What do your Orcs look like?

[Desdichado]

Mine are typically much less bestial than the standard. They're more the Age of Wonders, Heroes of Might and Magic III style orcs. Kinda like LotR orcs, but not necessarily evil. Kinda.

 

[Mokona]

I picture orcs like Warhammer FRPG and Warhammer minis. Huge tusks, neanderthals, and pigs don't look like orcs to me.

 

[Particle_Man]

The orc in one phrase: 6' green antisocial Miss Piggy!

 

[Aaron L]

If you remember Voltron, King Zarkons soldiers, but a lot more muscular. Bald and jet black with pointy ears. And 7 feet tall.

 

[Gilladian]

A big, bulky, humanlike build, swarthy or olive skin, coarse but sparse hair, a prognathus jaw and big teeth, not really fangs, but just big mouths. Bony forehead like a neanderthal's. Forward-stooping posture and slightly long arms, but not extreme.

They are cousins of the human, so not too far off. Cross-breeding occurs so for me they can't be too far removed.

 

[mythusmage]

Ki: They look like humans. On first acquaintance they could be mistaken for humans. But there's something of the wolf about them. And once you get to know orcs you wonder how you could ever mistake one for a human.

Dragon Earth: Dang, I never thought about that. :\

Off the top of my head... Like the neanderthal (Homo neanderthalienis) the orc (Homo pugnalios) is descended from Heidelberg Man (Homo heidelbergiensis). Unlike the neanderthal the orc proved to be more adaptable, and was able to not only survive the arrival of modern man (Homo sapiens), but even thrive. Even before the development of modern medicine (magical and mundane) orcs were able to mix in human society, where the alma (the modern neanderthal) was limited to the high mountains of central Asia. As a result orcs are found around the world in substantial numbers.

The orc is an advanced, gracile version of H. heidelbergiensis, while the alma (neaderthal) is a robust version. The ogre (Homo montane) being a hyper-robust descendent of the neanderthal.

In any case, while the unobservant often mistake orcs for humans, those with a brain connected to their eyeballs can readily see the difference.

Yes, Dragon Earth has a lot of different species of human.

 

[Filby]

Off the top of my head... Like the neanderthal (Homo neanderthalienis) the orc (Homo pugnalios) is descended from Heidelberg Man (Homo heidelbergiensis). Unlike the neanderthal the orc proved to be more adaptable, and was able to not only survive the arrival of modern man (Homo sapiens), but even thrive. Even before the development of modern medicine (magical and mundane) orcs were able to mix in human society, where the alma (the modern neanderthal) was limited to the high mountains of central Asia. As a result orcs are found around the world in substantial numbers.

The orc is an advanced, gracile version of H. heidelbergiensis, while the alma (neaderthal) is a robust version. The ogre (Homo montane) being a hyper-robust descendent of the neanderthal.

In any case, while the unobservant often mistake orcs for humans, those with a brain connected to their eyeballs can readily see the difference.

Yes, Dragon Earth has a lot of different species of human.

Wow... I love how much thought you've put into this. I've tried to do more or less the same.

For the purposes of my setting, Homo heidelbergensis developed into H. sapiens sapiens and H. neandertalensis, just like yours, but Homo orcus (my less-than-original Latin name for orcs) is a third branch of heidelbergensis, not a descendent of the neanderthals (incidentially, neanderthals survived my world's ice age, and are just as civilized as sapiens). Ogres -- Homo monstrum, a Latin name I took from the OD&D Orcs of Thar boxed set -- are a fourth offshoot.

As for the other demihumans, genus Homo (and I consider orcs and ogres to be demihumans)... dwarves (Homo robustus) are an offshoot of neanderthals, gnomes (no Latin name as of yet) are an offshoot of dwarves magically modified by Garl, and hobbits (2E halflings -- Homo sapiens vallensis) and hin (3E halflings -- also no Latin name yet) are offshoots of sapiens. Elves are fey in origin, so they don't quite fit into the same schema. Goblinoids are, like demihumans, descended from Australopithecus, but have a different genus; goblins are Gobelinus vulgaris, hobgoblins are Gobelinus fortis, and bugbears are Gobelinus ursis.

Ugh, I'm sorry to have gone so far off-topic... to answer the question, I voted more than one, since I like both the 2E and 3E depictions of orcs.

 

[Grayhawk]

I like the orcs by Claudio Pozas, like this one.

In my campaign, the orc race was created from humans, corrupted by Orcus.

 

[mythusmage]

Wow... I love how much thought you've put into this. I've tried to do more or less the same.

Glad you liked it.

Since we're going into relationships et. al. Here are the basics of mine.

The demi-humans are those species that belong to the genus Homo. They include:

Homo sapiens: Descended from Homo erectus. Gracile, coming in a variety of shapes. (Humans)

Homo neanderthaliensis: Descendent of Homo hedeilbergiensis. Robust, short in height and broad in build. (Almas)

Homo montane: Descended from H. neanderthaliensis. Hyper-robust. Tall and very broad. (Ogres)

Homo pugnalios: Descended from H. hedeilbergiensis. Gracile, of middlin height but stouter build than a human. (Orcs)

Homo troglodytes: Descended from H. Sapiens. Probably the youngest of the humans. Very short, very stocky. (Dwarfs)

Homo sylvenos: Another descendent of H. erectus. Gracile, almost hyer-gracile. Tend to be short and slender. (Elves)

Homo dimenutos (our Homo floresiensis): Another descendent of H. erectus. Very short, slightly stout. (Gnomes)

Halflings, goblins, kobolds, gnolls, flinds, hobgoblins, bugbears and the like belong to different genera than demi-humans do, and thus are known as humanoids. The human species are all rather human in appearance, with noticable differences when you know what to look for. The typical Dragon Earth inhabitant can tell them apart, but a visitor from a different setting may have trouble. Confusing elves and orcs with humans is a sure way of uniting the two peoples against you.

So, yes, I did vote "other" in the poll.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

It's a bit of a toss-up between the typical 3.X variety of orcs & half-orcs & the variety of orckind as illustrated by Claudio Pozas. Heck, his hobgoblin illustration triggered the ideas on how my campaign's hobgoblins & other goblinoids looked (& why they were that way). Then again, his illustration of Skeletor pretty much inspired my BBEG for my setting, as well.