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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 8322614" data-attributes="member: 21169">JRR Tolkien's conception of orcs changed over time. His last writing on the subject was an essay Orcs (1959-1960) (with two minor notes added in 1969) published in JRR Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien, Morgoth's Ring (1993):Though of necessity, being the fingers of the hand of Morgoth, they [orcs] must be fought with the utmost severity, they must not be dealt with in their own terms of cruelty and treachery. Captives must not be tormented, not even to discover information for the defence of the homes of Elves and Men. If any Orcs surrendered and asked for mercy, they must be granted it, even at a cost. This was the teaching of the Wise, though in the horror of the War it was not always heeded. (pg 419)Tolkien's view of how orcs ought to be treated in 1960 was more humane than Gary Gygax's in 2005, expressed in a <a href="https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=11762&start=60" target="_blank">thread on Dragonsfoot</a>. He supported the killing of prisoners by a paladin and even considered the execution of non-combatants to be acceptable Lawful Good conduct:The orcs in Tolkien's Orcs are rather human:They needed food and drink, and rest, though many were by training as tough as Dwarves in enduring hardship. They could be slain, and they were subject to disease; but apart from these ills they died and were not immortal, even according to the manner of the Quendi; indeed they appear to have been by nature short-lived compared with the span of Men of higher race, such as the Edain. (pg 418)But a minority are Tolkien's equivalent of demons – incarnated fallen Maiar:Morgoth had many servants, the oldest and most potent of whom were immortal, belonging indeed in their beginning to the Maiar; and these evil spirits like their Master could take on visible forms. Those whose business it was to direct the Orcs often took Orkish shapes, though they were greater and more terrible. Thus it was that the histories speak of Great Orcs or Orc-captains who were not slain, and who reappeared in battle through years far longer than the span of the lives of Men. (pg 418)They are no longer corrupted elves, but corrupted men. JRR Tolkien: "The theory [of corrupted men] remains nonetheless the most probable." (pg 417) Christopher Tolkien: "This then, as it may appear, was my father's final view of the question: Orcs were bred from Men." (pg 421)</blockquote>

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