Discussing the culture of Orcs is rife with difficulties. First of all, they are often poorly illustrated in Source Documents, being nothing more than a faceless menace for more civilized species. Then there is the long running debate as to their origins, as many suspect that a race similar to the Orcs could not have occured naturally. Given the extremely limited theological examples provided, there is some merits to the Orcs being an unnatural race.
Still, as they are an important, if not well loved, race in the sociological fabric, it would be remise NOT to study them. As always we will start with our basic assumptions.
Assumption One: Orcs are not a naturally occuring race. This is a hot button issue with many scholars, but is prevalent enough in unbiased sources that we will not simply ignore it. If they were specifically bred or altered from some source race, then they were undoubtedly bred as soldiers.
Assumption Two: Unlike Goblins, Orcs do have a measurable culture, and a high degree of organized social behavior, on par with other civilized species. This includes a limited degree of organized education. Orc culture tends towards a nomadic tribal existance, but they do practice limited forms of agriculture, particularly husbandry. Some sources show a marked fondness for pigs. This may sound comical, until you realize that porcine animals offer a wide array of benefits for Orcish communities, even over other forms of herd animals.
Assumption Three: Orcs, as a species, are reviled by both Elf and dwarf in most source documents. Orcs themselves tend to care little about this hatred, though some orcs have expressed a marked, almost instinctive distaste for Elves. This has been commented upon in many ways as a distaste for 'pretty things' but no evidence of such assumptions is forthcoming, leading one to assume therefore that some other cause must exist.
Assumption Four: Orcs, despite 'fang or tusklike' teeth, are completely omnivorous. Unlike the Gobliniods, whose prominant teeth are places for rending and biting, many orc subspecies seem to lack the teeth all, and in those who are noted for them, the structure of the jaw suggests not 'biting' but 'rooting' behavior. In Orcs, certainly, such prominant teeth are in fact tusks, not fangs. It has been noted that tusk rubbing is a comfort act for orcs, and some familial or mating behaviors may include such acts. To an orc, rubbing a tusk against a beloveds skin may be akin to kissing. Tusk to tusk rubbing is actually so intimate as to be viewed as obscene by some.
Assumption Five: Unlike other races Orc are in fact somewhat limited in intellect. By extension, orcs are ill prepared for 'civilized' life, and have difficulty grasping more esoteric concepts that make large communities viable. Orcs are perforce limited to a more primative and savage existance by their own natures. While an Orc may be able to grasp the principle of trade, he struggles to understand how one could make a living by doing it. This is a species wide generalization, and quite intelligent orcs have been noted by many source documents. Such individuals have proven time and again that it is merely intellect, not racial capacity, that hinders Orcish culture, as they prove fully capable of advanced reasoning, some even going so far as to study arcane magic.
Assumption Six: Orc are naturally violent and apparently hold an unreasoning hatred of other species. This is partly 'factual' and partly 'mythic'. Orcs do tend towards aggressive, violent behavior. Amongst their own kind such things rarely escalate beyond brawls. Furthermore, Orcs do seem to have some natural tendency towards 'berserk' behavior, blind unreasoning rages of terrible fury. The impact of such rages in their culture has not adequetly been studied. However, aside from rare, instinctual distate behavior regarding elves, no apparent racial hatreds actually exist among Orcs. Orc tribes have notably contained members of human, gobliniods and even ogrish species, and orcs have co-existed alongside giants, who DO have a hatred of most other species. One suspects that it is the other species that possess an unreasoning hatred of orcs.
Assumption Seven: Orcs have long been rumored to be highly fertile, to a large extent even cross species lines. However, as only human/orc hybrids have ever been discussed factually in any source documents we are forced to suggest that their ability to crossbreed is more limited. However, Orc do display a high degree of morphology, second only to Humans, and there is evidence that some 'dwarflike' Orcs and 'ogre-like' orc subspecies may exist, clouding the issue. It is interesting to note that most subspecies noted are often claimed to be 'more intelligent' than their progenitor species. No Orc/elf hybrids have ever been claimed, though references to the rape of Elven women by orcs have been documented on numerous occasions. One distinct possibility is the rumored ability of Elves to control their own fertility. Another more chilling possiblity exists, that the resultant infants are destroyed upon birth. A more radical possibilty, suggest only by careful reading of the facts, is that such children are presented as human/elf hybrids.
