"You wanna know how I got these scars?"

@@rachdarastrix5251 Excuuuuuuuse meeeee, but... Tolkien himself said that not all of his orcs are evil. He just had difficulties representing the kind(er) ones in his universe, for obvious reasons. #justicefororcs

@@rachdarastrix5251 I don't remember if it was in the Hobbit or the LOTR appendices but Tolkien stated that the orcs are master of engineering feats, like the caves they excavated under the Misty Mountains, they just don't like doing themselves the hard work and prefer to rely on slaves. So it seems they are perfectly able to think for themselves...

​@@DCdabest No, but I know where you got these. 🦇🤡

Indeed, and imagine a nursery rhyme that taught how to use a battle axe.. that is Orc childhood for you.

Lorc= orc lich

“I give you all that was owed to us. I give you riches and glory for a hundred years, And when we come home at last, we’ll raise a city from the stones we took from theirs. One great enough that even in a thousand years they will tremble at the return of our Horde!”

Give them round actions (legendary actions) that allow them to break stuff.

First, it is important to consider the point of view of the Orcs, to them, Elves are an evil race and represent many things they despise, Humans relentless territorial expansion and desire to dominate is also very evil to Orcs, the Goblinoids also have a strong drive to control all of the world, even their god, Magubliet, would seek to take over the Orc Pantheon if it was not for the protection of the fearsome Gruumsh. Second, Orcs grow fast, the crave action and they NEED battle in order to build renown and, essentially, an identity for themselves, so, they seem, to the perceptions of those who live close by, to attack and attack and attack, recklessly and chaotically... because they do not understand the cultural and social reasons why Orcs behave this way. Very good question, thanks Goblintrain!

Goblintrain All good, valid points.

Goblintrain In my setting i changed orcs there to lawful evil and have given them a Spartan\ orc culture mix. I think you can already see some of that ideal in the tribal now so i just advanced the clock alittle on it.

I can see that happening. In AD&D (1e&2e) orcs were LE, and when you read the lore at the time, it seemed an appropriate change from their designation in OD&D as CE. But here is what i am seeing too. Something has happened to Orcs, as the mythology and lore surrounding them has expanded. They have expanded immensely in complexity and variety. They are no longer the one-dimensional soulless evil miscreants of the Tolkien books. They have evolved into a people all their own, with No longer just mindless pawns of evil overlords, they are now on similar ground as the fair races in having both their own collective consciousness as a species, and sense of destiny and identity as individuals. They have evolved autonomy -or something that in the LDS church we call "free agency". So what does this mean? It means, like what Mr Pickett's video touched on, Orcs now live in the "Big Tent!" There is rational and believable room for all varieties of ethos. Sure, i can easily imagine some orcs as Chaotic Evil -for example, the demon infused Orcs of Warcraft lore when they served the Burning Legion. There are Orcs too, CG, -free wheeling lovers of life. Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral... or my particular favorite "LN with evil tendencies..." and everything in between. The point is, i don't see any one group as representing "Orcs" as a species. They have outgrown that. And it brings me back to a point i mentioned made in the Bugbear Lore comments. I have a notion among the monstrous humanoids that there is a significant undercurrent of "big tent" thinking. While in our own hyper-regulated culture we get accustomed to things being predictably the same at each contact, like a big-mac at McDonalds -all the same, we also take it for granted that when the books tell us who this deity is, and what his followers believe and practice, we take it far too literally. We default to likening their religious expressions to that big-mac at McDonalds -all the same. But why should that be? If a comparison with humankind holds any relevance at all here, the monstrous humanoids would not be anywhere close to homogeneous in their theology -even among the membership of the same cults, and worshipers of the same gods. In response to the rejection of that notion of uniformity, i am thinking more & more of the deities like Gruumsh & Maglubiyet as "Big Tent" gods. They are no longer just gods of the goblins & orcs respectively. They are too big to "just" be gods of battle. Their domains of influence cover myriad spheres of thought & consciousness. Appropriate to this evolution, there are many different versions of theology, different forms of worship within these churches. Whether competing, contrasting, complimenting, or contradicting each other, they all co-exist, -and this does not mean peacefully. The label of heretic is not just a human invention. There are innumerable splinter groups within these races. In a sense, this is inherent in their system of oral tradition. Oral tradition ensures that each and every time the lore is taught in lessons, or shared as stories around the fire, that it is colored with nuances from that teacher in that moment. But the point is, the ethos of the cults, the alignments of the worshipers, even the nature of the gods as understood and taught, is all liable to change over time, as the followers of different versions and aspects of the gods, grow and decline in influence, both regionally and as a whole. And i think this idea holds true to us as well -that even the gods & the lore as presented in the books is only a version -an interpretation through the lens of the fair races. And you notice how much our versions change just from one generation of role-players to the next. But then... do they? All our attempts to describe the monstrous races is an attempt to strip them down to an essential essence that we can understand in human terms. But how successful are we? Clearly defining and describing them is as elusive as doing so for ourselves. BTW: that orc picture at the very end of the vid: AWESOME!!! :_)

