Valeskan Orcs: Origins, Culture, Biology, Q&A
Oct 7, 2015 16:51:27 GMT -8
Lιттle Ƭree (Cedar Ashland) likes this
Post by equivocation on Oct 7, 2015 16:51:27 GMT -8
Or, "The Equi Center for Orcs Who Can't Raid Good"
Disclaimer: The vast majority of this is not mandatory to know; there are thousands of orc settlements with major differences. What is described here is "Mainstream" orc culture and society for the Valeskan world.
Orcs
Origin and Abilities: Said by some to be the result of humans interbreeding with trolls (these people, it may be noted, are wrong), orcs are the natives of a peninsula known as "Winter's Last Breath," a famously inhospitable glacial formation that juts into the arctic circle. So far north, a full fifth of the year is spent in an undending day during summer and another fifth is spent in each winter's Long Night. Worst of all, each new moon calls forth a wave of spontaneous necromantic activity, reviving any parts of corpses that have been left unprocessed and leading to migrations of skeletal elk, wretched and fearsome undead beasts that can kill a man in a dozen different ways.
Spending months under the glaring, burning snow-blindness or a darkness broken only by moonlight, starlight, and the aurora borealis, Winter's Last Breath has shaped the orcs into consummate survivalists and warriors, raiders who have contributed little to any field of magic or science save for the nautical. Up and down the coasts, the sight of Northern orcish longboats on the horizon can empty entire towns. Even other orcs are terrified of those who make their permanent homes at Winter's Last Breath, for they are the hardest and the cruelest of all orcs. Only those who "brave the ice" have any standing or regard from the Northerner orcs, and in turn other orcs often fight the Northerners to prove themselves as they age. It is argued (most often by orcs) that only the most stupid or hardheaded of orcs choose to live their lives out at Winter's Last Breath. The orcish people have, through means mostly involving rape, spread to every known inhabited land.
All orcs, regardless of the place of their birth, have extraordinary strength and endurance, a resistance to bright lights and glare as well as the ability to see in all conditions but a true and complete absence of light, and an instinct that anything that might threaten to smash them needs to be smashed first.
Appearance: Orcs are massive, hulking creatures with features that most humanoid races call "unrefined" at best, and "porcine" at worst. With the most common features being upturned snouts (often quite flight, and more frequently than not bent from being broken so many times), large tusks, pointed ears (though not always), and muscle to an excess, most races find orcs ugly or outright hideous. Orcish skin tends to be green or a light-to-medium gray. Orcs will basically never be dark enough (nor thin enough) to be confused with drow. Orcs are famed (primarily in tavern songs) for their oversized sexual characteristics.
Culture and Religion: Orcs are known to be extremely superstitious. They keep bone charms, cremate their dead, and hold rituals to ward off evil the day before each new moon. This is closely linked to the fact that their homeland is a place where basically everything is trying to kill them and the dead come back to life monthly. Most orcs hold festivals on the solstices and equinoxes, which is linked to that they are, in Winter's Last Breath, always thinking about whether the coming months will be marked by the blinding, burning hell of summer or the freezing Long Night. These observances are at the heart of orcish religion and culture.
Orcs tend to follow a tribal structure, where the strongest and often meanest of orcs take the position of leader. They usually enlist the aid of shamans who read signs and portents, ward off evil, and manage the many, many days of healing that the average orc goes through each month (or week). They venerate many gods and goddesses, with a particular emphasis on gods and goddesses of battle or fertility. Curiously, while orcs are a species famed for their "rapey" habits, they often culturally assimilate into the lands they inhabit (or infest, depending on who's being asked) within a matter of a few of their (quite brief) generations, venerating and paying tribute to the divinities of those lands.
Society and Military: Orcish society is not complicated. There are generally no rigid social structures, no well-defined castes, and even no hierarchies. Orcs roughly rank themselves in accordance with who beats things up the most (enemies or each other) and the pecking order follows. Orcs have little use for posturing - it exists only for the few seconds before the first swing is thrown. The most fierce and capable have power over the rest, and (with some tribes) a sufficiently feisty slave can earn freedom by simply being face-punch-y enough.
Their 'military' is raid groups, composed primarily of a melee force, outriders or cavalry once horses have been stolen, and archers. Their tactics are as deep as their social structure, mostly consisting less of formations and disciplined combat and more of several orcs competing for the most kills and seeking the strongest enemies to claim their heads. If the orcs were capable of forming a modern disciplined fighting force, they would likely be nearly unstoppable, but such cohesiveness, cooperation, and trust in others runs counter to their nature.
