Half-Orc (Legal)

* *Current Realm and Enneade*: Progenitor, Tuat, Kess’Aai, Mirrormark, and Inet’Saret

#### **Statistics**

***Age***: Half-orcs possess a lifespan of about 75 years. Culturally and biologically, they reach adulthood a bit faster than humans do.

***Characteristics***: Brawn +2, Vitality +1, Resolve +2, Composure -2

***Languages***: Orcish, your home Realm’s language, and one language of your choice

***Size***: Half-orcs average weight is 90 to 120 kg, and their average height is 1.5 to 2.1 m. Your size is Medium.

***Speed***: 6 m base walking speed

***Darkvision***: You can see in dim light within 12 m of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

***Menacing***: Even if you have no ranks in Deception and Persuasion, whenever you attempt to intimidate someone, you are considered to at least possess rank 2 in both skills. If you have gained 4 ranks in either Deception and Persuasion, whenever you attempt to intimidate, you are considered to have 5 ranks instead.

***Relentless Endurance***: When you are reduced to 0 health points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 health point instead. You can’t use this trait again until you finish a long rest.

***Savage Attacks***: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

#### **Appearance**

Artificially created by the Keepers of Soul Mysteries, a group of highly esteemed archivists, academics, arcanists, scientists, and theologians from Mirrormark, the **half-orc** is created in the image of a half-human, half-orc. They weigh between 90 to 120 kg and range between 1.5 to 2.1 m tall, with prominent teeth, forward jaws, and skin color between gray to greenish-gray. Scars are a common feature for these Enna, either earned in battle or suffered by orcs’ hands to harden their skin and hearts.

#### **Lore**

##### ***Born for Battle***

The Golden Pantheon, led by Riahn, suffered some early setbacks in the War of Collapse after attacking the Dragon Lovers, Suphis, and Devistra. They exposed themselves and had to play heavy defense as the League of Discord tried to capitalize on their weakness. Hierchon, a prominent member of the alliance and being the Enneade of warfare, had many a desperate plea come his way to create something that could protect them and push the enemy back. In that stressful environment, Hierchon created the race of the orcs. The orcs were created to be the ultimate war-machine, born and bred for battle and designed to be cannon fodder for the Golden Pantheon to hide behind. The orcs were not used in combat for the sake of the Golden Pantheon for long, as soon afterward, the Golden Pantheon broke apart by infighting where members turned on members. Hierchon died during this event. However, the orcs were a popular creation and were quickly picked up by the remaining members of the Seven Master of Devils and the League of Discord.

When the Age of Collapse came to its end, no one knew what hidden threat the orcs would become. Gera, Teranis, Borias, and Suhlmis welcomed the race to their Realms, accepting them for their own respective reasons. But without a war to cull the orcs’ numbers, they spread like wildfire, terrorizing and pillaging everything they came across. The orcs grew their numbers with impressive speed. As part of the Hierchon’s design, the orc was blessed and cursed with exceptional reproduction ability for the explicit purpose of replenishing their ranks quickly. This does not only extend to reproduction between orcs but also when an orc would involve themselves with another humanoid (elves, dwarves, half-elves, goliath, etc.). Curiously, the orcs possessed the unique trait of having children with many different humanoid Enna races. These children didn’t end up half-orc, half something else, but a full orc every time.

Orcs became quite the menace. In Progenitor, the free races fight back in whatever way they while Gera sees it as natural selection. In Tuat, orcs just became another faction in the perpetual wars in the battle-scarred Realm. In Kess’Aai, the new challenger was met with a level of enthusiasm as it was something to shake the normal state of affairs. But in Mirrormark, factions were banned together to find a solution, which they viewed as a plague. With their magical and technological prowess, the civilized and allied races of Mirrormark fought back, but the orcs recuperated their losses rapidly and were never discouraged from launching more attacks.

