Mountain Orc
the Orqua
Mountain Orc are by far the most feral of the orc people. They are what give the orc their reputation as monsters, brutal and animalistic. The Orqua, as they call themselves, live, primarily, in remote caves and villages deep in the Cutting Mountains. Scattered communities also live in mountains throughout Novyum, though these groups are far less known, choosing to avoid the lowlands and dangers of mankind.
Their ancestors aggressive conquest driven nature, especially that of the Umaybbad nation has led to a near fanatically hatred of orc kind throughout the Western and Northern Reaches of Ethae, but particularly in Novyum where most nations make it legal to slay any orc on sight, some even putting awards in place for orc heads. This slaughter pushed the surviving orcs into the remote mountains, often still hunted in modern days by hired adventurers. Laws, that have become a double-edged sword for the people of the north. The hunted orcs have grown more brutality in the need for survival, raiding has become a way of gaining needed supplies.
Unlike their cousins in Anbar, that have the opportunity to build communities, the mountain orcs live only to survive to the next day. The orcs of Novyum survive in tiny groups of a few dozen, hunting and raiding, moving from location to location to avoid attacks by the humans in retaliation. Those communities in the Cutting Mountains are larger, dwelling in ancient Dwarf ruins, using the ancient tunnel networks to move around, some even building small fiefdoms of their own.
Mountain orc communities are led by the strongest member, male or female, through bully tactics. There is no mercy given to rivalries within the community, or to foes. Unlike the other ethnic groups of orcs, the orqua do not take slaves or capture women for mates. Meat is their primary diet, and all other races are on the menu.
The Orqua do not take partners. If a female is not pregnant, a male will try to take her at his pleasure. A dangerous act as that male will have to contend with competition from other males, as well as a female that will fight if she doesn't want him. These battles for mating cause more death among the orcs than outside forces in the modern day, resulting in only the strongest orcs mating. Many communities of the Cutting Mountains are led by females leveraging 'mating rights' to the strongest orcs for protection. This is never a partnership, however, as the female may take on several men, pitting them against each other to keep them focused on each other rather than her. As with all orc, mountain orcs have an extremely low birthrate for females making this competition all the more prevalent. With the drive to mate often more persuasive than the need for survival.
Mountain orc male have greenish or dark grey skin tones, while the females tend to the lighter, or more muted shades. Mountain orcs wear little clothing, what they do wear is scavenged, preferably mismatched as this is a sign that a raider has been on many attacks, claiming many prizes. The females rarely stand more than a few inches above 6 feet, will the males tend to tower over 7 feet. Male features are usually wide, muscular bodies, with monstrous humanoid face. Females will have thinner bodies, their facial features are no less animalistic. Often with women intentionally scaring their own face to look more dangerous. The orqua have pointed ears, their lack of breeding with humans has kept this feature pronounced into the modern day. Eyes are almost always black, with the darkest brown appearing in females on occasion. Mountain orc iris are larger than most other races, often looking as if the entire eye is black with only a bit of white around on the sides. Their pupils extremely reflective of any light, giving the appearance of glowing points of light in their eyes with any light source nearby. Males hair is often unkept or minimally kept. Female hair is pulled back, out of their face, for purposes of convivence. Long hair is considered a status symbol among them. A liability in battle, an orc that is unafraid of keeping long hair is considered a true warrior.
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