Orcs are tall, strong, brutes with huge tusks and bestial intelligence. They roam the wild lands in groups, and readily kill anything that comes their way. Orcs are the bane of civilization and regularly overrun and slaughter settlements and fortresses.

Life as an Orc

There are a few types of wild orcish tribes: those that live in lands with nothing except the wilderness and themselves, those that live near settlements and therefore acquire some intelligence as well as equipment, and those that live in mountain caves, far from anything but regularly washing over the world.

Orcs are nocturnal, meaning all the societies described below perform their activities described during the night and sleep during the day. Only settled wild orcs use a diurnal lifestyle, due to the necessity of growing crops.

Plains Tribes

Sometimes, there isn't anything like civilization around the territory of an orc, or nothing of impressive size. In this case, orcish society is basic and brutal.

In order to survive, a wandering orc tribe is quite small; it contains two dozen beings, at best. These orcs are usually cattle herders, in most cases leading a herd of 50 to 100 badeep across the plains, from brubber tree patch to brubber tree patch. They eat almost exclusively judeep, badeep meat, and wild game. Such a travelling tribe is simply built: everyone helps everyone, the males go fight or, if bows are available to the tribe, shoot off the dangerous things, and females lead everything else. No leaders exist, as none are necessary and the tribe can happily live together. Due to the typical predomination of males (three quarters of orcish births are male), no fixed couples exist, but females choose who and when they want to have a child with, and then both usually care for the child's education until the female has a child with another orc, in which case the male alone cares for the child.

Sometimes, a group of wild orcs goes further in the technological development and becomes a settled tribe. For a wandering tribe to become settled, multiple factors need to play a role: either brubber trees or badeep are hard to get, game to hunt is plentiful, the soils are rich and crops readily available, and the orcs have access to good hunting equipment (bows) and farming techniques. If all these requirements are met, a wild tribe lives in a larger settlement (usually with up to a hundred orcs), sometimes living as nomads, and sometimes as fixed settlers. In such a settled tribe, a leader is necessary: this is often the orc with the most experience, and either a powerful woman with a supportive and enforcing male at her side, or just a male orc. Also, due to the necessity of daylight in growing crops and finding game to hunt, settled orcs have a diurnal lifestyle, in contrast to all other orcish groups and to their own preferences. They still prefer using the night if they need to perform anything extraordinary, such as an assault on a rival orcish tribe.

Settled orcish society is more structured, notably into two groups: the hunters and the farmers. The hunters consist of all those with the skill necessary for hunting, whilst the farmers contain all the other orcs. Sometimes, the farmers herd cattle on the side. Together, these two groups produce sufficient foods to sustain the entire tribe, meaning, themselves. Each evening, the entire tribe comes together in the middle of the settlement and eats together. The leftovers are kept for lunch the next day.

Marital traditions are already more advanced within a settled orc village. Each hut or tent is owned by a single female orc, which typically has three males as her husbands within the same home. Any kind of engagement outside these families is socially tabooed. The children of a woman, as long as they are younger than 2, do not go to work with her, but are kept in the chieftain's hut under the care of the chieftain's family. Once a child is old enough, it joins in on the work of his mother or dads, and chooses which parent it wants to go with (usually, both hunters and farmers are represented in a single family). In this way, it is educated until it, too, gets married to a woman or inherits or builds a house/tent.

Forest Tribes

Orcs that live near or in areas settled by a civilized race usually make their homes hidden in forests, which is why they are called "forest" orcs. They live on raids. These creatures are more advanced technologically than plains orcs, but also have three distinctions in their development: scavenger and autonomous tribes, as well as hosts.

A scavenger tribe usually lies hidden within lightly settled lands, such as an expansive forest bordering wide plains of farmland. If the area were any more advanced, then they would be wiped out quickly - they aren't far along the technological ladder.

Scavenger tribes are quite small, no larger than 20-30 orcs. They use tents, either stolen or in the form of hides strapped over branches, as shelter. They change their camp regularly, usually every week, partly because the surrounding area will be raided out and because the other races might start hunting them down. They hold no guard during the day and are extremely sure of themselves, as they thrive in regions where they encounter little to no resistance. This also means that scavenger orcs are extremely selfish and prone to doing everything by themselves.

They have no leader, much like wandering wild tribes, and act on communal consent. Females are slightly less rare among their tribe than otherwise, because males are more prone to fighting and getting killed in the process, giving a one third:two thirds ratio for women. A female orc chooses her mate(s) herself, but usually doesn't have more than two or three. She lets her husbands care for their own children. Otherwise, no social structures exist, and food and loot are distributed and kept as their owners see fit.

Once night falls, the entire tribe goes to war, splitting into two to three groups. One or two males are left behind with all the children that are too young for battle. These small groups select lone houses, often farmhouses, and take all the food and useful equipment there is (they do not care for wealth or trinkets all that much, except as presents to each other). They might kill one or two of the inhabitants if they fight back, selecting older and male targets over the others, and leaving just enough food (as long as the orcs themselves aren't starving) for the raided people to survive and be raided again in a year or so's time.

If faced with any danger, such as a militia or even just a commoner mob hunting them down, scavenger tribes are prone to shattering. Any orc will flee with those he prefers and leave behind all that isn't food or useful equipment, such as armor and weapons. Thus, a group of soldiers from the Lord sent out to chase off the nasty Bloodkillers will find a group of rags (the tents) with useless trinkets and crying child orcs, and nothing else left.

