Orc
The Orcs are the tragic and terrifying result of Goliaths breaking the sacred bonds of fellowship and community that define their existence. Once noble and selfless, these corrupted beings have abandoned their principles to embrace domination, seeking to impose their will on others through brute strength and unrelenting conquest.
The Fall into Tyranny
Goliaths, known for their commitment to shared burdens and communal strength, face corruption when they betray these values. A Goliath who turns their back on fellowship, seeing others as tools or obstacles rather than companions, begins a dark transformation. Their features harden into cruel visages that reflect their newfound nature. Their teeth sharpen and they grow tusks from their lower jaw. The tattoos that once symbolized unity and faith twist into jagged marks of conquest and cruelty. Thus, they become Orcs—creatures of unyielding power and ambition, driven by an insatiable thirst for control.
Culture of Conquest
Orcish society revolves entirely around war and domination. Each tribe or horde is led by a warlord whose authority is determined by strength, cunning, and their ability to inspire fear among their followers. A new warlord marks the beginning of a war campaign, with the scope and ambition of the campaign reflecting the warlord’s power and vision. Small campaigns target vulnerable villages and nomadic bands, while more ambitious leaders rally vast hordes to assault fortified cities or even entire kingdoms. Orc war campaigns are not limited to territorial expansion; they are acts of annihilation. Entire regions have been laid waste by Orc hordes, their populations enslaved or slaughtered, their lands burned and salted to prevent recovery.
Victory in conquest is not merely a means of survival but a validation of an orc’s existence. Strength is the ultimate currency, and the weak exist only to serve or be destroyed.
Tense Alliances with Giants
Orcs hold a complicated relationship with the Giants, respecting their power and acknowledging their role in the creation of Goliaths—and by extension, Orcs. However, this mutual respect is overshadowed by the pride of both groups. Efforts to form alliances between Orcs and giants often dissolve into infighting over leadership, as neither side is willing to submit to the other.
Instead, Orcs and giants typically avoid direct confrontation, each focusing their efforts on subjugating "lesser" species. However, when forced to cooperate against a common threat, their combined might is an unstoppable force—if only temporarily.
Masters of Beast Domination
One of the most fearsome aspects of Orc culture is their mastery over beasts. Orcs have a natural talent for subjugating and controlling wild creatures, bending them to their will through sheer force and intimidation. War beasts are a staple of Orc armies, ranging from massive, armored boars to ferocious wyverns and other exotic creatures.
These beasts are not treated with care or reverence; they are tools of war, driven to fight through a combination of fear and cruel training. The ancient giant magic giving the orcs their large size bleeds into the beast's subjugation, often resulting in the beast itself growing larger than normal. An Orc warlord's prestige often depends on the size and ferocity of their beastly retinue, with the most ambitious leaders fielding entire legions of monstrous creatures.
Religion of Power
While Orcs disdain the Divine, they often revere primal forces of destruction and chaos, seeing these as reflections of their own nature. Their shamans and spiritual leaders channel this raw energy to bolster their hordes, invoking blessings of strength and rage upon their warriors and curses of fear and weakness upon their enemies. Orc rituals are violent and bloody, serving both as a demonstration of power and as a means to cow their followers into submission.
Internal Struggles
Orc tribes are rife with internal conflict, as their culture of dominance leaves little room for unity or trust. Warlords must constantly assert their authority through displays of strength, while ambitious underlings scheme to overthrow them. The only stability to a warlord's reign is in the demand that challengers be individually capable of overthrowing them, not wanting to admit they are weaker by accepting help. This infighting ensures that only the most brutal and cunning leaders rise to power, but it also prevents Orcs from achieving the cohesion needed for sustained conquest.
Despite this, their sheer ferocity and numbers make them a constant threat to the regions they inhabit. Even when a horde collapses under its own weight, the survivors scatter and regroup, forming new tribes and beginning the cycle anew.
