Orcs

**Size:** 5'6" to 6'6 generally, however there is the odd exception.

**Weight:** 130 - 200 lbs generally.

**Average Lifespan:**

Unknown - None usually live long enough to reach old age

**Notable Qualities:**

* Magic seems to have a hard time effecting them
* Their tough skin seems to be harder and more difficult to damage
* However they seem exceptionally weak against the elements

**Age of Maturity:** Approx. 14-15

**Appearance:**

Orcs are beastly creatures. Hideous to behold in every case. Twisted limbs ending in vicious claws. Their faces a vile mockery of what they might have originated from. Flesh can range from pale browns and tans to swampy muddy green colorings. Hair often black though can range from white to red in some cases.

**Original Religion:**

Unknown - Rumored to be the corruption it's self

**General Culture:**

The first orc was said to be an elf that had been so corrupted by magic that their skin twisted and hardened, their eyes changed to a single colour and their form shifted to become a mockery of the elven form. Claws where they once had hands, jagged teeth, misshapen and sharp, their nose receding until it hardly looked like a nose at all. Orcs were considered nothing more than beasts in lore, yet they’ve built up their own society over time, it’s aggressive, dark and generally not fit for anyone not an orc. They do not generally get along well with other races because they have a survival of the fittest attitude, slavery is bigger with orcs than it is within Blacksteel and it doesn’t matter what race, the only ones they do not enslave are their own kind.

Orcs have a suspected life expectancy of 80 years old, but no one knows for sure since most tend to die long before they reach old age, who knows, they may be able to grow as old as the elves they are said to come from, but they mature faster than any other race, they grow to full size when they are fourteen years old and their size is nothing to laugh at.

Orcs are not born in the conventional way, they are asexual beings, they have no females among them. How exactly they repopulate themselves is difficult to say and only speculation has any thoughts on the matter. On occasion great pits are found half filled with old bones and dark sludge. Usually around the time there is an influx of orcish sightings.

Orcs tend to favor living out in the wild in small tribes or communities, usually not too far from other communities as they enjoy warring on each other for each little slight, if it wasn’t for the huge amount of offspring they’d be extinct.

Orcs are quite industrious by nature, making their own weapons and armor, they prefer to wear heavy armor though they tend to use a variation of whatever is available until they start having trouble moving, they tend to decorate their own armor with pieces of people they kill simply because it grants them status. You’ll find that orcs have an array of souvenirs with them depending on the preference of the individual orc, from ears, teeth, fingers or even genitalia, they love to collect pieces from those they slaughter.

Orcs do visit the city from time to time, they often work as muscle for others, bounty hunters or other violent professions, orcs that do not fight are dead orcs, no exceptions.

**Orc Ability Adjustments:** none.

**Favored Class (Rogue):** A multiclass orc's rogue class does not count when determining whether he or she suffers an XP penalty for multiclassing.

**Languages Automatically Known:** Orcish.

**Special Abilities:**

* Spell resistance: 10 + character level spell resistance.
* Spell Failure: 50% spell falure at all times.
* Magical Damage Resistance: Takes 5 less damage from raw magical sources.
* Damage Reduction: Take 3 less damage from physical damage Sources.
* Damage Vulerability: Takes 50% more damage from the following sourcres - acid, cold, electrical, fire, and sonic damage sources.