ORCS — SPECIES

Salorras species: orcs — wild, matriarchal hunter-tribes of the Uzgar jungle who follow the primal faith of the Beast: fierce, independent, and bound to no kingdom but their own chieftains. Built on the official 2024 Orc species, adapted for Salorras. Orcs are a monstrous kindred in their own right — never human hybrids, the same category as ogres, trolls, and goblinoids. Ability scores come from your background, as in 2024.

Origin: Tribes of the northern Khalendianil plateaus and the Neluvia swamps, settled in Uzgar (western Asmeda) after the Demonic Wars Stature: Large and heavy for their Medium frame — grey to greenish hides, jutting tusks; among Asmedan orcs the females run the largest and strongest Lifespan: Short by the measure of the old peoples — adulthood comes fast, and few elders are seen outside the shamans Major Tribes: Red Fist · Swordneck · Bloodied Fang · Wrath of the Beast · Scratched Eye (twelve tribes in all) Faith: The Beast — a near-universal proto-pagan faith, kept by the tribal shamans Languages: Native — Orcish; common — Colloquial; regional — Naerysa, Phyrnal, Merylia

The orcs of Salorras are a wild and barbaric people, divided into many small tribes under their chieftains. Their roots lie in the plateaus of northern Khalendianil and the swamps of Neluvia; for ages they wandered Asmeda as nomads, until the close of the Demonic Wars gave them a land of their own. Today most dwell in Uzgar — the untamed jungle of western Asmeda, known in its Braoran-conquest era as Thornwild, which Braora ceded to the orc tribes in 297 IIE so they might raise a culture of their own. For them, independence and self-reliance are first principles, and every child learns early to survive the dangers of the jungle interior.

Character

The orcs are independent, fierce, and disinterested in the civilized world. To others they seem xenophobic and remote, and in truth they care little for the cities, having enough to settle in the standing feuds among their own tribes. They respect strength above all and the right to live free of any crown, content to be “lost” in the jungles and mountains where they hunt unmolested. In the last century some bands have begun to live among the humans of the western towns, in an attempt at integration — a trend that stirs inner conflict, for many chieftains are convinced it will bring the degeneration of their ancestors’ ideals.

Appearance

The orcs are large and powerfully muscled, running heavy even for their Medium frame, with grey to greenish hides, coarse dark hair, and jutting tusks set in heavy jaws. Among the orcs of Asmeda a singular trait took hold from the founding of Uzgar: after the Demonic Wars the females began to grow stronger than the males, and within three generations their weight, height, and muscle had visibly overtaken them. Some whisper this is the work of the Citadel Researchers; the orc shamans say instead that the Beast, having “found a mate,” blessed the women of the orcs with unprecedented strength — and from it the matriarchy of the Asmedan orcs was born.

Neighbors and Rivals

The orcs are reckoned xenophobic and remote, and return the disregard. They keep practical, trade-bound dealings with the humans and Braoran colonists of Uzgar’s western towns, exchanging the jungle’s rare creatures and minerals for raw materials and steamtech arms. They share the jungle with pyrekin, eidolai, and elmaer minorities, and their hunters cross paths — often violently — with both the Dragon Hunters, a calling that has long united orcs of different tribes around the capture of dragons, and the rival Free Dragon Activists who shadow them. Most orcs measure their world by the standing of their own tribe against the others.

Faith

Most orcs walk the proto-pagan path of The Beast, a faith kept not by a priesthood but by the shamans who counsel each chieftain. Though the “laws” each chieftain sets differ from territory to territory, worship of the Beast is one of the few threads common to every tribe. The shamans read the Beast’s will in the hunt, in strength, and in survival; among the Asmedan orcs they hold the Beast’s favor to be the source of the women’s might, and their religious authority is, in this age, the surest road toward uniting the fractious tribes.

Conscience

Independent and wild, the orcs cannot stifle their desire to live free, nor be hemmed in by the laws of others. They divide into roughly twelve tribes, each with its own chieftain, territory, and shaman-advisors, and each follows its chieftain’s voice faithfully. The chief cause of their endless skirmishing is the claim of hunting-grounds and mines, on which each tribe’s prosperity depends. For all their division, all the tribes share certain lines: faith in the Beast, and the rite of sending their adolescents into isolation in the wild to harden them.

Orcish Domains

The orc tribes are the dominant power of the vast Dugarodt jungle of Uzgar. Their few urban dealings center on the capital, Baukrak, a city the Braorans built in 297 IIE shortly after the Demonic Wars — but the orcs live in encampments and clearings within the jungle and the Morag mountains, visiting the towns only for trade. In recent years the chieftain Orlag of the Red Fist has risen among the loose order of chieftains, seeking to unite the tribes by religious terms; already the Bloodied Fang and the Wrath of the Beast have yielded to her shamans, while the powerful Swordnecks under Malegroth grow strong on their ties to the humans of Baukrak. The seat of the Red Fist, deep in a rare clearing of the Dugarodt, is the encampment Ulag Gramot, where tradition demands the councils of the twelve chieftains take place.

Wanderers and Seekers

It is not common for an orc to leave the tribal lands, though the harsh rite of adolescent isolation makes every orc a seasoned survivor by adulthood. Those who wander are often hunters chasing wild and magical beasts, warriors in a chieftain’s feud, or seekers drawn to the ruins the jungle hides — for the lands of Uzgar are strewn with the relics of a vanished granthir civilization, and an orc who finds such a “vein of gold” for the Braorans can buy their tribe great power.

Languages

The orcs speak Orcish, a harsh tribal tongue, and most who deal with the towns also learn Colloquial for the sake of trade. Depending on their dealings they may pick up the regional tongues of Asmeda and its neighbors — Naerysa, the Phyrnal of the pyrekin, or the Merylia of Neluvia — though most care little for languages beyond what trade and the hunt require.

Orcish Starborns

No starborn of the orc tribes is recorded in the known history of Salorras. The orcs set little store by such signs, measuring greatness instead by strength, the hunt, and the favor of the Beast — an orc who rose above their kind would more likely be named a chieftain’s champion than marked as a child of the stars.

Names

An orc bears a given name, harsh and short in the mouth, and is known beyond their own by the name of their tribe. Tribe names are taken from the hunt and from war, and an orc earns standing — and sometimes a new by-name — through feats of strength, the hunt, and victory in the tribe’s feuds.

Given names: Orlag, Malegroth, Raigom, Grukk, Hraga, Vosk, Durnak, Mogra, Skarl, Ulga, Threg, Borgha, Naktul, Rhaga, Gormek, Ushka. Tribe names: Red Fist, Swordneck, Bloodied Fang, Wrath of the Beast, Scratched Eye.

Orc Traits (5e 2024)

The orcs are a monstrous kindred forged for the hunt and the hard life of the wild — broad, heavy, and strong beyond the measure of the common peoples. Your ability scores come from your background, as in 2024.

• Creature Type: Humanoid.
• Size: Medium (large and heavy for the category).
• Speed: 30 feet.
• Adrenaline Rush: You can take the Dash action as a Bonus Action. When you do, you gain a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, regaining all expended uses on a Short or Long Rest.
• Darkvision: You have Darkvision with a range of 120 feet — the night-eyes of a people born to the deep jungle and the deeper places of the world.
• Relentless Endurance: When you are reduced to 0 Hit Points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 Hit Point instead. Once you use this trait, you can’t do so again until you finish a Long Rest.
• Languages: You know Colloquial and Orcish.