whiskykuts
Commoner
Posts: 14 
Favorite D&D Class: Fighter
Favorite D&D Race: Orc
|
Post by whiskykuts on Jan 13, 2021 14:31:52 GMT
I love Orcs, always have. Goblins are fun, ogres are terrifying, but Orcs are just bad ass.
However, I do feel like they got a bum deal in DnD. I am happy with Orcs being savage destroyers for the most part, and they exist in my games in this way, but I feel that they are a few steps above other monsterous humanoids, and they deserve more. I don't believe that they have slowly built up to what we see them as, that they have struggled to grow and are these stunted, troglodye creatures. I believe instead that they were akin to humans, elves and dwarves, and were brought down to the level we see them. So I've started working on the history of Orcs in my world, and putting reason behind their barbarism.
My Orcs were once philosophers, writers and mathematicians. Their thinkers were seen as one of the Four Pillars of Knowledge, along with the Sol Sulin of the Salam desert, the Eidur people of the Ashur, and the Chu'waay of Balan Mok. They once controlled most of the Western world, much like the Roman Empire, and whilst they were brilliant tacticians and war makers, they were also great in the peace they instilled, opting for integration over oppression. Their ancient language is more akin to latin than it was to the harsh guttaral tones of present day. However, the jealousy of man bred within these conquered lands, and they desired to take back what they believed was theirs. Uprising and Wars marred the empire until eventually the Golden Horde (as they were known) chose to return to their fertile homelands in the North-East, leaving the lands below to whoever was deemed the heir, though many Orcs stayed behind in the homes and communities they had built and lived in for hundreds of years. However, the festering hatred within mankind grew, and they turned this not just towards the Golden Horde, but towards Orcish people themselves. The leaders of men believed they must enact revenge, though none could be entirely sure what they were avenging. This led to a collected effort by sorcerers and wizards of the South to ravage the Golden Hordes, and in particular, their native lands, tearing them apart and reducing green fields and full rivers to barren dust, before gouging a scar of a chasm across the face of the planet itself, which kept them trapped in their newly destroyed lands. This was then coupled with a genocidal campaign against all those Orcs who had chosen to stay in the South, though a few managed to escape across the Chasm into what became known as the Deadlands, and took with them stories of this violent betrayal. Trapped in a barren wasteland, the Golden Horde collapsed, and the Orcs were driven to tribalism and savagery to survive. Over the centuries they lost their language, and their society became what it is now. But there are still remnants of those who believe Orcs could be, and maybe still are, what they were once.
In addition, Half-Orcs exist within my world, but strictly in the small, nomadic communities of the Far North, where human tribes and orc tribes quite often co-exist peacefully. There are some cases of Orcs and Half-Orcs living in towns and Cities, though these are uncommon, and are mostly in the North. There are however particular lineages in the South which have Orcish great great great great grandparents, from the times of the Golden Horde.
There are plenty creatures in the world which are adventure fodder, dumb humanoids with animalistic mind sets and societal structures, but I felt Orcs deserved a bit more, and I hope that in building upon this Fall from Grace idea, that it will add more depth to encounters between them and the world around. Plus, if you need an enemy of humankind, what better than one who has an absolutely deserving reason to hate the realm of man?
|
|
|
|
Post by randosaurus on Jan 15, 2021 4:39:28 GMT
This all matches a bit of the pitch of how I use orcs, or at least harmonizes. For me, Orcs were philosophers and lore seekers in a western continent of beastfolk. Human conquest and colonization of the land pushed them to adjust to diaspora, and they receded to remote places. Then the Human Genesor went and got themselves raptured somehow, leaving nothing but ruin and a few sinners.
Now under a charismatic leader, the Orcs have reunited all the folk in a strong confederacy. They seek the riches and weapons left in ruins, putting them in frequent conflict with treasure hunting adventurers. 3 factions vie for control of the nascient power:
I like what you did making them mathematicians. Did they leave behind any great works to be discovered? Are well known philosophers not-so-well known to be Orcs, their wisdom filtered through so many generations everyone forgot and imagines the great thinker is obviously an elf/dwarf/gnome/person? Did some orc write prophecy and become something of an item among apocalyptica collectors, only now the orcish omens are coming to pass?
Interested to know more!
|
|
whiskykuts
Commoner
Posts: 14
Favorite D&D Class: Fighter
Favorite D&D Race: Orc
|
Post by whiskykuts on Jan 17, 2021 11:07:15 GMT
I really like your faction break down for the Orcs, I can see how those would co-exist in a world, but also be absolutely at odds with one another if not for the charismatic leader. Also, the Naturalist Subsistence Dwellers are an excellent idea, the idea of Orcs being violently territorial because you'll mess up the fauna and set back the harvest is great. Are the Interplanar builders and prophets Orcs themselves, or did they just bring the Druidic magic for them to use?
