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Wicked Fantasy

2017-04-05T10:33:46Z

2605:E000:7ECF:7F00:C5E7:91E2:DE42:4AE1:

'''Wicked Fantasy''' is a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] campaign setting using the [[Pathfinder]] roleplaying system created by John Wick, Jess Heinig and Gillian Fraiser. Originally appearing as a series of "Ecology of ..." style articles in [[Kobold Quarterly]], a spiritual successor to [[Dragon Magazine]], it portrays a world where the conventional races of fantasy and several unconventional races are portrayed through a "dark lense", creating a highly unique, somewhat [[grimdark]] world.

So far, there are two books.

The Corebook is a set of 10 ecologies covering the main races, complete with stats, feats and new class archetypes as well as a short fiction piece for each race.

The Companion features three short stories ("The Courage of Tamyn Taval", "Broken Bonds", "Trusty Pete's Mug"), a complete adventure ("Love Beyond Death"), a section of new Pathfinder rules, conversion guides for [[Savage World]] and [[Dungeon World]], a world-building article that focuses on Profanity (yes, how people in the Wicked Fantasy world swear), and a GMing section.

The ten races in Wicked Fantasy are:
* ''Humans'': Unlike in most settings, where humans are "the young race", in Wicked Fantasy, humans are the Old Race - the first race to exist, the first race to civilize itself, the original rulers of the land before other races crept forth from the darkness. The Reign of Men is the dominant governmental force of the world. But, humanity is a crumbling race, sinking into corruption, decadence and spiritual decay; the once-shining beacon of hope and civility is spiraling inwards into avarice and evil. But there is hope that humanity may pull itself out of the darkness and rise up again. Humanity in Wicked Fantasy rejects the notion of gods, seeking power from within rather than without; humanity is bound by the common philosophy that all men may become more than they are. Thusly, they champion universities, and uphold will, self-determination and dignity to the extent that the secular philosophers and palantines replace the traditional clerics and paladins. Though there is a growing religious movement that professes belief in benevolent creator-deities they call "The Makers". The overall feel of humans in Wicked Fantasy is akin to the Roman Empire, especially in its waning years.

* ''Haffuns'': The Wicked Fantasy version of [[halfling]]s are essentially a darker slant on [[Golarion]]'s halflings, and they're actually pretty damn [[awesome]]! They are part of the "Underbloods", the three races - haffuns, gnomes and uvandir -- who literally dug their way out of a human iron mine some two centuries before the present. Their origins are mysterious, but apparently the three races fled from somewhere else - it could have been the [[Underdark]] or the other side of the planet, to escape "The Enemy", a force that terrifies them still. Haffuns are charming, gracious, polite and naturally helpful souls, and so they are predominantly found amongst humans as servants. They're also magically stealthy and natural born killers who consider murdering those who "harm their (chosen) family" in the same vein and light as "make sure that all the washing up is done promptly and properly". So, that cute [[loli]]-esque haffun maid? She won't hesitate to brutally murder thieves and knows how to dispose of the bodies so expertly that her own masters will never even know she's a hardened killer. They also suffer from a curse called Ghuva. This "Giving Curse" makes haffuns mystically adept at empathizing with others, but also makes them compelled to assist someone truly in need of aide; refusal will ultimately ''kill'' the haffun.

* ''Orks'': Originally, the [[orcs]] of the Wicked Fantasy world were your standard greenskinned raiders, created by evil gods to torment and slaughter the other races for the gods' amusement. Until the orks grew tired of being slaves and murdered their creators. Founding a new philosophy, worshiping sacrifice and effort, personified by pain, the orks have since tried to walk a new path, one free of the pointless butchery and endless, meaningless slaughter of the old one. Still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the orks are nonetheless finding new ways to interact with their neighbors - for example, they're actually master brewers, and their mead and cider is quite prized by humans and uvandir. They actually gain special traits based on both their masochism, which is so central to their culture, and to lineage based on the god-killing heroes who freed the tribes. [[Half-orc]]s also don't exist in Wicked Fantasy; humans and orks can have sex, but they can't breed together.

* ''Elves'': The elves of Wicked Fantasy are a strange and magical race, fey spirits tied to the mysterious Great Trees that sprout in the depths of the most primeval forests. Each aelfanderon is mystically bound to either the soil (cyllabellean) or a singular Great Tree (cyffathellean); those bound to the soil are mortal, living only as long as humans do, and labor to serve the tree-bound, who are as near-immortal as their soul-trees. Elves in Wicked Fantasy fear iron, which can kill their trees or be used to bind them into soul-deep slavery by placing an iron shackle around a limb or neck; these unfortunates are the cwthellean, the iron-bound, living ghosts doomed to slowly fade into nothing. Elf society is obsessed with racial purity, with all marriages being arranged by their leaders; bastards are hated and despised, but half-elves are truly reviled, such that the elfin word for them, dzunkaveth, translates as "abomination". The different sorts of elf have different powers; for example, tree-bound elves can potentially deliver deadly poison with a touch.

