Who would have thought the humble orc would have gone through so many changes since first used in D&D?
Created by Tolkien for his Middle Earth cannon fodder, their use in Dungeons and Dragons made them a household name. First mentioned in the “White Box,” they were described as savage tribal creatures that live in caves or villages.
In pre-AD&D days, my orcs pretty much looked like the figures I found. Those early figs, Ral Partha I think, pretty much were the pig-faced orcs as depicted in Hildebrandt Bros. LOTR calendars, where more often than not they also seemed to wear roman centurion armor. Tolkien did not describe them as pigs, but having mentioned broad noses may have lead to the pig thing. I never really liked the pig look. James at Grognardia seems to have gone “full hog” with this “orc as pig” philosophy, making the orcs in his Dwimmermount campaign actually be boars given humanoid form. Hmm. That’s all good, but for some reason to me it seems less orc, and more like something from the old 80’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. When I picture a “boar man” it’s hard not to see it in a badly animated cartoon image in my mind. Not to say James is wrong , but that image is my least favorite as far as “What color is your orc.” Never mind that people are going to start confusing orcs with wereboars during the full moon.
Some pretty shitty orc miniatures came out in conjunction with the Ralph Bakshi animated LOTR 70’s film. In that movie the orcs were just dudes with fake tusks and caveman fur singlets, made to look pitch black and poorly rotoscoped. Bakshi even just shaded old footage of Zulu warriors from old movies for some of the orc scenes. There was some creep factor to that look, but it really made for some craptacular miniatures based on the film.
During the 80’s, orc figures evolved into a more ape-like look, and by around 1990 Warhammer 40000 continued with the green caveman meets ape look. Orcs now were becoming more thuggish than pure snarling evil as Tolkien portrayed them.
In the last several years, we have seen two newly portrayed types of orcs. There are the Peter Jackson movie orcs, which I really like. In the film, they come in all kinds, which is how Tolkien described them. Although I have not seen orc miniatures based on those films (I was semi-retired from gaming for most of the new millennium), I’m sure the look would/did translate well to miniature form. Especially those badass Uruk Hai.
Now, with the World of Warcraft generation, orcs have become something much more than the original basic primitive savage good and evil concepts. Later editions of D&D let you play pure orcs as characters, and WOW followed suite, even going so far as to make them cunning, brave, muscular heroic warriors. Wow indeed.
So my preference is for the snarling, hateful orcs of Tolkien. Orc women and children? Characters will never delve deep enough to find them. They will only continue to contend with gangs and troops of the foul beasts in caverns and dungeons of the sub-surface world. And they will continue to put them to sword and axe with a clear conscience. In my game world, orcs were born to die. And I guess in my world, they look like whatever figures I happen to have on hand (including my one remaining “pig-face” orc from the old days).
Created by Tolkien for his Middle Earth cannon fodder, their use in Dungeons and Dragons made them a household name. First mentioned in the “White Box,” they were described as savage tribal creatures that live in caves or villages.
In pre-AD&D days, my orcs pretty much looked like the figures I found. Those early figs, Ral Partha I think, pretty much were the pig-faced orcs as depicted in Hildebrandt Bros. LOTR calendars, where more often than not they also seemed to wear roman centurion armor. Tolkien did not describe them as pigs, but having mentioned broad noses may have lead to the pig thing. I never really liked the pig look. James at Grognardia seems to have gone “full hog” with this “orc as pig” philosophy, making the orcs in his Dwimmermount campaign actually be boars given humanoid form. Hmm. That’s all good, but for some reason to me it seems less orc, and more like something from the old 80’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. When I picture a “boar man” it’s hard not to see it in a badly animated cartoon image in my mind. Not to say James is wrong , but that image is my least favorite as far as “What color is your orc.” Never mind that people are going to start confusing orcs with wereboars during the full moon.
Some pretty shitty orc miniatures came out in conjunction with the Ralph Bakshi animated LOTR 70’s film. In that movie the orcs were just dudes with fake tusks and caveman fur singlets, made to look pitch black and poorly rotoscoped. Bakshi even just shaded old footage of Zulu warriors from old movies for some of the orc scenes. There was some creep factor to that look, but it really made for some craptacular miniatures based on the film.
During the 80’s, orc figures evolved into a more ape-like look, and by around 1990 Warhammer 40000 continued with the green caveman meets ape look. Orcs now were becoming more thuggish than pure snarling evil as Tolkien portrayed them.
In the last several years, we have seen two newly portrayed types of orcs. There are the Peter Jackson movie orcs, which I really like. In the film, they come in all kinds, which is how Tolkien described them. Although I have not seen orc miniatures based on those films (I was semi-retired from gaming for most of the new millennium), I’m sure the look would/did translate well to miniature form. Especially those badass Uruk Hai.
Now, with the World of Warcraft generation, orcs have become something much more than the original basic primitive savage good and evil concepts. Later editions of D&D let you play pure orcs as characters, and WOW followed suite, even going so far as to make them cunning, brave, muscular heroic warriors. Wow indeed.
So my preference is for the snarling, hateful orcs of Tolkien. Orc women and children? Characters will never delve deep enough to find them. They will only continue to contend with gangs and troops of the foul beasts in caverns and dungeons of the sub-surface world. And they will continue to put them to sword and axe with a clear conscience. In my game world, orcs were born to die. And I guess in my world, they look like whatever figures I happen to have on hand (including my one remaining “pig-face” orc from the old days).