Disclaimer: The vast majority of this is not mandatory to know; there are thousands of orc settlements with major differences. What is described here is "Mainstream" orc culture and society for the Valeskan world.
Orcs
Origin and Abilities: Said by some to be the result of humans interbreeding with trolls (these people, it may be noted, are wrong), orcs are the natives of a peninsula known as "Winter's Last Breath," a famously inhospitable glacial formation that juts into the arctic circle. So far north, a full fifth of the year is spent in an undending day during summer and another fifth is spent in each winter's Long Night. Worst of all, each new moon calls forth a wave of spontaneous necromantic activity, reviving any parts of corpses that have been left unprocessed and leading to migrations of skeletal elk, wretched and fearsome undead beasts that can kill a man in a dozen different ways.
Spending months under the glaring, burning snow-blindness or a darkness broken only by moonlight, starlight, and the aurora borealis, Winter's Last Breath has shaped the orcs into consummate survivalists and warriors, raiders who have contributed little to any field of magic or science save for the nautical. Up and down the coasts, the sight of Northern orcish longboats on the horizon can empty entire towns. Even other orcs are terrified of those who make their permanent homes at Winter's Last Breath, for they are the hardest and the cruelest of all orcs. Only those who "brave the ice" have any standing or regard from the Northerner orcs, and in turn other orcs often fight the Northerners to prove themselves as they age. It is argued (most often by orcs) that only the most stupid or hardheaded of orcs choose to live their lives out at Winter's Last Breath. The orcish people have, through means mostly involving rape, spread to every known inhabited land.
All orcs, regardless of the place of their birth, have extraordinary strength and endurance, a resistance to bright lights and glare as well as the ability to see in all conditions but a true and complete absence of light, and an instinct that anything that might threaten to smash them needs to be smashed first.
Appearance: Orcs are massive, hulking creatures with features that most humanoid races call "unrefined" at best, and "porcine" at worst. With the most common features being upturned snouts (often quite flight, and more frequently than not bent from being broken so many times), large tusks, pointed ears (though not always), and muscle to an excess, most races find orcs ugly or outright hideous. Orcish skin tends to be green or a light-to-medium gray. Orcs will basically never be dark enough (nor thin enough) to be confused with drow. Orcs are famed (primarily in tavern songs) for their oversized sexual characteristics.
Culture and Religion: Orcs are known to be extremely superstitious. They keep bone charms, cremate their dead, and hold rituals to ward off evil the day before each new moon. This is closely linked to the fact that their homeland is a place where basically everything is trying to kill them and the dead come back to life monthly. Most orcs hold festivals on the solstices and equinoxes, which is linked to that they are, in Winter's Last Breath, always thinking about whether the coming months will be marked by the blinding, burning hell of summer or the freezing Long Night. These observances are at the heart of orcish religion and culture.
Orcs tend to follow a tribal structure, where the strongest and often meanest of orcs take the position of leader. They usually enlist the aid of shamans who read signs and portents, ward off evil, and manage the many, many days of healing that the average orc goes through each month (or week). They venerate many gods and goddesses, with a particular emphasis on gods and goddesses of battle or fertility. Curiously, while orcs are a species famed for their "rapey" habits, they often culturally assimilate into the lands they inhabit (or infest, depending on who's being asked) within a matter of a few of their (quite brief) generations, venerating and paying tribute to the divinities of those lands.
Society and Military: Orcish society is not complicated. There are generally no rigid social structures, no well-defined castes, and even no hierarchies. Orcs roughly rank themselves in accordance with who beats things up the most (enemies or each other) and the pecking order follows. Orcs have little use for posturing - it exists only for the few seconds before the first swing is thrown. The most fierce and capable have power over the rest, and (with some tribes) a sufficiently feisty slave can earn freedom by simply being face-punch-y enough.
Their 'military' is raid groups, composed primarily of a melee force, outriders or cavalry once horses have been stolen, and archers. Their tactics are as deep as their social structure, mostly consisting less of formations and disciplined combat and more of several orcs competing for the most kills and seeking the strongest enemies to claim their heads. If the orcs were capable of forming a modern disciplined fighting force, they would likely be nearly unstoppable, but such cohesiveness, cooperation, and trust in others runs counter to their nature.
