Orc

The orc are an intelligent species of monstrous ancestry found throughout Holos. Orcs are typically characterized by their muscular builds, grey-green skin, and prominent lower canines or tusks. They are famed and feared for their physical strength and stamina, and their short tempers. Born from the blood spilt of the forged god Oheilion in the final battles of the War of the Dawn, orcs are some of the youngest of all the mortal and monstrous lineages. The violent nature of the creation and the exile of their progenitor deity has led to a long history of mistrust between them and other mortal communities. As a result, much of the previous scholarship on orcs and orcish cultures has been biased, with many academics internalizing cultural prejudices against orcs as scientific facts.

Basic Information

Anatomy

For many centuries, it was believed that orcs were not born ex nihilo but rather when the blood of Oheilion struck humans, transforming them into orcs. Today, most scholars—both of the sciences and the scriptures—reject this interpretation, maintaining that the first orcs were an entirely new species unto themselves. However, this interpretation likely originated because of the orcs’ physical similarities to humans. Much of the anatomical differences between the two species are superficial. Orcs are typically characterized by their stooped, muscular build; greyish-green skin; and their prominent lower canines. Orcish skin varies in hue from ash grey to pale green. Their hair is typically dark brown or black. This hair greys with age and can turn white on occasion. Orcs grow hair on their heads as well as their bodies, in a similar pattern to humans and halflings. While overall, orcs have faster facial hair growth compared to humans, very few orcs can grow hair on their upper lip. Orc noses are known to be wide and flat, with more forward-facing nostrils than other mortals. This sometimes gives them a more porcine appearance. It is believed that the feature does enhance the orc’s sense of smell, which is far stronger than most other intelligent creatures. While they are often stereotyped as stooped, lumbering brutes, orcs actually have extremely fast reflexes. This may be due to the arrangement of nerve endings in orc cells. This manifests in combat as being able to move towards a foe in a fraction of the time it would take another moment. In Reikerk, this tactic is known as blitzarain, and has been feared by the non-orc settlers of the region for generations. Orcs are naturally athletic individuals with ability to put on muscle quickly and maintain muscle mass even in the face of dietary hardship. They can often carry twice their weight with little training or experience. Equally impressive is their natural endurance and stamina. Orcs have regularly been seen to suffer seemingly mortal blows only to stagger for a moment before standing triumphant once more. Some attribute this to the orcish heart and circulatory system, which is able to slow itself in a fraction of a second before resuming speed. This allows the body to enjoy what would appear to be a fleeting rest before resuming activity.

Skulls & Tusks

Orc skulls are quite different from other mortal species. Their most noticeable feature is their tusks, which are in fact a pair of enlarged inferior canines. These tusks protrude out of the mouth to rest against the lower maxilla along two grooves in the skin. Along the tops of their skulls, orcs have a small sagittal crest which runs from an occipital bun to the forehead. Their cheekbones also have a thicker zygomatic arch, which widens the facial features of the skull. This arch, along with their enlarged jaws and sagittal crest, gives orcs an exceptionally strong bite force for a sentient mammal. Orcs, similar to certain apes, have a more pronounced muzzle, which gives the jaws more room to accommodate the tusks. Their eyes are framed by prominent orbital arches. This tapers their forehead, giving what some consider to be a sloping, thick-browed appearance. While some human cultures consider facial layout to convey ignorance, orcs actually have a larger cranium to face ratio compared to humans, meaning that orcs have proportionally larger brains than most humans. Male orcs have larger tusks than females. Many orcish cultures view tusk size and care as a sign of virility, suggesting their function as a display feature.

