Orcs

Orcs or euroz in the Flan tongue, are all too common across the Flanaess. They look like primitive humans with gray-green skin and coarse hair. They stoop slightly, have low jutting foreheads, snouts, canine-like teeth, and short pointed ears. The average orc stands between 5½ and 6 feet tall. Half-orcs have much more human features.

Orcs are aggressive humanoids that live in tribal societies. They band together to hunt and raid, believing that to survive they must expand their territory. This need to expand puts them in a constant state of war with humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, and even other orc tribes.

Undisciplined, bestial, and savage, orcs have severe tribal rivalries and do not cooperate unless controlled by a very strong leader. Orc communities are usually found underground, but wilderness villages do exist. These lairs are protected by the best defenses the orcs can invent or steal. Some of these communities are built around active mines. All make use of slave labor.

Major tribes of orcs include the Vile Rune, the Bloody Head, the Death Moon, the Broken Bone, the Evil Eye, the Leprous Hand, the Rotting Eye, and the Dripping Blade. Orcs are frequently encountered as mercenaries in the Iuz, Pomarj, Bone March, and across North Province. Orc-Ogre crossbreeds are particularly dangerous and are known in several areas.

The orc mentality views aggression as the natural order. They believe that other races are inferior to them, and bully weaker creatures. Enslaved orcs will rebel at the first opportunity. When allied with others, orcs are quick to take offense and break agreements.

To orcs, the greatest challenge they can set for themselves is the test of battle. They value territory above all else, though they also take great pride in battle experience and prowess, wealth, and lots of offspring. Orc society is male dominated; females exist to bear young. Though carnivorous, orcs prefer game meats or livestock to intelligent races.

Among the Civilized

Orc sellswords are not as rare as other humanoid races. The call to battle is not much different than the call to adventure, and orc heroes sometimes come to the forefront.  Because females have few rights in orc society, many of them turn to mercenary work to escape their lot in life.

A few orcs even attempt to reject their evil natures in order to try to become honorable warriors. While an orc will never become a paladin, some do become the orcish equivalent of holy warriors. However, those orcs that attempt to fight fair and with honor are sneered at and rejected by their own kind. Why fight face to face, the common orc thinks, when fighting from an advantageous hiding place is so much more effective?