The Orcs are a nomadic herding tribe, that travels through the steppes,
northwest of the Muscovite Empire.
Society[]
Structure[]
Eack Orcish tribe is divided in three equally important parts, the Goat Herders, the Lizard Herders and the Forgers.
Goat Herders are responsible for keeping the Svaldbard Goats, providing food for the tribe, either by slaying goats or hunting, and pack and unpack the tribe when it is about to settle or change location. Apart from the goats they are responsible for keeping the tribes horses and any other animals, other than the Lizards.
Lizard Herders are responsible for tending the Opium Lizards and the opium production. The production of Opium is a very involving job and thus the Lizard Herders have no other responsibility.
Forgers are all kinds of smiths or forgers. They are responsible for building the tents as soon as the tribe settles, and provide the tribe with tools and materials. They also use the opium to create magic items for the tribe. The Svaldbard forest is sacred to the Orc tribes. It is the habitat of the Svaldbard Goats and the retreating place of the Orc Goatmothers for many years.
Wherever a tribe settles they setup their tents and around them they built high, wooden, fences, defining at least three different areas, one for the Forgers, one for the Goat Herders and one for the Lizard Herders. Of course largest tribes create multiple enclosures. A sign of strength and wealth in Orc tribes is the attempt to built those enclosures so that they share as few walls as possible. When more than one tribes meet they usually erect a larger common tent among their structures, then cram their enclosures around it to protect it from the winds of the steppes.
A sign of rank and strength among Orcs are the decorative chains they hng from their shoulders, each bearing one or more solid golden balls.
Svaldbard Goats Herding[]
The Orcs use the Svaldbard Goats as pack animals, wool, milk and meat sources. The beasts' ability to fulfill all those roles, travel through difficult terrain and survive in many different climates makes them extremely important to the Orcish tribes.
Opium[]
The Orcs are the only race in the known world that holds the secret for the production of Opium. They remove it from the back of the Opium Lizards that they herd. The Lizards sweat the substance when exposed to the sun, as part of their metabolism of meat.
The Orcs gather the Opium and use it widely, mainly for the construction of magic items.
Opium Road[]
The Opium Road is the main migration route of the Orcs, The route takes them from the south part of the Zeng coastline to the outskirts of Svaldbard forest, across the Northwestern Steppe.
Religion
Goat Mothers[]
Certain female Orcs, when their children grow up and do not need them anymore, leave their tribe and enter the forest, where they assume the sacred role of a Goatmother. {C}When a Goatmother enters the forest for the first time, she is followed by most of her tribe, who built a hut for her, and a traditional wooden circular stool, cut from the bark of an ancient dead tree, which is placed in front of the hut. The Goat Mothers are very respected and feared figures, and although their role is critical to the survival of the tribe most Orcs feel at least uncomfortable in their presence.
Every year, when the tribes arrive to the outskirts of the forest, at the northernmost part of the Opium Road, several young warriors enter the forest and search for packs of female Goats that are about to give birth. When the youngsters are born, the Orcs take them (slaying the overprotective mother when necessary) and bring them to one of their tribe's Goatmothers in the forest. The Mother takes the young goats and suckles them for as long as possible, until her tribe returns again to the outskirts of the of the forest after 5-8 years. Then she gives them the adult, tamed goats, who have by then been fed only Orc milk and are completely accustomed to the smell of the Orcs and receive in return opium and other goods.
Other than taming the goats the Mothers are also the tribe's wise women, witches, healers and soothsayers.
They are also brought the dead Orcs of the tribe and sometimes bodies of slain enemies, which they bury in holes cut into the forests peat floor, keeping only the skulls which they clean and decorate around their stool. {C}Most Goatmothers are practically insane from the long years of solitude in the forest and some are very dangerous, but many are very keen, smart and helpful. It all depends on how the long years of solitude in the dark forest, among feral goats, large amounts of opium and piles of skulls affect each female’s character. {C}When a Goat mother dies, she is never touched or visited again and her body is left sitting on her stool. Such abandoned huts, with decomposing bodies of Goat Mothers, sitting on their stools, surrounded by skull piles, are not an uncommon view in Svaldbard.
