Disclaimer: Irredeemable Orcs Ahead. Yes, I'm a subscriber to the theory of orcs as an irredeemable, twisted form of life. I know Warcraft-orcs are a thing and that klingons in Star Trek are much more interesting characters if their heart is in conflict with itself. But the tone of the Sovereignty is classic high fantasy with clear distinctions between good, order versus chaos and evil. Classic High Fantasy needs an antagonistic "monster culture" and in this as all cases, I follow the Great Professor Tolkien.
Orc legends are mutable and wild tellings, as wild as the orcs themselves. According to their own myths, they are either the people chosen by their wild gods to purge the world of "soft" elements, a folk cursed for its sins against forgotten deities, or humanoids uplifted by the Avatar Gruumsh to war against his eternal enemies, the elves.
Whatever the case, orc tribes are masses of unruly and debauched warriors. Cruel and capricious, they understand only the language of violence, inflicting suffering on their offspring and all who come under their gaze. And only violence can keep them in check. As such, tyrants and darkened wizards often employ orcs as thugs or bodyguards.
Orcs were always relatively scarce in the lands of the Sovereignty, while teeming masses of them roamed the far western lands, beyond even the Wildlands of the barbarians. But according to the tribes of Borgondia, a generation ago their numbers in the west soared, and the barbarian forefathers were driven from their ancestral lands. As the human tribesmen travelled east and entered the Sovereignty traversing the Echor Mountains, their orc pursuers followed them.
A few esoteric mages claim that the fates of the orcs, the Borgondian barbarians and the elves are intertwined in a dark and sadistic way. But none so far have forwarded any proof of that claim.
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