Fantasy Europe as a setting for Dungeons and Dragons

[Thomas Bowman]

Lets try not to meander into politics. So where do we put the orcs? I think Siberia and the Ural Mountains is their natural environment.

 

[Celebrim]

Still not heeding my warning that this will only lead to grief?

The problem you have is that since orcs aren't real and aren't actually a part of real history, they have no natural environment at all. Anywhere you put them is going to be considered commentary on the real world and is going to offend someone. My advice is that the best place to put them would be somewhere that doesn't displace any real world cultures.

 

[MNblockhead]

I would say any harsher, mountainous location. The assumption is that the more populous and organized groups pushed them from the more desirable fertile valleys and plains. They can be scattered across Europe in the various alps, occasionally coming down from the mountains to raid farms and villages.

 

[Thomas Bowman]

Still not heeding my warning that this will only lead to grief?

The problem you have is that since orcs aren't real and aren't actually a part of real history, they have no natural environment at all. Anywhere you put them is going to be considered commentary on the real world and is going to offend someone. My advice is that the best place to put them would be somewhere that doesn't displace any real world cultures.

The steppes of Central Asia are wide open and their is a lot of room for a lot of things, given that Genghis Khan was born in 1162, he is not around in 1100 AD, his people have yet to begin their conquests, and with orcs in central asia, they might not ever. I think the Urals is a good place for them to lair.

 

[Obryn]

Maybe not at all - why do you need orcs if you're playing with the enormous variety of humans? They're the extinct equivalent of Neanderthals.

Or maybe Europe - inserted alongside humans, or living in the forbidden, scary wilderness. Enclaves in the Black Forest, the Caucasus, the Alps, etc.

 

[Eltab]

So where do we put the orcs?

The Pripet Marshes (huge swamp along the modern Byelorussia - Ukraine border)

In the Alps.
The Caucasus Mountains; the southern side of that mountain complex has sheltered a variety of small kingdoms since time immemorial.
A handful in Transylvania; these merge in legend with - or may be in the bloodline of - Vlad "the Impaler" Dracul.
Pockets here and there in the Dinaric Alps (former Yugoslavia).
In the mountains along the Norway-Sweden border.

There are even a few in North America; their last survivors will be called "Bigfoot".

 

[Morrus]

When I close a thread, that doesn’t mean immediately reopen an identical one.