Orcs in Polesia
When humans first invaded the lands claimed by the Neanderthal tribes in the north, many of the Neanderthals fled before the aggressive interlopers into the most inhospitable lands imaginable where the sun hardly ever shone and there was little food aside from what could be hunted and killed. In this dark, frozen, hell the Neanderthals adapted and eventually began to thrive in various ways. Some became particularly clever and sneaky, using the race’s longstanding tradition of ambush and trapping to survive against foes many times their size, eventually becoming the first goblins. Others simply started getting bigger and stronger, hunting great beasts or their smaller kin for food, becoming the first giants and ogres. But one strain in particular thrived particularly well by learning lessons from the humans that had displaced them. Staying just out of range of the territories that the humans were willing to walk, these Neanderthals stole secrets from their rivals in swift vicious raids for which they would be remembered for thousands of years. In time these would become the orcs.
Since time immemorial orcs have been at odds with other races, their time evolving in the dark Frostlands left little room for them to grow in art in culture, with every day being a struggle for the tribes survival making survival of the fittest the rule of law. Orcs have had to do monstrous things in order to live, including cannibalism and murder. This has given them a dark reputation in the world and many look on them as mindless monsters. For some this is true, but the orcs are no more predisposed to evil than any other humanoid and there are many that actually do some good.
Nevertheless the orc are a warlike people, shaped through thousands of years of hardship and oppression. For most of this time they were confined to the north until finally their massively growing population spilled south through Iborea and into modern day Avandor and the Freedlands. There they claimed huge swaths of territory and tried to enslave the humans that lived there. However, the orcs seem to do poorly in peaceful conditions and it wasn’t long before these new nation states fell in upon themselves as anarchy ensued. The humans took advantage of this and drove the orcs out of their lands spreading their kind across Antanides so that now orcs can be found almost anywhere that humans can.
Lately they have had a greater presence in Avandor where they served as mercenary protectors and were eventually granted some lands of their own, as well as the daughters of nobles. They have even come so far as to have a half orc named Bal-Votauk by his people, and known properly as Temecleus Valadrian to the world, sitting on the throne of Avandor as the nation's legitimate king.
