Orcs¶
The Orcs are the second people of Terrun by number and the first by reputation for war. They multiply fast, follow warlords, and have overrun dwarf-holds, human kingdoms and whole regions more than once; they have also built kingdoms of their own, raised a great temple around a fragment of the Worldstone, and in the Fifth Age they are at once the Broken Sea's largest slave population, its wildest clans, and the makers of a confederation that is "a growing threat" to the last human cities of the north (S386, S522, S326, S112).1
Origins¶
The newest account counts the Orcs among the peoples "formed during this age by Kalar and the other younger gods" in the Age of Demons (S208). The compiled lists of the gods name Rakkan, Lord of Strength, Vitality and Conquest, as "Creator of Draconians, Orcs, Ogres, Trolls" (S429, S384). The arcane traditions remember a different inheritance: "As a descendant of the original owners and caretakers of the Worldstone (Anthu'Mithis), the ability to harness Mithis energy is in your blood... All beings of Elven and Orcish descent (including Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) have this trait" (S304).
Earlier accounts derive them from the Innus, the children of Izhtari: "Elves, Humans and Orcs are all derived from the Innus" (S498, S384), and in the oldest phylogeny the Orcs are an Innus branch "genetically engineered for warfare" (S525). See Lineages of the Humanoid Races.
Ethnicities¶
The lore of 2014 to 2016 knows four orcish ethnicities, two of them endangered (S534, S387, S498, S384).
Ozutt¶
The Ozutt are "the 'average' and most common orc. very strong and bulky. Average about 6 feet tall." They are "also known as the Greenskins" (S534, S387).
Uruk¶
The Uruks are "taller, bulkier and stronger then most of their cousins. Most stand 7+ feet tall. Very cruel and aggressive, even by orcish standards. Exceptional warriors. Least intelligent orcs. Skin is an extremely dark olive or slate grey." Their cruelty "has earned them the name: Blackheart" (S534, S387). Uruks are among the threats to the tunnels of Dru'Bazan (S384).
Rhukkai¶
The Rhukkai, the Redstones, are endangered. They are "more intelligent and civilized than most other orcs. Average about 6 feet tall. Skin is a deep reddish brown. Known for crafting, masonry and the use of arcane magic (not just primal). The only group of orcs that consistently build their own settlements. Once an atristocratic class that ruled great orc kingdoms" (S534); "now, though their numbers have dwindled, they are the only orcs who consistently build their own settlements" (S387).
Ghotan¶
The Ghotan, the Ghostbloods, are also endangered. "They average 6 feet tall and are much quicker and less bulky than their cousins. Their skin is charcoal colored, though they often paint themselves with mixtures of white ash. They are more intellegent than most other orcs, on par with the Rhukkai. They are legendary hunters and assassins" (S534, S387).
Black Orcs and Green Orcs¶
The Fifth Age census of the Broken Sea counts orcs as Black and Green: 925,000 Black Orcs in 704 SM, grown from 3,500 survivors of the Dark Sun, and 476,000 Green Orcs from 1,800 (S326).
Gap
No source says how the Black and Green orcs of the Fifth Age relate to the four older ethnicities, though the Ozutt Greenskins and the dark-skinned Uruk Blackhearts invite the match.
Half-Orcs¶
Half-Orcs share the orcish blood's hold on Mithis (S304) and are one of the five peoples of the Urok'gar Confederation (S057).
Orcs of Lokh¶
After the Redemption the Orcs of Lokh are "a growing threat that continues to assimilate orc clans under the leadership of the Circle of Lokh (Warlocks)" (S112). Nothing more is said of them.
Magic and religion¶
Orcs cast with the blood of the Worldstone's keepers (S304) and have an arcane tongue of their own, Ghezzic, "a somewhat uncommon language developed and used by Dark Elves and Orcs" (S304, S303). Orc warlocks, shamans and witches appear throughout the record: a dozen warlocks in the Drakkani Wastes, the orc witch Shakil-Mauhik whose death cursed the citadel of Quemedava, the summoner Thu'karam who opened the first abyssal rift (S469, S384). On the continent of Markhan the orcs built the Temple of Cath'upak, "the Temple of the Earth-Heart", around a great worldstone fragment, and for hundreds of years "orcs from across the continent came to the complex... to be buried near the crystal"; "the Earth-heart cult became the primary religion of the orcs" until the gods of the orcish pantheon moved against it, and the Ascendant Horak razed the temple and buried the crystal. The woken crystal's revenge drove the orcs out of central Markhan with an army of beasts warped into dinosaurs (S522). In the Fifth Age the orcs of the Urok'gar Confederation "worship the Sun God, Rak'or" (S057, S059).