Assumption Eight: Orcs are not native to underground spaces, and in fact prefer surface habitats. This is a controversial assumption, but unlike Gobliniods, Orcs do not have a smaller subrace, have no particular aversion to bright light, and are found far more often on the surface than underground. Many scholars working from source documents seem to confuse orcs with the larger subspecies of gobliniods and appear to assume they are troglodytic.
Assumption Nine: Orcs are highly heirarchal in nature, naturally obeying those with authority over them. Such authority is often violently opposed, and unlike Dwarves, Orcs have little issue with bucking authority to ensure it is still being imposed, but once authority is granted (by strength, knowledge or...and this is important... Respect), the leader has few difficulties getting his followers to obey.
Assumption Ten: Orcs are one of the Older races. Elves have histories of wars against the Orcs dating back as far as one cares to look, though the oldest of records have more similarities to myths and legends than to actual facts. Dwarves have records of fighting Orcs for underground strongholds, given the dwarven ability to hold a grudge, and the depths of their respect for the sanctity of hearth and home, explains why there is still bad blood there on behalf of the dwarves. Human cultures have fought numerous wars with orcs, defending against invading hordes led by powerful, intelligent leaders, and offensively, clearing orcish 'bandits' off of desireable farmlands, all dating back to antiquity. No race has once mentioned bewilderment over the nature of this enemy at any point, suggesting that Orcish history dates back as long as any other race's. If in fact Orcs were bred as slave soldiers it must have been during the reign of the Elvish 'masters', should such a period actually exist.
Assumption Eleven: Orcs breed quickly, single births are rare and gestations are short. Likewise Orcs tend to reach maturity at roughly the same rate, or slightly faster than humans, giving them an incredibly short generational span compared to other races. However, Orcs do not appear to suffer the same malthusean population pressures of Gobliniods, suggesting that Orcs can somehow regulate their breeding patterns to prevent overpopulation.
Assumption Twelve: Despite being universally reviled by all civilized races, and having fought against goblin swarms and more recently organized Gobliniod armies, Orcs are still here. This is a fact, but the assumption is that at any point in their history, Orcs have been the enemy of someone, and given the tenacity of Dwarves, the methodical genocidal warfare of the Elves and the sheer rapicity of goblins, or the inexorable spread of humanity, Orcs have persisted, even thrived... orcs seemly can exist anywhere, fill any niche, any hole that other intelligent species ignores. They can weather the worst storms, brave the darkest places, and for all that the world may seem to hate them, Orcs almost seem to enjoy life on a level many civilized species tend to envy. Orcs are proud to be orcs.
If there is a theory to be had here, it is this: Orcs are the original Ur-species, the very clay to be molded by the gods (or Dragons if you buy that history) into all other species, according to need. This may sound radical, and indeed it is. Orcs are not debased Elves, Elves are, if anything, rarified Orcs. To extend the point further, if we accept that there was at one time a culture of beings that once ruled the world, enslaved all other species, and upon whom the Elves led a victorious revolt... it was the Orcs. Not the dragons, not some nebulous titans, Orcs.
The full theory goes as such: at one time the Orcs did not have such limited intellects. In fact they may not have even resembled the Orcs of today. There were no Gods but their own arcane sciences. There were no races, not as we recognize them anyway. These Orcs bred from their own kind servitor races, immortal, graceful concubines, doughty laborers and more. Perhaps they bred a soldier race as well. Eventually their concubines led the servitor races in a revolt, stealing terrible secrets from their masters. Only the soldier caste remained loyal, but they could not save their masters from weapons of their own devising, weapons which robbed them of their greatest weapons: their minds.
The war would have been long and violent, with many epic clashes, the heroes and villians of the war were memorialized in song and myth until they took on the role of Gods, perhaps even gaining some measure of God-hood through forbidden magics. The great Empire fractured and the various surviving subraces scattered, finding their own niches (the possiblity that goblins were bred as food animals is highly disturbing, but given that many creatures tend to find them delicacies can not be dismissed). Eventually the servitor races, each bred down from the Ur-Race (who survived by interbreeding with the soldier caste that sheltered them), found their own niches, made their own cultures.
Eventually, aside from the immortal Elves, the various survivors forgot about the war, the empire, and even to a greater degree the lost wonders. Even the Elves lost a great deal, eventually mythologizing the stories and losing the most difficult magics to the ravages of time, even as the world wore away the ruins to nothing... or close too it.