* ''Dach'youn'': The hyena beast-men known in other settings as [[gnolls]] are quite different in Wicked Fantasy. Although still a feral and primordial race, they are more Neutral; their focus is on surviving, not slavery and conquest. As nomadic packs, they roam the wilderness, worshipping the moons and hunting for their next meal. They're given some pretty interesting fluff, without the usual "they're evil!" spins on it. For example, they're perceived as being "lazy" because they're nocturnal, to the point they worship the moons and fear the sun as [[Pelor|an evil, destructive deity]]. They're "dirty" because their thick pelts make them overheat easily (another reason they move around at night) and are attractive to various parasites, so they take at least one mud-bath a day; it keeps the bugs off, cools them down, and is just plain fun. They're matriarchal, but in a real world sense of the term; since they're not culturally monogamous, they trace descent through the mother's line, since "fathers" are generally unknown. They're actually on slightly better terms with humans than orks are, as they lack the orks' history of raiding and warfare. They're also proving surprisingly adept as cooks.

* ''Gnomes'': The Wicked Fantasy take on gnomes succeeds in taking a normally rather boring race and making it surprisingly cool, much like the haffuns. Gnomes clawed their way out of the earth alongside the haffuns and uvandir and found a new niche for themselves. Possessing powerful empathic abilities, they present a humble front. They're also literally born rangers, magically tied to the wilderness in such a way that they literally adapt, physically and mentally, to better thrive in different environments.

* ''Gobowins'': Following in Golarion's footsteps, "gobowins" (they don't have the letter L in their language) are a comedic race. Traders and wanderers, they have two traits that really make them stand out compared to other goblins. Firstly, they shift genders, sliding between male and female at various points in their life. Secondly, and more notably, they possess "Buwuck" and "Wursa", the Worst Blessing and the Best Curse. The former is an aura of bad luck that surrounds them, causing others to become bedeviled by misfortune from the mere presence of gobowins. But the latter is an even more powerful form of bad luck that affects anyone who deliberately kills a gobowin, which has kept the species alive (along with the gender-shifting, litter births and fast gestation) in a world that would gladly be rid of them.

* ''Uvandir'': The Wicked Fantasy equivalent of dwarves, uvandir take all the stereotypes of dwarfdom and plays them tongue-in-cheek. Uvandir (call them dwarves only if you're tired of living) are proud, arrogant, stubborn creatures who fought alongside the other two Underbloods in the Great Flight from the Enemy. Though they appear masculine, they're literally genderless, which is why they're a dying race; the Enemy carved them all out of stone before the Great Flight, so when one dies, the race's number drops irrevocably. With no physical or emotional capability for lust, they exist only to work, which fuels their immense pride; they never rest, even when it seems like they do. With no other great focus in life, working for the sake of working is normal to them, fueling their legendary stubbornness. Their beards mark their growth, adding about a braiding mark each year, and so are considered near-sacred; the more beard-braids an uvandir has, the more respect he warrants, and an uvandir who is guilty of crimes against his people will be forcibly shaven of a number of braids dependent on how severe the crime, from at least 100 braids (for murdering another uvandir) to 1 (for lying to/about another uvandir or stealing from one). They communicate primarily through non-verbal means; expressions, gestures, body-language, and the odd grunt - speaking more than they need to is "guhn" ("wasting breath"), the mark of an incredibly ignorant or foolish soul. They fight amongst each other to show respect, and also use violence to express annoyance with others, the difference being marked mostly by facial expressions. They love beer, and use it as an excuse to fuel the telling of stories, which make an entertainment form out of bragging, under very special rules. They are emotionally distant because they are vulnerable to a form of intense melancholy, which can paralyze them to the point they eventually turn back into stone. And though they are younger than humans, they pioneered great advances in many fields, including technology and magic, and that is why humans don't roll their eyes (too much) at uvandir boasting about their superiority at crafts.

* ''Roddun'': Nearly a century ago, a virulent disease called the Blue Death swept through the Wicked Fantasy world, wiping out almost a third of humanity. When it ended, humanity had new neighbors; humanoid rats who had moved into the quarantined settlements and ghettos, the barrios, tending to the sick and dead, and settling... and then refusing to leave. Somewhat disparagingly known amongst humans as "ratters", rodduns can be summarized as Mafioso rat-people; an entire species of criminal rats who follow traditions clearly derived from the Italian mafia -with particular emphasis on the part about caring for and protecting the poor and disparate who choose to help them out in turn. Needless to say, not all of the human cities are so happy with the roddun openly ruling their barrios, and they face a lot of prejudice.

