Orcs

[Glade Riven]

So I'm working on my Pathfinder Compatable Campaign Setting (this current post is about fluff, not mechanics), and I'm not happy about the orcs. Well, half of the orcs.

Civilized Orcs are your typical city thug orcs or part of the Church of Celestial Gears (I think the irony of having a techno-magic theocratic religion for Orcs is an interesting concept) - I've no problem with them. "Wild" orcs, though...well...kinda bland, typical. Very RC Cola - great with Moonpies, but not Coke (or Pepsi, if you prefer). Not much separates them from Eberron orcs or Warcraftian orcs - in fact, it's almost a hybrid of the two with heavy native american influence. Lead by druids, hangin' out in the wilderness, etc.

The Essence of Orc needs to be brought to the table, but with a twist - something classic yet a little different. Warcraft has played up the noble savage thing quite well once they broke from the Warhammer archtype in their 3rd RTS (while I haven't played WOW, I know folks who do and they only continued what they started with Warcraft 3).

Here's what I'm thinking: Orcs get to have an orgin story/creation myth that parallel a few traditional aspects of the orc-related orcishness.

Step 1: Origin - Orcs were originally Tieflings or fiendishly created from humans; either bred from demons, daemons, or devils (leaning demons, but not sold - this is all off the cuff, here) or boogie boogie eldric sorcery. Someone needed to represent on Phaetos, so they made Orcs to do just that. Ooo...or I can go Eldric Horror - Orcs were created as a mockery of humanity.
Step 2: Whoever bred them, the orcs rebelled against and won their freedom.
Step 3: Unique society that is "misunderstood" by others and fairly wild and chaotic yadda yadda yadda.
Step 4: ?
Step 5: Profit.

I haven't mucked about with the fiendish stuff for Phaetos yet, although I am kinda liking the Eldric Horror angle. Plays up to one bit of Phaetos I am using but haven't touched on (publicly) yet: the Aberrant "War." Fey have their realm (rooted a bit stronger in the "real" world), eldric horrors (squidheads, usual far realm suspects, aberrations) are from the realm of dreams (aberrations are a mockery of nature in the setting and there is an ancient feud between them and fey - possibly traced back when the Lord of the Fey had a one night stand with the Lady of Dreams and the resulting fallout).

And so concludes tonight's half-baked rantings. More coherancy on the 'morrow, but opinionated opinions are appreciated and I would like to not poke the bear in order to get the horns.

 

[pawsplay]

"Wild" orcs, though...well...kinda bland, typical. Very RC Cola - great with Moonpies, but not Coke (or Pepsi, if you prefer).

Actually, RC has a more complex flavor than Coke or Pepsi, more similar to older Coke formulations. It's not as old, though, a little more medicinal... a sipper's cola. But moving right along...

Not much separates them from Eberron orcs or Warcraftian orcs - in fact, it's almost a hybrid of the two with heavy native american influence. Lead by druids, hangin' out in the wilderness, etc.

The Essence of Orc needs to be brought to the table, but with a twist - something classic yet a little different. Warcraft has played up the noble savage thing quite well once they broke from the Warhammer archtype in their 3rd RTS (while I haven't played WOW, I know folks who do and they only continued what they started with Warcraft 3).

Here's what I'm thinking: Orcs get to have an orgin story/creation myth that parallel a few traditional aspects of the orc-related orcishness.

Step 1: Origin - Orcs were originally Tieflings or fiendishly created from humans; either bred from demons, daemons, or devils (leaning demons, but not sold - this is all off the cuff, here) or boogie boogie eldric sorcery. Someone needed to represent on Phaetos, so they made Orcs to do just that. Ooo...or I can go Eldric Horror - Orcs were created as a mockery of humanity.
Step 2: Whoever bred them, the orcs rebelled against and won their freedom.
Step 3: Unique society that is "misunderstood" by others and fairly wild and chaotic yadda yadda yadda.
Step 4: ?
Step 5: Profit.

I'll share some ideas I had for orcs a while back. The original orc race was a primitive race similar to humans, but they were bred with demons by some ancient, evil, and eldritch god. In an early age, that force was defeated, and the orcs scattered. In a later age, a large number of orcs were gathered under the banner of a powerful spellcaster, who used magic to cross them with humans, ogres, minotaurs, and other beings to create a race less dependent on the eldritch powers, and more humanoid in their thinking. They were a powerful race, but after that force, too, was shattered, they spread all over the place and evolved to a more "normal" power level. Offshoots of older orc races still exist, deep in the mountains, high in the north, and hidden in the jungle, although the orc race is pretty well blended, and typically has a shot of the local human bloodlines, too.

The concept is that they are the descendents of survivors, creatures with little more motivation than a good meal and the opportunity to mate. However, lurking in their DNA and their twisted souls is a dark, hungry pride that drives them to dominate others and to pervert and destroy rational things. While humans and others might regard them as brutish and possibly insane, they are reasonably cunning. Most the more nihilistic orcs got themselves extinct generations ago. The druidic faith is their solace, bending their hatred to a knee and allowing them to live in harmony with nature, just as the druidic faith suborns human ambition and artifice with a greater understanding of their place.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Who made the orcs? Was it gnomes? Is that why orcs hate gnomes so much? It would explain it... but why does everybody else hate gnomes, too?

