Orcs

"They come from the borders, Lord, amid the screams of the dying and the wails of motherless children. They flow in a black sea over the hills and every land they touch blackens and smokes with the fires of their passing. They are a wave of corruption, beasts with the shape of men and they defile our farms as they defile our women. None can stand against their numbers, for every raider that falls is replaced tenfold in their horde. Their eyes burn in the half-light and the sky darkens with their approach. To stand is madness, for we are as sand beneath their wave, and with every beating of our hearts, they grow closer."--Anonymous refugee, to General Harchrist of Arthedain during the War with Belkzen
==History==
In the Dark
Although many orcs claim that they were created by Gruumsh, their knowledge of the One-Eyed Beast only dates back to just prior to their coming to Athas (see The Sacking, below). Before that, they were barely more than humanoid animals struggling to survive in subterranean tunnels beneath the earth in what is now known as the World's End Mountains.
====Prehistory & Discovery====
These primitive orcs only barely grasped the concept of using tools and it is well known (to orcs) that the first tools they used were rocks to kill others, which were later fashioned into makeshift knives. They crafted small dens for their family-units and fought long and bloody wars with each other in the tunnels, as well as small conflicts with neighboring Goblin tribes. And so it would have gone on, perhaps for centuries, if not for a single team of ambitious miners.
According to the Orcs, it was the Dwarves who found them. They dug deeply and greedily, mining iron ore for their war with the elves, when they stumbled upon a vein in an orc tunnel. The savage orcs slaughtered the dwarves in their sleep and sacked their equipment and quickly discovered the great benefit of weapons. Led by the savage King Gruund-Ka, the Orcs began moving up, following the tunnels and mineshafts of the dwarves, looting gear and tools the whole way, and they captured some smiths and forced the smiths to show them how to smith their own gear. Within a year of their first encounter, with a large host of Goblins enslaved, the Orcs reached the surface and the world was not ready for their coming.
====The Sacking====
Thus began the time that orc storytellers refer to as "The Sacking", when they spilled forth from the Dark and stormed west across the surface world, slaughtering the hardscrabble settlements of humans, elves and dwarves alike. They entered from the northeast, from the World's End Mountains and quickly established a foot hold there, taking and modifying the fortifications of their enemies. They crushed the warriors who stood against them and enslaved any who survived. They soon formed an alliance with the Giants of the north and the Gnolls of the south, forming the barbaric Burning Horde. The Orcs, especially King Gruund-Ka, were of particular importance in the army.
Although the Orcs formed a civilization of sorts, they progressed little technologically or philisophically. The most intelligent among them gradually unraveled the mysteries of basic literacy from Dwarven scrolls and runes. Orc Shamans began communing with demonic forces, seeking more power. They discovered deities like the One-Eyed Beast, Gruumsh, who granted them a measure of his unholy vigor in their savage quest for dominion and destruction. So aided by their strange magic and powerful warriors, orc warlords spread out and conquered everything in their reach, instituting the rule of the strong and subjugation of the weak. In some areas, orc brutality threatened to wipe out surface-dwelling races once and for all, but after nearly twenty-five years, the surface races formed the Grand Alliance and the Dwarves shared with their allies the secrets of steel. The Grand Alliance swore to destroy the Burning Horde, a challenge the Orcs and their new king, Grond-Ka, met with much gusto.
The clashes between these two armies were many and mighty and bloody, but the orcs had had time to entrench themselves and proved far more difficult to dislodge from their surface strongholds than the Goblins, Gnolls or even the Giants. Finally, the long war ended after nearly thirty years of constant warring and the orc King Gand-Ka was killed in battle. This quickly opened a power vacuum that divided and eventually dissolved the Burning Horde, making them a scattered and leaderless rabble. Within a year, the orcs were driven into the mountains, the deserts to the south and the frozen wastelands to the north.
====The Bright Time====
More centuries passed and with the humans, elves and dwarves slowly began to build up their empires. But the orcs, in their shadowy fortresses and underground enclaves, were not idle during this time. Though they were slower to adapt than the Dwarves, they pushed themselves until their eyes could bear the light of the sun and their smiths perfected the use of steel and archery weapons and siege warfare. They fought savagely to hold on to what fortresses they still possessed, but also launched many campaigns to re-take their old holdings, some of which found brief success. Yet, without a central, unified leader the orcs' efforts were disorganized and haphazard. An orc warlord might fight through miles of enemy territory only to come upon a bastion another tribe had already claimed and were not ready to give up. As remains true today, Orcs fought orcs almost as much as they fought dwarves or elves or men.
Finally, in 1189 CR, in northern Varisia, an orc warlord rose to power who was both more powerful and more cunning than the others: Belkzen, whose black sun symbol came to be the standard for a vast army of orc tribes that were united by his determination to drive the dwarves into the sea, the burn the forests of the elves and rend the humans into many, tiny pieces. More important--he sought not only to reclaim all of the orcs' lost holdings but to claim all of Athas for his people.
====The Reign of Belkzen====
This mighty force--the Black Sun Army--laid siege to the world of Men, Elves and Dwarves and for nearly twenty years and they proved almost unstoppable. Belkzen was truly a tactical genius as well as a charismatic leader and master warrior, and he trained his orcs with similar cunning. His signature tactic was to launch the heads of the fallen into besieged cities, often laden with rats or fetid meat. Their war in Arthedain was long but Belkzan proved his might when he took the great fortress of Ruma from the Arthedain and Belkzan declared himself King and he ruled from the mighty fortress, which he renamed "The Hold of Belkzen".
While his rule was not universally popular, he ruled with fear and cunning, particularly by executing any who challenged or questioned his authority. This was done particularly to deter tribes from warring with each other: when an orc killed another orc, he was tortured and sacrificed to Gruumsh--along with ten of his tribe. And when any orc chief declared war with another tribe, Belkzen personally disembowled them himself with his bare hands. The orcs soon fell in line, for they learned that any who defied Belkzen paid with their lives. During his time as Orc King, he put down many coups and rebellions, and survived many assassination attempts.
Belkzen ruled with an iron fist and imposed his furious will upon his subjects until his word was not only orders but laws. These "Laws of Belkzen" came to govern every aspect of orc life and while they are sometimes petty, tempermental or arbitrary, they are still the Laws of Belkzen. Orcs finally grew accustomed to doing whatever their chief tells them to do. Even today, Orc warlords and chiefs will command their followers and expect the order to be done, although it sometimes takes a few savage executions to get the order across.
In 1205 CR, The Black Sun Army stormed north, finally laying siege to the Dwarven Holds. They attacked Kal-Tor first which resulted in Belkzen's first defeat at the Battle of Nine Stones. Belkzan turned his focus back to Thassilon, where he raged for another year before a clever maneuver by the Elves divided Belkzen's army by the Great River. Belkzen took his remaining forces north, where they battled the dwarves on the surface for another two years. Finally, in Oliddas of 1208 CR, Belkzen allied with an ambition Hobgoblin Chief and they together laid siege to Kal-Kibil, the greatest of the Dwarf holds. This battle, the Battle of Crimson Stones, was the bloodiest battle ever fought on dwarven soil. It resulted in the decimation of his forces and Belkzen died of wounds sustained during a daring (and stupid) rush for the gates. With Belkzen finally dead, the remaining orcs and goblins were easily routed and driven back past the brink of civilization, where they remained again for some time.
