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Orc

2022-08-04T14:37:07Z

2600:1000:B01C:1014:40FD:FFC6:286:86E: /* Scaley Orcs */

[[File:Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|An average Warhammer Orc.]]
{{Topquote|These have not had a fair press. They are fanatically brave in spite of being weaker and less practiced than most other humanoids, and must be kind to animals, since they train them so well. It is interesting that Tolkien’s characters describe them in terms very similar to those used by medieval chroniclers to describe Mongols, who in our day are considered a nice friendly people of slightly eccentric lifestyle.|Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, ''Hordes of the Things''}}

'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with tusks and green or gray skin (or some combination of the two). Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well.

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and more stupid neighbors, whom they con into performing demeaning menial tasks and press into service in wartime. Their relations with more distant races are more variable - some may work for humans as mercenaries, for example, while others will attack humans on sight. They are also interfertile with many other races, leading to the existence of [[half-orc]]s. The long-standing exception to this is [[elves]]. All orcs hate elves, and this makes them good people.

Historically, the term is derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf and proceeded to invent orcs as a fantasy race out of whole cloth.

=The Master Template=
While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons, goblins and wizards) can be traced back to folklore and mythology, orcs are entirely a product of modern fantasy literature. Here we have a basic rundown of the image that comes up when people say "Orc" and how it evolved.

==Tolkien==
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|right|400px|The origin of the original Orcs.]]
Orcs as we know them have their beginnings with Tolkien's works. The first orcs were created by Melkor (later known as Morgoth) shortly after the first elves awoke, before humans existed. It should be noted that Tolkien never definitively stated the true origin of Orcs , and most of what we have comes from notes and decisions he left to his son Christopher when he passed control of the setting over.
According to one account published after Tolkien's death in The Silmarillion, some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's Maiar ("fallen angels" futher down the hierarchy, Melkor being basically Satan) and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. Because Melkor was bitter about being unable to create life they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got Orcs, [[What| because obviously torture is totally going to influence the physiology of your offspring]]. The result was a species of ugly, bad-smelling, fanged, bow-legged, long-armed, claw-handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were 'sallow', 'swart' or 'black' in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to almost as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and later Sauron's armies.

Tolkien's Orcs are not stupid, described as "making no beautiful things, but many clever ones" and their speech, while crass, is articulate. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor supplemented by salvage), effective if unpleasant medicine (prosthetic limbs are literally stabbed into the stump, for example), and are pretty good engineers on top of creating assembly lines; one of the general morals of Tolkien's works is rampant industrialization is a path to evil and/or misfortune, and making Orcs more advanced than other races reflects this. They are almost as good at mining as Dwarves are even if their work ethic leaves something to be desired. Nor are all orcs identical. There are variations among Orcs both in terms of individual personalities and differences between groups. Orcs from the Misty Mountains are described as being fairly tribal while those of Mordor are regimented (to the point where they have serial numbers). There are also different breeds of Orcs, besides the garden variety Orc you also have 'snufflers' bred for following scent trails and the larger and more sun resistant Uruk-Hai bred by Sauron and Saruman, supposedly made by crossbreeding Orcs with humans and specialized to act as commanders. However they are violent, sadistic, spiteful, enjoy breaking stuff, have no concern for aesthetics and are as a rule hateful and miserable. Fighting, killing, eating, drinking, looting, blowing stuff up, gaining power, bossing their subordinates around, torturing and presumably raping captives can only give temporary reprieve. They hate Sauron and especially Melkor, but serve them out of fear, their psychic influence over them and the fact that everyone who is not under their authority despises them and wants them dead. They are capable of internal loyalty and do have some social taboos (being accused of eating other Orcs is a considerable insult even though they are perfectly fine with eating non-Orcs) which are enough to let them act together as groups, although these groups tend to collapse due to infighting after reaching a certain size in the absence of a leader who can terrify them into submission.

Despite this, little is said by Tolkien about how Orcs live their lives on a day-to-day basis as their role in the story is as a force which threatens the heroes and those around them. It can be extrapolated, however that it is usually nasty, brutish and short. Some of the interactions between different groups of orcs frequently results in back-stabbing and violent power struggles, so we can assume that they operate on a grimdark version of Klingon politics. All the orcs mentioned are male which is usually interpreted as "orcs don't bring their womenfolk along on campaigns" (which is basically what Tolkien said in one of his letters) but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. Given Sauron's proclivities and the various castes in mordor they were likely subject to some form of selective breeding program.

In Tolkien's published works, "Orc" and "goblin" are synonyms (at least at first; later he said that goblins were a subtype of orc, and later still he said that they were totally unrelated). In later editions of The Hobbit, he says that "goblin" is a translation of "orc", which is "not an English word". "Uruk" means Orc in Black Speech, a mix of Elvish, human tongue, and Sauron's attempts to give them their own language. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between Goblins and Orcs: most of Tolkien's Orcs would resemble other works' Goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height). The largest Orcs in Middle Earth - the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor - appear to be only almost as tall as Men.

===Grey areas===
The question of whether they are [[always Chaotic Evil|intrinsically evil]] is never brought up, and several of Tolkien's unpublished works suggest that this was due to his own misgivings with the concept of a wholly evil race. Melkor had no power to create other beings himself, but the fact that elves could be corrupted would also imply Eru had either made the souls of some elves either inherently evil or easily corrupted to become evil. Unlike Melkor, Sauron, and Balrogs who were spiritual beings that made an active choice to be evil, Orcs are universally portrayed as evil which means they could be evil from birth which was strongly against Tolkien's strong Catholic beliefs in the nature of good and evil. This in turn contradicted his own views on the nature of [[God|Eru]] as a wholly good deity while also opening up some thorny questions of faith for Tolkien himself, and even in his last writings it appears he could not come up with a satisfactory explanation for how they could be universally evil by nature. Christopher similarly has not come up with a satisfactory answer and has largely avoided the subject, avoiding talking about Orcs as anything but adult militant antagonists and leaning back on his father's suggestions of corrupted man/elf hybrids descended from enslaved elves.

Fans divide into different camps of explanation.

* Orcs could be born adult and "male", like the Warhammer Orcs discussed below, and thus be more intelligent animal like Dragons as opposed to inherently evil people.
* Another suggestion is they could also be people who are indoctrinated from youth, such as their closest inspiration as the Central Powers in World War 1 (trying to kill Tolkien in the Somme) and Axis (who blew up his barn while he and the family hid in the cellar during the Blitz) which would make Orcs antagonists with horrible leaders and a corrupt ideology as opposed to naturally evil; this would make them as evil as the Easterlings.
* Some have reasoned, in the vein of the second suggestion, that Orcs are not all unified on Melkor/Sauron's side, which is supported by a single line from Tolkien that no race stood united for or against Sauron; this is dismissed by some with the elf/man origins as all Orcs evil and all elves good, but can be interpreted either way. In this view some have reasoned there must be neutral tribes of Orcs who did not participate in conflict and are as unmentioned as the Stoorish Hobbits (Gollum's original people, who's only importance at all and thus only mention is just that; being Gollum's people before he degenerated into a [[Ghoul|ghoulish]] being), that these Orcs could possibly even be good for all that is known.
* Another idea is that Melkor's corruption of the Elves he kidnapped either diminished or removed their capacity to do good, which would make creating the Orcs one of the most monstrous acts he had ever committed, and considering this guy was capital-E Evil in every way he could think of that says a whole goddamn lot.
* The presence of Boldogs/"Orc-shaped Maiar"; AKA '''fucking Fallen Angels'''; amongst Melkor's forces suggests a more insidious reason as to why Orcs are so physically deformed and spiritually corrupted. As it does not make sense that the torture and spiritual corruption; even if done by fantasy Satan himself; of the captive Elves would somehow cause their [[Orcs|descendants]] to be so physically and spiritually twisted that they counted as a different species, it would however, make sense if the original Orcs were logically bred into existence like the later Orc breeds. Since there were no Orcs running around at this time in pre-history, what were these captive Elves bred with you might ask? [[Demon|The Maiar who sided with Melkor and took demonic physical forms.]] Like the Fallen Angels of the Christian Bible, these hateful beings would lust for the flesh of [[God|Eru's]] children, [[Rape|and would visit upon them every manner of violation and torture.]] Thus would the Orcs come to be, the spawn of rape by demonic beings, every bit as twisted and warped as you would expect such a creature to be. Unlike the Nephilim of the Christian Bible though, Orcs are not known for being incredibly strong, giant, or legendary warriors and kings; which begs the question as to why Orcs in this theory are not as strong despite being analagous to the Nephilim of the Bible. Furthermore, this theory also runs the most afoul of Tolkien's own misgivings about an inherently evil race, aside from [[FATAL|the obvious squickyness and implications that arise from rape by Fallen Angels.]]
* One possibility, strongly hinted at in the text by the fight going out of the Orcs as soon as the Ring was destroyed, is that some kind of mind control was involved.
* The final suggestion is Orcs have no souls, and much like the Little Mermaid (not the Disney version, but rather the original story where they are Feyfolk who are sea foam come to life in the forms of people that can love and grieve, but return to sea foam in oblivion when they die because they have no souls) are just some natural material come to life with no real importance or moral rights because they were not intentionally created by the omnipotent creator (Dwarves are exempt from this fate, being creations of the Vala Aulë who were granted life and 'adopted' by Eru Illuvatar). In this view you could do anything you want to an Orc from killing to torture because they have as much natural rights as their base components, similar to the destruction of the Golem in Hebrew myth, and would explain the ostensible absence of Orc souls in the afterlife of Tolkien's cosmology, though one could find moral problems with this as well depending on your worldview. Tolkien seems to have considered this explanation at one point but ultimately rejected it, as he believed that the Orcs would have been no more intelligent than any other animal if they were truly soulless.

In any case, Tolkien invented Orcs and what is discussed above served as the inspiration of of MANY spinoffs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it while expanding on it to fill in the blanks, B: took the basic idea and gave it a few tweaks, or C: deliberately subverted what people expected from Orcs, making it possible for them to be the good guys. There have been various takes on the "are Orcs fundamentally evil?" question. As a general rule more people tend to go with some flavor of "no, strictly speaking" in that regard as it opens up more narrative possibilities as opposed to a race of set-in-stone killer meatbots utterly unable to deviate from their programing though still cast them primarily in a villainous role.

===Direct Adaptations===
For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies created by Peter Jackson have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit, uglied them to a great degree, often used the green skin-tones that were popularized later, made them much taller across the board, and ''possibly'' confirmed females. No females are pointed out, but some actresses that played Orcs have insisted their characters (who are usually killed by Elf acrobatics in the same scene or just screech at the camera and shoot an arrow) are female; Jackson has never confirmed or denied this but still made a point of including these interviews on the special features sections of the home release of the movies. Then again, he also put Elves at Helms Deep...

Notably, the 2014 game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while mostly known for being "actually pretty good" for what was essentially an Assassin's Creed clone, also showed Orc culture. Essentially, they were a naturally evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning whoever could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and a boss who could honorably duel, assassinate, or otherwise neutralize his peers climbed the ladder. While they were the Chaotic Evil monsters Tolkien didn't want to portray them as, this didn't mean that they weren't interesting. Their mindset was that when they weren't focusing on eliminating other tribes, most Uruks just wanted to put in a hard day's work (of bossing around human slaves), made small talk, had drinking songs, and at the end of the day just go have a drink with his mates. With the mental influence of Celebrimbor's shade on them they are rendered neutral in terms of good/evil, but will still fight and kill each other for promotions; this is generally interpreted as mind control, although a large number of Orcs following you without Celebrimbor in the sequel suggests it may also be you reducing Sauron's influence on them and allowing them to make their own moral choices.

==Warhammer==
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The modern interpretation of Orcs.]]
[[Games Workshop]] was originally a company that produced quality boards for games like Chess, but after two out of three of the original team fell in love with Dungeons & Dragons after [[Gary Gygax]] sent them a copy (believing they were a legitimate company based on their name, rather than three guys in an apartment sending out stuff through the mail) they began distributing licensed games and later producing miniatures for use in these games under the brand [[Citadel Miniatures]].

As time went on, they had a surplus of unsold miniatures and had trouble retaining the rights to sell their products, so they began to have members of their team create new games owned by Games Workshop to use the models they produced (which unfortunately made many of the early Warhammer designs that survive [[Broo|extreme]] [[Daemon|ripoffs]]). The most successful of these was [[Warhammer Fantasy]], then just Warhammer, which was a wargame version of Dungeons & Dragons that existed mostly just to sell models. Warhammer didn't get its own setting and story until 3rd edition, where [[Orcs & Goblins|its Orcs]] were described as having green skin and red eyes with tusks in their mouths as well as being savage brutes that gathered in hordes and attacked civilization, or just about anything capable of fighting, every so often. Although later on this lore became more complex with Warhammer greenskins becoming genderless mushroom-apes with the creation of [[Warhammer 40000]] which was ported back into Fantasy, the prototype Warhammer Orc still had females and Half-Orcs.

