Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Orc
AJ Pickett・33 minutes read
Orcs are a popular fantasy trope with roots in various mythologies, serving as malevolent beings in works like Tolkien's and influencing role-playing games. They value strength, survival skills, and raw power, with different subraces and cultures shaping their characteristics and beliefs.
Insights
- Orcs, originating from various mythologies and popularized by Tolkien, are depicted as aggressive beings serving evil masters, with gods like Gruumsh and Luthic playing significant roles in orcish society, emphasizing rituals, sacrifices, and values of strength and usefulness.
- Orcs exhibit diverse subraces and cultures, with mountain orcs forming settled tribes, gray orcs living nomadically, and half-orcs being a distinct race bred for specific roles. Crossbreeding with humans and demons results in unique subraces like Tanner Orcs and Bugans, each with distinctive physical traits and abilities, showcasing a complex and varied orcish society.
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Recent questions
What are orcs known for in fantasy fiction?
Orcs are depicted as aggressive, malevolent beings serving evil masters in fantasy fiction, influencing popular works like Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, and Warcraft.
Who are the prominent orcish gods in Forgotten Realms?
In the Forgotten Realms, orcish gods like Gruumsh, the god of storms and war, and Luthic, the goddess of fertility and medicine, play significant roles in orcish culture and rituals.
How do orcs value strength in their society?
Orcs value strength and usefulness above all in their society, instilling this belief from childhood and emphasizing survival skills honed by harsh conditions.
What is the lifespan of an orc without medical aid?
Orcs have a short lifespan, with adults considered middle-aged at 17 and rarely living past 40 without medical aid due to their harsh living conditions.
What are half-orcs in orcish culture?
Half-orcs are considered a distinct race in orcish culture, resulting from crossbreeding with humans and possessing unique physical characteristics and abilities for specific roles like scouts, archers, and shock troops.
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Summary
00:00
Orcs: Mythology, Gods, and Cultural Practices
- The concept of orcs draws from various mythologies, with the term itself originating in the 16th century and gaining modern popularity from Tolkien's works.
- Orcs are depicted as aggressive, malevolent beings serving evil masters, influencing fantasy fiction, role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, and Warcraft.
- In the Forgotten Realms, orcish gods like Gruumsh and Luthic play significant roles, with rituals, sacrifices, and sacred animals like the giant rat and cave bear.
- Gruumsh, the god of storms and war, leads the orcs, with priests wearing red, sporting eye patches, and conducting blood sacrifices during the new moon.
- Luthic, the goddess of fertility and medicine, is revered as the cave mother, embodying the orcish feminine ideal and using spells and claws in combat.
- Orcs value strength and usefulness above all, instilling this from childhood, with child mortality low due to their survival skills honed by harsh conditions.
- Illneval, a war leader god, inspires loyalty and strategic planning among followers, with an annual celebration at Greengrass involving orc warriors raiding civilized lands.
- The rituals of Illneval test mental and physical strength, including exile and returning with a predator's pelt, emphasizing courage and leadership.
- Bagru, a demigod of brute strength, respects the strongest leader in the tribe, with followers pushing children to be stronger and more useful from a young age.
- Shar, the god of darkness and night, symbolizes stealth, thieves, and the undead, with priests conducting rituals on the new moon and promoting subterfuge and assassination.
14:32
Orcs: Savage Warriors of Torial
- In the year -107 1DR, groups battled and killed Ray, the leader of the Malheur, during the Orca Wars, marking the first recorded instance of one god killing another.
- The mortal orcs believe they have the right to take what they want from the world, thriving in harsh conditions and valuing raw strength over civilization's luxuries.
- The first orcs of Torial, known as mountain orcs, were summoned to the world and are characterized by their savage appearance and demeanor.
- A great horde of gray orcs arrived in Torial from their homeworld, forming a distinctive racial group alongside the mountain orcs.
- Orcs vary in appearance based on region and subrace but share physical qualities like grayish skin, snouted faces, and large muscular bodies.
- Mountain orcs are settled and form large tribes, while gray orcs are nomadic and live a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, with less prominent tusks and a more organized mentality.
- Orcs have a short lifespan, with adults considered between 11-14 years old, middle-aged at 17, and rarely living past 40 without medical aid.
- Orcs rely on oral traditions and strength for survival, with their religion and tribal life integral to their society and education.
- Orcs have their own language and dialects, sometimes using Dwarven runes, and while magic is difficult for them, those who master it devote their lives to it.
- Traditional orcish culture is warlike, with a focus on subjugating enemies and controlling resources, leading to dominance in orc societies and a belief in survival through strength.
29:36
Orc Crossbreeds: Origins, Cultures, and Abilities
- Female orcs and male ogor ogres are involved in engineered breeding, a rare occurrence due to the female orc's protection by the tribe. The Loft cell is a crossbreed between an orc and a baboon mage, known as low-salt, living for 25 years, maturing at three, and having limited dark vision.
- The crossbreeding of orcs and humans results in half-orcs, considered a distinct race with their own culture. There are two breeds of Faena Walks, bred for specific roles like scouts, archers, and shock troops, with unique physical characteristics and abilities.
- The O'Dantas, a subrace of orcs, are pacifists revering the goddess of peace. They were discovered and betrayed by Zenful Keep, leading to enslavement of most tribes except one under divine protection.
- Tanner Orcs, orc-demon crossbreeds from Hell's Gate Keep, are stocky with bristly hair, horns, and a stench of brimstone. They possess supernatural fire manipulation abilities and tend towards chaotic evil behavior.
- Bugans, encountered in the Underdark, resemble orcs but have less fur, a distinctive jaw, and are less savage than orcs but more than elves. They are found in tribes alongside other races to combat slavery threats.