Genetics and Reproduction

Orcs reproduce at a similar rate to humans and other young mortal ancestries. Orcs are generally socially monogamous and biologically promiscuous, with notions of partnership varying depending on the culture. After mating, female orcs gestate for a period of 8 months before giving birth. Orcs almost never give birth to multiple children at once. Infant mortality is uncommon but not rare, with female orcs losing between 1-2 babies over their lifetime. Female orcs typically have between 3-5 children before they reach menopause in their late forties. Orcs can interbreed with both mortals and other monstrous sentients. Offspring born of a human or dwarf and an orc is known as a half-orc. These individuals appear to look a bit like a human with prominent lower canines and skin pigmentation that reflects their their mixed parentage. Their kind have grown increasingly common in many integrated societies, particularly in western Reikerk and the Khaghat Steppe. Orcs can also breed with ogres to sire ogrellions, a hulking specimen that combines the monstrous features of both orcs and giantkin. Orcs and goblinoids have also been known to produce offspring but such unions have been rare and poorly documented.

Growth Rate & Stages

Orcs mature at a slightly faster rate than humans and far faster than dwarves or elves. Orcs typically reach adolescent after about a year and grow rapidly after that, attaining their full size just after puberty. Sexual maturity occurs around at thirteen years old and most orc communities consider an individual an adult soon after. Because most majority-orc societies are nomadic hunter-gatherers or herdsfolk, mortality rates can be quite high. However, like other intelligent creatures, the likelihood of survival scales with each year, meaning that elderly orcs are not unheard of or rare in any one community. It is widely believed that most orcs can live to about 60 years old or more in ideal conditions. Female orcs lose their ability to bear children in their late forties.

Ecology and Habitats

While nothing about orcish physiology makes any environment prohibitive, most majority orc societies are located outside of the equator in temperate, sub-polar or polar regions. Orc do seem ideally built for hunting and gathering in these conditions, as their athletic bodies can overheat and dehydrate at high temperatures. Today, orcs can be found throughout Holos, with their largest majority populations located in the southern Auloa regions of Czeršia, Reikerk, and Varangia and in northern Iroa’s northern taiga and steppelands.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Orcs, like most intelligent species, are highly omnivorous and able to digest a wide range of foodstuffs. Many mortals falsely believe that orcs are hyper carnivores, sometimes even going so far as to claim that they regularly engage in cannibalism. This, however, is nothing but slanderous misinformation and hearsay. In fact, when looking at orcish anatomy, one finds that their bodies are best suited for eating fruits and nuts. Orcish skulls are characterized by a small sagittal crest, an enlarged zygomatic arch, wide molars, and thick lower jaw bones. All of these traits are ideal for crushing hard nuts and fibres which most mortals are unable to digest. Additionally, due to their enlarged tusks, orcs are unable to rip and tear flesh like most carnivores, meaning that any meat they consume must be cut and cooked thoroughly before consumption.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Orcs have well-developed nocturnal abilities and are able to see in dim light as if it were day light. In total darkness, they can make out shapes and movement as if it were dim light for a range of about 60 ft., though they cannot discern color in those conditions. As previously stated, orcs have a heightened sense of smell compared with most other intelligent creatures. Their noses appear broad and flat, with forward facing nostrils which can sometimes give them an ape-like or porcine appearance. This allows them to identify individuals based on smell alone as well as determine the ripeness of fruit and other perishable foods. Some orcs have claimed to have been able to identify the bloodline of an individual by scent alone though these claims have not been substantiated.

Civilization and Culture

Beauty Ideals

Perhaps more so than any other mortal or monstrous ancestry, orcs place a high degree of importance on hygiene. Many traditional orcish cultures maintain that the best place to die is at the end of a worthy foe's blade. By that reasoning, to die due to infection or disease is a great dishonor, and considered an unwanted and unnecessary tragedy. For this reason, most orc societies bathe frequently, sometimes as often as twice per day. A cleanliness is considered a sign of attractiveness and many orcs spend hours oiling their hair and meticulously grooming their bodies before courting a potential partner. Many orcish or majority orcish cultures value tusk size, appearance, and maintenance. Male orcs typically have larger tusks than female orcs. Large healthy tusks are generally seen as a sign of virility and status. Some communities pierce, polish, dye, and even cap their tusks to further draw the eye.

