I'm looking to move away from orcs and goblins in my homebrew setting, and being that I love the old illustrations of orcs as being porcine, I started thinking that my default, go-to villainous species would be a race of boar-men.
After researching the idea, I came across the Farrow, from Warmahordes. Unfortunately, my Google-fu is weak and I'm having trouble learning much about them.
Can you guys help me out, and advise me on how a porcine civilization might function?
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I can give you some info on Farrow, since they are my go-to WMH army. Basic gist is that they follow the typical orc model, being mercenary raider / scavenger types with lots of tribes and infighting. This being a steampunk setting they have a lot of modernish weapons like muzzleloaders, rockets and so on, mostly stolen. Most of their beasts of war / burden are also pig species like regular boars, with which they have a kinship (and are delicious). There is also a sub-strain of farrow that grow in to oversized (but stupid) brutes - typically about 10-12 feet tall.
In order to compete with other forces in the setting, who have lots of giant robots / monsters / tanks etc at their disposal, the most successful farrow warlord (the OP pic), Lord Carver, made an unholy pact with a human scientist, Dr. Arkadius, to make him some weaponized monsters.
Arkadius, for his part, got kicked out of polite science for his unethical research, and likes farrow because they are easy to mutate and take well to surgical modification. His deal is basically facilities and unlimited test subjects in return for services. In addition to typical medicine and augmentation, he also takes some of the brute farrow and makes monsters out of them (pictured).
Here's a listing of units available to farrow in WMH, for reference:
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Quite a bit of fluff on them can be found in the Forces of Hordes: Minions army book and the Iron Kingdoms Unleashed RPG supplement. Might be worth trying to track down PDFs.
Very nice! Can you give me some information on their civilization? Are they tribal, or feudal? Does Lord Carver lead the entire species?
It's a LOT like the typical portrayal of orcs. They tend toward chaos and small warbands or tribes. Survival of the fittest and rule by the strongest are the order of the day. They don't really do higher-level civilization usually, although there are exceptions. Most tribes are semi-nomadic, going where there are things to eat and/or steal. They have a reasonably high tech level, but it's mostly a product of setting, rather than any tendency toward crafting.
Lord Carver, BMMD (that's "bringer of most massive destruction") is by far the most powerful warlord but definitely not the only one. Helga the Conqueror is his chief rival (also his chief love interest) and probably the smartest of the farrow warlords. Where Carver is all about power, individual glory, charisma, and farrow traditions, Helga is modern... she builds fortified farrow towns, prefers firearms, and fields professionally equipped and trained farrow infantry.
You've also got some other named warlords, like Midas, a sort of high-priest / shaman who leads a horde of zealots; Maximus (insane berzerker warrior who attracts equally crazy followers); Agata, Queen of Carnage who is a known for lightning raids, and Rorsch the (in)famous mercenary. A little further on the fringe, Sturm & Drang, one of Carver's lieutenants, is a two-headed robo-pig-centaur that Arkadius made, with one head being a brilliant tactician and the other a fearsome sorcerer.
> 2 headed
> robot pig
> centaur
> one heads a tactician
> the others a sorcerer
Damn nigga, now I kinda interested
Not entirely on topic, but when I do porcs I tend to base them and their society off of Isidoros, the boar-like titan from exalted. It works very well as a model for orc style society. His whole thing is being a force of immense strength and personal freedom, so most orcs spend their time trying to be the strongest/best at something and live in small sort of libertarian villages not because they're primitive or stupid but because they can't stand being told what to do so they can't really accept any sort of code of law
I'm thinking of combining the Farrow with the Ogres from Warhammer, gutplates and all, to fill in the civilization gaps.
I like the idea of them being smart, but not particularly creative or innovative. So the droves that live away from civilization, in the wilds, are primitives -- but those that live nearer will ape what they see and have a much more developed and civilized culture.
I'd need a good name for the species. Can someone chime in with ideas?
Drog?
Does it mean anything?
I'm thinking of doing something with Moccus, the Celtic swine-god.
