Illarion's Orcs

[Talaena Landessi]

Ive just recently ready the moonsilver description of orcs and im quite amazed with how different they are played IG.

Just wondering if anyone has read the orc information on moonsilver.
How many orc players have read it? Becouse i dont think ive seen one orc ever played like how moonsilver describes them as.

[Gort Greegog]

I have read them. Orcs are not rped exactly to that. That isent as much fun one would say. Thoe read the human one and compare humans to moonsilver. Also remember there is no large orc community ig right now. Moonsilver neglects orcs that have no tribe or horde. I have noticed the more orc players there are the closer all orcs seem to get to Moonsilver. I think these are all the semi-active/active orcs.(sorry bout bad names or if your left out)

Hu
Gabon
Kl'urk
Retlak(sort of)
Ku'agor
Gort

[Talaena Landessi]

wasnt trying to bash no one. I like the rp but i never read it before (dont really play orcs) and it surprised be how different they acted

[Samantha Meryadeles]

Moonsilver is outdated. This here is a more accurate and fitting information about the races:

http://halik.ha.funpic.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=70

also this information is not unmportant:

2.3 Orcs
Worshipped Deities:
- Brágon
- Malachín
- Zhambra
- Moshran
- Cherga

The orcish religion—if one dares dub it such, for there are no churches or any solid structure devoted to it—sees life as a cycle: Birth, growth, hunt, battle, death.

Spring is the birth of the year and the growth, summer is the time of the great hunts and the wars. Orcish tribes condone wargames amongst eachother during summertime, and many rather rough sport disciplines originate from orcish traditions. The tribes meet regularly at these games, and female orcs choose their men. Autumn is the time of gathering and hunting, and in winter is the time of the frost cold of the "icy witch", as the orcs oftenly name Cherga.

The world of Illarion too finds itself in this cycle. It was once created by the Gods out of bordeom, and thereupon the races were created and thrown upon it like dice, in order to evaluate who of them would be worthy of existance. Some of the dice and casting bones are regarded by some of the tribes as sacred relics.

The orcs hold their ancestors in honor. Wise councilors or leaders and mighty warriors are buried in "ancestral caves" upon death. The skull of the deceased is kept in a stone niche, directly above his body, which is kept in a niche immediately underneath the other. Casting bones are crafted from his fingerbones and they are oftenly placed next to the skull, with the reason of being able to inquire with the dead. By these means, orcish spirit summoners can ask the tribe's ancestors for advice or honor them.

Malachin is a God of hunt and battle to the orcs. Brágon is the sunbringer, lifegiver, and purge of all impurity and weakness. Zhambra is the "Brother-God"; he is called upon to slight quarrels or to close blood oaths (e.g. bloodsbrothership or highly binding, sacred oaths). Cherga is the Guardian of the Dead, who carries the dead into the lands of the ancestors. And Moshran is the warbringer, who will deliver untameable battle frenzy to a warrior who has wisely sacrificed to him. However, he is also considered to be very fickle and easy to enrage—this is the reason why many orcs prefer to pray to Malachin before an impeding battle, because in a battle frenzy of Moshran it is normally impossible to differentiate between friend and foe.

In a spiritual sense, the strength of the soul is reflected by a strong body and spirit, and counts means alot to the orcs.

In the orcish mythology, Cherga escorts the dead through the nothing, the eternal rift between the worlds, into the land of the ancestors. If an orc has defeated many enemies in battle and was strong in his lifetime, his reputation there will be vast, and his ancestors will honor him. He will have many servants and slaves, and the woman will love him. If he was weak and cowardly, he will spend his time there as a servant, perhaps even as a servant of a human, halfling, or dwarf.


2.3.1 Fire Orcs
Worshipped Deities:
-Brágon
-Malachín
-Zhambra

The Orcs of the Flame date back to the time of the orc crusades, when many orcs came into capture by elves and sometimes by humans, and acquired much knowledge from the other races. As ridiculous as this may sound at first, these generations have a creed that is a mixture of the traditional orcish, human and elven traditions; however they worship only those Gods to which they pray for redemption.

Fire orcs consider themselves a sort of orcish paladin. They dwell in the sweltering hot, somewhat volcanic areas of the Norbuk high plateau within stone fortresses. Their settlements consist mostly of square stone houses, hewn from basalt and granite from the mountains. They live in a society of almost military-like organization, and they could be deemed fanatic in their battle against all "impurity" (with which every demonic being or evil follower of Moshran is meant). Their creed unites human, elven, and orcish traditions:

As such they believe that every being is reborn so many times as necessary until it reaches perfection. Thus, perfection must be attained in life: Perfection of body, spirit, and society. For this reason, Fire orcs very rarely leave their fortresses, because they regard all other forms of societies (amazingly enough, the traditional elven settlements are the exception) as imperfect, and as such, harmful for body and spirit. Already from childhood on, they train their body in battle equally to their spirit in riddles, religion, poetry, and philosophy.

Just like the elvenkind, they believe that long ago the world was created by the elder five Gods, and that the eleven younger Gods were once mortals who attained absolute perfection.