====The Decline====
For more than 2,500 years now, orcs have ruled the Hold of Belkzen--and nothing else. While the warlords of that city are generally considered the strongest orc chiefs, they are not recognized as kings and they hold little to no influence outside of those walls. The orcs outside of the Hold of Belkzen have reverted to the old ways. They fight amongst themselves, brutalize anything smaller than themselves and even when they do succeed at taking a city or stronghold, they lose it again within the space of a few years or even months.
While more ambitious orc chieftains dream of one day reuniting the tribes, as Belkzen once did, and again bringing the surface world under their despotic rule, the fact remains that they have lost all advantages they once had. The sun still rises by day, the elves remain strong opponents and the dwarves are ever vigilant--and none of that seems to be changing anytime soon.
====The Grey Age====
When the Grey Lady first began appearing in 4650 CR, she brought with her tribes of orcs, united into her Grey Legion. Such orcs leave the distinction of their former tribes behind and serve only the Grey Lady. These orcs serve as the backbone of her military and are the primary force through which she operates. These orcs are highly trained and feared throughout Athas.
==Physical Traits==
Anyone living near the frontiers and unsettled lands where orcs are most commonly found knows them on sight. They are tall and powerfully muscled, with flesh that ranges from mottled grays, to ashen black, to sickly brown, to dark green. Most distinctive are their faces, which are savage and bestial. Orcs have broad, flat, often upturned noses, wide mouths and teeth resembling a boar's tusks. Their eyes are small and reddish or yellow or black, glaring from beneath heavy brows and nearly always squinting in any light brighter than that of a full moon. Their ears are frequently long and lupine, though few orc make it through childhood without having their ears tattered by bites and cuts or torn off entirely in fights. Their hair is dark and coarse and oily, although some orcs (particularly females) manage to grow it out into a dark mane of heavy locks, controlled with bone combs and leather ties. Orcs never grow facial hair: not because they can't but they despise beards due to their connection with dwarves.
Although orc appearances are unpleasant enough to begin with, they also tend to be hideously scarred, making their faces the stuff of nightmares. Male orcs commonly bear scars from countless battles: from a milky eye to a missing ear, split nose or crooked grin produced by a blade. Some of the marks are deliberate, such as emblems cut or branded into the cheeks or forehead or chest. Orc females are not exempt--in addition to the marks they receive at the hands of males, they often file their teeth, scar and tattoo their faces and pierce their ears, lips and nose for the same reason males do: both for decoration and to show their status and strength. Orc females also receive a tally-mark carved into their backs for each living child they bear, often making their backs twisted, scarred canvases of mottled flesh.
While orcs are often cast as savages and half-beasts, they do posses once psychological advantage: their incredible capacity for mental strain. Orcs are never shocked by sights of violence, never worn down by endless campaigning and never haunted by dreams of their vicious deeds. While part of this psychological endurance comes from exposure to myriad affronts and terrors throughout their remarkably short lives, orcsseem to posses a more economical memory than most races. This has little to do with their ability to retain information, though--quite the opposite, in fact. Rather, orcs possess a seemingly voluntary, though potentially subconscious, ability to forget. Thus, crippling failures, moments of terror and unwanted emotion can simply be shoved out of the mind, allowing lusts and violent pride to dominate. This isn't to say that orcs forget every slight or pain--few creatures hold grudges like orcs--but traumas that might impede their ability to survive and fight on are dismissed, giving orcs a predator-like confidence in their own abilities and willingness to endlessly fight on.
===Strength and Stamina===
"The strong survive" is the chiefest of orc sayings, and none can argue that orcs are known for their brutal knack to survive. Orcs who manage to live past childhood have already endured disease, filth and violence enough to kill most civilized adults. Their animalistic nature has them almost constantly on the move, and only those with the strength and stamina to endure it make it to adulthood. Orc warriors can march at a brisk pace in armor all day long and still be eager to fight when they arrive later that night. Full-grown orcs wrestle wild beasts with their bare hands for sport, and train with weapons that smaller, slighter creatures can barely lift, much less swing with any real force. Survivors of orc raids have reported the creatures beheading folk with a single stroke, practically cleaving some in twain with their great axes.
Strength is a quality orcs respect and in many cases, perhaps the only one. Anyone--even another orc--showing weakness invites death or enslavement, for the strong rightfully take what they want from the weak, and in this way the tribe as a whole is kept strong and imposing.
===Senses===
Bred beneath the surface, orc eyes can pierce the deepest gloom but are extremely sensitive to light. They can tolerate the light of an overcast day easily enough, but full sunlight is painful to them. While daytime races take comfort in the light, orcs see it as a danger. Light is a betrayer, giving away the warrior's position and blinding him so softer and weaker creatures can kill him.
An orc's wolf-like ears are not overly sensitive compared to a human's, although they are more demonstrative. Orc ears twitch and shift slightly, showing their owner's attention. A careful observer can see if an orc sentry has noticed him by the involuntary shifting of his ears and an orc threatening to attack flattens his ears like an angry dog.
Orc senses of smell and taste seem no more or less perceptive than those of other humanoids, although common wisdom says orcs must not have any of either, given their living and eating habits. It is certainly true that orc camps and villages reek with charnel odors of slaughter, spoiled food, spilled drink and rotting waste. Orcs themselves reek of these smell, along with a rough, animal musk that is their natural scent.
Many scholars posit that orc bodies must handle pain differently than those of other races. After all, how else could they endure the hardships not just intrinsic to their savage lifestyles but ingrained into their culture? However, no evidence of heightened pain thresholds or decreased sensitivity has ever been documented among orcs. Thus, they face the violence of their lives with similar vulnerabilities to those humans would face, struggling and surviving in conditions at least perceived as crippling by most civilized races.
===Ferocity===
To many, the defining characteristic of orcs is the ferocity that makes them such feared warriors. Anger is an orc's constant companion, what they refer to as "fire in the belly and the blood". Sometimes it is a banked glow, ready to flare when fresh fuel is thrown in the fire. In battle, it is a blazing rage. Orcs are dominated by their passions and their greatest passions are to lash out, to kill and to roar their victory for all to hear. Everything about orcs as a race is painted with the blood-red palette of their ferocity. They have little to no patience for anything, and are more likely to smash a complex project than they are to complete it. They believe that pain is the greatest teacher and care little for words that sit coldly on a page. Challenges provoke their ire, and they are most alive when unleashing the fury that builds within them. An orc who is not fighting, raging or roaring in either anger or laughter is most likely spent and sprawled out, snoring with the same savageness.