Ancestor worship[]
When the skulls take their place on the pile, the dead await the death of the Goatmother herself, who will lead them across the misty afterlife, flying upon her wooden stool. According to them, the Aurora Borealis lights that fly above the Goat Forest, are the trails of dead Goatmothers, who lead their dead away. On those nights the Orcs do not leave their tent for fear the Goatmother might think they are dead too and steal them away.
The skulls of enemies that the Orcs slew are sometimes brought to the Goatmothers too, in the belief that they will follow and serve their killers in the afterlife. The Goat forest has several undead infections but the places where the dead Goatmothers rot upon their stool are always safe havens from any undead activity.
Licurzepka[]
Licurzepka
is a mythical figure of Orc legends. She is the first Goat Mother according to some. She mainly feature, as a well-meaning, yet scary character in Orc fairy tales. According to tales she commands the paths of the Svaldbard forest, which lead to where she wants them to. She is also the protector of all Goat Mother, and their unofficial godess.
Licurzepka is the subject of many nursery rhymes, with the following being most prominent among them:
Licurzepka sits on her stool, on her lake island Licurzepka has four paths from her lake home The green will take her to her garden whose plants she taught to steal The blue will take her to her well Whose waters she taught to speak The yellow will take her to the bog whose moss she keeps at bay The red will take her to her hive with the bees she stole from hell.
History[]
Early History[]
The Orcish civilization dates back to at least 2500 years. Since the dawn of their civilization they have been nomadic tribes, travelling across the Opium Road.
The Golden Horde[]
Around the years 900-905 the Orcs gathered under the banner of an unkown chieftain and formed the Golden Horde. They marched south and by the year 910 the Golden Horde had reached the Muscovite border. Chosing the protectin of the roads above the safety of the realm, the Emperor allowed the Horde to march across the Kaphari mountains, reaching the eastern foothill of the mountains. The emperor allowed the Orcs to settle in the mountains and since mercenaries were always in need to patrol the Great Western Roads, the Emperor allowed them to hold and guard the mountain passes, aknoeldging their right to charge tolls without obliging them to pay a tribute. The Horde though had cut the empire in half. The Feudal Lords south of the Kaphari, controlling over half of the Roads soon withdraw their alliance from the Emperor, who is unable to react, since the Horde seperates him from the autonomists. Finally, by 955 the Golden Horde had effectivelly been dispersed. Most of the Orcs have sought employement close to Feudal Lords and many have joined the Zengian Guard, an elite, well paid force, that acted as personal Guard to the Emperor.
many of the Orcs, though, never joined the Horde and retained their nomadic lifestyle upon the Opium Road.
The Shaman[]
In 1300 a mysterious figure leading figure, known as the Shaman, manages to turn many orcs to the worship of a God (one he connectes with Asvid and Humnir). The remnants of the Golden Horde are reunited under him and begin a northbound migration. The move is known as Magar Nach Nordu (the Step to the North). Their passage through the lands of the Muscovite empire is peaceful, as they even avoid using the local produce for sustenance.
In the North the Shaman lead the Orcs north to a place where he claims God revelaed to him a sacred mound of the Prophet Dvalin. They find the structure, battle and defeat the native Fomorians, and establish the City of Cherdyn, around a Ziggurat they built upon the sacred mound in 1322.
In 1402 Mulghragh the Orc arrived in the city of Chedryn as part of the Dayne Expedition. He slew the Shaman and helped turn the Orcs to their Old ways.
Inspirations[]
The Orcs in Humnirnar draw their inspirations from various real world cultures, among them the Mongols and the old Sami.
Their religion is a unique kind of ancestor worship, slightly based on the beliefs of Tengriism, but without any of the Tengriist Gods.
The Orc mothers are an echo of the Baba Yaga fairy tale archetype, but with a shamanistic twist.
The practice of the taming of the goats is inspired by the suckling of Oceanic Pigs (Sus Papuensis) by old women in Papua New Guinea a practise that has gradually faded.