In the glittering elven kingdom—where “peace” hides a brutal purge—the dark elves are hunted and massacred by their own light-elf kin. Dinerúth, chieftess of the dark elves, narrowly escapes death and is rescued by Gustav, King of Orcsen—a nation of united magical races led by so-called “savage” orcs.

Swearing a blood oath to the orc king, Dinerúth seeks vengeance for her fallen people. Their unlikely alliance will shatter old beliefs and alter the course of history itself.

History of the Kingdom of Orcsen: How the Barbarian Orcish Nation Came to Burn Down the Peaceful Elfland has a story by Kyōichirō Tarumi and art by Takeshi Nogami. English translation is done by Jarod Blackburn, and lettering by Kai Kyou. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (July 7, 2026). Rated OT.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

I have always been biased towards text media over visual media. My style has always been to watch the anime, then read the manga, then the LN or novel, with the assumption that each increase in text adds information that would be cut from the story in the more visual media. In the case of the History of the Kingdom of Orsen, Volume 1, my method holds.

I really enjoyed the light novel for this series, with its torrent of information about how Gustav builds the Orc Kingdom, develops the military and the infrastructure needed to sustain it…and how he makes a place for all the races of the world that are targeted by the xenophobic white elves.

This manga adaptation is, of necessity, much faster-paced. This volume ends just short of the first manga volume, which does not quite allow Dinerúth the space she needs to understand Gustav's nature. Some of the subtlety is left out of the narrative, and certainly much of the logistics, which took up a lot of space in the light novel.

Nogami's art doesn't quite suit the nature of the story. In the beginning, especially, Dinerúth is sexualized in ways that don't quite make sense for the narrative. By the end, that has tapered off, thankfully. When the art catches up to the story, everything begins to build into a stronger story. Uniforms are tidier, the armies make more sense, and Gustav comes across as a ruler with a vision that goes well beyond immediate actions. By the end of the book, there is a sense that this land and its history have a lot to tell us.

While not quite as compelling as the light novel, lovers of Elf and Orc war stories will most likely enjoy this. Gustav and Dinerúth are very relatable protagonists.