Though much of this furious behavior is enforced by orc culture, it cannot be denied that orcs who are raised apart from their kind, even from childhood, are often filled with the same animal rage. All it takes is a momentary annoyance or minor frustration to drive an orc to murderous fury. Their terrible ferocity makes it all but impossible for there to be any lasting peace with orcs. Sooner or later, even if they are cowed by the strength of a greater power, something will send the orcs into a rage and then blood will be spilled.
===Diet===
In their original underground homes, orcs subsisted almost entirely on meat, supplemented by a variety of wild fungi. In the wider world, their diet has broadened, but it hasn't changed much. Orcs are only nominal omnivores, still primarily eating meat. They prefer their meat in one of two ways: raw and bloody or slow-roasted until it falls off the bone, which can then be cracked to suck out the sweet marrow. An orc feast involves hours of preparation over a fire pit, while orcs in the field will tear fistfuls of meat fresh from a carcass and gulp it down, especially if they are hungry. Although partial to civilized meat, like pork, mutton, beef, goat, rat and occasionally larger game, like bear or ox, orcs will eat virtually anything they can lay their hands on, even other humanoids. Slaves tend pens of domestic animals--usually goats--and raiding parties steal livestock when presented with the opportunity.
Indeed, orcs are quite happy to supplement their diet with foodstuffs stolen during raids, sacking and carrying off stores of grain, preserved meats and especially any sort of alcohol--the stronger, the better. They prefer rum or dark ales of the kind their forebears used to steal from dwarves, but beer, mead wine--any sort of liquor will do. Caravans known to be carrying strong drink make tempting targets for orcs, and capable brewers and distillers taken as slaves are prized, so long as they continue to produce for their masters. Such slaves are known to be treated lavishly for slaves--and by that, slaves are not murdered and are not eaten until they die.
Orc females and slaves gather the token fruits, herbs and roots used to supplement the orc diet, but sweet or citrusy fruits are not kept as orcs strongly dislike the taste. Vegetables that are kept are eaten raw. They also raise some fungi that grow abundantly on the waste that accumulates around an orc settlement and are used to brew Orc-Draught: a bitter, thick, viscous liquor with a fiery burn, a smell like oil and horrible bitterness.
===Lifespan===
Orcs are almost always short-lived. A full third of them die in childhood from a wide range of maladies and plagues, along with accidents or simple acts of violence on the part of siblings, parents or others. Those that do survive reach full physical maturity around the age of 12 years. Males usually die violently, in raids, fights with other tribes or simple arguments which inevitably turn deadly. The idea of infirmity terrifies orcs, especially as advancing age makes an orc a tempting target for all those who would prove their dominance by killing him. As a result, aged male orcs tend to become extremely canny warriors and manipulators, ruling their brethren through fear of their non-physical abilities, or else become increasingly foolhardy in their efforts to seem hale and hearty, until they meet their end that way.
Female orcs are less likely to die on the battlefield, although many still perish violently at the hands of the males, rivals or enemies of their tribe. Others die in childbirth, although orc females are particularly hardy in this manner, and the mortality rate for mothers is barely higher than other races, despite the atrocious conditions and huge numbers of offspring produced. As a whole, females are more likely to live to see old age, which for orcs come in their fourth decade. Those over 40 are treated as elders while those who reach 50 or 55 are considered to be truly ancient. Some aged females manage to accumulate personal power, usually by becoming shamans, or else through influence over their male children (as well as grand-children, and so on).
===Breeding===
The short lifespan of the orcs is balanced by a terrible fecundity. "Breeding like Orcs" is a common expression in some parts, referring to the creatures' ability to reproduce quickly. Orc females become fertile when they reach maturity and remain so until they die. Orc gestation is very short for a humanoid--only 4 months. Given orc breeding habits, mature females are almost constantly pregnant. Their bodies need little time--only about half the time as a human--to recover from the process before they are ready to deliver again.
Females typically give birth to "litters" of two to five young at a time. Singular births are rare and considered auspicious. Orcs believe that singular children have killed and devoured their siblings in the womb, giving them the vitality of many. It is certainly true that single births tend to be stronger and more likely to survive. Orcs are also notorious for their ability and willingness to breed with other creatures, including captured slaves and battlefield conquests and the result of these matings invariably reflect on their orc parentage. As physical reminders of rape and slaughter that most communities would rather forget, such half-breeds are generally despised and mistrusted by civilized communities.
Within orc society, half-orcs tend to find themselves smarter than, but physically outclassed by, their orc relations and hence are lucky to avoid slavery. Those who manage to excel in physical combat, however, tend to find themselves promoted to positions of leadership due to the brains with which they can direct their brawn. Indeed, some orc tribes go out of their way to take human slaves prisoner, with the goal of begetting a great tactician to lead the tribe to victory.
Love as a concept has no place in orc society. There are no words for "love", "marriage", "romance" or "intimacy" in Orcish.
==Culture==
Many scholars say that "orc culture" is an oxymoron and they're correct, in that what civilized races consider culture--art, philosophy, advanced education--orcs sneer upon with disdain. How do such things help strengthen the tribe and ensure its survival? For survival is the only thing that matters to orcs, and so far as they're concerned, survival is ensured only through strength and conquest. Yet that doesn't mean that orcs don't have certain universal principles and tendencies by which almost all orc tribes operate.
===Dominance===
In spite of their reputation as chaotic creatures, orcs have a sense of natural order to things: the strong dominate the weak. Predators dominate prey, while stronger predators dominate weaker ones, and so on--a great chain of dominance from the weakest of creatures to the strongest, with the highest spot on that chain being reserved for the orcs themselves. Of course, orcs are not so foolish as to believe they are the strongest creatures on Oerth. They know full well there are more powerful creatures and frequently bow to superior powers, be they dragons, demons or even a powerful human wizard. As a race, however, orcs believe they are the strongest humanoid race and therefore they are the rightful rulers of all the survey.
The drive towards dominance is strongly ingrained in an orc's being. They are virtually incapable of relating to others--including other orcs--in any other way. Alliances with orcs are either a face-saving name for what is actually surrender or else a temporary arrangement, until circumstances change or one of the parties figures out how to dominate the other. The idea of inherent equality is alien to the orc mind; everything must fall into a pecking order. If there isn't one, the orcs will establish it and most often this is done with violence.
This drive makes the core of orc culture what civilized raced would consider bullying: the strong entirely dominate the weak and are able to do as they please, but their dominance is often shallow and fragile. Someone who proves unusually strong or able to stand up to threats can turn the tables and become the dominant force in the relationship overnight. Orc life is a continual struggle for control and position.
===Conquest===
Although orcs consider themselves the strongest race, they do not believe rulership or empire is theirs simple by right. Dominance must be earned through conquest or else it is meaningless. It is necessary not only to prove that you are the strongest, but to continue proving it to every challenger who comes along. This is one reason why orc culture is so chaotic and unstable by outsider standards: orc leaders face almost constant challenges to their authority and all of them know that sooner or later, they will fall to one of those challenges. In the words of orc folk wisdom, "The Chief wins every battle but one. In that one, he hopes to die well". Time and age, if nothing else, will eventually bring down even the strongest leader.
