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Ghur

2022-07-13T23:00:17Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* The Gnarlwood */

{{AoS-Stub}}
{{NeedsImages}}
G’day mates. Welcome to the Australia of the Mortal Realms. Ghur is the Realm of Beasts and one of the most dead ‘ard places you’ll ever find.

Fun note; the name Ghur likely originates from the onomatopoeia for growling, which is "grrrr!"

==Overview==
On the surface, it appears to be absolutely pristine. Clear blue skies. Wide open savannas. Clean water. And herds upon herds of creatures and other magnificent fauna. But that’s only the physical attributes. In actuality, Ghur is what you get if you throw [[Fenris]], [[Flesh Tearers|Cretacia]], [[Nocturne]], and [[Catachan]] together in a foul bowl, add a small dosage of [[Chaos]], mix it together, then eat the whole fucking thing and shit it out.

It is a ''brutal, brutal'' realm, resulting in the creation of equally brutal inhabitants, from Humans and Orruks to creatures almost analogous to [[Tyranids]], even the land may want to get on the action. Mountains will shake to create avalanches in order to destroy a forest that took root there. Rivers slowly chip away at the land around it for more room to flow. Tectonic plates will grind against each other to produce rough and uneven terrain to prevent roaming warbands from traveling across them. Everything here is part of a giant food chain, and everything is simultaneously predator and prey.

The (crazy) people who live in Ghur are master survivalists, typically living in nomadic societies or building small easily movable structures. The few traditional cities tend to build massive spike-traps as moats around their city in order to skewer any giant monster that tries to renact a Godzilla film. If these traps work, the city typically gets enough meat to feed itself for a month. Seers and other mystics have learned how to read the realm’s constantly shifting landscape and create charts that map out when the land will change and how much it changes. Expectedly, said charts are quite expensive and typically only city officials, military commanders, and high level merchants can afford them.

Might makes right is the defining law of the Realm and you’d be a fool not to follow it. Expectedly, the forces of Destruction are the most prevalent here, being the birthplace of the Ironjawz Orruks, the home base for the largest [[Ogor Mawtribes]], and possessing the largest gatherings of [[Sons of Behemat|Gargants]] in any realm. Another noteworthy faction are the [[Beasts Of Chaos|Beastmen]] of the Allherd Greatfray, whose herds are spread to every corner of Ghur and beyond. On each continent of Ghur can be found herdstones or other ruinous glyphs depicting the conquests of the Beastmen, reminding everyone just how far their influence is.

Gorkamorka is in charge of this realm, but in this case it's less because of a harmonious bond - though Gorkamorka's primal nature resonates with Ghur - but due to the fact that Gorkamorka is the strongest being native to the realm.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of Stormcasts in the tribal and barbaric Astral Templars trace their former mortal lives to this Realm.

==History==
While the other Realms had near existential crises over the Age of Chaos, Ghur basically looked at the incoming Chaos hordes and said “Fuck yeah! Christmas came early!” The natives of Ghur were ecstatic to have fresh bodies to fight against and new food to hunt. Over time and numerous Chaos Vanguards, the people become stronger and hardier. This is best exemplified with the Orruks, who would become so strong and big that they would eventually become the very first [[Ironjawz]].

==Notable Locations/Regions==
===[[Warhammer Underworlds|Beastgrave]]===
A colossal and ominous living mountain made from the corpses of (presumably) dead god beasts. Those who gaze upon its looming visage are filled with mixed feelings of curiosity and repulsion. It’s described as a Lovecraftian nightmare; an eldritch place with a will of its own that calls to many people far and wide through dreams/visions, beckoning them to come to Beastgrave to claim fame, fortune, or whatever it is that person wants most. Those hapless few that do heed the call will find themselves wandering endlessly in its cavernous interior, either killed by other adventurers or by Beastgrave itself and consumed. It’s kind of like FB’s [[Ogre Kingdoms|Great Maw]] in a sense, the comparisons becoming more apparent when you meet the primitive tribe of Neanderthals that live at the base of Beastgrave and regularly offer live sacrifices to the mountain. Most recently, the mountain has become even more treacherous when Nagash’s Necroquake shook the Realms and caused the cursed city of Shadespire to meld with Beastgrave. Now the immortal denizens of the Shyish city stalk the mountain, rousing long dead corpses within Beastgrave and drawing more potential prey into its insatiable insides. However, the sheer amount of death magic suddenly appearing in its cavernous guts caused Beastgrave to basically vomit up pools of viscous Amber, revealing its deepest and most treacherous passages collectively called Direchasm.

===[[Ogor Mawtribes|The Great Gutfort]]===
The mountainous fortress of the Meatfist Mawtribe located on the continent of Thondia in the Ghurish Heartlands. While it’s of course a place of great reverence for the Ogors, most natives of Ghur will turn to face the gluttonous bastion in respect.
Warglutts and Alfrostuns regularly leave its gates on raids and then return with heaps of treasure and food. All the loot is gathered together by the Overtyrant Globb Glittermaw and then used to throw celebratory feasts to flaunt their wealth. The Gutfort itself has been targeted on numerous occasions by [[Slaves to Darkness|Chaos hordes]], [[Stormcast Eternals|Stormcast chambers]], [[Ossiarch Bonereapers|Ossirarch legions]], and even rival Mawtribes. Its defense is handled by the lesser tribes/gatherings of Ogors in the Meatfist; only the most prestigious are allowed on the mawpath alongside Globb, who is seldom actually seen at his own Gutfort since he’s constantly out raiding.

===[[Cities of Sigmar|Excelsis]]===
Home base of the Knights Excelsior and one of the most zealous places of worship to the Hammer God. Located on the continent of Thondia, it is a very “black and white” morality place where no quarter is given for even the tiniest hint of infidelity, and all loyalists must constantly prove their zealotry to the point where flagellants look rational in comparison. Funnily enough, the city has been targeted by several chaos forces, from Slaanesh manipulating the Stormcast garrison to “purge the city of all heretics” to break one of the chains imprisoning him, to numerous Tzeentch cabals plotting the city’s downfall. Most recently, the city was attacked from below by a Skaven invasion, before being besieged by the Great Waaagh! of Gordrakk and the newly awakened [[Kragnos]]. And while THAT was going down, a Slaaneshi cult rose up too and attacked the city from within. It was only thanks to the surprise arrival of Lord Kroak and Morathi-Khaine that the sea of enemies was parted, though Excelsis has since been decimated.

===Sascathran Desert===
A vast plain of shifting sand dotted with ruins of long past civilizations. The real point of interest though is what lies beneath, the hive-like catacombs and fortresses the Avengori Dynasty call home. From this underground kingdom, the Vengorian Lords strike out to hunt monsters and slake their thirst. Not too far out from the desert is the shattered remains of a free city called the Collonade, serving as a warning to anyone who tries to betray the Avengorii.

===The Gnarlwood===
Jungle of carnivorous plants in Ghur's heartland in Thondia, created from a crashed Seraphon temple ship. Currently being fought over by the Horns of Hashut and Rotmire Creed.

==Bestiary==
*'''Vulture-stings''': Named by Herdchief Groth the Rootcutter, these dog-sized bees will inject venom into live prey and then follow them until the prey expires. Then the droning insects feast upon the corpse. Additionally, like real insects, they are fond of sweet nectar like substances, like the blood-sap of [[Sylvaneth]]. They have some instinctive ‘honor system’, as when a vulture-sting chooses/stings a target, no other scavenger will attempt to steal its prize.
*'''Snarlfangs''': Large wolves with venomous saliva they use to enfeeble prey. The Gitmob Grots will steal newborn snarlfangs and use them as savage mounts. Each wolf and rider are bound together when the snarlfang pup first meets its Grot rider. However this won’t stop the snarlfangs from turning on the grots should they be provoked enough.
*'''Puffed Spinetoad''': A venomous amphibian that secretes toxic slime from the row of spikes on its back. Said slime is commonly harvested for coating blades and arrow tips.

==Trivia==
* The realmstone of Ghur is called Amberbone due to its cosmetic similarity to actual bones except for its faint glow. Being a manifestation of the realm's magic, Amberbone is capable of corrupting those who touch it. At the weakest, this might just channel some innate primal aggression, but its most extreme cases involve people transforming into savage monsters.

==Gallery==
<Gallery>
Ghurish Hinterlands.jpeg
Ghur map 2.jpeg
Ghur 01.png
</Gallery>
{{AoS-Realms}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Shyish

2022-07-13T15:53:53Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Chitinia */

{{AoS-Stub}}

{{Topquote|In the land of the dead! Heck boy ain’t it grand? I’m the overlord of the underworld, cause I hold horror’s hand. In the land of the dead! I’m dark side royalty! I’m far renowned in the underground, and you can’t take that from me!|Aurelio Voltaire}}

Shyish was originally the wind of magic related to all things to do with death. In the [[Age of Sigmar]] it has become the realm of [[Nagash]]. Shyish serves as the afterlife for the mortal realms: underworlds containing the souls of the dead are formed based on the beliefs of various cultures and they are presided over by various gods with various origins. Although stereotypically seen as a spooky graveyard wasteland, Shyish is also home to pleasant heavens and terrible hells.

== Warhammer Fantasy Battle==

In the Old World, Shyish was the Amethyst Wind of death and endings. As such, the magisters of Shyish have the ability to drain away life and commune with spirits. Amethyst wizards are often shunned for the resemblance of their powers to Necromancy. However, the two are completely different: where Shyish is about embracing endings, Necromancy is about defying them. Amethyst magic also completely lacks the mental and physical degredation that Necromancy brings on its participants. The Libre Necris describes Necromancy as essentially using the Winds of Shyish as "tongs" to grasp Dhar or Dark Magic and channel it through the remains of the dead.

== The Realm of Shyish ==

Shyish is a realm of entropy. The individual underworlds are created by the beliefs of a civilization, and whenever a religions or belief system is made a new afterlife emerges and if they fade away (whether this takes centuries, millennia or even longer) so does the afterlife centered around them. The souls are gradually reabsorbed into Shyish proper and can either be reborn or get taken by other beings.

The core of Shyish is apparently a huge, magical black hole and anything that would get sucked into it dies forever and never comes back, including Nagash himself. Shyish forms around it like a pearl forms around a grain of sand in an oyster, and while the black hole eats away at Shyish, Shyish regenerates keeping the black hole contained.

=== Age of Myth ===

Originally Nagash was buried in a crypt in a place out of time. Sigmar found him and freed him, trusting the sociopathic skeleton for some unknown reason. Nagash took one look at Shyish, with all its afterlives and gods and immediately decided to take over. He used his magic to control some of the dead, and with their help he nommed all the gods and annexed the afterlives he could find. At some point he rebuild Nagashizzar in the center of Shyish and brought back Arkhan, Neferata, Mannfred and Ushoran. Nagash also encountered Katakros in one of the afterlives and made Katakros his general, but didn't give him the position of Mortarch.

During this time Nagash also reconstructed the Morghasts and came up with a pet project of super skeleton warriors (that would go on to become the [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]], these ones in particular would become the magic-resistant Null Myriad Legion). However, his allies weren't too keen on them, so he kept them out of sight on the edge of Shyish. However Nagash put some other proto-Bonereapers in crypts under the cities of the Forces of Order, and they went undiscovered because... plot.

=== Age of Chaos ===

Nagash fled back to Shyish after backstabbing Sigmar's forces. However Sigmar, mad about the betrayal, kicked down Nagash's door and hunted him across Shyish. They fought twice with Nagash fleeing both times before Sigmar could beat him. At one point, Nagash ordered Katakros to marshall and army and take down Sigmar, but Sigmar defeated them all and locked Katakros in a Stormvault. Eventually Sigmar left Shyish when he saw that the forces of Chaos had used this opportunity to gain a lot of ground.

Rather than make the most of Sigmar's departure, Nagash found himself and his forces taking on the forces of Chaos alone. It was a hard fight in the realm of Shyish, but Nagash and the undead were slowly ground down. It took Archaon himself to strike down Nagash. The Vampire Lord Prince Vhordrai tried to dispose of Nagash's remains to ensure the Chaos Gods consumed him, but he was thwarted by Arkhan the Black. Arkhan and Neferata later took Nagash's remains to the underworld of Stygyx where he would reform.

=== Age of Sigmar===

Sigmar sent his forces to parley with Nagash, with predictable results both times. First Nagash threw Sigmar's offer back in his face and attacked the Stormcast, killing them all and keeping the soul of the Lord-Celestant for interrogation. The second time Nagash put them through a series of gruelling tests (as part of some experiment, unbeknownst to the Stormcast), then double-crossed them and left them to die in battle against Chaos.

Nagash made a master plan where his forces gathered Shyishian realmstone (''gathering magical rocks, this sounds familiar'') and using it to build a giant black pyramid that could fly (''Déjà vu''). He planned to absorb all the energy in Shyish and become super powerful (''if at first you don't succeed...'') to the point that he would raise the dead everywhere and use them as an undead army to conquer everyone else (''heard that one before''). However he overlooked the Skaven (''not the first time he did that'') and they messed up his plans (''yet again''). This did have a different outcome, creating a void in the center of Shyish and raising armies of ghosts across the realms, creating the Nighthaunt faction who have a major hatred for Sigmar and friends.

This void also slowly sucks in all the afterlives, so now everyone who dies is sucked into the void where their souls exist in a state of insanity before being destroyed. Nagash can enter it and draw power from it, but he's the only one who can do so and even for him it means destruction if he stays there too long.

==Notable Locations in Shyish==

===The Nadir===

A vortex of death magic at the center of Shyish, which is slowly dragging in and consuming all other underworlds. Although Nagashizzar, the capital of Shyish, is located here, the energies there are so dangerous that not even Nagash himself can stay indefinitely. Due to the presence of the Skaven contaminating the Black Pyramid with the essence of Chaos, the Nadir has become a place of insanity as well as death.

===The Prime Innerlands===

The area north of the Nadir, and the area of Shyish we know the most about. Notable areas include Stygxx, said to be the Underworld for dead gods where Nagash recovered from his battle with Archaon and Katakros was imprisoned in a Stormvault, and Neferatia and Carstinia, the kingdoms of two of the Mortarchs (guess which ones).

===The Ossiarch Empire===

Located to the east of the Prime Innerlands, the Ossiarch Empire is the empire of Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis, and the homeland of the Ossiarch Bonereapers. It’s a collection of various islands and underworlds all connected by massive spinal column bridges and numerous Bonereaper fortresses.

===The Evercrawl===

A dank and gloomy place said to be the lair of the [[Spider-god]]. As you'd expect, its absolutely covered in spiders and spiderwebs, most famously the soul-eating Skitterstrand Arachnoroks who use the webs of the Evercrawl to travel between the Realms and attack anywhere they see fit.

===The Droogrind===

The Underworld of the various Troggoth races. What sort of afterlife would form based on the religious beliefs of a race of beings about as intelligent as a retarded gorilla? Apparently a "dank and moist" one. Ew.

===Chitinia===

An afterlife that was the home to the spirits of a culture that revered insects, Chitinia's original spirit inhabitants have been chased out by the Swampcalla Shamans of the Skulbugz Kruleboyz. Despite stealing their afterlife from them, the Orruks have, in a somewhat wholesome way, continued their predecessors' love of the many insects and bugs that call this afterlife home. It's home to dark heaths and mangrove forests, where giant insects like Megapedes, which may be a larger version of the Gloomspite Gitz Segmapedes, trundle through the place, perhaps similar to a Catachan Devil. There's also "Morkskeeters" which sounds like a colossal mosquito. Also present are rhino-sized Rhinox Beetles, which some Skulbugz attempt to tame as warmounts.

==Forces of Shyish==

=== [[Soulblight Gravelords]] ===
Nagash's endless hordes of vampires, necromancers, skelebois and zombinonos. Though they are the most intelligent of the lot, they are also considered the most independent as the vampires prefer to focus more on their own personal empires rather than bending to Nagash's rule. While capable of imitating and initiating intrigue, they remain just as capable of turning into hideous monsters and summoning all sorts of undead.

=== [[Flesh-Eater Courts]] ===
Nagash's red headed stepchildren. While their most basic warriors are still considered "alive", they are so drenched in death magic that they are considered under his rule. A bunch of half-naked cannibals and vampires who think they are actually [[Bretonnia|noble men and women of honor]] thanks to an infectious shared delusion.

=== [[Nighthaunt]] ===
A bunch of spooky ghosts. Collectively, they did bad things in life, offended Nagash in one way or another, or simply died in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they all serve as the phantasmal thralls for the God of the Dead. Most of them have a massive hateboner for the living, especially living who worship Sigmar, and Ol' Naggy uses this eternal bitterness to sick them onto his foes. They have a big shroud/scythe/ironic punishment fetish to emphasize their relation to the realm/concept of Death and servile nature to Nagash, and lots are big on chains and weights and locks and keys that even Jacob Marley would call excessive.

=== [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]] ===
A bunch of scary skellingtons. Unlike ordinary skeletons, these are made from the reforged bones of multiple skeletons and with multiple souls in each warrior, these guys are Nagash's answer to the Stormcast Eternals. They have their own empire inside Shyish.

==Trivia==
* The realmstone native to Shyish is called Grave-sand, named in order to invoke the imagery of an hourglass to one's death. In its unrefined form, this sand-like stone has power over death, with mere grains being able to siphon away life from whoever touches it. This realmstone was meant to be the focus through which the Necroquake was meant to be channeled and were it successful the accumulated power from so much Grave-sand would have literally wiped out all life throughout the realms.
** While it's not entirely sure if Grave-sand is a component to the Nadirite weapons used by the Ossiarchs, it is certainly used in the creation of phylacteries housing their souls. Outside of Nagash's forces, normal folk have also seen use in incorporating this realmstone in making death-warding charms.

{{AoS-Realms}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]][[Category:40k and Fantasy Gods]]

Shyish

2022-07-13T15:52:03Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Chitinia */

{{AoS-Stub}}

{{Topquote|In the land of the dead! Heck boy ain’t it grand? I’m the overlord of the underworld, cause I hold horror’s hand. In the land of the dead! I’m dark side royalty! I’m far renowned in the underground, and you can’t take that from me!|Aurelio Voltaire}}

Shyish was originally the wind of magic related to all things to do with death. In the [[Age of Sigmar]] it has become the realm of [[Nagash]]. Shyish serves as the afterlife for the mortal realms: underworlds containing the souls of the dead are formed based on the beliefs of various cultures and they are presided over by various gods with various origins. Although stereotypically seen as a spooky graveyard wasteland, Shyish is also home to pleasant heavens and terrible hells.

== Warhammer Fantasy Battle==

In the Old World, Shyish was the Amethyst Wind of death and endings. As such, the magisters of Shyish have the ability to drain away life and commune with spirits. Amethyst wizards are often shunned for the resemblance of their powers to Necromancy. However, the two are completely different: where Shyish is about embracing endings, Necromancy is about defying them. Amethyst magic also completely lacks the mental and physical degredation that Necromancy brings on its participants. The Libre Necris describes Necromancy as essentially using the Winds of Shyish as "tongs" to grasp Dhar or Dark Magic and channel it through the remains of the dead.

== The Realm of Shyish ==

Shyish is a realm of entropy. The individual underworlds are created by the beliefs of a civilization, and whenever a religions or belief system is made a new afterlife emerges and if they fade away (whether this takes centuries, millennia or even longer) so does the afterlife centered around them. The souls are gradually reabsorbed into Shyish proper and can either be reborn or get taken by other beings.

The core of Shyish is apparently a huge, magical black hole and anything that would get sucked into it dies forever and never comes back, including Nagash himself. Shyish forms around it like a pearl forms around a grain of sand in an oyster, and while the black hole eats away at Shyish, Shyish regenerates keeping the black hole contained.

=== Age of Myth ===

Originally Nagash was buried in a crypt in a place out of time. Sigmar found him and freed him, trusting the sociopathic skeleton for some unknown reason. Nagash took one look at Shyish, with all its afterlives and gods and immediately decided to take over. He used his magic to control some of the dead, and with their help he nommed all the gods and annexed the afterlives he could find. At some point he rebuild Nagashizzar in the center of Shyish and brought back Arkhan, Neferata, Mannfred and Ushoran. Nagash also encountered Katakros in one of the afterlives and made Katakros his general, but didn't give him the position of Mortarch.

During this time Nagash also reconstructed the Morghasts and came up with a pet project of super skeleton warriors (that would go on to become the [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]], these ones in particular would become the magic-resistant Null Myriad Legion). However, his allies weren't too keen on them, so he kept them out of sight on the edge of Shyish. However Nagash put some other proto-Bonereapers in crypts under the cities of the Forces of Order, and they went undiscovered because... plot.

=== Age of Chaos ===

Nagash fled back to Shyish after backstabbing Sigmar's forces. However Sigmar, mad about the betrayal, kicked down Nagash's door and hunted him across Shyish. They fought twice with Nagash fleeing both times before Sigmar could beat him. At one point, Nagash ordered Katakros to marshall and army and take down Sigmar, but Sigmar defeated them all and locked Katakros in a Stormvault. Eventually Sigmar left Shyish when he saw that the forces of Chaos had used this opportunity to gain a lot of ground.

Rather than make the most of Sigmar's departure, Nagash found himself and his forces taking on the forces of Chaos alone. It was a hard fight in the realm of Shyish, but Nagash and the undead were slowly ground down. It took Archaon himself to strike down Nagash. The Vampire Lord Prince Vhordrai tried to dispose of Nagash's remains to ensure the Chaos Gods consumed him, but he was thwarted by Arkhan the Black. Arkhan and Neferata later took Nagash's remains to the underworld of Stygyx where he would reform.

=== Age of Sigmar===

Sigmar sent his forces to parley with Nagash, with predictable results both times. First Nagash threw Sigmar's offer back in his face and attacked the Stormcast, killing them all and keeping the soul of the Lord-Celestant for interrogation. The second time Nagash put them through a series of gruelling tests (as part of some experiment, unbeknownst to the Stormcast), then double-crossed them and left them to die in battle against Chaos.

Nagash made a master plan where his forces gathered Shyishian realmstone (''gathering magical rocks, this sounds familiar'') and using it to build a giant black pyramid that could fly (''Déjà vu''). He planned to absorb all the energy in Shyish and become super powerful (''if at first you don't succeed...'') to the point that he would raise the dead everywhere and use them as an undead army to conquer everyone else (''heard that one before''). However he overlooked the Skaven (''not the first time he did that'') and they messed up his plans (''yet again''). This did have a different outcome, creating a void in the center of Shyish and raising armies of ghosts across the realms, creating the Nighthaunt faction who have a major hatred for Sigmar and friends.

This void also slowly sucks in all the afterlives, so now everyone who dies is sucked into the void where their souls exist in a state of insanity before being destroyed. Nagash can enter it and draw power from it, but he's the only one who can do so and even for him it means destruction if he stays there too long.

