Orcs, Half-Orcs, Dire Orcs, Demon Orcs

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'Orc' in my setting is a term used for the various nameless horde of monsters in the wilderness, skittering beaked things or lumbering clawed things, people just call them orcs. Not necessarily bestial but not really sentient or anything either, it's not totally clear. They dwell on the outskirts, as boogeymen and raiders and predators. Kind of like Warhammer's Beastmen, I suppose, but less 'pagan barbarian goatman' and more 'medieval phantasmagoria'.

The Orcs in my setting are a nomadic group of humanoids that are sort of midway between giants and normal humans genetically. Their standout features include the fact that they grow no body hair and they regularly sharpen their teeth to resemble fangs. They're in the process of creating their own ethno-state atm after being nearly genocided and forced out of many Kingdoms on the continent. Orcs themselves have a warlike and secretive culture and aren't necessarily good or bad, but they're very distrusting of non-orcs due to being enslaved and treated like shit for the majority of their existence.

>skittering beaked things or lumbering clawed things

I'd like to hear more about these "orcs," user.

I dig it. Are they green? Gray? Sallow-skinned? Dark-skinned?

Orcs in my setting replace humans as the 'Jack of all Trades' race. While they have the same + to strength and such but they have a system of morality based on whatever they feel is most beneficial for the tribe. Some tribes might be merchants or raiders. Some might be farmers or mercs. This leads to an odd distrust towards the race as a whole but communities that have benefited from the presence of their local orc tribe tend to trust and love them.

That's cute, user.

>tfw no orc farmer's daughter to sneak out at night with and play in the fields

>Orcs

Make them whatever as long as they aren't Dindus like in Warcraft.

>Make them whatever as long as they aren't Dindus like in Warcraft.
>I know some people have strong opinions regarding orcs (particularly people in the Warcraft fandom) and I'm kindly asking you to keep your shitposting to another thread.

Every single time.

Basically like Trollocs from WoT? All mutated and weird. Not super intelligent but sapient, inherently evil and bloodthirsty.

I like the similar system from Steven Eriksson's books where pretty much anything extraplanar is a "demon"

>Not super intelligent but sapient, inherently evil and bloodthirsty.

If they're not super intelligent but sapient, how are they inherently evil? Wouldn't they just be acting in accordance with their nature? Aren't they essentially just smart animals?

Or are they unintelligent but juuuust intelligent enough to kill, murder, torture, etc. and know that what they're doing is wrong or somehow bad?

WAAAAGH!!!

one thing I always enjoyed about Warcraft orcs was how there seemed to be distinct sub races in the species. The average orc wasn't a very bright bulb, and the lowest of them were literally retarded, but at the top end you got master strategists like Gul'dan and Doomhammer that mold their enemies and allies like clay to fit their schemes

I like Orcs being kinda like Monk/Barbarians, living around volcanoes or in the insides of canyons. Mine are also able to roll around for some time, like Gorons.

Most are kind of War-Crafty in design, but the chiefs are always larger, fatter, and more pig-like.

Orcs in my setting are simply another branch of the natives that settlers and colonists are being forced to deal with, just another family of fey-bloods along with goblins and elves and the like. Each of the major Peoples of the natives are basically the result of incredibly powerful leaders generations ago warping their children into bestial forms.

The three primary People that get lumped together as orcs would be the People of the Boar, of the Bear, and of the Elk. Which I guess do sort of relate to the Raider, the Industrialist, and the Noble Savage, but the major emphasis is instead on the Comanche, the Haida and Tlingit, and the Cree. Basically a people of nomads who are most commonly encountered on raids against settlers, semi-mythic slave-takers, and trappers and traders who actually have better relationships with settlers in their area than the elven People of the Wolf.

>elves are people of the wolf
>orcs are people of the elk

Mind explaining this a bit, user?

Orcs in my setting were pushed out of the mainland, and in there mass retreat, stole ships and set sail for anywhere that they could find, after mastering the seas, they started raiding the coasts, and are now essentially really badass vikings

Do they worship a sea god?

