Description

Athasian orcs average 6 and a half feet tall, and weigh between 180 and 200 pounds. They usually have grey or ochre skin, and their hair is often black, but red and sandy-brown hair is also possible. Orcish eyes are often blue, black, orange, or steel-gray, and they usually live as long as humans.

Orcs traditionally wear their hair short and protected by hoods or similar head-dresses, and silt-faring orcs often wear masks to protect themselves against airborne dust.

Culture

Orcs take great pride in their clans and have a deep reverence for their ancestors. With age comes experience and wisdom, but ambition and youthful enthusiasm are also valued. The balance between those two aspects is the key to orcish philosophy about survival. In orcish culture, survival lies in making successful trades, and trustworthiness is a virtue that customers appreciate - though being able to defend their business is also a virtue. As a result of these values, many orcs gravitate towards lawful alignments, with the majority being Lawful Neutral.

Orcs love comfortable yet colourful clothes, and they have a strong penchant for head-dresses, usually decorated with the symbols of the house and their lineage. As a people of traders, they have access to a vast array of materials, ranging from common ones such as bone, obsidian, chitine, stone, and leather, to the rarest of materials like metals and crystals. The most influential members of the wealthiest orc houses use metal jewelry as status symbols, often adorning their head-dresses with finely-wrought, gem-encrusted metal jewelry.

Orcs make great use of wind-powered vehicles to travel across both sand and silt, and tend to decorate them with trophies and mementos of their personal achievements (for example, the sand sled of an orc warrior might have trophies from the enemies she defeated, while the one belonging to a priest might have images from orcish mythology and oral tradition). This trend also extends to orcs’ buildings, which are often portable structures, and sometimes even psionically empowered. In addition to the trophies and mementos, orcish buildings are also frequently decorated with images displaying the history of the house and its members.

As orcs travel and trade all across the dunes and the Sea of Silt, they are a common enough sight in many of the city states, even in those that are far from the Silt Sea. Orcs are likely to be found in any city, town, or village on market days, buying and selling goods in a stall, on a rug, or even in a small trade emporium.

“Dead people seal no deals” is a popular orcish proverb, and this philosophy guides their interactions with others. Orcs prefer negotiating to fighting whenever possible. They are more than capable of defending themselves when necessary, but most orcs will simply smile, casually caress the hilt of their weapon, and propose a deal when threatened.

Orcs have a rich oral tradition, composed of ancestral stories, poetry, epic songs, and ballads. They have a deep love of such spoken art forms, and it is not unusual for orcs to hold poetry or singing contests, and think nothing of discussing a little business between performances. These competitions are often held on important occasions when lineages and houses come together and celebrate, such as births, marriages, or other family milestones.

While orcs do have a written language, they usually avoid narrative writing and rarely transcribe their poetry and songs. Instead, they use written words for more practical uses such as taking down inventories and recipes, or communicating with trading partners. As a result, orcish writing tends to be blunt and straight to the point, making their few examples of written literature vastly inferior to their oral traditions.

Magic & Religion

Orcs treat magic and psionics as just more resources to make use of, even if arcane magic does require caution. They do not reject defiling in principle, but instead see preserving magic as being more likely to maintain their good reputations with their customers. Orcs usually reserve arcane magic for private use, employing it to allow faster communication between the houses, and between the Princes and the Elders of the various houses and lineages. It is also employed for military and defensive use.

Orcs use psionics far more widely than arcane magic, regularly using the Way in public and employing it to augment their vehicles, allowing them to travel faster and more safely through both silt and sandy terrain. The finest orcish craft even include memory crystals that function as recording devices, each capable of holding millions of words worth of information, all accessible with but a thought.

This usage also applies to their architecture: orcs often psionically enhance their buildings, allowing them to be folded and transported easily if need arises. Orcs have also developed a psionic power they call Swim in Silt (see below), which they use to traverse sand and silt safely and quickly.

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Swim in Silt

Discipline: Psychometabolism (Devotion)
Power Score: Con -2
Range: Self
Area of Effect: Individual
PSP Cost: 5/2
Prerequisite: Body Equilibrium
Preparation Time: None
This devotion allows the psionicist to treat silt and sand as water, and to swim or otherwise move through it at a speed equal to their land speed (their ability to swim in water has no effect on the manifester’s ability to move though silt and sand while the power is active). They also gain the ability to breathe silt, sand, and dust with no ill effects for the duration of the power.
While submerged, the psionicist has cover from the surface, can see up to five feet away, and knows the general location of other creatures under the sand or the silt (but not those on the surface or simply touching it) in a radius of thirty feet. Submersion beneath sand provides cover, while submersion in silt provides concealment, based on how submerged the psionicist is.
If the power ends when the psionicist is still submerged in sand, they are expelled to the surface at the beginning of their turn; if it ends when they are submerged in silt, they have one round to reach a solid surface or they will sink beneath the silt as normal.

Power Score: The psionicist can move through silt and sand 1.5x times faster, and also knows the general location of creatures or vehicles on the surface within a thirty foot radius.

20: The psionicist loses the ability to breathe air for 1d4+1 rounds or until they successfully activate the power.