Gender Ideals

Depending on the culture, orcs generally are fairly egalitarian when it comes to gender. Certain tasks like hunting may be associated more with males than females, but neither gender is considered more or less important. Some have remarked that some of the traits associated with masculinity such as strength, control over one's emotions, and conflict-based resolutions are quite present in many orcish societies. However, these traits are not associated with any gender in particular, rather they are considered to be ideal for the community as a whole.

Relationship Ideals

In most orc or majority orc societies, nearly all individuals engage in sexual activity with members of their own sex or gender. This is particularly true of subsistence forager societies, where groups of males and females will often be isolated from one another for days at a time. Many of these communities believe such relationships help build camaraderie, which then aids the community during conflict or times of hardship. In these cases, marriage between members of the same sex do occur, though sometimes these marriages include a third member of the opposite sex to aid in conceiving a child.

History

Legend tells of the first orcs appearing during the final battles of the War of the Dawn. With the awakening of the Dread Dragoness, Valdra, the gods of the Heavenly Council grew concerned that none of their abilities were enough to destroy the Great Old One that threatened to destroy their precious creation. Together, they convened in secret at the far plane known as the Fields of Maurenchali while the youngest of their number, the war goddess Ezrahil held the Dread Dragoness's attention. There, the Council combined their energies to forge a deity unlike any other, a mighty soldier with the strength, stamina, and unending resolve to end the Great Old One's rampage. This was Oheilion, the Bloodied Lord. The gods informed their creation of his task. Oheilion said nothing, only lifted his sunforged greatsword, Lastspasm, and set out for the Material Plane with grim determination. In a tattered stretch of land known today as the Mashiq, Oheilion met Valdra for the first time. Their first duel nearly ended Oheilion, with the heat of the battle so intense that his sweat fell and pooled into the noxious fumes that form the Sulfur Sea. Three times, Valdra's fangs tore Oheilion's flesh and the Bloodied Lord was born. With the first wound, Oheilion felt fear and from his blood spawned the goblin, a people of fear. With the second wound, Oheilion felt anger and from his blood spawned the orc, a people of anger. And with the third wound, Oheilion felt hate and from his blood spawned the minotaur,¹ a people of hate. Still, in that moment, the Dread Dragoness proved to dangerous a foe for Oheilion. The Bloodied Lord was forced to retreat into the continent's interior. After meeting with the young dragon god Kōs, Oheilion returned to face Valdra. Alongside his new allies, Oheilion defeated Valdra but unable to slay the Great Old One, Oheilion called forth the wisdom of the Heavenly Council and the Ordning gods, who granted him the strength to lift the surface of the Material Plane and bury Valdra deep beneath it. With that, the Great Old One was vanquished and left to churn within her earthen prison. To this day, she remains trapped in utter darkness until the Era of Twilight; when she shall return and bring about a final end of all things Though ultimately victorious, the gods of the Heavenly Council now looked upon their bloodied creation with trepidation. They feared his anger and hatred and worried that he would do the same to them should he be granted the powers of the Celestial Mountains. So the Heavenly Council banished Oheilion and sent him back to the realm from which he was made, the charred Fields of Maurenchali. Cut off from their progenitor and without the promise of a place in the afterlife, the Blood of Oheilion rebelled. Little is known of this conflict or its battles, only that it was known as the War of Broken Days. Their legions put all the realm to flame, promising to leave it as ruined and broken as their creator's prison. Only after the goddess Lacorré embraced Oheilion did the Bloodied Lord agree to treat with his captors. They agreed that Oheilion's progeny would be granted the same considerations as the elder mortals, in spite of their violent birth. In exchange, Oheilion would remain in Maurenchali to await the return of Valdra. There he sits on his iron throne, surrounded by baleful attendants as he sharpens Lastspasm and polishes