Orcs

Spartan bitches were fucking hardcore

>implying Mongols aren't of the generic choices for Orcs

They're not, when was the last time you saw orcs with a civilization that stretched across a continent? It's not as common common as OPs out if the monster manual cannon fodder.

Warcraft 2
Arcane Codex
Forgotten realms Grey Orcs I think.
Frequently first choice for Orcs in Homebrew settings

I'm having a hard time thinking of how Orcs and Mongols are at all similar. They have vastly more in common with uniting African tribes before Shaka.

They don't have to be particularly similar to serve as a basis to style Orcs after. I feel Orcs are frequently a kind of Vandal, Hun and Mongol amalgamation. Invading hordes and all...

>Orcs happen to live around the world's largest supply of magic!petroleum, so the civilized races bend over backwards to keep the orcs happy and turn a blind eye to their constant evil deeds, out of fear they'll cut off trade

When I read the OP I thought he was trying to be generic on purpouse. Here is my try:

>Orcs are green, so they are created directly by mother nature to destroy civilization.
>She doesn't care about how CE they turn out to be, she just releases them in order to destroy the magic and the rigidly organized societies that expliot or desrupt her.
>Orcs are highly sensitive to the spirits of animals and natural phenomena. This alows angry spirits to posses them in order to revenge or defend their lands, making them even more savage and brutal.
>Basicly, an army of demons created by mother nature.

Completely unsustainable society, OP. Little despotic hegemonies appear in human civilization for maybe one generation before they fall apart, either by internal conflict, failure to distribute resources or outside intervention.

You could offset it with changes to their biology, but if they feel attachment, have DNA, possess less than perfect metabolic processes and/or free will, that kind of a society will quickly crumble for the same reasons they do for humans.

To get this to work, you need to handwave 90% of its features with inconsistent "just don't think about it" logic, which makes things vastly less interesting for players. Having a society and species which obeys the same universal constants as the rest of the setting means players can actually use problem solving to enhance the story, while if presented with "10% of the population feed and defend 90%", you must spoon-feed them every aspect of altered reality in order for them to do anything with it.

>Shamanistic
>Hit & run villages
>Brief appearances of hordes before they storm the walls and burn everyone/everything to the ground
>Plant nature magic seeds to overgrow the region and stop any attempt to recover lost castles and villages

>>Plant nature magic seeds to overgrow the region and stop any attempt to recover lost castles and villages
Nice

I like it.

Keep going user.

>Acts in harmony with nature
>Plants as many trees as they cut down
>Haul stone from raided settlements to build tools
>Steal rich soil from farms to help growth
>Loot steel so they don't have to mine
>Migrate in long cycles so they never overtax the wildlife
>Shows of strength and bravery end in deaths which keep a stable population
>Wars sate bloodlust for a time and let the population renew

We are actually two anons, so feel free to contribute. Im writing everything down, I praise the hivemind's creations too.

>Orc have a really low need of organization, because their bodies are adapted to live with the gifts of nature, they just follow their instincts and their instincts form some sort of hivemind ruled by nature.
>But sieging a castle or comanding an efective army need some sort of planning.
>The smarter spirits (owl, eagle, wolf, etc) take posesion of a single orc, make him very powerful and shamanistic, and use him to issue more advanced tactics. Different spirits make different warchiefs and different types of tribes, like chapters of the SM.

>The only true way of getting rid of the orcs is reducing nature's control over certain area. Powerful magic fields, hight resource expolitation. Kill. The. Druids.
>And corruption.
>Orcs are green, but they can be corrupted and change colour. Green represents their conection and servitude to mother nature.
>Orc are inherently made to obey some sort of higher power. Some demons can turn orcs red/orange/brown. To create warmongering hordes with industries or demonic magics.
>Purple for mages. Black for eldritch abominations.
>LG Gods can turn them blue/gold in order to make the most epic paladins

Tfw op's orcs are literally d&d 3.x orcs, really, in evwry single point.

OP played us like a goddamn fiddle!

Wrong image, but fuck it. This thread needs more Slaanesh anyway.

>Orc magic is fueled by the flesh and the blood of their enemies.
>This is how they restore the resources taken from nature.

>Raid. Rape. Burn. Use the flesh of your living victims a fuel to regrow the forest over the ruins. orc babies can be born from other species wombs

Like that worked in real life.

So you made them into spriggans?

How lame!

I like generic orcs.
Even better if they are one-sidedly evil so they serve as great enemy encounters or minions in an evil campaign.

I prefer Huns, but to each their own.

Actually, basing them off the Aztecs (sacrificing hearts to their gods in hideous rituals in an effort to stave off the end of the world, etc) might be a good bit of fun.

>I like generic orcs.
>Even better if they are one-sidedly evil so they serve as great enemy encounters or minions in an evil campaign.
I like generic stuff for my generic campaigns.

Aztec Orcs would be fun.

Maybe even Apache Orcs.

Savages.

I just love the idea of orcs being more then "oonga booga" or noble savages. Having a civilization that can easily rival others, but still keep to their "brutal" roots.

The Mongols did quite well for themselves
youtube.com/watch?v=szxPar0BcMo

My headcanon is that orcs are vikings.

>Tolkien orcs were inspired by germans
Make orcs more german. Industrious, hard working, efficient but still be able to focous their work other then war. Like science and culture and everything

I love it

I'm with you on this one. In my setting the Orcs were basically the military class of not!Rome, and because of their history are the dominant race among knights in the dark age. They're big on tradition and honor duels, which among other orcs rarely result in death but when a smaller race is dumb enough to accept the challenge usually ends poorly.

That's terrible OP. In my setting, orcs are actually small, pink intelligent blobs of amorphous matter that live underwater and feed on plankton. Their culture resembles that of ancient Cambodia and they're actually pacifist fae who take the place of humans in my setting. Their worst enemies are elves, who are 80 feet tall humanoid spiders with three heads. Do you even creativity bro?

That's terrible OP. In my setting, orcs are actually small, pink intelligent blobs of amorphous matter that live underwater and feed on plankton. Their culture resembles that of ancient Cambodia and they're actually pacifist fae who take the place of humans in my setting. Their worst enemies are elves, who are 80 feet tall Pashtun humanoid spiders with three heads. Do you even creativity bro?

>Do you even creativity bro?
Well certainly you lack a bit of naming creativity

Are you that one ass hurt fagot running around getting upset at people deviating slightly from the monster manual when it comes to fantasy races.

Didn't make them noble savages, or dindu's so 10/10.

That's been my go-to culture for orcs in the games I run for half a decade now. Aztec orcs, with obsidian weapons, and clothing of jaguar hide and feathers, with giant elaborate stone ziggurats and armies of slave orcs in blood-drunk rages.