tournament. An orcish woman was not allowed to hold rank in the tribe, nor have her own property or cave, choose her mate, nor even hold a kill count. Though Ombla lacked the intelligence to be able to put a name to the feeling, it left her unsettled. 

One evening, after a particularly close bout, she had had enough. She waited until the celebrations for that day's raid against the hated dwarves were in full swing, before sneaking out to the nearby human town. There she found the noisiest tavern and got drunker than she had ever gotten before under her father's watchful eye. There, she met a man - a man far thinner and smaller than any man she had ever met. But he was extremely nice to her -- also extremely drunk --  and didn't treat her like a thing, but a person. So she went home with him. She got home before sunrise, and no one seemed to notice she had even left. She forgot about the incident, but then about nine and a half months later, the whole tribe found out her disgrace in the form of a soft, squishy, pink-tinted blight. 

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The trials and competitions stopped. The raids became less frequent. The feasts and parties until dawn stopped. All the men who had previously fought over her hand now ignored it. Instead of getting the choicest cuts of meat at meals, she was lucky to gnaw on the bones. Her father was horrified and devastated, and she went from being the favorite and sitting to his right at meals to not even sitting at the table. And she took it all out on her son. 

Because of his tainted blood, Thud would never be as strong as his mother, and would never be able to partake in the raids, nor hold a kill-count. He was a half-blood, and there was no hiding that. The clan ignored Thud altogether whenever they possible could, using force to get him out of sight when they couldn't pretend he wasn't there. Why they didn't just kill him outright he never understood. But maybe that would have ended their fun.

Finally, when he was eleven, a male went to Ombla's father, and told him that he would take Ombla off his hands and out of his cave -- if she got rid of Thud. That very night, he was taken to the nearby human town, and left on his father's doorstep. Thud honestly didn't understand why he hadn't been abandoned to his father's house sooner. 

His father didn't know of his existence, but still bore the scars from his one night with the she-orc.