What I've Learnt About Orcish Culture

I've read some of the Warcraft books recently and taken the time to distill them into tidbits of information about Orcish society and culture that others might find interesting. P3a 22:35, December 3, 2010 (UTC)
==Cycle of Hatred==
This book is set three years after the Battle for Hyjal and one year before World of Warcraft. It is written by DeCandido.
===Customs===
*Some orcs keep a habit of grooming - a concept mostly alien to them. They perceive this as separating them from the unkempt slaves that they once were. Involves cleaning tusks and teeth, trimming eyebrows, polishing/sharpening nails, and "keeping decoration [i.e., piercings and tattoos] to a tasteful minimum".
*"...humans' fascination with outerwear beyond what was absolutely necessary was something that had always baffled Bolik."
*The Horde decorate their airships with pictographs from ancient Orcish.
*Orc ships have a tendency towards being named after dead relatives. A lot of these relatives seem to have died "fighting the Burning Legion".
*Orcs immortalise their history in song form:
**A lok'amon is for the starting of a family.
**A lok'tra is for a battle.
**A lok'vadnod is for the life of a hero, such as Durotan.
*Orcs usually assign those with naturally more keen sight to do scouting and lookout jobs.
*Some orcs have recently begun taking up hobbies because they can, and for no other reason. "Byrok went fishing because he was free [to do so]."
*Stamping one's foot is a "legitimate sign of displeasure" for orcs. In humans, however, it is reminiscent of a "child throwing a temper tantrum"; Thrall subconsciously interprets the gesture as the latter.
*Rexxar counts the years in summers, not winters.
*"Thrall had spent the day hearing petitions. Most were for mundane matters that he would have thought his fellow orcs could handle on their own. Some were for disputes in which the two sides simply were not capable of agreeing, and so a neutral third party was required to settle them. In truth, it could have been anyone who settled them, but as Warchief, it was his duty."
===Beliefs===
*Some orcs seem to hold a view that natural things in the world (e.g. fog, snow) should have a practical purpose for mortals who live in the world.
*Thrall believes that males and females serve different purposes - he finds it odd that Jaina allows females in her military. This, however, largely seems to be due to his raising by humans. Other young orcs might hold similar views.
*It is considered shameful to run from battle, but not so much so that an orc would break a promise in order not to do so.
*Orcs tended not to defile the land. There is an outcry when it is implied that orcs might deforest the land around Thunder Ridge (which used to be bordered by a "dense forest of thick-trunked trees" that one could only "travel gingerly or lithely through"); "no orc of Durotar would do such a thing".
===Facts===
*Tusks vary greatly in length from male to male.
*Orcs have better vision than humans do. This is common knowledge among both races.
*Thrall made the throne room in Grommash Hold(?) deliberately somewhat cold; thick stone, no windows, and lanterns to provide lighting instead of torches. "Orcs were not creatures of the cold, so they were uncomfortable in the throne room."
*When orcs age, their skin grows pale as well as wrinkled.
*A "lightning-shaped nose ring" indicates a trained messenger.
===History===
*Work in internment camps was "backbreaking and menial".
*At one point, humans traded fish for orc crops (as Durotar was good farming land); also, dwarves shipped construction materials to elves, elves shipped jewellery to humans, orcs shipped crops to elves, humans shipped fish to ogres, and trolls shipped weapons to "pretty much anyone".
*Some orcs learnt Common during internment.
*"Humans regularly beat him, taunted him, defecated on him, and then forced him to clean up their messes whilst they laughed at him. They called him all manner of names, the kindest of which was 'you greenskinned oaf,' and they made sure to give him the most demeaning of tasks."
===Sayings and Quotes===
*"...can't see the tusks in front of his face [because of the fog]."
*"Crow's nest" is a human term. The same place on a ship is just called a "lookout post" by orcs.
*"Some orcs wish to continue the rebellion even though the time of orc enslavement is long past." -Thrall
*"Humans were monsters, and Byrok wanted nothing to do with such uncivilised creatures."
*"The beginning of wisdom is the statement 'I do not know' [...] Talking is the second step." -Thrall
*"'Coward' was the biggest insult any orc could deliver."
==Rise of the Horde==
===Old Orcish Society (pre-Horde)===
====Celebrations and Customs====
*Draenei buried the dead, usually in Auchindoun; orcs burnt them on pyres [see the in-game Ancestral Burial Ground in Nagrand].
*"Durotan wanted to scream the warcry he'd heard his father utter so many times."
*Hunts taken by a male and a female alone were generally acknowledged to be courting hunts.
