The last time there was much unity amongst any orcs was when a war chief was able to unite many jungle tribes during the Drekeen-Lewean war. Naturally, when the final battle occured and both the Lewean King and Drekeen Emperor were in the same area, the war chief just had to go make his mark by wiping out both monarchs at the same time. It went… poorly. Extremely poorly. The loss of the warchief shattered his mighty tribe and they resumed bickering and splintering amongst themselves as is typical in a bloody battle for succession. But it did show one thing that all others fear: The more united the orcs become, the more terrifying they truly are. Luckily for the Kingdom of Lewea and the Drekeen Empire, between the in-fighting and posturing to be a successor and the regular attacks by the elves, the orcs of the southern jungles are kept firmly in check and are not considered a significant threat.
In general, orc society is a highly tribal, militaristic society with a strong code of honour that values strength as the most important trait for an individual, and most surprising of all, highly musical. To outsiders, the orc way of life is frequently difficult to understand and viewed as savage, especially their music. To orcs, it’s viewed as a noble way to always be strengthening their people and be ready for battle whenever the hated elves next attack, accompanied by some sweet background music. Orcs have a strong preference for metal music, even going so far as to worship the lead singer of the Greatest Metal Band of All Time (Stabface Explosion) as their god. For such a splintered and tribal people, the worship of Stabface Explosion is one of the uniting factors. It’s almost as if metal is in their blood itself. It is highly encouraged for young orcs to explore the Metal Arts as part of learning discipline. Much inter-tribal communication occurs due to metal bands going on tour. When two bands meet on tour, sometimes they merge, other terms they have a rock-off, but regardless all the orcs enjoy the outcome. Even better is when multiple bands converge at once and legendary “Battle of the Bands” occur. The moshpits at these events are particularly violent, but rarely fatal. Orc music is one of the few parts of orc culture that outsiders will try to copy with any regularity.
In battle, larger orc warbands have a tendency towards melee weapons with the odd thrown weapon and overwhelming force. They are not savage brutes though, they have shocked numerous enemies with their tactical understanding and even moderately effective combined arms usage. Holding the line against an orc warband at full power requires a phenomenal amount of resources and troops, with any victory almost assuredly being pyrrhic in nature.
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Overwatch
Mountain Orcs
In the mountains north of the Kingdom of Lewea, it’s not just Dwarves who mine them. There are many, many tribes of Mountain Orcs there. Some build their own mines, others conquer Dwarven mines. It doesn’t really matter how they get their mines, what matters is the outcome: powerful, battle hardened orcs with fine metal equipment. Their leather mostly comes from killing beasts of the deep caves and tanning their hides, a practice the thought of which will sober up even the drunkest of dwarves just at the thought of doing so.
Swordorcs (2 x 6)
The mountain orcs most common grunts. The shield seems impractically heavy, but that’s just orcs for you.
Berserkers (1 x 6)
Some orcs have particularly bad tempers and fantastic hair. These orcs are selected to be used as berserkers, a fact which angers them immensely.
Pikes (3 x 6)
Mountain orcs spend a fair bit of time in tunnels, so they heavily favour having spear like weapons. However, being orcs, they also want to be able to hit things with them so they added an axe to it. Whenever humans use halberds, mountain orcs call them worthless copycats. And dead, they also call the humans using a similar weapon dead.
Orchipelagans
The documents from before the Drekeen-Lewean war speak of an archipelago with many orcs inhabiting it known as “The Orchipelago”. There are other city states if not outright kingdoms in the area, but many of the islands are run by orcs, and some individual tribes span multiple islands with boats frequently travelling between them. Approaching these islands was considered extremely dangerous as your ship was likely to be attacked by theirs. Orcs from here do not like using shields as they want their hands easily freed up to do required tasks on their ships.
Scurvers (2 x 6)
The main kind of orc sailor, the Scurvers as they call themselves mostly use weaponized tools. They handle most of whatever tasks needs done on the boat, usually rowing or handling the sails.
Navigorcs (1 x 4)
There are a lot of islands in the Orchipelago. As such, they need to be able to navigate with a reasonable chance of getting where they want to. Not that they always succeed, that’s usually how new tribes get started is when they go to the wrong island.
Gunnorcs (1 x 4)
The orcs with the fanciest equipment get the most fun job of shooting deck mounted weaponry. They use this status to boss around other orcs as well.
Beastorcs (1 x 2)
Some of the Orchipelagans are just instinctively good with animals. As such, they usually work with helping train animals because orcs are practical creatures.
Half-Orcs
Many of the orcs generally consider half-orcs to be weaker than full blooded orcs, but also cleverer, especially the ones that managed to get some education. In a way, many orcs actually feel pity for half-orcs since they’re weaker than orcs so they don’t fit in well amongst a society that values strength, but are also unlikely to find a home amongst human kingdoms. As such, many orc tribes are surprisingly accepting of half-orcs, but rarely do they reach high ranks within their society.
Rangers (2 x 6)
Half-Orcs possess a trait that is usually in fairly short supply for orcs: Moderate amounts of patience. As such, the half-orcs will actually be willing to make bows, and sneak through areas to find a safe path for the others to likely disregard anyways, but it’s the thought that counts. Their main satisfaction is in using elven weapons and tactics against them, and this actually earns them a fair bit of respect amongst other orcs.
Groupie Witches (1 x 6)
It is shockingly common for half-orcs to become witches. Why else do you think witches are commonly green? They’re already kind of social pariahs anyways, so might as well boil some frogs or something. They’re also the main groupies for whatever bands are currently touring.
Bannerwavers (1 x 2)
Despite the appearances of mere brawling brutes due to a strong preference for melee tactics and charging, an actual orc warband can be a highly disciplined military unit with good understanding of when to order a charge and when to not. As such, banners are used to indicate which units are to charge. Naturally, the banner is set up to be able to join the charge as well.
Spikeys (1 x 3)
Some half-orcs don’t like that they are viewed as weaker than full-blooded orcs, and therefore try to overcompensate by covering themselves in spikes. They have axes as well, but those are mostly for hooking behind the enemy and pulling them into their spikes better.