Humans, by this account, arose naturally from the Orcs, the orcs being the 'proto-savage' culture accounted for earlier. No one commented about a pre-human species because there is none, only 'throwback' Orc subspecies. Breeding true, the Humans may very well be the reborn titans of the earliest age, but it is the Orcs who are the real inheritors of that legacy. Were Orcs the original Master race? Or were they simple loyal soldiers? Neither they are a mixing of the two, and humanity, for all they stand to become, are the children of that, rather than the origin.
Very little of that is truly relevant, other than backdrop, for the study of Orc culture as it is now. Only that they have survived when all other races hated them, survived being on the losing side of a war against the Titans of old, has any meaning.
Orcs, by nature, are practical. They have few concerns with 'esoteric' things. Building great, long standing empires does not appeal to them, keeping their family, their tribe alive another day, does. Threaten the survival of the tribe and you will rouse the orcs to a fury... sadly a commonly seen one as many races unwittingly rouse the beast in their desire to remove the 'undesireables' from valuable land. Orcs do not value land, do not measure belongings. If anything, their worldview is the simplest. A thing is helpful, therefore good, or it is not, therefore bad. This applies to tools, knickknacks, or allies. If it is helpful it is good, if it is not it is bad.
Orcs value power, but contrary to popular depictions, strength is only one measure of power. Orcs use contests of strength to help determine pecking order, but as such contest have only one rule (the winner is the one who wins), anything goes. Cunning, magics... all count as Strength to an orc.
Mind you, a 'thing which is not helpful' can include a bad leader who causes more harm than good to the tribe. If he steps down, he becomes helpful, if he continues to lead, most orcs under him will almost instinctively become riled to overthrow him until he proves to be 'helpful' once more. Orcs have a lower incidence of cannabalism than Goblins, but in times of famine will unblinkingly turn less helpful members of the tribe into food.
Orcs, ironically, have a very low sense of racial identity. This may seem to contrast with their assumed 'pride', but it does not. Ask your average orc who a tribe mate is and he'll invariably respond with something akin to 'orc', or perhaps 'tribemate' which uses the same word in their language. It doesn't matter if that member is a human or a troll, they are still, to the Orcs, a fellow orc; so long as they remain helpful. On the other hand, they take pride in their culture (not race, though the two are functionally identical), and often refuse to change their ways to conform with outsiders. Orcs are not incapable of understanding other racial cultures, they just are too stubbornly proud to conform to them. This has repeatedly prevented Orcs from adapting to life in other cultures. Likewise, their pride prevents them from conceeding territory to another tribe (humans, elves, dwarves) without first learning how badly the others want it. If they are not willing to fight hard for it than the Orcs will refuse to conceed it out of pride.
Naturally Orcs have elaborate, if poorly documented, social customs to prevent unnecessary bloodshed amongst their own kind. Should an outside have sufficent grasp of Orcish culture, he can easily resolve any dispute with a minimum of violence. For minor disputes, proving willing to 'take a blow' for your cause is sufficent. For example, if a drunken Orc mercenary is tearing up a bar, and refuses to be ousted by anyone, most townships will resort to bloody violence to remove the savage. A canny guardsman or patron can instead confront the orc and demand that he cease for the good of the tribe. The drunken orc is likely to strike the man. If the man in question stands up and repeats his demand he will likely acheive his goal, and in the process earned the respect of the orc in question. The orc is not picking a fight, he is both testing the desire of the man to acheive his goal, and saving face by not backing down.
Orcish tribes tend to be close knit communities, with shared belongings. This is not out of any socialist tendancies, but simply the demands of survival. Orcs rarely have enough plenty to horde goods. If the best leatherworker of the tribe wants the hide of your latest kill, then you give it to him, later he will return the favor by giving you a new cloak to replace the one you lost fighting the bear... In larger, multi-tribe communities, a more formal barter system tends to form very rapidly, but rarely within a given tribe, only in dealings between tribes.
Most orcs are taught from a young age all that they need to know by their families. Occasionly an apprenticeship program of sorts developes, tribal shamen take on youths who show an intrest, the greatest warriors and hunters take the young males under their wings and show them the ropes. Crafts are passed from father to son and mother to daughter. Gender roles are somewhat fixed, but not inflexible, and female orcs are expected to fight to defend the tribe just as males are.