The Orcs (which, I must add are still being worked upon) of my world basically brought the Northmans distance abilities and their take on astrology and developed precise mathematics with it, which allowed more than anything for them to build some fantastic structures in relation to their Gods. Once they had reached the centre of the continent, they traded ideas with the other great thinking nations, who each brought their own takes on maths, geography, philosophies, writing techniques and technologies. Some used magic, others just the mind, and often they had the same idea but a different route of getting there. Sadly the only group to not be credited for their work is the Orcs. The Golden Horde brought to the South the written word, and evolved the language of common itself, along with canals, viaducts, measuring distance and building roads. They also adapted a calender, though this was originally an Ashurian construct. And whilst the other Nations of knowledge, such as the Ashurians, are as strong today as they were 2000 years ago, the Orcs have been erased from history, and their achievements awarded to second rate hacks from the South, mostly those who ruled within the subsequent Tarandrus Empire.
The biggest, and as of yet mostly undiscovered, work that the Golden Horde left was their development of an already ancient subterranean system they named The Tenebrae. These ancient obsidian tunnels ran much of the North, deep below the mountains. The Orcs developed these into great cities, claiming that it allowed them to expand their peoples without impacting the earth above, as well as providing safety from greater threats such as dragons. These Tenebrae were mostly abandoned, and are now dangerous places, which go by the name of Tunbrak in the new Orcish tongue. There are believed to remain evidence of their discoveries and wonders left behind, for those who can risk looking.
One of the big plots for this world is the resurgence of the Aureaum (Golden Horde), who have spent the last four hundred years building a version of the Tenebrae in the Deadlands, and expanding it to reconnect with the ancient systems in the North of the continent beyond the Chasm. Once they do this, they would have an almost compeltely secret tunnel system which would lead Orc armies, along with the Goblin, Hundur and Bugbear nations of the Deadlands to the very doorstep of the South. But that's for a later date.
|
|
|
|
Post by randosaurus on Jan 19, 2021 4:55:59 GMT
Well now I'm awfully glad I chimed into this thread.
I just randomly generated a place called 'Tenebrae Maze', a dark subterranean catacomb known to the Legori (those Genesor remnants I mentioned, librarians who put too much weight into reason, and so whose faith could not rapture to the sky).
Just going to surreptitiously bury a network of lava tubes, brb.
|
|
daxredhammer
Adventurer
Posts: 73
Favorite D&D Class: Tinkerer
Favorite D&D Race: Minotaur
|
Post by daxredhammer on Jan 29, 2021 18:13:36 GMT
My Orcs and other goblinoids have yet to be made. The plan is that they will be created from magic by transforming elves, gnomes and halflings into orcs, goblins and Kobolds (in that order) to save the elven kingdom from destruction by humans.
Of course the elves are not intentionally trying to turn into something else, rather they are just trying to become more powerful in order to drive the humans out of their forests for good.
Edit:
So my players were actually sent back in time by a demigod to stop the elves from completing their ritual that would create the goblinoid races, but once they found the elves, they took pity on them and turned against the humans that were invading the forest. They actually caused the speed up of the whole thing which in turn caused the destruction and elimination of the entire human kingdom that was invading the forest.
Now I am at a loss of how to proceed...
|
|
Fender
Commoner
Posts: 4
Favorite D&D Class: Wizard
Favorite D&D Race: Human
|
Post by Fender on Mar 31, 2021 22:25:15 GMT
I really like the way you see Orcs. Your comparison with the roman empire remind me of the Orcs in my world because I see them as the other side of the Roman history.
In my world the Orcs are what Romans would call Barbarian, they are not the blood hungry beast that human describe but outsider to the ''civilized world''. They live in their villages with culture based on spiritism, nature, and honor. They live in clan with their own leader, but all abide to the law of the Spirits which are decipher by the Shamans and Oracles of the clans. They don't seek war, but the instability of the politic between each clan raise aggressiveness and conflict, some pretending that the old ways must be conserved while other think that a united unit is necessary to resist the rise of Human influence on their lifestyle. As Roman and Germanic ''Barbarian'', conflict is inevitable, but who is the be declared on the wrong side? Human seeking the extension of their culture and bring ''Civilization'' to the world, or Orcs trying to protect their heritage by any mean necessary?
I really like the different point of view every DM can have. Philosopher ostracized to the point of breakdown, Lore seeker rising to former glory, barbarian trying to keep their way. Magical, just magical!
|
|