The drive for the security and prosperity to ensure survival drives orcs to conquer. If they are not the dominant force in their lands, then they must submit, a fate all orcs with to avoid. While some orc tribes fall under the sway of more powerful outside leaders, they generally try to color the arrangement as banding together to increase their personal power. Yet even then, orcs fel shame at submitting to another. Orcs are ambitious by nature and they make poor vassals and even worse slaves.
===Cannibalism===
Orcs are infamous for their willingness (even eagerness) to eat other humanoids, even other orcs. At some level, the practice is a matter of survival--eating what food is available to them. In lean times, humanoid slaves are more important as livestock than they are for their labor. After all, orcs can always raid for more slaves when the opportunity presents itself.
Orcs also believe consuming the flesh of other creatures allows the eater to take on their strengths. Just as warriors feast on the hearts of boars, cave bears or wargs, so too does eating a fallen enemy symbolize the ultimate victory: not merely defeating the foe in combat, but consuming all that he was. As with other orc meals, humanoid flesh may be eaten raw, torn from the body of a fallen enemy or a helpless prisoner or slowly and carefully cooked. Indeed, orc "cooks" are just as often also butchers and torturers, skilled in gutting and bleeding victims in such a way as to "tenderize" them for slow roasting or stewing. Orcs often talk about other races in terms usually reserved for livestock and game animals, comparing the texture and flavor of dwarf versus human, or the taste of people from one nation versus another. When a laughing orc refers to a prisoner as "meat", he is being entirely literal.
The only humanoid orcs will not eat are elves, and it is implied that the meat is somehow toxic to them.
===Slavery===
Orcs are natural slavers, since servitude and submission are, to them, the inherent role of the weak and conquered. THey make only middling slavers, however. Unlike some other savage races, orcs are too likely to abuse and kill slaves on a whim, and they lack the organized discipline of Hobgoblin slave pens. Orcs simply force useful prisoners taken on their raids into servitude and, from time to time, sell of any excess slaves in exchange for more useful goods. In fact, they're more likely to sell to local gnolls, hobgoblins or evil humans, who know better how to keep slaves and market them, as orcs prefer quick profit to having to deal with maintaining excess flesh. This may be the best slaves can hope for, since the alternative is likely becoming food for the orc's larders.
Having one or more slaves is a mark of status for an orc. Technically, only males are permitted to own slaves, although females can order them around. Still, they are the male's property and females are not permitted to punish or (lethally) harm the slave or suffer punishment by the males. Similarly, a male who damages another male's property is expected to answer for it. The orc attitude toward slaves tends to be fairly casual, as they are considered disposable and have to be replaced eventually anyway. Orcs value certain slaves for their skills, but becoming attached is considered foolish and weak, like a human becoming attached to a cow headed for slaughter.
===Crime and Punishment===
Orc codes of law are as brutal as the rest of their culture. Indeed, the "law" of a particular tribe amounts to nothing more than a scant body of traditions and the will of the ruling chief. The only true law orcs respect is that of the strong over the weak. An orc warrior can punish his females or slaves as he sees fit and an orc leader can do the same with his warriors, so long as their is no one strong enough to stop him. "Justice" has no role. In fact, orcs consider the concept of judgement by scholar, especially based on words written by dead men, a perverse and contemptible weakness--a voluntary abdication of power.
Execution and enslavement are by far the most common punishments meted out by orc leaders, though torture is also popular. Enslavement is typical for outsiders and those with some useful skills, while execution is more common for orcs who unsuccessfully challenge their superiors. Exile is also considered the cruelest punishment for an orc, worse than the relatively quick mercy of death. It typically involves mutilation, like the removal of the prisoner's axe-hand or possibly putting out one or both eyes. Such wretches are then cast out to die in the wilderness or survive as pitiful beggars, if they can--charity is in small supply for orcs. Still, orc legends tell of maimed exiles who manage to not only survive but grow stronger for their disabilities and eventually return and take revenge.
While orc executions are often impromptu beheadings or bloodlettings, some leaders prefer to make cruel and bloody spectacles out of them: forcing prisoners to fight unarmed against wild beasts or slowly torturing them to death as they beg for mercy in front of a jeering crowd. Such events entertain and serve as a warning to others who might defy them.
===Challenges===
Orcs are constantly on the lookout for chances to show their strength and dominance, and use various challenges and contests to prove themselves better than their rivals. These are generally improvised and bloody, with only a minimum of convention. Winning a challenge offers bragging rights and status--at least until the next challenge comes along. Typical challenges include wrestling matches, drinking contests, dangerous games of stoic self-mutilation and of course the ever popular duel to the death.
===Crafts and Trade===
While many of their material goods are acquired through raiding, orcs do practice various crafts. Unlike more civilized people, orc crafts are crude and entirely focused on function, and the only art involved in their manufacturing comes from making the resulting creations look as intimidating as possible. Though a few orcs achieve great renown for their weapons or war machines or torture devices, most orcs lack the patience for creative endeavors. As one trader's saying goes, "Good enough is more than good enough for an orc". With the exception of tools of war, goods that require refined and highly skilled craftsmanship are nearly always the work of slaves or taken on raids.
Crafts in orc society are entirely by demand. There is little, if any, trade and orc females or weak (but clever) males working at the command of a stronger leader. Thus crafters make what they are told to make, when they are told to make it, and little else. After all, any excess or personal work they do will simple be taken or destroyed by the stronger members of the community, so there is little incentive to work at a craft for its own sake.
The only area of craftsmanship worth noting is their weapon smithing. While generally as rough and crude as their makers, they are also every bit as brutal.
===Transportation===
Orcs travel virtually everywhere on foot, being capable long-distance marchers and runners. Some manage to steal and retain horses or other mounts, or even capture and train wild Dire Wolves, Wargs or Dire Boars. They are likely to ride an animal to death, given the opportunity and mounts are among the first casualties in a war band. Simple wagons tend to show up in orc communities, some made by slaves, but most are stolen. They, too, are used roughly until they inevitably break down and cannot easily be repaired. It's a fortunate slave who has a cart to help carry the load; most must suffer the backbreaking work with their own hands.
Orcs tend to be poor sailors. They mistrust deep water and prefer not to sail out of sight of shore when they go to sea at all. Though most orcs do know how to swim, and though some make effective use of rafts on rivers or small bodies of water, they are rarely ever seen on the high seas.
====Clothing and Attire====
Orc clothing is primitive, focusing on the warmth and protection of furs and leathers, which are also the most easily obtained materials. An orc is more likely to wear a sheepskin than to make anything else from the wool and much of the cloth and finished clothing worn by orcs is stolen.
