Editing Magipunk:Species (section)

= Orcs =

Orcs are tall (generally a bit taller than humans), lean, bulkily-muscled humanoids. Their skin tends to be pale, and they usually have an underbite with a powerful lower jaw. Their canines approach the status of fangs, and they are undiscriminating omnivores. Orcs tend to have sparse, coarse black hair. 

For countless centuries, Orcs had been a thorn in the side of the other species. Never organized enough to band together and conquer, the warlike Orcs none-the-less preyed on settlements of Humans, Dwarves, and Elves stealing what they could, burning the rest, and viciously killing any non-Orcs they found. 

Naturally, when Humans discovered the plentiful mana they could obtain through the use of Passion, an angry and vengeful eye fell on the Orcs. 

About 60 years ago, a series of campaigns which lasted a generation began. Human armies, backed up by sorcerors wielding huge quantities of mana, launched genocidal attacks on the badlands where Orcs tended to dwell. Entire settlements were destroyed in raging infernos of magefire, and human warriors enhanced to see perfectly in the dark, wearing armor that repelled Orcish weapons infallibly, stalked through scrub-forests and boulder-fields, killing what refugees they found. Today, despite the fact that anti-Orc campaigns are much less frequent than they were a few decades ago, Orcish population is less than 5% what it was before the discovery of Passion. 

Those Orcs who have remained are changed. Living in magic-scarred landscapes, without the support of a tribal structure large enough to herd animals or tend fields, and never more than a few months from the next time a young noble with something to prove gathers up a few hundred troops and sorcerors to bring back a few more Orc heads, Orcs have become masters of stealth and survival. 

Most Orcs are now subsistance hunter-gatherers, totally nocturnal, and highly secretive. They live in small tribes, generally not more than a dozen individuals, and have a deeply ingrained dichotomous worldview. Orcs tend to be generous, faithful, and respectful, if not exactly loving, towards who they consider to be their "tribe," but horribly amoral towards everyone else. An Orc will thoughtlessly kill an innocent on the street, and betray an oath sworn on every divinity he's believed in, but would not let down a tribemember in even the most mundane detail. 

Most Orcs know a significant amount of illusion magic, and spend their lives living low to the ground and outside of notice. Despite generations of persecution, they've never developed a racial identity per se – a typical Orc will as happily rob and murder another Orc (from another tribe) as he will an invading human soldier. 

Recently, certain powerful forces within Human society have realized that Orcs are, in many ways, ideal assassins. Though Orcs are generally duplicitous towards non-tribe-members, they are not stupid, and can understand mutually profitable relationships. Accordingly, a very small number of Orcish tribes (generally very small ones) live in the city, generally as permenant retainers of an Alliance that wants some terrifying "muscle." Such Orcs are very rarely seen, but often spoken of. 

<i>Pseudo-game rules:  Orcs should get mild to fair bonuses to all the common RPG physical stats.  They are generally poorly educated, and are usually seen by humans as mildly ugly.  They have a horribly bad reputation among humans.  It would be extremely uncommon for an Orc not to have excellent stealth skills.  Most Orcs should have some kind of compulsion to behave strictly honorably and truthfully towards members of their tribe, whatever that may be.</i>

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