Orc

An average Warhammer Orc.

"These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle."

– Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, Hordes of the Things

Orcs are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to Ork. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average human, though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of half-orcs. The long-standing exception to this is elves. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

The Master Template

While many traditional fantasy races (Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Goblins and Wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

Tolkien

The origin of the original Orcs.

Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over. According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Utumno, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example, or salves that, while leaving visible scars and smelling horribly, work surprisingly well when treating cuts and bruises), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Orcs also have heraldry (being able to recognize individual commanders by their banners) and knowledge of history, at least in oral form, stretching to the Second Age and probably further. Their endurance bears special mention, as they are able to run for several days straight, if need be. Interestingly enough, despite their nature, orcs do care about aesthetics in some way: there is a mention of an officer's weapon having a carved handle.

Not all orcs are identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

Something worth pointing out here is that, Orcs do not represent non-European folks as some have suggested, at least not in the mind of Tolkien. Instead, they were always a representation of man's inhumanity, especially the form it took in the 20th century. As stated previously, Orcs created many clever devices of war, as well as industry that polluted the land and enslaved others. Tolkien saw Orcs as the inevitable end-products of rationalism and progress without any sort of ethical restraint, and likened them to the various people who supported an ends-justify-the-means mentality, even going so far as condemning the creation of the atomic bomb as the most Orcish thing the Allies had ever done. In this light, Tolkien's Orcs are best understood not as the foreign Other, but as a vision of what could happen to ourselves in the future, should we allow ourselves to degenerate into evil monsters unbound by any morality.

Grey areas

The question of whether they are intrinsically evil is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of Eru as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

• Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
• Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
• Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a ghoulish being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
• Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
• The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA fucking Fallen Angels; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their descendants to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms. Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of Eru's children, and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture. Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.
• One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
• The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "in principle no" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

Direct Adaptations

For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and possibly confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

There's also a rather Grimdark theory akin to Daemonculaba regarding the breeding of the Uruk-Hai from mutating regular newborn Half-Orc infants. The "mud" seen in the movie has been filled with Dark Magic/Essence of Sauron, and the blood of sacrificed humans. Infant Half-Orcs are chosen after being selectively bred, torn from their human mothers' grasp (and possibly womb), and tossed heartlessly into the muck as they wail, crying and desperate for the return of their parent's love. They sink into the bubbling muck, where it serves as a sort of incubator, forcing the half-blood orcling to grow up in a matter of days, maybe even hours, instead of the years it would take the half-orc to normally grow up. Eventually, Snaga are forced to pull the cocooned body of the now Uruk-Hai out of the muck. They have been infused with Sauron's dark will, and are completely brainwashed to his cause by his will. This theory basically paints Saruman as being fucking Doctor Mengele.

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics (although there was references made to Sauron possibly using his terrible magical psychic might to force them to be evil, along with references made in the first game of an Orc who was giving information to humans having Flies that are supposedly aspects of Sauron's dark spirit crawling up his ear whilst he slept and buzzing and gnawing within, driving said Orc mad); meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were mostly the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves or Snaga), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, as Sauron's hold on their mind has been weakened, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

Warhammer

The modern interpretation of Orcs.

Games Workshop was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after Gary Gygax sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand Citadel Miniatures.

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive extreme ripoffs). The most successful of these was Warhammer Fantasy, then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where its Orcs were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of Warhammer 40000 which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a Drizzt to be their posterboy example.

Warcraft

The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who. Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, THE MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for 12 15 18 full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... An interesting place. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

Mold-Breakers

"Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?"

– Lord Havelock Vetinari, Unseen Academicals, on the subject of Sir Terry Pratchett's Orcs

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic barbarian rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

Discworld (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a Mary Sue due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

Al-Qadim is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who are always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for elf-orc crossbreeding.

Eberron gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of aberration hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so half-orcs are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.

• Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
• Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
• Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc barbarian clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing else in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
• Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that won't kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

Forgotten Realms, although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A Lawful Good race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to Eldath (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous The Orc Baby Dilemma, with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats here. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because they're brought up in an evil culture, and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually are Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

Greyhawk largely plays it straight, but even Gygax's own setting has the exception. The orcs in the Sultanate of Zeif are pretty much integrated into the society and are culturally Baklunish, though still treated as lower class people.

Spelljammer is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or Scro, are still bad guys. It's just that, in an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how hobgoblins have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor.

