Orcs are fierce warriors, raiders, bandits, hunters, and herdsmen. Chaotic barbarians, they acknowledge no law except strength. They are nocturnal, often burrowing deep underground for their lairs, but they prefer to take over existing underground complexes from other races. However, most orcs live at least partly on the surface world.
Left to themselves, orcs are constantly raiding other villages (orcish or otherwise) and feuding. Under a powerful overlord, or within an empire, orcs are more organized, and direct most of their aggression towards enemies of their master.
Orcs are strongly patriarchal in nature and mating is monopolized by the chieftains. Orc chieftains boast of how many kills, wives, horses, gold, sons, and cattle they have (not always in that order.) The chieftains are generally the ugliest in their clan, wearing the most pieces of metal. Male orcs ritually scar themselves and pierce body parts to celebrate kills, marriages, successful raids, declarations of war, and any other significant turning points in their lives. Female orcs also mark themselves (upon marriage, childbirth, levels in the secret society, etc.), but their status is only among each other.
Orc children are given "puppy" names. The males are trained in fighting, and expected to give their fathers absolute obedience. (The fathers would have no hesitation in executing a traitorous son.) They earn the right to a "real" name on their first kill (either another named orc or an enemy humanoid or beast.) Then their goal is to acquire wives, either by stealing them from a mated orc (killing the husband and his children if they can manage it), stealing someone's daughter, or buying her with gold or livestock (usually acquired from raiding), or being the strongest of a male orc's offspring, and inheriting his father's wives when his father dies. (Mother-son incest taboos are weak among the orcs.)
Female children grow up as chattel. They perform all those menial tasks that the male orcs don't bother with. (Gathering plants for food, medicine, materials, digging dens, building huts, trapping and fishing, making clothes, cleaning, tending to the young, livestock, etc. But weapon and armor crafting is done by the males.) Once they reach child-bearing age, they are sold off by their fathers. They are never given "real" names, instead being referred to as "First wife", "Second wife", etc. The wives tend towards vicious competition with each other, each one wanting their son to be a chieftain. A lot of male orcs die as infants. On the other hand, orc babies are smaller than human babies, so the mothers have an easier time giving birth.
Orcs consider themselves the favored children of Angra Mainyu. They are the rightful subjects and owners of all the earth, and other races are destined to be their slaves.
A few male orcs become clerics or adepts, mostly the ones who are losing at the mating/fighting game (including orcs who have been castrated by their rivals). Clerics get far less respect than warriors, but it's better than nothing.
Female clerics are more common, but this aspect is hidden from the male society. Women join secret societies and cults. The main cults are those of Kali, Angra Mainyu, and Lychmuttra. Their main goals are domination over rivals, influence over their sons and husbands, magical power, and freedom.
A chieftain owns everyone under him and has the right to do whatever he likes with them. Everyone under him is sorted out from strongest to weakest, with the male and female hierarchies being separate. Orcish custom dictates that challenges to a position are fought one on one. Custom is enforced by any offenders being killed by the others in their group.
When they are under the domination of outside rule, they (reluctantly) obey whatever laws are forced on them.
Free orcs usually only relate to outsiders by raiding them and capturing them as slaves. The slaves are often crippled to prevent escape, then forced to do the heavy work. They are brutally treated. Most do not last long. The lucky ones are the ones who are sold or ransomed.
Orcs are also found in evil empires, which generally use them for their armies.
Orcs would rather steal than trade, but they do trade when their targets are too powerful to attack. Mostly they trade their stolen loot (including slaves) to evil empires. They are a prime conduit to the underground kingdoms of dark elves and dwarves.
Children: Ugly, Runt, Bastard, Baby, Sickly, Whiny, Smelly, Grabby, Retch, Shitface, Grubby, Greasy, Puppy, Scummy, Muddy.
Named males: Bloodyrender, Brokentooth, Dustblade, Moondrinker, Ironclaw, Spinecracker, Foestomper, Grinning Bear, Death Eagle, Dark-never-dawns, Earth Trembles, Stonecrusher, Corpse-whip
Chieftains give themselves titles based on how many wives and sons they have, what enemies they have defeated, their territories, etc. E.g. "Firethroat Twice-mated Sire-of-seven, Slayer of Men, Lord of the Burning Vale"
Females: are never addressed by any name or title. They may be called things like "Third daughter", "Third daughter of Ashmaker", or "Jagged-sword's fourth woman" when they need to be distinguished from each other. A priestess in one of the women's cults claims a secret name after she is initiated (or initiates herself), but that name is known only to herself and the god.
Orcs are found in the hills and steppes in the mainland to the north of Krosa. Many of them live under hobgoblin rule in Chulan Toz.
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