D&D 5E Faerun: pantheon for non-evil orcs

[Tales and Chronicles]

Hey,

in another thread today I described some parts of my own take on the Realms, including the fact that the Kingdom of Many-Arrows had a population of non-evil (well, not automatically evil) orcs. I never put much thoughts behind it because I never had many players interested in that part of the world.

But...orc society is really tied to the cult of Gruumsh and its savage, brutish and cruel sons. So what FR gods would a kingdom of non-evil orcs worship? So far the story is that after the Times of Troubles, Obould Many-Arrows ascended as a Power after founding the first orc kingdom, becoming the Orc god of civilization. After its death, a strange witch took the direction of the kingdom, teaching the orcs the power of primal magic to protect themselves against the outsiders that abound in the Savage Frontier. The witch is Dargentum, a great silver wyrm in disguise, playing kingdom-maker in the north. Now that their ties with Grummsh a faded a little, I thought of having them build a new pantheon with the ''orc-ification'' of some other gods:

• Obould Many-Arrows
• Silvanus or the 4 elemental princes of good: Isthia, Grumbar, Akadi and Kossuth
• Tempus
• Shaundakul
• Gwaeron Windstrom

OR

- Obould + the giant pantheon (with a focus on giant-kin)

OR

- Cult of the Ancient, like the Valenar elves of Eberron. The orcs, after being bound to a god for thousands of years, decides that they dont need'em, instead one can achieve god-like status like Obould did by becoming a Paragon and having a great legacy.

Which one would seem good?

 

[Fenris-77]

I like the cult of the ancients idea more. It's a little more unique than just a repurposed pantheon and it really fits the tribal orc zeitgeist.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I like the cult of the ancients idea more. It's a little more unique than just a repurposed pantheon and it really fits the tribal orc zeitgeist.

But it dont feel a little....on the nose to you? Tribal people worshiping animistic spirits and ancestor ghosts? You dont get a vibe of ''noble savages'' from it?

Maybe if they would worship actual ghosts like the Dunmer in ES: Morrowind, that could be nice. With orcs having a a very short lifespan, having institutionalized necromancy would be beneficial.

 

[Beleriphon]

Most direct: the first one with Obould being deified. This one along with non-evil orcs worshiping the regular sort of deities the rest of Faerun does works. There isn't anything stopping an orc from worshiping Tempus, which make sense given their generally martial culture.

Options 2: I wouldn't combine giants and Obould, its basically the same as the first one but less obvious, and weirder. Why giants?

Option 3: Ancestor worship, with potentially being tied to a particularly important ancestor. I personally like this one, most orcs would want to be tied directly to Obould in some way, but as things move along you get more orcs tying themselves to other orcs. I like the idea of the Valenar angle, where as a rite of passage and orc gets an ancestor they have a very strong connection to and thus are encourage to honour via emulation, and potentially even improving upon. Thus they honour their ancestors with the intention of themselves becoming and honoured ancestor when they die.

 

[Fenris-77]

The noble savage baggage is only there if you want it to be. The narrative of emancipating yourself from evil gods and moving instead to a religion of self reliance and self belief doesn't really go there though, IMO. I think it's all in how you spin it.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

A question with Option 3: Does it feels weird to have a non-divine/animistic religion in a world where gods are (on in the case of my FRs, were) a factual reality?

 

[Fenris-77]

Nope. As a rough parallel, if you want to go a different direction, the psychic powers of the GW version of orks works based the power of their collective belief (roughly speaking). The GW version is on purpose pretty comical, but it doesn't have to be. Something like the collective belief of a race determined to forge their own destiny, or whatever. I'm sure you could wrap some awesome fluff around that.

One of the reasons I like the idea is that it's getting dropped into a world where gods are a factual reality. Something different is cool.

 

[dave2008]

A question with Option 3: Does it feels weird to have a non-divine/animistic religion in a world where gods are (on in the case of my FRs, were) a factual reality?

That is the one issue I'm having. I like the idea of ancestor spirits, and that could still be a part of it. But the orcs know gods are real and they have worshiped them. It would seem odd to drop that completely. If they had been a separate group that never knew of the gods, that would be different.

So I am back tracking form my initial thought to suggest ancestor spirits and instead suggest "converting" some of the orc pantheon. Re-brand them so to speak. It is like how the Greeks basically despised Ares, but to the Romans Mars was 2nd only to Jupiter / Zeus. Mars was basically the same god, but modified slightly and glorified instead of derided.

I could see paths for worship of: Ilneval, Luthic, & Shargraas. Heck, even Yurtru and Gruumsh with a bit more work. They worship different aspects of the gods. These are not the old testament gods of wrath, but the new testament gods of peace and forgiveness. Same gods, different outlook.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I approve. I loved the idea of having a bunch of orcs just sayin' : ''well, yes you know...we've had gods before...been there, done that...didnt work all that well for us...so we're all just takin' a break from the old ''gods'' thing. But you do you, my elf friend, you do you.''

 

[Hriston]

I recently played a female half-orc life cleric whose deity was Luthic the Healer. Her alignment was chaotic good, and she really emphasized the healing, nurturing aspect of Luthic, the Cave Mother. She identified strongly with the orcish half of her lineage to the point of conservatism, but part of her character was that as a half-orc she wasn’t bound by the restrictions placed on full-blooded female orcs, so she could use weapons and armor, and basically take on the role of a male warrior.