Warcraft, as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a noblebright culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in World of Warcraft, which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, trolls, undead, and minotaurs) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of Blizzard's refusal to give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While Elder Scrolls **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered people in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah ate (and shat out) their greatest champion/god Trinimac, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

Wicked Fantasy Orks were originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a dark race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

Sharakim seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to look like orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

Monster Hunter International orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a MI-24 Hind do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

Orcs in D&D

1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.

In the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons, Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a BBEG. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the Half-Orc playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named Gruumsh, who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife Luthic, goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and make babby, and their son Bahgtru who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command Ilneval who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were Shargaas the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and Yurtrus the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for Dragon Magazine later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and Kobolds player characters of any alignment. This lead to the Forgotten Realms setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own Known World Gazetteer in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the half-orc or even the goliath races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally the only race in the game, aside from kobolds, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

Gallery

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  Original D&D

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  A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity

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  A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity

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  2e Monstrous Compendium

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  2e Monstrous Manual

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  2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).

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  3e

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  4e

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  Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.

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  5e

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  Pathfinder

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  Starfinder

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PC Stats

BECMI

In BECMI era Mystara, there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in The Orcs of Thar, and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the Hollow World subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

Standard Mystaran Orc

Click "Expand" to see the stablock.

Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity

Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar Intelligence and Wisdom, which are capped at 16.

Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its Charisma score for interacting with humans and demihumans by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.

Orc Natural Armor Class: 8

Can become Shamans (6th level) and Wokani (4th level).

Orc's's level	XP Required	Orc's hit dice
0	0	d8
1	1,000	2d8
2	2,000	3d8
3	4,000	-
4	8,000	4d8
5	16,000	5d8
6	32,000	6d8
7	64,000	-
8	130,000	7d8
9	260,000	+2 Hit Points
Subsequent	200,000	+2 Hit Points

Krugel Orc

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom

Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned

Save as Fighter of equivalent level

Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani

Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous dinosaur)

Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision

Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip

Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling

Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding

Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor

Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36

1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice

2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice

3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice

4: 4,000 XP

5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice

6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice

7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice

8: 64,000 XP

9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice

10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)

+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)

AD&D

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

+1 Strength,-2 Charisma

Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18

Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17

Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18

Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16

Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16

Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12

Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11

35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions

25% chance to spot sloping passages

Infravision 60 feet

-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight

Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.

3e

There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the Monster Manual featured the following statblock:

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

Medium size

Base land speed 30 feet

Darkvision out to 60 feet

Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.

Favored Class: Barbarian

Forgotten Realms

In the Forgotten Realms, however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when Obould Many-Arrows tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or Orogs, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the Underdark. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

Medium Size

Base Speed 40 feet

Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow

Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.

Scent (Ex)

Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as Orcs.

Favored Class: Cleric

Level Adjustment: +1

3rd Party Settings

Midnight

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

Medium

Base land speed 30 feet

Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs

Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.

Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.

Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.

Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.

+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.

+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.

Favored Class: Barbarian

Warcraft the RPG

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

• +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence

Medium size

Base land speed 30 feet

Low-Light Vison

Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian

Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon

Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat

+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.

+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans

Favored Class: Fighter

World of Warcraft the RPG

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

• +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)

Medium size

Base land speed 30 feet

Low-Light Vison

Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian

Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon

Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat

+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.

+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans

Favored Class: Barbarian

4e

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Low-light

Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)

Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)

5e

Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e Half-Orc stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 hit point left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that has caused its fair share of arguments.

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence

30 feet base movement speed

Size is medium, but they get almost large Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.

60 feet darkvision

Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)

Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e Eberron splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for Primal Intuition, which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary druidic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the Exandria splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and kobolds. Even so, it goes without saying, but it's simply impossible to please everyone.

3rd Party Settings

Arkadia

The Orcs of Arkadia are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as Giants for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside cyclopean giants; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the elves, powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Darkvision: 60 feet

Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.

Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

World of Farland

Orcs in the World of Farland come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the Lord of the Rings books that inspired it.

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Vision: Darkvision 60 feet

Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.

Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.

Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.

Snog orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution

Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.

Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Skaruk orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.

Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity

Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Irzuk orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.

Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom

Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.

Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.

Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.

Scarred Lands

Orcs of the Scarred Lands are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of Ghelspad, noted for their talents in astrology and riding Dire Wolves, strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution

Size: Medium

Speed: 30 feet

Darkivision 30 feet

Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.

Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill

Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.

Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.

Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.

Pathfinder 1e

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

• +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

Medium size

Base land speed 30 feet

Darkvision out to 60 feet

Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)

Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)

Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.

As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (score, not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it triples their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to house cats, incorporeal foes or Swarms as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

Pathfinder 2e

Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... by way of conflict.

