A game that I think a lot of people overlook when discussing the evolution of orcs is Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall from 1996. The orcs there are portrayed as a noble people that are fighting to have their own country through intrigue, diplomacy, and war when necessary.

God, I love that you reference Death of Hellscream. That cut scene alone cemented my love for Orcs as a fantasy race.

Awesome to see orcs covered in such a complex light. The can be one of the best races to roleplay with. Have a magnificent day everyone! Thanks for the vid.

After you finish the main pantheon, maybe revisit this series and discuss some of the ancestries from the Lost Omens Character & Ancestry Guides, like Kobolds, Hobgoblins, Iruxi, and Azarketi

Very Klingon-esque, even a bit Romulan. The Klingons too were once enemies. Found this series a bit ago and enjoying binge-watching; very well done.

I really like how you go deep into all aspect of the races when you do a race video, going from their pop culture origin to ingame representation, tribes or clans, history and pantheon, to modern day in the game settings. Thank you for your work realy appreciate your videos and looking forward to see more of them!

Your story about the history of orcs in fiction finally helped me put something together that has always nagged at me; why orcs are depicted as pig guys in japanese fantasy stuff. I knew that an early version of DnD became fairly popular over there not long after it was released. Orcs in Dragon Quest, Record of Lodoss War, and Final Fantasy are all based on that original concept. So they started from the same place, why did they not evolve in the same way the orc concept did in the west? I'm fairly certain about 2 things, but not their relative importance in this history: 1. Warhammer and subsequently Warcraft simply did not have the impact there that it did in the west 2. Japan kind of doesn't need that version of Orcs, because the visual design space is covered by Oni, and the "noble race of warrior natives" concept is less directly applicable. Not that mainland Japanese culture doesn't have a conflict history with native populations, they absolutely do. But their conceptualization of that history is not directly compatible with ours as presented in the fantasy Orc. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to hear that the Oni was an influence on the Warhammer Orc.

Glad to see more pathfinder channels popping up. Would love to see you do a beginners guide after the gods.

I can go further on two points here. 1) Warcraft was originally meant to be a Warhammer game. The Kingdom of Azeroth mirrors The Empire pretty closely in unit design. Blizzard couldn't secure the IP from Games Worshop and had to switch to their own original universe. 2) "orcneas" being translated as "evil spirits" is probably more in keeping with the fact that "orcus" as a Latin word was associated with a Latin deity, Orcus, a god of the underworld and of oaths. (An association with oaths and orcs is found again in the Elder Scrolls universe where Malacanth is the patron of Orcs and a god of retribution and vengeance). As oathbreaking is a serious social taboo, and as the Latin cthonic and underworldly deities were steadily infernalised by Christianity; orcus, orcneas and orci were all associated with the "impure spirits" of the Bible that plague humans and tempt them to sin.

5:33 the way I heard it, GW contracted Blizzard to make a Warhmmer Fantasy game, but never got back to them. Blizzard was like "well we have all these assets and a game pretty much made, it would be a shame to let it go to waste." Edit: man, you really put that whole cutscene in there! I gotta go watch the Warlords of Draenor one now. I love orcs (and orks) so much!

Man, I feel like I learned so much watching this. I had no idea just how complex and varied the orc societies were in Golarion.

I'm new to Pathfinder and am finding the player book a little overwhelming. Thank you so much for these videos!

I was worried you were going to skip over how Games Workshop’s design for the orc is basically how all orcs look now. I’m glad to not be disappointed!

I would love to see an in depth ancestry video on cyclopean / Ghol-Gan pathfinder lore. You're channel is awesome loving all the pathfinder content. Currently running a shackles/darklands setting in pathfinder 1e.

I have watched this video a number of times. I'm am thinking of creating a homebrewed world and this video has given me a lot of inspiration.

Oh thank the gods, another Pathfinder channel. Keep up the good work! Channels like yours help spread the word and show others that games other than D&D exist and can also be fun!

Just like the Elves video, another splendid analysis of the race across time and media. While I prefer the more grounded, realistic D&D Orks, I can't deny the influence Games Workshop had on the archetype. Blizzard is also a nice touch, I was there 3000 years ago when Orcs & Humans came out, we were hooked instantly. By the way, the death of Grom Hellscream cutscene is IMHO Blizzard's major opus (before they sold their souls to Bobby Kotick, a herald of the Burning Legion).

I always struggle bringing culture to the races in my homebrew, this channel has really helped with that.

6:42 This cutsceen reminds me of the Devil-Hulk fight, from the game Incredibe Hulk Ultimate Destruction

8:30 God that's a good freaking cutscene.

Fun fact about Warcraft, you are completely correct. Warcraft and Starcraft were originally going to be Warhammer titles. At the time GW was very tight with their licensing and didn't grant Blizzard the rights, but production had already begun and so rather than scrap concept art they changed the names and story. At least that's the version of the story I've always heard as a former Blizzard fanboy who grew up playing WC2 and 3 and played a decade of World of Warcraft.

Awesome video. Just recently found you channel. I would like to see you do a video on the leshy ancestry.

Great video, you go above and beyond giving a background on how the pop view of these ancestries came to be.