Mostly just because of the fact that the various orc Peoples are more physical imposing and brawnier than more lithe elves. For the primary listing, orcs get Bear, Boar, and Elk; elves get Eagle, Spider, Lizard, and Wolf; goblins get Bat and Rat. Each of the Peoples have some aspect of their totem beast, some physical such as as a Boar's tusks or a Lizard's teeth and nictating membranes, while others are more mental such as Wolf's pack tactics or the Bear's bloodrage.

After all, orc and elf and goblin are all really just the attempts by settlers to classify and categorize the indigenous peoples which roughly ends up with the categories of Large and Violent, Stealthy Tricksters, and Sapient Vermin. Which while somewhat flawed, works to paint broad strokes of colonial racism that's also fairly accurate.

In my setting orcs are a completly artifical and disposable race
If you're a bad guy and need mooks you can just buy a dozen of orcs and worry no more.

The twist is that all orcs have souls of people who died near the factory and its possible to reincarnate as an orc and remember it all but an orc's use life is too short to do anything with it.

Basically pic related. A collection of weirdly, almost Muppet-shaped, monsters from the cold and shitty north. They're rather pathetic, but bound to the will of a Dark Lord, and so can still be scary in numbers. There's something very charming about the whole thing.

That does sound interesting

I'm okay with this only if they are lead by Great King Ploobis and get their wisdom and inspiration from the MIGHTY FAVOG.

I'm pretty sure 80% of my goblins are related in some way to Scred.

Excuse me, but where the fuck Orcs in Warcraft were described as Dindus, after WC3?

>weak and pathetic
>weirdly shaped
>dwell in he cold north
>servants to the will of a dark lord

Just say they're LotR orcs already, user.

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5e orcs best orcs

They look very alien, which is nice.

Pic related is still my favorite kind of orc, though.

They look like shit in the phb tho

I dont know, they look neat but I still prefer Pig-Orcs.

Yes, they look like absolute shit in the phb. But in Volo's Guide they look amazing. I hope they keep Tyler Jacobson as the official orc artist

That's literally been their shtick since WC3.

Of the Dindu variety or True Horde? Because True Horde orcs are p best.

They're rather fair skinned, not green at all. Think giant, hairless Brock Lesners with sharpened fangs and you have a good picture of what they look like.

Wild tribal barbarians that live in the wilds, usual barbarian stereotype. Were they are in the world dictates what historical group i base them on. Every now and then one chief beats up enough chiefs to gather a horde which then conquers and grows until it reaches critical mass and falls apart upon the chief's death and the cycle starts over.

They're the opposite of the elf and dwarf civilization, which is more stable and constant. Wild versus civilized is seen as the scale of orc to elf/dwarf.

Humans are what happened when the elves and dwarves tried to domesticate and uplift orcs. They grew weaker and more docile, but in turn grew enduring and organized. Today humans mimic elf and dwarf society and give themselves fancy titles, wear fine clothes and build Nations and great works imitating their teachers, but still follow the orc cycle of destruction and rebirth, their Nations in an endless cycle of consuming each other and forming empires, which then crumble and Fall apart like the orcs. During these times of destruction the human-orc relation is more apparent then ever, and in societies that have completely fallen apart, they may as well be one and the same. Along the edges of human civilization, there are numerous tribes of human barbarians, many of which include many orcs and half orcs as orcs raid human settlements only to be conquered by humans a generation or two later. Where the two meet, the cycle often gets mixed up.

Do they all have big dumb sword tattoos? If not, will they now?

Dude looks slavic.

Yes, tattoos are a big part of their culture upon reaching adulthood. And my settings set deep in the gunpowder era, so less swords and more flames.

Good lore mate
Seems quite close to original ork idea for me (savage people, animal side of man, etc)
Honestly it's far as it gets, if you make them a little more smart and civilized, then you get a ordinary human

Orc Rangers:

>stealthy watchers of the woodlands
>savage hunters who fight with tooth and claw as much as they do bow and spear
>battle-ready archers who are well-equipped and use bows no human would be strong enough to draw
>pseudo-druids who listen to the whispers of the wind, the talking of the trees, and are guided towards their quarry by the forces of nature itself
>shitty marksmen who can't manage to hit the broadside of a barn but will skewer you with a spear or dagger if you're dumb enough to get close

Pick two.