With this, the master template of Orcs was completed. Almost every fantasy setting to use Orcs after Warhammer made them green and sometimes gave them red eyes with tusks, which eventually migrated back into Dungeons & Dragons and even the Lord Of The Rings movies. However, one thing was missing. Orcs were still Always Chaotic Evil which greatly limited their use, and non-evil Orcs were a footnote that didn't even have a [[Drizzt]] to be their posterboy example.

==[[Warcraft]]==
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in any evolution in any master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous fantasy settings into a setting and use the appearance of Warhammer Orcs, which was thrust into mainstream public perception and made Orcs "cool" causing a boom of fantasy gaming both on the tabletop and in video games, as well as the movie screen.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released in 1994, and featured generic knights VS generic Orcs in the Warhammer style (indeed, rumors persist that Warcraft was a canceled Warhammer game as Games Workshop had been experimenting at the time with video games). Orcs were controlled by Demons from some obscure Satanic force, and used Ogres as their minions. The only real innovation was Orcs coming from another planet through a portal, although the theme of Satanic forces invading from portals was largely dropped and instead lived on in the Diablo franchise. The game was a surprising success, being low budget from a minor studio.

It was followed by Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness in 1996, which sold RIDICULOUSLY well and sparked a boom in the entire Real Time Strategy genre which quickly became a staple of PC gaming. The setting was expanded a great deal, although Orcs remained mostly the same but were joined by Goblins (who coincidentally looked similar but were a different race), Trolls, their persisting Ogre slaves, the undead (created by the Orcs from their own dead Warlocks), and enslaved dragons. The most diverse change to be found here was Goblins being a race of money-obsessed mad scientists, and Trolls being intelligent. An expansion pack was released that involved the humans invading the Orc homeworld to end the war.

Setting their eyes on the horizon, Blizzard planned an explosion of lore with a book series beginning with Of Blood And Honor which went into the friendship between a human Paladin and an aged Orc ex-Shaman who hated what his race had become which created complexity in what had previously been just a generic "kill it all and loot/eat then march again" race. The second book was Day Of The Dragon, expanding a minor plot involving Dragons into the war between good and evil which had used the Horde and Alliance as a proxy for their own machinations. Lord Of The Clans delved deeper into Orc lore, explaining that they were a race with souls naturally attuned to other sources of energy that had communed with the forces of nature itself until they were tricked into a Daemonic curse that affected them like meth, giving them fanatical boosts of power until it diminished their body and soul into a husk; the main character of the book, named Thrall by humans who used him as a pit fighter, learned nature magic and freed the defeated Orcs to lead them to a peaceful natural existence again. Finally the book The Last Guardian detailed the madness of the human supreme wizard Medivh who had summoned the Orcs into the world in the first place and gave context on the Burning Legion, transforming them from a vaguely satanic demon army into a varied force of cosmic enemies that would fit right into Doctor Who.
Here finally Warcraft added new flavor to their Orcs although unlike previous versions of non-evil Orcs the Warcraft version had identical culture only without malice. The major difference here was making them neutral race that actually got to be in the spotlight, as all previous non-evil Orcs were minor races left mostly undescribed beyond the basics that never starred in a story and always were just an option for exotic PCs; Warcraft was the first setting to make them a core race in the starring role with equal importance to humans in the first person narrative, which catapulted Orcs across fantasy fiction in importance.

In Warcraft III: Reign Of Chaos, released in 2002, Blizzard took the mantle of villains entirely away from the Horde and rendered the judgement of gray morality into all factions. The Alliance were racist arrogant bastards that hated each other, were ineffective, and easy to corrupt. The Horde was full of the same assholes from Warcraft I and II that were missing "the good old days" and jumped at a chance to suckle Daemon teat for power again (although the curse was broken during the game). Undead wore the mantle of villainy, but that's because they were lead by a soulless human merged with the ghost of the Orc who set in motion the events which made the Horde evil in the first place. Also, there was forest Elves who wanted everyone to get the fuck out of their forest.

Warcraft III became THE game on the PC at the time, and Warcraft mania had made the image of Orcs something the average non-gamer person could identify. Green skin, tusks, gigantic frame with large shoulders, and sometimes red eyes (which just meant "evil Orc" in Warcraft) became THE Orc as a result of Warcraft, which very little since then has drifted away from. Very few fictional works with Orcs that came after left out these details.

Next in 2004 came World Of Warcraft, '''THE''' MMO which destroyed or outlasted every competitor, surviving for <s>12</s> '''15''' full years and which is still ongoing today. While most of the changes added in WoW remain only important to Warcraft continuity, as they haven't migrated into the mainstream yet, non-evil (or at least neutral) Orcs put upon both by their own evil kin and the hateful humanity became the default Orc. As the game's story moved on, the main racial plot for the Orcs concern itself with its heritage as bloodthirsty conquerors, with the younger lads wondering whether or not wanton genocide really was all that bad... One of them even took the Horde to... [[Nazi|An interesting place]]. So the nature of Orcs as evil/not-evil-just-really-fighty is still being discussed within the game.

So while Warcraft didn't pioneer the idea of non-evil Orcs, greenskins with tusks, or Orcs being in control of their own destiny rather than being pawns in the schemes of a greater power, it did make the Master Template a staple of fantasy fiction. Stories like the Styx and Divinity video games have continued using the new template since then, with more on the way. Even Warhammer itself dropped the most outright evil of their Orcs since then, making them Chaotic Neutral destructive forces that can be allied with rather than Chaotic Evil.

=Mold-Breakers=
{{topquote|Look at them. Ranks, files, locked in everlasting conflict at the whim of the player. They fight, they fall, and they cannot turn back because the whips drive them on, and all they know is whips, kill or be killed. Darkness in front of them, darkness behind them, darkness and whips in their heads. But what if you could take one out of this game, get him before the whips do, take him to a place without whips‚ what might he become? One creature. One singular being. Would you deny them that chance?|Lord Havelock Vetinari, '''Unseen Academicals''', on the subject of [[Terry Pratchett|Sir Terry Pratchett's]] Orcs}}

As the above suggests, orcs are typically your generic [[barbarian]] rapine-horde of bad-guys in most fantasy settings. However, this isn't always the case, and a number of notable exceptions have developed over the years.

'''Discworld''' (Also the universe where the above quote comes from) barely mentions orcs, only saying that they were made as cannon fodder for an evil empire before it was destroyed. There is, however, one orc Character; Nutt, who is Perhaps the most intelligent being in the whole setting, incredibly strong and fucking brilliant at football, although he avoids becoming a [[Mary Sue]] due to Terry Pratchett's Incredibly good writing.

'''[[Al-Qadim]]''' is notable for being probably the first full-on retooling of the orcs from "rampaging barbarian tribes" to "just one more fantasy race that mostly gets along with the others." This is mostly because, rather than having all the races living in their own corners of the world with their own cultures, the deserts of Al-Qadim saw lots of racial mixing around the few oases, and thus a single unified culture comprised of multiple races formed. The only enemies who ''are'' always evil are explicitly supernatural, like the YAKMEN! Also, the most likely setting ever for [[/d/|elf-orc crossbreeding]].

'''[[Eberron]]''' gave its orcs a status as a relatively peaceful race who were once responsible for combating the threat of [[aberration]] hordes from beyond the stars, as well as founders of the tradition of druidism in-setting. Orcs generally tend to live in few places and have vastly different cultures, some good, some evil, some neutral. Even in the present, they tend to live in the swamp-regions and do no harm; they freely mingle with humans and adopt them into their tribes, so [[half-orc]]s are not only common, but have just as much an expectation of being born from consensual relationships as anyone else, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings.
*Shadow Marches, said to be orc homeland, is home to the the Gatekeeper druids who saved the world from aberrations severl thousand years ago and are busy keeping evil unkillable daelkyr lords of madness locked in their prisons. But it's also a home to cults of Kyrzin, one of those evil lords of madness and orc tribes loyal to Gatekeepers and those loyal to Kyrzin are constantly fighting. Both tend to kill outsiders wandering through their lands, because those outsiders are usually enemy agents and it saves time, so don't get confused by Gatekeepers being the good guys, they're by no means nice guys.
*Droaam, right next to Shadow Marches is a multi-cultural nation of monsters and orks are a sizeable population of it. Gaa’aram tribes are your typical evil barbarian orcs, only difference being they form multi-racial tribes where orcs, goblins, ogres and trolls work together. Gaa’ran on the other hand are "peaceful" farmers and about the only people in Droaam who do agriculture. "Peaceful" is in brackets is because they would only fill you with axes and hang your mutilated corpse on a stick to deter future trespassers if you trespass on their lands, being the epitome of "get off my lawn".
*Demon Wastes have two competing cultures, both made of orcs, humans and half-orcs fighting together. Ghaash'kala clans are "good" human, orc, and half-orc [[barbarian]] clans all living and fighting and drinking together for the glory of Kalok Shash, an incarnation of the Silver Flame, in an endless war to make sure nothing ''else'' in the Demon Wastes ever gets out. That being said, things they fight are mostly evil orcs of Carrion Tribes who worship demons and make your typical Faerun orcs look like saints in comparison. Just like in Shadow Marchers, don't assume Ghaash'kala are nice because they're good - they operate under assumption that anything that comes from the wastes is corrupted and needs to die (an assumption that is right 99% of times), so don't expect eny mercy if you come to their lands from the wrong side.
*Finally, separated from all other orc lands are Jorash'Tal, the asshole racist orcs of Mror Holds who hate dwarfs with fiery passion for invading and colonizing their mountains thousands of years ago and refuse to let it go. They're nomad tribes roaming valleys between the mountains and are generally nice people that ''won't'' kill you for trespassing on their lands unlike other orc cultures generally painted as "good". Unless you're dwarf. In which case they kill you for the sins of other dwarfs that lived so long ago no one remembers them. Generally they're a case study on how racial grievances won't do you any good, no matter how justified they are. Dorfs, being both more numerous and technologically advanced are locked in indecision what to do with them as half their clans want to make peace and integrate Jorash'Tal, putting them to work since most holds are in need of more labour, while the other half pushes for the ultimate solution to orcish problem.

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, has exceptions too, in the form of the AD&D-only orc subspecies known as the Ondonti. A ''Lawful Good'' race of peaceful, quiet, contemplative, gentle orcs who devote themselves to [[Eldath]] (a minor Goddess of Peace and Quiet Places) and live a humble life as farmers in a hidden valley. They have several Priestly spell-like abilities (Sanctuary (Self) and Purify Food & Water 3/day, Barkskin 1/day and Tree 1/week), are resistant to poison and immune to Charm spells. The general belief of their origin is that they are an example of option 3 in the infamous [[The Orc Baby Dilemma]], with a bunch of Eldathi priests taking orphaned orc infants into seclusion and bringing them up into their cult, causing them to forsake their ancestral barbarity and embrace peace, quiet and advanced hygiene. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/orcondon.php here]. It's also worth noting that many D&D fans take the stance that orcs, goblins, ogres, and other "always evil" monsters are only evil because ''they're brought up in an evil culture'', and that an orc raised in a human household would be just as Good as their adoptive parents (assuming the parents actually ''are'' Good-aligned, that is). There's also the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, a nation of orcs that seeks to have diplomatic ties to their neighbours, though they do occasionally raid their neighbours, especially the local human barbarian tribes.

'''[[Spelljammer]]''' is an unusual entry on this list, because its unique orcs, or ''Scro'', are still bad guys. It's just that, in [[AD&D|an era where orcs were defined as being chaotic, anarchic, disorganized hordes]] scro were defined by being cultured, intelligent, disciplined and well-organized soldierly regiments - in other words, very close to how [[hobgoblin]]s have come to be defined in modern editions. They are even bigger than normal orcs, pimp out their teeth with much bling, and [[Nazi|wear black leather uniforms when not in battle armor]].

'''[[Warcraft]]''', as covered above, may be the iconic example of a mold-breaker when it comes to orcs. After making them fairly bog-standard bad guy invaders in the first two games (if a little unusual in that they were also invaders from another planet), the third game offered the revelation that orcs had once been a [[noblebright]] culture of shamans and honorable warriors, but were corrupted into savage, bloodthirsty conquerors by an evil warlock and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, their campaign in the third game focused on their drive to draw their beaten clans out of human territory and found a new nation for themselves where they could try and rediscover their past. This led to the formation of the Horde faction in [[World of Warcraft]], which took off hugely in popularity because of its then-novel idea of traditionally brutal monster races (orcs, [[troll]]s, [[undead]], and [[minotaur]]s) as an ordinary, viably civilized (relatively speaking) faction in its own right. There was even a short-lived tabletop RPG (first a D&D 3.5 spin off, then a more "customized" but still fundamentally D&D-cloned WoW version) as a result. They still fight, bicker, and war with the "good" races, but now it's because of [[Blizzard]]'s <s>refusal to [[Advancing the Storyline|give up the "dual faction" mechanic and let the story progress]] along with long-standing prejudices between both the Alliance and the Horde rather than because they're the bad guys</s> revolving door of insane and genocidal Horde warchiefs who get overthrown every 2-4 years, with Orcs on both sides of the warchief's agenda. The plot twist is that this time, the warchief is not an Orc at all, but an undead elf which adds layers of complexity. For example, the Orcs go along with her orders in an attempted genocide of the Night Elves after the demons are defeated, but one of the key figures to rise against her was an Orc.

