Orc Clans¶
The Orcs of Numenia live by clans, and most of the clans the sources name are known only as a name, a leader or a territory. This page gathers them: the Xaluk Pact of the Rivenlands, the clans of Val'mulrek below the Blue Mountains, the Feldrak Hunters of the Westmarches plains, the Dragoneye and Wolfsmaw of the Sancturi campaign, and the clans of Moarte in the oldest gazetteer. The Krag'Durn, the one tribe with more than a line, has its own page. The orc nation of the Urok'gar Confederation is described with its land.
The newest general account of the Rivenlands sets the pattern. "Tribal Orcs" are "small, independant clans, they normally settle in the wildlands a fair distance from the Kingdoms" (S319).
Xaluk Pact¶
"A wild area populated by a loose alliance of Orcish Clans. At any given time each clan has a warchief and there is a common pact among the clans that they will all respond to foreign incursions" (S319). The Pact is one of the lesser polities of the Riven Kingdoms in the survey of 704 SM. The source names no clans of the Pact, no warchiefs, and no single leader over them.
Val'mulrek¶
In the Fourth Age, a party escaping the Underdark through the mountains of Dru'Bazan could "head down-mountain (South) into Orc territory: The clans of Val'mulrek" (S328), as one of three roads out, the others leading to the dwarven capital of Duer'allen, where an orc companion "may not find a warm welcome", and to fallen Angorath. The clans of Val'mulrek are named only here; see the Escape from the Underdark chronicle.
Feldrak Hunters¶
On the road from Marshford to Vaal'Dunak in the Fourth Age, sixty miles short of the ruined town, the Marshford party met an "Orc Hunting Party - 30 Orcs on Wargs. Feldrak Hunters," led by Mok'Thorn (S361). The party fought them off; the encounter is part of the Marshford Campaign. The notes do not say whether the Feldrak Hunters are a clan, a warband, or part of the Krag'Durn who ride the same plains.
Dragoneye and Wolfsmaw¶
Two orc clans of the Sancturi Campaign, named in the notes for a mountain journey through snow and frost-giant country (S193, S194):
- Dragoneye, whose shaman is Mok'Wran.
- Wolfsmaw, which has occupied a "Destroyed Sancturi Outpost (East)" (S194).
The notes list them beside the ogres of the Hand of Setarak without saying where the clans live or how they stand toward one another.
Orc Clans of Moarte¶
The Compendium's gazetteer of Moarte, the wild eastern province of Pherox, records that "at least a dozen known orc clans roam the plains of Moarte. The natural aggression of the Orcs leads them to frequent conflict with other orc clans, tribes of wild-men and the centaur. They occasionally raid Draconian settlements and caravans for food and other goods" (S372). Several wars were waged by Pherox "to keep the Orc population under control", and the clans have been "pushed out" of south-central Moarte, with the Draconians, by the Arachne of the Underdark. The province is described on its Geography page.
The same work places an alliance of three orc clans in Othrol, an orc city "built in the ruins of Bhellost" in Rhovun (S372).
Gap
The sources give no customs, gods, totems or histories for any of these clans, and no way to tell whether names from different campaigns (the Feldrak Hunters, the Krag'Durn, Val'mulrek) describe the same peoples. The clans of the Xaluk Pact and of Moarte are not named.