==Notable Locations in Shyish==

===The Nadir===

A vortex of death magic at the center of Shyish, which is slowly dragging in and consuming all other underworlds. Although Nagashizzar, the capital of Shyish, is located here, the energies there are so dangerous that not even Nagash himself can stay indefinitely. Due to the presence of the Skaven contaminating the Black Pyramid with the essence of Chaos, the Nadir has become a place of insanity as well as death.

===The Prime Innerlands===

The area north of the Nadir, and the area of Shyish we know the most about. Notable areas include Stygxx, said to be the Underworld for dead gods where Nagash recovered from his battle with Archaon and Katakros was imprisoned in a Stormvault, and Neferatia and Carstinia, the kingdoms of two of the Mortarchs (guess which ones).

===The Ossiarch Empire===

Located to the east of the Prime Innerlands, the Ossiarch Empire is the empire of Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis, and the homeland of the Ossiarch Bonereapers. It’s a collection of various islands and underworlds all connected by massive spinal column bridges and numerous Bonereaper fortresses.

===The Evercrawl===

A dank and gloomy place said to be the lair of the [[Spider-god]]. As you'd expect, its absolutely covered in spiders and spiderwebs, most famously the soul-eating Skitterstrand Arachnoroks who use the webs of the Evercrawl to travel between the Realms and attack anywhere they see fit.

===The Droogrind===

The Underworld of the various Troggoth races. What sort of afterlife would form based on the religious beliefs of a race of beings about as intelligent as a retarded gorilla? Apparently a "dank and moist" one. Ew.

===Chitinia===

An afterlife that was the home to the spirits of a culture that revered insects, Chitinia's original spirit inhabitants have been chased out by the Swampcalla Shamans of the Skulbugz Kruleboyz. Despite stealing their afterlife from them, the Orruks have, in a somewhat wholesome way, continued their predecessors' love of the many insects and bugs that call this afterlife home. It's home to dark heaths and mangrove forests, where giant insects like Megapedes, which may be a larger version of the Gloomspite Gitz Segmapedes, trundle through the place, perhaps similar to a Catachan Devil. There's also "Morkskeeters" which sounds like a colossal mosquito.

==Forces of Shyish==

=== [[Soulblight Gravelords]] ===
Nagash's endless hordes of vampires, necromancers, skelebois and zombinonos. Though they are the most intelligent of the lot, they are also considered the most independent as the vampires prefer to focus more on their own personal empires rather than bending to Nagash's rule. While capable of imitating and initiating intrigue, they remain just as capable of turning into hideous monsters and summoning all sorts of undead.

=== [[Flesh-Eater Courts]] ===
Nagash's red headed stepchildren. While their most basic warriors are still considered "alive", they are so drenched in death magic that they are considered under his rule. A bunch of half-naked cannibals and vampires who think they are actually [[Bretonnia|noble men and women of honor]] thanks to an infectious shared delusion.

=== [[Nighthaunt]] ===
A bunch of spooky ghosts. Collectively, they did bad things in life, offended Nagash in one way or another, or simply died in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they all serve as the phantasmal thralls for the God of the Dead. Most of them have a massive hateboner for the living, especially living who worship Sigmar, and Ol' Naggy uses this eternal bitterness to sick them onto his foes. They have a big shroud/scythe/ironic punishment fetish to emphasize their relation to the realm/concept of Death and servile nature to Nagash, and lots are big on chains and weights and locks and keys that even Jacob Marley would call excessive.

=== [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]] ===
A bunch of scary skellingtons. Unlike ordinary skeletons, these are made from the reforged bones of multiple skeletons and with multiple souls in each warrior, these guys are Nagash's answer to the Stormcast Eternals. They have their own empire inside Shyish.

==Trivia==
* The realmstone native to Shyish is called Grave-sand, named in order to invoke the imagery of an hourglass to one's death. In its unrefined form, this sand-like stone has power over death, with mere grains being able to siphon away life from whoever touches it. This realmstone was meant to be the focus through which the Necroquake was meant to be channeled and were it successful the accumulated power from so much Grave-sand would have literally wiped out all life throughout the realms.
** While it's not entirely sure if Grave-sand is a component to the Nadirite weapons used by the Ossiarchs, it is certainly used in the creation of phylacteries housing their souls. Outside of Nagash's forces, normal folk have also seen use in incorporating this realmstone in making death-warding charms.

{{AoS-Realms}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]][[Category:40k and Fantasy Gods]]

Shyish

2022-07-13T15:47:51Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Notable Locations in Shyish */

{{AoS-Stub}}

{{Topquote|In the land of the dead! Heck boy ain’t it grand? I’m the overlord of the underworld, cause I hold horror’s hand. In the land of the dead! I’m dark side royalty! I’m far renowned in the underground, and you can’t take that from me!|Aurelio Voltaire}}

Shyish was originally the wind of magic related to all things to do with death. In the [[Age of Sigmar]] it has become the realm of [[Nagash]]. Shyish serves as the afterlife for the mortal realms: underworlds containing the souls of the dead are formed based on the beliefs of various cultures and they are presided over by various gods with various origins. Although stereotypically seen as a spooky graveyard wasteland, Shyish is also home to pleasant heavens and terrible hells.

== Warhammer Fantasy Battle==

In the Old World, Shyish was the Amethyst Wind of death and endings. As such, the magisters of Shyish have the ability to drain away life and commune with spirits. Amethyst wizards are often shunned for the resemblance of their powers to Necromancy. However, the two are completely different: where Shyish is about embracing endings, Necromancy is about defying them. Amethyst magic also completely lacks the mental and physical degredation that Necromancy brings on its participants. The Libre Necris describes Necromancy as essentially using the Winds of Shyish as "tongs" to grasp Dhar or Dark Magic and channel it through the remains of the dead.

== The Realm of Shyish ==

Shyish is a realm of entropy. The individual underworlds are created by the beliefs of a civilization, and whenever a religions or belief system is made a new afterlife emerges and if they fade away (whether this takes centuries, millennia or even longer) so does the afterlife centered around them. The souls are gradually reabsorbed into Shyish proper and can either be reborn or get taken by other beings.

The core of Shyish is apparently a huge, magical black hole and anything that would get sucked into it dies forever and never comes back, including Nagash himself. Shyish forms around it like a pearl forms around a grain of sand in an oyster, and while the black hole eats away at Shyish, Shyish regenerates keeping the black hole contained.

=== Age of Myth ===

Originally Nagash was buried in a crypt in a place out of time. Sigmar found him and freed him, trusting the sociopathic skeleton for some unknown reason. Nagash took one look at Shyish, with all its afterlives and gods and immediately decided to take over. He used his magic to control some of the dead, and with their help he nommed all the gods and annexed the afterlives he could find. At some point he rebuild Nagashizzar in the center of Shyish and brought back Arkhan, Neferata, Mannfred and Ushoran. Nagash also encountered Katakros in one of the afterlives and made Katakros his general, but didn't give him the position of Mortarch.

During this time Nagash also reconstructed the Morghasts and came up with a pet project of super skeleton warriors (that would go on to become the [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]], these ones in particular would become the magic-resistant Null Myriad Legion). However, his allies weren't too keen on them, so he kept them out of sight on the edge of Shyish. However Nagash put some other proto-Bonereapers in crypts under the cities of the Forces of Order, and they went undiscovered because... plot.

=== Age of Chaos ===

Nagash fled back to Shyish after backstabbing Sigmar's forces. However Sigmar, mad about the betrayal, kicked down Nagash's door and hunted him across Shyish. They fought twice with Nagash fleeing both times before Sigmar could beat him. At one point, Nagash ordered Katakros to marshall and army and take down Sigmar, but Sigmar defeated them all and locked Katakros in a Stormvault. Eventually Sigmar left Shyish when he saw that the forces of Chaos had used this opportunity to gain a lot of ground.

Rather than make the most of Sigmar's departure, Nagash found himself and his forces taking on the forces of Chaos alone. It was a hard fight in the realm of Shyish, but Nagash and the undead were slowly ground down. It took Archaon himself to strike down Nagash. The Vampire Lord Prince Vhordrai tried to dispose of Nagash's remains to ensure the Chaos Gods consumed him, but he was thwarted by Arkhan the Black. Arkhan and Neferata later took Nagash's remains to the underworld of Stygyx where he would reform.

=== Age of Sigmar===

Sigmar sent his forces to parley with Nagash, with predictable results both times. First Nagash threw Sigmar's offer back in his face and attacked the Stormcast, killing them all and keeping the soul of the Lord-Celestant for interrogation. The second time Nagash put them through a series of gruelling tests (as part of some experiment, unbeknownst to the Stormcast), then double-crossed them and left them to die in battle against Chaos.

Nagash made a master plan where his forces gathered Shyishian realmstone (''gathering magical rocks, this sounds familiar'') and using it to build a giant black pyramid that could fly (''Déjà vu''). He planned to absorb all the energy in Shyish and become super powerful (''if at first you don't succeed...'') to the point that he would raise the dead everywhere and use them as an undead army to conquer everyone else (''heard that one before''). However he overlooked the Skaven (''not the first time he did that'') and they messed up his plans (''yet again''). This did have a different outcome, creating a void in the center of Shyish and raising armies of ghosts across the realms, creating the Nighthaunt faction who have a major hatred for Sigmar and friends.

This void also slowly sucks in all the afterlives, so now everyone who dies is sucked into the void where their souls exist in a state of insanity before being destroyed. Nagash can enter it and draw power from it, but he's the only one who can do so and even for him it means destruction if he stays there too long.

==Notable Locations in Shyish==

===The Nadir===

A vortex of death magic at the center of Shyish, which is slowly dragging in and consuming all other underworlds. Although Nagashizzar, the capital of Shyish, is located here, the energies there are so dangerous that not even Nagash himself can stay indefinitely. Due to the presence of the Skaven contaminating the Black Pyramid with the essence of Chaos, the Nadir has become a place of insanity as well as death.

===The Prime Innerlands===

The area north of the Nadir, and the area of Shyish we know the most about. Notable areas include Stygxx, said to be the Underworld for dead gods where Nagash recovered from his battle with Archaon and Katakros was imprisoned in a Stormvault, and Neferatia and Carstinia, the kingdoms of two of the Mortarchs (guess which ones).

===The Ossiarch Empire===

Located to the east of the Prime Innerlands, the Ossiarch Empire is the empire of Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis, and the homeland of the Ossiarch Bonereapers. It’s a collection of various islands and underworlds all connected by massive spinal column bridges and numerous Bonereaper fortresses.

===The Evercrawl===

A dank and gloomy place said to be the lair of the [[Spider-god]]. As you'd expect, its absolutely covered in spiders and spiderwebs, most famously the soul-eating Skitterstrand Arachnoroks who use the webs of the Evercrawl to travel between the Realms and attack anywhere they see fit.

===The Droogrind===

The Underworld of the various Troggoth races. What sort of afterlife would form based on the religious beliefs of a race of beings about as intelligent as a retarded gorilla? Apparently a "dank and moist" one. Ew.

===Chitinia===

An afterlife that was the hone to the spirits of a culture that revered insects, Chitinia's original spirit inhabitants have mysteriously vanished, replaced by the Skulbugz Kruleboyz, who in a somewhat wholesome way continue their predecessors' love of the many insects and bugs that call this afterlife home. It's home to dark heaths and mangrove forests,

==Forces of Shyish==

=== [[Soulblight Gravelords]] ===
Nagash's endless hordes of vampires, necromancers, skelebois and zombinonos. Though they are the most intelligent of the lot, they are also considered the most independent as the vampires prefer to focus more on their own personal empires rather than bending to Nagash's rule. While capable of imitating and initiating intrigue, they remain just as capable of turning into hideous monsters and summoning all sorts of undead.

=== [[Flesh-Eater Courts]] ===
Nagash's red headed stepchildren. While their most basic warriors are still considered "alive", they are so drenched in death magic that they are considered under his rule. A bunch of half-naked cannibals and vampires who think they are actually [[Bretonnia|noble men and women of honor]] thanks to an infectious shared delusion.

=== [[Nighthaunt]] ===
A bunch of spooky ghosts. Collectively, they did bad things in life, offended Nagash in one way or another, or simply died in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they all serve as the phantasmal thralls for the God of the Dead. Most of them have a massive hateboner for the living, especially living who worship Sigmar, and Ol' Naggy uses this eternal bitterness to sick them onto his foes. They have a big shroud/scythe/ironic punishment fetish to emphasize their relation to the realm/concept of Death and servile nature to Nagash, and lots are big on chains and weights and locks and keys that even Jacob Marley would call excessive.

=== [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]] ===
A bunch of scary skellingtons. Unlike ordinary skeletons, these are made from the reforged bones of multiple skeletons and with multiple souls in each warrior, these guys are Nagash's answer to the Stormcast Eternals. They have their own empire inside Shyish.

==Trivia==
* The realmstone native to Shyish is called Grave-sand, named in order to invoke the imagery of an hourglass to one's death. In its unrefined form, this sand-like stone has power over death, with mere grains being able to siphon away life from whoever touches it. This realmstone was meant to be the focus through which the Necroquake was meant to be channeled and were it successful the accumulated power from so much Grave-sand would have literally wiped out all life throughout the realms.
** While it's not entirely sure if Grave-sand is a component to the Nadirite weapons used by the Ossiarchs, it is certainly used in the creation of phylacteries housing their souls. Outside of Nagash's forces, normal folk have also seen use in incorporating this realmstone in making death-warding charms.

{{AoS-Realms}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]][[Category:40k and Fantasy Gods]]

Shyish

2022-07-13T15:44:17Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* The Droogrind */

{{AoS-Stub}}

{{Topquote|In the land of the dead! Heck boy ain’t it grand? I’m the overlord of the underworld, cause I hold horror’s hand. In the land of the dead! I’m dark side royalty! I’m far renowned in the underground, and you can’t take that from me!|Aurelio Voltaire}}

Shyish was originally the wind of magic related to all things to do with death. In the [[Age of Sigmar]] it has become the realm of [[Nagash]]. Shyish serves as the afterlife for the mortal realms: underworlds containing the souls of the dead are formed based on the beliefs of various cultures and they are presided over by various gods with various origins. Although stereotypically seen as a spooky graveyard wasteland, Shyish is also home to pleasant heavens and terrible hells.

== Warhammer Fantasy Battle==

In the Old World, Shyish was the Amethyst Wind of death and endings. As such, the magisters of Shyish have the ability to drain away life and commune with spirits. Amethyst wizards are often shunned for the resemblance of their powers to Necromancy. However, the two are completely different: where Shyish is about embracing endings, Necromancy is about defying them. Amethyst magic also completely lacks the mental and physical degredation that Necromancy brings on its participants. The Libre Necris describes Necromancy as essentially using the Winds of Shyish as "tongs" to grasp Dhar or Dark Magic and channel it through the remains of the dead.

== The Realm of Shyish ==

Shyish is a realm of entropy. The individual underworlds are created by the beliefs of a civilization, and whenever a religions or belief system is made a new afterlife emerges and if they fade away (whether this takes centuries, millennia or even longer) so does the afterlife centered around them. The souls are gradually reabsorbed into Shyish proper and can either be reborn or get taken by other beings.

The core of Shyish is apparently a huge, magical black hole and anything that would get sucked into it dies forever and never comes back, including Nagash himself. Shyish forms around it like a pearl forms around a grain of sand in an oyster, and while the black hole eats away at Shyish, Shyish regenerates keeping the black hole contained.

=== Age of Myth ===

Originally Nagash was buried in a crypt in a place out of time. Sigmar found him and freed him, trusting the sociopathic skeleton for some unknown reason. Nagash took one look at Shyish, with all its afterlives and gods and immediately decided to take over. He used his magic to control some of the dead, and with their help he nommed all the gods and annexed the afterlives he could find. At some point he rebuild Nagashizzar in the center of Shyish and brought back Arkhan, Neferata, Mannfred and Ushoran. Nagash also encountered Katakros in one of the afterlives and made Katakros his general, but didn't give him the position of Mortarch.

During this time Nagash also reconstructed the Morghasts and came up with a pet project of super skeleton warriors (that would go on to become the [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]], these ones in particular would become the magic-resistant Null Myriad Legion). However, his allies weren't too keen on them, so he kept them out of sight on the edge of Shyish. However Nagash put some other proto-Bonereapers in crypts under the cities of the Forces of Order, and they went undiscovered because... plot.

=== Age of Chaos ===

Nagash fled back to Shyish after backstabbing Sigmar's forces. However Sigmar, mad about the betrayal, kicked down Nagash's door and hunted him across Shyish. They fought twice with Nagash fleeing both times before Sigmar could beat him. At one point, Nagash ordered Katakros to marshall and army and take down Sigmar, but Sigmar defeated them all and locked Katakros in a Stormvault. Eventually Sigmar left Shyish when he saw that the forces of Chaos had used this opportunity to gain a lot of ground.

Rather than make the most of Sigmar's departure, Nagash found himself and his forces taking on the forces of Chaos alone. It was a hard fight in the realm of Shyish, but Nagash and the undead were slowly ground down. It took Archaon himself to strike down Nagash. The Vampire Lord Prince Vhordrai tried to dispose of Nagash's remains to ensure the Chaos Gods consumed him, but he was thwarted by Arkhan the Black. Arkhan and Neferata later took Nagash's remains to the underworld of Stygyx where he would reform.

=== Age of Sigmar===

Sigmar sent his forces to parley with Nagash, with predictable results both times. First Nagash threw Sigmar's offer back in his face and attacked the Stormcast, killing them all and keeping the soul of the Lord-Celestant for interrogation. The second time Nagash put them through a series of gruelling tests (as part of some experiment, unbeknownst to the Stormcast), then double-crossed them and left them to die in battle against Chaos.

Nagash made a master plan where his forces gathered Shyishian realmstone (''gathering magical rocks, this sounds familiar'') and using it to build a giant black pyramid that could fly (''Déjà vu''). He planned to absorb all the energy in Shyish and become super powerful (''if at first you don't succeed...'') to the point that he would raise the dead everywhere and use them as an undead army to conquer everyone else (''heard that one before''). However he overlooked the Skaven (''not the first time he did that'') and they messed up his plans (''yet again''). This did have a different outcome, creating a void in the center of Shyish and raising armies of ghosts across the realms, creating the Nighthaunt faction who have a major hatred for Sigmar and friends.

This void also slowly sucks in all the afterlives, so now everyone who dies is sucked into the void where their souls exist in a state of insanity before being destroyed. Nagash can enter it and draw power from it, but he's the only one who can do so and even for him it means destruction if he stays there too long.

==Notable Locations in Shyish==

===The Nadir===

A vortex of death magic at the center of Shyish, which is slowly dragging in and consuming all other underworlds. Although Nagashizzar, the capital of Shyish, is located here, the energies there are so dangerous that not even Nagash himself can stay indefinitely. Due to the presence of the Skaven contaminating the Black Pyramid with the essence of Chaos, the Nadir has become a place of insanity as well as death.

===The Prime Innerlands===

The area north of the Nadir, and the area of Shyish we know the most about. Notable areas include Stygxx, said to be the Underworld for dead gods where Nagash recovered from his battle with Archaon and Katakros was imprisoned in a Stormvault, and Neferatia and Carstinia, the kingdoms of two of the Mortarchs (guess which ones).

===The Ossiarch Empire===

Located to the east of the Prime Innerlands, the Ossiarch Empire is the empire of Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis, and the homeland of the Ossiarch Bonereapers. It’s a collection of various islands and underworlds all connected by massive spinal column bridges and numerous Bonereaper fortresses.

===The Evercrawl===

A dank and gloomy place said to be the lair of the [[Spider-god]]. As you'd expect, its absolutely covered in spiders and spiderwebs, most famously the soul-eating Skitterstrand Arachnoroks who use the webs of the Evercrawl to travel between the Realms and attack anywhere they see fit.

===The Droogrind===

The Underworld of the various Troggoth races. What sort of afterlife would form based on the religious beliefs of a race of beings about as intelligent as a retarded gorilla? Apparently a "dank and moist" one. Ew.

==Forces of Shyish==

=== [[Soulblight Gravelords]] ===
Nagash's endless hordes of vampires, necromancers, skelebois and zombinonos. Though they are the most intelligent of the lot, they are also considered the most independent as the vampires prefer to focus more on their own personal empires rather than bending to Nagash's rule. While capable of imitating and initiating intrigue, they remain just as capable of turning into hideous monsters and summoning all sorts of undead.

=== [[Flesh-Eater Courts]] ===
Nagash's red headed stepchildren. While their most basic warriors are still considered "alive", they are so drenched in death magic that they are considered under his rule. A bunch of half-naked cannibals and vampires who think they are actually [[Bretonnia|noble men and women of honor]] thanks to an infectious shared delusion.

=== [[Nighthaunt]] ===
A bunch of spooky ghosts. Collectively, they did bad things in life, offended Nagash in one way or another, or simply died in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they all serve as the phantasmal thralls for the God of the Dead. Most of them have a massive hateboner for the living, especially living who worship Sigmar, and Ol' Naggy uses this eternal bitterness to sick them onto his foes. They have a big shroud/scythe/ironic punishment fetish to emphasize their relation to the realm/concept of Death and servile nature to Nagash, and lots are big on chains and weights and locks and keys that even Jacob Marley would call excessive.

=== [[Ossiarch Bonereapers]] ===
A bunch of scary skellingtons. Unlike ordinary skeletons, these are made from the reforged bones of multiple skeletons and with multiple souls in each warrior, these guys are Nagash's answer to the Stormcast Eternals. They have their own empire inside Shyish.

==Trivia==
* The realmstone native to Shyish is called Grave-sand, named in order to invoke the imagery of an hourglass to one's death. In its unrefined form, this sand-like stone has power over death, with mere grains being able to siphon away life from whoever touches it. This realmstone was meant to be the focus through which the Necroquake was meant to be channeled and were it successful the accumulated power from so much Grave-sand would have literally wiped out all life throughout the realms.
** While it's not entirely sure if Grave-sand is a component to the Nadirite weapons used by the Ossiarchs, it is certainly used in the creation of phylacteries housing their souls. Outside of Nagash's forces, normal folk have also seen use in incorporating this realmstone in making death-warding charms.

{{AoS-Realms}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]][[Category:40k and Fantasy Gods]]

Azyr

2022-07-13T15:33:23Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Others */

{{AoS-Stub}}

{{Topquote|The path to paradise begins in hell.|Dante Alighieri}}

{{Topquote|You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.|Matthew 5:14}}

[[File:Sigmaron.png|750px|thumb|center|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FRExQ3JSrU|"You'll say the world tomorrow without fear".]]]

'''Azyr''' was originally the Wind of Magic related to all things celestial, such as stars, lightning, and similar phenomena. In the [[Age of Sigmar]] it has become the realm of [[Sigmar]] himself, and the main [[Cities of Sigmar|stronghold of civilization and order]] in the multiverse. Seedless to nay, it's the greatest source of resistance against the forces of Chaos.