A group stepped forward and offered a solution, a faction that seldom took center stage in politics. The Keeper of Soul Mysteries, a society of Soul researchers, claimed that they could change the orcs from within and thereupon pluck the roots of the issue rather than cut off leaves every year. Many doubted the Keepers’ claims, some even laughed, but they were allowed to begin experimentation anyway, just to explore every possible solution. Years went by, and the bloodshed continued, but in the end, the Keepers had a miraculous breakthrough. In their possession was a secret stash of a handful of Soul Gems with a particular kind of Souls within them, human Souls. With these Soul Gems at hand, they had captured a sizable tribe of orcs and had experimented on them for years. In the end, they did the unthinkable. They extracted a part of the orc Soul only to replace it with the contents of one of the Soul Gems and thus artificially created a new race, something in between that of an orc and a human, creating the half-orcs. Further, they were able to repurpose their incredible ability of reproduction. A half-orc child didn’t turn out to become an orc, but a half-orc instead, and that was true when the half-orc reproduced with another orc as well.

The desire was that the half-orcs would be more civilized and peaceful than their orc kin. And the hope was that the half-orcs would slowly but surely exchange the orcs, and in the meantime, they could use their might to help defend the free and allied races of Mirrormark. After presenting their success and creation to the other factions of Mirrormark, the half-orcs were soon deployed in battle to fight back against their ancestors. The threat of the orcs decreased every passing year as the half-orcs’ population grew.

##### ***Claiming their Freedom***

As the war raged on, now with the presence of the half-orcs, more and more of the free and allied races of Mirrormark refocused from the war, both calling back troops and dividing their attention elsewhere. After all, they had suffered many losses. Any possibility of a break from the war was highly sought after. The half-orcs, on the other hand, experienced their behavior very differently. They started to complain to their superiors and raise their voices to question. Why were they the bulk of the forces defending everyone else against this threat while the other factions of Mirrormark hid behind their walls and technology? What was first an infant race yearning for a purpose and guidance was now entering into their metaphorical teenage years. The Keeper of Soul Mysteries did not handle the situation well, as hindsight would eventually confirm. The Keepers continued their manipulation, with all their smoke and mirrors.

Tension continued to escalate until a substantial number of the half-orcs had enough. They rose against their creators in a roar of destruction. The half-orcs destroyed their research, their facilities, and their very lives. The factions of Mirrormark were unsurprisingly dismayed with the outcome and met the rebelling forces with mostly criticism and threats. In return, the half-orcs fiercely described the reality they had to endure and claimed that their cause was justified. Some factions and individuals were swayed by their words and felt sympathy for their fate. Heated discussions lasted for months between the factions. In the end, the consensus was that the half-orcs that had taken up arms against the Keepers had to be exiled from Mirrormark. Otherwise, there had to be military retaliation. The half-orcs that had remained loyal were free to stay, but henceforth conscription into their armies would be voluntary for the half-orcs.

Many half-orcs left their home searching for a new purpose in the other Realms under threat of their lives or loved ones. Some, who weren’t accused, stayed behind, unable to leave their established lives. In Mirrormark or beyond, a few half-orcs shifted to live with orcs instead of the more civilized communities. Some were curious about their orc heritage, while others preferred their sensibilities over the other humanoid races.

##### ***Half-Orcs in the World***

Even if the human part of their Souls tempers the orcish part, half-orcs can’t run away from their nature. Through discipline, half-orcs can learn to restrain themselves quite successfully, but emotions always lie dangerously close to the surface, waiting for a moment of weakness to break free. Half-orcs are emotionally ready at all times to take action. The simple pleasures in life do not go unappreciated by this race. Half-orcs are impulsive, easy to read, and often relatively easy to persuade. They have a specific weakness for desperate people or causes in need. There is something inherently sympathetic in their Soul that draws them towards underdogs, rebellions, or doomed enterprises.

In orcish societies, half-orcs need to fight twice as hard as their orcish peers, as the orcs generally see them as naturally weaker. Some half-orcs can survive in such a harsh world or even thrive as chiefs due to their cunning. Half-orcs living in civilized settlements usually turn to adventure, mercenary work, or devotes themselves to a cause, usually not the most powerful or popular one, however. Despite their empathic and sensitive nature, half-orcs are often met by paranoia and suspicions. The scars of orcs still run deep in the memories of many civilized races, and the half-orcs are usually easy to blame for both their ancestor race’s actions as well as every other bad thing that befalls a village.