Orcs are a diverse and hardy race known for their physical prowess, tribal cultures, and fierce independence. Found across many different environments on Alaria, orcs hold ground in conditions that would kill most other races outright. Their societies are typically clan-based, with strong traditions of warfare, survival, and loyalty to their chosen family groups.
While often misunderstood by other races as purely savage, orcish cultures are rich with tradition, spiritual practices, and complex social structures. Their natural resilience and strength have allowed them to carve out territories in some of the most hostile environments on Alaria.
That resilience is the oldest thing an orc carries, older than any generation that could have taught it, because orcs were made by the worst thing ever to happen to the world. When the God War ended, it ended at Mount Kajiit, where a zealot of the daemon Dyos forced the volcano open as a sacrifice on a scale no working had ever spent before. The eruption bought the world's survival at the price of the world as it had been, and dropped the Long Winter over everything that lived. Whatever mortals were sheltering nearest the mountain should have died there with the rest. Instead the sacrifice caught them. Deoric is always paid for in life, and a working that size loosed far more command than its single purpose could spend; the overflow washed across the survivors at the epicenter and rewrote them where they stood, in one stroke, into something hard enough to outlast the winter that was busy killing the Golden Age. They came up out of the ash as the first orcs.
Nearly everything other peoples find alarming about orcs runs back to that morning. The resilience, the reach across desert and tundra and swamp and ruin, the turn of mind that treats survival and warfare as one discipline rather than two: every one of these is the standing shape of beings forged in the single most destructive hour Alaria has on record. What other peoples read as savagery is only the imprint of that morning. Orcs carry the knowledge more plainly than any outside study of them ever has. The marsh now called Yugurbas Dyos, contested ground between Hedroscobb and Glivornax, sits on the site of the Long Winter's origin, and the orcish tradition that keeps the name has kept it longer than anyone can account for. Whether the first orcs knew whose name they were cutting into the ground or only knew that the place had made them, their descendants have never once let it go.
Other peoples ask where they came from and answer with a story. We were spared the asking. We come from here, from the cold that ate the gods, and not one of us has ever mistaken it for a home. — held among the orcs of Yugurbas Dyos
Vitals
- Size: Medium
- Height: 5.5-7 feet
- Weight: 160-280 pounds
- Age: 50-70 years
Heritages
- Hedroscobbi (Black Orc) — Master smiths who forge algae-iron alloys into abrasive heavy armor; nearly impervious to conventional weapons. See Hedroscobbi.
- Glivornaxi (Gray Orc) — Guardians of the regenerative Plenjorn Swamp, skilled spear-fighters deeply attuned to its moods and secrets. See Glivornaxi.
- Tarni (Darkeyes) — Soul-fortified orcs whose spirit weapons bypass physical defenses, letting them fight on multiple planes of existence. See Tarni.
- Uihonaii (Wooden Men) — Forest-bonded orcs whose dead become trees and are reborn from sacred wood; weapons crafted from it often turn sentient. See Uihonaii.
- Shazuihni (Boar Rider) — Hairy, ogre-like orcs of brutal simplicity who ride massive giant boars into battle and live for the bond with their mounts. See Shazuihni.
- Griebi (Lakemen) — Silent, blueish-gray aquatic orcs who breathe underwater and hunt with needle-like teeth under the rule of a hag queen. See Griebi.
- Tytheri (Blood Orc) — Bleached-white orcs transformed by ichor from the Agony Stones; Tythmasters grow to ten feet and are consumed by the addiction to power. See Tytheri.
- Xi'ivrach (Divine Orc, Stone Bearers) — Deeply religious stone-bearing orcs of Jeh Bli whose ritual scarification and Deoric mastery express devotion to their stone gods. See Xi'ivrach.
- Thrygun (Wild Orc) — Blue-skinned, red-haired orcs of the White Hills following ancient traditions that predate most civilizations. See Thrygun.
- Bloodreavers — Blood-tattooing orcs of Bloodwood who honor the dead through blood-stained armor and weapons; fiercely protective and widely misunderstood. See Bloodreavers.
- Enti — Northern slave-trading raiders who wear furs and gold as conquest trophies, locked in constant war with the Danaki minotaurs. See Enti.
