Advent of the Orc Race

Plague / Epidemic

First Orc appears in the Human genepool

Orcs first appeared in the human gene-pool in 2217. An outbreak of a harmless form of influenza was at first ignored by the medical community; it was only detected and considered a threat when children born to infected mothers began to show unusual mutations, including ashen skin colors and rapidly-growing mandibular canines. The outbreak was stopped within two years, but a sizable enough population of mutated youth blossomed into its own subspecies when it was discovered that orc oocytes could not be safely vaccinated against the mutation. Forced to choose between sterilizing all orc females to, ultimately, commit genocide and allowing the new race its fundamental right to exist, the governments of Sol III accepted the newly designated subspecies.