D&D 5E (2024) Goblins and Orcs Not Being Green

[Mecheon]

I don't know if WoW has any orc communities that got charged up with energy from one of the other cosmic forces (life, death, light, void, order), but it wouldn't surprise me if that would change them into another color.

We have void orcs. They're the Pale from Warlords of Draenor

But they also come in a few other colours. While the mag'har are normally brown, there's a few grey examples of them due to hanging out in mountains, most notably the Blackrock clan (who also get firey red eyes in some cases) and maybe the Shattered Hand, though they're a far lighter grey than the Blackrock

 

[Mind of tempest]

We have void orcs. They're the Pale from Warlords of Draenor

But they also come in a few other colours. While the mag'har are normally brown, there's a few grey examples of them due to hanging out in mountains, most notably the Blackrock clan (who also get firey red eyes in some cases) and maybe the Shattered Hand, though they're a far lighter grey than the Blackrock

I think the black rock orcs are younger and have a lot of x shattered hand members in them?
my wow lore is not the best as I have never played it.

 

[mekhawretch]

I'm torn between the green piggy orcs, and the monstrous Uruk-hai style of orc that is like a constructed abomination or something that just crawled out of the earth. I kind of want to have both because they feel like fundamentally different monsters at that point.

 

[pawsplay]

Early on, when it was specified at all, orcs were brown or green, and almost certainly looked very similar to the orcs drawn by the Brothers Hildebrandt for LOTR book covers.

In my youth, I was informed that goblins were yellow or ochre. A lot of things were ochre back then.

Kobolds were goblinoids, but also dog-like in appearance. Sometimes kobolds and goblins were illustrated with horns.

 

[Arcanion]

I've been researching on Orks and Goblins lately, as I'm about to be 3D printing and painting some different sized Orks and Goblinoids among these for enjoyment.

We have some versions of them in popular books/games:
LotR/Hobbit
Warhammer/40K
Warcraft/WoW
DnD/Baldur's Gate
Magic the Gathering
(...)

I started my personal fantasy journey with "The Hobbit" as a child, then played MtG for 25+ years, read LotR, came across Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 and while I skipped both Warcraft 3, WoW and Warhammer tabletop - I still knew a bit about these games.

1. Afaik Tolkien made no differences between Orcs, Uruks and Goblins. They are all the same thing, just in different language. They are also grey, pale, ocre, brown or dark skinned.

2. Warhammer made them green, brawny and of a different facial style (with tusks among other things)

3. Magic already used Goblins (small) and Orcs (big) and mostly green skinned. Both rather on the dumb and chaotic side.

4. Baldurs Gate and DnD had Goblins, Hobgoblins, Orcs, (also Gnomes, Gnolls, Bugbears...) not to speak of Half-Orcs.


In general these might be the most well known ones in general fantasy apart from Uruks from big to small:

[Ogre]

Orcs/Orks: Tall, brawny, berserker type, in some franchises depicted as kinda dumb
Hobgoblin: Human size, soldier type, rather clever and disciplined (kinda like Tolkiens Uruks)
Goblin: Small/Hobbit size and cunning also generally rather dumb, cowardly and chaotic

[Gnome]

Do you know any good sites with great backround information about Orks (Orcs) and Goblins? Different appearances through the fantasy media?

 

[Reynard]

Everyone knows that Warhammer has the best greenskins.

 

[LordBP]

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Afaik Tolkien made no differences between Orcs, Uruks and Goblins

Uruk is orc in the Black Speech of Mordor. But Uruk Hai (translated orc race) were "improved orcs", bigger, stronger, smarter and tougher. Saruman created his version with some kind of hybridisation with humans, and therefore are the original half orcs. Some could pass as human.

Once, in The Hobbit, larger orcs are referred to as hobgoblins. I would take this as a representation of Uruk Hai in the language of Hobbits.

 

[Fifinjir]

4) Fabric Dye.

This dress, and dresses like it, killed or injured thousands upon thousands of well to do women and their servants in the 1800s because it used Arsenic to get that particular shade of luscious vibrant green. Culturally we associate this color with death and ugliness, largely, because of it. Sure, there's elements of putrescence with green, or mold and rot, but this? This right here is the good stuff.

…So that’s why the song specified that it wasn’t a real green dress.

 

[dave2008]

Once, in The Hobbit, larger orcs are referred to as hobgoblins. I would take this as a representation of Uruk Hai in the language of Hobbits.

In the version of the Hobbit I read it described the large goblins as orcs. I don't know if that was the version before our after tLorR came out and the made changes to the Hobbit so they worked together better.