Though crudely structured, orcs have many elaborate ritual behaviors. Many are not readily apparent to outsiders, and they are rarely spoken of aloud, as anyone who has grown up in a tribe is expected to know them naturally. How an orc approaches another depends on gender, age, marital status and more. failure to observe the correct approach is an insult (and goes both ways, a superior snubbing an inferior is as intolerable as the inferior failing to respect his superior) and insults invariably result in sudden, occasionally brutal violence. The winner and loser of such fights is very important, but even determining such things is governed by some ritual behaviors. If the inferior defeats his superior, he can gain in status, while the reverse is rarely true. If the superior is 'super' due to respect for knowledge and advanced age, then the younger victor gains little, if anything, while the older, if victorious gains even greater status to reflect his unexpected reserves of 'strength'. Fights between opposite genders are rare outside of 'mating rituals' and an indepth discussion of gender politics and ritual combat is far too complex to be dealt with here.
Within immedeate families, such fighting is uncommon. When a young male is old enough to challenge his father, he leaves to found his own family unit. An orc youth impetuous enough to challenge his father, especially too early in life, is usually killed rather than merely subdued. This is a 'social control' trait, preventing antisocial misfits from disrupting the tribe's social fabric, and thus survival chances. A young male who defeats his father gains nothing, unless he wishes to 'throw out' his parents and take possession of their goods.
One exception to this is tribal leadership. A young bull orc challenges the cheiftan of his tribe in order to prove his worth to lead A tribe. The cheiftan is considered very much a father figure in the tribe, and often a son of the chief is the challenger, making it a literal father/son battle. If the young Bull wins he may, if the tribe accepts him, take control over the tribe as it stands. If the tribe does not accept him he has earned the right to take with him any members, typically other youths, who wish to form their own tribe and go with the tribes blessings (and gifts if there is enough to support both tribes), while the old cheiftan retains control of the old tribe. Such fights are never to the death unless the old cheiftan is being forcibly replaced for incompetence and stubbornness.
Orcs keep a few possessions as comfort items or for aesthetic value. Such items are 'helpful' in that the Orc derives some comfort or enjoyment of them. Orcish crafts are not crude to other Orcs, but many races find them too heavy and... functional... to be pretty. Dwarves, ironically, are the exception to this, but even they prefer the sophistication of their own craftsmanship. Still, if a Dwarf develops a yen for 'primative art' its likely that he'd turn to Orcish goods to decorate with.
Orcish religion is remarkably primative comparatively. They typically have a single progentor/hero god and a 'mother goddess' and nothing else. Often the god takes on features reminiscent of the tribal cheif (or other leader, as Orcish tribes can be swallowed whole by other cultures with powerful leader figures), while the mother goddess governs both births and deaths. Why Orcs have so few gods is unknown, and may have something to do with their reputed origins or their exteme hiearchal nature. They simply can not support mulitple leader figures, even Gods.
Notably, Orcs do not change morphology at all in relation to their environment. An orc from cold tundras may look identical to an orc from the desert or steaming jungles. They do have wide morphologies, possibly due to different levels of interbreeding with their parent species. Some orcs are positively animalistic in appearence, while others resemble nothing so much as muscular, savage humans or even 'ugly', powerful elves. Regardless, all are the same species more or less, and most will present similar cultural traits.
Be warned, however, that the one example provided in the study is included only as one possible way to resolve arguments with orcs. Individual tribal cultures may vary wildly from that, and attempting to use it as a universal 'sample' may result in unintended consequences, including death. Always learn the local customs when applicable to your situation before attempting to 'outthink' the local orcs.
Sweet jeebus, Spike, this stuff (all of your essays) is fucking golden.
Thank you, Knightsky. Of course I do wish people had more input, I understand my style is more pedagogical than socratic dialog. I preach from on high, and it's lonely.;)
Feel free to fill in a blank or two if you think of any. I'll happily riff off anything I get.
This shit is golden, Spike. You're my little yellow hero.
Write more. Collect it. Publish it.
Very, very good!
With the exception of a couple of spelling errors, you're ready to roll with these.
I base my orcs purely on Tolkien; I don't like the D&D 'faceless swordfodder' orc or the GDW 'football hooligan' orc. My least favourite is the 'greenskin barbarian' orc that has arisen through various PC settings, and seems to have obliterated the whole orc as a unique creature and turned it into a parody of the chain mail (sic) bikini barbarian culture, complete with horned helmets.
As such, your essay really strikes a chord with me, well done.
Thank you, Chalkline. I naturally have to reconcile such diverse sources as Tolkeen, GDW and the more generic sorts when sorting these things out. My ultimate goal is to find the very core of what is a given subject species and seperate it from the dross and cruft of the various sources.
