Orcs and Half-Orcs

Orcs

Orcs are green-skinned humanoids of powerful musculature, stooped posture and an ever-grimacing face notable for its sloping, hairless forehead, snub-nose and large tusks. Although Chaotic Evil, they serve in ranks of armies martialled by powers to carry out scorched-earth tactics.

Orcs are not born; they are made. A magical process involving intense pain and torture mutates a human male from a civilized being to a ravening beast of snarling Chaotic Evil. In ancient times, warlocks perfected a method by which they could enhance all of the most bestial aspects of men, turning them into armies whose fear of magic made them easily controlled. Always, at the source of every Orc military, is a powerful magic-user who has mastered the method.

They have no gods, no culture beyond lust for domination, no leaders beyond the mage who made them to be used in rapidly-raised armies. An Orc without a war to fight in will fight whatever he can find and once a conquest ends the remaining Orcs disband into ever-shrinking groups of anarchistic murderers which may plague the countryside for years after until they are wiped out.

A parody of toxic masculinity, orcs are incapable of any tenderness of emotion; their only desires are the amplified, animalistic drives of eat-fuck-kill. Only male orcs exist, yet they still retain the drive to procreate and will rape any female that isn’t a threat. There is zero capacity for child-rearing, however, which means Half-Orcs are never raised by their fathers.

Half-Orcs

Half-Orcs are olive-skinned and heavily built, looking mostly human but with a small nose and an abnormally large lower jaw and small tusks jutting over the upper lip. Eyes tend to be dark, but hair colour is dependent on the mother’s ancestry as Orcs are hairless.

Half-Orcs are almost always the product of rape and their Orcish heritage can make them temperamental outcasts in a society which bears the scars of a recent Orc invasion. Many fall into the adventuring life because there no polite society will welcome them, but there are also communities where Half-Orcs are not judged by their fathers. There is no barrier to any class a Half-Orc character faced with the same opportunities as his or her Human neighbours can achieve.

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