History¶
The Age of Magic¶
"The Orcs and Goblins multiplied very rapidly and thrived in the early conflict" after the Shattering. In 541 MA "a series of well-coordinated attacks under the banner of the Orc warlord Uta-Bek overran several dwarf holds and kingdoms", and the Goblin Wars were fought mostly in the Underdark until 617 MA, when "the Orcs and Goblins had been largely exterminated and pushed into the wild lands and deep passages of the Underdark" at a cost some estimate at 90% of their people. The war ended with Uta-Bek's death (S386, S384). In the north-east the warlord Gorthak united a dozen clans in 788 MA, broke the dwarf-hold of Ghan'Daren and the human cities of Normandar, Galati and Valdawal, and was finally pinned between the dwarves of Esragol and the gnomes of Zurat in 809 MA; a generation later the demoncaller Drez'okmal "unites Orcs, Goblins and Ogres of Ghanari and overthrows the Mountain Giants" with summoned demons before a sea-demon beyond his control ended him (S429). Orcs marched with Pravustiratel in the Second Dragon War and held much of the Great Dwarven Kingdom afterwards; in 1689 MA Thu'karam's demons helped him "conquer Theraec and most of the north" before they turned on his orcish army and began the First Rift War; and the Moradrim "cultivating alliances with Orcs, Goblins, Demons and Draconians" began the War of the Moradrim (S386, S384).
Elsewhere orcs were subjects and raiders. The Draconians of Pherox prized orcs as slaves and conscripted them as soldiers (S384). In Moarte "at least a dozen known orc clans roam the plains", quarrelling with wild-men and centaurs and raiding Draconian caravans; they seized the citadel of Quemedava and held it "for many hundreds of years" (S384). In Rhovun three clans built the orc city of Othrol in the ruins of Bhellost (S384). In the Drakkani Wastes "High Warlord Ertguth currently rules the entire Orcish kingdom", with chieftains, warlocks, rangers, assassins, Kruthik and drake riders, enslaved miners and egg-gathering operations beneath him (S469, S546). Orc raids pushed the dwarves out of the southern Blue Mountains (S384).
The Fifth Age¶
In 704 SM the orcs of the Broken Sea number some 1.4 million, more than every other non-human people together. Of the 925,000 Black Orcs, 180,000 are slaves in the Sancturi Imperium, 240,000 live in the Riven kingdoms and 505,000 in the wilds; of the 476,000 Green Orcs, 210,000 are slaves, 94,000 in the kingdoms and 172,000 in the wilds (S326). "Humans, Dwarves, Orcs, Oesterkull and Lizardfolk are common slaves" of the Imperium (S323). Orc raids troubled the Sancturi colonies on Danar in the 600s SM, and "chronic raids from neighboring mountain Orc tribes" delayed the settlement of Pevelor by forty years (S326).
Among the Riven kingdoms orcs are citizens of Brusau and of the melting pot of Uthein; Miydal treats all orcs as enemies and admits none without a sponsor, and Ozaustein "specifically dislikes Orcs" (S319). "Tribal Orcs" are "small, independant clans, they normally settle in the wildlands a fair distance from the Kingdoms"; the Xaluk Pact is "a wild area populated by a loose alliance of Orcish Clans" each under a warchief, bound by "a common pact among the clans that they will all respond to foreign incursions" (S319). Floren kept rangers at its watchtowers to watch "the orc clans to the south" (S315). In the deep, "Demonic Orcs" hold an Asmodean Hollow centred on the old dwarfhold of Kam'Darahl (S199). Orcs also serve as a Confederate caste within the nations of the Silek (S025).
In the north-east, two centuries before the Proturan present, an orc named Urok united the Urok'gar Confederation "of Orc, Ogre, Goblin, Half-Orc and Humans", which "has seen considerable success and growth in the lands of former Dalmar and Naher". It is ruled by the High Urok and, in its city of Agor'haem, by nine priest-rulers; its people "practice slavery, favoring human and boreal elf slaves. Orcs, Goblins and others can also be slaves", and "commonly ride Rock Trolls, Iron Drakes and Dire Lions". Agor'haem is "a large stone tiered city made from huge rocks (hauled by rock trolls)" of about 2,500 orcs, trolls, goblins, half-orcs and ogres, patrolled by drake riders and lion cavalry (S057, S059). After the Redemption "Oesterkull, Orcs and other Wildlings are struggling to deal with the aftermath of the Redemption without any magic to combat the Aberrations", while the Orcs of Lokh gather clans under their warlocks (S112).