* ''Kuba-Chubisi'': Long before the Underfolk reached the Reign of Men, another race did battle with the Enemy and fled from them in defeat. This race, an immortal race of reptilians, eventually stumbled across humanity durign the dawn of the Reign of Men, and was fascinated; here, they found a race already reaching for virtues like the ones they had championed, a race that could be a powerful ally, but which they feared would reject them out of hand for being different. So, they took on human-like forms, and secretly worked inside of humanity, guiding them down a more virtuous path - a plan they have begun to fear was in vain, watching as the nobility and glory is being eaten out of the heart of humanity. And worse, horrible new monsters have appeared - grotesque dog-lizard things with no culture, corrupted and degenerate parodies of the original forms of the Kuba-Chubisi. These things, these "[[kobold]]s", are a message from the Enemy: "We found you."

But who are "The Enemy"? Well, only the Companion reveals that, tucked away in the back of the chapter on new Pathfinder rules. They are known as the Uz, their own word for Enemy - or, in the darkest depths of the soul for the Underbloods, "Baln'Uz": Beloved Enemy. An ancient race of corrupt and malignant cephalopodian aliens (the description of the "Uz Subserviant" suggests they look like seaslug-taurs in their natural form, but males have bloated into pulsating masses of pustuled flesh) who crashed on this world centuries ago, they use powerful [[psion]]ic energies to command the wills of other beings, served by various slave-organisms engineered through psionics and alien technology. Arrogant, stagnant and cruel, the males obsessively collect and wallow in oszthechnik ("Dim Water"), a psionic-augmenting serum derived from the brains of sentient creatures. Addicted to this power-boosting substance, which enables them to live forever, the males dominate and enslave their females as badly as they do other races. Hiding in the [[Underdark]], they eye the surface greedily; long rulers of their petty fiefdoms, having nearly exterminated in internal feuds, they eagerly seek to corrupt new races.

Their menagerie of horrors is quite extensive; the kaszh'nek (venom-blooded horrors bred to fight for the Uz's amusement and mindlessly loyal to their creators), the hungers (psionic oozes created from the toxic pus seeping from the bodies of the bloated, dim water-addicted male Uz), the adon’de’nadoi (once-proud and beautiful psionic humanoids who fought the Uz and lost, now trapped in astral projections as their bodies are physically shackled to keep them from escaping), and of course, the haffuns, gnomes and uvandir who failed to escape or even to throw off the Uz's psionic domination.

There's also another great enemy, beyond the Uz. Elves know it as "the Darkness", the evil force that tempts them to become dark elves. The orks know it as their gods, dead yet somehow still whispering to them. Even the roddun are tied to it, though they don't know it. They are the Hassad, shapeshifting serpents that can take on more humanoid form. A race of brutally logical creatures who once ruled the world before humanity arose. A race singlemindedly obsessed with gathering and preserving knowledge. The hassad prioritize all things in their lives, and first and foremost, comes the development and expansion of knowledge. Emotions have no meaning before it; "right" and "wrong" are abstracts that the hassad disregard, morality is secondary to knowledge and thusly unimportant.

The hassad created orks and roddun, and now they experiment with the elves. Why? Because, when the Uz first made their campaigns of enslavement and corruption against the world, the hassad were, alongside the kuba-chubisi, the only race that survived. Though they were logic-focused and driven by the urge to experiment before, their original peacefulness was lost. Now, they experiment with a goal: find a way to destroy the Uz. Orks were created to be a warrior-slave race, only to revolt against their creators and devour a third of the race. Rodduns were an accident, a strange effect of the Plague of Blue Fire that the hassad engineered to try and push human evolution along. They're not entirely sure of where gobowins came from, but they're pretty confident they were cooked up in a hassad lab. Somewhere.

[[Category: Pathfinder]] [[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]]

Orc

2017-04-05T10:14:02Z

2605:E000:7ECF:7F00:C5E7:91E2:DE42:4AE1: /* Mold-Breakers */

''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. We might instead think of such goblins as a fantasy counterpart of the apocryphal northerner: clannish, rough spoken, given to imbibing of strong but peculiar liquor, keeping analogues of whippets and pidgeons, prone to mob violence at away fixtures and perhaps too easily influenced by radical politicians of other races.

–Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, '''Hordes of the Things'''
[[File:Orc.jpg|right|400px|]]
'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with green skin. Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well (except in Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, Lord of the Rings and the Elder Scrolls, where they are, amusingly, physically inferior to the human race that is a facsimile of the [[Vikings]]. Thus proving that beards and axes end all things and that the Vikings can rape anyone).

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and stupider 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 was used to describe the Normans invading the Saxon occupiers of Britain in 1066. It is also an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf.

== The Master Template ==

While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons 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:Origin Of Orcs Tolkien.JPG|thumb|right|350px|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 shortly after the first elves awoke. Some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's maiar and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. There they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got orcs. The result was a species of ugly, bad smelling, long armed, claw handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were brown, grey and black in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, and ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and Sauron's armies.