/summon gnome-lovers


But seriously, I think if you work out who made the orcs and why you'll get enough oomph to run with.

One option: A cabal of wizards whose charter forbids creating undead. So one or more of them saw that as a loophole and created a "live" race instead. They intended to create a docile group that needed direction--to make themselves feel better about enslaving them. That didn't work out so well.

 

[Cor Azer]

The one time I really changed the backstory for orcs, I used something akin to the Uruk-hai method (I think it was Uruk-hai) - Orcs weren't brought into the world by gods, they were created by several evil sorcerors would used the corrupted bodies of dead and living elves.

The massive breeding pits were manned by captive dwarf slaves in the deeper recesses of the wild, and for a long time, the world thought they were just a rumor. The breeding pits could work faster than their womb-born foes, and so an eventual swarming was always a possibility.

This set up a few things - it still allowed the natural enmity of elves and dwarves towards the orcs; half-orcs could work because half-elves could work; no "orc children" to muddy moral dilemma; and the orcs got an interesting internal civil war-ish thing when some of the orcs became non-sterile outside of the breeding pits - "truebirth" orcs vs "pitbred" orcs.

I also tacked on a few other things - since they had only came into being a few years earlier than the campaign began, they weren't called "orcs". The PCs were the first to encounter them, and called them "bhenbiir" - an elven name translating as "ugly men". I also had the "truebirth" orcs become more lawful evil, civilized, and even establish a sort of knighthood, while the "pitbred" orcs remained more savage and rampantly destructive.

 

[Da-Ku]

Well if you have watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy it states that Orc's are damned Elves. It also says something similiar in the AD&D. I read in one of the 2nd edition books that one of my teachers gave me that Orc's are hell bent Elves.

 

[Da-Ku]

whoops sorry....Didnt read your posted entirely before I replied...

 

[D'karr]

I think the irony of having a techno-magic theocratic religion for Orcs is an interesting concept

You should take a look at Gorkamorka from Games Workshop, it will explain in detail why there should be no irony at all in this concept...

 

[Hand of Evil]

In my game worlds, orcs and Hobgoblins are the same, it is just that orcs are the wild / untamed part of the family. The race itself was created as a slave warrior race for a "older race" that disappeared from the world. Without that leadership, the hobgoblin world is slowly falling apart, as they were never a creator race, with all their tech being template based.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Notes from the Travelouge of Josephus the Elder, from the Trinity Campaign Setting
Orcs: These savage, pagan brutes are beyond civilizing. Willingly enslaved to their one-eyed pig-demon, they are zealots who care little about their own life. Their early history in the Northern Steppes, amongst the people of the Star and the people of the Moon, is a great part of the reason for the custom of not eating pigflesh. Given in to mad RAGE, they have little contact with outsiders that is not violent. They are known to ride dire boars into battle, to travel with the creatures, and treat them as steeds. They are blood-drinkers and cannibals. The affliction of the orc, however, is largely cultural. Those foundlings who have been rescued from a war-camp we have found to be strong and hardy, great workers with endurance and power beyond that of most people. If we can but save their souls from the grasp of the Deceiver, perhaps we shall gain a prominent ally. Missionaries shall be warned, however, that they are considered dangerous, deadly folk, and will kill an Evangelist before considering what they have to say.

 

[Glade Riven]

[MENTION=336]D'karr[/MENTION] - I know a bit about them warhammer orks and how their tech works because they think it should work. I'd even considered using the warhammer orc breeding cycle (sans orcs, though - just goblinoids and trolls), but decided against it.

[MENTION=870]Cor Azer[/MENTION] - spawning pools would make a good macguffan or chekhov's Gun.

[MENTION=371]Hand of Evil[/MENTION] - Cool idea

I guess there's always "blame the aboleths", followed by "weaking of the blood," letting PCs play orcs using half-orc stats. Scratch that - going with Drow as the creators 'cause they needed manual labor.

See, on Phaetos (which is tidally locked) drow are from the icy dark side and have a mongolian nomadic existance. They also want to conquer the big roman-dwarf Empire. Make it so they used to have an empire, but the empire fell because their manual labor revolted and all that was left after a devistatingly brutal conflict was two races that crashed and burned from a high-magic society down to barbarism.

So...three birds, one stone: Drow get a shift in status from Fey to Aberration, created the orcs as a manual workforce, and then lost their icy empire due to a slave revolt that reduced everyone involved to barberism. This plays into the conflict between Fey (nature) and Aberration (mockery of nature), since drow are fallen elves. It gives a motive to the drow (they want their empire back, even if they have to take it from the dwarves). Finally, it fleshes out the orcs with backstory that has a slight twist on the classic former slave race trope.