== Warhammer Fantasy Battle==
Back in the good old days of yore and the Winds of Magic, Azyr was the blue wind related with the heavens. As such, its users were skilled in Astromancy, invoking skills such as divination, casting lightning, and summoning comets. The lore surrounding Azyr was founded in its capability to bring understanding and comprehension even where none should exist. Azyr was therefore associated with dreams, theory, and scholarly desire - or, dare we say, hope [[Tzeentch|but without the chaotic implications]].
Back during the earlier days of [[The Empire]], the Chaos God [[Tzeentch]] managed to trap Sigmar within Azyr. However [[not as planned|this didn't go as well as expected]] as Azyr became linked to Sigmar's essence and, when the magical winds were released during [[The End Times]], Sigmar returned as one of the magical Incarnates united against Chaos, AKA The Warhammer Avengers (Obviously he was Captain America).

==The Realm of Azyr==
[[File:God-king-sigmar.jpg|thumb|right|400px|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKW7yGsCMxQ| YES, I DO EXIST!] ]]

===Genesis===
At the climax of the End Times Sigmar couldn't save the <s>Earth</s>The-World-That-Was and fell, along with Archaon, into a world-ending Chaos Vortex. But being <s>everyone's</s> Games Workshop's favourite God-<strike>Emperor</strike>King, he came back. Sigmar and the core of Warhammer's world (baptized Mallus, which means Hammer in latin-lite, so yeah, the Warhammer world's name was "Hammer") managed to survive, flung into the Aetheric Void until entering Azyr, now condensed into a realm. After being saved from a comatose state and making pals with the godly Star-drake [[Dracothion]] (Who may or may not be [[Sotek]] all along), Sigmar was introduced to the Mortal Realms by Dracothion, seeing the still nascent realities and the primitive tribes of mortals he set out to rebuild all he had lost.

Meanwhile, the [[Lizardmen]], now <s>space dinosaurs</s> Seraphon, after the destruction of The-World-That-Was, drifted the void in their temple-ships until they too found Dracothion, maybe he is really Sotek, right? The star-drake helped settle the Seraphon in High Azyr (read: near space), where not even the Chaos Gods could reach, allowing for our scaly friends to start their task of ridding the Cosmos of Chaos once and for all.

===Age of Myth===
Over long centuries Sigmar built up the Realm of Azyr, taking full advantage of his immortality to ensure that there would be no End Times 2.0 Electric Boogaloo. From his palace-city Sigmaron, Sigmar directed his utopia: Azyr became a confluence for all races, epitomised in the massive celestial city Azyrheim where Human, Aelf, and Duardin coexisted peacefully.

Beyond Azyr, Sigmar succeeded over many centuries in promoting many prosperous nations and cultures, at its zenith his alliance engulfed the other 7 realms and had the support of Nagash, Alarielle, Gorkamorka, Grungni, Teclis, Tyrion, Morathi, Malerion and many other divine beings. The Warhammer United Nations managed to disrupt and beat back the first attempts of Chaos to do its thing and destroy the alliance shiny new worlds.

===Age of Chaos===
However, Chaos still had [[Archaon]] up their collective sleeve, who happened to have as much plot-armour as Sigmar as GW needed some sort of apocalyptic war (I mean, it is a ''war''game). So yeah, after a series of military disasters Chaos managed to conquer 7 out of the 8 realms and ensure their corruption.

Sigmar, of course, was very mad, and angry "I'll get you back <strike>evil boss</strike>Archaon!". So he did the intelligent thing and closed all the realmgates of Azyr and with the help of Tyrion and Teclis he activated some sort of realm-spanning camo-field so not even Tzeentch could see what he was doing.

Like [[The Emperor|the Emprah]], Sigmar decided he would need Space Marines. Unlike Emprah, he decided it would be a very good idea to make them immune to Chaos right from the start and since Sigmar already had "warp" powers in the form of the wind of Azyr, well, he put hands to work.

After many failed attempts to force the Gates of Azyr, Chaos decided to ignore them. This made a lot of Chaos Lords very bored, wishing for a real challenge as preying on little post-apocalyptic tribes loses all its appeal after a couple of centuries.

Meanwhile, back in Azyr, Sigmar started his great work. Across the centuries he worked with Grungni to forge his new weapon against Chaos. His beard singed from the heat of the star forges and his Manly Tears cooled the metal, as he could see what Archebag and the spikey boys were doing with the other realms [[grimdark|(eg: turning Warhammer not-Erza Scarlet into a statue by dropping molten silver over her, after some session of torture, sadly he couldn't get Sigmarabulum in time to spirit her away)]].
Eventually the task was done (except not, but more of that later): the [[Stormcast Eternals]], the souls of heroes who stood their ground to Chaos until (almost) death re-forged as divine soldiers. The Stormcast Eternals would form the tip of a lance composing the innumerable armies Azyr could now muster against Chaos after five hundred of years of peace (we wish the old Empire and the Imperium had had this).

===Age of Sigmar===
[[File:Space-frog.jpg|thumb|left|300px|You will need more than a moon-crash and an Apocalypse to keep the old froggy down!]]
Sigmar launched his forces, with the Stormcast Eternals as his superhuman shock troopers who give zero fucks about daemonically empowered vikings and chaos shenanigans.

[[Indrick Boreale|Making multiple simultaneous and devastating offensive storm-strikes]] from the astral fortress of Sigmarabulum into the territories where Azyr's Realmgates still stood sealed the sigmarines fought to reach them, once there they removed the seals, allowing more and more of Sigmar's forces to pour through, freeing vast swathes of territories and their remnant tribes of mortal-kind from the grip of Chaos.

The Stormcast Eternals were soon followed by Azyr's Free Guild armies(Imperial Guard/badass normals, read: the good, old Empire) supported by the Devoted of Sigmar(whose God-King actually has given them his thumbs up unlike certain [[Emperor|anatolian guy)]], the Collegiate Arcanum (Azyr's battle wizards) and the Ironweld Arsenal (because Sigmar may have realized even daemons have a hard time against tanks, weapons teams and artillery), together these armies forced the Ruinous Powers back across hundreds of battlefields.

Azyr's forces were aided in this multiverse spanning conflict by Aelf and Duardin auxiliaries, Fyreslayer mercenaries, the surviving reclaimed tribes of mortal-kind, and the mysterious and ostensibly random help of the Seraphon (we like our space psychic frogs!), while the Stormcast Eternals are the poster boys of the nascent Age of Sigmar all the other armies made equally huge and heroic contributions to Sigmar's cause.

At the conclussion of the Realmgate Wars the forces of Azyr had managed to establish beachheads all across the seven Chaos-tainted Realms and began the process of purifying and rebuilding civilization in the reclaimed territories, with the eventual emergence of a network of nations centered on Realmgate-based settlements commonly referred as the Cities of Sigmar, making Azyr the first Games Workshop kingdom of order to make a true comeback since... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw-GdthJGuo| Since forever, which is something many Imperial and order-aligned fans actually feel very happy, indeed, the Sun will Rise Again.] [[Skub|Of course, many players who liked the old Empire still hate this, why Azyr had a chance but The Old World not?]] [[Total War: Warhammer|(This is the reason why playing Mortal Empires as the Empire is awesome)]].

While innitially very idealistic on purpose and despite Sigmar's decree that everyone is equal, the Azyr-born citizens often have come to see with suspicion and mistrust the descendants of the reclaimed tribes, which in turn have replicated the problems of the Old-World Empire, social and economic disparity is common in many of the Cities of Sigmar, making for a breeding ground for cults of the Ruinous Powers, this in turn has call for action of the Order of Azyr, the AoS Inquisition, [[Grimdark|using many of the methods of their 40k equivalent to do the job to keep everyone in check]].

Still, [[Awesome|the majority of the descendants of the reclaimed tribes, now inhabitants of these footholds of Azyr, have earned their chance, however slim it may be, for a better life, and have proved for the most part to be willing to fight for Sigmar's vision of a new age of peace, prosperity and progress for all the Mortal Realms.]]

Of course, certain [[Nagash|skelepope]] decided everything was too bright and good and in the current edition the Realm of Azyr and Sigmar's armies have had to fight not just the regrouping forces of the Everchosen and the hordes of Destruction but the re-emerging powers of Nagash, his hosts of the Realm of Death and the onslaught of the realm-altering Necroquake. Old business, as usual.

==Forces of Azyr==
These are the most representative forces of Azyr, being supplied by [[Grand Alliance: Order|auxiliaries]] whose origins are from other realms.

===[[Stormcast Eternals]]===
Sigmar's elite, aka Sigmarines, they are like [[Grey Knights]] with far less grimdark and more humanity. Like the Space Marines they sport a wide array of variants such as the basic Liberator, the air-borne prosecutor, the heavy infantry Paladins and the Extremis Chamber heavy cavalry as well as the magic-oriented Sacrosanct brotherhoods. Similar to Space Marine Chapters they are organized in self-contained Stormhosts. Unlike the Space Marines each one of them was created from a mortal hero, be it king or beggar, knight or housewife, who willingly chose to fight Chaos in a doomed last-stand and are infused with the essence of Azyr itself. Since 2015 they have had many novels and short stories in Black Library, bringing diversity and characterization to what at first glance was a rather dull force, in the current edition it's revealed Sigmar didn't have time to perfect the reforging process which allows a killed Stormcast to be resurrected, resulting in loses of memories, emotions and personalities, this has made many Stormcasts fearful of losing their humanity, becoming lightning powered automatons, in order to correct this Sigmar has put to work the Sacrosanct chamber in finding a cure, it remains to be seen if they would be capable to save the day.

On a side note, it's important to clarify that while the Hammers of Sigmar have gold and blue in their armor the guys with the most [[Ultramarines]]-like color pattern are the Tempest Lords, who actually think themselves as the superior guys something which is explained by the fact they were all formed from Nobles.

===Devoted of Sigmar===
[[File:Priest-sigmar.jpg|thumb|right|225px|A Devoted of Sigmar in a typical work's day.]]
The church of Sigmar, bringing back flagellants, badass warrior priests and witch hunters, nobody expects the Azyr Inquisition! They are good at cleaning KAY-OSS via [[Slaanesh|whips]] and faith, unlike the old [[Empire]]'s Church or the [[Ecclesiarchy]] they seem to be very cool guys, making an effort to conciliate the people under the banner of Order, and their priests have healing and shielding powers, they wont necessarily choose as first step to bash the head of anyone who is not aligned with Sigmar, also, they seem to get along with the Stormcast Eternals, who in turn recognize their job in the name of the God-King, by the way, the Silver Tower of Tzeentch features a black priest, which shows GeeDubs has finally started to be more serious with the matter of racial diversity. On the other hand and like many other religious organizations, they have tendency to proselytize the hard way, making Sigmar the more equal of the gods, this in turn has created frictions with other faiths, such as Alarielle's believers, and of late they haven't seen eye to eye to the followers of Nagash and while Sigmar has a policy of non-chaos religious tolerance, perhaps in hopes of bringing Old Bones back into his team, persecution, particularly in Azyr's held territories at the Realm of Shysh, is not unheard of. On the other-hand, what religion doesn’t believe their deity is better than the rest? Especially when said deity has spent every moment since his balls dropped proving it.

Point of fact, it has been the faith of their members that have allowed to create protective fields against the enemies of Order and keep evil entities sealed away, in fact, some of them have a faith so strong they have kept Penumbral Engines running for centuries, a task which obliterated a Stormcast Eternal in an instant.

===Collegiate Arcanum===
Proprietors of spells and arcane devices to channel the power of the God-King, with the very nature of Azyr being highly effective against Chaos. Aside from lending magical support in battle the Collegiate can develop magic devices and materials for peacetime projects, using them to bolster the economy and assets of the Realm of Azyr and help in the founding of new cities in the liberated realms. Learn in the Colleges of Magic in the Towers of the Eight Winds in Azyrheim or in lesser faculties in the Free Cities, but unlike the World That Was humans aren't restricted to one color magic (or fucking around with Dhar and dying horribly or falling to Chaos) but can learn all 8. A Battlemage who spends at least a decade in each Tower of the Eight Winds is deemed a Grandmaster of the Collegiate. Grandmasters develop new spells and craft new magical items. A specialist Order of the Chained Flame founded by the Grandmasters functions a mercenary bounty board that hands out official Spell Hunter licenses to dispell and capture rogue Endless Spells.

===[[Free Peoples]]===
The forces of the Cities of Sigmar, the rank and file of Azyr forces, the grunts, the doughboys, the duckfoots, only this time they can see their god and know that he truly cares about them and fights by their side. [[Awesome|They are the old Empire if things haven't gone so bad during its 2500 years of story, brought back as the citizens of Azyrheim and other enclaves of the Realm of Heaven, and they will fight Chaos with honest-to-Sigmar human courage, steel, gunpowder and grit.]] After the Realmgate Wars the cities of Sigmar have achieved the demographic and socioeconomic development to rise their own Freeguild regiments, while others own forces who declare their descendance from the first azyrite pioneers who ventured into the Chaos-infested realms.

===Ironweld Arsenal===
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbxgYlcNxE8| Say hello to the 19th century!] Steam-punk tanks and artillery. We hope you didn't throw away your [[Steam Tank]] when The End Times happened, but with this faction being so awesome you may want to bring a Leman Russ tank instead. As seen in the novel City of Secrets many cities of Azyr have regiments which count with some artillery teams and Steam Tanks, allowing them to fight off both enemy formations and airborne menaces, and even take down large monstrous creatures. The Ironweld Arsenal also provides with conventional engineering support, their members are seeing working after battle into erecting the foundation of new sentlements and fortresses, working in unison with the Stormcast ordinators to ensure the footholds of Azyr have the right urbanistic development.

It is noted these industrialists have come into conflict with Alarielle and her children, since as classic Industrial Revolution-esque engineers they don't seem to care that much for the ecological impact of their activities. Best to set up shop outside of Ghyran. Also of note too is the reference in some novels of the use of custom weaponry, automatons, walking fortresses and other marvels, we wonder when we would get <strike>warjacks</strike> Imperial Knights in Age of Sigmar.

===Seraphon===
While there is no formal alliance between Sigmar's armies and the Seraphon, both forces seem to recognize they have aligned goals; both have fought Chaos side by side. No other realm can boast magical space dinosaurs, or psychic frogs with the power to crush continents. The Seraphon seem to have inherited the poor communication skills of the [[Lizardmen]], on the other hand, they have become far more effective as they are anti-Chaos beings, with the essence being that of Azyr's wind of magic.

==Azyr's fauna==
Azyr has its own fauna, most of which follows the theme of dragons, felines and eagles (and combinations thereof). They're often described as having a keen intelligence and are associated with lightning or stars. Some major examples are as follows:

===[[Stardrake]]s===
[[File:Dave_the_barbarian_faffy.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Pictured here is a Stardrake in all his Dracothion given glory.]]
Considered the Children of [[Dracothion]], they usually live in high place, once they die they reincarnate, however, like certain space elves, the coming of Chaos has made the process difficult. There is a pact between their kind and the Stormcasts to fight together against the Ruinous Powers, with the Stardrakes being capable of taking down [[Greater Daemon]]s on their own. Like Stormcast, they return to Azyr after death to be reborn, barring magical nonsense preventing them from doing so.

===[[Dracoth]]s===
Theories are that they may be hatchlings of Stardrakes, while other people say they are a completely different race. Like the Stardrakes, they work together with the Stormcast Eternals to remove the taint of Chaos. Apparently, [[Vandus Hammerhand]], the guy of The Gates of Azyr, was the first one to tame one of them.

===[[Dracoline]]s===
Mountain dwelling reptilian thunder cats that sharpen and charge their claws on [[Celestium]].

===[[Tauralon]]===
Giant flying star goats. Normally found in the void between realms but have made roost around Sigmar's space station, [[Sigmarabulum]]. Their favorite pastime is headbutting dangerous asteroids into people.

===Gryph-creatures===
Because the Mortal Realms are too cool to settle with the common griffon, Azyr boasts an impressive variety of creatures of the griffin family. There are four varieties currently:

*'''[[Griffon]]''': The ol' chicken we all know and love. Frequently employed by the high-ranking members and leaders of the Free Guilds and Collegiate Arcane as mounts. They grow rather big and sometimes can naturally develop a second head at birth.
*'''[[Demigryph]]''': Another returning type from WHFB. Unable to fly, this species is used as mounts by heavy cavalry units, most commonly the Free Guilds' Demigryph Knights.
*'''<s>Kroot Hound</s>[[Gryph-hound]]s''': The good bork-birbs. These are new. Similar in the body to demigrypghs but smaller (like a big dog, give or take) they are employed as attack hounds or watchdogs as they can detect dangers at distance and are rather ferocious. Both the Stormcast Eternals and the Devoted of Sigmar can use them. Look at the one accompanying the Excelsior Warpriest. Surprisingly cute.
*'''[[Gryph-charger]]s''': Another new species. The size of a big demigryph but faster and more agile, with the ability to carry considerable weight. They are perfect for rough terrain and/or scouting. Weirdly, they are the only variant with horns and considering they have hooves instead of paws like the other variants, they actually resemble hippogriffons more than griffons. Usually employed by the Stormcast Eternals' Vanguard Chambers as mounts to Palladors and Lords Aquilor.

===Others===
*'''[[Dragon Ogres|Dragon Ogors]]:''' Former residents of Azyr before Sigmar kicked them out with his no chaos policy, renaming themselves the "Thunderscorn" in memory of this.

*'''[[Stromfels Gargants]]:''' A tribe of Gargants who worshipped the minor Chaos God Stromfels, whose sphere of influence includes sea monsters, pirates, and, most importantly in regards to Azyr as a realm of the Heavens, Storms. Sigmar made them GTFO, same as the Dragon Ogors. Well, maybe. It's said that Hamilcar Bear-Eater spoke on their behalf during the Cleansing of Azyr after Sigmar ordered their fortresses burned. Maybe Hamilcar got them to convert to a Good Storm God instead of an Evil Storm God. This would explain an origin the Mason-Gargants loyal to Sigmar who helped build the many wonders of Azyr.

*'''Mason Gargants:''' These guys helped build many of the larger monuments and megastructures throughout Azyr, perhaps including the Great Gate that protected Azyr from Chaos during the Age of Chaos. Maybe descendants of Sigmarite converts from the Stromfels Gargants?

==See Also==
* [[Sigmar]], the ruler, incarnate and god of this realm.
* [[Terra]], the roughest equivalent you may find in Warhammer 40,000, minus the noble-bright.
* [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)]], the predecessor and first attempt of Sigmar to make a better place to live for humans and their allies.

{{AoS-Realms}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]][[Category:40k and Fantasy Gods]]
[[Category:Stormcast Eternals]]

Ulgu

2022-07-13T15:28:07Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Other Noteworthy Factions */

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In Warhammer, Ulgu is the Grey Wind of Magic that is the Aethyr's reflection of the experience of being lost and confused, and was used to power the illusions of the Lore of Shadows. In Age of Sigmar, it coalesced into the Realm of Ulgu.

==Overview==
Ulgu is the Mortal Realm we as an audience know the least about. You can argue this is very fitting, considering its very nature is based on secrecy and illusion.

Ulgu is said to be divided into Thirteen Dominions. We know little about these dominions, except that ultimately all answer to Ulgu's supreme leader, Malerion. The nations of Ulgu are said to rely heavily on political intrigue, backstabbing and assassination. Indeed, many of them had ceased performing conventional war altogether, which came back to bite them in the ass when the Age of Chaos happened and they had no standing armies to defend themselves from hordes of daemons and Slaves to Darkness.

Ulgu is in a mutual orbit with its opposite realm, [[Hysh]]. Whenever Ulgu eclipses Hysh, night is caused in the other Mortal Realms. There's also a secret [[demiplane]] linking the two realms that partakes of both their fundamental natures at once, called '''Uhl-Gysh'''; the Aelfen gods have agreed to keeps its existence their little secret, since this is where they've locked up [[Slaanesh]].

==History==
About as little is known about Ulgu before the arrival of the Pantheon of Order as any other realm, but it is notable that several archaeologists based on ancient artifacts believe that the Daemon Prince [[Be'lakor]] was the original ruler of this realm before being kicked out by Malerion.

The god of Ulgu, Malerion, and his mother Morathi both woke up in Ulgu during the Age of Myth. After years of wandering, they finally discovered one another by chance. Although both parties had bitter grudges from the World-That-Was (and Morathi was jealous of her son's godhood), they ultimately stuck around each-other primarily out of loneliness, as they were the only other Aelves they had seen in generations. While Morathi wanted to evenly split rulership of Ulgu, Malerion only gave her the Umbral Veil, the shittiest land in Ulgu from which no one but him had had returned, out of spite. He had underestimated his mother, for she managed to successfully tame this deathtrap of a land and created the city of Hagg Nar. Malerion in turn created his own capital city, Druchiroth.

Eventually Morathi and Malerion would team up with their Hysh counterparts, Tyrion and Teclis, to imprison Slaanesh and free the souls inside him to create new aelven races. Morathi would create the Scathborn, creatures resembling hybrids between aelves and gorgons or harpies, while Malerion would create his own race of shadow aelves that we haven't seen but will probably be their own army one day. During this time, Morathi would also co-opt the cult of the dead god [[Khaine]] that was growing in her lands, creating the [[Daughters of Khaine]] as her own theocratic empire/secret scheme for godhood.

When the Age of Chaos hit, many in Ulgu would flee to Azyr, forming the Ordo Serpentis and Darkling Covens. Malerion and Morathi's forces didn't pussy out, instead beginning a centuries-long guerilla war called the Cathtrar Dule to secure control of Ulgu. This war still goes on long into the Age of Sigmar, and has intensified ever since Morathi's recklessness in taking too many Aelven souls caused the Godseekers of Slaanesh to start thinking Ulgu smells like their missing master.

As time passed, Morathi would become more overt in her plans for godhood, eventually culminating in the [[Broken Realms Saga]]. With this, Morathi would fully become Khaine himself and declare herself as independent from Sigmar's pantheon. That declaration, however, would be short-lived as she found herself still forced to cooperate with Sigmar in rebuffing the twin assaults on Excelsis.

==Other Noteworthy Factions==
Aside from the forces of Morathi and Malerion, there are other groups that have set up shop in the Realm of Shadow.

*[[Gloomspite Gitz|The Badsnatchers]]: A strangely brazen horde of grots that regularly pillage the surface world as they believe that the Bad Moon has already covered the whole realm in the Everdank. Though likely false, anyone who tries to tell them other wise will usually find a poison covered shiv in the back soon after. They are led by Ogwotz Da Magnificent, who controls seven large lurklairs in the Hushed Hills as his own kingdom.