Just posted it today in the worldbuilding thread.

I reskinned orcs and halforcs as creatures created by powerful magic and alchemy, they are called cauldron-born because witches created them in the first place.

They are sterile, but some of them (1/50) are progenitors, which means that their flesh can be used to grow another one with a more efficient process by a skilled alchemist or witch. These copies would carry over physical attributes and mannerism, like between brothers or from father to son.

neat

I've decided to throw all orcs, dwarves, elves, goblins, whatever in a big fucking pot and just call them humans.

Some people have sharp fangs and have had a beard since they were 13.
Some people are two meter tall hulks of muscle with pointy ears.
Some people are as small as a teen and can run as fast as a deer.
Some people have passed the age of 300 and are still going.

You never know what you're going to get.

>orc Rangers are Dutch

>I've decided to throw all orcs, dwarves, elves, goblins, whatever in a big fucking pot and just call them humans.

Every time an orc thread comes up I have to hide in the bathroom and cry because I'll never be swept off my feet by a Veeky Forums orcess conqueror. Curse you OP.

We all know that feel, user.

Feel's bad mang. I wouldn't even mind Veeky Forums regular orc conqueror either. I'm not picky anymore. I just need a mean green fighting machine in my life.

The bigger and greener, the better.

Green is BEST.

Ya crunkin' rite it is

Nobody foights betta den da boyz!

Like in Tolkien, Orcs were created as a mockery of Elves and Men by an exceptionally powerful being (hesitant using the word god) who tried to use them in a kinda "Ragnarok" scenario.

The evil being lost, and the Orcs were left broken with people deciding what to do with them. Eventually the collection of "good" gods decided that while Orcs may have been created as corrupt monsters, even they should be worthy of some kind of redemption (sucks to be evil from birth) and so bestowed Orcs with a psuedo-"soul" and a set of very strict guidelines to promote discipline and relative peace in their societies, as well as a path that would allegedly lead them to a kind of Orc heaven.

The "High" Orcs are the one that followed the new path, helped in part by the fact that their former creator abandoned them after his defeat and treated them like garbage and miserable failures. They tend to look more like Blizzard Orcs, and whilst they *are* Warlike, they aren't genocidal world-destroyers and are fairly capable of creating a civilized society.

The "Low" Orcs look more like Tolkien's breed of Orc. They're covered in cancerous tumors, they appear to be rotting, many of them are desperately trying to claw their way back into the good graces of their "master", but due to their newfound souls, they're basically playing with radiation and not expecting anything bad to happen to them.

My orcs are troglodyte/morlock-like creatures that live in the hollow earth. They're squat, tough, grey-skinned creatures.

PIG ORCS

>pic related, what every orc looks like during a full moon

Say what you will about Warcraft, but if there's one thing I really enjoy about it... hands down, it's Grom Hellscream's story in Warcraft 3.

I just found it so... epic, in the classical sense. Like a Greek hero. This deeply flawed warrior, wracked with conflicting emotions and ideals, damns his people for the second time and then later just barely redeems himself. In that time, he fights and kills two otherworldly beings of power far greater than his own. A demigod and a demon lord.

I don't know, but seeing a "lesser" creature like an orc take on and defeat demons and gods really gets my juices pumping.

So cool.

>I don't know, but seeing a "lesser" creature like an orc take on and defeat demons and gods really gets my juices pumping.

It doesn't get my juices pumping. Just makes me wonder why the fuck the writer bothered turning those opposing forces into a demigod and a demon lord.

If you have your demons slain like mere mortals, why bother making them demons? Could just as well be mortals.

Why stack useless fantastical shit on top of your story when it carries no extra weight?

Why are you even talking about fantasy then?

>preferred archetype
Ruthless industrialist

>preferred looks
from lanky goblins up to burly goblin-men

They're inherently evil because they're the pawns of Satan and they butcher and eat towns full of people for fun, Holmes.

