some thoughts on orcs

Well, after generations of being cannon-fodder for whatever dark power blew through Middle Earth, I think theirs would be a highly militaristic society, valuing survival above all else. (You can read the division between the Uruk-hai and the snaga as Spartan citizens vs. helots, which is a parallel I like.)

Worship of Morgoth (who is father to orcs as Aule is father to dwarves) generally varies with proximity to Mordor—Mordor orcs tend to be fervent, almost religious crusaders, encouraged as they are by Sauron. (Since Sauron, as disciple of Morgoth, can paint himself as the natural successor and leader of the orcs.) But in most of the orcish kingdoms outside of Mordor it’s a matter of knowing which of your grandsires fought for Morgoth, and leaving a cutting of your meat in the place you ate it, as an offering.

(flesh for flesh, repaying a debt—plus as subsistence farmers, scavengers, and cave dwellers, offering something as rich and strength-giving as meat is true a sacrifice.)

(Contrary to what other races think, they do actually have social taboos against cannibalism, though it’s more frowned on than actually forbidden or unthinkable. They haven’t ever really known plenty, they’re not going to turn their noses up at something edible in times of crisis.)

(…I also have some thoughts about how the orcs could live in Moria with a Balrog a couple floors down, and the weirdo fringe-cult that would give birth to, but that’s for another time.)

I like the idea that while they don’t have poetry like the elves do, they’ve got a lot of marching-songs, lots of repeated verses and rhythms you can bang swords against shields to. Maybe not melodies in the way we think of them, but rhythms, beats—the orcs are definitely the drummers of the Middle Earth music scene.

There’s even less sexual dimorphism in orcs than there is in dwarves, which means that gender roles are basically not a thing. A while ago I kind of got stuck on this idea of orcs reproducing like seahorses, with complicated courting rituals—though generally centered around displays of violence instead of underwater ballet. (I got attached to this idea of play-fighting, that in order to “win” your mate you have to prove both of you are strong enough to deserve each other. If either of you gains the upper hand, then you’re not well-matched and you have to find some other mate. This leads to a lot of very strong orcish warriors suddenly going “ooh ah my ankle!” bc the loser from the next cave over wants to mate with you this season, and he can’t if you’re not just as aggressively into it as he is.)

Males incubating eggs as the females prepare the new clutch would also explain the extremely high rates of reproduction, even without Sauron’s genetic experiments.

Orcs mature much faster than men or elves, but they do have an infantile stage—fat sallow babies whose teeth come in too fast and sharp. Because of the almost incessant warfare, they are generally raised away from whatever front the orcs are fighting on, with other orchish young. An orcish child may see their sire and dam only once or twice in their whole life, if that.

(The orcish Oedipus Rex has a much happier ending: everyone dies on a battlefield.)

There are also some half-orc-half-men running around, but no one really wants to talk about it.