For the sake of clarity, in Arda, [[Goblin]] is just another word for Orc (although in practice it refers mainly to the [[gretchin|smaller types used most often as menial laborers]]). "Uruk" means orc in Black Speech. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between goblins and orcs: most of Tolkein's orcs would resemble other works' goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height), whereas what something like D&D would call an Orc would more closely resemble Tolkein's "Uruk-hai", which are basically super-orcs crossbred between "orcs and goblin-men"... [[/d/|whatever that means]].

Tolkien's orcs are not stupid. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor), good (if unpleasant) medicine and are pretty good engineers. 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 and their psychic influence over them. 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" but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. The question of whether they are 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. 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.

In any case these guys served as the inspiration of a whole lot of spin offs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it and expanded on it filling 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.

For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit.

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 wholly evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning who could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and 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.

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===Dungeons & Dragons===
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The first 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.
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, 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.

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===Warhammer===
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|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.

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===[[Warcraft]]===
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in a major evolution in any fiction master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous obscure fantasy settings into a unified setting, 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 12 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.

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==
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.

'''[[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. 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 an expectation of being born from consensual relationships, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings. The Demon Wastes are even full of 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. ''And winning.''

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, had an exception 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].
: There was also a brief but interesting period in very late third through fourth edition in which Gruumush experimented with building an orcish civilization, the Kingdom of Many Arrows, Mongol-style. It was fun while it lasted, but was inevitably swept away to restore the infinite status quo.

'''[[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]]. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/scro.php here].

'''[[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, 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 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.

'''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) are very intelligent 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 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.

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==
From 3rd edition on, Orcs have been a playable race in the vast list for [[Dungeons & Dragons]], though their stats and standard portrayal have usually been bad enough to keep most people from ever bothering. Even in [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|4e]], most would probably recommend using [[half-orc]] or [[goliath]] stats and "reskinning" them into orcs. The Players Handbook in [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|5e]] outright states that it's not ''impossible'' for an orc to not be chaotic evil, but that Gruumsh, the god that created them, didn't give them as much free will as the normal races, making it ''more'' difficult for orcs to avoid being evil. (Half-orcs feel it too, but not as strongly, and it primarily manifests as extremely passionate emotions.)

===AD&D Orc:===
* +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.

===3.x Orc:===
* +4 Strength
* -2 Intelligence
* -2 Wisdom
* -2 Charisma
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
* Favored Class: Barbarian

===3.5 Scro===
* +4 Strength
* +2 Dexterity
* +2 Constitution
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Orc Blood (count as orcs for all effect related to race)
* +1 racial bonus to attack rolls vs. Elves of all kinds
* Favored Class: Monk
* Level Adjustment: +2

===Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +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

===World of Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +2 Stamina
* -2 Intellect
* 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

===4e Orc===
* +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)

===Pathfinder Orc===
* +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.

===5e Orc===
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 [[hitpoint]] 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]].
* +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)

==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, red, brown, and 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.

==Piggish Looks==
On occasions, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the general acception 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.

==Monstergirl Depictions==
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls aren't inclined to find them attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned amazons; musclegirls 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.

[[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.

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

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
File:Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Image:Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Image:Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
</gallery>

{{D&D4e-Races}}

[[Category:Monstergirls]]

Orc

2017-04-05T10:11:46Z

2605:E000:7ECF:7F00:C5E7:91E2:DE42:4AE1: /* Mold-Breakers */

''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. We might instead think of such goblins as a fantasy counterpart of the apocryphal northerner: clannish, rough spoken, given to imbibing of strong but peculiar liquor, keeping analogues of whippets and pidgeons, prone to mob violence at away fixtures and perhaps too easily influenced by radical politicians of other races.

–Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, '''Hordes of the Things'''
[[File:Orc.jpg|right|400px|]]
'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with green skin. Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well (except in Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, Lord of the Rings and the Elder Scrolls, where they are, amusingly, physically inferior to the human race that is a facsimile of the [[Vikings]]. Thus proving that beards and axes end all things and that the Vikings can rape anyone).

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and stupider 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 was used to describe the Normans invading the Saxon occupiers of Britain in 1066. It is also an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf.

== The Master Template ==

While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons 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:Origin Of Orcs Tolkien.JPG|thumb|right|350px|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 shortly after the first elves awoke. Some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's maiar and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. There they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got orcs. The result was a species of ugly, bad smelling, long armed, claw handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were brown, grey and black in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, and ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and Sauron's armies.