Like if the concept of Evil deeds was a group of giant people with fucking axes and clubs and shit.

But they're rapist monsters! They must be destroyed!

Not him, but when the corruptor of an entire race and one of the most powerful members of a race of demonic demigods is instagibbed by a single orc warrior, why should I be afraid of this fat fucker and his friends? It doesn't even really serve to the purpose of jobbing, either, since both end up dying. It just weakens the threat of pit lords and demigods when they get axed to death like chumps.

>TES
>green mountain of muscle
and thats where you go and kys

i prefer my orcs like uruk-hai straight outta isengard, but since i played wow for many years i also like orcs from that franchise very much (specifically orcs like garrosh, kilrogg, kargath, malkorok, grom. true horde, iron horde, old horde)

what i like about lotr orcs (the movie and shadow of mordor game) is that they all look really diverse, and thats cool.
in my own fantasy setting my orcs are pretty much ripoffs from both lotr and warcraft, i suppose. its not well developed yet and is subject to change, but their backstory is basically:

>were a legion of elves, and maybe some men
>big journey, crusade
>led by an elf guy with questionable plans in mind
>enter the mountain resting place of some dead god
>get killed or and get pumped with cthulhu x divine blood
>WAAAGH!
>almost destroy the forces of good
>some orcs decide that they dont wanna be mooks
>WAAAGH! v2 massive battle among orcs
>split into mooks and noble savages
>fuck off to different regions

>mooks: we will return and the world will burn lol........
>noble savages: dont mess with us or you die, we do what we want i think...

and my orcs are also physically diverse like in lotr, because they are like dogs or cats for example, divided into BREEDS (subraces, but with emphasis on their savagery)

Because common individuals accomplishing incredible deeds is a common theme in heroic stories and fantasy.

Because to give fantasy weight you have to give it realism.

If some normal dude can just kill gods and demons... why aren't all the gods and demons dead yet?

Blizzard's writing was... okay in WC3. The writing was servicable for the game and wasn't too long. But after WoW, the problems with their method of writing became pretty clear. The story just kept expanding with each update and expansion. An overflow of mediocre stories just turns everything to boring shit. They fucking ruined it.

>Where the two meet, the cycle often gets mixed up.
>A bunch of dudes get drunk and accidentally rape a bunch of orc chicks after slaughtering the men and pure-blood orc children

Fucking wild party, bro.

You know what is common too in heroic stories and myths?

Pompous heroes dicking with the gods and then the Gods say "You have no mouth and you want to scream." and then the hero thinks "AAAAAAAAAAAAH!", but he can't scream.

That's why in WC3 Archimonde couldn't killed by an angry orc, and they needed to trick him and use a plot device.
Mannoroth and Cenarius however aren't anywhere near Archimonde's scale. Not all enemies need to be fucking invincible to be a threat.

Yeah well mannoroth was never the equivalent of a god, not even close, you have sargeras for that.

Yeah okay bro, I get your point. Do you get my point?

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All this talk about orcs, gods and curses inspires me for some quick world/orcbuilding.

>world is still young
>stone age elf/dwarf/human king builds empire on military might
>empire includes all of the "garden of eden", the continent where intelligent life was created by the gods
>begins building tower to the heavens
>wants to conquer thr heavens too
>gods strike down his civilization for hubris
>he and his descendants are cursed with faces like his greedy pig heart, and their lust for conquest will never be satisfied
>bam, they are orcs

I'm extremely torn.

>Start with Warcraft 2 as my very first fantasy setting
>Fall in love with green muscleorcs
>Play Warcraft 3
>Love the idea of stupidly honourable green hulks who shout a lot and swing axes

>Learn of LotR
>Hate it at first because Orcs aren't badass barbarians with muh honour
>Later fall in love with LotR because rohirrim
>Read Silmarillion
>Immediately fall in love with the idea of Anti-Elf orcs
This has been retconned apparently by a collection of notes released much later on, I still choose this version because it ties things together more ambiguously

>Become adept at history and mythology
>Learn of Ogres and how "Orc" is apparently related in its etymological sense as a general term for "Monster"
>Supports the muscle-y depiction of orcs because pendantism on my behalf
>Still love Tolkien's dichotomy

>Completely indifferent to P'orcs, consider them just another kind of Beastmen

Dumbest complaint I've seen all week.