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Orcs practice a unique form of elemental worship in which they revere their ancestors, who they believe have merged with elemental Earth or paraelemental Silt. They prefer to bury their dead in the earth or a nearby body of silt, though those orcs whose deeds have been judged extraordinary enough are given the privilege of being buried in the holy ground of Luthica itself. The most respected orcish priests are called Keepers of the Holy Ground, and are usually Earth or Silt priests. They teach that prosperity lies in keeping oneself grounded, but at the same time moving to new opportunities. Keepers of the Holy Ground are treated as honorary members of all houses equal in rank to an elder, traveling from house holding to house holding to bring news and educate the young.

Law and Society

Orcs are divided into large clans called houses. Orcish houses are ruled by elected or hereditary leaders called Princes, who are bound to uphold the laws and decisions voted on by the house elders. Princes must work for the prosperity of their house above all other concerns. Decisions affecting the whole of the house must be discussed and approved by the house elders; any orc in a house older than 40 years is automatically considered an elder.

Orcs families are called lineages. Tradition demands that upon reaching the age of 12 years, every orc be fostered in another lineage of the house, both to help them find a mate and to promote internal unity in the House. Lineage leaders are the eldest in the lineage, called Matriarchs or Patriarchs, and they are considered firsts among peers in regards to their fellow elders of the house. It is the council of patriarchs and matriarchs who elects the house’s prince when the need arises.

Elected for life by the Council of Princes, the High King of the Orcs is the arbiter and supreme judge among the orcs, tasked with mediating disputes between the various orc houses and designated the keeper of the holy land of Luthica. The current High King is Gruran III of the House of Gruran (High Kings traditionally rule with their House name as their regnal name). The king is assisted by a council of elders, each nominated from among the house’s elders. While high kings are expected to favour their houses, they must do so in a way which is also advantageous for the orc nation as a whole. This is a delicate job, and the Council of Princes has deposed unfair or unsubtle high kings in the past.

Orc PC Stats

2e

Ability Score Requirements: STR 6/16, DEX 3/16, CON 6/18, INT 10/18, WIS 3/12, CHA 8/18
Ability Score Adjustment: +1 CHA, +1 WIS
Size: Medium
Speed:30
Racial HP Adjustment: +1
Classes & Level Caps: Fighter 11, Cleric 11, Shaman 6, Thief 15, Psionicist 10, Wizard 10
Class Combinations: Fighter/Shaman, Fighter/Thief, Shaman/Thief, Fighter/Cleric, Fighter/Psionicist, Thief/Wizard
Language Choices: Anattan, Balican, Common, Elven, Giantish, and Orcish
Vision: Infravision up to 30 feet
Resistances:
* Charm: Orcs are 50% resistant to charm-related spells. Even if they fail a check, they get the save usual for such spells.
* Suffocation: Orcs can safely breathe silt-filled air for a time, ignoring the effects of the Gray Death and similar effects (dust storms, etc.) for their Constitution score in rounds before they must breathe fresh air (though they may begin to hold their breath as normal, if necessary). This does not, however, confer the ability to breath when submerged in silt.

3.5e

Medium Size: Orcs are Medium size, and have no bonus nor penalties for their size
Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Charisma, +2 Wisdom. Orcs are silver tongued and savvy
Base Land Speed: 40ft
Low-Light Vision: Orcs can see twice as far as humans in low light conditions
Strong Mind: Orcs gain a +2 on saves against mind-affecting effects
Silter: Orcs may safely breathe silt-filled air for a time, ignoring the effects of the Gray Death and similar effects (dust storms, etc.) for a number of rounds equal to 3x their Constitution score before they must again fresh air (though they may begin to hold their breath as normal, if necessary). This does not, however, confer the ability to breath when submerged in silt.
Bonus Feat: Orcs gain Die Hard as a bonus feat at 1st level
Languages: Orcs can speak a local trade tongue (usually Common in the Tablelands and Anattan on the eastern side of the Sea of Silt) and Orcish. Orcs with high intelligence bonus can also learn: Balican, Elven, Giant, and Nikaal.
Favored Class: Rogue

4e

Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 8 squares
Vision: Low-light
Languages: Common, Orcish
Skills: +2 Persuasion, +2 Survival
Traits:
* Charismatic Athlete: You may substitute your Charisma modifier for your Strength modifier when making Athletics skill checks.
* Child of the Silt: You never suffer the effects of airborne silt or dust; this does not protect you from the effects of suffocation or grant the ability to breathe when submerged in a body of silt.
* Strong Willed: You gain a +1 to your Will Defense against Mindaffecting effects.

5e

Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Wisdom and Strength scores both increase by 1.
Age. Orcs mature at the same rate as humans, and live as long, but they often stay strong and healthy even in old age.
Size. Athasian orcs are tall and well-muscled. They average 6 to 7 feet in height and tend to weigh around 150 pounds. Your size is medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Born Negotiator. You gain proficiency in Intimidate and Persuasion. You also have advantage on Insight checks.
Strong Willed. You have advantage on saving throws against fear, charm, and mind control.
Child of the Silt: Orcs never risk suffocation caused by airborne silt or dust.
Languages. You can speak Common and Orcish. Orcish is a guttural but oddly elegant language, and an orc usually speaks other languages with the same flourish.