Outward appearances are actually quite important to orcs, however. An orc's adornment, including things like the arms, armor, jewelry and even body decorations. Wealth and status are meant to be displayed for all to see. How orcs treat each other, especially those they don't know personally, depends on how strong, prosperous and well-armed they appear.
====Colors====
While orcs don't often make their own cloth, they are fairly skilled at making and using various dyes, and the colore of their attire is very important. Orc tribes adopt colors as their own, and members of the tribe wear them proudly, particularly when their community's name is known and feared. Using dyes made from various plants, animals and minerals, orcs color clothing blood and rust red, along with various shades of brown, green and grey. Putrid yellows also show up, but few blues or violets. The orc fascination with dyeing sometimes extends their hair as well; some females rinse their locks to give them a sheen like dried blood or a greenish tint that males find attractive.
====Body Art====
Orcs makes extensive use of body decoration, although what they consider pleasing and attractive is often profoundly ugly by other races' standards. Orc body art began with the battle scars proudly displayed by males to show their prowess and strength. Scars earned in tests of strength and rites of passage followed, leading in turn to a ritual scarification and branding. "Unscarred" is a derisive orc term for someone who is inexperienced or inept, also implying softness and weakness.
By rubbing colored clays and other dyes into the cuts for scarification, orcs developed their first tattooing techniques. The use of color appealed to their sensibilities, and tattoos became widely practiced form of body decoration. Artists use wooden needles to place their dyes under the skin--a long, slow and painful process that makes larger and complex tattoos a sign of stamina. Orcs also infuse many tattoos with gamal, a fungal essence that makes their vivid colors visible even to darkvision.
Orc tattoos tend toward the abstract, with interconnected lines and symbols, rather than pictures or words, although some orcs bear images associated with their tribe or famous deeds. Facial tattoos are common. Orc warriors use them--along with scarification--to enhance their fierce appearance on the battlefield. Orc females use them to improve their attractiveness. Piercings are common to both genders, and many half-orcs also adopt a lesser version of the practice. Orc females pierce their ears, lips, brows and other areas of the body, using quills or metal jewelry for decoration. Male orcs are also known to have facial piercings but do so at their peril, as there's a good chance of their piercings getting pulled out in a fight or just during the day-to-day struggles of an orc's life. As such, facial piercings usually indicate males who are either tough enough not to care, or foolish or prideful enough to risk injury.
====Masks====
The orc practices of facial tattooing and painting for battle leads naturally to the use of masks among orc warriors. They serve two purposes. First, a mask can present an even more fantastic and terrifying visage to the enemy, making a warrior look like a demon or other powerful creature. Second, distinctive masks serve to both identify the wearer while also concealing his true features. Some orcs believe outsiders are not fit to look upon a warrior's true face in battle, and so the mask is the only--and the last--thing that they see. These masks are not necessarily masquerade masks; they can be metal helms, potato sacks, cloth wraps or even elaborate wooden masks.
Shamans and witch doctors also make use of various masks representing gods, spirits and fiends, and the warrior's practice of wearing masks may have been inspired by a desire to possess some of the same magical power. Some orc witch doctors observe a taboo of never appearing unmasked, allowing them to conceal their true identities even among their own tribes. On occasion, this practice has also concealed the fact that the witch doctor is in fact a female, a half-orc or some other outcast from orc society.
====Trophies====
Orcs like to display signs of their success and often wear trophies of their consequences and victories. Orc warriors wear necklaces of elf ears, dwarf teeth, human finger-bones, halfling toes--gruesome warnings to foes of their evental fate. Their hovels may display entire shrunken heads or scoured skulls or scalps of their enemies. Males often wear or display braided locks of female's hair as a sign of their conquests. Other trophies include weapons and goods taken from fallen foes or looted on raids.
Beyond the treasures held by individual orcs, tribes often keep monuments of their victories, whether those accomplishments be recent, historic or even wholly legendary. A tribe's trophies tend toward the ostentatious--even by orc standards--marking triumphs on the field of war, conquests of the past, the slaughter of entire enemy tribes, or the razing of whole lands or works. Battered kingly thrones, totems composed of the bones of an entire enemy legion and the skeletons of great monsters all are common trophies. Typically situated near the center of a tribe's settlement, within sight of the chief's hut, such memorials are held in almost religious esteem, holding great symbolic significance for the tribe. Most are mounted on wheels, crude carts or sleds so they can be dragged into battle, serving as an inspiration to the tribe's warriors. For all the history and morbid pride surrounding such monuments, though, they also represent an obvious weakness. Should one tribe invade another, the defender's trophies present paramount targets, as ruining them can deal a significant blow to the tribe's morale. It can prove even more debilitating if a tribe's trophies fall into the hands of an enemy, with the victims of such a theft often paying grandiose and demeaning ransoms for their returns. Such exchanged rarely end in the actual restoration of a tribe's trophies, as any thieving tribe realizes that once they return their symbolic hostage, their opponents will doubtlessly seek revenge.
===Religion ===
Religion is a significant part of orc culture, as it reflects the orcs' belief in the natural order of things. Their religious views are an extension of their society, and their god is merely and infinitely powered bully, worshipped not out of veneration but out of fear and respect for their power. Most religious rituals are intended to appease Gruumsh and turn away his anger, and to serve them as orcs themselves wish to be served. It also means that for a god to gain followers among the orcs, his shamans must be able to show a direct and tangible benefit on the battlefield (or else simply be so physically imposing that they can kill all naysayers themselves).
====Shamans & Witch Doctors====
Orc religious life is dominated by shamans, most of whom are adepts, though some exceptional shamans are full clerics of Gruumsh, or druids. Shamans enjoy great prestige within a tribe as a result of their magic and ability to commune with the gods. Strength and skill in battle are still prerequisites for leadership in orc society, of course, so few shamans become tribal chieftans or warlords unless they have enough power to stand against the tribe's greatest warriors (for as in any orc interactions, might makes right).
Shamans generally pass down their knowledge and traditions from shaman to apprentice. A shaman might have anywhere from one to five apprentices at a time, though a particularly old and powerful shamans might have an entourage of up to 20 lower-level novices. Orc shamans choose their apprentices from among the 7 year-old males of the tribe, and none can gainsay a shaman's choice, which is an expression of the gods' will. Occasionally, weak or sickly offspring are assigned to a shaman rather than chosen, usually after bribery by the child's mother to accept the unwanted spawn as an apprentice. Once assigned to a shaman, a novice undergoes an apprenticeship that usually lasts 5 years, during which the young apprentice is taught the traditions of the tribe and its gods, which vary between tribes. During this time, the novice is little more than a slave to the shaman. Novices are starved, beaten and tortured by the shaman to purge them of weakness and strengthen them for dominance and the shaman's favor. Many novices fail to survive their apprenticeship and those who do endure carry their scars and injuries (both physical and mental) into adulthood.
