Orcs

Once the tribal denizens of the western jungles, orcs have proliferated through out the continent thanks, in no small part, to the intervention of the elves. Known for their lean musculature, relatively short lifespan, and a universal propensity for violence, the average orc stands between 6 and 7 foot tall with piggish slited noses, pronounced lower tusk like canine teeth, and skin hues ranging from pale orange to vibrant green. The orcs have played a pivotal role throughout the history of Teiravon, but to understand the orcs one must first understand their primitive roots; their now almost forgotten tribal origins with its rich culture of ritual and simple but expressive language. Few modern orcs still keep these traditions but fewer still would deny they beat at the heart of orc kind.

Each tribe will have its chieftain, the boss orc who is both law-bringer and foremost among their hunters. A chieftain must be cunning and strong to have won his position and stronger still to hold it as he ages. Second to the chieftain is the tribe's spiritual leader the shaman, tapping into unseen forces to advise the chieftain on matters of the "wyrd" (weird); a concept most closely tied to that of destiny, fate, or divine will. Beyond these two are the hunting pack, both the males who won the tribe with their chieftain and the majority of the females of the tribe.

Orcs tend to birth litters of offspring, they will reach their sexual maturity around their 5th year of life and in the wild are not often seen to live beyond the age of 25 as their biological fitness begins to decline. Modern orcs not tied to their ancestral tribal lives have been known to live to ages around 50 or 60 not infrequently, though males still often have an almost preternatural knack for dying young in combat. Young males of a tribe upon reaching their sexual maturity will be driven from the tribe into the surrounding jungles between the territories of the tribes.

Often these young orcish brothers band together into raiding bands attacking neighboring tribes, these young orcish raiding gangs will if possible, kill the chieftain of a neighboring tribe and take their place, forming the ruling class of their new tribe. The males and elderly females of the tribe will defend themselves against such raids, losing such raids will mean the death of their males, young or old.

A newly conquered tribe will now consist of the raiding males and the females of the previous tribe, the chieftain will waste little time in repopulating the dead young. While failed raiding parties will continue to roam further and further away from their native territory, searching for untamed hunting grounds or weaker tribes. It is these marauding parties that would often be seen harrying the western most edges of civilization, attacking trade caravans and frontiersmen.

This pattern of tribal expulsion and conquest is the typical cycle of life for an orcish tribe, however there is another rarely seen phenomena when a tribe is abutted only by the successful conquest of its neighbors. The whelped chieftains do not forget their patriarch who now stands at the center of territory conquered by his offspring and in some cases will assume a form of governance over these neighbors rather than squabbling for territorial control. This super-structure is known as a Horde and its prime chieftain known as the Warboss. Warbosses are well named in so forming a horde is always a precursor to a brutal sweeping campaign of conquest to expand their territories and consume the surrounding tribes. Some research speculates that this ensures the best possible lineage proliferates across the population as a horde will expand as far as it is able, killing off lesser chieftains and absorbing their tribes into the horde. A horde will typically persist until the death of its Warboss, at which point the heirs to the title will shatter the horde in squabbling power grabs and new territorial demarcations will be drawn as previous familial bonds are forgotten in the pursuit of that title.

Keen Edge

They seemed the obvious candidate, orcs were far more prolific breeders than elves could ever hope to be, in the time it would take an elf to reach sexual maturity three generations of orcs could be born. So it was that following the elven success with the Tenrimere project, experimentation began on applying what they had learned to the Orcs. There was of course a problem, no elf had ever seen an orcish female, nor had they ever seen any of their tribal culture, a camp, a fort, no sign of orcish civilization what so ever. The only contact the elves had with orcs was those raiding parties cast out who never found a tribe of their own. But the elves noted a fresh wave of these orcish raiders every 5 years or so and thus could readily mark the frequency of their population growth.

Having recently closed the nearby quarry, the abandoned facility made a perfect base of operations for the experiments. The only difficulty was in securing a breeding pair as all initial attempts had be rather savagely repelled; orcs were well experienced in repelling raiding parties. At last however the Tenrimere researchers succeeded in luring away the defenders from a recently wounded encampment and stealing away their young. These 5 would make the first generation and from them, the male and female specimen who would go on to be the progenitors of all future Keen Edge orcs. But first, they would need to be tested for their aptitudes and propensities. The new orcs would require a strong foundation to build future generations on. A series of challenges was devised to exemplify the traits that were to be selected for. Loyalty, Obedience, Wisdom, Strength, Honor. These would be what orcs would be come to known for, but not without sacrifice.

The exact methodology was not well recorded, perhaps due to fears the research would fall into the wrong hands or perhaps some sense of shame over the proceedings. What ever the reason, the next several decades continued the research uninterrupted until at last the process was deemed a success and the small gladiatorial arena had grown into a fully realized settlement, one which would now be left a ghost town as the newly trained army of Keen Edge marched to their new home as the guardians of Tenrimere's future.

Bloodrage

What was done once could be repeated. Though they lacked the precise methodology, the Sidereal elves needed to tip the balance of power back away from Tenrimeren hands. Having been cast out of their new empire the Sidereal elves had no choice but to seek out extreme measures. And so in the depths of the pit they found the secret facilities which had been used to create Tenrimere's beloved Keen Edge monstrosities. The very idea of elevating these crude quasi sapient creatures to the stature of the elves horrified and nauseated those elves left behind by the process, but they were not above setting them to a more suitable purpose. What these creatures needed was not nobility and wisdom, but raw visceral savagery. The kind of savagery that would be wielded like a jagged axe buried in the heart of the Celestial Elves newfound empire.

Strength, Guile, Brutality, it did not matter how they won in the arena but only victory mattered. Those who won would birth the next population to fight against their brethren and cousins. The methodology was crude and the duration was nothing close to the time Celestial elves had spent honing the orcs into a finely crafted blade, but craftsmenship was not the aim of the Sidereals. They were whelping war dogs not distilling fine wine. With each generation they became more embittered in their circumstance, a bitterness and anger that their sidereal captors did nothing to dissuade but did take steps to direct at their own enemies, the hated Tenrimere.

It's uncertain how exactly the Bloodrage became unleashed as no living sidereal elf saw it occur. What is clear however is that they had succeeded in the worst way possible. Their former facility was razed and all those taking part in overseeing their cruel experiments were slaughtered. Having conquered their captors, the first of what would be a new blood line set out and spread as a terrible savage plague sweeping through their former jungle homelands and crushing any tribe in opposition, and when their numbers teemed in the hundreds or perhaps thousands, the screaming horde set their sights upon the seat of celestial power, Alcarin.

Long Tusks

Not every orc was caught up in the elves breeding programs. Whether luck of isolation or deliberate flight, some tribes stayed true to their origins. These tribes came to be known as the Long Tusks. Though the disparate orcish tribes still held to their roots, they each took the Long Tusk appellation as a mark of pride among those who considered themselves "untamed". Some tribes have formed alliances with nearby settlements; the largest of these are Myeara's Crossing and Frostbay. While these alliances seem stable (for orcs), they resemble the formation of a Horde.

With the dwindling numbers of "true" orcs, their raiding traditions have mellowed. While leaders are still killed by raiders, the defeat of the ruling class is no longer a guarantee of genocide. With the loss of so much "old blood", traditional tribes prefer eliminating Bloodrage tribes rather than their Long Tusked brethren.