Gez, please don't read this.
In the campaign world I'm slowly elaborating, I have decided to change some of the monsters (and races) background.
And one of the first change is about Orcs. As you surely know, their names comes from the roman divinity of the dead "Orcus", and some people believe that "ogre" is related to this name as well.
I was not satisfied with the big green tusky barbarians, as they clearly lacked something to be more sinister. So I decided to follow the etymology, an created a link between them and Orcus.
So, Orcs are a race of humanoid living in the shadowfell, where they entered millennia ago and adapted to. A long time ago they became the followers of Orcus, and gained occult weapons and powers from him, the most important being the ability to absorb and devour the soul of the creature they kill, through the use of their demoniacally tainted axes. Of course, Orcs of lower ranks (read : minions) don't have those weapons and can't feed on the souls of their enemies.
From a rule aspect, it gives the Orcs the ability to spend a healing surge each time they kill, and the first time they hit a creature to bloodied status in an encounter (I don't know if this will be in place of their signature racial ability).
I wondered what would happen when an Orc, let say a mighty warrior, absorb a great number of souls ? The answer was evident when I stumbled upon the Death Giant page in the MM : thank to a ritual invoking the power of Orcus, an Orc can become a Death Giant. And, likewise, a Death Giant can become a Death Titan when he has devoured enough souls and perform the right ritual.
However, there is a power gap between the more powerful orcs of the MM and the Death giants. Ogres fit nicely there. But what are they ? I would not like to remove the "dumb" factor from them, at least for the majority. So I thought they should be somewhat degenerated. The use of the shadowfell in the Orcs background gave the link I needed : when an Orc is exiled for too long from the shadowfell, he loses his link with the necrotic energies of the plane. But he is still under Orcus compulsion to kill and consume life (or vice-versa... I haven't decided). Killing and devouring its prey to survive on the material plane, he will quickly transform into an ogre.
And so it's done ! I have linked Orcs, Ogre, Death Giants and Orcus. All I need to do is change the appearance of the orcs to something more tolkienish or foreshadowing the death giant look (grey, not green ; smaller teeth etc...).
Next step : opposing Orcus in the Shadowfell, there is the raven queen (Hecate in my world) and her subjects : shadar-kai and sorrowsworn. They are already linked in the game background, I need to reinforce this link, maybe by making shadar-kai some kind of parangon-level knightly order (think the soul society of bleach manga) that can be joined by the PC, and making the sorrowsorn en epic destiny (while changing the look of the beast, by the way...)
In the campaign world I'm slowly elaborating, I have decided to change some of the monsters (and races) background.
And one of the first change is about Orcs. As you surely know, their names comes from the roman divinity of the dead "Orcus", and some people believe that "ogre" is related to this name as well.
I was not satisfied with the big green tusky barbarians, as they clearly lacked something to be more sinister. So I decided to follow the etymology, an created a link between them and Orcus.
So, Orcs are a race of humanoid living in the shadowfell, where they entered millennia ago and adapted to. A long time ago they became the followers of Orcus, and gained occult weapons and powers from him, the most important being the ability to absorb and devour the soul of the creature they kill, through the use of their demoniacally tainted axes. Of course, Orcs of lower ranks (read : minions) don't have those weapons and can't feed on the souls of their enemies.
From a rule aspect, it gives the Orcs the ability to spend a healing surge each time they kill, and the first time they hit a creature to bloodied status in an encounter (I don't know if this will be in place of their signature racial ability).
I wondered what would happen when an Orc, let say a mighty warrior, absorb a great number of souls ? The answer was evident when I stumbled upon the Death Giant page in the MM : thank to a ritual invoking the power of Orcus, an Orc can become a Death Giant. And, likewise, a Death Giant can become a Death Titan when he has devoured enough souls and perform the right ritual.
However, there is a power gap between the more powerful orcs of the MM and the Death giants. Ogres fit nicely there. But what are they ? I would not like to remove the "dumb" factor from them, at least for the majority. So I thought they should be somewhat degenerated. The use of the shadowfell in the Orcs background gave the link I needed : when an Orc is exiled for too long from the shadowfell, he loses his link with the necrotic energies of the plane. But he is still under Orcus compulsion to kill and consume life (or vice-versa... I haven't decided). Killing and devouring its prey to survive on the material plane, he will quickly transform into an ogre.
And so it's done ! I have linked Orcs, Ogre, Death Giants and Orcus. All I need to do is change the appearance of the orcs to something more tolkienish or foreshadowing the death giant look (grey, not green ; smaller teeth etc...).
Next step : opposing Orcus in the Shadowfell, there is the raven queen (Hecate in my world) and her subjects : shadar-kai and sorrowsworn. They are already linked in the game background, I need to reinforce this link, maybe by making shadar-kai some kind of parangon-level knightly order (think the soul society of bleach manga) that can be joined by the PC, and making the sorrowsorn en epic destiny (while changing the look of the beast, by the way...)
