Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
what would a good orc culture be like?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Blue Orange" data-source="post: 8764787" data-attributes="member: 7025997"><p>Depends how much you want to go into values dissonance. For example, much like the Mandalorians, they could be a warrior race open to anyone who can prove themselves and live according to their cultural values. They would thus be less racist than many other fantasy cultures, which would make our age look on them favorably. Elves look askance at anyone who can't prove elvish ancestors to the third generation (and introduce you to them), humans want you to be at least half-human to fit in, but <em>anyone </em>can be an orc if they can survive for a year and a day and fight in three battles.</p><p></p><p>We (and I'm going to go with 'Anglophone countries' for 'we' since I'm an American writing in English on a British board) haven't fought a big, existential war in a while, so we tend to look down on the usual values of warrior cultures like ferocity (indeed, the popularity of RPGs set in the preindustrial world may be a way of vicariously expressing that part of ourselves). But you could foreground other values like bravery and fortitude--as Bedrockgames suggests, perhaps paladinish, or mix that with the samurai if you want a different feel. Closeness to nature could be another one they could have that some moderns appreciate--as Vaalingrade says, they could have the best druids. You could also have them fighting something much worse--it's only the Orc Nations at the border of the Abyss that keep demons, dragons, or Cthulhoid monstrosities from overrunning the world.</p><p></p><p>What we're <em>not</em> going to have (unless you are specifically going counterstereotype, which is an option of course) are bookish or bureaucratic orcs. The orcish stereotype has gone from 'evil' in Tolkien to 'martial non-state societies', I'd say.</p><p></p><p>If you want to go with 'neutral' rather than 'good', you can look at the way nomadic societies were organized--after all, all the histories are written by state societies. Genghis Khan unified the Silk Road and was quite tolerant religiously--but he killed a lot of Chinese people. The Goths were just trying to stay a step ahead of the Huns when they ran into the Roman Empire, but we all know what happened next. Good? Bad? Well, speaking of gigantic melancholies and mirth, who's your chronicler? I mean, all the propaganda about orcs is <em>obviously</em> made up by effete elves who enslaved them three hundred years ago and greedy humans looking for cheap labor in their cities who are now trying to excuse themselves.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue Orange, post: 8764787, member: 7025997"] Depends how much you want to go into values dissonance. For example, much like the Mandalorians, they could be a warrior race open to anyone who can prove themselves and live according to their cultural values. They would thus be less racist than many other fantasy cultures, which would make our age look on them favorably. Elves look askance at anyone who can't prove elvish ancestors to the third generation (and introduce you to them), humans want you to be at least half-human to fit in, but [I]anyone [/I]can be an orc if they can survive for a year and a day and fight in three battles. We (and I'm going to go with 'Anglophone countries' for 'we' since I'm an American writing in English on a British board) haven't fought a big, existential war in a while, so we tend to look down on the usual values of warrior cultures like ferocity (indeed, the popularity of RPGs set in the preindustrial world may be a way of vicariously expressing that part of ourselves). But you could foreground other values like bravery and fortitude--as Bedrockgames suggests, perhaps paladinish, or mix that with the samurai if you want a different feel. Closeness to nature could be another one they could have that some moderns appreciate--as Vaalingrade says, they could have the best druids. You could also have them fighting something much worse--it's only the Orc Nations at the border of the Abyss that keep demons, dragons, or Cthulhoid monstrosities from overrunning the world. What we're [I]not[/I] going to have (unless you are specifically going counterstereotype, which is an option of course) are bookish or bureaucratic orcs. The orcish stereotype has gone from 'evil' in Tolkien to 'martial non-state societies', I'd say. If you want to go with 'neutral' rather than 'good', you can look at the way nomadic societies were organized--after all, all the histories are written by state societies. Genghis Khan unified the Silk Road and was quite tolerant religiously--but he killed a lot of Chinese people. The Goths were just trying to stay a step ahead of the Huns when they ran into the Roman Empire, but we all know what happened next. Good? Bad? Well, speaking of gigantic melancholies and mirth, who's your chronicler? I mean, all the propaganda about orcs is [I]obviously[/I] made up by effete elves who enslaved them three hundred years ago and greedy humans looking for cheap labor in their cities who are now trying to excuse themselves. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
what would a good orc culture be like?
Top