Uta-Bek¶
Uta-Bek was the Orc warlord under whose banner the Orcs and Goblins went to war against the dwarf holds in 541 MA, beginning the Goblin Wars of the Age of Magic. The war ended in 617 MA "with the death of Orc warlord Uta-Bek in the Underdark" (S386, S372).
The war¶
In the centuries after the Shattering the Orcs and Goblins "multiplied very rapidly and thrived," and their conflict with the Dwarves was common but small, "over small pieces of territory, hunting rights, raids." In 541 MA "a series of well-coordinated attacks under the banner of the Orc warlord Uta-Bek overran several dwarf holds. His early successes rallied many more Orcs and Goblins to his cause" (S386). Most of the war was fought in the Underdark, though there were many attacks on Humans and Elves above ground, and those losses drove Humans, Elves and Dwarves into a common alliance.
The cost to both sides was terrible. The Dwarves lost nearly half their people; the Orcs and Goblins, by some estimates, ninety percent, and by 617 MA they "had been largely exterminated and pushed into the wild lands and deep passages of the Underdark" (S386). Uta-Bek died there. The sources do not say how.
Earlier accounts¶
The gods-overview of 2019 (S429) adds that "Orcs also often took Human and Elves as slaves, while killing Dwarven survivors," and that the Dwarves, judging the Orcs and Goblins "an existential threat," went on the offensive with a handful of human kingdoms while the Elves stayed on the defensive, a grievance that "continues to be a cause of friction between Elves and Dwarves." The 2020 history keeps the war's dates and its end but not these details.
Gap
No source describes Uta-Bek himself: his clan, his rise, his appearance, or the manner of his death.