Great editing, sound quality, and content: The Mythkeeper has it all for the Pathfinder lorehound. Have to applaud the effort as I continue through this absolute cornucopia.

Just found your channel, love the content!

awesome video! thank you

Thanks for your hard work brother. Keep the lore spilling out. I hope Pathfinder 2e video games are on the way. And I hope the writing is going to be good.

Imho the Warhammer orcs were also inspired by the Green Men of Mars from Edgar Rice Burroughs

Bright's take on orcs is the best I've seen.

allways a pleasure to hearyou sharing knwledge, thanks!

Maybe it is because I am autistic and am used to getting treated with suspicion, anger or outright hatred just for not being the norm. But I love playing Orcs, dragonborn and tieflings.

A common plot hook I used is one where the party is hired to root out a Orcs in a large forest so that Noble can continue their logging however it's revealed that the Orcs are peaceful only wanting to live in peace and that it was the Noble and their men who struck first. So the players are stuck between a rock and a hard place the Orcs are living peacefully only striking back if threatened meanwhile the Noble's status means if they attack them the repercussions could be great so the party has to pick a side or figure out a alternative to fighting.

Blizzard in fact lost a copyright suit with Games workshop over the similarities between Warhammer and Warcraft. Warcraft was originally intended to be a Warhammer game, but games workshop refused them the license leading to the creation of a unique if some what similar franchise.

Great stuff as always! Love your videos as a newcomer to Pathfinder, a question on Ruul the Thunder and Storm God though, are they one of the newer Gods in Orc culture given the Orcs came from below? Or is that not so much an important thing in their pantheon in regards to the old gods of below and newer ones made above?

I know the Vanara have next to nothing, but I think they're neat and I love hearing about them. Also the Orang-Pendek, for obvious reasons.

I love Orcs, in my fantasy worlds i lean into the mutability of Orcs as a race, and from world to world they vary wildly, from pig headed beast men, to human statured Green people. I find the shifting nature of orcs in nedia and story telling compelling in it's own right, like Orcs grow, progress, and change as we do.

You forgot to mention one thing, though being a Pathfinder video, it makes sense: In The Elder Scrolls, Orcs, while still barbaric and somewhat warlike, were toned down to be more analogous to Native Americans but more peaceful, but they were constantly on the move, never settled for long, had bouts of peaceful coexistence, and spoke more normally. Also, question: why is Tolkien's idea of Orcs not only being subservient to an evil being, but also twisted versions of other races?

Watching this gives me idea for a orc character

Ah, I love your videos! Thank you for all your effort and commitment making them!

It still makes me upset pathfinder never seemed to get to letting you play a minotaur. They are my favorite race to play.

Great video! Really enjoying these videos so far. Will be waiting for more content!

Btw, will you ever make videos of the factions of Golarion? I’d love to see a video dedicated to the Pathfinder Society and the Grand Lodge of Absalom.

Orcs are often in alliance with other monstres humanoids (like goblins and trolls) in other fantasy universes. How is this in Pathfinder?

20:57 This guy looks like Ultimate Green Goblin

Man-bear-pig could be a lost ancestor in the evolution of the orc.

Minor errata. D&D 3.0 was released in 2000.

Was The Lord of the Rings really the first appearance of the word "orc" in English? I recall that in the Hobbit there's a passage that referred to larger goblins as orcs. That may have been added in a later edition though.

Are orcs related to the Hulk? There's certainly some familial resemblance

👏👏👏

please review pathfinder tales novels

Kobold! Mek mek! :)

Green really is da best aint it

Warcraft wasn't inspired by warhammer, it is warhammer. The first game was going to be a warhammer game but somehow the brand deal didn't go trough and blizzard just changed the name and shipped it.

What book is the Kharmaja tribe information from?

They are species if we use correct phrases. Might as well say race

Once again you need a shield to keep from beating your mic to death with your air.

Long live the orc

Don't play 0athfimder, love you man xxx

Hello, can you tell me which map that is at 0:47 min into the video. Thanks

it's a good video you made, only that saying that warcraft orcs are inspired by fantasy I find it a mistake since its direct inspiration would come from DND and lord of the rings, Sam didier mentioned in an interview that in his team they had fans of DND and lotr, besides that lie that "it was going to be a wh game" is pure bullshit, nothing more than a famous old fake forum of wh fans that gave a superficial opinion without doing a correct investigation of the matter to which thousands of fools and famous fools believed and continue spreading the lie. I say so since most of them are the ones who did not investigate the matter properly and only about 10% of the fandom knows that this argument is wrong.

Prefer the AD&D Orc reproduction rules.

Kobolds 🤪

Don’t get me wrong, I love the videos, but this getting ridiculous. Orcs are evil and everyone is trying to make them out as Star Trek Orion race with tusks. What’s next? Can I play a Beholder? Kobold sounds interesting.

Tolkien's orcs are probably by favorite. In my opinion making orcs as smart and strong as other races defeats the point of them being hordes and using overwhelming numbers in battle. I also think its stupid to have creatures that literally look like demons and relish in causing pain and destruction be "good". Tolkien became uncomfortable with the orcs being completely evil and irredeemable because of his Catholicism but he never actually changed them, just their origins.