[Orcs]

Race Relations:

Humans: Hostile
Dwarves: Hostile
Elfs: Unfriendly
Harpies: Unfriendly
Anu: Unfriendly
Darkin: Unfriendly

Hostility Pact

The Orcs have always been a hostile race, since their inception they have been as territorial and expansive as the humans, however what they lacked that the humans utilized to grow strong was their open trade with other nations, this trade allowed the humans to grow stronger and stronger where the Orcs would refuse to trade with others. This stance and the general geometry of the Grey land left them susceptible to attacks on all sides, which the Orcs would often repel given their races unity and their renowned battle prowess on the front lines. But little by little this prolonged conflict with not just the Humans but with Harpy and Anu raiders whittled the Orcs numbers down. It was at this point that the hostility pact, a tradition put into place by the Overlord to secure his lands was broken, the Orcs too proud to conscript a primal race, spoke to the many beta races that were within their territory and so the seeds of The Great War began to grow.

The Elventh Hour

The Elventh Hour was an event name coined by the Elfs after eleven simultaneous raids occurred on eleven Elven villages on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, all roughly happening an hour before midnight, which the Elfs refer to as the witching hour. These Orc raids occurred because the Orcs were amused by the Elfs reclusiveness and hesitancy to fight, and the number eleven is a sacred number to Elves in their belief system. The provocation bore no fruits and soon the Orcs attention were brought back to the Humans, their eternal foes.

Overlord Zen

Zen was a warrior among warriors, rumored to have killed more men than he'd had hot meals and to have sowed more wild oats than any farmer alive had grown in his entire life time. Zen was the sixth Overlord, after the fifth Overlord died in battle, he ascended to the 'broken throne', named as such because of the crack down the middle of the giant metal monstrosity, caused by the drunken outbursts of the first Overlord, the dreaded Don. The Overlord isn't decided through linage or nobility, but instead through meritocracy. A week long string of fights take place called the Trident, whose name comes from the 3 man free for alls that make up the fights until only two remain. Many Orcs die in order to be worthy of facing the final fight to decide who leads the Orcs as their Overlord.

Zen was acting Overlord when The Great War happened, taking over the previous Overlords position that he considered to be incompetent he tried to pick up the pieces but was fighting a losing battle. Zen was a powerful warrior, no man of any race or creed could kill him in a one on one fight, but alas he was pierced in the heart by a heavy balista when coming out to meet the humans in open combat at the battle of Urg-Ot. It was said before being shot he had killed off an entire platoon of soldiers all on his own, 51 men killed by a singular man with nothing but some scantly clad leather armor and two blunted war axes. Zen was an absolute monster and legends of him still exist, passed down onto the new and improved Orcs.

Cave Plant

[Information here has been omitted due to its classified nature.]

Orcs and Religion

Orcs are very heavily atheistic, their war against Humans is also in no small part due to the religiosity of Humans. Orcs consider the worlds natural order to not need the presence of a god to make it work, and that any belief in a higher power is simply the efforts of mortals putting power in the hands of people who know damn well that this is the only world worth putting power into. People that lie to themselves and to others is something that Orcs cannot stand. And the use of linguistic word trickery to put power in your own hands instead of fighting and bleeding for your right to hold power also goes against the moral code of all Orcs. Because of these reasons, Orcs despise most other races and may well be the reason for their hostility, or Orcs might just be genocidal maniacs, who knows.