Orc (ork)

the Scaro'orc

According to areian (Elf) legends, the great Juhl'are (dark elf) matriarch Juhl created the orc early in the Kephic Age. Perfect warriors to turn the tide of battle in the fight against the hated Kephic Empire. Using the Shadow, she transformed her crippled son Scaro into the greatest warrior the world had seen. With her success, she and her acolytes gathered the weakest of their society, creating an army of loyal combatants to sweep their enemies from the world. A plan that backfired on the drow who thought themselves so wise. Their army, previously loyal out of fear and weakness, turned on their masters as equals. The new people, named the Scaro'are (children of Scaro), rebelled and carved out a nation of their own among the elves. True or not, this legend is the history the orc live by.

These first orc were known to be far more powerful than the modern day orc, and much more elf-like in appearance. The first generation, like many elves, sought to keep their bloodlines pure, but few females had been created. As the population dwindled the need to breed with others became a necessity. While rumors of “true” Scaro’are remaining are whispered, no credible scholar takes such matters seriously. The generations of half-breeds that followed were known as Scaro’orc, later simplified and shortened to orc.

Orc history with the elves is as complicated a mess as one could imagine. While no modern elf would consider an orc one of their own, they have to admit that according to both people's history and mythology the first Scaro’are were accepted as elf, even carving out a new nation of their own ‘Mya Scaro Mair,' in the likeness of the lost Areian Nations. Over time, mix breeding and experimentation created generations far less elf-like and more ‘monstrous orcs’. On the other side, Orc tradition may admit to elven ancestry, but they see themselves as evolved beyond their weak kin. It is orc belief that they are the natural evolution of elves. A better, strong people to replace the flowery elves.

Modern orc history began in 5711sc when the Umaybbad orc, lead by the last of the known true Scaro’are, conquered Ancient Siduum, ending that ageless civilization. Orcs were an ongoing threat to the civilized nations of Ethae in those days. They marched deep into the Heartlands, and draw blades against the waning Kephic Empire of the Cutting Mountains. Their influence spread across the Western Reach of Ethae before the nations of Tinjir rallied and stood against them. Now, over a millennium later, the glory days of the Umaybbad and their orc empire have long faded. Only scattered fortresses on lonely mountains remaining. It is only in the Farlands and the deserts of Anbar that a new orcish people still thrive.

With the coming of Novyum Age, the orcs faced yet another deadly threat to their survival. The law in the Heartlands demanded the extermination of orc kind. A policy that had all but eradicated the race from the Northern Reach. A law so engrained in the people that even in these years of warlords and bitter civil war, enemies will put aside their fighting to hunt an orc tribe when found.

Orcs are divided into four major ethnic groups. The intellegent Craddle Orc of eastern Anbar, the fierce Thoa Orc of the Scaro Wilds; the cunning Lhakamed Orc in the Anbar Desert; and the brutish Mountain Orc of the Cutting Mountains and Novyum.

Orc Ethnic Groups:

• Craddle Orc: Orc of the eastern Anbar.

• Lhakamed Orc: Orcs scattered throughout the west of Anbar.

• Mountain Orc: Feral orc dwelling primarily in the Cutting Mountains, with small isolated communities scattered in the mountain throught Novyum.

• Thoa Orc: Orc of the Thoamaine Peninsula, consecrated in the Scaro Wilds.