Orcish Guide to Surface Food

Written by Lokrow

In the modern day, orcish culture and knowledge is passed on mainly through their collective unconscious in the Seeding. Indeed, orcish is a language without script. That said, surviving traditions like the patterns used by orcish tattoo artists suggests that orcs began life on the surface or maybe even the Darklands with written traditions.
The most clear indicator of the orcs' past written traditions is the memory of a particular book, simply dubbed Guide To Surface Food, which is passed down through the collective unconscious and witches in Seed Clans or by culinary traditions in Legacy Clans.
This book was likely made by one of the first legacy clans to establish themselves on the surface during the Sacking. It is thought to have compiled all of the foods that did not kill the orcs when consumed, as well as the beginnings of what composes modern orcish culinary traditions.

Historical Details

History

Background

When the orcs first arrived upon Golarion's surface, in -4294 AR, a great many of them died to disease and poison due to the entirely new and drastically different environment they had been forced in. During this period of intense pressure to adapt and strife that arose from that very pressure, many clans were rendered witchless and thus had to find other means of survival. This was the first occurance of legacy clans
One of these clans, the name of which is lost to memory, established itself on one of the lower peaks of the Mindspin Mountains. There, they used the paperbark which shed from trees and found they could inscribe it with the same symbols they used in the soft clay of the darklands.
This discovery eventually led to them compiling the knowledge gathered by seed clans into a book which became the Guide to Surface Food.

Key to survival

The Guide became crucial to orcish survival on the surface. The scribes frantically compiled ordered lists of foods, coming up with names in the orcish tradition of given names being physical or behavioral descriptors. In the following decade as seed clans used this list to experiment further with foods they were sure wouldn't kill orcs, ways to combine these ingredients or cook them became common additions, usually each taking a page. More kept being added until the Guide was burned by the dwarves.

Public Reaction

Treasured by the Orcs

The clan of orc scribes accepted any contribution to the work as well as any request for consultation. However, they kept the book and any other written works confined to their camp. They categorically refused that any of the books they made may leave the protection of the camp.
The Guide was a hugely important part of orc life on Golarion, bringing an endless flow of seed clans to the camp of the orc scribes. They came to either consult the Guide or add their own contributions or both. At any one time, upwards of twenty visiting orc clans inhabited the camp with more seed clans setting up camp in the surrounding area. The camp also kept other written works but none were more precious to the orcs or closely guarded as the Guide was.
This amount of orcs concentrated in one location was unheard of at this time, apart from Deepgate where the orcs emerged. To accomodate such a large population, the camp of orc scribes had to be expanded. They did so by using the very same trees from which they collected the paperbark to build expansions to the ever-growing camp.

Targeted by the Dwarves

When the dwarves finally finished their Quest For Sky and emerged on the surface of Golarion less than two centuries after the orcs, they quickly resumed fighting the orcs as they had in the darklands. They built their Sky Citadels in order o both defend from orcish raids and launch attacks.
It was not long before the dwarves of Janderhoff targeted the camp of orc scribes, aiming to eliminate the source of orcish knowledge of the surface. Specifically, they had gotten word of the Guide and led multiple strikes against the camp with the sole goal to destroy it. The Dwarves hoped that without it, the orcs would lose the ability to distinguish between safe and poisonous food and return to dying en masse.
And after a decade of ongoing battle, the dwarves succeeded in their goal by setting fire to the forest around the camp. As the orcs discovered then, the trees which they had used for protection, lodging and bookmaking were extremely flammable and the forest around them sparked ablaze and became an inferno before any of them could react. The inferno consumed all, forest, book and orc. The Guide to Surface Food, along with other orcish knowledge was lost.

Legacy

The Dwarves' hope, stemming from their view of orcs as simple and feral beasts, was ultimately fruitless. The popularity of the Guide meant that much of it was committed to the orcish collective unconscious and would keep being passed down and expanded upon in individual clans. However, the orcs lost a central location within which to congregate in a semblance of orcish unity, however temporary. This meant that their knowledge from here on out was developed and spread regionally, with natural divides forming between clans.
The destruction of the camp of orc scribes also lead the orcs to trust their traditions rather than to commit them to writing. With a stronger reliance on orcs connecting with their collective unconscious, the number of orc witches grew in kind. This led to more seed clans forming, splintering from the bigger clans of the past to the now common sight of approximately a hundred orcs to one witch.

Type

Guide, Survival

Medium

Organic

Authoring Date

Beween -5102 AR and -5000 AR.