Game mechanics
Orcish Resilience
Passive ability. You have advantage on saving throws against poisons and diseases. When you take a wound, you may immediately make a might saving throw against a CN equal to the wound's rank. On a success, reduce the wound's rank by 2.
Hedroscobbi (Black Orc) — Corrosive Armor Mastery
Passive ability. You start the game with a set of specially crafted algae-iron armor that provides +8 defense instead of the normal +6 for heavy armor. When a creature hits you with a melee weapon while you wear this armor, their weapon takes a -1 penalty to future attack rolls (cumulative). You are immune to acid damage.
Glivornaxi (Gray Orc) — Swamp Regeneration
Passive ability. While submerged in swamp water, brackish water, or in a bog, your short rests reduce the ranks of all your wounds by 1, and heal you to your maximum hit points.
Tarni (Darkeyes) — Spirit Warrior
Passive ability. Rather than dying when you reach hitpoints equal to your negative maximum, you immediately go unconscious. If your hitpoints falls to four times that negative amount, you die. While in this range, so long as your body is in a livable environment (not underwater, for example), your wounds heal with long rests like normal.
Uihonaii (Wooden Men) — Tree-Soul Bond
Major ability. You may spend 1 hour to transform into a tree. While in tree form, you are immobile but gain +10 defense, and gain tremorsense out to 100 feet. You may use this ability again to spend an hour transforming back. If you die, you may choose to become a tree permanently, allowing for potential future rebirth.
Shazuihni (Boar Rider) — Boar Bond
Passive ability. You start the game with a large boar mount. The boar has 1d10 might/1d6 agility/1d4 cunning, and can use its tusks as heavy, piercing melee weapons.
If your boar dies, you may bond with a new one after 7 days spent in your homeland forest.
Griebi (Lakemen) — Aquatic Predator
Passive ability. You can breathe underwater and have a swim speed of 30 feet. You suffer no disadvantage for skill checks or AD rolls made in water. Your bite counts as a light, piercing, melee weapon. However, when you use your bite for an opportunity attack, use a d20 as your weapon die.
Tytheri (Blood Orc) — Blood Scent
Passive ability. You can smell blood within 1 mile and track wounded creatures with perfect accuracy. When you deal damage to a bleeding creature (one that has taken a wound), add your heart die to the damage roll. If you consume magical blood, gain +2 to all physical ability checks for 24 hours.
Xi'ivrach (Divine Orc) — Stone-Bearer's Strength
Passive ability. You count as one size larger for carrying capacity and can wear stone armor that provides +8 defense but reduces your speed by 20 feet. Ritual scars covering your body grant you +1 to all presence checks when interacting with religious individuals. You may learn Deoric spells regardless of other prerequisites.
Thrygun (Wild Orc) — Primal Instincts
Passive ability. You have advantage on survival checks in wilderness environments. When you roll initiative, if you roll your maximum heart die result, you may immediately move up to your speed and make one attack. You have resistance to cold damage.
Bloodreavers — Blood Bond Ritual
Passive ability. You may spend 1 hour treating a weapon or piece of armor with blood (yours or a willing donor's) to grant it a +1 bonus to attack rolls or defense for 1 week. If you use the blood of a defeated enemy you respected, the bonus increases to +2. You have advantage on checks to track creatures whose blood you have tasted.
Enti — Slaver's Dominance
Passive ability. You have advantage on intimidation checks against creatures smaller than you. When you successfully grapple a creature, they gain an additional level of restrained. You gain +2 to all checks related to capturing, restraining, or controlling other creatures.
Xi'ivrach (Stone Bearers) — Stone Bearer's Strength
Passive ability. Your body has adapted to bearing tremendous weight as an act of worship. You treat your might die as one size larger for determining encumbrance, and armor penalties to movement are reduced by 5 feet (minimum 0). When wearing stone ornaments or jewelry worth at least 100 ducats, you gain +1 to all presence checks when dealing with religious matters. If you have ritual scarification covering at least half your body, you may use your might die instead of your presence die when making religious or intimidation checks, as your devotion is written in your flesh.