*[[Ogor Mawtribes|Underguts Mawtribe]]: Cavernous Ogors with sickly pale skin and a fondness for things that go boom. They live in Mount Bellows, a former duardin hold that the Ogors captured on account of the obscene number of cannons the fortress contained. The Underguts Mawtribe have developed a knack for [[Iron Warriors|siege warfare]], favoring to tunnel underneath enemy walls and then blast upwards into the back lines with explosive force. Their current Overtyrant is one Grumlog Blisterhands.

*[[Fyreslayers|Caengan Lodge]]: Fiery duardin mercenaries who learned the tricksy and deceptive ways of Ulgu from an ancient nation called the Shroudling Kings. Said ways were turned against the Shroudlings when they refused to pay the Lodge for their services. The Caengan Lodge razed the kingdom and took their payment and retribution as recompense.

*[[Clan Eshin|Clans Eshin]]: The assassins and spies of Skavendom are mostly concentrated in the Realm of Shadows, though (big surprise) no one knows where exactly they’re hidden.

*[[Cities of Sigmar|Misthåvn]]: The “City of Scoundrels” was created from massive ships of varying races all lashed together. It’s infamous among the Azyrites for its corrupt policies, underhanded combat strategies, and a very lucrative illegal narcotics market.

*[[Slaanesh|Godseekers of Slaanesh]]: Morathi’s aforementioned meddling with souls has drawn the attention of the Dark Prince’s most devout followers who scour them Realms for any clue of their master’s whereabouts about how to release him. Their most recent engagement was assaulting the Umbral Veil whilst Morathi enacted her scheme to become a goddess, and retreating to follow Slaanesh's newborn as it fled the battle and witnessed it becoming the two godspawn Decessa and Synessa.

*Ulguan Gargants: A larger subspecies of gargant, possibly Mega-Gargant, native to Ulgu, said to consume light and whose shadows are able to blot out continents.

==Trivia==
* The realmstone native to Ulgu is called Falsestone, named such for its illusory nature that makes it nigh-imperceptible to those without some sort of witch-sight. Even touching it floods the mind with all sorts of hallucinations, leading to Falsestone being relatively ill-understood. However, this deceptive nature also allows it to be easily alloyed, allowing for armor that looks like conventional clothes and even towers hidden behind mists.

{{AoS-Realms}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Ghyran

2022-07-13T15:24:15Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Factions Residing in Ghyran */

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'''Ghyran''' is the Realm of Life, obviously named after the Wind of Life, one of the eight Winds of [[Magic]] of [[Warhammer Fantasy]], which revolved around a mixture of healing magic and [[elementalism|manipulation of earth, water and plants]]. This realm is ostensibly ruled over by [[Alarielle]] the Everqueen, however, Grandpappy [[Nurgle]] has his eye on the realm and its queen so he's been squatting his forces there and messing things up for quite some time. This is starting to change, however, with the Stormcast rolling through to help beat the ever loving crap out of anything even remotely diseased looking. Sometimes with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11qDixiNrHk extreme prejudice].

==History==
===Age of Myth===

Alarielle the Everqueen spent this period spreading Soul Pods around the realm like a divine female version of Johnny Appleseed, which would later spawn the [[Sylvaneth]]. She also sang the Song of Life for so damn long that it indoctrinated the Sylvaneth to her ways, and it still echoes around the place in the Age of Sigmar. At one point she cut off one of her hands, gave herself a new one, and the severed limb grew into a Sylvaneth called the Lady of Vines, who was like a daughter to Alarielle and embodied the happy parts of her personality.

At one point undead started popping up in a part of Ghyran where everything went through a cycle of life, death and rebirth and attacking everybody else nearly. Alarielle parleyed with Nagash, letting him have that part as his sovereign territory on the condition that he keep the undead contained to that realm. Nagash agreed to the terms (likely with fingers crossed behind his back).

===Age of Chaos===

This is when Nurgle invaded Ghyran, and the War of Life began, continuing for centuries and into the Age of Sigmar. The Sylvaneth were attacked by the forces of Nurgle and all of their warriors took up arms. The non-combatants [[Grimdark|either learned to fight or died horribly]]. During this time the Alarielle-worshiping aelves inhabiting Ghyran pussied out and fled, abandoning the realm and its people to the forces of Chaos. Enraged, Alarielle declared them exiles and the Sylvaneth have a burning hatred of these aelves, who in time came to be known as the Wanderers. Then it turned out Alarielle had intended to sacrifice all of the wood aelves because apparently only her tree babies deserve to live and the wood aelves should feel thankful to be their meatshields.

Many other mortals that lived in the realm decided it would be better to live under Nurgle than to die from whatever he inflicted, and turned on the Everqueen. Sylvaneth from the other realms rushed in to fight in the war until there were no more reinforcements to be had. At her lowest point, Alarielle even brought back Drycha to help take the fight to Chaos, even though Drycha was a genocidal loose cannon, and even that wasn't enough. Eventually, so many places were destroyed, infested, or corrupted that Alarielle was forced back into the Aethylwyrd, where she presumably pouted about how terribly things had gone. Nurgle couldn't touch her there, so she was content to brood over how shitty a monarch she'd been for the foreseeable future.

===Age of Sigmar===
When Sigmar started to get the band back together, he sent the Hallowed Knights, led by Lord-Castellant Grymn, to go recruit the Everqueen because Sigmar is apparently a lazy dick. However, in doing so, [[fail|they inaadvertently led a bunch of Nurgle's forces right to her, blowing her hiding spot]]. At first she was super pissed at the Stormcast, then realised how much of a puss-bitch she'd been the whole time and decided she could still fight. She also then promptly realised how long she'd left things and became so depressed she basically died, turning into a Soul Pod.

The Hallowed Knights and Alarielle's favored daughter, the Lady of Vines, took her and ran as far from Nurgle as they could manage. Turns out, that wasn't very far, as Torglug the Despised One was waiting for them at Blackstone Summit and ready to finish the job. He killed the Lady of Vines and nearly grabbed Alarielle's Soul Pod before the Stormcast pushed him back. It literally took the Celestant-Prime swooping to the beat Torglug's head in with his lantern (so hard, in fact, that it [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Stormcast_Eternals#Notable_Stormcasts/ changed his alignment]) to put an end to things, and even then ''so many'' people/tree things had died. It was here that Alarielle's Soul Pod was finally planted and allowed to sprout. And thus Alarielle was reborn, with a cooler outfit and a giant ride-on beetle. All her past wussiness was gone and her cry of rage echoed across the realms with a promise that she was going to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and she's all out of bubblegum. She even regrew the Lady of Vines. [[Awesome|Awesome]].

''And then'' it turns out Sigmar hid some corrupted Black Seeds that grows into Black Oaks which'll ruin Ghyran in stormvaults across the realm without telling Alarielle, which - naturally - the followers of Nurgle have found and are cultivating all over Ghyran.

===Malign Portents===
Alarielle figures that Nagash is planning something big. Refusing to back down like she did against Chaos, Alarielle spurs the Sylvaneth onto the offensive against the forces of death, even sending Drycha and an army to Shyish. Unfortunately, she also learned that Sigmar hid some dark magic plants in her realm, called Black Seeds, after Nurglites discovered them and started cultivating them.

===Broken Realms===
Alarielle starts chatting with Teclis about Nagash's Necroquake and what to do about it and the god-lich behind it. When Teclis has his showdown with Nagash, Alarielle gives him some supernatural support that helps him beat Nagash and send him back to Shyish, tail-bone hanging between his legs.

This is promptly followed by Alarielle enacting a life-based version of the Necroquake called the Rite of <s>Spring</s> Rite of Life. Despite fierce opposition from the forces of Chaos, it's successful, the Oak of Ages (Past) is resurrected and regrows Athel Loren 2.0. Alarielle's own power swells and the forces of Life are finally on the offensive. There was a catch though, as the Rite of Life [[Not As Planned|unintentionally broke the prison of the Destruction-aligned earthquake god]], [[Kragnos|Kragnos]] and resurrected the living continent of Thondia. Two steps forward, one step back.

==Factions Residing in Ghyran==
*'''[[Cities of Sigmar]]:''' There are many Free Cities established here due to the cordial relations between Sigmar and Alarielle, which also served as beachheads during Sigmar's early acts of reclamation. The most significant of these are Hammerhal-Ghyra (Half of the super-city of Hammerhal, with the other half being in [[Aqshy]]), The Living City (Symbol of the trust between both gods), and Greywater Fastness (Industrial capital, though its pollution infuriates nearby Sylvaneth to no end).
*'''[[Idoneth Deepkin]]:''' The enclave of Briomdar has set itself up in the Green Gulch after branching off from the grand enclave of Ionrach. The Green Gulch is an overgrown swamp, giving the spooky elves plenty of practice navigating its depths when not stabbing each other in all sorts of political intrigue.
*'''[[Nurgle|Maggotkin of Nurgle]]:''' As mentioned many times above, Granpappy Nurgle has himself a serious fascination with the realm of Life. As a god of his own perverse sort of life, he wants nothing more to corrupt the verdant life here and his forces just won't stop at anything to make him happy.
*'''[[Sylvaneth]]:''' The obvious natives, being children of the Everqueen herself.
*'''Root-Kings:''' We know ''very'' little about this faction, who have largely been mentioned in passing in various sourcebooks and novels. The Root-Kings are [[dwarf|duardin]] who settled in Ghyran and proceeded to go underground, learning to compensate for the dearth of metal by learning to shape stone and wood to their needs. They're described as reclusive and secretive, being united in clans connected to sacred "Hearth-Trees" and dwelling in underground complexes called "Stone-Oak Citadels". They dye their beards green, wear ironwood tree bark armor and wield devourer plant seedpods for weapons. In battle, they like to surround foes and then crush them like serpents. They suffered terrible casualties during the Age of Chaos, particularly at the hands of the so-called "Woodsman of Nurgle", Torglug the Despised. One could argue they are the Forest [[Gnome]]s of Age of Sigmar, especially since it's unknown if the Gnomes invented for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 4th edition will ever get absorbed back into Age of Sigmar lore.
*'''Fimir:''' Live on the misty, crescent shaped isle called The Peel.
*'''Jotunbergs:''' The Frost Giant equivalent to Aqshy's Volc-Giant take on Fire Giants, the Jotunbergs are giant nature spirits made of stone and frost, living snowy mountains in humanoid form. They are functionally immortal unless killed by an outside force, as the first one to ever die perished from Nurglite plague whilst transporting Alarielle to safety.

==Trivia==
* Ghyran has the most settlements of Order after Azyr, and was the place where the first major cities built after the Age of Chaos were established.
* Ghyran produces magical water called Aqua Ghyranis that's super nourishing to plants, one of their chief exports and is the favored currency of the mortal realms. You'd think this would make Ghyran super important in the lore...but since it's not Sigmarines or [[Shyish|edgy]] [[Ghur|enough]], it didn't really have a lot happening following Alarielle awakening from her slumber and bringing the Sylvaneth back in First Edition until she enacted her Rite of Life.
** Now why would this be the central currency of the mortal realms? Well, Aether-Gold holds minimal value to any race that isn't the [[Kharadron Overlords]], the [[Fyreslayers]] jealously guard their Ur-Gold and would rather murder anyone who's seen carrying it rather than bargain for it and using realmstones are volatile to varying degrees and have certain superstitions surrounding them. Also helping is that Aqua Ghyranis serves as not only an emergency potion to heal injuries but also a purifying agent that can help the growth of crops, something that all the forces of order (or at least, those with living populations) rely upon for stability and is held by a steadfast ally of Sigmar.
* Like all of the Eight Realms, Ghyran is prone to bizarre and highly fantastical magical terrain and environmental effects. Mentioned in passing are "life-quakes", which can result in spontaneous, immaculately conceived pregnancies. [[/d/|Male pregnancies, perpetual pregnancies, interspecies pregnancies, turning into a plant]] and more are also implicit things you have to worry about happening to you in this realm, especially if you're stupid enough to try and get close to the Realm's Edge. In all, Ghyran is the most [[Magical Realm|magical]] of the realms.
* The realmstone native to Ghyran is called Cyclestone, such named for its constant and cyclical change from solid jade-like ice to emerald liquid to green gas and back again. This change is of course representative of the cycle of life itself, and for that reason it is both fiercely guarded by Sylvaneth and coveted by various other races - chiefly being how it might be an ingredient to the ever-valuable Aqua Ghyranis. While it is capable of purifying corruption, it's also quite receptive to corruption in return and is also capable of setting off the various abovementioned unfortunate events.

{{AoS-Realms}}

Aqshy

2022-07-13T15:17:36Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* History */

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The realm of fire, wrath, anger, passion, love and barbecue. It's pretty much what would happen if Australia, Mordor and the realms from Conan the Barbarian were mashed together, set on fire and thrown into a volcano. It is also [[Khorne|Khornes]] favorite chew-toy and many of his most famous warriors originate here. Unlike the [[Elemental Planes]] of Fire, Aqshy isn't a perpetual firestorm. Just as the Realm of Beasts isn't a single, giant superbeast to crawl around in, the Realm of Fire is more a place where fire is encouraged to happen and grow. There are volcanoes and lava flows, but also scrublands, sulfurous swamps, and chaparrals (even though most publications focus on the nasty, burning aspect of Aqshy.) It is basically a rip-off from Magic the Gathering's color red, expanded into an entire dimension.

== History ==
Back in ye olden days, Aqshy was the home of the <s>Dwarfen</s>Duardin god [[Grimnir]], who went around killing monsters and engaging in grand scale terraforming via swinging his axe. Then he got himself shattered while trying to kill a burning salamander the size of a mountain. The most commonly-held belief is that he was turned into shards of Ur-Gold, which the [[Fyreslayers]] will slavishly hunt down and hammer onto their skin as magically-infused runes of power. It was also home to the Volc-Giants, the Fire Giant schtick equivalent to the Jotunbergs of Ghyran's Ice Giant schtick. The Volc-Giants were massive, comparable in size to the godbeast Behemat, and brutal slavers who saw mortals only fit to be slaves and used in wars against the armies of other Volc-giants, like a living game of Warhammer. Sigmar killed them all in the Age of Myth, liberating the people from their cruel rule.

At some later point, a [[Magocracy]] called the Algoraxians came into power across the Great Parch. As with other Magocracies in fiction, these people treated non-magicians as slaves while they spent their time building all sorts of weird shit including [[Adeptus Titanicus|literal magical titans]]. Of course, they got so obsessed with their research that they'd begin secluding themselves in pursuit of magical power - all perfectly placed for Tzeentch to come and corrupt them and take over their greatest tower, which would later become the Free City of Brightspear. While heavily damaged by Tzeenches forces much of the former nation has been reconquered by the returning armies of Order, with Brightspear becoming a defacto capital of the region. Though Tzeenches minions still contest many regions.

At this time another great power came about in the Great Parch known as the trading empire of Bataar. This civilizaitons of traders and Bankers came to prosperity by the manufacture of a hige demand fabric know as Firesilk that was harvested from their Flamespider herds. Eventually creating their capial known as the Floating City (as it actually floats and is made from hundreds of ships that were tied/hammered together). This came in handy when their lands were ravanged by Khornes legions were they took refuge in the sky while many of their people were enslaved by the Chaos hordes. Eventually got the last laugh however as with Sigmars return they used vast stockpiles of hidden gold reserves to hire armies of Fyreslayers from Vostarg Mont to help reconquer their lands and free their surviving people. The empire of Bataar has since returned to being a major trading hub for the greater continent.

When the Age of Chaos came, Khorne wanted to secure himself the coolest, most metal realm he could find. This was surprisingly not Chamon, which got claimed by Tzeentch, but Aqshy. The next few centuries, his followers had a grand old time slapping around local tribes, sacking cities and building giant pyramids out of skulls. Unfortunately, this happy murder-party could not go on forever, as a nice gentleman called Sigmar decided to send out his shiny new toys, the Stormcast Eternals, to kick the shit out of the skull fetishists. After the initial fighting had died down somewhat, Sigmar began building new cities in the Realm of Fire as his first step in re-stabilizing the realms and presumably pissing off Khorne.

== Locations and People ==
Aqshy, like most realms, is pretty big and varied in population. One of the most detailed parts of it is [[The Great Parch]], the very centre of the realm where a lot of important stuff to the setting occurred, up to and including the first counter-attack against Chaos that heralded the so-called Age of Sigmar. It contains some of the most important [[Cities of Sigmar]] in the Setting, such as Anvilgard, Hallowheart, and the Aqshy half of Hammerhal (creatively named Hammerhal Aqsha).

== Trivia ==
* Despite being inside a realmSPHERE, most continents are at about the same level.
* Most places are named after fire-related things (like the Brimstone Peninsula, for example), even though most of the Realm is not on fire.
* Aqshy, more than any other realm, got ''devastated'' by the Age of Chaos, with many continents getting smashed into smaller pieces. This unfortunately made travel very hard, and subsequently made realmgates or any means of rapid transportation - especially ones that involve flying - highly prized in this realm.
* Nurgle apparently once tried to take over Aqshy, but Skarbrand got so pissed at this, his wrath literally [[What|killed every bacteria in a thousand-mile radius]].
* The realmstone of Aqshy is called Emberstone, creatively enough. This stone seems to constantly emanate a heat that can be felt not only physically, but also mentally as some seem to claim that this stone can resonate and amplify certain emotions. Because of these properties, Emberstone is often used in equipment, be it in burning weapons, armor wreathed in protective flames, or more conventional and non-military uses.

{{AoS-Realms}}
[[Category:Realms of Age Sigmar]]

Ghyran

2022-07-13T15:11:35Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Factions Residing in Ghyran */

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'''Ghyran''' is the Realm of Life, obviously named after the Wind of Life, one of the eight Winds of [[Magic]] of [[Warhammer Fantasy]], which revolved around a mixture of healing magic and [[elementalism|manipulation of earth, water and plants]]. This realm is ostensibly ruled over by [[Alarielle]] the Everqueen, however, Grandpappy [[Nurgle]] has his eye on the realm and its queen so he's been squatting his forces there and messing things up for quite some time. This is starting to change, however, with the Stormcast rolling through to help beat the ever loving crap out of anything even remotely diseased looking. Sometimes with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11qDixiNrHk extreme prejudice].

==History==
===Age of Myth===

Alarielle the Everqueen spent this period spreading Soul Pods around the realm like a divine female version of Johnny Appleseed, which would later spawn the [[Sylvaneth]]. She also sang the Song of Life for so damn long that it indoctrinated the Sylvaneth to her ways, and it still echoes around the place in the Age of Sigmar. At one point she cut off one of her hands, gave herself a new one, and the severed limb grew into a Sylvaneth called the Lady of Vines, who was like a daughter to Alarielle and embodied the happy parts of her personality.

At one point undead started popping up in a part of Ghyran where everything went through a cycle of life, death and rebirth and attacking everybody else nearly. Alarielle parleyed with Nagash, letting him have that part as his sovereign territory on the condition that he keep the undead contained to that realm. Nagash agreed to the terms (likely with fingers crossed behind his back).

===Age of Chaos===

This is when Nurgle invaded Ghyran, and the War of Life began, continuing for centuries and into the Age of Sigmar. The Sylvaneth were attacked by the forces of Nurgle and all of their warriors took up arms. The non-combatants [[Grimdark|either learned to fight or died horribly]]. During this time the Alarielle-worshiping aelves inhabiting Ghyran pussied out and fled, abandoning the realm and its people to the forces of Chaos. Enraged, Alarielle declared them exiles and the Sylvaneth have a burning hatred of these aelves, who in time came to be known as the Wanderers. Then it turned out Alarielle had intended to sacrifice all of the wood aelves because apparently only her tree babies deserve to live and the wood aelves should feel thankful to be their meatshields.

Many other mortals that lived in the realm decided it would be better to live under Nurgle than to die from whatever he inflicted, and turned on the Everqueen. Sylvaneth from the other realms rushed in to fight in the war until there were no more reinforcements to be had. At her lowest point, Alarielle even brought back Drycha to help take the fight to Chaos, even though Drycha was a genocidal loose cannon, and even that wasn't enough. Eventually, so many places were destroyed, infested, or corrupted that Alarielle was forced back into the Aethylwyrd, where she presumably pouted about how terribly things had gone. Nurgle couldn't touch her there, so she was content to brood over how shitty a monarch she'd been for the foreseeable future.

===Age of Sigmar===
When Sigmar started to get the band back together, he sent the Hallowed Knights, led by Lord-Castellant Grymn, to go recruit the Everqueen because Sigmar is apparently a lazy dick. However, in doing so, [[fail|they inaadvertently led a bunch of Nurgle's forces right to her, blowing her hiding spot]]. At first she was super pissed at the Stormcast, then realised how much of a puss-bitch she'd been the whole time and decided she could still fight. She also then promptly realised how long she'd left things and became so depressed she basically died, turning into a Soul Pod.

The Hallowed Knights and Alarielle's favored daughter, the Lady of Vines, took her and ran as far from Nurgle as they could manage. Turns out, that wasn't very far, as Torglug the Despised One was waiting for them at Blackstone Summit and ready to finish the job. He killed the Lady of Vines and nearly grabbed Alarielle's Soul Pod before the Stormcast pushed him back. It literally took the Celestant-Prime swooping to the beat Torglug's head in with his lantern (so hard, in fact, that it [https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Stormcast_Eternals#Notable_Stormcasts/ changed his alignment]) to put an end to things, and even then ''so many'' people/tree things had died. It was here that Alarielle's Soul Pod was finally planted and allowed to sprout. And thus Alarielle was reborn, with a cooler outfit and a giant ride-on beetle. All her past wussiness was gone and her cry of rage echoed across the realms with a promise that she was going to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and she's all out of bubblegum. She even regrew the Lady of Vines. [[Awesome|Awesome]].

''And then'' it turns out Sigmar hid some corrupted Black Seeds that grows into Black Oaks which'll ruin Ghyran in stormvaults across the realm without telling Alarielle, which - naturally - the followers of Nurgle have found and are cultivating all over Ghyran.

===Malign Portents===
Alarielle figures that Nagash is planning something big. Refusing to back down like she did against Chaos, Alarielle spurs the Sylvaneth onto the offensive against the forces of death, even sending Drycha and an army to Shyish. Unfortunately, she also learned that Sigmar hid some dark magic plants in her realm, called Black Seeds, after Nurglites discovered them and started cultivating them.

===Broken Realms===
Alarielle starts chatting with Teclis about Nagash's Necroquake and what to do about it and the god-lich behind it. When Teclis has his showdown with Nagash, Alarielle gives him some supernatural support that helps him beat Nagash and send him back to Shyish, tail-bone hanging between his legs.