While '''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' **prepare for shitelf cope** Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) weren't even considered ''people'' in the first game, by the time the third game rolled around they had become fully integrated into normal society and weren't looked upon any differently from elves or humans. They are as intelligent as anybody else (in the fifth game one even runs the library at the local mage's college) and generally known to be the best smiths in the setting besides the long-extinct Dwarves, as well as crazy good soldiers next to the Nords and Redguards. Their skill in fighting with heavy armor has lent them a place as heavy shock legionaries in the Imperial Legions. One Orc even became the continent's best chef. Technically, they're a subspecies of Elf which were transformed into their current state after the Daedric Prince Boethiah [[Vore|ate (and shat out)]] their greatest champion/god, who was himself turned into the Daedric Prince Malacath.

'''[[Wicked Fantasy]]''' Orks ''were'' originally the standard Always Chaotic Evil raider types, having been created by malevolent gods for the purpose of fighting for their amusement. And then, one day, thirteen great orkish heroes realized that their race had always been nothing more than slaves, and chose to take a new path. They fought their gods and slew them, and though they still struggle with the lingering blood-rage they were created with, they are now a comparatively peaceful race. They're still a ''dark'' race, but not an evil one. For example, they worship pain as a sacred concept... because, by their understanding of it, pain is ultimately on the side of life and it is the giver of strength. Pain warns you when you are hurt, when you are about to die, but it also pushes you to fight harder, to try and survive. Orks prize battle scars as near-sacred objects; nothing comes without sacrifice, and without a scar, the physical symbol of pain, for reference, a victory is ultimately meaningless.

'''[[Sharakim]]''' seem like this at first glance, as they are orcs who are highly organized, discipline, civilized and benevolent people, but arguably don't count: they're the descendants of humans who were cursed to ''look like'' orcs for sacrilege, not really proper orcs.

'''[[Monster Hunter International]]''' orcs, while green and tusked, are among the few monsters that aren't evil as a species. Unlike most of them they are not PUFF exempt, so they do their best to stay hidden from the government. Monster Hunter International helps hide the orcs at their headquarters in Cazador, Alabama and, in return, gets a help from a few orcs. Appearance wise MHI Orcs are pretty standard, though they wear masks to hide this from humans (though the one look at their village suggests they may do this beyond just secrecy). What makes them interesting is that they have an (Orc) god given talent that makes them very specialized in a particular area, yet utterly incompetent at something related to but outside that area. These include a master of bladed weapons that can't hit the broad side of a barn with a gun, and a helicopter pilot who can make a [[MI-24 Hind]] do things even current helicopters can't, but is unable to drive a car (Upon hearing this, one character speculates that Top Gear's Stig is an orc). They can also make magical healing potions, though they need to be made for specific people and don't keep well. Female orcs greatly outnumber males, so polygamy is the norm. MHI Orcs also worship heavy metal musicians. Most information about orcs in this world is based on the depiction of one friendly tribe, and the only other tribe mentioned was willing to slaughter this friendly tribe, so it's likely other tribes differ in some or all aspects.

It's not very common, as one can see, but some DMs have been known to revamp orcs for their own homebrew settings as well.

=Orcs in D&D=
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|300px|1st Edition D&D Orcs, now commonly referred to by some variation of "P'Orcs" by fans.]]
In the first edition of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], Orcs were among the first monsters inspired by folklore and fantasy literature added to the game in a reissue set. They became the primary antagonists out of the many enemies in the game due primarily to their statline rather than their iconic nature, since they were the best "always an enemy" humanoid to accompany a [[Big Bad Evil Guy|BBEG]]. Early DnD Orcs were pig-like monsters resulting from savage tribals that bred with all other races they warred with (so reproducing via rape) with no unified culture or language, but interestingly were also described as having a "reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs" which suggests they weren't anything extraordinary to the setting. There was also a short-lived form of Cycloptic Orc, from the British Boxed Set illustrations of AD&D.

Half a decade after their introduction, they were given a more neanderthal appearance as well as being given a size-increase to that of a gorilla (which is actually shorter than the average human, btw), were made able to breed with humans resulting in the [[Half-Orc]] playable race, and given their own mythology (which in most D&D settings is the explanation for why a race behaves the way it does). The leader god is named [[Gruumsh]], who was screwed over in inheritance of the world by the gods of the fairer races causing him to be a bitter asshole and make his race into entitled "might makes right" pricks like a father passing on their shitty life to their kids. Gruumsh's family are below him in importance and include his wife [[Luthic]], goddess of the submission of Orc females as the inferior gender, who goes barefoot and never wields a weapon and just serves to run the home and [[Meme|make babby]], and their son [[Bahgtru]] who's pretty much the god of "stupid, but strong", along with Gruumsh's second in command [[Ilneval]] who is the Orc god of war that directly guides mortal Orcs, with the four together representing the Neutral and "Lawful" (as in they are willing to take orders and respect their place in society) side of the pantheon. Also added were [[Shargaas]] the god of general bad magic and spooky things, and [[Yurtrus]] the god of ruin and death, neither of whom have any loyalty to Gruumsh's side of the pantheon and represent the truly Chaotic "for the evulz" aspect of Orcs.

An article for [[Dragon Magazine]] later gave the option of making the traditionally evil races like Orcs and [[Kobolds]] player characters of any alignment. This lead to the [[Forgotten Realms]] setting having two races of Orcs that are capable of any alignment, the pacifistic Ondonti who culturally are closer to Hobbit than Orruk, and the Gray Orcs who are treated as another among the fair races. All other D&D Orcs remained stupid-evil.

Dungeons & Dragons became the standard for most fantasy that came after, but ultimately for Orcs the only purpose was to move forward to the next step in the master template.

Despite their traditional role as bad guys, since at least the days of Basic D&D, where they had their own [[Known World Gazetteer]] in "The Orcs of Thar", orcs have actually been a full-fledged PC race. True, you typically need DM permission, but the option was there.

Though... not a lot of people took it, as in accordance with their fluff, orcs could be mechanically rather... lackluster. It's a well-known fact in 4th and 5th edition alike that, really, you're better off using and reflavoring the [[half-orc]] or even the [[goliath]] races instead. Especially in 5th edition, where they are literally ''the only race in the game'', aside from [[kobold]]s, to get an ability score penalty.

This has changed with Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Orcs have lost their Primal Intuition; Aggressive has been reworked into Adrenaline Rush allowing them to Dash as a bonus action PB times per long rest, and they gain temporary hit points equal to their proficiency bonus when they do; and they've gained the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance. On top of all that, with the modern WotC design philosophy, they get the same "add 2 to 1 stat and 1 to another, or 1 to 3 different stats" that all races get, so no more ability score penalty.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Orc ODD1.png|Original D&D
orc sewer A1.png|[[Scourge of the Slave Lords|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity]]
orc camp A1.png|A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity
orc MCV1.jpg|2e Monstrous Compendium
orc MM 2e.png|2e Monstrous Manual
Orc miners First Quest.jpg|2e orcs with some klingon-like head ridges (First Quest).
orc MM 3e.jpg|3e
orc MM 4e.jpg|4e
4e Orcs, Monster Vault.jpg|Orc sexual dimorphism is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
4e Orcs, Dragon 374.png
orc MM 5e.jpg|5e
orc B1.png|Pathfinder
orc ARG 1.png
orc ARG 3.png
Orc sf 1.png|Starfinder
Orc sf 2.png
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
In BECMI era [[Mystara]], there are two different Orc race-classes; the standard Orc, as seen in [[Known World Gazetteer|The Orcs of Thar]], and the horse-riding Krugel Orc, seen in the [[Hollow World]] subsetting. If the Krugel Orcs are Mystara's proto-orcs, then they must be the orcs of Mystara's distant past, Blackmoor, who were ruled by King Funk, chosen of the Lovecraftian Egg of Coot to lead the orcish hordes, arguably the first big fearsome orc warlord type character in tabletop gaming, predating Warhammer's Grimgor Ironhide, Kings of War's Gakamak the Smasher, and Faerun's Obould Many-Arrows. Said Krugel Orcs were one of many savage tribal races produced by D&D Beastmen, alongside Ogres, Cyclops, Goblins, and Trolls.

;Standard Mystaran Orc
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Orc Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", an Orc determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtacting the result from 9.
::Orc Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become [[Shaman]]s (6th level) and [[Wokani]] (4th level).

{| class=wikitable
!Orc's's level || XP Required || Orc's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8
|-
|1||1,000||2d8
|-
|2||2,000||3d8
|-
|3||4,000||-
|-
|4||8,000||4d8
|-
|5||16,000||5d8
|-
|6||32,000||6d8
|-
|7||64,000||-
|-
|8||130,000||7d8
|-
|9||260,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||200,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

;Krugel Orc
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::Racial Ability Modifiers: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, maximum of 16 Intelligence and 16 Wisdom
::Prime Requisite: Strength - Strength 13+ for +5% to XP earned, Strength 16+ for +10% to XP earned
::Save as [[Fighter]] of equivalent level
::Can reach 6th level as Shaman and 4th level as Wokani
::Mandatory Skill: Riding (Horse or Bounder - a kind of far-leaping bipedal carnivorous [[dinosaur]])
::Unlike normal Mystaran orcs, Krugel orcs have lost their Infravision
::Cultural Melee Weapons: Dagger, Sword (Short/Broad/Bastard), Mace, Club, Warhammer, Spear, Javelin, Lance, Net, Whip
::Cultural Missile Weapons: Crossbow (Light/Heavy), Bow (Long/Short), Sling
::Cultural Armor: Leather, Scale, Mail, Chain Mail, Banded Mail, Shield (including horned, knife, sword and tusked), Leather Horse Barding
::Shamans can use: Mace, club, warhammer, lance, net, all cultural armor
::Wokani can use: Dagger, club, net, whip

Krugel Experience Table: Krugels can reach level 36
::1: 0 XP, 1D8 Hit Dice
::2: 1,000 XP, 2D8 Hit Dice
::3: 2,000 XP, 3D8 Hit Dice
::4: 4,000 XP
::5: 8,000 XP, 4D8 Hit Dice
::6: 16,000 XP, 5D8 Hit Dice
::7: 32,000 XP, 6D8 Hit Dice
::8: 64,000 XP
::9: 130,000 XP, 7D8 Hit Dice
::10: 260,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
::+1 Level: +200,000 XP, +2 HP (Constitution bonus no longer applies)
</div></div>

===AD&D===
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::+1 Strength,-2 Charisma
::Strength: Minimum 6, Maximum 18
::Dexterity: Minimum 3, Maximum 17
::Constitution: Minimum 8, Maximum 18
::Intelligence: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Wisdom: Minimum 3, Maximum 16
::Charisma: Minimum 3, Maximum 12
::Available Classes & Max Levels: Fighter 10, Cleric 9, Shaman 6, Witch Doctor 6, Thief 11
::35% chance to spot new and unusual constructions
::25% chance to spot sloping passages
::Infravision 60 feet
::-1 penalty to attack rolls and morale when in direct sunlight
::Weapon Proficiencies: Battle axe, crossbow, flail, hand axe, spear, any bow, any pole arm, any sword.
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, armorer, blacksmithing, bowyer/fletcher, carpentry, chanting, close-quarter fighting, hunting, intimidation, looting, religion, set snares, spellcraft, tracking, weaponsmithing.
</div></div>

===3e===
There are several different orc stats, scattered across multiple sourcebooks. The "common" orc in the [[Monster Manual]] featured the following statblock:

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::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

====Forgotten Realms====
In the [[Forgotten Realms]], however, there are three different varieties of orc:

The "Mountain Orc" is the most common of the three races, and is the most generic, being pretty much standard Monster Manual orcs. They inhabit the Frozen North, predominantly the Spine of the World mountains and other hilly regions (hence the name), and for the most part at generic would-be conquerors foiled by their own inability to focus on anything besides killing - except for when [[Obould Many-Arrows]] tried to forcibly drag them out of their pits and show them that the best way to get respect is to actually make a kingdom of their own. These guys use the standard orc profile.

Deep Orcs, or [[Orog]]s, are a stronger, smarter (but somewhat shorter) breed of orc native to the [[Underdark]]. See their page for more details.