As a general rule, there can be only one shaman in a tribe, and an orc holds that position only so long as he can keep it. Paranoid shamans regularly cull novices who seem to be growing too powerful and many novices who suspect their masters of such intentions strike out on their own before they can be killed, presenting themselves as full shamans to other tribes. Often, however, a shaman's rule comes to an end when an apprentice becomes powerful enough to challenge the shaman in combat.
Shamans have a tradition of gouging out their left eye upon their title.
====Cults====
While modern orcs often worship Gruumsh (almost exclusively), they also frequently pay homage to a traditional, spiritual and demonic faith that dates back to before their arrival on the suface. Tribes of this belief embody the ideals most dear to orc heart and minds, such as War, Fire, Darkness and so forth. Collectively, this form of worship is known as the orc cults.
Most non-orc theologians believe that these orc "gods" are not actual deities but rather concepts that are fulfilled by various demons or dark fey. The "gods" of orc cults are chaotic evil.
====Superstition====
To orcs, the world is a cruel and merciless place and thus they tend to be intensely superstitious, as they lack the wit or patience for any sort of philosophy other than their own. To an orc, every misfortune is a direct attack, either by enemies casting curses or plotting against them, or by supernatural forces like demons, spirits or gods who have it in for them. Succumbing to such misfortune is a sign of weakness. Therefore, orcs believe in all manner of superstitions, omens and charms intended to ward off ill will and strengthen their defenses. When dealing with the cruel whims of fate, they prefer to be forewarned and well ared, rather than unarmed and helpless.
===Magic===
Few Orcs have the patience or mental acuity for diligent study, so orc wizards are rare in the extreme. Most arcane magic in orc society comes either from those blessed with innate magical powers from birth (like sorcerers) or those with an intuitive connection to magic (like Arcane Adepts).
These spellcasters are often feared and respected as demi-gods blessed by Gruumsh, despite their inferior skills as warriors. These specimens often usurp control from the tribe's chiefs, and enforce their rule violently and savagely. Thus, orcs both respect magic, and they hate and fear it to the extreme. While spellcasters are tolerated and feared within the structure of the tribe, they are hated, persecuted and killed when encountered anywhere else.
===Family===
Orc families are perfect examples of the importance of dominance in their culture. Orc males compete for available (read: unpregnant) females and can impregnate as many as he can dominate. The Chief traditionally selects three females that are his alone to mate with: these females can change with his whims and so must work hard to maintain his attraction. For their part, orc females see males with many other mates as desirable and they believe mating with the strongest males ensures they'll bear stronger children.
Orcs have no family unit to speak of, as children are raised more or less communally. Many orc children do not know their mothers and have only a vague idea of their fathers.
Orc females are generally seen as little more than possessions. They live and die at the whims of males and their sole purpose is to breed and maintain offspring. Infertile or unwilling females are not tolerated. Female children are seen as a tradable commodity at best, and are left to their mothers to raise, while males are taken away at the earliest opportunity to be trained as warriors.
That's not to say that females are helpless victims--far from it. In fact, females are often more petty and vicious than the males. Their circumstances force females to develop a measure of cunning and skill in manipulating others. Females often compete for attention from males but must often learn to cooperate to keep other females from breeding with desired males, or at all.
==Orc Civilization==
Oerth is full of orcs and their hordes occupy the ruins of some of the world's oldest cities. They squat among the ashes of the castles and villages they have conquered and lurk in caves and tunnels just beneath the surface, from the realm of the Northern Wastes to the deserts of the Varisian peninsula.
Orcs have civilization only in the broadest definition; they are much better at simply populating an area than building a civilization. By nature, orcs do not innovate and create so much as they modify and adapt, conquer and occupy. While orcs are perfectly capable of putting up a few tents and slapping together some crude walls, their settlements are rarely more than temporary and are composed of scrap and refuse--anything that can be lashed or nailed together. What cities orcs do occupy, they did not build themselves--why study and labor when there are so many cities already standing, ready for the taking? When orcs conquer a place, the sacking is thorough and the city may be much worse for the wear afterward. Any orcs not driven hard to the next battle are likely to settle and inhabit the squalor they've created, the fecundity of the orcs ensuring that the city will be populated again in no time, and the lines of orc territory will continue to expand. Those living in the city who attempt to appease the conquerors rather than resist quickly discover that orcs have little us for neighbors--but plenty of use for slaves or livestock.
Orc society is built on the principle that the big and strong rule and the small and weak serve. This does not mean that orcs base their society around slavery--merely that they find some purpose for anyone they can subjugate. Orcs live by a constantly-changing pecking order: an orc who dominates an entire tribe today might lose a challenge tomorrow and find himself reduced to little more than a beast of burden--to be whipped and starved, if left alive at all. In some cases, his only use might be to feed his tribe. This constant state of tyranny and agression makes orcs very self-interested creatures.
They rarely cooperate with anyone else, except when forced to by a strong-willed (and stronger) master; even then, they look for any opportunity to personally benefit. Orcs see no point in working hard if they can force someone else to do the labor for them. This philosophy does not extend to war--orcs like violence far too much to let someone else have all the fun. Orc offensives are chaotic and brutal, usually hinging on blitzkrieg tactics and a bloody, ruthless mop-up afterward, and they are anything but organized. Each orc rushes into the fray, attempting to dish out as much damage as possible before the battle ends--the desire for short bursts of savage ecstasy is a mentality represented in almost all aspect of orc life.
==Tribes and Heraldry==
The orcs of Athas are fiercely proud of their tribes, and assemble elaborate banners displaying their tribal affiliations. These standards serve not only to declare loyalties and establish the orcs' social ranking but also to encourage orc warriors to give it their all. Presented below are several of the most established and infamous tribes in Athas today:  
====The Black Sun Tribe====
This legendary tribe traces it ancestry all the way back to Belkzen himself. Other orc tribes aren't so certain, but few are willing to argue with the Black Sun's leader, Krun Thuul. Any undertaking in the Hold of Belkzen would do best to get the Black sun orcs on its side.
====Blood Trail Tribe ====
The orcs of the Blood Trail tribe are nomads who wander throughout the northern reaches of Rikea and Rath, raiding and pillaging as they go. Their leader is Kring the Beautifulm who, it is said, keeps her tribe on the move in her quest to find a male orc worthy of fathering her young.
====Broken Spine Tribe====
The Broken Spines made their home in an abandoned keep and mine system in the foothills of the Thunder Peak Mountains. Led by Chief Kroghut, these orcs have a deep-seated hatred of humans and members of the Steel Falcons in particular.
====Cleft Head Tribe====
The Cleft Heads are infamous cowards among other orcs, often referred to as "the last ti battle, the first to flee". They have historically been led by a succession of chiefs--the lastest being K'zaard the Drover--who must keep their tribe's members well-stocked with spoils (mainly alcohol) to keep them from rebelling.
====Dead Eye Tribe====
Unlike most orcs, the Dead Eyes worship Hextor. They occupy crude villages scattered throughout the Kodar Mountains, near the Brimstone Haruspex and are famous slavers.
