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In the time before song the clans grew restless and clashed steel against steel in the bitter north, until a crimson path was traced in the snow, leading to the mountains of dead and their cairns.
Come autumn the clans called a truce so they might gather the bodies from pasture, range, and farm. So great was the number of dead that the clans saw autumn's return twice over before all the bodies had been gathered.
When they saw the number of the dead, and the fields that lay fallow with none to work them, the chiefs of clans Shar and Tuul met in secret. They said "There is neither glory nor honor in the slaughter of our warriors. The hero that rises this season will die the next and when we are old and grey, will there be any strong Orc left to replace us?"
So they called on Malacath and made an offering of echatere and of their own blood. And the Prince answered them:
"Erect a monument of the dead to me, a cairn for the fallen of clans Shar and Tuul. There pick from among your number the strongest. The contenders will duel atop the cairn until it is consecrated with the blood of the loser. The victor shall be chief of a new clan, Shar-tuul."
The chiefs did as Malacath commanded. The war between the clans ended and a new clan was founded. The place of the first duel was called the Bloody Knoll, for it was built from the bodies of the war-slain and consecrated with the blood of the losing duelist.