A new video was revealed today, detailing the properties of the Heroes VI Stronghold faction. In the video, producer Erwan le Breton and script writer Kurt Mc Clung talk about the origins of the Stronghold faction. In addition to some stunning gameplay shots, we also get the developers' take on the orcs and their role in the saga.



A full transcript of what is said follows:
Erwan: "Welcome back to the world of Ashan, the setting of all our Might and Magic games. Let us take you back in time, 400 years before Heroes V, at the time of the second Bloodmoon Eclipse. Once again, Demons are swarming out of the bowels of Sheogh. To repel the invasion, the various nations of Ashan will have to put aside their petty quarrels and unite their forces. The Knights of the Holy Empire and the Necromancers of the Seven Cities will get help from the most unexpected of allies - THE ORCS."

Kurt: "Way back during the first eclipse, the peoples of Ashan were in really bad shape. Demons were pouring out of Sheogh and they were being overrun. What they eventually did was they called upon the Wizards of the Seven Cities to come up with a solution, and they got this kind of un-kosher idea and started injecting Demon blood into criminals. These criminals ended up turning into what we now call the Orc, and the Orcs were... Demon-bashers. And these Orc armies then pushed the Demons back into Sheogh, and there was a relative time of peace, and the Wizards were extremely proud of what they'd accomplished. The Orcs had won the war. And so they decided to keep the Orcs as slaves. Now, Orcs will be Orcs - they didn't really like the situation, so they eventually rebelled and they fought and they won their own freedom, and by the time you get up to Heroes VI, there's still a lot of animosity in people that preferred them in chains."

Erwan: "Sandor is the bastard child of Duke Slava Griffin and his first love, the beautiful Lady Elizabeth. A political burden since birth, he soon became a troublemaker, and found an outlet for his frustration and anger alongside his father's master-of-arms - the Orc, Kraal."

Kurt: "Imagine the Duchy of Griffin and the Duchy of Wolf - they've been feuding for decades. Sandor's that son that just finally can't put up with it any more. He stands up to Duke Gerhart, the Duke of Wolf, and gets himself in trouble. It leads to exile. Kraal takes Sandor into the Redskull Islands; this is where Kraal was born, it's Orc country, right? Think dancing with jaguars, bloodlike rituals... Sandor's confronted with everything that it means to be an Orc, and he becomes a warchief. He's popular, he amasses a huge horde - a giant army - and goes back into the Holy Empire. Whether he becomes the saviour of the Empire or the conqueror - that's really up to the player to decide."

Erwan: "The Orc strategy on the battlefield is pretty straightforward: rush now, think later. The Stronghold creatures are fast, highly mobile, brutal and tough. Their melee damage output is simply the best in the game. They have thick skin, brutal determination, high pain threshold and an innate resistance to magic, and their faction ability - the Blood Rage - improves their already-impressive offensive capacities."