An autonomous tribe is socially advanced, and the highest known technological advancement known for orcs. These creatures are well equipped with leather or metal armors, and metal polearms to go with this. Commonly, they lived close to powerful civilized nations for a while before those nations disappeared, leaving their wealth for the taking of the orcs. They could also have developed their advancement through other methods, such as orog intelligence joining the party, but scavenging remains is the most common way.

An autonomous tribe lives in a fixed settlement, often hidden in the woods, but sometimes in other areas as well. They are large (200-300 members) and firmly led, and have ready access to weaponry, be it through trade, mining it themselves, or a large storage of such goods.

Commonly, such a tribe's huts are large clay, wood or stone buildings with thatch, wood or even tiled roofs. Surrounding that settlement is a wall, normally a wooden palisade adorned with watchtowers. In the center of this settlement lies the governing building and clerical necessities.

The tribe's government is fixed by tradition and has complete control. This might be a single powerful orc, or a group of respected elders or faction representatives governing in unison. Although their means of government are diverse, many have some aspects in common.

Food needs to be produced for the tribe, which is taken care of by one faction. They grow crops (which might even be domesticated) and herd cattle, occasionally hunting, too, which is quite rare, since the population is so big hunting isn't efficient enough. A second faction is usually the more specialized workers: those producing worked goods, such as tanned leather or weapons. This also includes those that mine and forge metals, or the traders that procure the advanced goods. The last faction might sometimes be seen as nobility, sometimes only as military officers, and sometimes as militia. They are a small group of male orcs who know all the martial knowledge known to the tribe and teach some of it to those that aren't part of the military faction, in case they might be needed. These elite fighters are masters of the heavy bows, and lead the united tribe into battle if needed. They also serve as police force and passive defense.

Marital traditions may vary greatly within such autonomous groups.

Hosts are the waves of orcs that wash over civilized territory, looting all there is and running on to loot more. They are a very short-lived thing, usually surviving no longer than a dozen years or so. A host is always led by a single dominant figure, one that often has gained godly boons. The host leader has two to five lieutenants, ones that make sure that all other are aware of what the leader is saying, and from 300 to 1000 orcs under his sway.

Orcish hosts are formed by a sudden event shaking all the tribes scattered across an area, usually caused by the rise of a radj - a warlord. Under his sway, the tribes unite, afraid that he might otherwise turn against them. Another prerequisite for the tribe to form is that there should be a not-too-powerful but rich civilized nation nearby, or just a place to gain much loot, as well as food.

The host is divided into two groups: the main host (all the males and female fighters), and the second host (the female non-fighters and the children, as well as any livestock and materials needed). Every single male orc fights under the leadership of his radj. The main host washes onwards at a running pace, normally on foot, storming over any defenses of the civilized people and taking all the food, armor, and equipment available (again, they are not interested in treasure, only things of immediate value). Once they have taken an important place, or their war wagons (large carts where all the loot not carried directly is placed) are full, the main host stops in their onslaught and waits for the second host to catch up, which usually takes half a day. The males then meet with their wife (as usual, a female probably has three husbands), the united host eats a great feast before sunrise, then rests through the whole day. Once most of the foods are eaten, or the loot transferred to the second host, the main host runs off again, off to do some more looting.

Such a host dissipates as soon as there is no great places left to loot, shattering into autonomous or even wild tribes as the necessity of a huge war band lessens.

Sometimes, multiple hosts band together. In this case, each singular host is called a clan and given a name, usually that of it's leader's tribe, and the whole force named horde. Such enormous banding together is very rare and can cause enormous damage to anything that might be looted. Such a cataclysm occurred as the demon Lamik brought immense numbers of hosts under his sway - and the devastating Orc Wars followed.

Mountain Tribes

Sometimes, orc tribes don't have to sustain themselves through self-sufficiency (plains tribes) or raiding (forest tribes), but just sit in mountain caves and occasionally come out to wash over everything and anyone that is anywhere near the mountains. How these orcs eat and drink, no one knows. They might not even be true biological orcs, but some magically sustained race. Their society exists, however, and is common to all these odd mountain tribes.

At the lowest level of social magnitude lies the tribe. It consists of 10-20 orcs living together in the caves. They are usually equipped with next to nothing and live on god knows what. They have no marital tradition: they mate whenever they want, and the children taught by whoever wants to. This nonchalance in matters reproduction is replicated by every mountain orc.

Multiple tribes may band together under an influential leader, becoming a posse. This usually counts 50-100 orcs, with the more powerful ones wielding crude weaponry and maybe clothing. The leader (called poss), of course, has the best of given equipment. It is interesting to note that bows are a rarity in mountain orc groups, in contrast to the predominance of bows in other societies. Polearms, too (the secondary weapon of choice for other orcs) are quite rare for the mountain variety.

Above posses, you need a divine sign or very influential orc to rally mountain orcs. These groups of posses become hosts, carry a single clan name (chosen by its leader, the mountain radj - Radjhak), and are the size of typical hosts. These can also rally together and become hordes, although due to their much lesser equipment and odd nature, those are rare and don't have much impact besides wiping out some of the inhabitants of the mountains, such as dwarven strongholds. Mountain orc tribes aren't strong, but they're numerous.