It works as a pun, too, because their civilization would "mock-us" by aping the achievements of other kingdoms.
>Can someone chime in with ideas?
It's actually a reasonably close fit. Even the religions are similar; ogres' religion is all about violence and eating other creatures, led by Butchers and Feastmasters; farrow religion revolves around the butcher-shamans called Bonegrinders who tap the power in the blood and bodyparts of those they dismember.
The biggest difference is that farrow are more about the group and strength in numbers (like orcs), whereas ogres are very individualistic. Farrow exploit the weaker members of the tribe, ogres eat em. You really need to choose between one of the two core philosophies and stick with it.
I'd definitely go with the former -- you don't become a civilization by focusing solely on individual glory.
How do we feel about cannibalism?
Ritualized with religious significance, or a simple pragmatism centered around the idea that nothing should go to waste?
The wargame implemented it by essentially having two entirely separate profiles, and you have to choose at the beginning of each turn which one is 'dominant' via the Struggle Of Wills rule. You then get access to that head's stat line, abilities and spell list for the remainder of the turn.
I would turn the creep factor up to 11, and just make it savagely pragmatic. A comerade that dies, or that's too wounded to carry on is just free protein lying around. They carry off their dead and seem to have intelligence, but no culture or religion.
>Ritualized with religious significance, or a simple pragmatism centered around the idea that nothing should go to waste?
That sorta plays in to the same idea I was getting at here ... ogres are more about the individual, so the ritualistic "I beat you in single combat so now I'm going to eat you and gain your vitality" thing makes sense. The farrow scavenge and repurpose literally everything, so doing the same with a "dead body is just another type of meat" philosophy also fits. WHFB's ogres are much more spiritual in general, as well. Farrow respect bonegrinders mainly out of direct fear of becoming a regeant, ogres sometimes hear the Great Maw talking to them and go on pilgrimmages and so on. They even have their own version of ascetics.
"It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks, and become one with all the people."
I might combine the two, with cannibalism being a routine pragmatism among the primitives, but among the more civilized droves it's currently fueled by the belief that the eaten dead can live on within their tribe -- if the more civilized droves are aping other civilizations, then it makes sense they'd attempt to flesh out their culture with religious explanations.
Bump.
Bump for pig-men.
Lad, it seems like you just want to make the swinefolk from darkest dungeons.
Can you tell me about them?
In Overlord, the orcs are porcine, intelligent, peaceful by nature, and obsessed with cleanliness. i.e. the more benign traits of actual pigs. They are also deeply traumatized by the memory of a certain archfiend using charm magic to try and crossbreed them with humans.
I'd suggest doing some research on real life hogs too and possibly working that into your pigmen's civilization. Like different subsets of pigmen based on different types of pigs to be analogous to the differences between ethnic groups. Like domestic pig inspired pigmen being more likely to work among Humans, Elves, Dwarves, et all. Maybe German-themed pigmen or African grassland warthog pigmen (with game warden-like heroes who hunt down anyone who trespasses on their lands).
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Omnivorous, immune to poisons, adaptable in virtually all environments, possible rage/aggression when trapped or put into a corner but generally keep to themselves. Maybe there's groups of pigmen who give the rest of them a bad name, who encapsulate the stereotypical feral and violent aspects but as a whole the civilization of pigmen are generally insular.
Don't make them rapey.
No worries there.
I like pig orcs too, but I just call them Orcs, or P'Orcs if you're feeling spicy.
Simply put, the main character's ancestor decided to give demonic summoning a shot. After a few false starts, he realized that pigs were perfect for hosting evil spirits, as their flesh is sufficiently similar to that of men. While he managed to create a race of malevolent swinemen, he soon realized they were too stupid and too ravenous to be of any real use as servitors, so he locked them into a series of caverns beneath his estate, and dumped a large mass of possessed entrails and offal in with them. Wait however long between his doing so and the main character's arrival, and the place has gotten pretty nasty.
Oh, that's grim!
It's a very grim sort of game.