This is promptly followed by Alarielle enacting a life-based version of the Necroquake called the Rite of <s>Spring</s> Rite of Life. Despite fierce opposition from the forces of Chaos, it's successful, the Oak of Ages (Past) is resurrected and regrows Athel Loren 2.0. Alarielle's own power swells and the forces of Life are finally on the offensive. There was a catch though, as the Rite of Life [[Not As Planned|unintentionally broke the prison of the Destruction-aligned earthquake god]], [[Kragnos|Kragnos]] and resurrected the living continent of Thondia. Two steps forward, one step back.

==Factions Residing in Ghyran==
*'''[[Cities of Sigmar]]:''' There are many Free Cities established here due to the cordial relations between Sigmar and Alarielle, which also served as beachheads during Sigmar's early acts of reclamation. The most significant of these are Hammerhal-Ghyra (Half of the super-city of Hammerhal, with the other half being in [[Aqshy]]), The Living City (Symbol of the trust between both gods), and Greywater Fastness (Industrial capital, though its pollution infuriates nearby Sylvaneth to no end).
*'''[[Idoneth Deepkin]]:''' The enclave of Briomdar has set itself up in the Green Gulch after branching off from the grand enclave of Ionrach. The Green Gulch is an overgrown swamp, giving the spooky elves plenty of practice navigating its depths when not stabbing each other in all sorts of political intrigue.
*'''[[Nurgle|Maggotkin of Nurgle]]:''' As mentioned many times above, Granpappy Nurgle has himself a serious fascination with the realm of Life. As a god of his own perverse sort of life, he wants nothing more to corrupt the verdant life here and his forces just won't stop at anything to make him happy.
*'''[[Sylvaneth]]:''' The obvious natives, being children of the Everqueen herself.
*'''Root-Kings:''' We know ''very'' little about this faction, who have largely been mentioned in passing in various sourcebooks and novels. The Root-Kings are [[dwarf|duardin]] who settled in Ghyran and proceeded to go underground, learning to compensate for the dearth of metal by learning to shape stone and wood to their needs. They're described as reclusive and secretive, being united in clans connected to sacred "Hearth-Trees" and dwelling in underground complexes called "Stone-Oak Citadels". They dye their beards green, wear ironwood tree bark armor and wield devourer plant seedpods for weapons. In battle, they like to surround foes and then crush them like serpents. They suffered terrible casualties during the Age of Chaos, particularly at the hands of the so-called "Woodsman of Nurgle", Torglug the Despised. One could argue they are the Forest [[Gnome]]s of Age of Sigmar, especially since it's unknown if the Gnomes invented for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] 4th edition will ever get absorbed back into Age of Sigmar lore.
*'''Fimir:''' Live on the misty, crescent shaped isle called The Peel.

==Trivia==
* Ghyran has the most settlements of Order after Azyr, and was the place where the first major cities built after the Age of Chaos were established.
* Ghyran produces magical water called Aqua Ghyranis that's super nourishing to plants, one of their chief exports and is the favored currency of the mortal realms. You'd think this would make Ghyran super important in the lore...but since it's not Sigmarines or [[Shyish|edgy]] [[Ghur|enough]], it didn't really have a lot happening following Alarielle awakening from her slumber and bringing the Sylvaneth back in First Edition until she enacted her Rite of Life.
** Now why would this be the central currency of the mortal realms? Well, Aether-Gold holds minimal value to any race that isn't the [[Kharadron Overlords]], the [[Fyreslayers]] jealously guard their Ur-Gold and would rather murder anyone who's seen carrying it rather than bargain for it and using realmstones are volatile to varying degrees and have certain superstitions surrounding them. Also helping is that Aqua Ghyranis serves as not only an emergency potion to heal injuries but also a purifying agent that can help the growth of crops, something that all the forces of order (or at least, those with living populations) rely upon for stability and is held by a steadfast ally of Sigmar.
* Like all of the Eight Realms, Ghyran is prone to bizarre and highly fantastical magical terrain and environmental effects. Mentioned in passing are "life-quakes", which can result in spontaneous, immaculately conceived pregnancies. [[/d/|Male pregnancies, perpetual pregnancies, interspecies pregnancies, turning into a plant]] and more are also implicit things you have to worry about happening to you in this realm, especially if you're stupid enough to try and get close to the Realm's Edge. In all, Ghyran is the most [[Magical Realm|magical]] of the realms.
* The realmstone native to Ghyran is called Cyclestone, such named for its constant and cyclical change from solid jade-like ice to emerald liquid to green gas and back again. This change is of course representative of the cycle of life itself, and for that reason it is both fiercely guarded by Sylvaneth and coveted by various other races - chiefly being how it might be an ingredient to the ever-valuable Aqua Ghyranis. While it is capable of purifying corruption, it's also quite receptive to corruption in return and is also capable of setting off the various abovementioned unfortunate events.

{{AoS-Realms}}

Ghur

2022-07-13T15:08:59Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: The Gnarlwood

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G’day mates. Welcome to the Australia of the Mortal Realms. Ghur is the Realm of Beasts and one of the most dead ‘ard places you’ll ever find.

Fun note; the name Ghur likely originates from the onomatopoeia for growling, which is "grrrr!"

==Overview==
On the surface, it appears to be absolutely pristine. Clear blue skies. Wide open savannas. Clean water. And herds upon herds of creatures and other magnificent fauna. But that’s only the physical attributes. In actuality, Ghur is what you get if you throw [[Fenris]], [[Flesh Tearers|Cretacia]], [[Nocturne]], and [[Catachan]] together in a foul bowl, add a small dosage of [[Chaos]], mix it together, then eat the whole fucking thing and shit it out.

It is a ''brutal, brutal'' realm, resulting in the creation of equally brutal inhabitants, from Humans and Orruks to creatures almost analogous to [[Tyranids]], even the land may want to get on the action. Mountains will shake to create avalanches in order to destroy a forest that took root there. Rivers slowly chip away at the land around it for more room to flow. Tectonic plates will grind against each other to produce rough and uneven terrain to prevent roaming warbands from traveling across them. Everything here is part of a giant food chain, and everything is simultaneously predator and prey.

The (crazy) people who live in Ghur are master survivalists, typically living in nomadic societies or building small easily movable structures. The few traditional cities tend to build massive spike-traps as moats around their city in order to skewer any giant monster that tries to renact a Godzilla film. If these traps work, the city typically gets enough meat to feed itself for a month. Seers and other mystics have learned how to read the realm’s constantly shifting landscape and create charts that map out when the land will change and how much it changes. Expectedly, said charts are quite expensive and typically only city officials, military commanders, and high level merchants can afford them.

Might makes right is the defining law of the Realm and you’d be a fool not to follow it. Expectedly, the forces of Destruction are the most prevalent here, being the birthplace of the Ironjawz Orruks, the home base for the largest [[Ogor Mawtribes]], and possessing the largest gatherings of [[Sons of Behemat|Gargants]] in any realm. Another noteworthy faction are the [[Beasts Of Chaos|Beastmen]] of the Allherd Greatfray, whose herds are spread to every corner of Ghur and beyond. On each continent of Ghur can be found herdstones or other ruinous glyphs depicting the conquests of the Beastmen, reminding everyone just how far their influence is.

Gorkamorka is in charge of this realm, but in this case it's less because of a harmonious bond - though Gorkamorka's primal nature resonates with Ghur - but due to the fact that Gorkamorka is the strongest being native to the realm.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of Stormcasts in the tribal and barbaric Astral Templars trace their former mortal lives to this Realm.

==History==
While the other Realms had near existential crises over the Age of Chaos, Ghur basically looked at the incoming Chaos hordes and said “Fuck yeah! Christmas came early!” The natives of Ghur were ecstatic to have fresh bodies to fight against and new food to hunt. Over time and numerous Chaos Vanguards, the people become stronger and hardier. This is best exemplified with the Orruks, who would become so strong and big that they would eventually become the very first [[Ironjawz]].

==Notable Locations/Regions==
===[[Warhammer Underworlds|Beastgrave]]===
A colossal and ominous living mountain made from the corpses of (presumably) dead god beasts. Those who gaze upon its looming visage are filled with mixed feelings of curiosity and repulsion. It’s described as a Lovecraftian nightmare; an eldritch place with a will of its own that calls to many people far and wide through dreams/visions, beckoning them to come to Beastgrave to claim fame, fortune, or whatever it is that person wants most. Those hapless few that do heed the call will find themselves wandering endlessly in its cavernous interior, either killed by other adventurers or by Beastgrave itself and consumed. It’s kind of like FB’s [[Ogre Kingdoms|Great Maw]] in a sense, the comparisons becoming more apparent when you meet the primitive tribe of Neanderthals that live at the base of Beastgrave and regularly offer live sacrifices to the mountain. Most recently, the mountain has become even more treacherous when Nagash’s Necroquake shook the Realms and caused the cursed city of Shadespire to meld with Beastgrave. Now the immortal denizens of the Shyish city stalk the mountain, rousing long dead corpses within Beastgrave and drawing more potential prey into its insatiable insides. However, the sheer amount of death magic suddenly appearing in its cavernous guts caused Beastgrave to basically vomit up pools of viscous Amber, revealing its deepest and most treacherous passages collectively called Direchasm.

===[[Ogor Mawtribes|The Great Gutfort]]===
The mountainous fortress of the Meatfist Mawtribe located on the continent of Thondia in the Ghurish Heartlands. While it’s of course a place of great reverence for the Ogors, most natives of Ghur will turn to face the gluttonous bastion in respect.
Warglutts and Alfrostuns regularly leave its gates on raids and then return with heaps of treasure and food. All the loot is gathered together by the Overtyrant Globb Glittermaw and then used to throw celebratory feasts to flaunt their wealth. The Gutfort itself has been targeted on numerous occasions by [[Slaves to Darkness|Chaos hordes]], [[Stormcast Eternals|Stormcast chambers]], [[Ossiarch Bonereapers|Ossirarch legions]], and even rival Mawtribes. Its defense is handled by the lesser tribes/gatherings of Ogors in the Meatfist; only the most prestigious are allowed on the mawpath alongside Globb, who is seldom actually seen at his own Gutfort since he’s constantly out raiding.

===[[Cities of Sigmar|Excelsis]]===
Home base of the Knights Excelsior and one of the most zealous places of worship to the Hammer God. Located on the continent of Thondia, it is a very “black and white” morality place where no quarter is given for even the tiniest hint of infidelity, and all loyalists must constantly prove their zealotry to the point where flagellants look rational in comparison. Funnily enough, the city has been targeted by several chaos forces, from Slaanesh manipulating the Stormcast garrison to “purge the city of all heretics” to break one of the chains imprisoning him, to numerous Tzeentch cabals plotting the city’s downfall. Most recently, the city was attacked from below by a Skaven invasion, before being besieged by the Great Waaagh! of Gordrakk and the newly awakened [[Kragnos]]. And while THAT was going down, a Slaaneshi cult rose up too and attacked the city from within. It was only thanks to the surprise arrival of Lord Kroak and Morathi-Khaine that the sea of enemies was parted, though Excelsis has since been decimated.

===Sascathran Desert===
A vast plain of shifting sand dotted with ruins of long past civilizations. The real point of interest though is what lies beneath, the hive-like catacombs and fortresses the Avengori Dynasty call home. From this underground kingdom, the Vengorian Lords strike out to hunt monsters and slake their thirst. Not too far out from the desert is the shattered remains of a free city called the Collonade, serving as a warning to anyone who tries to betray the Avengorii.

===The Gnarlwood===
Jungle of carnivorous plants in Ghur's heartland in Thondia, created from a crashed Seraphin temple ship. Currently being fought over by the Horns of Hashut and Rotmire Creed.

==Bestiary==
*'''Vulture-stings''': Named by Herdchief Groth the Rootcutter, these dog-sized bees will inject venom into live prey and then follow them until the prey expires. Then the droning insects feast upon the corpse. Additionally, like real insects, they are fond of sweet nectar like substances, like the blood-sap of [[Sylvaneth]]. They have some instinctive ‘honor system’, as when a vulture-sting chooses/stings a target, no other scavenger will attempt to steal its prize.
*'''Snarlfangs''': Large wolves with venomous saliva they use to enfeeble prey. The Gitmob Grots will steal newborn snarlfangs and use them as savage mounts. Each wolf and rider are bound together when the snarlfang pup first meets its Grot rider. However this won’t stop the snarlfangs from turning on the grots should they be provoked enough.
*'''Puffed Spinetoad''': A venomous amphibian that secretes toxic slime from the row of spikes on its back. Said slime is commonly harvested for coating blades and arrow tips.

==Trivia==
* The realmstone of Ghur is called Amberbone due to its cosmetic similarity to actual bones except for its faint glow. Being a manifestation of the realm's magic, Amberbone is capable of corrupting those who touch it. At the weakest, this might just channel some innate primal aggression, but its most extreme cases involve people transforming into savage monsters.

==Gallery==
<Gallery>
Ghurish Hinterlands.jpeg
Ghur map 2.jpeg
Ghur 01.png
</Gallery>
{{AoS-Realms}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Orc

2022-07-13T07:13:55Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Gallery */

[[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 somewhat smaller than 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 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.
* 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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::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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::+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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* +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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* +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.
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::+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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::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.
</div></div>

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]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
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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.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
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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
</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.
</gallery>

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

Orc

2022-07-13T07:12:53Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Gallery */

[[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 somewhat smaller than 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 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.
* 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
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::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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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+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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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+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:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+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
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<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
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<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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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+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.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<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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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::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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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
'''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.
</div></div>

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]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
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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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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::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
</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
</gallery>

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

Rangda

2022-07-13T06:04:15Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: More info

{{Wh40k-stub}}
Psychic brain-eating Fox People who nearly destroyed the Imperium at one point, now extinct. Had the capability of one individual mentally enslaving nearly a planet's worth of humans, and making use of genetically engineered warbeasts.

{{Template:Important Species in 40k}}
[[Category:Minor Xenos Species]]

Snotling

2022-07-12T21:01:37Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: Pallid Snotlings

[[File:Snotling Art Main.jpg|right|400px]]
'''Snotlings''' (''Orkus serverum'') are the diminutive greenskins of [[Warhammer Fantasy]] and [[Warhammer 40000]]. A punishment for [[White Dwarf]] writers used to be being forced to paint a 5,000 point Snotling army. They're that bad.

==Fantasy==
Generally left to their own devices, Snotlings do not fit into the traditional [[Orcs & Goblins]] hierarchy. Goblins torture them, like they do all things smaller and weaker than themselves, and Orcs will bully them into work for the same reason. In the latter scenario, Snotlings eagerly do as they are told with a full intent to please. Their lack of intelligence severely limits their helpfulness however, as an Orc demanding they bring him his favorite short stabba will receive everything but, and belonging to everyone else in his group. Many Orcs find their simplicity and willingness to cooperate endearing, luckily, naming them and keeping their favorites nearby. Foul-tempered Orcs and Squigs may still react with hostility and even hunger towards them.

While Snotlings don't build the elaborate (for greenskin) structures that Goblins do, and have never been seen smithing alongside [[Black Orc]]s, they do possess a sense of ingenuity. Even among Savage Orcs they will scavenge wood and metal, assembling devices commonly known as "Pump Wagons" which are a Snotling-powered Snotling delivery system resembling [[METAL BOXES|wooden bawkses]], getting them into fights faster than their kin and doing much more damage to enemies than most greenskins will survive to do.

They are relatives of [[Gnoblar]], a race of greenskins who are only marginally bigger than the Snotlings which serve [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogres]] in the same way common Snotlings serve Orcs and Goblins. It’s debatable on which is actually smarter, but considering Gnoblars do have [[Gnoblar Horde: The Unwashed Masses|their own faction]], our bet’s on the Gnoblars.

==40k==

[[File:Snotling_redeployment_by_albe75-d81w8c1.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Snotlings encountering their more common fate in war. Note that this is not entirely accurate, as Snotlings are not smart enough to run away in this situation.]]
Oh boy, you thought [[Grot|Gretchins]] get no respect? Snotlings are figuratively (and sometimes literally) the icky paste at the bottom of the barrel of the Ork hierarchy. Viewed as nothing more than diminutive and immature Gretchins, these poor slobs get picked on and bullied by everyone within Ork society; even the wimpiest of Grots still have some form of use beyond cannon fodder.

To make things short, life for a Snotling is even worse than for a Grot. Their role in an Ork ecosystem is essentially to be caretakers of fungi and [[Squig]]s, and double as the primary food source for said squigs. While Gretchins form the overall 'middle-class' and second-class citizens, Snotlings are below third-class citizens, somewhere between dogs and dog ''food.'' And unlike their somewhat larger and more cunning cousins, Snotlings are as dumb as a brick, noted to behave more on animalistic instincts than raw independent intellect. These guys are the dudes that just have to be pitied.

There are rumors among the larger Gretchin that Snotlings are the direct descendants of the "Brain Boyz" ([[Old Ones (Warhammer)|the Old Ones]], who created the Orks). Supposedly they grew weaker and weaker after the War in Heaven until they were enslaved by their own servant race. Some Orks believe it might be true, others think it's just a folk tale the Gretchin tell themselves to feel better, and neither camp actually ''cares'' if it's true as long as the Gretchin get back to work.

==Age of Sigmar==
Were present in the now squatted Gitmob Grots Destruction faction. In a recent story, Krenkha Gorogna, the Grot Scuttlings of the Skyshoals, referred to as "Scuttlers" perhaps linking them to the Grotbag Scuttler sky pirate grots, are said to have a population of "pallid" Snotlings living amongst them.

===Battlefield Roles===
Cannon fodders' cannon fodder, that's it. Snotlings are so useless in a battlefield that even Grots consider them as cannon fodder. Since they're simpletons, they are often armed with very basic (we mean '''''very basic''''') weaponry such as sticks, sharp glass or a wet sock. Obviously they would deal as much threat as a very angry kitten; fortunately though, they come in ludicrous numbers, resulting often in drowning their enemies in blood and bodies.

Sometimes an Ork with a [[Shokk Attack Gun]] may use any unfortunate Snotlings as ammunition, since a Gretchin is actually smart enough to notice the danger while a Snotling is often too dumb to realize what is going on until it is too late. Often (if they are fortunate) the resulting Snotlings, after being transported through the [[Warp]], lose what little sanity they have and start to attack anything like a rabid dog once they get kicked out of literal space hell; sometimes however they may just come out in [[RIP AND TEAR|ludicrous gibs]] or cease to exist all together.

===Why it sucks to be a Snotling===
[[File:Latest-1Snotling.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Meet the most pitiful race to ever come out of WH40K.]]
*You're at the literal bottom of the food chain.
*You have almost no use at all.
**Of what little use you have is often ignored completely.
*You are dog food for a vast majority of cultivated [[Squig|Squigs.]]
**You cultivated the squig that ate you.
*Even Gretchins bully you.
*When you fall asleep in the fungus gardens, the next thing you realize once you wake up is that you are suddenly turned into a [[Fungus|'snotroom'.]]
**Yes even simple fungi are more likely to see you as food.
===Why it still sucks to be a Snotling===
*You're as dumb as a brick and won't notice anything until it is too late.
*You're nothing more than ammunition in the battlefield.
*You're considered the cannon fodder of the cannon fodders in the battlefield.
**Seriously, you are going up against Titans, tanks and supersoldiers with a stick and a piece of glass. Even Grots get to use knives and the occasional gun.
*You may get accidentally stepped/crushed on and nobody would even notice you, let alone care.
*You look like a Gretchin fetus.
*You will grow up to be the size of a house cat.
**The house cat is higher on the food chain than you.
*The myriad variations of "Kick the Snotling" are among the more popular between WAAAGH! activities of your superiors.
*To say that [[Ripper|Rippers]] (the lowest Tyranid creature) are the Tyranid equivalent of Snotlings is somewhat disingenuous, given that Rippers eat Snotlings.

==On The Tabletop==
===Fantasy===
Snotlings fulfill the useful [[Tarpit]] role using their 5 Wounds and low point cost, although in an army where theoretically anything can fill that function they stand out by being Immune to Psychology due to being a Swarm, and having them wiped out (which is quite likely as they have little to no survivability) does not panic your other troops.

They have a weak ranged attack involving exploding spores they can use that ignores Armor, although it is unlikely to do meaningful damage in most situations at only S2.

Pump Wagons are far more useful, showing up in many [[Netlist]]s due to their high damage and ability to charge models without allowing a reaction move. They are fragile, but with target mitigation using enough Squigs you can easily force most opponents to pick their poison between the two.

===40k===
Shokk attack gun ammo. That's literally it.

== Gobbledigook ==
One of the few named Snotling characters in Warhammer history, Gobbledigook was a recurring character in White Dwarf who made appearances in Warhammer Fantasy, Blood Bowl, and Warhammer 40K. He was accompanied by a small, fuzzy black squig named Niblitz.

== Gallery ==

<gallery>
Image:Snotling Models.png|The no longer available Snotling miniatures.
Image:Snotling GW Ad.jpg|The original ad for Snotling swarms.
Image:Snotling Pump Wagon Model.jpg|The current Snotling Pump Wagon model.
Image:Snotling Pump Wagon Old.jpg|The old Snotling Pump Wagon model.
Image:Snotling Vidya.jpg|A Snotling from the Warhammer Fantasy MMO.
Image:Snotling Pump Wagon Art 1.png|Snotling Pump Wagon art.
</gallery>

[[Category: Warhammer Fantasy]]

[[Category: Orcs & Goblins]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Orks]]

[[Category: Feral Orks]]

{{Template:Orks-Forces}}

Grand Alliance: Destruction

2022-07-12T20:58:41Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Grots */

{{Delete}}

Led by that big git Megaboss Gordrakk of the Ironjawz, the Grand Alliance of Destruction is comprised of terrible beasties from all across the realms, joined by their affinities to Gorkamorka. Primarily dominates the Realm of [[Ghur]].

==Aleguzzler Gargants==
You spot a huge, terrifying, slobbering giant, wielding what appears to be a fairly venerable tree and about to turn you into tomato puree. What is the first thing you remember? Their fondness for drink, apparently. Named after their tendency to MUI (Murder Under the Influence), Aleguzzler Gargants spend their days getting completely wasted and then wandering into battlefields. They then stagger around the mayhem, plucking out strange meats and eating it on the go (like your local kebab shop) or shoving it down their pants for safekeeping (again, like your local kebab shop). Forgeworld has the Bonegrinder Giant, which is bigger, meaner, and drunker, like your dad. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Aleguzzler Gargants|here]].

==Grots==
As sneaky and crafty as ever. Now even further down the green totem pole with even bigger greenskins about.

'''Gitmob''' - Every Grot faction has a thing, and the Gitmob's thing is wolves. Even apart from Wolf Chariots and Wolf Riders, the Gitmob gets the most units out of the little greens, and more of an ability to make a balanced army. Led by Shamans (who can also ride wolves), as well as Goblin (Grot?) Warbosses who can also ride wolves, they have some fun artillery pieces and the trollish Nasty Skulkers in their arsenal. Also... [[Snotling|Snotlings]], I guess. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Gitmob Grots|here]].