Finally, Gray Orcs are a strange race of emotional, impulsive, and deeply religious orcs originally hailing from another world. Long story short, centuries ago, an archmage created a portal to their world, but wound up being killed for an unrelated incident before anyone ever found out about this portal - which meant nobody ever shut it off. Five years after his death, the orcs found the portal and swarmed through in a religious crusade, battling the empires of Mulhorand and Unther in the 6-years-long Orcgate Wars, which ended with the closing of the portal, the defeat of several of the incarnate gods of Mulhorand and Unther, and the scattering of the gray orcs into loose, fractious tribes that still haunt the Moonsea and the Endless Wastes. Though physically weaker than their mountain orc "relatives", gray orcs are much more strong-willed and independent, and retain a knack for divine magic which makes them dangerous. They also possess a far swifter stride and keener senses of smell. Gray Orc PCs have the following racial stats:

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::+2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium Size
::Base Speed 40 feet
::Racial Weapon Proficiency: Great-Axe and Longbow
::Light Sensitivity (Ex): -1 penalty to Attack rolls when exposed to bright sunlight or a daylight spell.
::Scent (Ex)
::Orc Blood: For all effects and special abilities that target a creature's race, Gray Orcs count as '''Orcs'''.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Cleric]]
::[[Level Adjustment]]: +1
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[Midnight]]
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma
::Medium
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Weapon Familiarty: Vardatches are Martial Weapons for Orcs
::Night Fighter: Darkvision 60 feet, +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when fighting with no light.
::Light Sensitivity: -1 penalty on attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
:: Resistance to Cold: Immune to nonlethal damage caused by cold weather, severe cold, exposure or extreme cold. Halve lethal damage (rounding down) inflicted by extreme cold.
::Natural Predator: Orcs add their Str modifier to Intimidate checks as well as their Cha modifier.
::Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, -2 spell energy points for orc casters.
::+1 racial bonus on damage rolls against dwarves.
::+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting in groups of 10 or more orcs; allies and enemies both count for triggering this feature.
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

;Warcraft the RPG
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Handle Animal (Wolf) and Intimidate are always Class Skills for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Fighter]]
</div></div>

;World of Warcraft the RPG
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* +2 Stamina, -2 Intellect (Note: Con and Int by different names)
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Low-Light Vison
::Battle Rage: Can Rage once per day as per a Barbarian, or adds +1 to rages per day if a Barbarian
::Weapon Familiarity: Orc Claws are a Martial Weapon rather than an Exotic Weapon
::Weapon Proficiency: Automatically receive Martial Weapon Proficiency (Battleaxe) as a bonus feat
::+2 racial bonus to Handle Animal (Wolf) checks and Intimidate checks. Intimidate is always a Class Skill for orcs.
::+1 racial bonus to attack rolls against humans
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Barbarian]]
</div></div>

===4e===
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::+2 Strength, +2 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 6 squares
::Vision: Low-light
::Running Charge (+2 to Speed when charging)
::Warrior's Surge (racial encounter power; make a 1[W] + Strength modifier attack with a melee weapon against an opponent's AC and get to spend a healing surge)
</div></div>

===5e===
Added in Volo's Guide to Monsters as a monster race. They get the following traits... which are, as more than one person has noticed, essentially the 5e [[Half-Orc]] stats with -2 Intelligence tacked on and with the gloriously beefy Relentless Endurance (survive a killing strike with 1 [[hit point]] left 1/day) and Savage Attack (+1 die of damage on a melee weapon critical hit) replaced with the okay Aggressive trait and the pathetically overvalued Powerful Build trait, something that [[skub|has caused its fair share of arguments]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Strength, +1 Constitution, -2 Intelligence
::30 feet base movement speed
::Size is medium, but they get <strike>almost large</strike> Powerful build which gives them the carrying capacity of a large creature.
::60 feet darkvision
::Aggressive (use bonus action to dash, must finish dash closer to your enemy than where the dash started)
::Menacing (Intimidation proficiency, same as half orcs)
</div></div>

Amazingly, orcs got an official retcon with an official PC writeup in the 5e [[Eberron]] splatbook. "Rising from the Last War" uses the above orc as a base, but strips away the pointless -2 Intelligence penalty and trades the Menacing for ''Primal Intuition'', which gives them two free skill proficiencies chosen from a list made up of Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception and Survival. This is much more useful, and better meshes with the theme of the orcs as the primary [[druid]]ic race in Eberron, and overall makes them a powerful and viable PC race... still, from a flavor perspective, there's something to be said for switching the Half-Orc and Orc stats around.

This version of the Orc was subsequently reprinted in the [[Exandria]] splatbook "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", so it seems to have become more or less the official replacement for Volo's initial shitfest.

And as of the October errata, that is now the case, and the change seems to be a step in the right direction for orcs and [[Kobold|kobolds]]. Even so, it goes without saying, but [[Skub|it's simply impossible to please everyone]].

====3rd Party Settings====
;Arkadia
The [[Orc]]s of [[Arkadia]] are a race born from the blood of the Great Hydra, and native to the broken wastes of Garagos. Also known as [[Giant]]s for their mighty stature - orcs typically stand 6 to 7 feet tall, though the orcs of Gargaros can grow even larger - the race has long been the traditional enemy of the Arkadians, as the race seems possessed to the last by madness and the need for destruction. But... Arkadian orcs are not a monolithic racial force. There are many tribes of orcs scattered throughout Gargaros. The Cerberans train cerberus worgs to hunt and kill; the Cyclopax fight alongside [[Cyclops|cyclopean giants]]; and the Hydrak, the largest and most hated — even by their own kind — who worship the bound titan, seeking to free it through fire and blood. Despite the ancient animosity between orcs and men, some tribes of orcs have come to find a place in Arkadia, especially among the Krytans who value strength and physical prowess above all else. These orcs were first taken as slaves during one of the many wars with Gargaros. Thrown into the fighting pits and gladiatorial arenas they displayed such power and ferocity that the king, impressed, granted them freedom and a place in his army. Many Orcs have since taken to the worship of Krytos with abandon, finding in the mighty god a surrogate father who shares their savagery and love of combat.

Arkadian orcs resemble humans, but with leaf-like ears similar to those of the [[Arkadian Elf|elves]], powerful builds, and jutting lower canines. Their skin is the color of ochre clay; orange, reddish brown, or ashen grey, often varying from tribe to tribe. Many orcs wear black warpaint in stark bands and square keyed patterns. Valuing strength and dominance above all else, orcs, as a Hyperian general once put it, make excellent warriors and terrible soldiers. Their physical prowess and violent nature make them most at home in Kryta, whose army cares more for the might of individuals than the discipline of lines. Their fearlessness and unbridled aggression on the field make them an unstoppable force, ideal as linebreakers, often turning the tide of battle almost single-handed. Some, lacking even the control for this, become mercenaries. Others take to the fighting pits or, with some luck, the grand coliseums of Illyria, untouched by Gargaran raids, where their prodigious size and strength are coveted for their exotic nature.

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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision: 60 feet
::Colossal Build: Your carrying capacity and the amount of weight you can push, drag, or lift is doubled as if you were one size category larger.
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
</div></div>

;World of Farland
Orcs in the [[World of Farland]] come in a number of different subspecies, as part of their home setting's homage to the [[Lord of the Rings]] books that inspired it.

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::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
::Orcish Weaponry: You are proficient with the Hand Axe, Battle Axe, Great Axe, Scimitar and Great Sword.
::Aggressive: Once per short rest, you can use a Bonus Action to move up to your speed towards a creature that you can see.
::Subrace: Choose the Snog, Skaruk or Irzuk subrace.
</div></div>

'''Snog''' orcs, or "Slave Orcs", are the root-stock of the orcish race; first bred as fodder for the wars of dark masters, they are still used in that role to this day, and are literally bred like livestock for that role.
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::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
::Indefatigable: You have Advantage on all Constitution checks relating to exhaustion, forced marching, going without food and water, and going without sleep.
::Armored: You have Proficiency with Light and Medium armor.
</div></div>

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'''Skaruk''' orcs, or "Wild Ones", are orcs descended from tribes that fled their creators and have since pursued independent existences in the wilderness.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Dexterity
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Wild Rage: After you first take damage in battle, you deal +1 damage with each attack for the next minute until you are knocked unconscious, or if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
</div></div>

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'''Irzuk''' orcs are a new race of orcs bred for their resistance to the cold and their ability to track victims. They are visually distinguished by their uniquely crimson hides.
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Tracker: You have Proficiency in Survival and gain Advantage on Survival checks relating to tracking by scent.
::Cold Endurance: You have Advantage on Constitution checks relating to resisting natural cold and are Resistant to Cold Damage.
::Enhanced Aggression: When you use your Aggressive trait, you can move up to +10 feet over your normal movement limit.
</div></div>

;Scarred Lands
Orcs of the [[Scarred Lands]] are semi-nomadic tribals who live in the plains and savannahs of [[Ghelspad]], noted for their talents in astrology and riding [[Dire Animal|Dire Wolves]], strong tribal identities, and a preference for a simple life with a few great luxuries. They originally fought on the titans side in the Divine War, but most of them took the asylum offer given by the gods. They all have the following stats:

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::Ability Score Increase: +3 Strength, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkivision 30 feet
::Aggressive: As a bonus action, you can move up to your speed toward a hostile creature you can see.
::Menacing: Proficieny in the Intimidation skill
::Orcish Combat Training: You are proficient with the battleaxe, greataxe, handaxe, and lance.
::Savage Attacks: When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
::Language: You speak Orcish and one other language.
</div></div>

===[[Pathfinder]] 1e===
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* +4 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
::Medium size
::Base land speed 30 feet
::Darkvision out to 60 feet
::Ferocity (can keep fighting at zero HP, but is Staggered and loses 1 HP each round automatically)
::Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
::Weapon Familiarity: Automatically proficient with Greataxe and Falchion, treat any weapon with "Orc" in its name as a Martial weapon.
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As nameless monsters who won't survive the encounter anyways, Ferocity effectively adds their constitution score (''score'', not modifier) to their HP. This make them quite dangerous at low levels, since it ''triples'' their HP (the standard Orc has 6 HP and 12 con). This isn't enough to put them next to [[Cat|house cats]], incorporeal foes or [[Swarm]]s as slayers of low level PCs, it does make them quite hard for their supposed CR 1/3.

===Pathfinder 2e===
Compared to their previous edition, and the DnD 5e, the Orcs of second edition is a lot more fleshed out. With the APG sidesteping a lot of their more "violent" tendencies of pillaging and "conception" of half-orcs, preferring to focus on their glory-seeking, honesty and unbreakable loyalty to those they see as equals or treat them nicely. They are a society looking to surpass their shitty upbringings, wanting to move on from their long history of conflict.... [[derp|by way of conflict]].

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::Hit points: 10
::Size: Small
::Speed: 25 feet
::Ability Boosts: Strength, Free
::Languages: Common and Orcish, as well as any other languages equal to your intelligence modifier.
::Darkvision: You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.
</div></div>

===Starfinder===
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Orcs in [[Starfinder]] were long ago enslaved by the Drow and forcibly underwent social engineering to make them servile to the Drow on an almost genetic level. Their once green skin has turned blue, to better blend in with the tunnels of the Drow planet's underground caverns and to resemble their masters' more purple skintones.

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::Ability Modifiers: +4 Str, –2 Cha
::Hit Points: 6
::Size and Type: Medium humanoid (orc).
::Conditioned Focus: Due to her conditioning, an orc can choose one skill that becomes a class skill for her. If the chosen skill is a class skill from the class she takes at 1st level, she instead gains a +1 bonus to checks with that skill. In addition, due to her confidence with that skill, once per day, before she attempts a check with the chosen skill, the orc can grant herself a +2 bonus to that check.
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fierce Survivalist: Orcs receive a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate and Survival checks.
::Light Sensitivity: An orc is dazzled as long as she remains in an area of bright light.
::Orc Ferocity: Once per day, an orc brought to 0 Hit Points but not killed can fight on for 1 more round. The orc drops to 0 HP and is dying (following the normal rules for death and dying) but can continue to act normally until the end of his next turn, when he becomes unconscious as normal. If he takes additional damage before this, he ceases to be able to act and falls unconscious.
</div></div>

=Green Skin=
One usually wonders where the green coloration of Orcish skin came from, in the old myths (i.e., Lord of the Rings) the orcs were established as barbaric, crude brutes, true; but the approximate skin color was never truly established, the Orcs were generally described as filthy and mucky, with darkened skin and bestial countenances. (Similarly, in the films their skin shades are in varying shades of ash-black and dirty-brown, the occasional bit of face-painting notwithstanding.) It wasn't until the advent of the Hulk comics, and GW deciding to make their orcs different, that the common skin of the orc became green. Because Warhammer's orcs became so memorable, thousands of copycats have followed suit.

This of course may not truly explain why some orcs in DnD have green skin as well, DnD being around before Warhammer, but the a more precise green coloration in its orcs may have come later. Indeed, earlier DnD art shows a variety of skin colors, some of them sallow yellow and earthy reds. Green may have come about because all the other possible colors simply have clashing connotations, such as a calming blue, or offensive real world racial connotations (black, [[kobold|red]], brown, and [[goblin|yellow]] are right out for a barbaric and evil race of XP bags.) Another theory is that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, the 2 co-founders of [[Games Workshop]], also had a lot of communication with Brian Blume, the developer of D&D, especially in the early days of these 2 companies, so it is entirely possible that certain ideas were mentioned and then copied.

''In-universe'' reasons for their chartreuse complexions vary between IPs; While earlier editions claimed that the Orks of 40k are said to be animate plants, current lore dictates that Ork DNA is a combination of animal, plant, and fungal DNA, thus their colors are effectively the result of chlorophyll running through their bodies (while the animal part conveniently allows them to bleed red for grimdark purposes). Meanwhile, the green skins of the orcs of The Elder Scrolls and Warcraft universes are the result of demonic tampering; The Orsimer are a result of the above-mentioned champion-devoured-and-shat-out incident, while the Warcraft Orcs were convinced to drink the blood of the Pit Lord Mannoroth, changing their normally brown or grey skin into that distinct hue, with further ingestion of Pit Lord blood turning them red. Some orc clans turned down the offer however, and still keep their original skin tones in the present.