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Hit points: 10

Size: Medium

Speed: 25 feet

Ability Boosts: Strength, Free

Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.

Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.

Starfinder

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in Starfinder were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones. This is extremely similar to what the Drow in D&D did to the Goblins to create Vril.

Click "Expand" to see the statblock.

Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha

Hit Points: 6

Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).

Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.

Darkvision 60 feet

Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.

Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.

Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.

The Gargun of Hârn

The Orcs of Columbia Games' miniature series, the Gargun, are divided into 5 subspecies that form a sort of caste system based on size and strength. These 5 breeds include the Araki (Small Orc), Kyani (White Orc), Hyeka (Brown Orc), Viasal (Red Orc), and Khanu (Black Orc). They are also referred to as Foulspawn, in reference to the evil wizard believed to have either created them or brought them to Hârn from elsewhere, Lothrim the Foulspawner. What's more, the Gargun reproduce like insects, with a fertile queen laying eggs that hatch into one of the 5 subspecies. The eggs are often incubated within piles of rotting organic matter like rotten meat or feces. They also have a form of genetic memory, which also informs them that they have been forsaken by the gods. The Gargun subspecies can interbreed, but their offspring will be sterile and insane. They cannot breed with non-Orcs, but that hasn't stopped them from rape.

Grut Orcs: The Blueskins from Heroscape

In the tabletop game "Heroscape", the Orcs were blue-skinned, similar to the Starfinder Orcs. They tended to be similar in build to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Uruk-Hai, or the Kruleboyz Orruks. Like the Lizardmen/Seraphon, they ride dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters like Sabertooth Tigers, as can be seen by their unique character Grimnak, who rides a retro-looking rendition of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. They follow the megalomaniac Utgar, and as such are allied with the hideous tumor-like Marro aliens, the Zettian slaver-robots, the Undead like Vampires and Zombies, Werewolves, and various other monsters.

Wadrhun: More Dino Riders!

The Wadrhun from Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings are also dinosaur riders. They're more like Blizzard's Warcraft Orcs in appearance, with a Noble Savage thing going on and riding dinosaurs like the Grut from Heroscape. They were originally designed as a bioweapon by the Elves of The Spire.

Green Skin

One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, red, brown, and yellow are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of Games Workshop, also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied. For what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey as of 5e, not green. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

In-universe reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Piggish Looks

On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school neckbeards grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

In the west, probably the most notable case of porcine orcs are the Farrow from the Iron Kingdoms setting of Privateer Press. Resembling bipedal pigs, they are a savage yet cunning race, who practice both the barbaric Blood Magic of the Bone Grinder and the beast-magic of the Warlock, yet have also gleefully adopted the technologies of their more advanced neighbors, namely guns and even inventing a particularly cruel form of tank that uses tumbler-cages full of pigs that have been set on fire for wheels.

The downside to their popularity in Japan is that Pigfaced Orcs are often portrayed in hentai as Big Ugly Bastards who do /d/eviant things to beautiful women.

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  Pigfaced Orcs in the style of the original D&D Monster Manual, made by Kev Adams, creator of the original version of Warhammer Orcs!

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Cyclops Orcs

An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe, which appeared in the Orc's Drift campaign. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye. There's also the Cyclopax tribe of orcs from Arkadia who fight alongside one-eyed giants.

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  Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.

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Scaley Orcs

You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, were Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards with faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history. In theory, Greer may have been inspired by the earlier, Pigfaced Orc breeds, as shown in a photo below with a Scaley Orc female still having six breasts like a Pigfaced Orc sow.

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  Essex Miniatures model, official painting on their site. Forgot to thin their paints.

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  Fan-painted Scaley Orcs. Now you can see how these guys are intimidating up close.

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  A husband and wife in the war together. Notice the six breasts, a holdover from their Pigfaced Orc Ancestors.

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Bulldog-Faced Orcs

Another niche Orc subtype. Most famous types would be the Orcs/Goblins of the old Rankin-Bass Middle Earth cartoons, although another example would be the Moblins from earlier versions of the "The Legend of Zelda" series, although they were later replaced with Japan's more beloved Pigfaced Orcs for Moblins. In particular, a more humanoid version of the Bulldog-faced Orc was in the 1980's Super Mario Bros. Super Show's Friday Legend of Zelda cartoon episodes. Other than that, this particular ugly-mugged (get it? Like Mug Root Beer's Bulldog mascot) form of Orcoid is pretty rare, although they may be inspired by another old-school dogfaced breed of tabletop mook: the Dogfaced Kobold, who were listed as a form of goblinoid back in the Spelljammer days. In fact, the Kobolds, Orcs, and other goblinoids all shared a single homeworld and possible common ancestor in Spelljammer, before the Elven armada obliterated their homeworld during the Unhuman Wars. Another reference to Orcs having faces like bulldogs' is the prototype Black Orcs from Warhammer Fantasy's earlier editions being referred to as "bulldog heads".