**Orcs can and do kiss, despite rumours to the contrary.
**They also appear not to frown upon rutting on the first hunt, as it were...
**They would still not name each other as mates for some time to come.
*It was considered honourable for an old orc, nearing death anyway, to go on a last hunt - charge into battle with a dangerous foe alongside the younger orcs, even though to do so would be certain death.
**Suicide, on the other hand, was considered highly dishonourable.
*"Even as her clan mourned her, they celebrated her life and how she had chosen to depart it. Such was the way of the orcs."
=====Kosh'harg=====
*Kosh'hargs were meetings of all the clans and were held twice a year, at the spring and autumn equinoxes.
*Kosh'hargs were always held in one of Nagrand's valleys.
*At the Kosh'hargs, young ones who had yet to pass their Om'riggor would be sent to bed after they had eaten their fill of the feast. The adults would stay up talking.
*Conflicts during the Kosh'hargs were resolved either non-violently, or "outside the holy area".
*"During the day, there were hunts and game playing and retelling of the heroics of the ancestors. Each clan had its own stories, and so in addition to the familiar tales Durotan had heard as a youngling, there were new and exciting adventures to listen to."
*Shamans spent the entirety of the Kosh'hargs at Oshu'gun.
=====Om'riggor=====
*Only adults who had passed their Om'riggor were allowed to join hunts for ogres and gronn.
*"They were not adults! They had not yet gone on their first real hunt, they had not danced by the fire with the females, they had not bathed their faces in the steaming blood of their first solo kills."
*Om'riggor was undertaken in the season of birth for the orc in question; possibly on their birthday.
**Orgrim was born in summer; Durotan was born in early autumn.
======The First Kill======
*The first part of Om'riggor comprised of the youngster in question making their first solo kill and anointing their face with its blood before returning to their Clan as an adult.
*Only a single weapon was allowed for the Om'riggor kill, and no armour.
*"...as he sat blindfolded in the waiting hut."
*"The shaman will determine if you are successful by tasting the blood upon your face."
*The adults sometimes seem to have offered underhanded tips for the Om'riggor, such as hiding armour in the wilderness to collect later, or taking the blood from a long-dead Talbuk instead of a freshly killed one (as they tasted the same).
*This section of Om'riggor sometimes took days to complete.
*Durotan was gifted with the hide of his Om'riggor kill.
======Visiting Oshu'gun======
*Visiting Oshu'gun was the "final part of the rite of adulthood" for all orcs.
*The pilgrimage there, lengthy for many clans, needed to be made on foot - not mounted. "The traditions were ancient and specific."
*The orc child travelled there with the elder shaman of their Clan.
*Only certain orcs were required to actually enter the mountain to visit the ancestors, and it was at the request of the ancestors themselves. "Usually it meant the child in question was destined for the shamanistic path."
*"[Mother Kashur] lit a bundle of dry grasses that gave off a sweet, pungent scent, and waved the smoke over [Durotan] to purify him. Then she marked him with the blood his own father had shed for this moment, kept carefully in a small stopped leather bag. Kashur placed her withered hands upon his smooth, low brow, murmered her blessing, and then nodded."
*Kashur [...remembered] the first time she had come here long ago, the blood of her mother wet on her face, her eyes wide, her heat racing."
*The ancestors would sometimes ask to see a child for a different reason. Durotan was not asked for because he would become a shaman, but because he would become a hero of the Orcish people.
*The pilgrims that visited the inside of Oshu'gun would take offerings of water to add to the pool that they found inside. Unknown to them until later, this nourished the dying Naaru underneath.
*The shaman and the youngling would look into the pool of water. It would allow the shaman to see the spirits - first as a reflection in the pool, then as though they were standing in the room. If the youngling was also to be a shaman, they would see the spirits too.
**If the youngster would be a hero, then the ancestor who examined them would impart a prophecy about them to the shaman. In Durotan's case: From his line will come salvation, fairly obviously referring to Thrall.
**Even the non-shaman youngsters would be able to feel the touch of the spirits, if not see them.
*It would seem that even shamans could only see the spirits which wished to be seen.
=====Naming=====
*"Mother" is a reverent title. "Greatmother" moreso.
*Orgrim only became "Orgrim Doomhammer" after his father died. Before then, he was "Orgrim of the Doomhammer line".
*Examples of naming conventions:
**"Durotan, line of Garad, of the Frostwolf clan." (Male, Chieftain line)
**"Orgrim, line of Telkar Doomhammer, of the Blackrock clan." (male, well-known hero line)
====Facts, Physiology and Geography====
*He couldn't place the scent..." Orcs can (could?) recognise each other by scent.