Though for what it's worth, D&D orcs are grey, not green, as of 5e. Seriously, open your monster manual if you don't believe us.

=Piggish Looks=
On occasion, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the generally accepted portrayal of orcs as being (usually green-skinned) Frazetta Man style cavemen fellows. This goes back to [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, where orcs were described as having a fundamentally "piggish snout" for a face and depicted as more or less a boar's head on a hunch-shouldered, ugly, green-skinned chimpanzee. Some depictions of orcs thusly refer back to this. It's most common in Japan, where old-school [[neckbeard]]s grew up to have a huge impact on art, manga and videogames. For a reference cue there, see the Moblins from the Legend of Zelda series. Similar incidents of redesign of classic tabletop gaming creatures include dogfaced kobolds, pumpkinheaded bugbears, starving-looking lanky trolls, and slinky hobgoblin-like gnolls.

=Cyclops Orcs=
An even rarer variant from the British 1st Edition AD&D Boxed Set illustrations. This one-eyed example was originally published by Games Workshop, and later inspired the appearance of Fangor Gripe, one of the Orc leaders of the Vile Rune tribe. May have been inspired by one of the descriptions of Gruumsh in D&D being cycloptic after Corellon took out his eye, and his wounded socket and existing one merged together to give him one big eye.
<gallery>
cyclops orc.jpg| Fangor Gripe's model, which resembles a basic Warhammer Orc with one eye, unlike the original Cycloptic Orcs, who resembled emaciated skinny hairless elves with a single bulging human eye.
</gallery>

=Scaley Orcs=
You thought we were done with the various Orc subvarieties? Think again, BITCH! We got another one! Scaley Orcs are orcs who take the "leathery, almost like scales of a reptile" description, add in the "green coloration" description, and the "snout like a hog" description, and figured "gee, sounds vaguely like a crocodile". Thus, were Scaley Orcs imagined up. If the most well known type of Orc is a toss-up between sadistic malformed maniacs made popular by the Lord of the Rings movies and the brutish greenskinned thugs made popular by Warhammer and Warcraft, with Pigfaced Orcs being second well known in most places besides Japan, where the Piggies are favored, and Cycloptic Orcs are in dubious third place due to many references to one-eyed orcs as individuals still making appearances in background lore, then these poor lizardy fucks are in the pathetic fourth place. Which is sad, as they originate in a piece of classic 80's RPG fantasy, the illustrated book "Down in the Dungeon" by Don Greer. Whilst somewhat niche in many of today's RPG circles, amongst Grognards it's regarded as a hidden gem from a dying generation of players. In it, there are two varieties of these reptilian orcs, full-blooded orcs of small stature similar to their goblin-synonymous Middle Earth book description orc cousins, who look like fat humanoid lizards with faces like inaccurate 80s Chinese plastic dinosaur toys, and their equivalent of Half-Orcs, the "Man-Orcs" who somehow look even more reptilian, with a face like an inaccurate Chinese plastic T. Rex toy, or maybe a crocodile. These guys actually have models made of them, by Essex Miniatures, and are a good piece of retro-orc-breed-history. In theory, Greer may have been inspired by the earlier, Pigfaced Orc breeds, as shown in a photo below with a Scaley Orc female still having six breasts like a Pigfaced Orc sow.

<gallery>
Scaley_Orc.jpg|Essex Miniatures model, official painting on their site. Forgot to thin their paints.
Great_Scaly_Orcs_2.jpg|Fan-painted Scaley Orcs. Now you can see how these guys are intimidating up close.
Scaley_Orc_Couple.jpg| A husband and wife in the war together. Notice the six breasts, a holdover from their Pigfaced Orc Ancestors.
</gallery>

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls, despite what many [[/d/]] cliches may lead you to believe, aren't inclined to find orcs attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned [[Amazon]]s; [[musclegirl]]s of a particularly dumb "fight 'em an' fuck 'em" mentality with a penchant for either raping men or gathering in harems around particularly strong, tough warriors (who may or may not be made to submit).

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Orc is a chubby pink girl with pig ears on her head and a pig's tail (see above about how "pigmen orcs" are popular in Japan). She's a vanilla demihuman-type mamono who goes around in large groups by preference. They're femdommy by nature, but happily submit to maledom if a potential spouse can overpower them in a fight, and also enjoy sharing a spouse between them. Hilariously, this is pretty square with what official sources have established about D&D orc sexual mores. January 2018 saw the release of the "High Orc"; a bigger, stronger, smarter and fiercer version of the standard orc, the "boar-girl" to their "pig-girl". Fearless, cunning and strong, they are natural leaders of their lesser kin, aided by the fact they release a pheromone that whips up a lust for battle (and sex) in any nearby orc. Of course, if you beat them, that knocks the wind out of the normal orcs' sails, and they will generally flee or surrender on the spot. High Orcs fit the same sexual mold as their weaker siblings, aside from their pheromone doubling as an aphrodisiac. In a twist that /tg/ finds hilarious, High Orcs have dark brown skin, which, combined with their status as the natural leaders of the race, immediately puts them in mind of the [[Black Orc]]s of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Most likely they were instead based on the Uruk-hai of [[The Lord of the Rings]], but why let that spoil a good laugh?

[[Daily Life with Monstergirl]] combines the above two, having male Orcs be ugly green pig dudes who lust for human (and human-like) women. Thus far we haven't seen female Orcs yet, but like the [[centaur]]s in the series they will likely be a lot more attractive than their male counterparts. As a matter of fact, a female orc named Ruka actually shows up in the tie-in online game as one of your potential haremettes; if taken as canon, then female orcs in this setting are indeed cute green-skinned pig-girls - unlike the MGE version, they have a pig's tail and trotters for feet, with elf-like ears, as the Daily Life verse tends to avoid more animalistic ears for its beast-girls in general.

<gallery>
Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Amazon Orc.jpg|In some depictions female orcs are rather [[amazon]]ian.
MGE Orc.jpg|A pig-eared orc from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.
MGE High Orc.jpg|Bigger, tougher, smarter champions of orcdom, the boar-based High Orcs are essentially the MGE's [[Black Orc]]s.
Monster Musume Ruka the Orc.png|Ruka from Monster Musume showcases an incredibly rare meeting point between p'orc and greenskin.
1642287072.baguette2077 konosubaorc 001.jpg|Who says Pigfaced Orc Women can't be attractive?
AsianPigOrc.jpg|Weeaboo Pigfaced Orc Waifu
Aggralan, Mag'har Shamaness.jpg|The she-orcs of [[Warcraft]] have always been pretty hot.
orc ARG 2.png|Pathfinder proving [[half-orc]]s don't HAVE to have human mothers.
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Goblins]]
*[[Ork]]
*[[Orcs & Goblins]]

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
Orcs are Grays.jpg|Orks are Xenos, after all...
CyclopticOrcs.jpg|Even rarer than Pigfaced Orcs are Cycloptic Orcs.
Subject to Inter-Goblinoid Animosity.jpg| Even among Old-School Breeds, Inter-Goblinoid Animosity is a thing.
Down in the Dungeon.jpg| Don Greer's Scaley Orcs, along with other creatures of his design.
Scaly_Orc_Slavers.jpeg| Some Scaley Orcs with some newly-captured slaves, formerly adventurers.
</gallery>

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Scarred Lands Races]]

Warriors of Chaos

2022-08-04T14:34:53Z

2600:1000:B01C:1014:40FD:FFC6:286:86E: /* Skaramor */

[[File:All_Fear_the_Wrath_of_the_Norscans.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Vikings FTW!]]
{{topquote|To the ordinary, we are unknowable. Fallen. Corrupted. Rightly feared. You cannot understand our orgins, our motives... the dawning realisation that we are ''not'' fallen. We. Are. '''Ascended.'''|[[Archaon|Archaon the Everchosen]]}}

{{topquote|Moving up and fighting the best keeps me hungry.|Nonito Donaire}}

{{topquote|Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, 'Come.' I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.|Revelation 6:1-2}}

[[Old School Roleplaying|Remember when the followers of the Dark Gods were badass Viking warriors in awesome looking plate armour]] and weren't [[Chaos Space Marines|emo Space Marines]] under the thrall of [[Abaddon|an armless failure]]? Remember when they were led by completely fucking crazy motherfuckers who wrestled fucking Bloodthirsters to the ground as a bloody initiation ritual and rode around on chariots pulled by skinless bears and rode horses fed on human flesh and watered down with blood and had awesome beards rivalled only by Dwarfs? Pepperidge Farm remembers. These are the '''Warriors of Chaos''' (formerly '''Hordes'''), the granddaddies of all that is [[Awesome]] in the Chaos Space Marines, the original Champions of Chaos.

Additionally, every time the words "devout", "cruel", "savage", and synonyms of those show up in the following article, take a swig. I can guarantee that you will at least be drunk (unless you are, in fact, a chaos warrior yourself, in which case you would need to drink a gallon for every derp on the [[Derp]] page (enough to get 6 fully packed Yankee stadiums completely hammered, in case you're wondering)). As you should be, considering you're reading about Vikings.

==Brief Foreword==
Nostalgia aside, you can't truly call yourself a fan of Chaos or Warhammer in general without having at least a cursory knowledge of these guys. These guys are the very essence of Warhammer: baroque plate armour, skulls, Vikings, mutations, Michael Moorcock, J.R.R Tolkien, Hieronymus Bosch, H.P Lovecraft and Heavy Metal; everything that was put in together and left to boil to produce the two most grimdark settings in the history of mankind is encapsulated in these guys. The first edition of Warhammer Fantasy had one of them displayed proudly on it, for Odin's sake (the now legendary [[Harry the Hammer]], the TRUE reason why Warhammer is called Warhammer, check out Harry's new model, it kicks ass). Like it or not, these guys were what forged Warhammer for a lot of people. To this day, no game based on it feels complete without dark armoured marauding warriors of the Nordic or [[Chaos Space Marine|sci-fi]] persuasion. So read on, and see their glory in full.

'''tl;dr''': '''MOTHERFUCKING CHAOS [[Viking|VIKINGS]], MAN!!!'''

If you watch some of the Viking shit that is part of the current minor renaissance in sword-and-longboat fantasy that's been going on in television lately, like ''The Last Kingdom'', you might think that the portrayal of Vikings is not that far off. And arguably, it isn't; they got up to some pretty [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_eagle deranged Khornate shit]. But of course, history was written by the people who they were murder-raping in the name of <s>Khorne</s>Odin. It's pretty much beyond dispute, though, that theirs was a culture very much centered upon raiding (literally what ''viking'' means, more or less) and being a badass warrior; you couldn't get to Valhalla unless you died with a weapon in hand. (Drunken accident? Old age? Getting poisoned or stabbed in the back? Too bad, it's off to Niflheim, the domain of Hel--one 'l', that's after the goddess who reigned there, and no, it wasn't hot, it was motherfucking cold.) Pretty fucking Khornate if you ask me.

They are also the only non-Imperial Guard army to have not been fucked over completely beyond all redemption by the foul [[Cruddace]].

==Fantasy Overview==
In the beginning, the Old Ones came to the Warhammer World and set about doing their crazy magical genetic engineering bullshit. Then, for whatever non-reason the Polar Gates at the top and bottom of the world that they had constructed to ward off Chaos gave out and the world was corrupted and consumed by it. Depending on who you ask, either this event is what birthed Chaos and the Chaos Gods, or they came first and helped cause it. Who knows? The Old Ones fucked off, and left races of Dwarfs and Elves and Slaan. But a fourth creation also that was not fully equipped to resist the influence of Chaos, and of course, this was Man. Mankind was unfinished, and the warpstones that flew from the Northern polar wastes caused the acceleration of physical and cultural progress and, most importantly, of the human mind. The races of men gained a vigor and fire from the power of Chaos that drove them to great heights of glory and caused them to surpass the manufactured races of the Old Ones. In many ways, the history of Chaos ''is'' the history of mankind in the Warhammer world, serving as a dark reflection of what corrupted humanity can look like, the civilized soldiers and benevolent Order Gods of the South mirrored by the barbaric warriors and the cruel, fickle Chaos Gods of the North. It was only fitting that some tribes amongst Humanity would come to worship the various Gods of Chaos, namely the best-known four of them (and a long time ago [[Chaos Gods of Law|some others that GW sadly forgot about]] and [[Malal|another they were contractually forced to forget about.]])

The most notable of these was the Norsii. who would later be feared by all of the Old World as the fierce '''Norse''', the most brutal and devout worshipers of Chaos. They were joined by their cousins as well, the brutal '''Kurgan''' of the Eastern Steppes and the squat and ferocious (yet anatomically gifted in certain areas) '''Hung'''. These are the three Great Races of Men, for it is they alone who are favored by the mighty Gods. Together, they are the Northmen, and they shall make the World tremble.