For the sake of clarity, in Arda, [[Goblin]] is just another word for Orc (although in practice it refers mainly to the [[gretchin|smaller types used most often as menial laborers]]). "Uruk" means orc in Black Speech. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between goblins and orcs: most of Tolkein's orcs would resemble other works' goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height), whereas what something like D&D would call an Orc would more closely resemble Tolkein's "Uruk-hai", which are basically super-orcs crossbred between "orcs and goblin-men"... [[/d/|whatever that means]].

Tolkien's orcs are not stupid. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor), good (if unpleasant) medicine and are pretty good engineers. 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 and their psychic influence over them. 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" but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. The question of whether they are 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. 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.

In any case these guys served as the inspiration of a whole lot of spin offs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it and expanded on it filling 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.

For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit.

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 wholly evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning who could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and 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.

<gallery>
</gallery>

===Dungeons & Dragons===
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The first 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.
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, 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.

<gallery>
</gallery>

===Warhammer===
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|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.

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===[[Warcraft]]===
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in a major evolution in any fiction master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous obscure fantasy settings into a unified setting, 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 12 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.

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==
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.

'''[[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. 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 an expectation of being born from consensual relationships, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings. The Demon Wastes are even full of 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. ''And winning.''

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, had an exception 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].
: There was also a brief but interesting period in very late third through fourth edition in which Gruumush experimented with building an orcish civilization, the Kingdom of Many Arrows, Mongol-style. It was fun while it lasted, but was inevitably swept away to restore the infinite status quo.

'''[[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]]. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/scro.php here].

'''[[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, 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 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.

'''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) are very intelligent 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 ate (and shat out) their greatest champion, 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.

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==
From 3rd edition on, Orcs have been a playable race in the vast list for [[Dungeons & Dragons]], though their stats and standard portrayal have usually been bad enough to keep most people from ever bothering. Even in [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|4e]], most would probably recommend using [[half-orc]] or [[goliath]] stats and "reskinning" them into orcs. The Players Handbook in [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|5e]] outright states that it's not ''impossible'' for an orc to not be chaotic evil, but that Gruumsh, the god that created them, didn't give them as much free will as the normal races, making it ''more'' difficult for orcs to avoid being evil. (Half-orcs feel it too, but not as strongly, and it primarily manifests as extremely passionate emotions.)

===AD&D Orc:===
* +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.

===3.x Orc:===
* +4 Strength
* -2 Intelligence
* -2 Wisdom
* -2 Charisma
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
* Favored Class: Barbarian

===3.5 Scro===
* +4 Strength
* +2 Dexterity
* +2 Constitution
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Orc Blood (count as orcs for all effect related to race)
* +1 racial bonus to attack rolls vs. Elves of all kinds
* Favored Class: Monk
* Level Adjustment: +2

===Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +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

===World of Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +2 Stamina
* -2 Intellect
* 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

===4e Orc===
* +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)

===Pathfinder Orc===
* +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.

===5e Orc===
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 [[hitpoint]] 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]].
* +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)

==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, red, brown, and 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.

==Piggish Looks==
On occasions, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the general acception 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.

==Monstergirl Depictions==
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls aren't inclined to find them attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned amazons; musclegirls 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.

[[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.

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

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
File:Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Image:Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Image:Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
</gallery>

{{D&D4e-Races}}

[[Category:Monstergirls]]

Orc

2017-04-05T10:04:32Z

2605:E000:7ECF:7F00:C5E7:91E2:DE42:4AE1: /* Warcraft */

''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. We might instead think of such goblins as a fantasy counterpart of the apocryphal northerner: clannish, rough spoken, given to imbibing of strong but peculiar liquor, keeping analogues of whippets and pidgeons, prone to mob violence at away fixtures and perhaps too easily influenced by radical politicians of other races.

–Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, '''Hordes of the Things'''
[[File:Orc.jpg|right|400px|]]
'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with green skin. Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well (except in Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, Lord of the Rings and the Elder Scrolls, where they are, amusingly, physically inferior to the human race that is a facsimile of the [[Vikings]]. Thus proving that beards and axes end all things and that the Vikings can rape anyone).

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and stupider 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 was used to describe the Normans invading the Saxon occupiers of Britain in 1066. It is also an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf.

== The Master Template ==

While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons 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:Origin Of Orcs Tolkien.JPG|thumb|right|350px|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 shortly after the first elves awoke. Some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's maiar and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. There they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got orcs. The result was a species of ugly, bad smelling, long armed, claw handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were brown, grey and black in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, and ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and Sauron's armies.

For the sake of clarity, in Arda, [[Goblin]] is just another word for Orc (although in practice it refers mainly to the [[gretchin|smaller types used most often as menial laborers]]). "Uruk" means orc in Black Speech. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between goblins and orcs: most of Tolkein's orcs would resemble other works' goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height), whereas what something like D&D would call an Orc would more closely resemble Tolkein's "Uruk-hai", which are basically super-orcs crossbred between "orcs and goblin-men"... [[/d/|whatever that means]].