Of course, in cases like this one, I occasionally stray into speculative ideas... but people seem to be enjoying them.
Of course, I'd like it more if there was less love, and more actual commentary (hint hint!)... :D
This is the sort of thing I wish I could comment on in some meaningful way. Every damn one of these articles is a heaping bowl of awesome topped with hot smart.
Though I wonder if I need to dig out and clean up my old ramblings on dragons as "energy sinks" in high-magic worlds...
Quote from: Christmas ApeThis is the sort of thing I wish I could comment on in some meaningful way. Every damn one of these articles is a heaping bowl of awesome topped with hot smart.
Though I wonder if I need to dig out and clean up my old ramblings on dragons as "energy sinks" in high-magic worlds...
I hear shades of Dark Sun in that comment, methinks. Of course, now I'm thinking a Dragon article might need to be forthcoming.... Grr!:mad:
Great read!
You should start writing stories... ;)
I don´t wanna be the the first to piss in your cornflakes, but:
They are too likeable. Seriously, having the Orcs as noble savages has been done quite often. I think it´s a bit easy. I wanna have orcs that I can hate, real monsters, more than just brutes.
A culture that is so utterly vile, that killing the young ones is actually a reasonable decision. I´ve always encountered sympathetic Orc views. I´d really dig the "penultimate evil race".
Still a great read.
Quote from: SettembriniGreat read!
You should start writing stories... ;)
I don´t wanna be the the first to piss in your cornflakes, but:
They are too likeable. Seriously, having the Orcs as noble savages has been done quite often. I think it´s a bit easy. I wanna have orcs that I can hate, real monsters, more than just brutes.
A culture that is so utterly vile, that killing the young ones is actually a reasonable decision. I´ve always encountered sympathetic Orc views. I´d really dig the "penultimate evil race".
Still a great read.
You want the Goblins, my man. A race that is perpetually hungry, willing to kill even each other over the meanest resources, and uses cruelty for the petty amusement it offers.
Even the traditional orcs of Tolkeen have a somewhat tragic air about them when you think about it...
QuoteEven the traditional orcs of Tolkeen have a somewhat tragic air about them when you think about it...
Tolkien was a romantic. I´ll check out the goblins essay immedeately.
Almost done...
One of the bits I liked most was the thing about taking a blow to settle minor disputes. Not sure why.
For me its the tusk rubbing, but there ya have it, a bit for everyone....
That stuff was interesting too, if hard to visualize. Generally I have a hard time grasping "touching" rituals with parts of the body devoid of tactile sensation. Consider: Most of our tactile sensations are concentrated in our lips, hands, and genitals. Consider kissing. The "tusk kiss" makes little sense to me unless the tusks are also able to act as rudimentary sensory organs. Maybe they're like wisdom teeth?
Quote from: beejazz;148069That stuff was interesting too, if hard to visualize. Generally I have a hard time grasping "touching" rituals with parts of the body devoid of tactile sensation. Consider: Most of our tactile sensations are concentrated in our lips, hands, and genitals. Consider kissing. The "tusk kiss" makes little sense to me unless the tusks are also able to act as rudimentary sensory organs. Maybe they're like wisdom teeth?
Maybe its just me, but my teeth are fairly sensitive and I spend an inordinate amount of time touching them with my tongue and even occasionally rubbing them against hard objects so it is much easier for me to imagine it for others.
If Orcish tusks were used for, even vestigally, rooting behavior I imagine they would be slightly more sensitive than we usually consider teeth.
And yes: I am a necromancer.
Quote from: beejazz;148069That stuff was interesting too, if hard to visualize. Generally I have a hard time grasping "touching" rituals with parts of the body devoid of tactile sensation. Consider: Most of our tactile sensations are concentrated in our lips, hands, and genitals. Consider kissing. The "tusk kiss" makes little sense to me unless the tusks are also able to act as rudimentary sensory organs. Maybe they're like wisdom teeth?
Think of elephants, deer, elk, moose, rhino's and other animals that have large tusks, horns or bony protuberances. They are constantly rubbing them against each other as well as trees, rocks and whatever else. Partially it's to help keep them ground down but it's also a mating and bonding ritual as well.
Plus if you've ever made out with someone and accidentally bumped your teeth together - there's sensation there.
Moose rub to remove the "velvet"... they don't tend to use them on each other, except during rut, and then quite violently.
(Of course, some moose are stupid enough to attempt to charge airplanes.)