On the tabletop, the Warriors of Chaos tend to be unstoppable close combat powerhouses (as they should be, they're Vikings), with little in the way of ranged fire support. Very melee oriented, even their sorcerers can be thrown into melee and be expected to hold their own. They have very powerful magic that can be used to supplement their incredible power. They have extremely powerful Lord choices who might very well be the most powerful generic lords in the game. They have a pretty high points cost, though, so you're going to be outnumbered. On the other hand, that shouldn't bother you too much because they're badasses. The problem is that you have a predictable play style and are more or less ineffective if you can't get into melee. Movement phases are important, especially in fantasy, so think about how you move your forces. Despite it being a predictable play style, it's still easy to grasp and simple to use, which also makes the Warriors a good starting army. Also, because of the low model count since these guys have a large point cost, it doesn't cost that much by GW standards to put a good army together. So, if you like Vikings in spiky armor, get the Warriors.

==The Men of the North==
The twisted northlands of [[Norsca]] and the [[Eastern Steppes]] straddle the line between mere mortality and the realm of the immortal, for they the closest of the realms to the foul Chaos Wastes and the portal that leads to the realm of the Chaos Gods. Known as Rainsheim amongst the Norse, and a dozen other names amongst those others who dare to treat with Chaos; Northman or Southman. The power of Chaos has corrupted all the lands of the world, but as the distance from the pole decreases, the influence of Chaos increases. And so, the men of Norsca and the Kurgan realms are saturated with the power of the gods.

The men who dwell in the Northlands are, for the most part, barbarous and savage compared to those who live in the settled lands to the south. They are not physically unlike other men and, in times of peace, merchants from the Norse and Kurgan can be found trading their wares in the markets of cosmopolitan cities such as Marienburg in the west and the Hung can be found doing the same in Weijin in the east. Yet, in some other forms, they are unlike their fellows to the South. For they worship evil Gods of Blood, Decay, Scheming, and Debauchery and live brutal, primitive lives of war. Most lamentably, they all live directly under the shadow of Chaos and are slaves to its Will.

Depending on what version of the lore you go with, not all of Norsca is enthralled to Chaos. Old material mentions tribes and whole kingdoms living and coexisting with the Southlands, some even taking to worshiping other Gods like [[Ulric]]. Some of these tribes are even mentioned as fighting Chaos and trying to steer their brethren away from falling victim to it. Again, this varies quite a bit between editions and even within editions themselves.

The men of the Northlands have many different gods. Most are daemons and valorous dead or ascended Champions of Chaos deified by their tribes (a practice especially common with the Norse) or manifestations of the natural world (as is common amongst the Kurgan), but all the Northmen owe their highest worship to the Four Great Gods of Chaos, whom they readily recognize as the masters of these lesser deities. The Northmen do not think of the Chaos Gods as evil, as the superstitious men of the South are wont to. But as individuals, they are as unpredictable as mortals. Thus, the Northmen reasonably maintain that such powerful entities are beyond the moral judgment of men. It is thus every warrior's duty to honour the gods in all walks of life. Such things are self-evident. To deny the gods and not worship them would be foolish, their existence in the North is a simple fact of life; evident in the mark of Khorne proudly displayed by a Norscan marauder as he leaps from his longship to savage Imperial soldiers with his daemonic strength, or in the mark of Tzeentch borne by a Kurgan rider as he fells a Kislevite warrior with his new-found blade of bone in place of a hand. To resent this state of affairs would be like resenting the sunrise or the wind - What would it accomplish?

The Four are known by many names amongst the people of the North. Nonetheless, all the Gods are recognized by them. And it is not uncommon for the tribes to choose one god amongst them as a patron (the Norse tribes commonly take Khorne as theirs, while some tribes of the Kurgan may choose Tzeentch) - who is seen as the father and protector of their kindred. Lesser gods and daemons are also worshiped, along with great heroes peculiar to a particular tribe who are often chieftains who died such glorious deaths that they were raised to sit beside the god of their tribe in eternal glory.

Though they may seem barely civil in times of peace, the Norse, Kurgan and Hung are vicious races of bloodthirsty warriors. Used to battling amongst themselves - war is their natural state and they wage it without concern or prejudice. They rejoice in battle and strength at arms, and honour the brave of both sides while despising the cowards likewise. Yet they are willing to forget their differences when the Gods command them to fight on their behalf. For there is no greater joy than to fight and die in the armies of the immortals.

===The Daemon Norse===
{{topquote|From the harsh snowlands they come. Blond of hair they are, and blue of eye, and tattoos upon arms and face and chest. Their eyes are mad with bloodlust, for blood they thirst for, driven forth on the whims of the Gods they seek to appease. Clad in but few garments and wielding clumsy, brutal axes and maces, they rage against the civilized lands of the south, burning, pillaging, looting all before them to offer up as sacrifice to their uncaring masters beyond the gates of hell in the Northern Wastes.|The Liber Chaotica as penned by Richter Kleiss, former Priest of Sigmar}}

The Norse of Norsca are the most brutal, fierce and savage followers of the Chaos Gods in the Warhammer world. They are the tallest, most physically strong race in the Old World, raised amongst a culture that respects only strength and the ability to kill and closeness to the Primordial Gods. All of Norsca is in the thrall of Chaos, corrupting the mountainous wasteland with the essence of change that seeps not only into man and beast but the very ground itself. Mutations are so common as to be universal among the Norscans, seen as signs of blessings from the Chaos Gods. Mighty warbands prowl the mainland and the horrific mountain ranges that connects the lands of the Norse to the Chaos Wastes. The seas about Norsca are filled with massive longships mastered by the terrible Chaos Champions and their kinsmen who stride the seas searching for either artefacts, purchase by which they may wage war against the weak southlings as demanded by their Gods, or merely any other ship to vent their rage upon. When the call to war is given, the Norse are always at the forefront, tearing down all opposition and cleaving the way into the weak lands of Sigmar. The Norse are always on the warpath, launching continuous and brutal sea raids upon the heavily fortified coast of the Northern Empire and northern Kislev.

It should come as little surprise that the Norsemen are the most fiercely devout followers of Khorne, the God of War. And it is from the Norse that the majority of Khorne's followers are derived. Many Norse Champions of Chaos go on to be the most favored of Khorne's warriors; Cormac Bloodaxe, Scyla Anfingrimm, Hogan Headhacker, Haargroth the Blooded, Arbaal the Undefeated, Valmir Aesling, Hrothgar Daemonaxe, Urlfdaemonkin -- all savage Norse warriors who have risen to pre-eminence in the eyes of the Blood God. In fact, Khorne's own consort, Valkia the Bloody, has risen from the brutal clans of the Norse.

With such a track record, it was obvious that the Imperials would deny any idea that the Norse are even remotely human. Most theories tend to focus on their favour from the Dark Gods and use that as the bedrock for all kinds of claims. Due to them being incredibly strong, very tall and all warriors (at least, all those encountered commonly by the Imperials are such) and devoted to the Dark Gods, Imperials have come to the conclusions that the Norse are a race of superhumans, or that they are daemons shaped as men, or are half-giants. The truth, shaded in the fantastic as it is, is still more interesting.

Contrary to what the Imperials historians zealously claim; they are not the first ones to settle in the Reik basin. Even the Bretonnians and the Nehekharans have held a portion of the land that would later become the heart of the Empire, and the ancestors of the Norse were no different. Known as the Norsii, their ancestral homeland was indeed the frozen Wastes of Norsca. But some of their kinsmen migrated South to the lands that would become part of the Empire. The Norsii were ever the mighty and favored warriors of Chaos, as their descendants are. They were prone to waging bloody and terrible war upon the southern tribes, particularly the Udoses, Teutogens and Roppsmenn. The Norsii's reign of terror was only stopped by the hosts of the southlings gathering to drive them back to their frozen homeland. But from there they would rejoin their kinsmen who still dwelt in the North and return to continue their depredations. It was only Sigmar himself who managed to finally drive the Norsii hordes from the Empire. And only barely. It is a telling thing that the first defeat Sigmar ever suffered came at hands of the vicious Norsmen, led by the ancient Chaos Lord of Khorne: Cormac Bloodaxe.

The Norse are amongst the most fearsome and most devoted warriors of Chaos, but they are also devoted to their tribal affiliations. The tribe forms the very core of the Norse identity, as they are not a unified people by any means, and thus have no concept of nationality. A Norscan will never call himself such. He will identify himself based on tribe and parentage. A Varg will see his loyalties extend only to his immediate tribe and to a much lesser extent, others under the same confederation. After all, even amongst the various so called High Tribes, multitudes of lesser tribes and families will exist. For instance, under the Aesling High Tribe, there exists many other lesser clans owing allegiance to it; such as the Gorehunt, the Snaegr, Skrae and Untam. The various Norscan clans are divided into two main blocks for easy reference based on geography; the Northern tribes and the Southern tribes.

===The Northern Norscan Tribes===
*'''[[Aeslings]]''': The most dreaded and terrifying and powerful of the Norse High Tribes are the Aeslings. They are the most savage and brutal men of Norsca. Even among the other Northernmost Northman tribes they are held in fear. Only favour from the Gods and strength and excellence at arms are valued. [[Grimdark|Thus, they are a people who respect only strength and infants who do not measure to their standards of physical perfection are murdered outright with little fuss.]] While reprehensible, this combined with their constant warfare on others has forged a race who are undoubtedly some of the greatest warriors of all the Northmen. Amongst the Aesling tribes, it is [[Khorne]] who is worshiped above all other Gods and it is not uncommon for tribes to dedicate themselves solely to him. For even amongst the Norsemen, the Aeslings are a people who thrive on war. While one Champion of Chaos may master a crew of marauders who bring ruination on Erengrad or Nordland, another might lead his people in slaughtering the Norse Dwarfs or even their own Norse kinsmen. Even the Kurgans to the east are not safe from the Aeslings' reckless thirst for death, for it is often that an Aesling Jarl will lead his murderous kinsmen in preying upon the many roving Kurgan tribes, slaughtering them and offering up their lives to the vicious Chaos Gods. Their lust for killing has won them no friends, what few allies they have are bound to them by only fear and intimidation, for much like the god they worship, the Aes care not whence the blood flows.

*'''[[Vargs]]''': Another Northern tribe. The Vargs are the most twisted in body and soul of the Norse; they claim the Northern tundras as their lands and fought many horrific beasts to claim it, such as giants, beastmen and daemons of Chaos. They have managed to domesticate the fearsome mammoths of that area, and will often bear them to battle as beasts of war. The Vargs have a blood hatred of the Kurgans that dates backs to untold stretches of ancient history. Time has done little to dampen their hate, and they often mount massive raids into the Kurgan lands, which are joined by Aesling mercenaries, that wreak great devastation of the men of the Eastern Steppes. The Vargs are also dedicated warriors of Khorne, like the Aeslings, and are viciously devoted to his creed of death. The Vargs are said to have come from distant lands and settled in Norsca, led by their greatest and most legendary chieftain; a mighty Chaos Lord of Khorne known as Hrothgar Daemonaxe, who led them in conquering land and enslaving weaker tribes. Hrothgar later went deeper into the realms of the Gods and ascended to Daemonhood. The Vargs know Khorne by the name of ''Arkhar''. One day, a band of horny Varg maraduers decided to trouble the southerners. So, they travelled from all the way from northernmost part of Norsca to Nordland, hellbent on giving them a huuge trouble. And they did. One of these maraduers saw a random fisherman's beautiful wife and thought ''By the [[Slaanesh|Serpent]], that woman is hot. I am going to [[Rape|have fun]] with her.'' [[Grimdark|So he did]]. The result was the birth of a certain devout Templar Knight of Order of the Twin-Tailed Orb. What was his name? His name was [[Archaon|Diederick Kastnar]]. Sounds familiar? This makes the Vargs indirectly responsible for the [[Rage|destruction of Warhammer World]]. In the video game [[Total War: WARHAMMER]], they have a faction up in the Northern Norsca led by a chieftain named Surtha ''[[Meme|'''"BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION!"''']]'' Ek, who is known for slaughtering Southerners with the use of massive chariot tactics.

*'''[[Graelings]]''': The last of the Northern Norse tribes and the most westerly of the Norse, close to Elven lands and prone to raiding those places. They come into conflict with Dark Elven corsairs frequently and the terror of the villages and fortresses of Klar Karond. Though it is also said that when they are not killing them, the Graelings sell slaves culled from the southern lands and Ulthuan to the Dark Elves. They do not gravitate to one Chaos God over another, but are, like most Northman tribes, prone to celebrating Chaos in all its glory. Haargroth the Blooded rose up from this tribe.

