Games - Orc

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In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, orcs are a primitive race of barbaric humanoids.

Description

Orcs are a species of aggressive mammalian carnivores that band together in tribes and survive by hunting and raiding. Orcs believe that in order to survive they must expand their territory, and so they are constantly involved in wars against many enemies: humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, and other orc tribes. Orcs speak Orcish.

In earlier editions

Orcs vary widely in appearance, as they frequently crossbreed with other species. In general, they resemble primitive humans with grey-green skin covered with coarse hair. Orcs have a slightly stooped posture, a low jutting forehead, and a snout instead of a nose, though comparisons between this facial feature and those of pigs are exaggerated and perhaps unfair. Orcs have well-developed canine teeth for eating meat and short pointed ears that resemble those of a wolf. Orcish snouts and ears have a slightly pink tinge. Their eyes are human, with a reddish tint that sometimes makes them appear to glow red when they reflect dim light sources in near darkness. This is actually part of their optical system, a pigment which gives them infravision. Male orcs are about 5½ to 6 feet tall. Females average 6 inches shorter than males. Orcs prefer to wear colors that most humans think unpleasant: blood red, rust red, mustard yellow, yellow green, moss green, greenish purple, and blackish brown. Their armor is unattractive besides -- dirty and often a bit rusty. Orcs speak Orcish, a language derived from older human and elvish languages. There is no common standard of Orcish, so the language has many dialects which vary from tribe to tribe. Orcs have also learned to speak local common tongues, but are not comfortable with them. Some orcs have a limited vocabulary in goblin, hobgoblin, and ogre dialects.

Earlier versions of Dungeons & Dragons depicted orcs slightly differently. They were Lawful Evil, and were sometimes described as having porcine snouts (an illustration in the 1977 Monster Manual depicted them with pig-like faces). An insightful passage from the Monstrous Manual reads, "Orcs have a reputation for cruelty that is deserved, but humans are just as capable of evil as orcs".

The half-orc in the original AD&D game was a standard player character race, typically assuming the assassin class, where he was a brooding and tragic figure, and not a brutish caricature. Half-orcs were removed in the second edition of the game but were revived, albeit altered, in D&D 3rd edition.

Orcs in Greyhawk

In the World of Greyhawk, orcs can be found in almost all locales of the Flanaess, but are most heavily concentrated in the Pomarj and the Empire of Iuz. There is also known to exist a great orcish city known as Garel Enkdal in the Griff Mountains. The orcs of the Baklunish nation of Zeif are much different than their brethren, having very nearly been assimilated into human society, though they are still regarded as lower-class.

Orcs in the Forgotten Realms

In the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons, orcs are divided into the orcs of the north (Mountain Orcs) and the orcs of the east (). The gray orcs came to Faerûn through a portal opened in Mulhorand by an Imaskari wizard. The orcs' invasion caused the Orcgate Wars in which the pious gray orcs called avatars of their deities down to help them, and the Mulhorandi and Untheric people did the same. Led by Re these pantheons and their soldiers eventually broke the gray orcs' armies.

In the north, orcs are known for overbreeding and then spilling out in hordes upon the nations thereabouts, including the Silver Marches, Icewind Dale and, in times past, the old elven empires around Cormanthyr. Foremost amongst the orcs of this area is the Broken Arrow tribe headed by King Obould Many-Arrows, enemy of Drizzt Do'Urden.

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Games - Orc

Description

In earlier editions

Orcs in Greyhawk

Orcs in the Forgotten Realms

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