'''Moonclan''' - As before, these gents are generally still fanatical, squig-humping nutters. Have access to the Colossal Squig, when it takes a break from eating them. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Moonclan Grots|here]].

'''Scuttlings''' - Weird Grots with four legs. You'd think that these half-spider gits would be in with that Spiderfang lot, but nope. Get poison and web attacks. A bunch took a severely wrong turn and unfortunately ended up in Tzeentch's [[Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower|Silver Tower]]. According to a recent story, Krenkha Gorogna, the Scuttlings of the Skyshoals are referred to as "Scuttlers". It is unknown if this links them to being the same as the Grotbag Scuttlers grot sky pirates.

'''Spiderfang''' - Spider-botherers. You get a spider, and you get a spider! Everybody gets a spider! Their Big Bosses ride atop gigantic spiders, and they have access to the mighty Arachnarok Spider. Also, lots of lovely poison attacks. Tactics page [[age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Spiderfang Grots|here]].

'''Gloomspite Gitz''' - A [[Gloomspite Gitz|loose coalition]] of the Moonclans, Spiderfangs, Troggoths (and Gargants) that all worships the Bad Moon. Current posterboys of the Destruction faction. Tactics page [[age of Sigmar/Tactics/Destruction/Gloomspite Gitz|here]].

==Ogors==
The fat bastards are back, and in a fair few flavours! Apart from their old [[Ogre Kingdoms|kingdoms]], the big lugs remain the same - hungry, belligerent and fat.

'''Beastclaw Raiders''' - [[Beastclaw Raiders|Ogors riding big monsters]], eternally chased by an enchanted winter. Wherever they go, shrinkage occurs. Have a total of one Ogor unit that isn't mounted on something big and nasty, with everything else being additional beasties to support them. Outdated tactics for these frosty boys [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Beastclaw Raiders|here]].

'''Ogor Mawtribes''' - [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogre Kingdoms, now in Travelling Packages!]] Contains all the old Ogre units (including the Beastclaw Raiders) and a host of different tribes, like the Underguts who are pale and love cannons. Firebellies and Maneaters are featured here as well. You can find their tactics here: [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Destruction/Ogor Mawtribes]].

==Orruks==
Still green. Still mean. Still ready to Waaagh!

'''Greenskinz''' - Oh, how the Boyz have fallen. This faction is comprised of the dregs of the Orruks, mashed into the category of "Greenskins". Led by Warbosses, who are probably a bit cheesed off that they've shifted down a couple of notches on the green scale. Better kick that Grot extra hard to relieve your size envy issues when them Ironjawz lads start laughing at you and your stunty mates. On the bright side, your army is more balanced, with decent ranged options and the choice of having your Warboss ride a Wyvern or Warboar. You've also got lighter (and cheaper) cavalry and chariots to play with, at that. You also have a good bank of old school Orc Warboss special characters to draw from in the Orcs and Goblins Compendium on the GW website. In terms of fluff, these guys are basically the recruiting pool for the other two Orruk factions. Particularly 'ard lads get a bunch of armour scraped together and go off to be footmen for the Ironjawz as 'ardboyz. Gits that feel the call of the Waaaagh! a bit too much or kill a big monster and go a bit mental afterwards go and wander for a bit until they find some Bonesplitterz. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Greenskinz|here]].

'''Bonesplitterz''' - The [[Bonesplitterz|"savage" Orruks]]. Because your run-of-the-mill Orruk wants to drink tea and discuss politics, right? The Bonesplitterz are led by shamans (Wurrgog Prophets and Wardoks), who point them to big and mean monsters to kill and eat in order to consume their strength. You see, the Bonesplitterz believe that Gorkamorka's strength is squirreled away in the living shells of big monsters, meaning that they need to RIP AND TEAR! They have a bunch of options for taking out Monster units on the table, which is handy if your opponent thinks he's clever for spamming them. These guys are as naked as the day they were spawned, with only strategically-placed trophies covering their spore sacks. They have a thing for magical tattoos, which have a chance of saving their green skins from getting mulched. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Bonesplitterz|here]].

'''Ironjawz''' - Remember those dead 'ard [[Black Orc]] gits from [[Warhammer Fantasy|way back when]]? Those are the [[Ironjawz]]' basic troops. Yeah. These are the biggest and the baddest Orruks, and the "main" Destruction faction. They wear a crap-ton of armour, and generally their bigger lads seem to be the fantasy answer to Warhammer 40k's [[Meganobz]]. Also present: huge, beasty dragon things called Mawkrushas, who share the Orruk traits of headbutting things until they stop moving, and then sitting on them. With [[Grimgor Ironhide|Grimgor]] gone, Megaboss [[Gordrakk]] has big boots to fill. Luckily, he's got some big feet, which are ready for stompin'. You're quite slow (which is deceptively to your advantage as you have a massive potential charge range) and no ranged options whatsoever, barring the shout attack that Mawkrushas get. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Ironjawz|here]].

'''Kruleboyz''' - Composed of a new subspecies of Orruk adapted for the treacherous swamps of Ghur, the [[Kruleboyz]] are (unusually for Orruks) incredibly pragmatic, sneaky, and... well, cruel. These boyz utilize all sorts of guerrilla and terror tactics, from poisoned weapons to camouflaged traps and ambushes to chemical warfare.

==Troggoths==
Includes the Sourbreath (stupid), Rockgut (magic resistant), and Fellwater (bulimic). All of them spew buckets at the drop of a hat and melt anyone stupid enough to stand in front of it. Have the Troll (Troggoth?) Hag as a Leader option, so that you may seduce your opponent with the delicate sway of her sausage-like tits. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Troggoths|here]].

==Fimir==
[[Fimir|Swamp rapists]] return! This time with less rape, hopefully.

The Fimir originate from Ghyran on an island called Peel and appear to be virtually the same outside of the abandonment of pseudo-celtic names for their society. Instead of a Maergh they follow a Matriarch, which seems to follow the exact same idea. They live on a shitty island and appear to have completely been abandoned by Chaos, again. Their survival into the new realms means that someone had to have re-seeded them, though whether it was a pity move by the Chaos Gods or just because they like to watch them suffer in their eternal role as the red-headed stepchild is unknown.

They've tossed themselves in with the Grand Alliance of Destruction instead of aligning with Chaos, possibly either having forgotten their origins or just tired of playing second fiddle in Chaos' eyes. They don't appear to breed by rape or anything of the sort anymore as their warscroll specifically refers to them being hatched from eggs.

==Pantheon==
'''Gorkamorka''' - The combined form of Gork and Mork, mirroring the true potential of the numerous Destruction races when united under a common cause/iron fist. Otherwise, when they're divided and fighting, Gork and Mork split and fight each other too. The Orruks worship him by assaulting bulwarks of civilisation, leaving great effigies in his image cobbled together from lumber, scrap and dung. To the Gutbuster Ogors, he is The Great Beast who will Consume the World, and they worship him by working towards eating everything within the Mortal Realms. The Firebelly tribes revere him as the Sun-eater, and honour him by eating as much combustible material as possible to incinerate their enemies with flaming breath.

'''[[Mork]]''' - Brutal but cunnin'. Will hit you hard when you're not looking.

'''[[Gork]]''' - Cunnin' but brutal. Will hit you even harder when you are.

'''Bad Moon''' - The deity of those sneaky Moonclan Grot (and [[Gloomspite Gitz]]). They believe that Gorkamorka tried to take a bite out of the Bad Moon and broke his teef, which rained down upon the Mortal Realms and became the mountains in which they dwell.

'''The [[Spider-god]]''' - Worshipped by the venomous Spiderfang Grots. Bit Gorkamorka on the toe and took on some of his divine essence as a result.

'''Balor''' - Daemon Prince worshipped by Fimir.

'''Kroll''' - Daemon Prince worshipped by Fimir.

'''Lisaart''' - Daemon Prince worshipped by Fimir.

'''[[Morr]]''' - Worshipped by Fimir.

'''[[Kragnos]]''' - The god of earthquakes a being sealed in the age of myth but has returned and is ranked second only to Gorkamorka in reverence by the forces of destruction.

[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Grand Alliance: Destruction

2022-07-12T20:55:44Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: Sky Pirate Spidergrots

{{Delete}}

Led by that big git Megaboss Gordrakk of the Ironjawz, the Grand Alliance of Destruction is comprised of terrible beasties from all across the realms, joined by their affinities to Gorkamorka. Primarily dominates the Realm of [[Ghur]].

==Aleguzzler Gargants==
You spot a huge, terrifying, slobbering giant, wielding what appears to be a fairly venerable tree and about to turn you into tomato puree. What is the first thing you remember? Their fondness for drink, apparently. Named after their tendency to MUI (Murder Under the Influence), Aleguzzler Gargants spend their days getting completely wasted and then wandering into battlefields. They then stagger around the mayhem, plucking out strange meats and eating it on the go (like your local kebab shop) or shoving it down their pants for safekeeping (again, like your local kebab shop). Forgeworld has the Bonegrinder Giant, which is bigger, meaner, and drunker, like your dad. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Aleguzzler Gargants|here]].

==Grots==
As sneaky and crafty as ever. Now even further down the green totem pole with even bigger greenskins about.

'''Gitmob''' - Every Grot faction has a thing, and the Gitmob's thing is wolves. Even apart from Wolf Chariots and Wolf Riders, the Gitmob gets the most units out of the little greens, and more of an ability to make a balanced army. Led by Shamans (who can also ride wolves), as well as Goblin (Grot?) Warbosses who can also ride wolves, they have some fun artillery pieces and the trollish Nasty Skulkers in their arsenal. Also... [[Snotling|Snotlings]], I guess. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Gitmob Grots|here]].

'''Moonclan''' - As before, these gents are generally still fanatical, squig-humping nutters. Have access to the Colossal Squig, when it takes a break from eating them. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Moonclan Grots|here]].

'''Scuttlings''' - Weird Grots with four legs. You'd think that these half-spider gits would be in with that Spiderfang lot, but nope. Get poison and web attacks. A bunch took a severely wrong turn and unfortunately ended up in Tzeentch's [[Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower|Silver Tower]]. According to a recent story, Krenkha Gorogna, the Scuttlings and the Grotbag Scuttler sky pirates are one and the same. So Half-Grot-Half-Spider Sky-Pirates.

'''Spiderfang''' - Spider-botherers. You get a spider, and you get a spider! Everybody gets a spider! Their Big Bosses ride atop gigantic spiders, and they have access to the mighty Arachnarok Spider. Also, lots of lovely poison attacks. Tactics page [[age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Spiderfang Grots|here]].

'''Gloomspite Gitz''' - A [[Gloomspite Gitz|loose coalition]] of the Moonclans, Spiderfangs, Troggoths (and Gargants) that all worships the Bad Moon. Current posterboys of the Destruction faction. Tactics page [[age of Sigmar/Tactics/Destruction/Gloomspite Gitz|here]].

==Ogors==
The fat bastards are back, and in a fair few flavours! Apart from their old [[Ogre Kingdoms|kingdoms]], the big lugs remain the same - hungry, belligerent and fat.

'''Beastclaw Raiders''' - [[Beastclaw Raiders|Ogors riding big monsters]], eternally chased by an enchanted winter. Wherever they go, shrinkage occurs. Have a total of one Ogor unit that isn't mounted on something big and nasty, with everything else being additional beasties to support them. Outdated tactics for these frosty boys [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Beastclaw Raiders|here]].

'''Ogor Mawtribes''' - [[Ogre Kingdoms|Ogre Kingdoms, now in Travelling Packages!]] Contains all the old Ogre units (including the Beastclaw Raiders) and a host of different tribes, like the Underguts who are pale and love cannons. Firebellies and Maneaters are featured here as well. You can find their tactics here: [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Destruction/Ogor Mawtribes]].

==Orruks==
Still green. Still mean. Still ready to Waaagh!

'''Greenskinz''' - Oh, how the Boyz have fallen. This faction is comprised of the dregs of the Orruks, mashed into the category of "Greenskins". Led by Warbosses, who are probably a bit cheesed off that they've shifted down a couple of notches on the green scale. Better kick that Grot extra hard to relieve your size envy issues when them Ironjawz lads start laughing at you and your stunty mates. On the bright side, your army is more balanced, with decent ranged options and the choice of having your Warboss ride a Wyvern or Warboar. You've also got lighter (and cheaper) cavalry and chariots to play with, at that. You also have a good bank of old school Orc Warboss special characters to draw from in the Orcs and Goblins Compendium on the GW website. In terms of fluff, these guys are basically the recruiting pool for the other two Orruk factions. Particularly 'ard lads get a bunch of armour scraped together and go off to be footmen for the Ironjawz as 'ardboyz. Gits that feel the call of the Waaaagh! a bit too much or kill a big monster and go a bit mental afterwards go and wander for a bit until they find some Bonesplitterz. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Greenskinz|here]].

'''Bonesplitterz''' - The [[Bonesplitterz|"savage" Orruks]]. Because your run-of-the-mill Orruk wants to drink tea and discuss politics, right? The Bonesplitterz are led by shamans (Wurrgog Prophets and Wardoks), who point them to big and mean monsters to kill and eat in order to consume their strength. You see, the Bonesplitterz believe that Gorkamorka's strength is squirreled away in the living shells of big monsters, meaning that they need to RIP AND TEAR! They have a bunch of options for taking out Monster units on the table, which is handy if your opponent thinks he's clever for spamming them. These guys are as naked as the day they were spawned, with only strategically-placed trophies covering their spore sacks. They have a thing for magical tattoos, which have a chance of saving their green skins from getting mulched. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Bonesplitterz|here]].

'''Ironjawz''' - Remember those dead 'ard [[Black Orc]] gits from [[Warhammer Fantasy|way back when]]? Those are the [[Ironjawz]]' basic troops. Yeah. These are the biggest and the baddest Orruks, and the "main" Destruction faction. They wear a crap-ton of armour, and generally their bigger lads seem to be the fantasy answer to Warhammer 40k's [[Meganobz]]. Also present: huge, beasty dragon things called Mawkrushas, who share the Orruk traits of headbutting things until they stop moving, and then sitting on them. With [[Grimgor Ironhide|Grimgor]] gone, Megaboss [[Gordrakk]] has big boots to fill. Luckily, he's got some big feet, which are ready for stompin'. You're quite slow (which is deceptively to your advantage as you have a massive potential charge range) and no ranged options whatsoever, barring the shout attack that Mawkrushas get. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Ironjawz|here]].

'''Kruleboyz''' - Composed of a new subspecies of Orruk adapted for the treacherous swamps of Ghur, the [[Kruleboyz]] are (unusually for Orruks) incredibly pragmatic, sneaky, and... well, cruel. These boyz utilize all sorts of guerrilla and terror tactics, from poisoned weapons to camouflaged traps and ambushes to chemical warfare.

==Troggoths==
Includes the Sourbreath (stupid), Rockgut (magic resistant), and Fellwater (bulimic). All of them spew buckets at the drop of a hat and melt anyone stupid enough to stand in front of it. Have the Troll (Troggoth?) Hag as a Leader option, so that you may seduce your opponent with the delicate sway of her sausage-like tits. Tactics page [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.1/Troggoths|here]].

==Fimir==
[[Fimir|Swamp rapists]] return! This time with less rape, hopefully.

The Fimir originate from Ghyran on an island called Peel and appear to be virtually the same outside of the abandonment of pseudo-celtic names for their society. Instead of a Maergh they follow a Matriarch, which seems to follow the exact same idea. They live on a shitty island and appear to have completely been abandoned by Chaos, again. Their survival into the new realms means that someone had to have re-seeded them, though whether it was a pity move by the Chaos Gods or just because they like to watch them suffer in their eternal role as the red-headed stepchild is unknown.

They've tossed themselves in with the Grand Alliance of Destruction instead of aligning with Chaos, possibly either having forgotten their origins or just tired of playing second fiddle in Chaos' eyes. They don't appear to breed by rape or anything of the sort anymore as their warscroll specifically refers to them being hatched from eggs.

==Pantheon==
'''Gorkamorka''' - The combined form of Gork and Mork, mirroring the true potential of the numerous Destruction races when united under a common cause/iron fist. Otherwise, when they're divided and fighting, Gork and Mork split and fight each other too. The Orruks worship him by assaulting bulwarks of civilisation, leaving great effigies in his image cobbled together from lumber, scrap and dung. To the Gutbuster Ogors, he is The Great Beast who will Consume the World, and they worship him by working towards eating everything within the Mortal Realms. The Firebelly tribes revere him as the Sun-eater, and honour him by eating as much combustible material as possible to incinerate their enemies with flaming breath.

'''[[Mork]]''' - Brutal but cunnin'. Will hit you hard when you're not looking.

'''[[Gork]]''' - Cunnin' but brutal. Will hit you even harder when you are.

'''Bad Moon''' - The deity of those sneaky Moonclan Grot (and [[Gloomspite Gitz]]). They believe that Gorkamorka tried to take a bite out of the Bad Moon and broke his teef, which rained down upon the Mortal Realms and became the mountains in which they dwell.

'''The [[Spider-god]]''' - Worshipped by the venomous Spiderfang Grots. Bit Gorkamorka on the toe and took on some of his divine essence as a result.

'''Balor''' - Daemon Prince worshipped by Fimir.

'''Kroll''' - Daemon Prince worshipped by Fimir.

'''Lisaart''' - Daemon Prince worshipped by Fimir.

'''[[Morr]]''' - Worshipped by Fimir.

'''[[Kragnos]]''' - The god of earthquakes a being sealed in the age of myth but has returned and is ranked second only to Gorkamorka in reverence by the forces of destruction.

[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Centaur

2022-07-12T20:30:25Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Warhammer Fantasy */

[[File:Elmore Lyra.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Female Centaurs: attractive but anatomically frustrating]]
The '''Centaurs''' are a race of mythical creatures from Greek [[mythology]], best known for being a literal mix of man and horse - they have a human's upper torso (that is, the body from the top of the hips up to the top of the head) replacing the head. They're also noted for being horny bastards and massive drunks. Centaurs were one of the less important monsters of their myths, with only a handful of references. Even so, they did get a constellation, and appear in various fantasy settings throughout the world now.

=Who ''were'' they?=
In their creation myth, the centaurs were descended from a mythical culture called the Lapiths, via their douchebag king Ixion. In short, Ixion was an asshole who murdered his father-in-law by burning the dude alive - [[Heresy|a ''huge'' no-no for the Greeks]]. Somehow, Zeus decided to be a super-chill guy, and not only forgave Ixion, but actually brought the asshole to Olympus to have dinner with the gods. Did Ixion realize just how lucky he was? Nope; asshole started eyeing Zeus's wife/sister, Hera. Zeus got suspicious, so he made a double for Hera out of clouds, called Nephele, and had her take Hera's place serving Ixion some dinner. Ixion promptly attacked and raped Nephele, for which Zeus smote his ass with a lightning bolt, then tied his spirit to a burning wheel and sent it spinning endlessly through the "sky" of Tartarus. Nephele got pregnant and her kids were fucking half-horse somehow.

Ironically, one of the Centaur myths describes their interactions with the Lapiths. The Lapiths invited the Centaurs to one of their weddings, and then things went haywire very, very fast. Though the Centaurs had been benevolent beforehand, the copious amounts of wine being served got them all drunk, which meant they turned on a plate during the wedding, trying to rape the women and kill the men of the Lapiths. This ended up as one huge brawl, ending with a Lapith victory. This was the Greek way of saying [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|"Hey, nature? You suck."]]

Chiron, a great healer and teacher of heroes in Greek myth, was a rare case of a friendly centaur. The constellation Sagittarius is rendered in Chiron's image. Consequently, the prefix "sagittar-" is commonly used to denote centaurs, blissfully ignorant of the fact that "sagittarius" translates to "archer" (Chiron's favorite way of killing shit) in ''Latin'', not "centaur".

A centaur by the name of Nessus was also responsible for slaying Hercules (original Greek name Heracles). Nessus tried to kidnap Hercules's wife Diania to rape her at his leisure, and Hercules shot him with one of his poisoned arrows that was dipped in the Hydra's blood for it. As he was dying, he told Hercules' wife to secretly soak a cloak in his blood, promising that if Hercules' eye started to wander, all she'd have to do is make him wear it and he'd fall back in love with her, failing to mentioned that his blood was now poisoned by the arrow. She believed him, but the gory cape drove Hercules mad with pain, as the cloak burned his skin to the bone. He simply burned himself alive on a funeral pyre that he built in order to find relief.

If you want to know about the real world origin of the Centaur, well, consider where Greece is. Go too much farther north and your hit the Ukrainian and Russian Steppe, where the horse was first domesticated and where nomadic tribesmen practically learned to ride before they could walk. It's believed that the early Greeks saw either early horsemen or the first horsemen at a distance and could not understand that they were looking at a human ON an animal (a distinction that the Spanish report the Aztec had trouble grasping), and instead saw a horse with the top half of a man. And thus the Centaurs were born.

=Biology=
Centaurs are a fascinating example of a complete [[/d/|can of worms]] when looked at from a scientific standpoint, mainly because the way the Centaur is structured consists of two torsos (removing the horse torso would make it a [[Satyr]], removing the human torso would make it a horse-themed [[Sphinx]]).

In theory, a centaur has two different sets of ribcages. Depending on how the setting has the internal anatomy work, a centaur could have two pairs of lungs, two hearts, an extra stomach and possible extra intestine leading to the horse stomachs, two livers, two sets of kidneys, and most anatomy exclusive to both dedicated carnivores and to dedicated herbivores. If this version of Centaur actually existed, it would possibly be the most unspecialized and least energy-efficient creature in the setting. More often however, the human half is explained to have large lungs and a large heart while the rest of the anatomy is contained within the horse half. This presents the problem of having a ridiculously long esophagus which has an elevated risk of choking while the Heimlich Maneuver would have greatly reduced ability to save the Centaur's life, although as long as food manages to make it past the human half the rest of the esophagus would not require more than a drink of water to alleviate discomfort.

They do not need to wipe their own asses, because their horse anus wipes itself through layers of sphincters. Any additional cleaning for social reasons however would require a sponge or towel on a stick. Likewise, putting garments on the horse half for reasons of modesty would be extremely difficult unless it's something like a horse blanket you can almost drape over the body.

Human babies are born completely helpless and unable to do much of anything by themselves other than emit noise. Horse babies immediately run once the birth awl is cleaned off by the mother. In theory, this means centaur babies run around and play while the human half flops around helplessly. More likely is that centaur babies would have both halves as developed as that of a regular horse since the horse womb's larger opening gives more time for the head to grow. (Head growth is not the only reason for helpless human infants, however. Human brains must take time to grow their connections while interacting with their environment, for which they need a massively extended period of maturation. Horses, like most animals, do not need to be young for long as they do not need to learn in this manner. Humans actually mature ''ungodly'' slow for creatures of our size in general, in fact. There would always be a mismatch in development unless the horse part could be held back to the pace of the human part.)