*Tusks were not fully formed by age 19.
*Draenei traded "carefully crafted tools and weapons and decorative pieces of carved stone" in exchange for the orcs' "thick pelts of the forest animals, brightly woven blankets, and raw materials culled from the land and stone".
*Oshu'gun used to need to be climbed to be entered. The entrance was "a perfect oval". The caverns that were entered were situated above the ones currently accessible in World of Warcraft.
*Draenor used to have four seasons. The trees were decidious (shed their leaves in the autumn). It snowed in the winter (sometimes autumn and spring, too).
*The orcs were unaware of the existence of Zangamarsh, but they inhabited most other places.
**(Speculation) Although Zangamarsh is in the middle of the continent now, it's possible that you used to be able to circumvent it by travelling through Terokkar into modern-day Hellfire, then into modern-day Netherstorm or Blade's Edge.
**There's evidence in Netherstorm that the planet used to have seas.
*"She had been born sickly, her skin a pale fawn colour rather than the healthy tree-bark brown that marked most orcs. For most of his childhood, he remembered the adults speaking of her in low whispers, as of one already on the way to joining the ancestors. His own parents once spoke of her sadly, wondering what her family had done that the spirits would curse them with such a frail child."
**"By the grace of the spirits, the healing of the shaman, and the power of the will he could see burning in her brown eyes, she had cast off her childhood frailty."
====Beliefs, Religion, Behaviour and Society====
*"'You lie! Metal cannot float!' An orc would have growled and boxed Orgrim's ears - hard - for such insolence."
*"'That water is too hot to drink and is too much for steeping leaves," Durotan said. / 'It is for bathing,' the draenei replied. / 'Bathing?' / 'To wash the dirt from one's body,' Restalaan said. [...] / 'We do not bathe,' Orgrim growled. / 'We swim in the rivers in summer,' Durotan said. 'Perhaps this is similar.'
*Geyah and Garad were "worried about how sensitive" Durotan seemed socially.
*Both males and females were "as valued as each other".
=====Shamanic Worship=====
*Shamans took concoctions of herbs before bed to open their minds to the visits of the ancestral spirits during their dreams.
*Mother Kashur, the elder shaman of the Frostwolf clan, was well aware of when her death was approaching.
*"Sometimes the ancestors had wanted to see a child before; it was infrequent, but it occured. Usually it meant the child in question was destined for the shamanistic path."
*"Never [before Durotan] had [Mother Kashur] been asked to bring a child before the Ancestors."
*"Earth, Air, Fire and Water - and the Spirit of the Wilds."
*"Mother Kashur's duty was to listen to the wind and water and fire and grass, and drink the bitter herbal beverage each night that opened her mind to visits from the ancestors. She gathered information for her clan the way others gathered fruits and firewood, and this gift nourished them as deeply."
*One could not hold a conversation with the Ancestor Spirits as one would a mortal. The words were the same, but the meaning could be confounded.
*"Death was not the vast desert of sorrow to a shaman as it was to other orcs, for they had the privelage to again be in the presence of their beloved dead, learn their wisdom, feel their affection."
*"He would see her if she saw fit to reveal herself to him." - Ner'zhul, whilst still a shaman, about Mother Kashur.
====Sayings, Quotes and Language Use====
*Clans each had their own dialects of Orcish, but all Orcs could speak one common version of the language. Some Draenei could also speak it. It is this common version of Orcish that modern Orcish is derived from.
*"...with a surprised hiss."
*"Oshu'gun" means "Mountain of Spirits". It's the orcs' word to refer to the draenei's fallen craft, as the ancestral spirits are drawn to the mountain.
*"Pale Lady" = the moon.
*"Nagrand" means "Valley of the Winds".
*"...stripling like you." (insult)
====Clan Life====
*Whilst the Chieftain role was passed on by inheritance, the role of elder shaman was not.
*The eldest shaman in the clan had a tent "second in lavishness only to the clan leader".
*Clans had their own land in which they lived.
**"In [an orc] encampment, you would find many children."
*Before Durotan (Frostwolf) and Orgrim (Blackrock) made friends, having a friendship that breached the clan boundaries was unheard of.
*"[Mother Kashur] had not thought that Durotan's feet would walk that road; it was rare that a shaman lead a clan. There would be too much pulling him in each direction for him to be an effective leader. To both listen and honour the spirits and to guide one's people well were more than most orcs could manage. One who could do both would be a remarkable orc indeed."
**Of note: Drek'thar (Mother Kashur's apprentice) and Thrall (Durotan's son) both do/did this.
*"Each clan was loyal to itself, fiercely dedicated to its members, but not to others."
