Orc

General Appearance

Orcs appear as savage beings, towering above their enemies with their tall, heavily muscular builds but this belies the fierce intelligence and strong social bonds that Orcs have forged.

Orcs colouration is often in the shades of grey, with some groups with green, light purple or blueish colouration. Orcish hair can range from the palest white, to the darkest black and seemingly every colour in between.

Racial Attributes

General Attributes

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score is increased by 2 and your Constituion or Dexterity is increased by 1

Age. Orcs reach adulthood at age 12 and live up to 50 years.

Size. Orcs range from under 6 to over 7 feet tall and have thick, muscular builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkn⁠ess as if it were dim light. You can’t discern colour in darkne⁠ss⁠, only shades of grey.

Adrenaline Rush. You can take the Dash action as a bonus action. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Whenever you use this trait, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus

Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Relentless Endurance. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Trade Basic and High Orcish. High Orcish is strong sounding language with short glottal stops making it sound quite curt when spoken in general conversation. Orc oral tradition is song heavy and it is often through the medium of song that local and racial history is passed. These songs are often tinged with sadness and will usually bring an Orcish crowd to tears. Low Orcish is a much more brutal sounding language with the glottal stop replaced with a rolling R that causes it to sound like words are growled, rather than spoken, and is often seen as slang and uncouth amongst general Orc society.

Orcish Ethnic Groups

Orcs are a caste based society, Goblin and Hobgoblins are also included in these castes when they are integrated within Orcish society

Chieftains

Chieftains are the height of Orcish society, and they are the leaders of the various clans, raising to the level of Chieftain is often done by vote of the clan or by anointment by some heroic action. While Orcs do value strength of arm, they are not driven by that value and will attempt to make their clan stronger, whether that is by strength of arms, shrewd trade or a truthsinger to raise their status.

Truthsingers

To be a truthsinger is to be the voice of the Orcish people. Outside of Chieftains, truthsingers are the highest caste most Orcs can hope to achieve. Truthsingers cover more than just scholars, historians and bards. Any high skill, high value profession can be considered a Truthsinger. Arahk Garhek (Originally Arahk Stonecleaver), the designer of Garhek was an engineer truthsinger.

Shamans

Shamans are the religious leaders of the Orcs, this was originally a position only given to Hobgoblins, who are believed to have a much closer relationship to the gods and elements. Shamans are advisors to Chieftains and are often paired with a Truthsinger to keep the oral tradition and knowledge of the clan alive.

Warriors

Warriors make up the bulk of Orcish society, despite the name, Warriors are not necessarily soldiers. This caste has grown to include all the general workers and tradesmen of the Orcish society. Farmers, haulers, builders, couriers are all part of the Warrior Caste. Of course the armies of the Orcish clans are also in this caste and are afforded a certain level of respect above other members of this caste.

Merchants

Merchants are considered the lowest of all the caste members, the seeking of riches and not always for the benefit of the clan is seen as an overall negative. However, it is recognised as a somewhat necessary role and it is begrudgingly that the merchant caste are afforded any level of respect.

Orcish Society

Broad Overview

Orc society is clan based, with castes existing within those clans. It is not unusual to enter an Orcish city that is entirely populated by a single clan. Interclan relations are very complicated, with disputes often being so caste specific that one caste of a clan might be at war with another caste in a different clan, while the vast majority of orcs in those clans being on friendly terms. These disputes are often decided by either combat or by a song competition between Truthsingers. This is the result of 40000 years of clan politics that became even more pointed after the early Orc/Goblinoid wars

Oral Tradition

Even though Orcs do have a complex written language, the preference is to keep their history and knowledge in lengthy ballads and tribal songs. Some of these songs are days long and