<gallery>
Horse Ass.png
Centaur Babies.png
Centaur Anatomy.jpg
Centaur Muscles.jpg
Centaur Wut.png
</gallery>

=Dungeons & Dragons=
[[File:Elmore 3e Centaur.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Centaurs can be very pretty from the waist up.]]
Centaurs and other "tauric" creatures have appeared throughout the editions and settings of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], from the half-lion [[wemic]]s of [[Forgotten Realms]] to the [[Drider]]s that have become so iconically linked with the [[Drow]].

Flavor-wise, centaurs are pretty much identical to the standard [[Elf|Wood Elf]]; they are a "sylvan" (read: [[fey]]-lite) race who inhabit the deep woods and unspoiled meadows of the world, existing as nomadic hunter-gatherers with a deep respect for nature, always striving to live in balance with their environment and to replace what they take. Their population is kept small due to their massive caloric intake, which gives them a reputation as drunkards due to how much liquor they can consume in a sitting. They are generally disinterested in the [[demihuman]] races, save elves and forest [[gnome]]s, and are more likely to keep company with other sylvan races, such as [[dryad]]s and [[satyr]]s.

This portrayal is pretty consistent, having begun all the way back in [[Mystara]] and remaining throughout most settings. But, this is different in the [[Nentir Vale]] setting; here, they are considered a type of [[fey]] (rather than their traditional monstrous humanoid) and a warlike tribal people who inhabit the steppes, plains and prairies of the [[Feywild]], although they may also be found in the mortal world, particularly in close proximity to elven lands. [[World Axis]] centaurs maintain permanent settlements, and do not suffer trespassers lightly. An emotional and rugged people, they swear allegiance to [[Kord]] and [[Melora]], rather than the gentler and more refined [[Corellon]]; they are renowned for the wild parties they throw to celebrate battles, hunts and births, which are full of boasting, sport and drink, and do not fear death. They have even been known to hire their services out as mercenaries to [[eladrin]], elves or any other race willing to meet their price. They are still dedicated to protecting the unspoiled wilderness, though, and if anything are more assertive about it.

Centaur are rarely used as Player Character races due to the difficulties of a Centaur performing non-running feats of agility, but those players who do use them find that they are both quite powerful and also have the perk of not having to buy a mount. In fact, centaurs have been playable in most editions of the game, having appeared in: "Tall Tales of the Wee Folk" for Basic D&D; "[[Complete Book Series|The Complete Book of Humanoids]]" for Advanced D&D; and the [[Monster Manual]] 1, [[Races of X|Races of the Wild]], the [[Dragonlance]] campaign setting book, Races of [[Krynn]] and Races of [[Faerun]] splatbooks for 3rd edition. Absent in 4th edition, they made a return in the 2018 May issue of [[Unearthed Arcana]] for 5th edition before being made official in the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica.

==PC Stats==
===BD&D===
::Ability Score Minimums/Maximums: Requires 9 [[Strength]] and 5 [[Constitution]]. All other scores have a base minimum of 3. All scores have a maximum of 18.
::Prime Ability Requisite: Strength. A centaur PC gains +5% EXP if their Str is 13+, and +10% if their Str is 16+.
::Natural Armor Class: AC 8 at level -1, AC 7 from level 0.
::Centaurs can achieve 8th level in both the [[Shaman]] sub-class and the [[Wizard|Wokani/Wicca]] sub-class. To become a shaman requires Int 13+ and Wis 10+, whilst to become a wicca requires Int 13+ and Wis 13+. In both classes, progressing requires Int 15+ and Wis 13+. A centaur can choose to progress in both the Shaman and Wokani/Wicca class by way of the [[Multiclassing|dual-classing]] mechanic; stopping their advancing in one and beginning advancing in the other.
::A centaur can strike with its hooves, inflicting 1d6 damage per hoof.
::A centaur wielding a lance can inflict double damage by charging, as if a mounted [[fighter]], but cannot use its hooves in the same round in which it does so.
::Centaurs require a special combination of human armor and horse barding to protect themselves.
::Centaurs may use magic items permitted to [[Fighter]]s.
::Centaurs make Saving Throws as per a [[Fighter]] of the same level.

Centaur Racial Level Advancement Table
::Level -1: -4,000 EXP, 2d8 Hit Dice
::Level 0: 0 EXP, 4d8 Hit Dice
::Level 1: 4,000
::Level 2: 12,000 EXP, 5d8 Hit Dice
::Level 3: 28,000 EXP, 6d8 Hit Dice
::Level 4: 60,000 EXP
::Level 5: 124,000 EXP, 7d8 Hit Dice
::Level 6: 250,000 EXP, 8d8 Hit Dice
::Level 7: 500,000 EXP
::Level 8: 800,000 EXP, 9d8 Hit Dice
::Level 9: 1,100,000 EXP, 10d8 Hit Dice
::Level 10: 1,400,000 EXP, 10d8+2 Hit Dice

Subsequent levels cost +300,000 EXP and grant +2 HP.

===AD&D===
[[File:centaur MM 2e.png|thumb|250px]]
::Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 11/18, Dexterity 3/16, Constitution 11/18, Intelligence 3/16, Wisdom 4/18, Charisma 3/18
::Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Constitution, +1 Wisdom, -2 Dexterity
::Class & Level Limits: [[Fighter]] 12, [[Ranger]] 10, [[Mage]] 12, [[Druid]] 14, [[Shaman]] 7, [[Bard]] 12
::+4 hit points at 1st level
:::Available [[Kits]]: Tribal Defender, Pit Fighter, Sellsword, Wild Protector, Hedge Wizard, Humanoid Scholar, Outlaw Mage, Shaman, Oracle, Wandering Mystic, Humanoid Bard (mandatory for Centaur Bards)
:::[[Multiclassing]] Options: Fighter/Mage, Fighter/Thief, Ranger/Shaman
:::Thieving Skill Adjustments: -10% Move Silently, -5% to Hide in Shadows and Read Languages
::Natural Armor Class: 5
::Can make 3 melee attacks per round; once with weapon, twice with a forehoof (hooves do 1d6 damage).
::Centaurs armed with lances can Charge for double damage, but cannot attack with their hooves in that same round.
::Centaurs take damage as Large creatures.
::Centaurs have difficulty negotiating underground settings.
::Weapon Proficiencies: Composite Long Bow, Medium Horse Lance, Great Club
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Animal Lore, Agriculture, Animal Noise, Armorer, Artistic Ability, Bowyer/Fletcher, Brewing, Drinking, Eating, Fishing, Hunting, Leatherworking, Natural Fighting, Running, Set Snares, Survival (Forests), Tracking, Weaving, Winemaking

{{D&D2e-Races}}

===3e D&D===
[[File:centaur RoF.jpg|thumb|250px]]
Amazingly, despite appearing in multiple different splatbooks for both 3.0 and 3.5, the Centaur maintained a singular set of stats across all of them.

::+8 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, –2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom.
::Large size: –1 penalty to Armor Class, –1 penalty on attack rolls, –4 penalty on Hide checks, +4 bonus on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits double those of Medium characters.
::Space/Reach: 10 feet/5 feet.
::A centaur’s base land speed is 50 feet.
::Darkvision out to 60 feet.
::Racial Hit Dice: A centaur begins with four levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 4d8 Hit Dice; a base attack bonus of +4; and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +1, Ref +4, and Will +4.
::Racial Skills: A centaur’s monstrous humanoid levels give him skill points equal to 7 × (2 + Int modifier). His class skills are Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival.
::Racial Feats: A centaur’s monstrous humanoid levels give him two feats.
::+3 natural armor bonus.
::Automatic Languages: Sylvan, Elven. Bonus Languages: Common, Gnome, Halfling.
::Favored Class: Ranger. Centaur rangers often choose magical beasts or some variety of humanoid as their favored enemy.
::Level adjustment +2.

===Pathfinder===
Like virtually all OGL monsters, the only changes to centaur in [[Pathfinder]] were system wide changes (Monstrous Humanoid HD is now D10 and 4 + int skill points).

Advanced Race Guide gave a [https://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/more-races/monstrous-races-21-30-rp/centaur/ centaur as an example of its race creation system]. Since they decided to keep the absurdly high stat adjustments it's power level is, by the book's own admission, unusable by player characters in normal campaign.

Dreamscarred Press included Centaur as one of the monster classes they published. It's pretty much just 4 levels that give you all the stuff in the 3.5 example (except the level adjustment) with the PF RHD changes.

===5e D&D===
[[File:centaur 5e.jpg|thumb]]
How to pull off a 5e centaur PC race was something that was debated on /tg/ every now and then; how should you handle the size issue? What effects should having a horse for legs have on getting around? Well, WoTC came up with surprisingly elegant solutions when they debuted a centaur in the [[Unearthed Arcana]] for May 2018. They even took the time to address the most unbalancing aspect of being a centaur in 3e, which was that your racial type not being standard Humanoid made you immune to a lot of common spells, a somewhat flawed design idea that was brought back for 5e.

Unfortunately, because the design team persistently overvalues both natural weapons and Powerful Build, they're also a bit... bland. Not bad, per se, but uninspired. And because no positive effects target monstrosities but not humanoids, it's strictly a bad thing, though even ''that'' will barely come up, they don't even count as mounted for feats or the Cavalier archetype. That said, because of the ability to inflict what's effectively a crit on demand the amount of damage they can do, in theory, on a charge is almost stupidly high. At level one with 17 strength, with an average roll of 7 of a 2d6 weapon and +3 mod becomes 17 damage, enough to one shot a lot of things at level one or 1/6 of an ogre and an ''actual'' crit stacks with this to become out-and-out devastating. In an ideal situation of +5 mod, 12 damage,+5 magic bonus and a crit: your looking at '''58''' damage. While that is strictly speaking unlikely, there are rerolls for all those rolls, (champion crit extension, and great weapon fighting style rerolls of 1's and 2's) so it is far from impossible. All in all: Centaurs may be a one trick pony, but it can be one hell of a trick.

::Abilities: +2 Strength, +1 Wisdom
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 40 feet
::Vision: Normal
::Charge: You can make a charge attack by moving at least 20 feet towards a target and then hitting it with a melee attack in the same turn. If you hit with this charge attack, roll your weapon's damage dice twice and add the results together to determine how much damage you have inflicted. Once you have made a charge attack, you must complete a short rest or a long rest before you can make one again.
::Hooves: You possess hooves, which are a natural weapon that you have proficiency in. A hoof attack inflicts 1d6 + Str modifier Bludgeoning damage.
::Equine Build: You count as one size category larger to determine your capacity to carry, push and drag. However, when climbing, each foot of movement costs you +4 extra movement instead of the normal +1 foot. You can allow a creature of Medium or smaller size to ride on your back, but you still act independently when you have a rider.
::Survivor: You have Proficiency in the Survival skill.
::Hybrid Nature: You count as being both a Humanoid and a Monstrosity in terms of Creature Type, and thus can be affected by any game effect that specifically targets either of your types.

They made a surprise reappearance in the Guildmaster's Guide to [[Ravnica]], acquiring an official writeup that was similar to, yet different from, the version presented in [[Unearthed Arcana]]:

::Ability Scores: Str +2; Wis +1
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 40 ft.
::Age. Centaurs mature and age at about the same rate as humans.
::Alignment. Centaurs are inclined toward neutrality. Those who join the Selesnya are more often neutral good, while those who join the Gruul are typically chaotic neutral.
::Size. Centaurs stand between 6 and 7 feet tall, with their equine bodies reaching about 4 feet at the withers. Your size is Medium.
::Fey. Your creature type is fey, rather than humanoid.
::Charge. If you move at least 30 feet straight toward a target and then hit it with a melee weapon attack on the same turn, you can immediately follow that attack with a bonus action, making one attack against the target with your hooves.
::Hooves. Your hooves are natural melee weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
::Equine Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push or drag. In addition, any climb that requires hands and feet is especially difficult for you because of your equine legs. When you make such a climb, each foot of movement costs you 4 extra feet, instead of the normal 1 extra foot.
::Survivor. You have proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, or Survival.
::Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan. Sylvan is widely spoken in the Selesnya Conclave, for it is rich in vocabulary to describe natural phenomena and spiritual forces.

You will note that this version of the centaur is far weaker. Charge is now basically pathetic and only grants you an additional 1d4 on a hit, even if it's no longer a short rest ability. ''Mordekainen's Monsters of the Multiverse'' would rewrite rules for many races following the paradigm introduced by ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', and Centaurs would emerge largely unchanged except for their hooves being restored to 1d6 damage, making a bit less pathetic.

If the official 5e centaur stats don't tickle your fancy, you could always try out the ones from the [[Midgard]] Heroes Handbook, which present their own take on the concept.
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Wisdom
::Size: Large - but see Humanoid Torso
::Speed: 40 feet
::Type: Monstrosity
::Natural Attacks: You can make a single attack with your hooves, which you are considered Proficient in and which deal 2d6 Bludgeoning damage.
::Centaur Weapon Training: You have Proficiency with the Pike and the Longbow.
::Pike Charge: If you move at least 30 feet straight toward a target it and then hit it with a Pike attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 3 (1d6) piercing damage, which increases to 6 (2d6) at level 6 and 9 (3d6) at level 11. You can only make one Pike Charge per turn, and can only make a number of Pike Charges per day eqal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1). You recover all uses of this ability when you complete a Long Rest.
::Humanoid Torso: Though you take up space as if you were a Large creature, you are still considered a Medium creature for purposes of weapons and armor.
::Quadruped: You have Disadvantage on Stealth checks and also suffer problems when dealing with architecture designed for humanoids, such as ladders and manholes.
::Self-Sufficient: You have Proficiency in the Medicine skill.

[[Odyssey of the Dragonlords]] offers yet another alternative for the 5e centaur PC. Centaurs of Thylea are characterized as a proud race of nomadic warriors; hunter-gatherers with an emphasis on the ''hunter'' part, they are once of the major civilizations created by the titans, and whilst they're not at open war with the Mytrosians, they have never forgotten or forgiven the Dragonlords for how they fucked over their people during the First War, and they will happily trample the shit out of anyone stupid enough to try and build permanent settlements on their land. Whilst their egos are infamous - Thylean centaurs view themselves as the supreme race and are notorious for their vanity when it comes to their looks - and it's common knowledge that they become dangerous, belligerent and boorish when drunk, they're also renowned for their loyalty. Make a centaur friend, and they'll be your friend for life, and you can't find a truer adventuring companion.
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength, +1 Wisdom
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 40 feet
::Vision: Normal
::Charge: If you move 30 feet straight toward a target and then hit them with a melee attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage from the first attack.
::Mountable: As a bonus action on your turn, you may allow a single willing ally within 5 feet of you to hitch a brief ride on your back. They are carried on your back until the end of your turn, at which point they must disembark within 5 feet of you. While being carried, your rider is not considered to be mounted and they are not vulnerable to attacks of opportunity. Your rider must be a bipedal creature of your size or smaller.
::Quadrapedal Stride: Climbing and manuevering in tight spaces count as difficult terrain for you.

[[Ptolus]]'s version of the centaur meanwhile, is more customizable, like the [[Catfolk#Litorian|Litorian]].
::Ability Score Increase: +2 to one ablity of your choice, +1 to one ablity of your choice
::Size: Large
::Speed: 50 feet
::Hooves: You can make an unarmed attack with your hooves dealing 2d6 bludgeoning damage.
::Athletic Hunter: You have proficiency in two skills of your choice.
::Languages: You can speak and read Aram and one other appropriate language.
{{D&D5e-Races}}

==Variants and Centaur-kin==
The centaur body plan is ripe for derivatives, since one could conceivably combine any bipedal species with any quadrupedal species in this manner.

*'''Desert Centaur''': A more swarthy and oriental breed of centaur from [[Al-Qadim]].
<gallery>
Desert centaur MC Al-Qadim.png
Desert centaur Cities of Bone.png
</gallery>

*'''Sea Centaur''': A cross between a centaur and a mermaid, or a human and a [[hippocampus]], maybe? It has a human torso, the front half-torso of a horse (with legs ending in flippers), and the rest is all fish. It appeared in [[Dragon Magazine]] #116.
<gallery>
Sea centaur Dragon 116.png
</gallery>

*'''[[Wemic]]''': Lion centaurs that originally had human upper-halfs, but later got a more [[furry]] redesign.
<gallery>
Wemic Monster card.jpg
Wemic 1e.png
Wemic MM 2e.png
Wemic Portraits.png
Wemic Ritual.png
MoF Wemic.png
RoF Wemic.jpg
</gallery>

*'''Hybsil''': 3 foot tall [[sprite]]-deer centaurs.
<gallery>
hybsil monster card.jpg
hybsil RoZK.jpg
hybsil MCAV3.jpg
</gallery>

*'''[[Bariaur]]''': goat or sheep centaurs native to [[Ysgard]]. Made a playable race by [[Planescape]].
<gallery>
Bariaur MC8.jpg
Free league member.jpg
Wooly cupgrass Uncaged.jpg
Bariaur (PlaHB).jpg
Expansionist Dragon 339.png
</gallery>

*'''Zebranaur''': Dark-skinned zebra centaurs for your Africa-themed setting.
<gallery>
zebranaur MCAV2.jpg
</gallery>

*'''Dorvesh''': dwarf-donkey centaurs.
<gallery>
dorvesh MCAV2.jpg
</gallery>

*'''Gnoat''': gnome-goat centaurs.
<gallery>
gnoat MCAV2.jpg
</gallery>

*'''Ha'pony''': halfling-pony centaurs. The name is a pun on ''ha'penny''.
<gallery>
ha'pony MCAV2.jpg
</gallery>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
centaur 1e.jpg|1e
centaur REF3.png
Talbot Rogues Gallery.jpg
Centaur monster card.jpg
centaur MCV1.jpg|2e
Centaur mummy MCAV2.jpg|Centaur [[Mummy]]
half-fey centaur 3e FF.jpg|3e [[Half-Fey]] Centaur
centaur 4e.jpg|4e
Centaur B1.png|Pathfinder
Centaur ARG.png
</gallery>

=[[Warhammer Fantasy]]=
The "proto-Hammer" version of Warhammer Fantasy featured Centaurs as a [[Chaos]]-aligned race closely linked to [[Beastmen]] in the [[Realms of Chaos]]: The Lost and the Damned. They were dropped, for some reason, but eventually returned in 6th edition after having been reworked into the [[Centigor]]s, and may be returning in the latest edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as among the Half-Orcs and Hobgoblins in the Eastern Steppes.

The [[Chaos Dwarves]] has bull centaur, the result of a Chaos Dwarf given blessing by their dark god [[Hashut]], the bull Chaos God. They are still Chaos Dwarfs with their usual appearances of big, mean, muscular, curly beard and horns on their head, only that their bottom-half has been replaced by that of a bull's. This transformation replaces the their short leg and thus nullified their slow moving weakness while retaining their trademark endurance, strength and high leadership.

If that's not enough then things get bigger with [[Dragon Ogres]], because regular centaur isn't awesome enough. [[Dragon Ogres]] have the upper part of an Ogre and their lower parts are four dragon-like legs. These [[Dragon Ogres]] made a pact with the Chaos Gods that they would serve them, in exchange for immortality (at the cost of having no female Dragon Ogres to fuck, or possibly having females but all being sterile; it's hard to say from the fluff). They are one of the oldest creatures in the Old World, and are supercharged when struck by lightning. The oldest and largest [[Dragon Ogres]] are Shaggoths.

Lastly there's the [[Zoat]]s. A hermit-like, scaly, four-legged creature who has power over nature with their lore of life spell. Their size were so similar to a small dragon ogres that CA was able to put it in [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] as a reskinned Dragon Ogres.

=[[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar]]=
In the Age of Sigmar universe, centaurs are - or at least used to be - one of the races inhabiting the realm of [[Ghur]]. The character [[Kragnos]] is a centaur of the Drogrukh clan who became a god through sheer bloodymindedness, ultimately making such a nuisance of himself that the forces of Order sealed him away. He recently broke out, and is very pissed to discover that the remaining centaurs were wiped out whilst he was gone.

=[[Warhammer 40K]]=
Though the Centaur in and of itself hasn't been discovered as of yet in the dark millennium (it is perfectly possible that they exist somewhere in the galaxy, mind you - there is [[Abhuman|''weirder'' shit]] out there), the [[Interex]] had a heavy infantry platform which had the shape and appearance of the Centaurs of myth. The human soldier was fit into the front of a mechanical, horselike body (where the head would've been on a real horse), so only the upper body was visible. They even went so far as giving the soldiers laser-crossbows.

Though most would argue that this was freaking [[awesome]], they were exterminated by the Imperium, and as far as we know, the Mechanicum haven't kept anything from the [[Interex]]... But who knows, maybe the next Imperial Guard Supplement will include cyborg horse-human hybrids (of course you can make these anyway and just proxy them as rough riders on the table top). You can't know with [[Games Workshop|GW]] these days.

A centaur body is one of the common Chaos mutations, though given the nature of Chaos you may end up with a snake tail, a giant bloodhound body, or a fucking spider torso instead of your legs, and that's if you get lucky - some poor Nurglite sod may get a snail or maggot body instead of his legs, or even a twisted mess of tentacles that have the mind of their own and immediately start raping all asses in proximity, including their own.

Additionally, an [[Imperial Guard]] short story (''Children of the Emperor'') from the [[Into the Maelstrom]] anthology features a guardsman stranded on a lost, feral world with super-high gravity, populated by [[abhuman]]s whose ancestors gave themselves centaur bodies and super-enhanced muscles to cope with high gravity and abundance of deadly predators. He gets involved with a struggle between the Emperor-worshipping locals and a [[Khorne|Khornate]] heresy, but the best he can do is to report to the Imperium when he escapes that the planet is feral, too dangerous & resource poor to colonize, and houses only some unimportant alien species, thus preventing the loyalists from being slaughtered as [[mutant]]s by more Puritanical Imperials.

Also we have the [[Zoats]], a <strike>now-abandoned</strike> (They're back now, fuckers!) race of reptilian taurs that were originally envoys and propagandists for the Tyranids, before they fully embraced the Horde of Alien Locusts thing.

=[[Warcraft]]=
Warcraft features many types of Centaur as well as centaur-like creatures. The earliest Centaur are descendants to the demigod Cenarius (half-Night elf half Stag), his sons are called Keepers of the grove, they have the upper part of a night elf with antlers on their heads, one of their hands is wood like, and they have the lower parts of a stag. The female versions of them are Dryads who are female night elf and half doe.

They also have regular Centaurs who are a bastard race born from a Keeper of the grove and (the rather ugly) spirit of Earth, they thank their father for creating them by killing him. They have the traditional Centaur look, with a nomadic Mongol-like culture mostly built on harassing the cow-like Tauren.

