If anyone is wanting to spice up their orcs; I have some ideas of their backstories to help. I was inspired by the differences of orcs from the Advanced D&D monster's manual and the Warcraft Orcs. Orcs in 5e are now more like Warcraft's orcs, upright, flat faced. But the Advanced D&D orcs were very pig-snouted and hunched over.
The hunched over orc is the natural state; they aren't even called Orcs in their language. They are little more than pig farmers. Orcs prey upon them, eat them, kill them at leisure. They raid the hovels these hunched over "reminders" of Orcish weakness inhabit. At birth; the strongest appearing of these creatures are taken to a barracks. A pit with multiple levels, the center and lowest level is where the fights and training occur. The pit is covered by vast skins and hides held aloft by mighty bones of giants slain by the tribe. The tribe remembers.
The tribe are made of its bones, the strongest bone in a humanoid's body, the femur; Orcs keep the femurs of their strongest warriors. With them they beat their captured younglings, they break their bones and backs, they smash their faces. Through years of beatings forcing them to fight back for their very lives, these "grunts", these warriors are broken from their hunched-backs into upright. Their pig-snouts are beaten into flat faces.
So long as the tribe has a femur, then they still exist in ritual. One conquering tribe might break the femurs of the other tribe; absorbing its most worthy warriors, or simply eating them.
If such an Orc is not constantly beaten, constantly "trained", they will slowly, with time, revert back to their hunched over and pig-snouted form. A great dishonor. Through constant training by the tribe members these Orcs retain their more humanoid appearance and are able to be better warriors, more upright and with better and stronger features. Spell casters of the tribe might revert to some form of hunched back but are also beaten enough to retain more of their "Orcishness" than the lesser pig-farming varieties.
This Orc culture are not allowed to farm. They only eat what they hunt. They are not allowed to wear metal armor, they only can wear the bones and hides of their slain foes. Thus the strongest tribes are Dragonslayers. Or have allied themselves with Dragons that will gift them scales for magical dragonscale armor. It would be a grievous error to think that these brutes are weaker without metal; but the Orcish tribes have proven that their bones are stronger than the iron of nations.
Orcs have an aversion to metal and to farming as it offends their god, Gar'umsch. Their god whose eye was clawed out by a Dragon's talon in singular combat.
Their spell casters are steeped in warlocks and necromancy, and in blood and bone rituals and sacrifice. They worship these two things most of all. Blood and Bone.
When an Orc tribe moves its camp, they herd their lesser hunched-over kin and coral them; when they arrive at a new settlement there the pig-farmers will scrape out a living.
And the Orcs themselves will dig their pits, cover them with the hides of their enemies stretched across the bones of giants. And continue to train for war.
Only war.
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If anyone is wanting to spice up their orcs; I have some ideas of their backstories to help. I was inspired by the differences of orcs from the Advanced D&D monster's manual and the Warcraft Orcs. Orcs in 5e are now more like Warcraft's orcs, upright, flat faced. But the Advanced D&D orcs were very pig-snouted and hunched over.
For some reference.
I conceived of a societal explanation for this.
The hunched over orc is the natural state; they aren't even called Orcs in their language. They are little more than pig farmers. Orcs prey upon them, eat them, kill them at leisure. They raid the hovels these hunched over "reminders" of Orcish weakness inhabit. At birth; the strongest appearing of these creatures are taken to a barracks. A pit with multiple levels, the center and lowest level is where the fights and training occur. The pit is covered by vast skins and hides held aloft by mighty bones of giants slain by the tribe. The tribe remembers.
The tribe are made of its bones, the strongest bone in a humanoid's body, the femur; Orcs keep the femurs of their strongest warriors. With them they beat their captured younglings, they break their bones and backs, they smash their faces. Through years of beatings forcing them to fight back for their very lives, these "grunts", these warriors are broken from their hunched-backs into upright. Their pig-snouts are beaten into flat faces.
So long as the tribe has a femur, then they still exist in ritual. One conquering tribe might break the femurs of the other tribe; absorbing its most worthy warriors, or simply eating them.
If such an Orc is not constantly beaten, constantly "trained", they will slowly, with time, revert back to their hunched over and pig-snouted form. A great dishonor. Through constant training by the tribe members these Orcs retain their more humanoid appearance and are able to be better warriors, more upright and with better and stronger features. Spell casters of the tribe might revert to some form of hunched back but are also beaten enough to retain more of their "Orcishness" than the lesser pig-farming varieties.
This Orc culture are not allowed to farm. They only eat what they hunt. They are not allowed to wear metal armor, they only can wear the bones and hides of their slain foes. Thus the strongest tribes are Dragonslayers. Or have allied themselves with Dragons that will gift them scales for magical dragonscale armor. It would be a grievous error to think that these brutes are weaker without metal; but the Orcish tribes have proven that their bones are stronger than the iron of nations.
Orcs have an aversion to metal and to farming as it offends their god, Gar'umsch. Their god whose eye was clawed out by a Dragon's talon in singular combat.
Their spell casters are steeped in warlocks and necromancy, and in blood and bone rituals and sacrifice. They worship these two things most of all. Blood and Bone.
When an Orc tribe moves its camp, they herd their lesser hunched-over kin and coral them; when they arrive at a new settlement there the pig-farmers will scrape out a living.
And the Orcs themselves will dig their pits, cover them with the hides of their enemies stretched across the bones of giants. And continue to train for war.
Only war.
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