Xirasía
After the return of The Vestiges and the War in Heaven, the orcs of the time had ample opportunity to form massive civilizations, by raiding many of the old, destroyed human cities and claiming them as their own. As elves once again rose to prominence and were beginning The Second Halcyon, one of their first endeavours was to fight back the Orcish hordes. Seeing the remarkable breeding rate of Orcs, and their sheer size of population, they conducted the 11th level High Magic spell known as The Xirasía, a disastrous blow to the Orcish race.
Causes
The Xirasia was a massive High Elven spell, a Ritual of the Myriad, used to quell the Orcish hordes that were devastating the lands of Rakuen. Gathering the strength of nine High Mages, and nearly an entire elven city full of people participating in the ritual, the people cast this remarkably old and dangerous spell. The spell proved effective, at the cost of the lives of everyone who participated.
The result was simple. Every single orc on the planet was infected with a plague by the name of Xirasia. This plague brought no physical harm to the Orcs, and it aimed not to alter their warlike way of life. Instead, it was an implement of control. The Xirasia altered the Orcs’ very bodies, making it nearly impossible to conceive children.
While Orcs were always seen as fearsome, they were not impossible to defeat. But their fast rate of breeding allowed them to replenish their armies in only a few years, unlike humans who would need decades to properly raise a soldier to fight an orc, or even worse, nearly a full century for an elf to be ready to give her life in combat. This spell was meant to make all things equal.
Symptoms
All orcs, from this point of casting the spell, had their birthrate reduced to approximately 1%, meaning only 1/100 children will be born, including all extraneous factors and ideal circumstances. This was done by altering the literal souls of Orcs, which is why the Ritual of the Myriad was also so destructive for the elves. All successful impregnations carried the very high potentiality of resulting in miscarriage or stillbirth. This meant that even if an Orc could conceive, the odds of them bringing the child to birth was not in their favor.
Epidemiology
The Xirasia had immensely far-reaching effects to Orcish communities. It resulted in a remarkably generational decline in Orcs. Between Orcish raids, civil conflicts between Orcish tribes, slave revolts against the Orcs, and human offensives on Orcish territory, the Orcish population declined rapidly. And now, their fast birth rate was reduced to essentially nothing, ensuring that even when they did procreate, actually conceiving and delivering a child was so remarkably difficult, that for Orcs to even survive, procreation had to become their number one priority, even over warfare.
The current Orcish population has been regulated, but is still in massive decline. After nearly 1500 years since the casting of the spell, the Orcish population is struggling to maintain itself.
History
Orcs now acclimate to this reality by having sires, also called patriarchs, people of esteem in their societies who also are seen as exceptionally fertile (and who may perhaps be immune to the Xirasia), to breed with as many people as possible. Broodmares, also known as matriarchs, are exceptionally rare, but have a higher birthrate than other female orcs more similar to conditions before the Xirasia was enacted.
Sires and Broodmare are highly regarded in orcish society. Sires are often given high titles, and allowed to lead armies as generals, while also receiving unilateral choice on their mates. Broodmares, being significantly more rare and valuable, are treated as the penultimate royalty, and any Broodmare will completely outrank a Sire of similar renown. They are treated as the penultimate of Orcish society, and are granted unilateral freedom above that of even sires. They garner their choice of men in their harem, who compete for their lineage to be passed on through her, and Broodmares are sought frequently for perspective in decisions that would affect clans at large. Although Broodmare are generally exempted from warfare, it is seen as a necessity for them to be immaculately athletic and battle-ready, so that their children are as physically fit as them.
A further loophole in The Xirasia is that the effects toward the birthing of half-orcs was less limiting. The birthrate between Orcs and other races to create a half-orc child is closer to 40%. This dramatically increases the odds of bearing a child, and half-orcs who then breed with orcs will usually birth another full orc, although this process of using half-orcs as breeders only raises the percentile to 4% total to produce a healthy orc.
Cultural Reception
The most massive effect of The Xirasia has been that orcish wars are far less common. Orcs themselves have begun to value their lives more, and the rarity of Orc life gives young life great reverence, as well as a great reverence to the eldest in their societies. Half-orcs are also now more common than before, but it has also put half-orcs into a fraught state. Many half-orcs in Orcish society are treated as slaves, a strange form of thoroughbred cattle, especially men as they are the most capable of producing a full orc. Furthermore, half-orcs face incredible amounts of discrimination within orcish culture.
As a silver lining, orcs overall are more peaceful than in past times, and especially half-orcs are treated with a great deal more respect in common culture. But The Xirasia has also bred a deep resentment toward elves by orcs and half-orcs, as they see the elvish spellcasting as an oppressive act of genocide. Many elves also agree, but there are none willing to cast a new Ritual of the Myriad to undo the effects of the Xirasia. Instead, many elves - especially some of the youngest in society - seek scientific or medicinal methods of aiding Orcs in procreation, although the effects have been minimal at best.
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