===The Southern Norscan Tribes===
*'''[[Skaelings]]''': Sea raiders without equal, the Skaelings are perhaps [[Ork Kommando|the most cunning of the Norse]]. They are the closest of the Chaos worshipers to the southern lands, so it is not uncommon to find them raiding the South. During the Storm of Chaos, Skaeling sea-raiders were utilized to great effectiveness by the Lord of the End Times in harrying and diverting the fleets of Brettonia and Nordland. In addition to their veneration of the Chaos Gods, the Skaelings also worship another daemonic deity known as Mermedus, who some Imperial theologians consider to be a Norscan interpretation of Manann. Though there is little in common with the mighty Imperial sea-god and the abominable daemon the Skaelings make human sacrifices to. Others have considered Mermedus to be the Chaotic reflection of Stromfells, another ill-tempered deity of the sea. interestingly, their name is not a reference to the Vikings themselves, but to the people who lived around the north American colony of vinland, who they called the Skrælings. So the Skaelings may not be chaos Vikings, but rather Chaos Inuit.

*'''[[Baersonlings]]''': A people who would not be odd living in the North of Norsca, the Baersonlings are tireless reavers who are proud of their martial prowess, which is truthfully legendary even amongst the Northmen. Though they are not quite as strong and fierce as the Aeslings, they war with them frequently. Their relations with the Kurgan tribes is similarly icy, and their lands often stretch into the fringes of the Eastern Steppes, which invites war. Not that this disturbs the Baersonlings, war is just another way to glorify the Chaos Gods. They are known for their copious body hair and a strange Chaos mutation that transforms them into unstoppable bear-like monstrosities. Beorg Bearstruck, a powerful Champion of Chaos, and his marauder tribe, the Bearmen of Urslo, are descended from this strain of the Norse nation.

*'''[[Sarls]]''': The Sarls are rugged barbarian warriors. Mighty and indomitable and devoted to the Dark Powers, they have distinguished themselves in the armies of the Chaos Gods often. Wulfrik the Wanderer, one of the greatest Champions of Chaos and executioner of the Chaos Gods rose from these people. The Sarl also destroyed the last and most terrible of the treeblood, using the bark harvested from the creature to create the second ''Seafang'' of [[Wulfrik the Wanderer|Wulfrik]] after the first was lost in a raid on the Elves. Oh and this clan was destroyed after Wulfrik fucked it up by killing the chieftain son and rival clan puppet leader to once again incite the civil war between the two.

*'''[[The Hobbit|Bjorn]]lings''': Little is known of this tribe. But among them are the Crow Brothers, devout warriors of Nurgle.

*'''[[Rotbloods]]''': A tribe of Nurgle worshippers, mentioned in [[Vermintide]] and an enemy faction in the sequel. A tribe driven to such desperation that they not only primarily worship Nurgle (rare for Norscans) but even thought it would be smart to [[derp|ally with]] [[Skaven]]. The champion Bovarr Ribspreader leads their war parties in the south. Thanks to the Skaven created Skittergate, they got to give Helmsgart an early preview of the End Times during the fighting, though they got smashed in [[Vermintide 2]] and Bödvarr was cut down.

===Famous Norse Chaos Champions===
"''I pity you and all the world, for amongst all the races of men, the gods favour we Norse alone''."

*'''[[Morkar the Uniter]]''': The First Everchosen of Chaos; Morkar was the survivor of an Imperial raid upon his village in the aftermath of the defeat of Cormac Bloodaxe's horde at the gates of Middenheim. He rose up to become the greatest Champion of Chaos of his generation and united the Norse tribes in his quest to gain the mark of the gods. He reaped many great conquests and honour and fear were heaped upon his name. No foe could withstand his rage in battle and no enemy was beyond his keen mind to defeat. Eventually, he was crowned as the Eternal Conqueror of the Gods by Be'lakor and led the vengeful Norsemen and their Kurgan allies in unmaking the decadent Empire. He was only defeated narrowly in single combat with Sigmar himself (pre retcon it was Aenarion who killed him). After his death, his body was taken by his kinsmen and buried in a great cairn in the Chaos Wastes. A sliver of Morkar's spirit remained in the armour long after his death, left to brood over his defeat and to forever curse the name of the cowardly Sigmar who derailed his great conquest by his craven single combat. (Let it never be said that, whatever his badass credentials, Morkar was NOT a sore loser.) Morkar the Uniter's rest was disturbed millennia after by his successor, Archaon, who sought the legendary indestructible armour of the First Everchosen in his quest for the 6 Treasures of Chaos; even in death, Morkar was too great for the Lord of the End Times to defeat in open battle. It was only by shouting a curse in the long dead tongue of the Unberogen tribe, the people of Sigmar, that Archaon was able to immobilize the reanimated armour of the dead Champion and defeat it, casting the last part of his spirit back to the Realm of Chaos and take the legendary armour for his own. To this day, Morkar's Chaos plate protects the Lord of the End Times, granting him the same incredible invulnerability as it did its former wearer.

*'''[[Cormac Bloodaxe]]''': One of the first great leaders of the Warriors of Chaos, and the first Champion of Chaos to be possessed by a greater daemon of Khorne. Cormac Bloodaxe, son of Varag Skulltaker, witnessed the rout of his people at the hand of the tyrant Sigmar. Though the Norsii fought fiercely and slew many despite their small numbers, Sigmar's forces were too numerous and his strange war-machines burned away the proud longships that carried the Norsemen in bringing ruination and desolation to the enemies of the Dark Gods of the North. The Norsii returned to their ancestral homeland of Norsca, and a molten core of hate and violence began to burn in Cormac's heart, which would lead him to becoming the greatest Chosen of Khorne and a force of such might and power that would reunite the tribes of Norsca into an unstoppable host that would crush the Empire of Sigmar. With the aid of the Norsii sorcerer, Kar Odacen, Cormac did bind the Norse tribes to his banner, reclaimed the ancient Chaos armour of his father, and bound a great daemon of Khorne to his axe. The eastern tribes of the Kurgan and Hung also prostrated themselves to the Norseman's banner and pledged their lives to his glory. Cormac's leadership saw the first decisive defeat the Imperials ever suffered, he had managed to match wits with Sigmar and defeated him utterly. At the behest of his sorcerer, Cormac was led to invade the City of the White Wolf. In spite of his better judgement which said to instead surround the city and isolate and pick off Sigmar's reinforcements from other southern tribes. Yet, Cormac was leader of the Norsii by the will of the Gods alone, and the Gods willed him to end the Empire with one fell stroke. Cormac's superior Norse warriors, drunk on the blessings of the Dark Gods, and strengthened with armies of daemons and beastmen assaulted Middenheim and victory was near. On the counsel of his shaman, Cormac offered himself up to become the sacrifice necessary to bring forth a Bloodthirster to break the final defenses of Middenheim. The Bloodthirster crossed blades with Sigmar and cast him down, readying for the killing stroke until Ulric himself intervened and cast the daemon into the Realm of Chaos. The Norsii later fled back to Norsca with this setback.

*'''[[Hrothgar Daemonaxe]]''': A great Chaos Lord dedicated to Khorne, first chieftain of the Vargs, and said to be as powerful as a mighty Bloodthirster in battle. It was Hrothgar who led the Vargs out from the East to settle the northern tundras of Norsca, destroying and enslaving weaker tribes of Norse and Kurgan on the way. Bearing a great daemonic battleaxe forged in the visage of a howling wolf, Hrothgar's favour from Arkhar the Wolf (the Varg name for Khorne) was clear. After his many victories were completed, he went to the Chaos Wastes and ascended to Daemonhood. To this day, Hrothgar Daemonaxe is venerated by all Vargs as a lesser deity of Chaos. And is believed to stand at the right hand of Khorne where he sternly judges the exploits of his people.

*'''[[Valmir Aesling]]''': King of the Aesling tribes, one time ally to Asavar Kul, self styled 'Emperor of Chaos' and bane of the Norse Dwarfs. Valmir Aesling was a ruthless and efficient leader of Men. Brooding and silent, save for the occasional and invariably fatal burst of temper. He was feared and renowned for punishing any insolence or slight with the most horrific tortures imaginable. When Asavar Kul was slain at the gates of Kislev (and there are rumours that Valmir himself might have done the deed, for a jagged blade was found impaled in Kul's skull), Valmir was fighting a secret, but no less bloody war against the Norse Dwarf holds. Valmir despised all the races of the Old World, except his own, and thus had long desired the destruction of the Dwarfs that hid in the southern mountains around his homeland of Norsca. Valmir swore an oath to Khorne: he would not rest until he had destroyed the Dwarfs by cutting out the heart of their nation, the hold of Kraka Drak. Valmir's Norse warriors faced the Dwarfs and soon both were locked in a vicious stalemate. But Valmir had planned the battle well, he had gained the allegiance of the Khornate Daemon Prince Aghask, who smashed aside the Dwarf's resistance in key areas, he had gained the aid of battalions of Chaos Knights from Troll Country who crushed the Dwarfen rearguard. Valmir himself charged across the field on his Chaos Chariot, pulled by six skinless bears, slaughtering all opposition to face the Norse Dwarf High King in battle. Valmir threw the severed heads of his champions before him and challenged him to single combat. Incensed at this barbarous affront to his people's honour, the Dwarf King accepted the Norse Lord's challenge. Both armies held their breath as their lords faced one another in a mighty duel. Though Valmir was more than thrice the Dwarf's height, he found himself evenly matched against the ancient, doughty king. Seeing that he could not defeat the Norse King, the Dwarf Lord shouted one word; ''"cannons!"''. Thus, did the Dwarfs fire the great canons of Kraka Drak, shattering the Norse Chaos Warriors and entombing both them and thousands of Dwarfs until the collapsed ruin of what was once the mightiest of the northern Dwarf cities. Both Valmir and the Dwarf King had fallen, slain not by each other's steel, but by snow and stone. Yet, the hold was indeed no more, and underneath the ruins, the hardened Norsemen continued on, methodically slaughtering the remaining Dwarfs. Valmir, albeit posthumously, had upheld his grim oath.

*'''[[Wulfrik the Wanderer]]''': Perhaps the greatest warrior to rise up from the Sarl tribes is Wulfrik the Wanderer, whose name is spoken in fearful whispers. Once a champion of Chaos Undivided amongst the Sarls who thwarted the armies of a great Aesling tribe and slew their king, a mighty Champion of Chaos known as Torgald, Wulfrik had made a drunken boast at the battle's end that he was greater than any warrior in this world or the next. After passing out from quaffing no less than 7 barrels of mead, Wulfrik found his dreams visited by an emissary of the Dark Gods he worshiped. The emissary told Wulfrik that the gods were displeased with his boastful tongue, but had seen fit to allow him to prove his arrogant words. When he awoke, Wulfrik found he had been marked by not one, but all of the four great gods of Chaos, and his tongue was re-shaped into a flitting, forked thing that allowed him to speak in any language. Wulfrik claimed his legendary longship, the Seafang, from the hoard of a Skaeling Chaos Sorceror who he slew in combat. From then on, Wulfrik would be known as the Inescapable One, travelling the hinterlands of the world to slay the fiercest creatures at the whims of the gods. Wulfrik is perhaps one of the greatest warriors in all the world, for he has slaughtered giants, dragons and merwyrms like cattle and even daemons have cowed before him and begged his mercy. He is the Executioner of the Chaos Gods, and is one of their most devout followers. To Khorne he offers up the skulls of those he has slain, to Slaanesh he gives their still-beating hearts, to Nurgle the contents of their slit guts, and Tzeentch he honours with their final breath.

*'''[[Valkia the Bloody]]''': The Sword-Maiden of the Blood God, the Bringer of Glory, the Chooser of the Slain and the Gorequeen of the Norse. Valkia is Khorne's servant who carries the spirits of worthy warriors so that they may fight on forever in the Blood God's Halls. The sagas of her people tell that she was once a mortal woman, a Norse queen of the ancient and long-dead Schwarzvolf tribe. She gained the favour of Khorne by slaying any who dared contest her claim in honourable battle and also by defeating the Champions of the lesser Chaos Gods. Foremost amongst these was Locephax, a daemon prince of Slaanesh who sought to enslave the warrior-queen. Valkia felt the berserker rage come upon her and she took up her great spear Slaupnir and struck down the daemon and affixed its severed head to her shield. Valkia then traveled to the uttermost North of the world and, with the fanaticism of the true believer, pledged herself utterly to the Axefather. Valkia almost succeeded in coming before her beloved god's throne, but was slain like countless others in the twisted hellscape of the realm of Chaos. Khorne was displeased, for he had great plans for the woman, and his bellowing fury was so thunderous that it shook the world and roused Valkia from death. Khorne was angry with her weak mortal form and remade her into a being more pleasing to him. A true vision of destructive power: great bloody wings tore out from her once shapely back, her legs were refashioned into those of a bloodletter and massive horns rose from her skull. Her only purpose now is to reap more skulls for her mighty lord and to choose the valorous Norsemen dedicated to Khorne who fall fight on at their god's side in the Realm of Chaos 'till his rage devours all that exists. When Valkia takes to the mortal skies, all the Norse tribes dedicated to Khorne march under her shadow, for they know that she will carry them to the realms beyond to be Khorne's chosen in the afterlife, a prize beyond all measure. Where she flies, whole lands are drenched in blood. Such is the power Khorne has granted her.

