The powerful and fearsome wanderers are the orcs. In many places feared as marauders, orcs travel the world to satiate a seemingly supernatural wanderlust innate in their being, allowing more-stationary folk to meet them as raiders and nomads both.
Orcs are a gray-skinned, dark-haired people whose most notable feature is their immense physical strength as well as their prodigious tusks.
An orc's wanderlust is not the same sort that normal folk experience in their life - a need to make oneself useful, see the world, become experienced. An orc is, by some instinct coded into their blood, never satisfied with what they have or where they are. No matter how promising or successful, they seem destined to move on eventually. For some orcs, this manifests as greed or obsession: to collect something new. For many others, they find themselves rarely staying in one place for very long.
This penchant for traveling among the species has led to many a temporary romance between an orc and the people they live near. When orcs mingle with humans, half-orc offspring are common, implying some relation between the two species. Some theories hold that some tribe of humans entered the dark realm of Shadowfell long ago, and returned to this world as orcs, the color and passion for life drained out of them.
Orcs in the World
Across Des Forabis orcs mainly travel in small tribes across the borders of the Desert Ardor, south of Ilrom-Ral and west of Khollaja. Many of these tribes are peaceful folk, but some resort to banditry to survive, traveling as free outlaws. Much the same holds true for the orcish tribes known to make their lives traversing the western and southern seas.
Two facts hold true thanks to the nature of these people. Because of the way news travels the world, it's common for cityfolk to think those faraway orcish travelers all terrible marauders, raiders, and monsters who travel the borderlands wiping out helpless villages. This tends to be sensationalized; those borderlands outposts and port towns who treat with orcs regularly often have thriving trade and festivities depending on the time of year.
Aside from this orcs are widely considered the greatest navigators in the world. Common wisdom - true or not - attests that orcish captains or guides will be the most reliable and most skilled, thanks to their lifetime of travel. Indeed many notable explorers through the ages have been orcs. In some times and places, groups of orcs have been hired by nations to act as go-betweens, messengers, or expeditions, and some orcish bands make a living selling their services doing just that.
Many orcs who sail the Prism Sea are prolific users of hair dye. It's not unusual to see an entire band or crew all drab and gray except for their hair & beards colored pastel pink or blue or yellow.
Orc Player Characters
As an orc you are defined by your need for something to fill a gnawing want deep inside you. This is not merely an ordinary person's desire for purpose or a good life: you always seek more, something new, eventually, even if you reach contentedness for a short time. Your species' ancient connection to a mirror realm of shadow, void, and vacuum still wraps its threads around your soul. It's unheard of for an orc to retire.
Some orcish people fill this gnawing with piles of loot, food, or sex. Others fill it with travel, or new friends. It's up to you to decide what sorts of desires you might follow and how that might change if and when you achieve each. Keep in mind that few people are objectively fully aware of this nature - you may roleplay an orc as simply being restless, not necessarily doing these things on purpose.
Many orcs are travelers but some do settle down occasionally. Consider whether you might be from a group of nomads who has been traveling the wilds since the day you were born, stopping for days at a time. Or you might be from a family that has settled down somewhere and after your childhood finally awoken that need for adventure deep inside you.
As noted in the Orc Traits section, orcish people receive an innate negative modifier to their Intelligence score. This reflects their transient nature; it's not quite correct to say that orcs are stupider than the average person, but rather that they tend to be unfocused, apathetic, and easily distracted. This vacuous need for more things and new things means that old things readily become irrelevant and forgotten.
Orc Traits
Ability Score Bonus. You receive a +2 to Strength and a +1 to Constitution, but a -2 to Intelligence.
Age. Orcs grow up fairly quickly and reach adulthood around 12 years, then grow old equally quickly till a natural death around 50 years.
Size. Your size is Medium. Most orcs are easily over 6 feet in height and very powerful, weighing 230 to 280 pounds at healthy weight.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet 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. You are proficient in the Intimidation skill.
Relentless Endurance. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
Arcana Naif. You have a supernatural resistance to arcane befuddlement. You have Advantage on Intelligence and Wisdom saving throws made against spells. You also can make any ability check to determine the true nature of an illusion with Advantage.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. Also, you require 50% more food than an average human to survive day to day.