Tolkien's orcs are not stupid. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor), good (if unpleasant) medicine and are pretty good engineers. 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 and their psychic influence over them. 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" but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. The question of whether they are 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. 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.

In any case these guys served as the inspiration of a whole lot of spin offs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it and expanded on it filling 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.

For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit.

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 wholly evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning who could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and 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.

<gallery>
</gallery>

===Dungeons & Dragons===
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The first 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.
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, 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.

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===Warhammer===
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|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.

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===[[Warcraft]]===
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in a major evolution in any fiction master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous obscure fantasy settings into a unified setting, 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 12 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.

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==
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.

'''[[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. 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 an expectation of being born from consensual relationships, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings. The Demon Wastes are even full of 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. ''And winning.''

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, had an exception 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].
: There was also a brief but interesting period in very late third through fourth edition in which Gruumush experimented with building an orcish civilization, the Kingdom of Many Arrows, Mongol-style. It was fun while it lasted, but was inevitably swept away to restore the infinite status quo.

'''[[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]]. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/scro.php here].

'''[[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 shaman and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, 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 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.

'''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) are very intelligent 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 ate (and shat out) their greatest champion, 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.

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==
From 3rd edition on, Orcs have been a playable race in the vast list for [[Dungeons & Dragons]], though their stats and standard portrayal have usually been bad enough to keep most people from ever bothering. Even in [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|4e]], most would probably recommend using [[half-orc]] or [[goliath]] stats and "reskinning" them into orcs. The Players Handbook in [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|5e]] outright states that it's not ''impossible'' for an orc to not be chaotic evil, but that Gruumsh, the god that created them, didn't give them as much free will as the normal races, making it ''more'' difficult for orcs to avoid being evil. (Half-orcs feel it too, but not as strongly, and it primarily manifests as extremely passionate emotions.)

===AD&D Orc:===
* +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.

===3.x Orc:===
* +4 Strength
* -2 Intelligence
* -2 Wisdom
* -2 Charisma
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
* Favored Class: Barbarian

===3.5 Scro===
* +4 Strength
* +2 Dexterity
* +2 Constitution
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Orc Blood (count as orcs for all effect related to race)
* +1 racial bonus to attack rolls vs. Elves of all kinds
* Favored Class: Monk
* Level Adjustment: +2

===Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +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

===World of Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +2 Stamina
* -2 Intellect
* 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

===4e Orc===
* +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)

===Pathfinder Orc===
* +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.

===5e Orc===
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 [[hitpoint]] 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]].
* +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)

==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, red, brown, and 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.

==Piggish Looks==
On occasions, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the general acception 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.

==Monstergirl Depictions==
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls aren't inclined to find them attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned amazons; musclegirls 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.

[[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.

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

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
File:Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Image:Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Image:Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
</gallery>

{{D&D4e-Races}}

[[Category:Monstergirls]]

Orc

2017-04-05T09:56:25Z

2605:E000:7ECF:7F00:C5E7:91E2:DE42:4AE1: /* Tolkien */

''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. We might instead think of such goblins as a fantasy counterpart of the apocryphal northerner: clannish, rough spoken, given to imbibing of strong but peculiar liquor, keeping analogues of whippets and pidgeons, prone to mob violence at away fixtures and perhaps too easily influenced by radical politicians of other races.

–Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, '''Hordes of the Things'''
[[File:Orc.jpg|right|400px|]]
'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with green skin. Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well (except in Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, Lord of the Rings and the Elder Scrolls, where they are, amusingly, physically inferior to the human race that is a facsimile of the [[Vikings]]. Thus proving that beards and axes end all things and that the Vikings can rape anyone).

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and stupider 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 was used to describe the Normans invading the Saxon occupiers of Britain in 1066. It is also an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf.

== The Master Template ==

While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons 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:Origin Of Orcs Tolkien.JPG|thumb|right|350px|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 shortly after the first elves awoke. Some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's maiar and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. There they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got orcs. The result was a species of ugly, bad smelling, long armed, claw handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were brown, grey and black in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, and ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and Sauron's armies.

For the sake of clarity, in Arda, [[Goblin]] is just another word for Orc (although in practice it refers mainly to the [[gretchin|smaller types used most often as menial laborers]]). "Uruk" means orc in Black Speech. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between goblins and orcs: most of Tolkein's orcs would resemble other works' goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height), whereas what something like D&D would call an Orc would more closely resemble Tolkein's "Uruk-hai", which are basically super-orcs crossbred between "orcs and goblin-men"... [[/d/|whatever that means]].

Tolkien's orcs are not stupid. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor), good (if unpleasant) medicine and are pretty good engineers. 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 and their psychic influence over them. 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" but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. The question of whether they are 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. 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.

In any case these guys served as the inspiration of a whole lot of spin offs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it and expanded on it filling 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.

For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit.