*'''[[Scyla Anfingrimm]]''': The Saga of the Gorebeast is a long and terrifying one amongst the savage Norse clans, the fame of the Talon of Khorne lives long in the songs sung by the Skalds of many a Norscan meadhall and in the terrified ramblings of those few Imperials who have born witness to the unstoppable fury of Scyla and survived. Tales told of a hulking beast the colour of blood who wears a massive bronze collar and is festooned with the blasphemous ritual marks of Khorne, and who lays low all who stand against him with its unquenchable thirst for death. Yet, it was not always so. For the greatest of Khorne's [[Chaos Spawn]] was once a man, '''once a man, ONCESSSSE A MAAAANNRGABLFARBLLEHC--'''--ahem--was once one of his greatest and most fearsome champions. Scyla Anfingrimm was the bane of the Old World from his homeland of frozen Norsca to the shores of distant Ind, his name synonymous with victory, slaughter and pillage. As a man, Scyla was marked by Khorne and elevated into the highest echelons of the god's favour; earning not only the respect of his tribesmen but all the raiders of the neighboring fjords. It was Scyla who single-handedly laid low the fearsome Jabberwock that plagued the River Voltag, and it was Scyla's daemonic greatsword that destroyed the tentacled beast that ruled the Bay of Blades. Every spring, he and his marauders would take to their longships and slaughter their way through the Empire, through Bretonnia and even as far south of Khemri. Returning from their raids drunk on blood and glory, the hulls of their ships filled to bursting with ancient treasures and slaves ready to be thrown upon sacrificial pyres dedicated to Khorne. The people of the Ironpelt would often chatter about how Scyla would soon ascend to daemonhood. They were right in a sense. After orchestrating the Massacre of Black Gulch, which caused the great chasm to run red with Skaven blood, Scyla was gifted with even greater physical strength and massive ape-like arms infused with the power of Chaos. Thanking the Axefather for his blessing, Scyla launched daring raids against the war-dhows of Dhuli armada, personally reducing their great flagship to splinters. This time, he was gifted a serpentine tail ending with a snapping maw. Scyla's merciless killing of the Chaos Dwarf delegation sent to trade with his tribe resulted in a great profusion of horn-like plates covering his mighty frame. After single-handedly annihilating the bestial Gorgers of the Undermountain, Khorne was so pleased with Scyla's might that he gifted the Champion with the mind of a ravenous beast. With that, Scyla's body spiraled out of control. His transformation into a Chaos Spawn was complete '''NO!!! GRISHIISOSKS'''. That day, Scyla fell from a feared and far-famed warlord. His warband fell to the leadership of his second-in-command and next most favoured of Khorne; Erlock One-Eye. Scyla was still afforded the same respect and honour from his companions, arguably moreso, for now he was a living sacrament to Khorne's power and might. Unlike other Chaos Spawn '''Not Again! GRAAAGH!''', Scyla remains the favoured of Khorne; a testament to his greatness in his former life. Scyla exists as he did before, only to fight and slaughter for the pleasure of his fearsome god. His destiny is only to mete out death against those foolish enough to face him.

*'''[[Sigvald|Sigvald the Magnificent]]''': Chaos Lord [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Joffrey]]. Though he appears no more than a boy of sixteen, Sigvald the Magnificent has blighted the Old World for three centuries. The inbred child of a great Norse Chaos Lord and his own sister, Sigvald was spoiled with all he ever wished, it was only after his cannibalistic tendencies were revealed that the tribe forced him out. Feigning dismay, Sigvald sneaked into the longhouse and murdered his own father while he slept, fleeing then to the Chaos Wastes. The personification of beauty on the outside, but as horrifying as the lowest Spawn on the inside, Sigvald rides as Geld-Prince of the Decadent Host; an army of amorous madwomen and men who seek to attend his every debased whim. Marked by the Prince of Excess and gifted with Sliverslash, a blade forged from a sliver of the Sword of Slaanesh, it is clear to all that Sigvald the Magnificent is the greatest Champion of Slaanesh to walk the world. Recently tried to kill all the high Elves on the grounds that they must die for having better hair than him. (Seriously, this guy is pretty much Joffrey from [[A Song of Ice and Fire]]; both were born from brother-sister incest, both are handsome blonde men, both are arrogant and morally repulsive [[That Guy|shits]]. The difference is Sigvald is still alive and even more [[Grimdark]])

*'''[[Vilitch the Curseling]]''': Once upon a time, two twins were born. One of them was Thomin, a well-liked, well-built man who was a great warrior and whom everyone expected to become a great leader. The other was Vilitch, a twisted, decrepit freak whom everyone beat up and could only scrape by as some sorcerer's apprentice. Needless to say, Vilitch hated this setup and prayed to [[Tzeentch]] for him to switch the twins' destinies. Then, one Geheimnisnacht, the big bird answered and merged the twins together. Vilitch was now fused to Thomin's body and as a result became far smarter and more magically adept while Thomin became reduced to a braindead brute. The twin-abomination then decided to use this newfound power to murder all the people who made fun of him and used his magic to mentally enslave the mightiest warriors of his tribe.

*'''[[Festus the Leechlord]]''': Doctor, plaguemaster, and one of [[Nurgle]]'s favorite guys. Originally a good Nordland doctor who knew everything about how to cure diseases. He was then driven to insanity when he found himself incapable of curing a certain plague that swept the lands and in desperation, made a pact with the plague god in order to learn the knowledge needed to cure it. Sure, he got that knowledge, but he also turned so insane that he stopped caring about curing things and began a life of testing out all sorts of diseases and being a generally sick sack of shit (as most Nurglites are wont to). So he became basically the Dr Mengele of the Old World.

*'''[[Dragon Ogres|Kholek Suneater]]''': A FUCKING HUGE 4 legged dragon Ogre. He is a massive Beast armed with a HUUUGE THUNDER HAMMER who can crush dragons. He was a living battering ram who also managed to crush bloodthirsters.

===The Kurgan Tribes===

The Kurgans are nomadic horsemen who reside in the Eastern Steppes, distantly related to the Ungol and Gospodar peoples of Kislev (this shows in them calling their tribal chieftains "zar"). They are divided into many different tribes, but thousands of years ago they were briefly united into a mighty empire lead by the Great Kurgan. This empire lasted only a short time before tearing itself apart in infighting, as the Great Kurgan offered his four sons to the Chaos Gods thus leaving no heirs behind.

The Kurgans are notorious slavers, and often force their slaves to fight each other in dueling pits. However, they grant increasing freedoms and status as they win fights, eventually allowing the slave to become a full-fledged member of the tribe. In fact, it is not unknown for former slaves to rise to the rank of Zar.

Despite having the largest territory and being said to be the most numerous members of Chaos' mortal forces, they are generally sidelined in favour of Norscans (chalk it up to Old World bias).

*'''Khazags''': They're known as the guys who had first tamed the War Mammoths. [[Games Workshop|Creatively named after Kazakh nation.]]
*'''Dolgans''': [[That Guy|That Guys]] of Kurgan. They hate every other Chaos-affiliated tribe as much as the southerners and prefer to kill everyone who isn't Dolgan on sight. Some of them, thankfully, managed to avoid the Gods' corruption and now live in [[Kislev]], though their population is declining.
*'''[[Space Wolves|Iron Wolves]]''': An interesting tribe, because it's only partially Kurgan. These furries also have a Norse ancestry, descending from the vikings whose asses were kicked by [[Sigmar]] so hard they had to run to the [[Eastern Steppes]]. They are resented by both ancestral tribes and generally think of themselves as independent people.
*'''[[Asavar Kul|Kul]]''': Yeah, those Kul. They're probably the strongest Kurgan tribe that constantly raids the shit out of the neighbours and have a well-developed slavery system. They're also interesting for their complicated religious views, as they do not swear themselves to one of [[Chaos Gods|four major Gods]], instead [[Chaos Undivided|praying to hundred gods and seeking the favor of all of them.]] [[Black Legion|So, pretty much these guys.]] [[Asavar Kul]], Zar of the Kul, was the twelfth Everchosen of Chaos who fought during the [[Great War Against Chaos]] leading the Chaos forces. After Asavar died, his successor was usurped and murdered by [[Vardek Crom]], who is the current Zar.
*'''Tahmaks''', '''Tokmars''', '''Yusak''' etc.: really minor tribes that are barely mentioned in the lore.

===The Kurgan Characters===

*'''The Great Kurgan''': [[Jaghatai Khan|Genghis Khan]] of Kurgans who is only mentioned in [[Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos]] supplements. He did the unthinkable and managed to unite all of the tribes, creating a truly gigantic empire that managed to beat Hung, [[Hobgoblin|Hobgoblins]] and [[Cathay]]. [[Awesome|Impressive.]] He was also the first Kurgan chieftain to make a deal with [[Chaos]] to get their power on his side, though eventually they fucked him over.
*'''[[Asavar Kul]]''': [[Gets shit done|gets shit done]]. Managed to cripple [[Kislev]] for centuries way before both [[Archaon]] and [[Abaddon|Failbaddon]] even managed to do something meaningful.
*'''[[Tamurkhan]]''': a [[Nurgle|Nurglite]] warrior riding a toad, who is a protagonist of the narrative-driven campaign of the same name.
*'''Surtha Lenk''': minor [[Tzeench|Tzeenchite]] warlord and the commander of [[Archaon|Archaon's]] vanguard. Took part in destruction of [[Kislev]] and [[Ostland]] during the [[End Times]].
*'''[[Vardek Crom]]''': current Kul chieftain (Zar) and the Herald of Everchosen.

=== The Hung ===
{{topquote|Them Kurgan is bad. But the Hung, they jus’ nasty.|Gorg, famous [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogre]] Philosopher}}

{{topquote|We make deal, yes?<br>You give us gold and women, we no attack.<br>You not give enough gold or women, so we attack.<br>We attack anyway.<br>We make deal, yes?|Average Hung diplomat, showing that even [[The Beast|some orks]] from the [[Warhammer 40,000|different setting]] are better in negotiations than them}}
The least described [[Chaos]] race, mainly for three reasons: they operate in [[Naggaroth]] and [[Eastern Lands]], and the incursions in those regions are described only in the short sentences of some backstory fluff; they're similar to their Kurgan brothers in almost everything; and finally, they're a [[Hobgoblin|pretty negative Mongolian stereotype]], although the fact they're also located in northwestern Naggaroth also could paint then as Chaos Inuits as well, and [[Games Workshop|GW]] certainly doesn't want another [[Pygmies (Warhammer Fantasy)|Pygmies]].

Overall, from what we can gather Hungs are savages and barbarians to the extreme: while previous Chaos races at least have some sort of society and culture, these people only exist to [[RIP AND TEAR|kill, slaughter, rape and fight]]. All they need is a woolen tent, a [[Choppa|choppa]] and a steed. Seriously, their love for <s>horses</s> ponies can only be rivaled by [[Bretonnia|Bretonnians]] (so... Chaos Bretonnians?). Another faction which they resemble are [[Skaven]]: Hungs are insanely backstabby and have no honor at all, to the point that "A Word of Hung" in [[Cathay]] means a "Worthless Promise". Hell, they even abuse the dogs that they use for hunting. [[That Guy|Bastards]]. Oh, and they're cannibals. And their religion mandates they never bathe or wash themselves.

With that being said, what do we have in the end? The Hung are insanely evil barbarians that have no respect for anyone or anything and are hated by every other faction (including fellow Chaos Warriors). They have no redeeming qualities and rival Skaven for being the most evil race in the entire game. So, it's probably good that GW downplayed them severely.

Despite their name, they don't seem to favour Slaanesh more than any other Chaos God.

===The Tong===
Besides Norscans, Kurgans, and Hung, there are also the Tong. The Tong are the Chaos Warrior people who lives closest to the entrance to the Realm of Chaos, and as such are the most mentally fucked up and physically mutated of the lot. Complete and utter psycho berserkers, they are featured in Total War Warhammer as being lead by a Chaos Champion named "Ragnar".

===Skaramor===
A migratory tribe of Khorne worshippers who view non-Chaos Worshippers as unworthy of having their skulls given to Khorne, and as such limit their raids to killing members of other Chaos Warrior Tribes like Norscans, Hung, and Kurgan. The Skaramor are worth noting as they were the tribe that Scylla Anfingrimm originated from in his mortal life.

===Veigs===
Another tribe of Khorne worshippers, who are cannibals and murderers, and loathed by the Kurgan, who they share a bitter enmity with.

== Gallery ==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Northlanders.jpg|WE FIGHT THE HORDE, SINGING AND CRYING; '''VALHALLA'''! I AM COMING!!
File:Chaos marauder by artofty-d3f5hof.jpg|KHORNE!! OPEN THE GATES OF YOUR HALL!!
File:Chaos Longships.jpg|Their main method of transportation.
File:Khorne-Art.jpg|Kjarl Deathaxe and the Blood Drinkers.
File:Wulfrik_Gif.jpg.gif|Wulfrik the Wanderer on a morning stroll.
</gallery>
</center>

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos]] - A guide on how to lead these awesome barbarians to glory and bloodshed and the notice of the [[Chaos|Gods]].
*[[Viking|Vikings]] - What they are based off. Just in case you forgot.
*[[Chaos Space Marines]] - Their 40K counterparts.
*[[Chaos]] - What did they worship again?

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

{{Chaos-Champions}}