The history of the orcs is sad, but often not sad enough to overcome the hatred towards the race.
Only Amineesis probably knows the true origin of the original orcs. Some magically infused origins are prominent including that once they were elves, or evolved from elvrics, or the creation of a god or wizard. Orcs possess a fecundity to mate with many different races. But the expression of an orc is matriarchal. When a male orc mates with another race the child is primarily of the race of the mother, with minor visual, physical, or mental aspects of the father. Crossbreeding with an orc female produces primarily orcs, with some small physical remnants of their other parent. Every orc has an orc mother. The old saying says, if any man looks upon an Orc woman she will be pregnant with their child.
This mutability of their biology has led to them being used by wizards, sorcerers, and evil despots for their war machines and monsters of all types. Wizards have used them as stock to create other beasts, bipedal, or otherwise. These "orkan" creations have given them a horrible legacy by association. Orcs are malleable. Not just in the group mentality of their behaviors, but physiologically. Dark magic can mutate orc flesh, combine it with other species to build monstrosities. The vast majority of these creations are not capable of breeding true. There have been many of them over the centuries. The Mastafouladon was an elephant-shaped creature, over 20' tall with 8-12 tusks growing out of the head. Instead of the long trunk of an elephant, it had a short snout like a pig, which it constantly blew snot from. The thick legs seemed too long, the shoulder and hip joints were higher than their backs. You could see the bones undulating at the top. The front skull has a sunken depression from between the eyes and over the skullcap. It looked like it was always in pain, and had a nasty demeanor to it. Mastafouladons were the creation of the flesh wizards of Browden during the heyday of its empire days. Just the sight of these monstrosities would send undisciplined militia running. This malleability has made the orcs the fodder of evil over and over again.
Rough Culture
Orcish culture is rougher and driven by ideas of strength, competition, and the endurance of the lows and pains of life. Their festivals always include exhausting contests, competitive games, and elimination fights. Their entertainment is heavily based upon comedy, insult humor, sarcasm, and foul-mouthed remarks. Insults and cursing in public are not seen as rude or inappropriate, not even for young orcs. An orc might say that their soup tastes like dragon piss that a halfling washed its feet in. A sprinkle of salt later, they would proclaim it delicious. There is nothing strange about that for an orc. Loud, boisterous extremes are quite embedded in reasonable everyday life.
Orcs use a great deal of pottery in their culture within their home, work, and travel, which is common in a number of orgkrish and goblinoid cultures. Orcs say that when their mates are throwing pottery at their heads, they do less damage than metal and glass. And clay can be ground and re-fired. Many a mated pair will have a few make-up potteries. These collections tend to grow over the years as previous ones can be re-thrown and made into new and larger pieces.
They enjoy fatty and greasy meats and meals. Wax and fat sealed pottery are used extensively for the storage of food, grains, and liquids. It is not unusual for orcs to hide money and valuables in one of the many dozens of clay vessels they have in the home. Orcs commonly store pottery vessels in walls of crisscrossed wood slats like winery storage rather than shelves of other cultures. These are commonplace amongst orcs as they can stack them high and securely.
Gruumsh Orcs
The monotheistic veneration of the Orc god, Gruumsh has brought many orc societies to pursue war and violence. Gruumsh does not accept treacherous devotion to any other god. His aggression and domination over other races appeal to aspects of innate orc culture, enticing too many into a culture of violence against the world. Orcs that worship the many diverse gods of the pantheon will have peaceful villages of their own and even live amongst other races. But the reputation of the Gruumsh Orcs can create hostilities against all of their kind, regardless of their individual beliefs and behaviors.
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