The Orc

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Latest revision as of 02:41, 18 July 2025

The Orc

By Grugluk of the Shadowclan Orcs

-A young gruntee peers over the wall and sees you approaching the fort; he runs to get a superior. A lanky spear toting female orc in dark green boots steps out the front door and yells loudly at you.-

"Ug dere tuupid pushdug humie! Me heer lat wunt tu be orc. Dat guud, cuz beeyun orc beddur den beeyun stinkee shara. If lat wunt be orc, cum intu da furt, me clomp lat agh send lat tu see da Wargod. Mubbee if lat lukky im send lat bak az uruk. Wut? Lat nub gruk wut me blahin? Gah, me git me tuupid humie slabe tu ugsplane id tu lat! Him guud at blahin like humie. *scratches orc helm* Oooh dat rite, dat cuz him ib humie! Har har! Hoowah uruks! Hoowah Shadowclan!"

Orcs are the race best suited to roleplay with regard to appearances and equipment. Kill a named NPC orc (orc captain) or orc lord and you have almost everything you'll need! Other items that come in handy are other pieces of ringmail, different (orcish) weapons, and of course orc masks (which are not nearly as rare as they once were). Since the game does not allow you to make your skin green, make your skin as light as possible and drag the hue bar to the other end of the scale. This will get you as close as you can to the color of an NPC orc.

Language is important to roleplaying any non-human race. Tolkien's Return of the King has a short dictionary of Black Speech which you can use as the base of your tongue. Or you may simply speak broken, misspelled English (or whatever your native tongue is). Shadowclan Orcish is comprised of some Black Speech, beefed up by words invented by members (most of ours were created by Gulghrim), and filled in with broken English. Some orc groups on other shards have developed more complex languages, but the key is to sound gutteral and orcish while being somewhat understandable to new members and non-orcish roleplayers. For instance, we use "yub" for yes, and "nub" for no.

Try to model your roleplay after the NPC orc. Find a home, preferrably an orc fort (there are three in the "old world," one in Yew (ours), one near Cove, and another one not too far from Wrong; the new world has two, one near Delucia and another in the Ice Dungeon) and defend it from the humie invaders. Orcs are very territorial. Trespassers had better have tribute (a small amount of gold, food or booze) or they risk getting clomped. Orcs love to clomp. When there are no humies, elves, or other good races to be found orcs will tend to fight one another (ever stopped by the Delucia fort when a bard is nearby?).

The critical thing to successfully playing an orc is, well... being stupid! Note that your orc can be crafty and clever in a streetwise sort of manner but he should be rather dumb by human standards. This can be one of the most fun parts of roleplaying an orc. I have led troops of orcs places, and had someone else count us before the trip begins. When we reach our destination, I count the orcs again, and there is always one missing! I will look for the lost orc until another member of the party reminds me to count myself.

As in all roleplaying, the key is to always remain in character. Try to see OOC things from your orc's perspective. When a GM shows up, he's not an OSI employee, he's a skygod, some deity less powerful than your own. Some day the Wargod will take over this land with the orcs' help, and clomp the humies' weak skygods. And don't be afraid to tell them that! When a once-tamed animal starts attacking a monster you are fighting, it surely means the Wargod has sent it to come to your aid! Why are the NPC orcs (or shardies as we call them) your enemies? They are non-believers, or may be the former inhabitants of your fort, and as such will attack you on sight. Orcs perceive death as a visit to the Wargod. Hence dying often is not such a bad thing to an orc. You will notice that shardie orcs die often and come back to life (the shardie captain named Klapdud attacks the Shadowclan fort every other day or so).

Orcs are evil by nature. They kill what they can, and may run away if they can't. While you as a roleplayer should be honorable, your orc will not. Orcs do not fight one on one (your ringmail against the humie's platemail ensures this). When one orc fights, all orcs fight. When an orc kills a humie on his land, he will tend to kill the humie's horse and eat it. Orcs don't understand why humies ride on food rather than eat it. The fact that horses make you run twice as fast without losing stamina is lost on a hungry bloodthirsty orc. An orc might ride an ostard, but probably only one that is green like him. Orcs punish their young (cubs or gruntees) not by spanking, but by attacking and even killing them! Orcs are cannibalistic. When you clomp a shardie, carve the corpse and cook his ribs up for dinner. Most orcs love drinking, especially troll cider. A pitcher of wine can be RP'd as cider mixed with the blood of a slain enemy.

Orcs, like most other races, feel strongly that they are the best. They will not wear platemail or chainmail, as they are humie armor, and therefore not as good as orcish ringmail. An orc would not use a viking sword, a halberd, nor any helm but an orc helm. Judge other weapons by how "orcish" they look. Orcs hate humans the most, then elves and other races, then shardie orcs. Two orcs may be fighting one another to the death (over a lairmate, a corner of the fort, or the price of troll cider) but they will stop and join forces if a common enemy comes near. Orcs may ally with other evil creatures, such as undead or dark elves, but they tend to see them as lesser servants of their common god.

While it may sound overly simple to roleplay an orc, one can develop a rich orcish culture. The Shadowclan has a well-developed religion. We worship the Wargod, also known as Shakh Buurz or Ghaashakh (or the Guardian as the humies call him). Our clan has several tribes (denoted by the orc's boot color), bloodlines (essentially a character class, but more of a way of life), an Urucku (orcish virtue) for each bloodline, two different sects and a priesthood, and different ranks which define the rights and responsibilities of each orc in the clan.