As far as the retcon goes, it's mostly just that Tolkien realized that creatures of inherent and static evil didn't gel with his world-view which held the possibility of salvation for a sapient as tantamount.

>almost everyone's orcs itt are either inherently evil, cursed goons who were punished for being evil, and a lot seem to be misshapen creatures of various sizes and appearance that are probably better off being called demons than orcs

Starting to feel like I'm the only guy who made orcs that aren't inherently evil (and that they have the same potential for good and evil as humans) and that are a naturally occurring race in their world.

Due to a rather impactful cataclysmic event, pretty much every race worships the god Pelor from the 3rd edition pantheon, with their other deities having a secondary role.

Nah, mine aren't inherently evil, but they're not exactly naturally occurring either. They were bred out of humans and introduced to what basically amounted to radiation magic to further mutate them by the old dwarven master civilizations (Babylonian/Egyptian style civilization that was eventually dethroned by the slaves). The idea was to built a race of soldiers that was very strong and would fight viciously but was also obedient, and there was some mild success but they eventually couldn't find a way to reconcile obedience and savagery using the primitive genetic engineering they had, but it ended up being really hard to purge the prototype populations, etc etc this coincided with the general downfall of the dwarven empires, etc.

Anyway now, thousands of years later after humans have become dominant, they are naturally inclined to violence but are not inherently evil or even malicious, just beset by horrible anxiety and restlessness. So most of them do live as raiders and scavengers and most civilized races think they're humanoid pests and want to and often do genocide them, but really they're just a race of abnormally strong people with aggression problems. Look like these orcs with smaller tusks

The Iron Horde will be my gold standard for Orcs. Advanced but in the way of belching smoke, tanks and armour plating. I'd probably give them more nuance though, like GW2 Char, since I'm not a fan of "race full of Chaotic Evil for-the-evulz baby-eaters". If elves, dwarves or humans are willing to fight for Iron, why not let them?

Eh, Native American dude up above at They might be uncultured savages, but I wouldn't really say any but the Bear are inherently evil. Hell, compared to the magisters of the major colonial power, they seem downright cuddly. Though the Boars faith in strength and tenacity above all else and religious superstition in regards to blood do lead them into coming into contact with the civilized lands in conflict more often than not.

Yeah, the Iron Horde are both amazing and retarded. I suppose like a lot of what Blizz shits out.

Fuck off manlet you are borring, and don't exist.

picrelated = one of the best drawings of orcs

Orcs are a mongrel people, originally created from the profaned flesh of men, dwarves, and pigs by Orcus, their black blood muddies all other bloodlines They commonly forsake gods and pray for them not to interfere. Clans tend to signify their allegiances with ritualistic mutilations or grisly trophies.

>>the ruthless industrialist (LotR
>>the man-sized war machine (LotR/Forgotten Realms)
I also do that, though I take a lot of inspiration from Morlocks with them. They're basically the former slave caste of the ancient Elven empires, and are directly responsible for why Elves have fallen from the former heights of their glory days.

Many of the great wonders the ancient Elves created now lay in the hands of the Orcs, who aren't particularly unintelligent at all. They're a clever race, despite the poor education of their ancestors, and their efforts to reverse engineer and repurpose the vast knowledge and creations of the Elves has made them one of the most powerful forces in the world.

Of course, there are also no goblins or dark elves in my setting. Those are mostly just different names for what Orcs are.

Opposite case in our game, the DM made orcs for sexual.

Orcs are a race of hulking, tusked, green warriors and hunters. In my setting, they're sort of a mish-mash between the early Slavic barbarians, early Germanic barbarians, the Celtic barbarians, the Vikings, the Huns, and the Mongols.