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 wholly evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning who could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and 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.

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===Dungeons & Dragons===
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The first 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.
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, 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.

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===Warhammer===
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|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.

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===[[Warcraft]]===
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in a major evolution in any fiction master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous obscure fantasy settings into a unified setting, 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 natural 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 12 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.

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==
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.

'''[[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. 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 an expectation of being born from consensual relationships, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings. The Demon Wastes are even full of 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. ''And winning.''

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, had an exception 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].
: There was also a brief but interesting period in very late third through fourth edition in which Gruumush experimented with building an orcish civilization, the Kingdom of Many Arrows, Mongol-style. It was fun while it lasted, but was inevitably swept away to restore the infinite status quo.

'''[[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]]. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/scro.php here].

'''[[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 shaman and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, 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 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.

'''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) are very intelligent 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 ate (and shat out) their greatest champion, 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.

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==
From 3rd edition on, Orcs have been a playable race in the vast list for [[Dungeons & Dragons]], though their stats and standard portrayal have usually been bad enough to keep most people from ever bothering. Even in [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|4e]], most would probably recommend using [[half-orc]] or [[goliath]] stats and "reskinning" them into orcs. The Players Handbook in [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|5e]] outright states that it's not ''impossible'' for an orc to not be chaotic evil, but that Gruumsh, the god that created them, didn't give them as much free will as the normal races, making it ''more'' difficult for orcs to avoid being evil. (Half-orcs feel it too, but not as strongly, and it primarily manifests as extremely passionate emotions.)

===AD&D Orc:===
* +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.

===3.x Orc:===
* +4 Strength
* -2 Intelligence
* -2 Wisdom
* -2 Charisma
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
* Favored Class: Barbarian

===3.5 Scro===
* +4 Strength
* +2 Dexterity
* +2 Constitution
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Orc Blood (count as orcs for all effect related to race)
* +1 racial bonus to attack rolls vs. Elves of all kinds
* Favored Class: Monk
* Level Adjustment: +2

===Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +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

===World of Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +2 Stamina
* -2 Intellect
* 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

===4e Orc===
* +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)

===Pathfinder Orc===
* +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.

===5e Orc===
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 [[hitpoint]] 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]].
* +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)

==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, red, brown, and 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.

==Piggish Looks==
On occasions, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the general acception 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.

==Monstergirl Depictions==
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls aren't inclined to find them attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned amazons; musclegirls 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.

[[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.

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

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
File:Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Image:Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Image:Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
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{{D&D4e-Races}}

[[Category:Monstergirls]]

Orc

2017-04-05T09:49:09Z

2605:E000:7ECF:7F00:C5E7:91E2:DE42:4AE1: /* Tolkien */

''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. We might instead think of such goblins as a fantasy counterpart of the apocryphal northerner: clannish, rough spoken, given to imbibing of strong but peculiar liquor, keeping analogues of whippets and pidgeons, prone to mob violence at away fixtures and perhaps too easily influenced by radical politicians of other races.

–Phil Barker, Sue Laflin Barker & Richard Bodley Scott, '''Hordes of the Things'''
[[File:Orc.jpg|right|400px|]]
'''Orcs''' are a fantasy race that is used in a number of settings. Compare to [[Ork]]. They are generally depicted as barbaric humanoids with green skin. Typically, they are stronger than an average [[human]], though generally less intelligent as well (except in Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, Lord of the Rings and the Elder Scrolls, where they are, amusingly, physically inferior to the human race that is a facsimile of the [[Vikings]]. Thus proving that beards and axes end all things and that the Vikings can rape anyone).

They enjoy molesting, eating and generally mistreating the goblins, their smaller cousins. They have longstanding relationships with trolls and ogres, their larger and stupider 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 was used to describe the Normans invading the Saxon occupiers of Britain in 1066. It is also an Anglo-Saxon word meaning 'demon', according to Tolkien, who lifted the word from Beowulf.

== The Master Template ==

While many traditional fantasy races (elves, dwarves, dragons 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:Origin Of Orcs Tolkien.JPG|thumb|right|350px|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 shortly after the first elves awoke. Some of these elves wandered about exploring this world that they had awoken in and were captured by some of Melkor's maiar and were taken to Angband, his base of operations. There they were tortured, abused, cursed, mutated and selectively bred until you got orcs. The result was a species of ugly, bad smelling, long armed, claw handed, hairy apelike humanoids which were brown, grey and black in coloration, had an aversion to sunlight, and ranged in size from smaller than a hobbit to as large as a man. These creatures would make up the bulk of Melkor and Sauron's armies.

