Orcs
Orcs are the dark spawn of one of the greatest evils in the universe: Baat-Shebava, the Queen of Air and Darkness. When some of the first elves of Aelladore accepted Baat-Shebava's second bargain with the Dark God, they embraced a curse that corrupted them forever, binding them to the Midnight Court and rendering them creatures of irredeemable evil that feel neither pain nor fear.
Baat-Shebava is a sorceress whose mere will is enough to spawn her children from mud; it is for this reason that orcs are sometimes referred to as Mud-Men. Orcs were made for one purpose and one purpose alone: to multiply and destroy, inflating their mother's ego and flexing their superiority over the Kin of Aelladore.
These creatures are warriors, ambushers, and apex predators, black or near-black of skin, with matte black orbs for eyes and similarly dark hair. While this creates more uniformity among them, it also gives them the camouflage they need as nocturnal hunters, sleeping during the day and moving during the night. They only vaguely resemble humans now, retaining a small bit of handsomeness but otherwise standing around 8 feet tall, with muscular, fatless bodies from their mostly carnivorous diets and jutting bone in the form of tusks, spurs, spines, and more.
Orcs are an irredeemable evil who take sadistic pleasure in suffering and chaos. While they can sense morality, they are by no means beholden to it; they only observe it in others to predict their behavior, or to point it out and take advantage of a person's own principals.
Orcs feel no pain. In fact, they are numb to most sensations: touching a surface of wood versus stone makes no difference, for example, their bodies only telling them "you are touching this", rather than "this is scratchy" or "this is pocked". Most foods are bland to their tongues, but intense flavors like spices that would kill a normal human are right up their alley - and the sweet flesh of Kin is like an oasis in a desert.
Orcs feel no fear. They can never be frightened, but they can never be brave, either. They are the perfect soldiers, never halted by grievous wounds and never hesitant or demoralized even when brought down to the last man standing.
If they can gain a tactical advantage by retreating, however... then they are not so stupid or brash.
In symbiosis with this maleficent force are the Sev - the "dark elves". The Sev are lighter in tone - gray of skin and white of hair - showing a sense of relative flamboyant nobility compared to the grunts they command. Most Sev are raised from a young age to lead orcs into war in the name of Baat-Shebava, feeding into a terrible feedback loop where even the hint of a dark elf is an ill omen, and then that omen proves true, until eventually dark elves are considered almost as irredeemable as the company they keep.
Baat-Shebava is a sorceress whose mere will is enough to spawn her children from mud; it is for this reason that orcs are sometimes referred to as Mud-Men. Orcs were made for one purpose and one purpose alone: to multiply and destroy, inflating their mother's ego and flexing their superiority over the Kin of Aelladore.
These creatures are warriors, ambushers, and apex predators, black or near-black of skin, with matte black orbs for eyes and similarly dark hair. While this creates more uniformity among them, it also gives them the camouflage they need as nocturnal hunters, sleeping during the day and moving during the night. They only vaguely resemble humans now, retaining a small bit of handsomeness but otherwise standing around 8 feet tall, with muscular, fatless bodies from their mostly carnivorous diets and jutting bone in the form of tusks, spurs, spines, and more.
Orcs are an irredeemable evil who take sadistic pleasure in suffering and chaos. While they can sense morality, they are by no means beholden to it; they only observe it in others to predict their behavior, or to point it out and take advantage of a person's own principals.
Orcs feel no pain. In fact, they are numb to most sensations: touching a surface of wood versus stone makes no difference, for example, their bodies only telling them "you are touching this", rather than "this is scratchy" or "this is pocked". Most foods are bland to their tongues, but intense flavors like spices that would kill a normal human are right up their alley - and the sweet flesh of Kin is like an oasis in a desert.
Orcs feel no fear. They can never be frightened, but they can never be brave, either. They are the perfect soldiers, never halted by grievous wounds and never hesitant or demoralized even when brought down to the last man standing.
If they can gain a tactical advantage by retreating, however... then they are not so stupid or brash.
In symbiosis with this maleficent force are the Sev - the "dark elves". The Sev are lighter in tone - gray of skin and white of hair - showing a sense of relative flamboyant nobility compared to the grunts they command. Most Sev are raised from a young age to lead orcs into war in the name of Baat-Shebava, feeding into a terrible feedback loop where even the hint of a dark elf is an ill omen, and then that omen proves true, until eventually dark elves are considered almost as irredeemable as the company they keep.
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