=====The Clans=====
* Frostwolf
**"Traditionally even-tempered."
**The only Clan to not, as a whole, drink from the blood of demons.
**Durotan, Thrall's father, became the Chieftain of this clan.
**Drek'thar, the modern-day leader of the Frostwolves, was due to become its elder shaman, not its Chieftain.
**The Frostwolves treated runts with a degree of sad resignation. Draka, Thrall's mother, was born a runt - adults spoke of her in a hushed voice, as if she was going to die soon, but her family moved to the outskirts of the village and trained her until she was strong. By the time she took her Om'riggor, she was as strong as any other.
* Blackrock
**"Traditionally even-tempered."
**Orgrim Doomhammer was from this Clan. He also did not drink the blood of demons, but the rest of his clan did.
* Warsong
**"Known for their intense clan pride and distrust of others."
**Were the first to drink the blood of demons.
**"Among the Warsongs, it was traditional that a young warrior wear the bones of his first kill, inscribed with his personal runes."
* Bonechewer
**"Known for their intense clan pride and distrust of others."
* Dragonmaw
* Shattered Hand
**Kargath Bladefist was its Chieftain.
* Bleeding Hollow
**Kilrogg Deadeye was its Chieftain.
* Shadowmoon
**Ner'zhul and Gul'dan were from this clan. Ner'zhul had lead the shaman "for as long as Durotan could remember", whereas Gul'dan was... well, Orgrim thought that "he would better serve his people if he were set out as bait".
===The First Horde===
*"Its birth, like that of any infant, was marked by blood and pain..." -Thrall
*"Regret is a bitter taste..." -Thrall
====Transformation into the Horde====
*The shamans still took the herbal concoctions for a while, but the spirits that visited them were not those of the Ancestors. The demons were impersonating the ancestral spirits to gain the trust of the shamans and turn them into warlocks.
**The reagents required for the concoctions gradually changed, at the behest of the fake spirits, until they were addictive substances that opened the minds of the shamans to other demons.
====Secrets====
Namely, things that nobody knows in-character, but that I want to include anyway because juicy gossip.
*Ner'zhul thought, for the longest time, that Kil'jaeden was, in fact, his dead mate. It is why he carried out Kil'jaeden's orders so unquestioningly for so long.
**He eventually travelled to Oshu'gun to see his mate's spirit somehow other than in a dream. When she appeared to him, she was glaring with hatred and would not speak to him. Realising the trickery, he cried and fled.
**...unfortunately, Gul'dan had followed him and seen what happened. He betrayed him to Kil'jaeden, telling him that Ner'zhul knew the truth, and Ner'zhul was essentially usurped by Gul'dan.
*Ner'zhul was a puppet leader for a long time. He wished dearly to die, but could not bring himself to commit the dishonourable act of suicide - Kil'jaeden knew this and kept him alive out of pure spite.
**Meanwhile, Gul'dan, truly hunger for personal power and not for the good of his people, began to take over more and more publically.
*Ner'zhul's last truly free act - a rebellion against Kil'jaeden and Gul'dan - was to send a letter to Durotan and Draka (Thrall's parents), telling them not to have the Frostwolves drink the demon's blood; that it would equal slavery. He also sent such a letter to Orgrim Doomhammer.
**None of those three told anybody else about it. It was a secret that died with them.
===Modern Day Orcish Society===
====Aspects of the Old Society====
*Om'riggor was reinstated after Orgrimmar and Durotar were established.
**It's implied from other sources that, in the Horde, those which fail (or are denied) their Om'riggor but do not die are made into peons.
**Also implied in some quests is that the Om'riggor used to take place in Ragefire Chasm, before the Burning Blade took it over.
==Tides of Darkness==
Coming soon.
==Lord of the Clans==
Coming soon.
==The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm==
===Rites etc.===
====Mak'gora====
The Mak'gora is a duel of honour.
*"New" Mak'gora rules are "watered-down. Since Thrall's decree, it has become nothing more than a show"
*"Old" Mak'gora rules include that the fight is to the death.
**Select each one weapon.
**A shaman of the combatant's choosing is to bless it.
***Tradition dictates that the shaman uses his or her hands to apply the holy oil containing the blessing. Garrosh didn't know this - hence why Magatha was able to apply the potent poison without it affecting her.
**No armour. No clothing save a loincloth.
**Each combatant gets at least one witness, but more are permitted.
**There is a traditional challenge cry.
**Once a weapon is dropped, neither side are permitted to retrieve it.
Category:Horde
Category:Orc