====Death's Head Tribe====
The Death's Headorcs are a mercenary company more than a real tribe, hiring out to any orc leader who can pay for their services. They operate almost entirely within the Hold of Belkzen, usually around northern Rikea.
====Defiled Corpse Tribe====
Feared and reviled even by other orcs, Defiled Corpse orcs revere Erythnuul and delight in torturing captives. The orcs of this tribe are among the most horrific in appearance--regularly applying their barbaric "art" to themselves as a sign of endurance and devotion. Many tally a mark on themselves for every enemy they kill and this tribe regularly resorts to cannibalism.
====Empty Hand Tribe====
The warlord Grask rules the Empty Hand tribe, which rules the northern stretch of the World's End Mountains, technically in the northern wastes. Uncharacteristically disciplined and organized, this tribe has more half-orcs than any other tribe, regularly produces monks and worships Hextor. These monks are savage and feared throughout Athas.
====Gnarled Fist Tribe====
After failing to conquer Rikea decades ago (long before the Fall of the Blue Throne) their tribe was in slow decline for some time. Their current chief, Bullgor Backbiter, is a cunning and devious strategist and was the first to enlist to help the Grey Lady. Today, the Gnarled Fist tribe remains the chiefest and most powerful of the Grey Lady's servants.
====Gouged Eye Tribe ====
Orcs of the Gouged Eye are almost exclusively barbarians, savage even by comparison with most orcs and famous for their crazed bloodlust in battle. Found along the eastern border of Rikea and Impiltur, in caverns under the World's End Mountains, Gouged Eye orcs frequently clashed with the Rikean army before the fall of the Blue Throne. They serve under the Grey Lady and are, for the most part, unregulated and allowed to attack and raid to their heart's content.
====Gutspear Tribe ====
Gutspear orcs occupy several cave dwellings in the mountains of Terminor, from which they occasionally emerge to raid villages and farmsteads in the foothills. They are led by Drog Ten-Heads, who drags around a chain festooned with necromantically animated heads of his 10 worst enemies.
====Haskodar Tribe====
Led by the formidable Tulluk Clovenface, the Haskodar clain rules Blisterwell in an uneasy stalemate with the One-Eye Tribe. Tulluk plots to crush the One-Eyes and seize control of those holdings, perhaps even using it as a base from which to launch an assault. They are secretly plotting with a clan of Ogres to accomplish this task.
====Murdered Child Tribe ====
This tribe is led by the vicious and cunning Hundrux Half-Man--unique among orc leaders in that he is a half-orc, and one of the two most powerful and influential tribe leaders in Nimbal.
====One-Eye Tribe ====
Molkk Dwarf-Mangler leads the One Eye orcs and shares a mutual animosity of Tulluk Clovenface. These two hate one another and bear countless scars from their frequent clashes.
====Rotten Tongue Tribe====
The Rotten Tongue tribe occupies a complex of caverns in the Dunn Holds, from which they periodically raid both Lasthouse and nearby Dunn settlements. The Rotten Tongue is led by a war chieftan, but the chieftan is heavily influenced by a council of orc shamans, who hold the real power.
====Severed Hand Tribe====
Severed Hand tribe are found throughout the mountains of Avistan and have traditionally menaced both Varisians and Spirans for centuries.
====Shattered Skull Tribe====
The Shattered Skull orcs dwell in the mountains northwest of Rath, where they harass the local Rathan tribes and occasionally surge out into eastern Rikea or northern Nimbal.
====Skull Eater Tribe====
Skull Eater orcs, led by Gribrik the Bone-Cracker, lurk in and around Whisperfell Pass, preying on Nimbal humans and frequently clashing with the troops stationed at the Firewatch Peaks, where they also menace Rathans on occasion.
====Steel Biter Tribe====
The Foundry, an ancient Dwarven fortress in Dunn filled with forges and hearths of every shape and size, is currently occupied by this group of orc engineers and weaponsmiths who use the dwarven equipment to invent all manner of weapons--from daggers on up to siege weapons--and sell their inventions to whichever tribal leader can pay.
====Twisted Nail Tribe ====
Twisted Nail orcs, sometime known as "highland orcs" live along the outskirts of Evereska and are avoided even by other orcs, as the Twisted Nail tribe has long since turned to cannibalism as its primary form of sustenance, and isn't overly concerned if its meat is dead yet.
====Vile Blade Tribe ====
Orcs of the desert, the Vile Blade conduct night raids on caravans along Spiran trade routes.
====Wingripper Clan====
Wyvern-riders, the Wingripper orcs prowl the high peaks around Evereska, seeking young wyverns to tame--a practice that ensures the clan remains feared but small.
===Ethnicities===
Like humans, orcs are hardy creatures, and can be encountered in almost any climate. While the physical differences between orcs of different terrains and climates are small, orcs have strong regional and tribal identities, and the cultural differences between tribes from different environs can be significant.
====Black Orcs====
These orcs dwell primarily in the mountains, especially around Dunn or the World's End Mountains. These orcs are physically massive, tall even for orcs, with dark brown to coal black skin and yellow eyes. They are powerfully built and possess smaller tusks than other breeds, as well as less pug-like noses.
====Sun Orcs====
Orcs in the sun-baked regions of the world are typically shorter and leaner than other orcs, with very flat, wide faces and sickly green or yellow skin. Their eyes are small even for an orc's, and for unknown reasons they have only three fingers.
====Grey Orcs====
These orcs are not named for their skin color, but for the fact that they dwell in Nimbal. These orcs, like Black Orcs, are tall and powerfully built but their skin is always a dark green and their tusks are more pronounced. The most common ethnicity of orc.
====Plains Orcs====
Being well adapted to the massive fields and immense plains of Rikea or Hardby, Plains orcs regard themselves as the hardiest breed of orc. They are tall and lithe for orcs, with long limbs and large eyes, long tusks and extremely fine hair, unlike other orcs. They tend to be grey of skin.
====Hill Orcs====
Like Plains Orcs, Hill orcs are grey of skin and tall, but more sturdily built. Their hair is also not as fine as Plains Orcs, and their tusks are not as pronounced.
====Blood Orcs====
These orcs are of deep red skin and bright yellow or black eyes, which are also always large. Their tusks are considered small for orcs, and they bald prematurely. They are powerfully muscled with long arms compared to their torsos or legs. They tend to dwell in the Ashlands or southern Nimbal.
====Island Orcs====
Extremely rare because of the relatively small size of the islands, Island Orcs are strongly territorial and savage even as far as orcs are considered. They are expert tattoo artists and tend to have very dark green or yellow skin, though grey is not unheard of. Their tusks are considered very long on average, but their hair tends to be knappy and coarse.
==Half-Orcs==
Orcs are known--and feared--for their ability to interbreed with humans. The offspring of a human and an orc is known in human lands as a "Half-Orc". Strongly influenced by their orc heritage, half-orcs are unwelcome strangers in much of Athas. Though they might live within either culture that spawned them, they belong to neither and are often forced to make their own way in the world. Fortunately, surviving is something half-orcs do very well.
