Benali Orcs

The orcish tribes have long been nomadic, moving from temporary encampment to encampment in long, winding paths - mostly through the Benali Jungle and Staggerpeak Foothills - that are each unique to the tribe that walks it. Orcs on the whole practice a combination of piracy and shamanism, their warriors acting as scouts, hunters, and raiders, gathering resources for the tribe, while shamans and other spellslingers act as priests, farmers, and invokers of the elements.

## Tribal Barbarism

Tribes work in patriarchal warbands, each led by a warchief. In rare cases, female orcs who have earned great honor for their tribe can also be granted the glory of warchief. The entire clan, shamans and warriors, follow the warchief, with the understanding that a warchief continues to bring the tribe honor as well as food and resources.

Orcs are generally considered savages by most other societies due to the orcs’ raiding nature, but they do generally follow a simple code of living that centers around strength, honor, and family. An individual orc is usually required to demonstrate its strength and worth to the clan before it can be considered a full orc.

## Passionate Tribal Engagement

Orcish tribes will often go to war with each other, engaging in weeks- to months-long battles of vicious fighting. At particular points in the year, tribes will just as quickly engage in matchmaking periods where each group will allow young adults to mate across tribal boundaries, and even in “civilized” settlements. Half-orcs are tolerated - as long as they can demonstrate their strength and worth to the tribe - due to allowed fraternization with human settlements during these periods.

## The Tribes

### Galshok (Shatter-shield) Tribe

A brutal tribe of proud and violent warriors who serve most often as the negative image of orcs in the region. The Galshok take pride in individual strength and the tribe’s might as a nomadic band of raiders that take resources from other settlements as a means of survival, whether they be orc or otherwise. Their brash and savage culture have made them a clan of competitive and ruthless orcs, who revel in their own species' strength and consider themselves the strongest of the land's myriad races.

### Magh'gar (Honor Duel) Tribe

Battle-driven and ever ready for combat, the Magh’gar orcs are more eager than the other tribes to ally with other civilizations or races, if doing so means gaining access to more fighting or tools of battle. The Magh’gar produce the most half-orc children through interbreeding with humans who will accept them, and eagerly take to joining up with other races’ causes if it means they get to participate in the battles that follow. Magh’gar value a rough code of honor as highly as combat itself, and will often resort to settling any inter- or intra-tribal arguments in a Magh’gar - an honor duel of one-on-one combat, ended usually when a combatant lies maimed or dead. The Magh'gar peoples' natural inclination to join with others has usually meant they earn some modicum of respect and tolerance in central Meridian culture, and work against the negative stereotype of orcs being pure savagery.

### Urthseen (Land Speaker) Tribe

A shamanic-focused tribe that differs from most outside conceptions of orcs as brutal savages. Following traditions and practices handed down generationally, Urthseen orcs live a lifestyle that is far more druidic than barbaric or war-driven, which the rest of their race embodies. While the clan is not without its warriors and admiration for combat, all members regard nature and the wilds as a greater force of strength than anything a single orc can become. Certain druidic circles are aware of the Urthseen, and have even engaged amicably with them. These orcs generally do not often venture outside of the Benali Forests, preferring their inter-tribal way of life.