Warhammer orcs don't even have kids, they actually spead like fungus. Just like the British to come up with something both funny and terrifying.
ReplyDeleteIn my current (make that currently on hold) game, orcs are just goblins (as are hobgoblins) - the different listings in the rulebook just reflect goblins of different size and martial ability. They are not man-like, since they are magical creations:
ReplyDeleteThe dwarves were forged at the beginning of time by Crun, the God of the Underworld, deep in his forge beneath the world's tallest mountain. Through a shaft penetrating from the peak of the mountain, Morda, the Goddess of Wisdom and Deceit, saw what Crun was doing and used her power to create goblins and trolls from the metal cast off by Crun's hammer blows. Thus, in my world, goblins are beings of pure magic and evil (and more than a little cunning). They are elemental creatures (like the dwarves and elves), virtually immortal, that do not breed. (When a goblin or similar creature is slain, it simply reforms from the shadows somewhere in the deepest, darkest parts of the underworld where it was spawned.)
Here's how I see goblins in my world, generally. (There are many variations - no two goblins look the same, and some don't share the general appearance of goblins at all).
"That’s all good, but for some reason to me it seems less orc, and more like something from the old 80’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon."
ReplyDeleteActually, they will always look like the ones from the D&D cartoon to me: Pig-faced and green. I was exposed to that show way, way before any version of the actual game. :)
James V: damn, I guess that kind of goes with the sort of humorous nature Warhammer put into them ("Whaaaaaaaawwwg! We're the Gobbos! We reproduce by spores")
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing the oldest joke in the universe is "How many orcs does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they reproduce like mold! Ar ar ar ar ar..."
Christopher:
"In my current (make that currently on hold) game..."
I been there a lot bro, for real.
My orcs are pretty much like yours, with goblins just being small orcs. Full height orcs are also sometimes called Hobgoblin, and basically my Bugbears are just bigger Uruk Hai orcs. I rarely use gnolls or kobolds, but I think of them as goblins that weird wizards experimented on in past millenium.
I have the typical "Dark Lords" who ruled thousands of years ago, and I go with the Tolkienesque thought that Dark Lords created them out of elvish flesh, corrupted and befowled.
With the elf thing in mind, I also have them be immortal (maybe just 1000 year life spans, but that is pretty immortal-light). Few survive to be hundreds of years old, but I have occasionally had an old veteran show up.
I kind of go back and forth with:
There are bloated orc women baby factories far far far beneath even the Underdark, and they can have a litter of a dozen or more infants every couple of months, or
Fakuz the orc God simply stabs his great black orc spear into the ground and hundreds of fresh orcs pop up, running down to caves to regroup.
Will: Yeah, the cartoon really went with literal translations of all the monster pics from the Monster Manual. I remember a scene that showed one of those long-nosed, spikey haired and hollow-eyed green trolls come staggering out of a tavern. Those things would not be drinking in a fucking tavern!
ReplyDeleteI do have a soft spot for the cartoon overall, though. My local library has them on DVD, so I should spend a Sunday night checking them out again.
and Orcs on Harn lay eggs. I cannot recall if they were supposed to be reptiles. But they were definitely meant to be alien having come from another dimension.
ReplyDeleteI didn't bother reading past the title. I read "orc", then recalled your thread at RPG.net regarding character alignment.
ReplyDeleteYou're a real SOB, you orc-hating fascist. Why don't you go kill some puppies, you mean ol' GM?
;)
They actually cured me over at rpg.net, Christian.
ReplyDeleteI now hate pretty girls, and give 10% if my salary to orcish charities.
I like to think of orcs as being green or at least greenish. Black orcs are darker green and more purely orcish. The more human blood there is in an orc, the less green and more naturally human-hued his skin will look.
ReplyDeleteSome have pig-noses..and others don't. Somehow I imagine an evolutionary quirk of the sort you'd find on an isolated continent like Australia. There's probably a duck-billed orc strain out there somewhere waiting to be featured on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
As for culture..just like humans it depends on many things..tribal migration, contact with other creatures, geological surroundings...just like humans.
And yeah... orcs get it on just like humans..only with more frequency and less guilt. :D
I suppose my personal opinion of orcs and their culture is based mostly on native American history, but garnished liberally with the whimsy of the sort GW annoyed us with in the eighties. I'm rather partial to the whole 'Waaagh' and 'Ere-we-go!' silliness.
But that's the great thing about fantasy. Imagining is believing. Everything else is just overinformed gobbledygook.
I have two colors of orcs in my world, grey skinned orcs that are shorter (5'7"-5'10") and very thickly built, and green skinned orcs that are taller (6'-6'6") and thinner. The grey orcs spend most of their time underground, have underslung jaws with big tusks and almost non-existent noses that are really just two holes in their backwards sloping faces. They breed like crazy in their warrens, they have a highly militaristic society and when their population swells to ridiculous numbers they ride their horned lizards en masse to rape, pillage, die in glory or return with treasure. They suffer penalties in the sunlight. The green orcs may have hill giant blood in their past (but don't say that to their face), they have a kind of Scottish meets Mongolian flavor, they wear kilts and big floppy brimmed hats made out of straw, their clans travel around the highlands, living in yurts and riding giant dogs. They don't fear the sun as much and suffer no penalties while wearing their hats. They don't breed as fast but are much more fearsome combatants.
ReplyDelete