A Hallf-Orc.
Half-Orcs tend to be built larger than humans, but thinner and leaner than orcs. Their tusks are almost non-existent and appear and elongated lower fangs that almost never show unless the individual is showing them off purposefully. Their ears are more human-shaped with pointed ends and their faces are still wide, with heavy brows, human-like eyes and large jaws. Their hair, as well, tends to resemble human hair more than the stringy, coarse hair of the orcs. Half-Orcs also tend to grow facial hair in very heavy, like a human.
Curiously, while their hair and eye colors tend to take after their human parent--as do their more humanlike appearance in general--half-orcs' skin is always the same color as their orc parent, but often a few shades lighter. They also tend to only have four toes, like orcs. Those half-orcs with five toes are considered marked and often times have greater capacity for mental abilities than their kin. Many adventuring half-orcs possess five toes.
Among the Orcs
Among their orc kin, half-orcs face a strange dichotomy: while their kind is generally despised for their weakness, those half-orcs who prove as deadly as their full orc kin are revered for their cunning and often elevated to the status of chief or tactician. In fact, some orc tribes specifically father half-breeds with human women in the hopes of making a half-orc child.
Half-Orcs who do not find a niche for themselves can expect a miserable existence among the orcs who abuse, insult and degrade them at every opportunity. Half-Orcs on the frontiers of Athas are well known for bearing any number of marks, brands and tattoos placed upon them by their orc cousins to show their inferior place in the world. Often born of captives or slaves, half-orcs are frequently enslaved themselves or used as cannon fodder. Half-Orc females may become the chattel concubines of an influential male, but while a clever and manipulative one may achieve some influence over her patron, most are seen as little more than a momentary diversion, enjoyed under the careful eye and iron fist of the other females.
Strong, cunning and charismatic half-orcs often manage to use their mixed-blood--and the advantages it brings--to their benefit. They throw off the torments of their orc kin and achieve positions of power and authority within the tribe, perhaps even becoming tribal leaders themselves. Inspired by the vision of the half-orc as blending the best qualities of two races rather than the worst, some leaders have emerged to rival the greatest orc chieftains in power and prestige. Prominent half-orcs often take the marks of shame inflicted on others of their kind and turn them into badges of strength and survival, seeking to undo the ugliness of their full-blooded kin with various body-modifications.
In particular, the added cleverness of half-orcs makes them effective crafters and spellcasters, both very useful abilities for the tribe. A half-orc with a talent for magic can turn the role of outcast into the fearsome respect accorded a witch doctor. Half-orc shamans are less common, simply because shamans tend to be greater supporters of the idea of "purity" of the orc race. Still, a forceful enough half-orc can bend the shaman of the tribe to his will and outwit his crude plots in order to overthrow him.
===Life as Exiles===
Given the treatment they can expect from their orc relations--and the squalid conditions even should they rise to power--it is no surprise that many half-orcs choose to strike out on their own. Some escape from the tribes where they were raised, while others are abandoned by their parents at birth--by the humans out of shame (especially among those victims who manage to escape slavery and remain in human society) and by the orcs out of general disdain. Religious houses often take in half-orc orphans and foundlings, and some half-orcs take up religion with a passion, seeking to perfect their souls through service. More often, half-orcs are raised as bastards, barely tolerated by non-orc kin, and often taunted and tormented by human children. To opportunistic humans, half-orc orphans make useful laborers or lackeys, growing in strength and maturity faster than children of other races,
Whereas half-orcs living among orcs are considered weak and soft, those living among other races must constantly struggle with their savage, bestial side. Half-Orcs are prone to short tempers, violent rages and emotional outbursts, making it difficult for them to fit into civilized society. One angry outburst by a young half-orc (a child by human reckoning, but already with the size and strength of a young adult) can result in serious injury. Ordinary childhood roughhousing, to say nothing of the passions of oncoming adulthood, are dangerous for a half-orc and can result in fatal misunderstandings. Half-Orcs living among non-orcs tend to take one of two approaches to life: either they look for a society or culture that values their natural strength and violent impulses or they seek to divorce themselves entirely from the savage side of their nature. In the first case, half-orcs often immerse themselves in the criminal or mercenary world, places where the strong survive through dominating the weak. They make excellent members of criminal gangs and mercenary companies, and half-orc gladiators are well known in lands where blood sports are permitted. The life of a wandering caravan guard often suits a half-orc's nature. Those half-orcs who sink deep into their savagery can become fearsome assassins, known for the sheer brutality of their techniques and able to strike terror into the hearts if their enemies (and their employers).
On the other hand, some half-orcs may seek a measure of self-control through personal discipline, faith or some other strict devotion. They most often seek out a religious vocation a clerics of gods such as Pelor or Kord, although there are half-orc worshippers of nearly every deity. It is a rare half-orc indeed who has the spiritual fortitude and discipline necessary to become a paladin, but those who have it tend to excel in their chosen vocation. Some half-orcs adopt personal codes of honor as warriors or mercenaries, and hold to them as their calm center amidst the fury of battle. The success and pride of half-orc leaders and champions have not only led to a greater interest among orcs inbreeding with humans, but have begun to see more half-orcs seeking mates among their own kind. Half-orcs are nearly as fertile as their orc cousins, although they tend to have longer gestation (six months) and fewer multiple births (about the same as humans, maybe slightly higher). Given time, half-orcs breeding true may establish families and communities of their own, with children raised without the stigma of being rejected by two worlds.
===Markings===
Many half-orcs raised at least partially in orc society turn the brands, marks and tattoos inflicted upon them by their orc oppressors into symbols of pride and defiance. In addition to the vivid facial markings of full orcs, half-orcs tend to have more markings on the arm and upper body, although a single sign or marking on the forehead or cheek is not uncommon. Half-orc tattoos are often abstract, like those of orcs, but some have also adopted beautifully complex pictures and mural-like images. Half-orcs of a religious bent often beat tattoos proclaiming their faith and devotion to a particular deity.
Similarly, half-orcs have taken the trappings of enslavement and turned them into decoration. Iron bracelets or bracers reminiscent of slave shackles are a common reminder of the life many half-orcs still endure. Others wear heavy rings pierced through the nose, chest or neck, echoing the rings used to lead or chain orc slaves. The bracelets or rings may even bear decorative or broken chains to further the image.
==Myths & Folklore==
Orcs are not storytellers by nature and have few culturally significant stories. Most of their myths involve Gruumsh and can be well-documented in his holy texts, or they speak of great deeds of the tribe's past. However, these stories are not well-known outside of orc camps. Therefore, there are really no myths or folklore to record. After all, telling stories does not prove dominance in any way.
In addition, half-orcs think they alone suffer their sad fate, and few realize they have kindred in type if not in actual blood. Thus, half-orcs have no recognized history and no folklore, because the race is not cohesive as other races.
Category:Races
Category:Servants of Darkness
Category:Native of the Material Plane