Overview
Orcs are a warrior race of great physical strength and deep cultural pride. Contrary to popular myth, they are not mindless savages — they are a proud culture built around honor, strength, and the warrior's path, and they are tired of being written down by people who have never kept their word.
Habitat
Orcs live in the high fangs — their home is The Fanghold, a hold of black stone and iron in the high country, where the air is thin and the wind has a voice. They need open ground for the drills, stone for the walls, and a horizon they can see from the gate. They are settled around the hold, with hunting-camps in the footholds; an orc who has not seen the hold in a season is called "the one who forgot the walls."
Appearance
The orc silhouette is a heavy V — broad at the shoulders, narrowing to a thick waist, built for a weapon held two-handed. Males stand 1.83 m to 2.03 m, 136 kg–204 kg, built through the chest and back with a neck that is nearly as wide as the jaw; females 1.73 m to 1.93 m, 127 kg–181 kg, leaner and more angular, with the muscle sitting higher on the frame. Skin is a deep slate-blue to a muddy olive, weathered to a darker umber at the shoulders, with a faint green-tinged network of veins at the temples that shows when an orc is roused. Tusks are the crown: two lower canines curving up over the upper lip, worn smooth with age and filed to a point by choice — a filed tusk is a warrior's signature. Hair is short, black or dark iron, shorn close on the sides; eyes are flat and amber to a deep molten copper, with a slow, appraising blink. The head is the tell: the jaw is the orc, and the tusks are the punctuation. Males are broader-jawed and carry more scar-tattoo on the arms; females have a harder, cleaner line and file their tusks longer. Elders are marked by gray at the jaw-line and a back that has stopped straightening — an old orc moves like a door that has been opened a thousand times. Everyday wear: a leather harness over a rough tunic, a war-belt with a single good knife, and boots with iron toes.
Behavior
Disposition: aggressive, honor-bound, clannish, direct. In peace, orcs are blunt, loud, and generous in a way that makes smaller races uncomfortable — an orc's hospitality is a test, and the test is always "can you take it?" In war they are frontal, disciplined, and absolutely unwilling to retreat. Strangers are judged by one question, asked or unasked: what have you kept? The social unit is the war-band, led by the one who has earned it, not the one who inherited it. Two signature quirks: an orc who is insulted will not strike — they will ask you to repeat it, slower. And they keep their dead with them, a single token from each fallen, worn at the belt.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: frontal and brutal — the orc line charges and does not stop. Armor: hide and chain, worn with the mail over the leather so the impact is taken twice. Weapons: the long axe, the great mace, and the shield that is built to be thrown. War markings: the Scar-Tattoo on the left forearm — a line of deliberate scars, each one a battle named and kept, made with a hot knife by a trusted peer; the Tusk-Notch, a single deliberate chip in the right tusk for each battle survived, filed smooth by the wearer; and the Belt-Token, a small iron disc for each comrade lost, worn at the belt and counted aloud at every feast. Post-battle: the dead are carried back, their names spoken over the hold's gate, and their weapons laid across the threshold — an orc buried without their weapon is buried as a stranger.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: oath — orcish magic is the weight of a kept word, and it is not subtle. Secondaries: divine and wild. Named inborns: Menacing (an orc's presence is a pressure; smaller creatures' ears flatten), Relentless Endurance (an orc can stand when they should fall, for one long breath), Powerful Build (an orc carries what two of them should). Signature power: the War-Chant — a low, chest-deep note that an orc band can hold in unison, and while it is held, no orc in it feels pain. Limitation: orcish magic is spent on the body; a mage who has spent his war-chant is a man who must be carried.
Religion
Orcs keep Brakka, the Unbroken Word as their primary god — an orc's oath is a seal on Brakka's wall, and a broken oath is a crack in the mountain that will not heal. Pyrra, the First Flame is honored at the war-drums; the first strike of any new battle is given to her. Priestly class: the Oath-Speaker, who carries the names of the dead and the oaths of the living, and speaks them at every feast and every funeral. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a word broken, and an orc who has broken a word is not executed; they are simply not spoken to again.
Society
Orc clans and tribes are organized around strength and merit. Leadership is earned, not inherited. They value directness, courage, and loyalty above all else — in that order, and in no other.
Culture & Lore
The orc's own law is the proof. A stranger who has proven their worth is a stranger the orc has already decided is kept, and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the proof that is kept is the proof the clan will not forget. The old ones say the orc is the fang's own, and the fang's own is the fang's war, and the war is the orc's, and the orc keeps it the way the fang keeps it. The orc's hospitality is a test, and the test is the whole of the welcome, because the stranger who has passed the test is the stranger the orc has already decided is a friend, and the deciding is the whole of the law. The hunter does not take the orc, and the not-taking is the whole of the law, because the orc that is taken is the fang's own, and the fang's own is the fang. The story the clan tells at every war is the same story, and the same story is the whole of the lore, because the story that is the same is the story the orc keeps, and the keeping is the whole of the record.
Home
They keep their war in The Fanghold, a hold of black stone and iron in the high fangs, where the war is the only light and the oath the only law.
Relations
Often misunderstood and feared by other races. Orcs tend to be wary but respectful of those who prove their worth — and the proof, once given, is kept for a very long time. The Trolls of the fen are the big neighbors the orc does not fight — the troll keeps the stone and the orc keeps the fang, and the two have learned that a wall that is not carried is a wall that is not a meal, and the not-carrying is the whole of the peace. The Ogres of the marsh are the neighbors the orc respects and does not trust — the ogre keeps the wall and the orc keeps the war, and the two are the same strength seen from two bodies, so a wall that an orc has broken is a wall the ogre will keep, and the keeping is the whole of the bond. The Human of the ground have met the orc at the fang edge, and the meeting is the whole of the treaty, because the human who has proven their worth is the human the orc has already decided is kept, and the deciding is the whole of the law. The Goblins of the warrens are the small kin the fang tolerates — the goblin keeps the burrow and the orc keeps the fang, and the two have learned that a burrow that is not proven is a burrow that is not a promise, and the not-proving is the whole of the distance. Above, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the ones the fang tests most often, and the testing is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the fang keeps the war for, and the keeping is the whole of the promise. Uaellaen keeps a page of the fang in the wiki — the war, the proof, the oath that is the law — and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the camp has learned that an orc that has been written about is an orc that has been proven with, and the proving-with is the whole of the welcome.
In the Story
In the current story, the orcs are the war of the fang — the strength Uaellaen writes about when the proof is the law. The Forgotten keep their distance at the fang line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a proof came up from the fang that is not in the record — a proof the clan does not remember, and the not-remembering is the whole of the warning, because the fang keeps its war, and the war has started to prove. The proving is the hand the camp has not been shown.
The strongest thing about an orc is not their muscle — it's their refusal to back down.