Basically, I was kind of inspired by Rome's (and I suppose Europe in general, in cases like the Vikings, Huns and Mongols) point of view regarding the "barbarians" that plagued their borders. So, Orcs are this savage and warlike people who exist on the borders of civilization and occasionally serve as mercenaries or bodyguards to kings and emperors. They have merchants and traders like everyone else.

The Orcs even have proper nations, they're just a bit more #savage and chaotic than the orderly kingdoms of elf, dwarf, and man. Basically, on the fringes of the civilized world, you have massive Orcish empires (similar to the Mongol Empire and whatnot) ruled by warlords as rich as any emperor. In their lands, might makes right and the strong take what they want from the weak. It is a hard, tough society but not an "evil" one.

Orcs, in my setting, are not evil. They DO often find themselves arrayed against the "civilized" races but most of the time this is usually due to politics. It's not unusual for the civilized kingdoms and empires to pay tribute to some passing Orcish warlord and his horde of massive warriors. It's also not unusual for kings to ally with Orcish warlords against other kings.

The Orcs are essentially a wildcard race and they make lots of gold off of tribute, controlling vital trade routes, and mercenary work. I guess you could say that, when put into effect, their society kind of functions like a mixture between Vikings, Swiss mercenaries, and Mongols.

My orcs definitely trend more towards the Warcraft look and feel.

I avoid the term "orc" in my own setting to keep it from being associated with Tolkien's baggage. When I hear the word "orc", it makes me think of either Tolkien's goblins or an Anglo-Saxon spectre like Grendel. Instead of all that, my setting has three distinct orc-like races:

>Ogres
These are the big green tusked "muh honor" barbarians (and spirit warriors and shamans) with a tribal culture and chronic rage issues. Evil Powers™ may occasionally stir up some ogre tribes into a horde that attacks civilization, but just as often they're bro-tier allies to humanity.

>Goblins
Cave-dwelling treasure-hoarding gadget-building little anti-fairies who live in mines and tunnels and halls under mountains. They pretty much replace dwarves and gnomes in my setting. They're ugly and gangly and not very strong, but they're clever and conniving and Machiavellian. Their culture revolves around backstabbing and wealth-acquisition.

>Gnolls
Beastfolk and mongrel-men created from pure Chaos, they look vaguely like men with the heads of various animals. They range in size from kobold-like ratlings up to great hulking buggebears; in the armies of Chaos, only the great rock-trolls are stronger. Gnolls have only the rudiments of language and culture, and the possess just enough intelligence to form ranks and follow the orders of a Dark Lord or a Duke of Hell.

Thank you for the snugzugs Veeky Forums.

Orcs are the half-breed offspring of a subspecies of hibernating Ogre.

The ogres in the setting are a north-dwelling race. Their fatty bodies make them adept at surviving the frigid oceans of the coastal areas of the permanently frozen north (which is a series of islands surrounding a larger continent with ice connecting everything together). The ogres themselves are artificial constructs created by a Dwarf society who live somewhere in the central continent. The ogres were originally used as palace sentinels for the Dwarven kingdom but they eventually left following the Dwarves' mass conversion to a demonic religion. This offended the senses of the Ogres and they fled to the coastlines, which the Dwarves generally avoided (there is a second Dwarf kingdom in the far south who live in a more arid environment. Ogres don't exist down there however).

Having left the service of the Dwarves thousands of years prior, the Ogres split into three groups. Two of these groups lived relatively close to one another and had contact through trade. One lived near to three Human kingdoms (called the 'Mountain Clan'), one remained isolationist and avoided contact with other races (the 'Walrus Clan'), while the third group lived on the far side of the north in what can be considered the eastern hemisphere. These ogres (the 'Bear Clan') would hibernate for half of the year, having developed this trait out of necessity because of scarce food. A miniature exodus from one of the human Kingdoms landed near to the region the Bear Clan of Ogres. Because they spend half of their lives hibernating in frozen conditions, these Ogres effectively live double the length of standard Ogre lifespans. Some Ogre elders in the clan are more than 500 years old. However, the clan had a dwindling female population, because of a high mortality rate during the hibernation process.

I'm sure you can see where this went and how the Orcs were made.