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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ChiefAffirmationOfficer" data-source="post: 9392802" data-attributes="member: 7046235">Two canon aspects of D&D orcs are relevant here which a lot of people don't know or have forgotten:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">10% of half-orcs could pass as human. That goes back all the way to the 1e PHB: "some one-tenth of orc-human mongrels are sufficiently non-orcish to pose for human." (The wording became a little less gross when it was restated in 2e.) Half-orcs, especially those looking less orcish were far more likely to be adventurers or to be met outside of orc tribes. So we should expect them to appear in more art.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"Half-orc" is a phrase (at least in the Forgotten Realms) which wasn't usually used to describe someone. On a cultural level, if they had orc blood, they were usually simply called "Orc." If you're looking at an "Orc" in art, it's impossible and largely irrelevant to discern whether you're looking at a supposedly 100% orc – especially considering how prolific in interbreeding as they are described.</li> </ul>There is a milieu of confusion about Orcs in the Realms which stem from the cultural impact of World of Warcraft around us, personal histories at D&D tables which aren't canon, and the myopic focus on the Sword Coast in the canon novels.Not all Orcs in Faerûn even worship the Orcish pantheon. For example, there are something like 1-2 million in northwest Chessenta/Akanûl (depending on the time period you're looking at) which adopted largely human cultural values and gods, dating back to 2e's Old Empires and forward into 4e. A lot of people would say Orcs are one big unchanging trope of violent tribal culture and subservience to Gruumsh, and that's just not true in the Realms.So when I see an Orc with more human characteristics, I know I'm seeing a D&D Orc individual, not a WoW-adjacent Orc trope.</blockquote>

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