Budahbaba the individuals live chaotic ideals and justify evil behavior despite the order instilled by a divine panthaeon

I used a similar backstory for a goblin Druid once upon a time, but you probably want the orc story.

Psshh, druids... My Paladin wouldve tossed the wretched spawn in a bush. 😂

Not yet.

@@AJPickett Though that would be cool and fit quite well I think....

What about Orcs so vicious and berserk that the other orcs think that they are too savage.

@@deanholderde5959 Death Orks of Krieg?

XD

WAAAAGH.

Daimon X I seez youz ar a git of culture

You guys would be fun to play with on return of reckoning

Tankz ta Gork 'n Mork

😎

Glad to hear it!

If Klingons can have a language, Orcs sure should!

XD

Something tells me you like orc women.

Daniel Deihl And that is why we must kill the lesser races and take what we want from whoever we want.

You are most welcome Alan, thank you.

MisterTutor2010 cannon fodder?

@@connorchristensen2869 They're built up as this unstoppable force of killing machines, but end up being useless once they come into contact with the heroes.

At least they can hit more

@Jan Sitkowski I love it! Always like muddling the waters of "good and evil" with stuff like that! I've always felt that the idea of a whole race / culture that is explicitly evil is boring, uncreative, and has some uncomfortable implications when you try to apply those stories to the real world. That's one of my main problems with a lot of these settings...

@@RockstarRacc00n Here’s a solution for you. Don’t apply it to the real world. I’ve never understood people’s desire to learn some kind of lesson from fiction, or apply something meant for escapism to reality. It’s fine if a story does that, but certainly not necessary. As for an entire race being evil, kinda hard for them not to be when they were formed for the express purpose of serving evil, or if it’s simply part of their being. Nuance is cool, but again, I don’t understand why people simply can’t seem to tolerate settings that simply distinguish good from evil in a more black/white way.

I am very familiar with the Orks, as one of my favorite species, I have devoured all information on them. I'd love to make a video about them.

Red doesn't just go fasta?

They are heaven aren't they. 🙂

Wow

Sorry but Warhamer40k is just silly.

Warhammer 40K Orks are one of my favorite species every created.

AJ Pickett Mine too. I'd love to play an Orc Artificer and be a Mekboy.

AJ Pickett The Party awakes to find their wagon and horses have been crudely painted red. Gorg patiently explains that da red wunz go fastah. To the party's astonishment, the horses now pull the cart 5mph faster than before....

There is absolutely no reason why Faerun could not have an Ork Space Hulk fall out of the sky one day, smack bang in the middle of the Dalelands... things just got very interesting on Faerun!

AJ Pickett Great, another campaign I need to write. Lol

It's amazing that any of these species can interbreed at all.

Yeah it is kinda odd. Always felt that even if not directly related, that maybe the different orcoid an goblinoid races might be from the same world (though maybe from different time-frames). Though one of my group ad created a theory, and detailed out an idea of the Orc, Orge, and Goblin races belonging to a single race that like some insects had several different stages of life they went thru. In the idea the first stage was the Golblinoid stage, which was kinda like the young/child stage of life for them, the orc stage was the adolescence/ teenage stage, you would than have the either the Hobgpblin or Orge sage as the adult stage. but than you would also have a final stage that was detailed as being very race to be attained (the reasons varied for why) an was the Tarrasque. I found this quite interesting an it slotted into the setting quite nicely, as it explained why many gods, and even civilized races would cull, and keep these races from developing. I mean imagine if this group grow developed enough that reaching those last two stages was not uncommon (most of all the final one).

Creative idea, Elric Engquist. Spriggan and mogg are more 'subspecies' name ideas. Need to homebrew them a bit...maybe spriggan could be a magic user/sorcerer-type innate caster (that's the impression the art gives)

I don't think my version of the Spriggan would fit as well in concept with what the manual uses, but I had them more as a steriod-using gobliniod. What I mean is that they could flood their body with chemicals that would boost either their physical stats (strength, dex, con. An the associated sub-stats), or their mental stats (intel, wis, and I used a will-power stat) for short periods of time. Though that also comes from my own potion-master that brewed all sorts of potions to boost, and imbue himself with power, yet as a side effect outside of using them he was a very fail an feeble character. You would need to create some balancing, and checks to such a system in the race like that after using the abilit an it wears off it would cause other negetive effects to happen.