They regularly indulge in trade with other races and tribes and guard the entrances to the high plateau. They ally with their "wild" brothers, the orcish clans, whenever injustices cause quarrel and strife between the tribes. Sometimes they even serve as diplomats to represent the interests of a tribe or their fortresses with other races.

Their religious views are considered to be slightly "goofy, hur hur" by the other tribes, although every one of these monks and paladins garners enormous respect from those tribes at the same time. In the eyes of the other tribes, they are the chosen children of Brágon.

A Fire orc will take any chance the Gods offer him to return to the world, should he face untimely demise. This is why their kind erects many altars in the lands, while they attempt to bring civilization to their "wild" brothers and to commission them at the same time. Sometimes it can happen that an outcast orc who managed to survive in wilderness for long enough is taken into their ranks after long trials, teachings and indoctrinations—these sorts oftenly have the tendency to orive themselves in the eyes of the Gods and their new brothers, and travel the world to commit heroic deeds.

Fire orcs believe that upon death they stand before the "Tribunal of Eternity". Brágon will discern whether they lived for the purpose of the Holy Flame or not. Malachin will determine whether they fought honorfully or disciplined. And Zhambra will weigh out whether they were loyal to their friends and obedient to their leaders or not. Then the three do council, and impart judgement upon him. If he failed their expectations, he must return to the world of Illarion, to try his luck there again—his time has not yet come, because he has yet more tasks to complete. Should he have failed with complete intention and have acted out of despise, he shall be punished or even immolated and molten by the Eternal Flame to return being used in the cycle of nature. Should he have met the expectations, he may enter the afterlife, to camp there and drink with old friends. And after many centuries of celebrating and carouse they can return together to the world, to continue striving for perfection.


2.3.2 Blood Orcs
(Note: This is not a religious description! This has yet to be extracted and placed within the racial descriptions of orcs as a supplemental.)

- For the religion, refer to normal orcs.

The Blood orcs usually possess hardly any intelligence whatsoever. They dwell upon the world only as bloodthirsty fighting machines, whose sole purpose consists of shedding as much blood in battle as utmost possible—from the moment on when their comrades release them from their chains. One might add, they are completely indifferent about whether the blood is from friend or from foe when this occurs. In a battle, they are normally simply turned in a certain direction and told "Kill THERE." They hardly understand anything more than just that.
Blood orcs are orcish kin that are "stuck" in a battle frenzy. The most of them deem this a curse, some however see it as a blessing. Their life span is most oftenly very short, because at practically every occasion they leap wildly into battle and are put into the first rows by their kin.
They live in a nearly constant battle frenzy and are barely capable of forming a single clear thought. They give in completely to their instincts or are even downright controlled by them. Some of those who were even too wild for their own tribes, are either constantly chained down like watchdogs, or live free like predators out in the wilderness.

The "philosophy" of a Blood orc—which only surfaces in very calm times, as when such a subject is even capable of forming any thought—is to either kill as many enemies as possible, or attempt to become "normal" again. That is the entire compass of their "religion": They either pray to Cherga for their heated temper to cool down, or to Zhambra, so that he allows them to recognize their friends; or they pray to Moshran, so that he lets them die in a glorious battle and quantifies their blood rush to such astonishing heights that they can sow death among countless enemies.
A former orcish general who was "stuck" in a blood rush and thus became a Blood orc, was said to have spoken the following in one of his calm moments:

"I think not, for I am dead already. From my axe drips the blood of the slain, and in my burning veins pulses pure fury of Gods. I pray for redemption from this pain and from this— DON'T STARE AT ME LIKE THAT— RRRAAAAARRGH !"

Blood orcs who "survived" this state of constant frenzy and brought their instincts back under control, most oftenly only succeeded therein with under the guidance and aid of a shaman, warlock, or healer.

[Cassandra Fjurin]

Moonsilver is outdated. This here is a more accurate and fitting information about the races:

http://halik.ha.funpic.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=70

LoL sorry... in my eyes this is nearly the same bullshit like moonsilver. Not the information they are good. But Why.... why are this informations on hp's or cummunits which have absolutely nothing to do with illarion. This are information whicht should be added to the mainpage. When i look at the link the last think i think about it, that this is background information about illarion. So the infos are useless.

[Samantha Meryadeles]

Ask that the one who makes the mainpage. I think too all that background informations should be somewhere on the mainpage.

[Ku 'Agor]

I do try not to make Ku too bloodthirsty, but he's only as tolerant as I am. I bark for awhile until OOC I've gotten fed up and start to do some #mes.

The one thing about the orc page we DO NOT DO is the not-bloodthisty, as stated above. And Hu does a terrific job of showing a non-bloodthirsty orc since all he is is a smith, not a combat artist.

[Nitram]

I don't think all background informations should be on the website.

Maybe short summaries.

But the full, detailt informations (of the RP Background) should be in books IG.

[Dónal Mason]

Hooray, so people have to have a character to learn to RP the races correctly!

GENIUS!

[Nitram]

i talked about RP Backgrounds and not about guides -.-

[Gort Greegog]

@Samanthas important info.

Culture does not always remain the same through time.