And yet no one ever believes you when you say that the gentle bard could be the stern one of the pair...

[Shaking his head]

Oh, no. Between the nuin-Giliath and Lammoth, the orc population thinned itself out nicely for a few years. We had a few lovely years of building and glaring across the lake, save for the occasional bouts of poisoned gas.

[The sarcasm is heavy on lovely. Those years were difficult, if not nearly as bad as the Ice.]