Orc Characteristics

Your average Orc stands around 6 1/2 feet tall, weighs between 200-300 pounds, and has dark green, sometimes mottled skin of an even darker green. Orcs tend to live a relatively short life span and are considered vulnerable at age 60. They are heavily built, with powerfully muscular arms and legs. Their faces are somewhere between that of a human, hog, and wolf, with a protruding lower jaw featuring tusks of varying size depending on their bloodline. They have dark, red eyes that see well in the dark but are sensitive to light, and lupine ears. Their hair is almost always black, although a few Orcs are born with dark red, brown, and even orange hair on occasion. Orcs are a warlike, angry race and tend to lean towards acts of evil. They are also brutish, simple-minded creatures, somewhat stupider than your average human, and lose their patience quickly with any task that does not involve killing, eating, or reproducing.

History

Orcs have been a part of the world’s history just as long as Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and Goblins. They have been involved in a great number of wars and conflicts, serving as antagonists to almost every single good-intentioned creature they have ever encountered. As such, they have gained a reputation for being wholly evil, although this is not entirely true. They serve an angry greenskin god who has long since enjoyed using their instinctual hot tempers and predatory nature against them. Whenever they grow too peaceable, it is not long before they feel a mysterious urge to go forth from their caves or crude dwellings and inflict suffering on the races that dwell under the open sky. Most of the time, however, they just do it on their own, and it is this impulsiveness and savagery that has marked them as a crude and evil species of humanoid that can never truly be trusted. This problem is compounded by their tendency to reproduce with members of other races, usually by force.

Culture

Orcs are a primitive warrior race, and do not possess many practical skills. Many live in caves and other dark holes near the surface, led by tribe Chieftains and Shamans who keep them working as raiders and hunters. Hierarchy in Orc society is always determined by strength and savagery, although how these qualities are defined is not terribly specific. A powerful Shaman could rule a tribe with fear and superstition just as easily as a Chieftain could control it with a heavy-handed iron fist. There are more civilized pockets of Orc society throughout the world, but most of those show up in the form of war camps, tribes of Orcs who constantly spend their time conquering and resupplying. In these communities exists a somewhat more complex pecking order. The rules of strength still apply, but there is a simple code of honor that demands leadership be taken through open challenge and subsequent face to face combat. These Orc societies don’t last for very long, as their construction is usually overseen by a more insightful, yet more powerful Orc than normal, one who is able to understand its race’s inherent savagery and redirect it in a productive manner. Once that ruler is deposed, however, these small kingdoms will quickly tear themselves apart through squabbling and bloodlust. Orcs hate Elves and Dwarves with a passion that is deep and racially bound. Some even suggest that Orcs began as twisted remnants of the goodly races, cast out by their own blood to live in squalor, and that is why they will attack other humanoids with little reservation. Strangely enough however, they are not immediately hateful towards humans. They will still attack and conquer a human settlement if they wish, but they are also known to mate with them during raids, producing many half-orc offspring over the years. Sometimes they will even reclaim their children once they are born to join the clan, killing any humans that would stop them from taking their young. This behavior is lamented by the goodly races as the kindest gesture a member of Orc society will show to outsiders.

Orc Types