D&D 5E Orcs from Warhammer; Elves from Runequest? Decay vs growth?

[Quartz]

I don't play Warhammer 40k, but I read recentlythat in that milieu orcs / orks are actually sentient mushrooms. Now elves are associated with plants and forests and an early interpretation of them was the Aldryami of Runequest. If you put the two together you get the forces of decay - orcs - opposed by the forces of growth - elves.

What do you think, and how would you implement it in D&D? I don't think that there would be much tweaking required except that there would be no half-orcs and the chief of an orc tribe might be or become a Mu Spore (from the 3E ELH)!

 

[LordEntrails]

So orcs are vegepygmys?

But if half-elves are possible why not half-orcs? I suggest you don't mix biology/science with your magical fantasy

Though even if you go the orc=decay route, why do they need to be mushrooms? Elves (growth) are not plants, why does decay need to be?

 

[Quartz]

Ooh! I'd forgotten about vegepygmies. So we have them as young orcs. And half-elves would be out for the same reason as half-orcs. And maybe treants are exceptionally old elves?

Though even if you go the orc=decay route, why do they need to be mushrooms?

Mushrooms are fungi so orcs are sentient fungi.

 

[LordEntrails]

So if orcs are fungi, then what are elves? Are they plants or vines or ?

And of course, both have their ecological niche. I mean without decay and fungi, a forest can't have mulch and fertilizer. So both die without the other...

 

[Quartz]

Keep those questions coming!

 

[Prakriti]

You could group the mushrooms (orcs) with nightshades, and create a Horde-like faction constituting fungi and nightshades, which stands in opposition to the day-loving plants as represented by the elves. So the symbolism becomes one of night vs. day.