Orc Week: Gestation and Maturity

Again, I wanted to do something cool with my conception of orcs for the "Blood Path" article, and I realised that a game can only produce half-orcs if orcs were able to mate with people. Which meant that they had to have some sort of compatible body parts to be able to do the deed. You can't exactly do the wild thing if you burst out of a seven-foot pustule in the bowels of the angry earth, with all the meat packing of a Ken doll.

So ... orc mating, Alex Greene style.

Orcs have two distinct genders, male and female. Males are always able to mate, but females only breed during their season, which lasts for one week every three months. Orcs cannot breed with humans; the half-orc hybrid breed does not exist. Orcs are viviparous – females carry foetuses in the womb, just as human women do.

The orc gestation period is six months. Orc babies mature more quickly than humans, reaching a human maturity equivalent of eighteen months in only six, and physiologically reaching adulthood at age 13.
Large families with multiple births – twins and triplets – are the norm for fertile orc females; orcs always grow up knowing many brothers and sisters.

And on the other end of the scale, ageing and decrepitude:-

Barring death in battle, the orc lifespan tends to be around 50 years. Ageing means death for most orcs; once the faculties begin to decline, older orcs know that it is only a matter of time before some young, ambitious orc steps up to end the suffering of decrepitude that awaits the elder.
Orcs begin ageing at the same time as humans – 40 years - but age more quickly. Use the ageing tables for humans, but double the penalties to Resilience and Persistence from life events from the Life Experiences table on p. 74 of Legend Core Rulebook; each failed ageing test reduces the characteristic rolled by 1D3, not 1D2.

The lights that burn twice as bright burn half as long; and these orcs burn so very, very brightly.

One last piece tomorrow.

Orc Week: A Glimpse into Orc Beliefs

The final Orc Week post this week looks into orc religions.

Nietzschean Outlook

Orcs firmly believe in the aphorism “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.” To rise to any station above the lowliest, an orc has to work – and work hard, because Nature itself lives to test the spirit and the body of every orc.

Indeed, Nature tests every living thing – the other races just don't know that, and just coast along, always feeling surprise and grief when one of their number dies.

Orcs have a somewhat more fatalistic view on life. Knowing that death is necessary, and that when it comes it comes quickly for them in a rush, fangs bared, rather than sidling up slowly and taking you from behind, an orc knows that he has so little time to waste on stupid distractions such as treachery and deceit.

Fatalism and Facing Death

It's not that orcs face death passively – they struggle to live as much as every other race. It's just that when death comes for an orc, he accepts that it's his time, and nothing can change that.

One orc religion, the Great Mother, maintains that all orcs come from the same place, and go back to the same place on death. Their basic tenet is “When an orc dies, he is either swallowed up by the Mother and we never see him again, or the Mother sends him back as a bigger orc. Either way, orcs will always be here, because the Mother wills it.”

Orc Religions

Three main religions dominate orc culture; the Great Mother cult, the cult of the Angry Earth and the cult of the Unfathomable.

The Great Mother Cult

Curiously enough, this seems to be the same Great Mother cult worshipped by humans. Rites and restrictions of membership are the same for each, as are the rituals involved.

The Cult of the Angry Earth

Adherents of the Cult of the Angry Earth believe that they exist as agents of an angry world, wounded by human beings. They believe that they are here to act as a check to the unbridled spread of human populations.

The Cult of the Unfathomable

This cult is dedicated to a nameless deity, the Unfathomable, that could well be The Abyss described by Nietzsche.

I hope you've enjoyed all these Orc Week posts. Thanks for reading them.