The Burning Legion has Annihilan which are massive demons that have an upper part of a demon and a lower part of a four legged dragon. They serve as among the Legions commanders and wield enormous weapons that can smash armies in one swing.

=Centaur [[Monstergirls]]=
{{monstergirls}}
Centaurs invite ceaseless argument over whether they count as [[monstergirls]] or as [[furry]]. On the one hand, they do have human-like heads and not muzzles (though Japanese hentai seems to like portraying them with horse ears instead of human ears, and this has become more common in western art too). On the other hand, they have horse-junk at their business end (except, again, for some Japanese hentai, where they have human pussies at the front of their horse bodies instead or in addition to mare-cunts at their ass-end), which makes them in many ways ''more'' like [[Chakat|bestiality than regular furries]].

Not helping things is that both sides of the divide have embraced them. In fact, centaurs are so popular that the idea of replacing the horse with other critters that sound cool or sexy is rather popular; lions, wolves, tigers, [[drider|spiders]]... heck, [[lamia]]s can be described as "centaurs that are half-snake instead of half-horse". The idea is so popular that a whole new word (arguably descended from the furries), "tauric", has popped up as a shorthand for it.

[[/d/]] alternatively loves them (because they're an excuse for pictures of huge buff guys with huge horse cocks, [[monstergirls]] with huge-ass tits, or monstergirls [[dickgirl|with huge-ass tits AND huge horse cocks]]) and loathes them (because of the aforementioned furry/bestiality connotations).

Surprisingly, despite the fact that centaurs are iconic creatures from western "Classical Mythology", the vast majority of centaur MG depictions have come from Japan. This may be because, unlike westerners, Japanese smutfans don't really make so much of a distinction between [[furry]] and [[monstergirl]], and so they don't get bothered by the whole "you're fucking a horse's hiney" thing since they pass the [[Harkness Test]].

Perhaps because of the strong association between the cavalry and the [[samurai]] caste - or because Japanese dig soft, sweet chicks to an almost disturbing degree - almost all known Japanese centaur MGs have been tsunderes or yamato nadeshikos, i.e. either sweet-girls who act like bitches because they don't wanna admit their feelings, or very sweet and demure girls with a steely core. A more mythology-accurate centaur MG would be a total ladette - a she-jock who loves to fight, hunt, drink and fuck like there's no tomorrow and aggressively chases after good-looking guys. Sort of a bro with the body of a super-model who's fine with letting you grope her titties and cunt (wherever it is), or kills you on a whim.

Additionally there are several factors of horse anatomy one should keep in mind when discussing sex with centaurs:
*The above-discussed reason why horses don't need to wipe their asses after taking a dump would doubtlessly affect anal sex in some way, for better or worse.
*Giving Centaurs rear horse junk would be likely to complicate masturbation.
*Given the thing male horses are so infamous for worldwide, a centauress(?) that has horse junk would be likely to find human men ''quite'' underwhelming.
*On that note, getting any meaningful length of a horse penis inside a human frequently kills real-life zoophiles due to organ rupture, and deepthroat would probably require you to dislocate your jaw and find some acid-proof horse condoms.
*Like with [[minotaur|minotaurs]], there's also the issue of whether a centauress would have human boobs or a horse udder when you think about it. There are many more lulzy ways to interpret this than the minotaur offers, however, such as centaur women with two perfectly human and hairless boobs dangling from the fucking ''horse'' torso like a ballsack (you could even nickname these body parts the breasticles or chesticles).

==[[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]]==
[[File:MGE Centaur.jpg|thumb|250px|right|There may be a reason why the MGE centaur looks like a half-horse half-[[elf]]...]]
In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], centaurs are a race of tsundere nomadic archers. They do still love booze, though, and have a tendency to lose control and become horny drunks who'll rape men... of course, being tsunderes, they'll bitch at the ''men'' to "take responsibility" after they sober up, which is as tired a cliche in hentai as "OMG it's so big" is in western porn. For many years, constant arguments frequently sprung up about where the genitals are. The author decided to split the difference by decreeing they have two sets of genitals, one on each end. All this served to do was re-draw the battle lines so as to be fought over whether this succeeded in solving the problem or is the stupidest thing in the history of ever.
{{clear}}

==[[Life With Monstergirls]]==
Centaur have a long and noble history as knights and paladins, and most of their race still carry themselves with dignity. Female Centaur often adopt knightly demeanor and customs. Their females are only fertile during certain periods of the year (like real horses), and must use this time to produce offspring. Their sex drive is greatly reduced (although not non-existent) outside of this period, which also like with real horses is called estrus.
Centaurs have long had a history where the sexually selected traits for males were general raw strength and bravado. This unfortunately resulted in most modern Centaur men being unattractive fratboys. Recently, their culture is shifting towards effeminate and polite men being attractive, and this means that Centaur women are beginning to more and more desire human men. The product of a human/Centaur union is a full-blooded Centaur (no word on the results of a horse-centaur union), but the practice is still highly taboo. Instead Centaurs have been relying on human men as "teasers", a role that yet still exists in real life horse breeding (although in real life the role is thankfully filled by other horses). The human man more or less arouses a female who is in estrus until she can bear to reproduce with her husband.
<gallery>
Image:Centaur Breeding.jpg|Centaur sexual habits in Daily Life with Monstergirl
</gallery>

=See Also=
*[[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races]]

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Races]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Greek Mythology]]

Kroot

2022-07-12T10:56:19Z

2601:188:C300:64B8:85D9:A418:CDC3:B033: /* Physiology */

{{cleanup}}
[[Image:Kroot.png|thumbnail|right|300px|In Tau Empire, chicken eats YOU!]]

{{topquote|They are fierce indeed these Kroot, and savage. I look upon them and tremble at their ferocity. I can only hope that when the enemy sees them they tremble as I do.|Por'vre Tau Cho, Water caste envoy}}

The '''Kroot''' (''Krootis <s>spencer here</s> aviana'') are a vassal species to the [[Tau|Tau Empire]]. Rather bitey. Basically carnivorous space chickens who look like a cross between the dreadlocked aliens from ''Predator'' and ancient [[Terra|Terran]] terror birds, with a bit of D&D's [[Aarakocra]] thrown in. They steal genetic traits of things they eat, and work for people who aren't the Tau. Which means they are cool.

However, the Kroot see little support from [[Games Workshop]] and players in general, likely due to the fact that their odd stats, high frailty despite being billed as a melee force, and lack of wargear in the Tau list make them less than effective, and their [[Warhammer_40,000/Chapter_Approved/Kroot_Mercenaries|mercenary codex]] is from an old [[Chapter Approved]] (and thus no longer legal).

For those interested, there's [[Codex - Kroots: /tg/'s 9th Edition]]. Most people will let you use it in a friendly game.

As of the most recent [[Dark Eldar]] codex, the [[Haemonculus]] Covens has taken a liking to the way Kroot gastronomy reacts to evolution and had conducted a gigantic raid which, to put it lightly, utterly destroyed Pech a new one. The Dark Eldar pretty much [[Looted]] nearly the entire biosphere of Pech including a several dozen Kroot Shapers, seriously we aren't even joking on the whole looted part. Essentially the Dark Eldar almost [[Exterminatus]] an entire planet through [[Blood Ravens|sheer theft that would make a Bloody Magpie proud.]] Suffice it to say, Pech was saved by a counterattack by the Tau, but by then it was too little too late. The Kroot's homeworld lay devastated and the rescuing Tau party was greeted with a grisly scene of mutilated Kroot corpses laid out in Eldar Lexicon which translates to, "[[Rape|Welcome to the feast.]]" The Tau in all their naive weeaboo hats, promptly shat themselves a brown stinky brick whilst the captured Kroots were promptly turned into KFC. Since that day, the Tau have encountered many similar messages on their worlds, which may just paint a sign that our little weeaboos will be the Dark Eldar's new buddy.

It is uncertain, and probably unlikely, that we will ever get a kroot codex thanks to the Imperium centric focus of the setting. Thanks Geedubs. However, we ''did'' get Kill Team rules for a Kroot Mercenary faction in the January 2019 White Dwarf. Strictly fun and noncompetitive, but it's ''something''.

GOOD NEWS! With all the new options with Ninth edition, it is now possible to run a <strike>mostly</strike> Kroot Army! EDIT: [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/01/26/field-an-entire-army-of-upgraded-kroot-with-codex-tau-empire/ | Now you can run an <i>entirely</i> Kroot army!]

GOOD NEWS! With the new boxset of Kill Team: Into The Dark, The Kroot have their own specialist Kill Team.

==Physiology==
[[File:OW EOI Kroot Shaper.png|thumbnail|right|300px|''By instinctively isolating and analysing the DNA contained with the flesh of potential food sources, these exceptional Kroot, known as Shapers, can determine whether the prey’s characteristics are favourable or detrimental to the genetic advancement of their Kindred, and can thereby guide the development of the other Kroot. They are the wardens and caretakers of their Kindred’s genetic inheritance, and they guard it against regression, corruption, and unwanted mutation.'']]
[[Xenology]] suggests that the reason Kroot are humanoid, able to walk and think, and able to build weapons and spacecraft is because at one time in their history, an [[Ork]] ship crashed on Pech (the Kroot's home planet). The Kroot promptly started eating the dazed survivors of this crash (how they managed to not end up with a full-blown Ork infestation remains anyone's guess. Maybe the kroot lick their plates when they are done eating, leading to no spores left behind, anyone's guess.) and subsequently managed to gain some of the Orks' innate understanding for technology, as well as a measure of their resilience. Oh, and the basic humanoid body layout on top of that. Two arms, bipedal gait, the whole shebang. Evidence for this are pieces of wreckage marked with Ork glyphs scattered all over Pech that the Kroot regard as sacred objects, as well as the presence of hybrid fungal matter in parts of their body. It could thus be argued that the Kroot are an entire race of "Half-Orks", or at least Hybridized with the Orkoid Fungus genetic genome to a degree. Also, "Kroot" spelled backwards is "To ork." It is unknown if this is intentional. The "Mother" of the Kroot race in their Legend is called '''Vawk the Huntress''', and her rival, '''Gmork''', whose description matches Gorkamorka/Gork and Mork, along with the name sounding like Gork and Mork smashed together. When Vawk took bites out of Gmork, his blood poisoned and killed her, but as she dies, she vomited forth the Ancestral '''Kroothawks''' out upon Planet '''Pech'''. Also, Kroot starts like Krork, the original Orkoids who devolved into modern Orkoids.

For some reason, the fluff likes to point out how revolting the Kroot are for their carnivorous practices, even though, when you really stop and think about it, the Kroot are one of the more morally upright races around. They're explicitly not xenophobic racists, they ''have to'' eat dead sapients to stay intelligent (unlike, say, [[Space Marines]] and [[Tyranids]] who also eat people's brains to gain knowledge, or the fucking [[Dark Eldar]], who do it purely for lulz), and they're not notably more cruel than anyone else but the Tau, who seem to be the only people in the universe who more or less tolerate them. Although this may have to do with point of view, most of the time it's the Tau or [[Imperial Guard]] who would find the eating of the dead, friend or foe, gross. Tyranids are viewed as mindless animals, so eating things isn't as "wrong" for them, and most people forgot Space Marines can gain knowledge by eating brains [[Blood_Angels#Red_Thirst|(occasionally chasing it with fresh squeezed blood)]]. Most who do spend their time around Kroot generally seem to like them, though. The "revolting" part may be more of a knee-jerk reaction from people not used to seeing bird people eating dudes.

You may have noticed that this article talks a lot about eating. According to Chapter Approved in [[White Dwarf]], the Kroot physiology basically revolves around their mouth. They have multiple stomachs, no excretory organs (what they can't digest, they puke up), and females even breed by transforming a stomach into a womb and then vomiting up the baby/babies when it's/they're full grown. Take a wild guess how they conceive.

...The answer is back rubs. Male Kroot have specialized pores that secrete a gene-bearing bio-fluid (what experts refer to as "alien bird-jizz") on their palms, whilst female Kroot have "receptor pores" for this fluid on the smalls of their back. So when two Kroot make babies, the male has to give the female a back rub. Yeah, we thought it would be [[Heterosexual Sex in the Missionary Position|kinkier]], too. The main question though is why would they need sexual reproduction in the first place, since it's goal is intermixing genomes to spread useful genes, and they already have controlled horizontal gene transfer on par with fucking Tyranids, which is orders of magnitude more efficient. Guess, noone in GeeDubs attended Genetics 101.

Fun Fact: they are the only nonhuman species that can have [[Blank]]s, likely because they ate one at some point.

==Culture==

Kroot also moonlight as [[Codex - Kroots: /tg/'s 9th Edition|mercenaries]] for races other than the Tau, though about the only sapient beings whose flesh they won't eat are the Tau, since the Tau saved them from extinction. Mercenary bands eat lots of different stuff, and so [[Kroot_Kindreds|can have various genetic traits]]. Thus, Kroot can use [[Eldar|Weeaboo Fightan Magiks]], be [[Orks|cunnin' but fighty]], or have [[Space Marines|balls of steel]], depending on who they've eaten, but not as well as the originals. Eating [[Chaos]]-types causes Bad Things™ to happen. They also refuse to eat the 'Nids, because the Shapers, the Kroot leaders, fear becoming slaves to the [[Hive Mind]] (though realistically there'd eventually come along one or two Kroot dumb enough to do it anyway). They also can't eat anyone infected by the [[Necron]]s' Nanites because Nanites will turn Kroot into another Necron/[[C'Tan]] zombie slave. They also get paid in weapons, allowing them to use Imperial and Tau special weapons together, and nearly their entire army can infiltrate, <strike>and get 1st turn assault if they're lucky</strike> (NOPE, 6th edition ended that shit). Kroot don't use tanks or much in the way of tech (aside from [[Kroot Rifle|long rifle-like guns with blades on both ends]]), instead using native animals derived from the Kroot genus. They have attack dogs, gorillas with elephant guns, riding beasts like allosaurs, and really big riding beasts like T. rexes. Think the Gungans from ''The Phantom Menace'', only <s>not totally lame</s> [[Awesome]]. There is no contention that Kroot are exponentially cooler than Gungans. <span style='color:red;font-size:115%'> More meat? Good! BWWAAAK! <span style='color:yellow;font-size:115%'>

They also have a rather dark sense of humor; for example, offering human meat to human diplomats because [[Troll|they think seeing their reactions are funny.]] This is also shown in the second Last Chancers book "Kill Team", where Kage is forced to eat a human brain (while he goes into horrific detail about the taste and texture). After this, the Kroot reveals that this was a secret test of character, but also that it was good for shits and giggles. In general, the Kroot sense of humor revolves around making other people profoundly uncomfortable. For example, a Kroot might walk into the same elevator as a Water Caste diplomat, turn up her pungent pheromones to full blast, and silently laugh her bird-woman ass off as the increasingly-uncomfortable fellow passenger tries to ignore it with less and less success.

Kroot also have shamans (psykers). They pilot warp ships called [[Warspheres]]; ''very'' large, spherical vessels of dubious quality but nonetheless capable of warp travel. Warspheres also double as mobile communities for the Kroot when they are away from Pech.

In the short story "Warsphere", which all of ten people have read, where Dahyak Grekh of Blackstone Fortress fame tricks a dark eldar Archon into giving up the location of said Blackstone Fortress, we gain a little bit of insight into the technology and culture of the Kroot on their eponymous space-cities. On a spiritual level, the Kroot believe in a warrior-spirit named Vawk the Huntress, who assumedly blessed the Warsphere of the story, and that vast chambers and halls of their ships are carved with the histories of the Kindred who made them. We also learn that the Kroot are incredibly proud of their heritage, and even think its funny that someone would try to repair a warsphere, thinking that no one but the Kroot could understand its technology. Oh, and that the Kroot can learn the memories of the things they eat, such as the location of a Blackstone Fortress. On a technological level, they are riddled with traps that are impossible to disarm without the aid of a Kroot, as their user manuals consist of memory-imbued scraps of flesh and totemic symbols. Oh, also, Warspheres have mechanical birds that defend the insides.

The book Liber Xenologicus gives more details on the Kroot religion. In their origin myth, Vawk the Huntress flew across the primordial chaos of the Nothingsea until she encountered the rival god Gmork. This battle was so intense that it created the stars and planets of the galaxy. Vawk gained Gmork's strength by drinking his blood and so was able to defeat him, but it was a short lived victory as his blood was poisonous. Her last act before perishing was to descend to the planet Pech, where her feathers became the forest and bones became the mountains, and vomit a great flock of eagles into the sky. This is likely a crude genetic memory of the Kroot's original evolution into sapience by eating Orks.

==Known Kroot Forms==
As mentioned above, the downside of Kroot consumptive evolution is that it's really easy for them to get "stuck" on the wrong path and devolve permanently into an atavistic form. As a consequence, every animal-filled ecological niche on Pech is now filled by some form of degenerated kroot. But, so far, only a select handful of Kroot offshoots have been explicitly called out...

*'''[[Kroot Hound]]s''' are one of the most iconic of these strains, having been around since the Kroot were released. These Kroot degenerated into small, sleek, pack-hunting quadrupeds, easily tamed by their still-sapient cousins.
* '''[[Krootox]]es''' are the second-most iconic Kroot strains; degenerated into hulking, ape-like herbivores, they're mostly used as beasts of burden and as mobile mounts for heavy artillery.
*'''[[Lesser Knarloc]]s''' are sort of a step-up from the Kroot Hounds, being analogous to either a pack-hunting terror-bird or a more avian pack of velociraptors. Kroot like to ride them as cavalry.
*'''[[Great Knarloc]]s''' are much, ''much'' bigger, solo-hunter variants of the standard Knarlocs. If a lesser Knarloc is a Velociraptor, the great one is a beaky T-Rex.
*'''Krootors''' are swamp-dwelling, amphibious predators, essentially a Krootified alligator. Their only known appearance in the canon so far is in [[Black Crusade (RPG)|The Screaming Vortex]], on the planet Asphodel.
*'''Kroothawks''' are either another offshoot of the kroot species, like the hounds, or the ancestral grandaddy of the whole shebang, as supposedly when their creator-goddess Vawk was dying she vomited a crap ton of them into Pech's sky. Whichever is the case, the kroot venerate the hawks and use their likeness in their totems and rituals. Unfortunately, we've never seen a kroothawk model or image, so how big they are or what they exactly look like is up to debate, but they're basically pterodactyls.

==TL;DR==

Kroot: Shoot like Tau with bolters. Move and hit like Eldar. Die like Guardsmen. (And have an amour save that will save them from [[lasgun|lasguns]] and nothing else—16% of the time) As of 8th, Kroot lost infiltrate for a Scout move, and hit like Space Marines in close combat. As of 9th, Kroot have a slight buff (but still awful) to their save in cover but their strength, attacks, and armor penetration was buffed, with the Shaper even being given the option to throw a once in a battle grenade belt.

==Building list==
Do you like to win more than you like to have fun? No? Good, you might enjoy a full Kroot list in the 9th ed. version of the Kroot Mercenaries / T'au Empire. With the welcome promotion of the shaper to an HQ unit, coupled with their own relics and warlord traits, you're free to run wild and eat your enemies to your heart's content.
*A small note, however, is that including but a single ethereal, despite being counter to a pure kroot army, goes a long way in the effectiveness of your kindred. With a single floating hippy, you gain access to a <Sept> for the detachment, which should always be Dal'yth, so then your Kroot (and your vespids if you're feeling saucy) can benefit from Tactical Philosophies. On top of that, Ethereals can chant a prayer explicitly for upgrading Auxiliaries. It might be worth kitbashing an ethereal to look like a kroot shaman, but all-in-all, it should be a serious consideration, unless you're a die-hard fan of Predator and Halo's jackals.
*Secondly, unless you're willing to dip into Legends or used Unaligned units, your army won't end up being very diverse. While its very possible to get over 1k of mainline bords, your liable to field up to 80-100 models in carnivores alone, which is just. . . a lot to manage. But! If your gaming group is chill with it (and they should be because fighting an army of pure kroot seems like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity), the inclusion of the Legends units really helps make the list more well-rounded.
**Unfortunately, with the transition into 9th, Dahyak Grekh got the axe as a unit, but not before leaving a lasting impression. His model can be used to represent a shaper with an alternative set of wargear, giving them them a pistol and grenade belt in exchange for their ritual blade. The kroot may have lost their Sly Marbo, but he shall never be forgotten.

In terms of list-building, the kroot benefit from the fact that no units are competing for slots. Shapers are your only options for HQs (unless you're taking an ethereal, but we'll circle back to that), carnivores are your only troops, so on and so forth. This is because of the '''Kroot Pack''' rule that carnivores have, which means that for every squad of them you take, up to one unit each of shapers/krootoxen/hounds can be taken without filling a slot. Meaning that hounds and knarloc riders will never compete for fast attack slots (because you should just run the hounds as NOFOS), and if you're feeling adventurous, you can spam three ethereals for your obligatory HQ slots, and still take up to three shapers (for the same reason). Round out the list with some Great Knarlocs in your heavy support, and you have something that actually resembles an army.

Gameplay wise, the Kroot benefit from being fast and having ok melee. Shapers, carnivores, and hounds all get a pre-game move before the game begins, while both types of knarlocs can auto-advance 6", and hounds can re-roll advances and charges. Coupled with one of your warlord traits, you can even still keep up all the shooting while they're all advancing up the board. At the same time, while they are realistically a horde army, the sheer volume of their melee should be enough to surpass some of the low-tier armies on the assault, but naturally you'll crumple against every army that's better at melee, as Kroot universally have shitty armor saves and no invulns, with your only durability boost coming from a stratagem.
*Ironically, however, a somewhat competent gunline can be made from massed krootoxes, your best shooting unit, an attending shaper for re-roll 1s to hit, and at least one baggage harness Great Knarloc for exploding 6s to hit. With a potential 18 auto-cannon shots (plus more if you're adding Great Knarlocs with their own guns to the mix) you've got some pretty scary fire coming down wind.

You're not likely to win anything with this army, but you are basically free to goof around. You aren't strong or competitive in any way, but part of this hobby is fun, so shut up and have fun.

== Modelling ==
A slight issue with the Kroot range is that it's incredibly small and unsupported. In that, GW has only ever made a handful of kits for them, the majority being metal or resin. The only plastic Kroot kit is the carnivores, while knarlocs and great knarlocs, their most badass kits, haven't been supported in years.

However, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, my fellow bird-lovers! If you don't mind 3rd party, there's a seller on Etsy that makes off-brand Kroot models that are honestly pretty fucking fire. He's made remodels of the long-lost knarlocs, resin prints of hounds, alternative bits to make regular Kroot look sci-fi, and even has some GSC/Kroot prints. Honestly he does a good job, nuff said.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MasterShaperFelix?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1051976211

== Gallery ==

<gallery>
Image:YesIagree.png|They also have quite a way with words.
</gallery>

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