Elric Engquist, that makes me think of jet & psycho from Fallout Edit: and stim packs/combat drugs from Warhammer 40k

I'll keep including Eberron lore in my vids, I'm getting more and more curious about the rich lore involved with that setting.

unuseful idiot probably not as we would think of it, but given how orcs are I cannot see orc children not having weapons to dispatch anyone foolish enough to turn their back on orc children. I doubt they delibrately put their children on the battlefield but would likely expect any of their children to fight for survival against any invaders. So imagine a horde of savage orc children descending upon a band of adventurers infiltrating their camp.

Orc kids grow up very fast, they are Adults at 11 to 14 years of age, a six-year-old Orc would be the size of a human teenager and as strong as an adult human male.

Then it seems like a viable and rational tactic to use orc child solders in a long lasting war of attrition against humans, especially with an non-orc or evil ruler. Just tell the six-year-old Orc a six-year old human will harm their mom when they are older and see what happens. Or when a Paladin Do-Gooder party killed all the adult warriors and only children and women are left to get food from the helpless travelers. It's fun to minimize the perception of evil by pointing out economic pressures and rational self interest of the enemy :D

1st and 2nd edition they never let their children fight until they came of age!

Maanze always!

Like militant Rom. Rom/Roma people believe that the world was stolen from their people, forcing them to wander and to trick and steal from outsiders to survive. As far as they are concerned they are merely taking back some of what was stolen from them. They're like if you mixed Rom with Spartans.

That was also reprinted in Monster Mythology.

Sure, they are on the list :)

Goblin barbarian

Thanks 🙂

I did a video on Chult, but it's not extremely detailed on Chult Culture.

AJ Pickett if you did a extremely detailed video on the land of chult you would be a freaking god man, i consider you a deitie AJ Pickett already

Sure, they have lore that is a bit scattered, but I have them on my list.

Orcs have grey skin... maybe watch the video and learn something

@@AJPickett I am painfully aware their skin is grey, I am loyal subscriber and have watched this video a few times already, I have also been playing since I was 10 with my father. I was pointing out that Wizards does not care about being true to the games lore. They literally said that orcs having grey skin was problematic and was going to be changed to green in the next printing, their words not mine. In particular I am referring to the current twitter outrage about orcs and how WoTC has said they will be retconing all of the lore surrounding Orcs and replace them with green-skinned happy go lucky people with tusks in the next printing. Apparently according to WoTC Orcs having grey skin or a equine culture is racist. As someone who was introduced to the game in AD&D I don't appreciate Wizards changing the game because of outside social/political pressure, this feels just like the "satanic panic" is happening all over again. P.S. I love your videos and I really appreciate the great job you do. I watch your videos to help me prep for the game I run for my family including my Father who got me into the hobby as a kid and he really appreciates all of the great lore I am able to include because of you videos.

@@AJPickett They have said they are going to do the same thing to Drow's culture as well but have yet to say what they will be changing their skin color too like they will be with the orcs. Appetizingly Drow culture being evil and their skin being purple is racist, to whom I'm not sure but Wizards is changing it anyway.

Well WotC is not Dungeons & Dragons... We are. If they want new Orcs and Drow, then they can make new settings for them... They already have, it's Magic the Gathering, unfortunately, they are too scared to fully commit to it, because they know Faerun sells better.

@@AJPickett Agreed! I don't have an issue with different settings having lore, I enjoy that part of the hobby, a lot in fact, and we mostly play in Eberron these days. Unfortunately though it seems they will be imposing these changes on all settings going forward, and specifically on The Forgotten Realms since it is their flagship setting and all. Luckily nothing is set in stone yet but it is definitely something to watch.

Well, I did an overview of the current D&D cosmology, more of a glossary of terms and features.

Cool. I’ll check it out.

Thanks for the "like," AJ. I assume then, that it was just a homebrew encounter.

They can be total war orcs

I mean I'm not gonna tell 'em they can't, but still...

D E A D M E E M in Dutch they are

It's on the way, all the playable races will get covered eventually.

That was certainly a dominant artistic style for Orcs for the early editions and is echoed in the more bestial Orc cross breeds mentioned at the end of the video.

Yes pig faced orcs please