I am so surprised by all the responses to this thread, thank you all for your input, and there are a few things I would like to add.
I could hardly consider Vikings and Mongols barbarians. Granted, they act barbaric, but they are just too advanced to be barbarians. What would you consider a barbarian? Well, lets take a look at what the game calls a barbarian: A light to medium armored battler who can induce rage in warfare.
Don't confuse class with job or culture. Class is about how you fight, nothing more. Even if most orc
warriors are barbarians, they still have craftsmen, farmers, and other jobs. (Unlike gnolls, who are so lazy they have slaves for everything.)
Considering were talking about a barbaric species of people who have a love of war, killing for pleasure, bathing in blood, and according to Viking mythology, eating people, I think people would sooner burn down their own village then risk Orc's gaining access to a way to make better weapons easier. Plus steel making is hard, like Yora said, you can make bronze with a campfire and clay pot, steel requires much more effort. Do they have access to the masonry skills as well as carpentry needed to make a forge, foundry and device to blow air and keep the fire hot? If these people live in leather and dirt huts, no.
Orcs love war... and steel makes better weapons. You'd better believe they'd get their hands on steel. Even if orcs are lazy and stupid, that's only true of
most of them. "Nobody hurts the Gruumsh-blessed steel guy, or the chief will be mad and we'll lose more battles." One of the smarter orcs will become that.
Orcs will do things like train and exercise. Those that don't do this don't live long. After losing a couple of battles, they'll get the hint.
I wonder, how easy is it to melt down something made of steel and reforge it, compared to starting from scratch? You can skip the collection of ore if you slaughter the local peasants and steal all their steel tools. Maybe after battles orcs make a habit of returning to the scene of the battle and making off with all those precious arrowheads.
I didn't consider this, and it seems like a good idea, but I can sum it up from a quote from the warrior cats book (I know, its a childrens book, but its well written.)
I will counter with the history of Attila the Hun, who did exactly that. He was raised as a captive by the Roman for several of his formative years. There's nothing preventing that half-orc from just, you know,
leaving human society, especially if he's being discriminated against for being half-orc.
That could easily go for a half-orc in the situation of human world and orc world, he cannot simply live both lives. Since Orcs would be at eternal war with the humans, raiding their villages and killing women and children, if the half-orc were ever to make friends in an Orc clan, the humans would shun him immediately, as he would have to build up their trust in the first place, and making buddies with an Orc clan would shatter that trust in an instance. He could make friends with the humans first, then go to the Orc clan and teach them the secretes of steel, but this would be a permanent decision, and he would forever be shunned, seeing that he did technically backstab them by giving the biggest danger to the village the secret to advanced, better killing tools. This could actually make a fun quest in a campaign: The secret of steel! ; Kill the traitorous Half-orc and kill all the Orcs of the clan to prevent the war hungry Orcs from evolving into a new golden-age of bloodshed and mayhem. That would actually be an interesting plot point.
Interesting, but could have already been done. (The half-orc losing trust isn't a big deal if he makes a permanent decision.)
Another option is a half-orc "moves into town" (orcs often use half-orcs as spies) and works for a human or half-orc blacksmith, and gets the secrets that way. Maybe the local half-orc vouches for him. ("Yeah, that's my cousin Mork. He's smart and works hard, you'll like him.")