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Monstergirl Depictions

This article or section is about Monstergirls (or a monster that is frequently depicted as a Monstergirl), something that /tg/ widely considers to be the purest form of awesome. Expect PROMOTIONS! and /d/elight in equal measure, often with drawfaggotry or writefaggotry to match.

Orcs are not the most commonly seen of monstergirls, as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many /d/ cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned Amazons; musclegirls of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the Black Orcs of Warhammer Fantasy. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of The Lord of the Rings, but why let that spoil a good laugh?

Daily Life with Monstergirl combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the centaurs in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

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  gb2kitchen

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  In some depictions female orcs are rather amazonian.

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  A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.

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  Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's Black Orcs.

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  Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.

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  Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?

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  Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu

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  The she-orcs of Warcraft have always been pretty hot.

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  Pathfinder proving half-orcs don't HAVE to have human mothers.

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  Some battle damage just makes it sexier

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See Also

• Goblins
• Hobgoblins
• Ork
• Orcs & Goblins
• Sranc

Gallery

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  Ork made Exotic weapons.

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  Ork make more Exotic weapons.

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  What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.

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  Orks are Xenos, after all...

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  Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.

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  Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.

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  Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.

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  Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.

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  Pigfaced, Cycloptic, and Greenskin Orc Miniatures from the same manufacturer for contrast.

The Races of Pathfinder
Player's Handbook:	Dwarf - Elf - Gnome - Half-Elf - Half-Orc - Halfling - Human
Advanced Race Guide:	Aasimar - Catfolk - Changeling - Dhampir - Duergar Drow - Fetchling - Gillman - Goblin - Grippli - Hobgoblin Ifrit - Kitsune - Kobold - Merfolk - Nagaji - Orc - Oread Ratfolk - Samsaran - Strix - Suli - Svirfneblin - Sylph Tengu - Tiefling - Undine - Vanara - Vishkanya - Wayang
Bestiaries:	Android - Astomoi - Caligni - Deep One Hybrid - Gathlain Gnoll - Kasatha - Munavri - Naiad - Orang-Pendak Reptoid - Rougarou - Shabti - Trox - Yaddithian
Adventure Paths:	Being of Ib - Kuru
Inner Sea Races:	Ghoran - Monkey Goblin - Lashunta - Skinwalker Syrinx - Triaxian - Wyrwood - Wyvaran
Ultimate Wilderness:	Vine Leshy
Blood of the Sea:	Adaro - Cecaelia - Grindylow - Locathah - Sahuagin - Triton
Planar Adventures:	Aphorite - Duskwalker - Ganzi

The Races of Starfinder
Core Races:		Android - Human - Kasatha - Lashunta - Shirren - Vesk - Ysoki
Legacy Races:		Dwarf - Elf - Gnome - Half-Elf - Half-Orc - Halfling
Expanded Races:		Aasimar - Amrantah - Anassanoi - Astrazoan - Bantrid - Barathu - Bolida - Borai - Brakim - Brenneri Cephalume - Contemplative - Copaxi - Damai - Dessamar - Dirindi - Draelik - Dragonkin - Dromada Drow - Elebrian - Embri - Endiffian - Espraksa - Ferran - Formian - Ghibrani - Ghoran - Goblin - Gosclaw Gray - Haan - Hanakan - Hobgoblin - Hortus - Ifrit - Ijtikri - Ikeshti - Ilthisarian - Izalguun - Kalo - Kanabo Kayal - Khizar - Kiirinta - Kish - Maraquoi - Morlamaw - Neskinti - Nuar - Orc - Oread - Osharu - Pahtra Phentomite - Quorlu - Ramiyel - Raxilite - Reptoid - Ryphorian - Sarcesian - Sazaron - Screedreep Scyphozoan - Selamid - Seprevoi - Shakalta - Shatori - Shimreen - Shobhad - Skittermander - Spathinae SRO - Stellifera - Strix - Suli - Svartalfar - Sylph - Telia - Tiefling - Trinir - Trox - Undine - Uplifted Bear Urog - Varculak - Verthani - Vilderaro - Vlaka - Witchwyrd - Woioko - Wrikreechee