Orcs

## Honorable Murderers

*"Listen to me, a human is a lying prick. Never believe a word they say. Dwarves are just as bad, they'll lie through their beards and laugh with people they hate... But Orcs... Orcs are the ones you can trust. If an Orc tells you you're a friend to him, he'll never stab you in the back. However, if that Orc says he is going to wear your teeth like a necklace... well..."

-*Borrik Ford, Ex-Adventurer

During the height of the Ancient High Elf Empire of the North, before they fell and escaped to the Island off the Western coast becoming a shattered self of what it once was, the first Orcs were created.

A Drow rebellion rose from the caverns beneath the old High Elf Capital city. Ultimately, the rebellion lasted a number of years and involved much bloodshed, ending in the total loss of the Drow. The Drow were forced into servitude as ever-working slaves and test subjects. Those of them who managed to escape the enslavement, escaped far into their caverns deep into the Underdark.

A breakthrough in magical scientific transmutation led to turning the Drow slaves far bigger, stronger, and easy to control. Something which led to the High Elves having an ever laborious workforce who could carry much more.

During this transition, their always dark grey skin shifted between grey, black, green, red, and orange. Tusks grew from their mouths and their delicate, Elven beauty fell into a far more bestial look.

When the Esper came and brought ruin to the land, the Elves ran, abandoning the now Orcish slaves to a ruined wilderness of the unknown.

The Orcs, now lacking the masters who ruled them for hundreds of years, were completely free... and alone.

The Orcs who were the strongest of them split off into separate tribes, surviving through a nomadic lifestyle of foraging, hunting, and husbandry.

Generations of Orcs later, the Orcs who had claimed the worst territories coveted the ones with the fattest deer and more caves. The first of many Orcish wars began as blood was spilled between the tribes.

At the end of the wars, two Orcs rose above them all. A bloody battle axe in the male Orcs hand. Long claws on the female Orc:

Rugak and his favored mate, Glashha.

They transcended from mortal life to godhood through sheer luck, martial prowess, and cult like worship.

The Orcish tribes of the Untamed Wilds turned their attention to surviving settlements of other races. Raping, pillaging, and murdering their way to martial victory, all in the eyes of their newfound "Gods," Who granted those who rose above the rest special boons.

The Human kingdom of the new Red-Lance were the only thing stopping the rampaging Orcs.

The King of Red-Lance, a brilliant strategist, led a decisive victory at Bloodroot pass, dropping an avalanche of stone onto the passing Orcish army at the narrowest point. Those who were not killed by the falling boulders, were struck down by a hail of arrows from the well placed archers high above the pass.

The Orcs fled back into the wilds, their new single unit broken and shattered back into warring tribes.

By 3000 O.T., the Orcs have remained as marauding tribes, occasionally attacking and laying siege to Red-Lance, Forbaren, Espiriton, Northern Albera, and Elemari.

However, one Orcish city flourishes. A once ruined Elven city rebuilt in the visage of the Orc tribe controlling it. All races but Elves are widely accepted and welcomed as long as do what you're told, pay the tax, and tough enough to survive Orcish law. The city is said to be led by an Orc who rules with an Elven artifact that had been brought from beyond the portal they traveled from.

Orcs gestation period is about 6 months. Orcs are generally considered adults at the age of 12, 18-28 in their prime, aged at 50, and can live up to 80. Most Orcs don't live longer than their prime either because they die in battle or they are exiled from the clan for being no longer useful in their old age, if they do not possess great wisdom to aid future chieftains.

Orcs believe in honor and trust as the highest form of importance. The action of giving their word is done in a quick ritual, which changes depending on the tribe. Some Orc tribes will stomp 3 times with their left leg and drop to one knee for a moment to give their word. Other tribes may simply give the person they are telling to trust them a tooth kept from a specific beast. An Orc who is deemed a liar by more civilized tribes is branded with a signature mark across the face, telling all who speak to him that he is the lowest scum and not to be trusted, and may be exiled or mutilated, many do not survive the mutilation. Most Orc tribes simply execute those who go back on their word, especially when the lie results in backstabbing, treating lying as capital punishment.

If an Orc gives you his word he won't kill you, he wont. He may break all the bones in your body, but as long as you're alive, he hasn't lied. However, his lieutenant readying to cleave your head from your shoulders also means he hasn't lied that **he** would kill you.