Deathgasp. Many cultures still pray to the Bloodied Lord and believe that upon their Judgment he will speak for them in spite of their actions and add them to his grim army of the damned. From here, the blood of Oheilion scattered across the realm. Some formed societies in the image of their charnal creator while others tried to shake off their violent ancestry to become virtuous people respected by mortal and god alike. For the orcs, their history has been one filled with bloody struggle and terrible war. In recent centuries, the Sundering Arcana allowed the younger peoples of the world the means to seize their own destinies. Orcs rise to prominence in integrated societies across Holos even as many of kind keep to the savage old ways. Only time will tell what will be the legacy of the orcish lineage.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Historically, orcs have often been ostracized from state-based civilizations. This is in part due to their mythic origins as a "people of anger," but it is also due to their history of living as subsistence foragers, hunters, and herdsfolk. Communities that live in these harsh, wild conditions are frequently singled out by state actors as being out of reach of the state's bureaucracy and thus, an existential threat to the state's survival. During the Palladian Era, this tension was particularly pronounced as orcs living in what is now Faleret and Czeršia violently resisted colonization attempts by the Palladian Empire. While the Empire was successful at enslaving or driving the majority of these orcs out of Faleret, they continued to struggle in Czeršia up until the Sundering Arcana. Following the cataclysm, Czeršia was almost immediately conquered by orcish tribes who then reestablished a monstrous-led upper class in the region. Meanwhile, hordes of orcs and other monstrous races reasserted themselves in parts of Reikerk and Faleret to create a patchwork of independent lordships. In Faleret, this arrangement fell in 109 S.E. when the Falerani(ethnicity) high elf king Gailladrias Sallerae united the surviving Palladian elves to conquer the region. In his wake, Faleret became a highly centralized monarchy with a strict class structure based in part on ancestry. Today, orcs comprise some of the most marginalized communities in the Kingdom of Daffodils. In contrast, when the unifier of Reikerk, Baron Merovech, defeated the orc warlord Thagmash in 126 S.E., the orcish tribes successfully managed to negotiate a peace treaty which referred to them and their people as equal parties under the law. While orcs do suffer some prejudice in Reikerk today, their legal status is that of citizens and many settled orc communities can be found contributing to the region's cosmopolitaneity. Across the Sea of Brass in Iroa, the Khaghate are a multi-ancestry ethnicity with a sizable orc population. The culture appears to have begun shortly after the War of the Dawn and the War of Broken Days during the 1st Intermediate Period as an orc culture before broadening to include mortals of any ancestry. Though a multi-ancestry ethnicity, the Khaghate are often stereotyped by organized mortal states to the south as being entirely orcish. Though legal discrimination has largely fallen away with the Sundering Arcana and the fall of the Tao-Tē Dynasty, many throughout Tao-Tē and the Goji Peninsula remain suspicious of orcs in their lands.

Footnotes

¹ Many stories refer to this third people as the yikaria. However, this reading ignores the later events of the Broken Days War and the Lover's Concordant, where the yikaria chose to embrace their violent nature and, in so doing, ignore the commandments of their progenitor. Thus, while referring to the minotaur as "a people of hate" is technically correct, it is more accurate today to associate that interpretation with the yikaria. Following Oheilion's exile from the Celestial Mountains, his followers rose up in a destructive conflict known as the War of Broken Days. Only after the goddess Lacorré interceded with Oheilion did peace return. In this treaty, known as the Lover's Concordant, the Heavenly Council agreed to allow Oheilion to claim a mortal from the Judgements, provided the mortal adhered to the broad teachings of the Heavenly Council. The yikaria were those minotaurs, so consumed with hatred that they could not abide by this agreement. Instead, they fled deep into the hidden mountain vales of Iroa and came to worship a form of the Unspoken goddess, Rheseldar. Today, minotaurs are rare and though often tempted by hatred, they largely abide by the Lover's Concordant.