Orc

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Orcs are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to Ork. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with green skin. Typically, they are stronger than an average human, though generally less intelligent as well (except in Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, Lord of the Rings and the Elder Scrolls, where they are, amusingly, physically inferior to the human race that is a facsimile of the Vikings. Thus proving that beards and axes end all things and that the Vikings can rape anyone).

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and stupider 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 was used to describe the Normans invading the Saxon occupiers of Britain in 1066. It is also an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf.

The Master Template

Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor shortly after the first elves awoke. Some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's maiar and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. There they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got orcs. The result was a species of ugly, bad smelling, ape like, long armed, claw handed, hairy humanoids which were brown, grey and black in coloration, an aversion to sunlight and ranging in size from smaller than a hobbit to as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and Sauron's armies. In Arda, Goblin is just another word for Orc (although in practice it refers mainly to the smaller types used most often as menial laborers). "Uruk" means orc in Black Speech.

Tolkien's orcs are not stupid. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets and mail), good (if unpleasant) medicine and are pretty good engineers. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are. Nor are all orcs 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. There are also different breeds of orcs, beside the garden variety orc you also have 'snufflers' bread 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, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, gaining power, bossing their subordinates, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear and their psychic influence over them. 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 an a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually cruel, brutish and short. 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. 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.

Mold-Breakers

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic barbarian rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, there are a couple of notable exceptions.

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. 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 an expectation of being born from consensual relationships, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings. The Demon Wastes are even full of 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. And winning.

Forgotten Realms, although certainly playing it straight, had an exception 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 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.

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. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor. You can check out their AD&D stats here.

Warcraft 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 shaman and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, 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.

Elder Scrolls Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) are very intelligent 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 their greatest champion, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacanth.

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

From 3rd edition on, Orcs have been a playable race in the vast list for Dungeons & Dragons, though their stats and standard portrayal have usually been bad enough to keep most people from ever bothering. Even in 4e, most would probably recommend using half-orc or goliath stats and "reskinning" them into orcs. The Players Handbook in 5e outright states that it's not impossible for an orc to not be chaotic evil, but that Gruumsh, the god that created them, didn't give them as much free will as the normal races, making it more difficult for orcs to avoid being evil. (Half-orcs feel it too, but not as strongly, and it primarily manifests as extremely passionate emotions.)

3.x Orc:

• +4 Strength
• -2 Intelligence
• -2 Wisdom
• -2 Charisma
• Medium size
• Base land speed 30 feet
• Darkvision out to 60 feet
• Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
• Favored Class: Barbarian

3.5 Scro

• +4 Strength
• +2 Dexterity
• +2 Constitution
• Medium size
• Base land speed 30 feet
• Darkvision out to 60 feet
• Orc Blood (count as orcs for all effect related to race)
• +1 racial bonus to attack rolls vs. Elves of all kinds
• Favored Class: Monk
• Level Adjustment: +2

Warcraft the RPG Orc

• +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 Orc

• +2 Stamina
• -2 Intellect
• 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 Orc

• +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)

Pathfinder Orc

• +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.

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.

Piggish Looks

On occasions, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the general acception of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 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 hunched, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where AD&D neckbeards grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames.

Monstergirl Depictions

Orcs are not the most commonly seen of monstergirls, as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls aren't inclined to find them 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.

See Also

• Goblins
• Ork
• Orcs & Goblins

Gallery

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  Ork made Exotic weapons.

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  Ork make more Exotic weapons.

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  gb2kitchen

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