Orku'Dibaje
The Deformed Orks of Karatos
The Orku'Dibaje, known as the Deformed Orks, are the most wretched and accursed of the Mallkim’Hurai subcultures. Marked by grotesque mutations and an aura of sickness, they exist as pariahs even among their own kind. They do not seek redemption like the Orku'Oras nor revel in brutality like the Orku'Divoch; instead, they embrace despair and decay, believing suffering to be the only absolute truth.
Operating from the shadows, the Orku'Dibaje do not build, conquer, or strive for anything beyond the propagation of their own misery. They spread sickness, corrupt what is pure, and sabotage the efforts of those who seek to defy the generational curse. In their eyes, all are doomed—thus, it is only fitting that all should suffer.
Physical Characteristics
Twisted by the curse more profoundly than any other Mallkim’Hurai, the Orku'Dibaje bear horrific deformities that set them apart. Their bodies are warped mockeries of their former selves, riddled with unnatural growths and plagued by perpetual sickness.
- Height & Build: Ranging from hunched and skeletal to grotesquely swollen, with asymmetrical limbs and irregular, jagged bones protruding beneath their skin.
- Skin: A patchwork of necrotic green, gray, and sickly purple, often marred by open sores, fungal growths, and exposed veins that pulse with unnatural energy.
- Eyes: Sunken, often milky white or glowing with a dim, sickly yellow light. Some possess multiple eyes or suffer from partial blindness.
- Teeth & Tusks: Jagged, uneven, or completely absent, leaving some with permanent snarls or drooling maws.
- Scent: A foul mixture of decay, damp mold, and bile—a stench so strong it lingers long after they have passed.
Culture & Customs
The Orku'Dibaje have no traditional societal structure. They are a people of outcasts, lurking in the ruins and underbelly of Karatos. Their only unifying traits are their embrace of suffering and their obsession with spreading decay to all they encounter.
Society & Hierarchy
Unlike the warring tribes of the Orku’Divoch or the structured settlements of the Orku’Oras, the Orku'Dibaje exist in loose, anarchic clusters. Their society is defined not by leadership but by the extent of one's corruption—those who are most diseased, most hideous, and most wretched command a form of twisted reverence.
1. Plague-Speakers
The most corrupted among them, often covered in festering sores or riddled with parasitic growths. They are seen as living embodiments of suffering and are revered for their grotesqueness.
2. Rot-Kin
The majority of Orku'Dibaje, living in perpetual affliction, each a carrier of some new curse or disease.3. The Scorned
Even among the deformed, some are considered too weak or too close to death to be of any use. They are abandoned to the abyss, left to rot alone.Rituals & Traditions
The Orku'Dibaje celebrate suffering as a virtue, believing that torment is the only absolute truth of existence. Their rites are grim and often disturbing, focused on self-mutilation, disease cultivation, and the corruption of others.
The Feast of Decay
A ritual in which the Orku'Dibaje consume the rotting flesh of fallen kin, believing that absorbing their afflictions brings them closer to true suffering.The Unmaking
A practice in which a member voluntarily allows themselves to be consumed by disease or parasites, becoming a walking plague.Whispers of the Abyss
Occasions where they gather to listen to the howling winds of the Abyssal Chasms, believing the voices of the damned speak to them through the void.Clothing & Aesthetics
The Orku'Dibaje wear what little remains of scavenged rags, stitched together with sinew and rot-infested cloth. Their garments are not for warmth or function but serve as a testament to their suffering.
- Primary Materials: Mold-ridden fabrics, patchwork hides, and rusted chains.
- Common Adornments: Bone piercings, embedded shards of cursed obsidian, and pustule-covered flesh left intentionally exposed.
- Ritualistic Attire: For important rites, they coat themselves in filth, blood, and bile, adorning their bodies with symbols of rot and decay.
Cuisine & Diet
The Orku'Dibaje are scavengers, feasting on what others would discard. Their diet consists of carrion, spoiled food, and substances that would be lethal to others. They believe that by consuming decay, they strengthen their connection to suffering.
Primary Foods
Festered Meat
Flesh left to rot for days or weeks before consumption, often crawling with maggots.Blight Mushrooms
Toxic fungi that cause hallucinations, pain, and fevered visions.Bilebroth
A thick, foul-smelling stew made from unknown ingredients, often laced with disease.Blackroot Slime
A putrid, tar-like substance extracted from the roots of dead trees, used as both sustenance and poison.Drinks
Blooded Mire
A thick, dark fluid extracted from the corpses of diseased beasts, considered a delicacy.Abyssal Extract
A concoction made from minerals found near the Abyssal Chasms, known to induce violent seizures and visions of the void.Pestilent Mead
Alcohol brewed with mold and fermented filth, drank during their most vile rituals.Flora & Fauna
The Orku'Dibaje surround themselves with creatures and plants that reflect their own wretched existence. Their animals are grotesque abominations, and their flora is toxic and corrosive.
Sacred Animals
Blight Rats
Massive, diseased rodents that serve as both food and companions.Void Leeches
Parasitic creatures that drain both blood and willpower from their victims.Carrion Hounds
Mutated beasts with rotting flesh, used to hunt the weak.Sacred Plants
Deathvine
A plant that strangles and corrupts anything it touches.Pale Rotweed
A fungal growth that spreads rapidly, reducing anything living to decay.Ghoulbloom
A flower that only blooms on fresh graves, believed to be nourished by the souls of the dead.Philosophy & Ethics
The Orku'Dibaje believe that there is no salvation, no redemption—only suffering. Their worldview is one of absolute nihilism, wherein existence itself is a curse.
Core Principles
- Suffering is Truth – Pain and decay are the only constants. Everything else is an illusion.
- Corruption is Strength – The more diseased and broken one becomes, the closer they are to enlightenment.
- Hope is a Lie – Redemption is a delusion, and those who seek it deserve to be dragged into the abyss.
Beliefs on Death
For the Orku'Dibaje, death is neither a release nor an escape. It is merely another stage of suffering. They believe that the Abyss waits to consume them, and so they spread despair to others, ensuring that none escape their fate.
The Rotting Path
A belief that the more corruption one embraces in life, the stronger they will become in the afterlife.Flesh Reclamation
The dead are never buried; their bodies are used, consumed, and repurposed in the name of suffering.Abyssal Offerings
Some willingly hurl themselves into the Abyssal Chasms, seeking to merge with the void itself.Legacy & Influence
Though despised and feared by all, the Orku'Dibaje have an insidious influence across Karatos. Their presence is felt in plagues that decimate cities, in whispers of despair that drive rulers to madness, and in the relentless spread of corruption. They do not conquer through force—they consume through inevitability.
Even in a land already steeped in suffering, the Orku'Dibaje are a reminder that things can always be worse. They are the rot beneath the surface, the sickness in the marrow, the abyss that does not kill—but simply waits.
Comments