D&D 5E (2024) Orc lore in the new Forgotten Realms books?

Hmm.

TravDoc42 said:

Aglarond is weird in this for that reason: they mention human-elf marriages being common, but there's no mention of the children of such unions.

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You really just kind of have to read it into it.

pukunui said:

Thar. Valiant orcs fight to defend their territory from ogres, manticores, and perytons in the rocky moorland known as the Thar. Eons ago, this land was a unified orc kingdom. Legend has it that Vorbyx’s Hammer, a great weapon carried by the first king of Thar, lies hidden somewhere here. Thar’s orcs believe that the next orc to wield it will restore the kingdom to its former glory.

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That is a potentially cool high Level hook: and the "civilized" neighbors of Thar are all terrible, so ripe for player...intervention.

Henadic Theologian said:

You really just kind of have to read it into it.

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So weird, since posters here were saying half-orcs and half-elves still existed in FR, it was just that they would now be mechanically represented with the full-blooded ancestor's stats, but now it's all gone Damnatio memoriae.

QuentinGeorge said:

So weird, since posters here were saying half-orcs and half-elves still existed in FR, it was just that they would now be mechanically represented with the full-blooded ancestor's stats, but now it's all gone Damnatio memoriae.

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I think that is still true, its just that they don't spell it out.

Many Arrows itself is also talked about in the book. Orrusk Homebringer for example is mentioned as not being related to the line of Obould, but a newer player here to make his mark.

Henadic Theologian said:

I think that is still true, its just that they don't spell it out.

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Well if they actually planned these things they could go like Paizo. When Paizo stop using a D&D-ism they already have another term ready to go. But WoTC are by nature reactionary, not really forward-thinking. Half the time they don't even understand why they stop using a term beyond "the Internet is mad at me." So we get this weirdness where half-elves and half-orcs are referenced as if they are this guy:

Henadic Theologian said:

Really for Airspur its Half Orcs I think mostly, but they don't use that term anymore, so you just have to fill the unspoken part in yourself.

I think eventually they will just come up with a new world for Half Orcs and Half Elves, but they haven't yet.

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I might prefer the absence of "Half" Elves and Orcs - as stats. It emphasizes the 2024 "species" differ genetically (and quasi-genetically).

Any families with a multispecies ancestry are rare magical anomalies. A Human with an Elf ancestor, is in the same situation as a Human with a Dragon ancestor. It happens but is irregular and the traits of each descendant might express the odd ancestor differently.

The multispecies ancestry is an important trope. But this is more about one species becoming an other species, such as an Elf or Dragon taking the form of a Human, then feeling affinity with Humans. Essentially the children are Humans, and the expression of the nonhuman origins can be subtle. It is a kind of magical immigration from one species to an other.

The flavor emphasizes how without magical alteration, the species differ from each other biologically (or planarly or magically).

TravDoc42 said:

Aglarond is weird in this for that reason: they mention human-elf marriages being common, but there's no mention of the children of such unions.

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maybe it's like disney cartoons and the they come out as fully human or fully elf.

QuentinGeorge said:

Well if they actually planned these things they could go like Paizo. When Paizo stop using a D&D-ism they already have another term ready to go. But WoTC are by nature reactionary, not really forward-thinking. Half the time they don't even understand why they stop using a term beyond "the Internet is mad at me." So we get this weirdness where half-elves and half-orcs are referenced as if they are this guy:

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I like what KP did with their Midgard setting - descendants of humans and elves are "elf-marked". I only have the PDF of the Midgard worldbook with me at the moment (I don't remember if I have the player options PDF). However, I like this idea of elf-marked instead of half-elf. It allows at least a couple things:

• GM/player discussion on what this means in terms of traits, powers, feats, etc
• Accounts for people who have elven lineage way back (in other words not "half" elf, but maybe 1/16th elf)