For the sake of clarity, in Arda, [[Goblin]] is just another word for Orc (although in practice it refers mainly to the [[gretchin|smaller types used most often as menial laborers]]). "Uruk" means orc in Black Speech. Most fantasy fiction typically distinguishes between goblins and orcs: most of Tolkein's orcs would resemble other works' goblins (Frodo and Sam disguised themselves as Orcs, so we can assume at least some are Hobbit height), whereas what something like D&D would call an Orc would more closely resemble Tolkein's "Uruk-hai", which are basically super-orcs crossbred between "orcs and goblin-men"... [[/d/|whatever that means]].

Tolkien's orcs are not stupid. They are capable of making weapons (bows, spears, daggers, shields and curved swords), armor (helmets, mail and scale armor), good (if unpleasant) medicine and are pretty good engineers. 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 and their psychic influence over them. 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" but has led a few to say that orcish sexual dimorphism is basically nonexistent or that female orcs don't exist. The question of whether they are 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. 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.

In any case these guys served as the inspiration of a whole lot of spin offs that to various degrees A: took the idea and ran with it and expanded on it filling in the blanks, B: took the basic idea a 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.

For the most part the Lord of the Rings movies have done a reasonable interpretation of the orcs from the books, though they have cranked their aggression up a bit.

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 wholly evil race ruled by a hierarchy of tribe chiefs who use grimdark Klingon politics; meaning who could knock around his fellow Uruks became boss, and 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.

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===Dungeons & Dragons===
[[File:DnD Original Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The first 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.
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, 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.

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===Warhammer===
[[File:Black Orc.jpg|thumb|right|350px|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.

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===[[Warcraft]]===
The importance of Warcraft isn't actually in a major evolution in any fiction master template. In fact, what it mostly did is combine concepts from previous obscure fantasy settings into a unified setting, 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 natural 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 12 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.

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==
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.

'''[[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. 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 an expectation of being born from consensual relationships, rather than the "orc man raping a human woman" expectation of most other D&D settings. The Demon Wastes are even full of 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. ''And winning.''

'''[[Forgotten Realms]]''', although certainly playing it straight, had an exception 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].
: There was also a brief but interesting period in very late third through fourth edition in which Gruumush experimented with building an orcish civilization, the Kingdom of Many Arrows, Mongol-style. It was fun while it lasted, but was inevitably swept away to restore the infinite status quo.

'''[[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]]. You can check out their AD&D stats [http://www.lomion.de/cmm/scro.php here].

'''[[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 shaman and the setting's demonic BBEG. As a result, 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 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.

'''[[Elder Scrolls]]''' Orcs (or Orsimer, if you wish to use their proper name) are very intelligent 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 ate (and shat out) their greatest champion, 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.

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==
From 3rd edition on, Orcs have been a playable race in the vast list for [[Dungeons & Dragons]], though their stats and standard portrayal have usually been bad enough to keep most people from ever bothering. Even in [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition|4e]], most would probably recommend using [[half-orc]] or [[goliath]] stats and "reskinning" them into orcs. The Players Handbook in [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition|5e]] outright states that it's not ''impossible'' for an orc to not be chaotic evil, but that Gruumsh, the god that created them, didn't give them as much free will as the normal races, making it ''more'' difficult for orcs to avoid being evil. (Half-orcs feel it too, but not as strongly, and it primarily manifests as extremely passionate emotions.)

===AD&D Orc:===
* +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.

===3.x Orc:===
* +4 Strength
* -2 Intelligence
* -2 Wisdom
* -2 Charisma
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Light Sensitivity (automatically suffer Dazzled condition in daylight)
* Favored Class: Barbarian

===3.5 Scro===
* +4 Strength
* +2 Dexterity
* +2 Constitution
* Medium size
* Base land speed 30 feet
* Darkvision out to 60 feet
* Orc Blood (count as orcs for all effect related to race)
* +1 racial bonus to attack rolls vs. Elves of all kinds
* Favored Class: Monk
* Level Adjustment: +2

===Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +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

===World of Warcraft the RPG Orc===
* +2 Stamina
* -2 Intellect
* 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

===4e Orc===
* +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)

===Pathfinder Orc===
* +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.

===5e Orc===
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 [[hitpoint]] 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]].
* +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)

==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, red, brown, and 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.

==Piggish Looks==
On occasions, a person may find orcs depicted as pig-men, despite the general acception 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.

==Monstergirl Depictions==
Orcs are not the most commonly seen of [[monstergirls]], as many of the individuals inclined to make monstergirls aren't inclined to find them attractive. Those rare orc MGs seen tend to be, basically, green-skinned amazons; musclegirls 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.

[[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.

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

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Orcweapons.JPG|Ork made [[Exotic weapons]].
File:Orksword.GIF|Ork make more [[Exotic weapons]].
Image:Female Orc.jpg|gb2kitchen
Image:Orc_bard.jpg|What happens when the DM lets him take a homebrew feat to use his Strength score for Perform (Dance) checks.
</gallery>

{{D&D4e-Races}}

[[Category:Monstergirls]]