Orkhai
Contents
Fast Facts
Height: 6'2"-6'10" Males, 5'10"-6'4" Females
Weight: 250-330(lbs) Males, 180-240(lbs) Females
Lifespan: Adult (18 years), Elder (70 years), Deathly (70 years)
Notable Features: Red, Brown or Green Skin, Thick Muscles, Robust Physiques, Tusks, Sharp Ears, Black Hair, Orange Eyes
Player Restrictions: None
Racial Ability: Rakish Might: Orkhai are known to be considerably stronger and more enduring than other races, due to their powerful physiques. Their muscles are thicker and more dense than others, which appears to give them enhanced strength as well as durability. While this difference is not all too vast, it offers them a predisposition towards being dangerous melee brutes.
Population: 42,000,000 on Atharen
Clan Saraghen: 17,000,000
Clan Drakaal: 3,000,000
Clan Variant: 13,000,000
Clan Grontern: 9,000,000
Distribution: Rokhan, Tyrclaid, Grisic
History
The Orkhai, or Orks, have a recent history on Atharen. Created in Bel in the year 4066, they did not emerge on Atharen until 4182. The Orkhai were not produced they are originally from the plane of Bel, as brute servants to the Corrupted Gods, acting as their green-skinned mortal tools who participate in the Endless War and feed souls to the Corrupted Gods upon their death. Made by Jaxkael to serve his ambitions, they fought and changed over a century's time, evolving and separating into four distinct Clans.
The first of their kind to escape through the Gate of Markhan flooded through the Wastes, only to make their way towards the mountains overlooking Radenor, Daravin and the other nations of Mornoth's border. From there, their relationship with the other races quickly soured, leading to the first Dreg Wars.
The Orkhai were produced in an environment where there was but one goal in their lives, one thing they were created and bred to do: to fight, kill and win. They were not educated, not introduced to even the concept of peace. There was no sense of exhaustion of conflict or fatigue in them; the Endless War was the only sort of life they knew. Diplomacy was never an option. When they wanted land, they took it. Rokhan was sparsely inhabited, and the people who were present were quickly beaten back and culled. Those who survived were forced to flee to surrounding nations; Grisic, Tyrclaid and Khadai. The four Clans fought together during this migration. They formed what was known as the Infernal Pact, a temporary alliance for their own survival, as they were wise enough to know that divided, they would not be able to find a home for their race.
Almost immediately after their arrival, the Grisic Empire mobilized to confront them, in the year 4184. At this time, the Empire was far weaker and younger than now, and had just emerged from a brutal civil conflict that resulted in the previous ruling dynasty being overthrown. It had only just become an Empire, previously a loose confederation between principalities, Duchies and marches acquired by conquest or vassalization. The ruler at this time, Grisic's second Emperor, was keen on expanding. It was his view that all of the lands the Orkhai had carved out as 'Rokhan' could be made into an extended collection of marches and vassal states, providing opportunity for greater expansion.
What the newly-forged Empire quickly learned was that it was not prepared for conflict with a race born of Bel; that it had no concept of the brutality of the Endless War. The Orkhai suffered no fear. They did not rout, nor succumb to the fatigue of continuous battle. Instead, it appeared to enthrall them; war was their vice, a fixation and addiction. They would only grow more invigorated with each brutal battle. Their tactics from the beginning were scorched earth, and they had no respect for what were the feudal codes of war back then, absent any thought for chivalry or honor. They made concessions and truces and then broke them, and as more of their peers emerged from Bel and migrated to join their force, the war became increasingly desperate for the Empire.
The First Dreg War ended at the Battle of Traymen Pass, where an Imperial force managed to slaughter or maim most of the Orkhai army that had begun to move through, ambushing them in the hills overlooking the road to Grisic's capital. With the majority of their army incapacitated or killed, the Orkhai were forced to form the first treaty their race had ever overseen.
The Second Dreg War was initiated by Tyrclaid. With both Grisic and the Orkhai Clans severely weakened after the first war, the Kingdom along Calanon's western coast was eager to try their own hand at subduing the region. After twenty long years - enough time for Grisic to recover - the war ended in a stalemate, both nation's original borders being declared final. The Third Dreg War came immediately after, and it became the most horrific and prolonged of them all. The Third Dreg War lasted a period of twenty-six years, ending in the year 4241. By the end of the war, the Orkhai had occupied most of Khadai, which had joined Grisic in the conflict. Slaughtering over three million of Khadai's people and ravaging the interior of their nation, the Orkhai had used Grisic's ally as a proxy to enforce a stalemate. Even as Rokhan's south was being annihilated by Grisic forces, they continued to expand into Khadai. Unwilling to lose their primary ally and trading partner, the Empire conceded again to a white peace, no terms or changes in border being enforced.
The end of the Third Dreg War saw the solidification of Rokhan as the realm of the Orkhai, its borders drawn onto international maps, unchanging even nearly four centuries later. The Orkhai even remained cordial, internally, for a long time; they had become forged as brothers through their alliance against the neighboring nations of Atharen, fighting side-by-side for as long as any living Ork could remember.
But warriors did not make skilled administrators, and all that Rokhan had been structured for was to achieve victory. Overpopulation came in peace, then famine, then conflicts between the traditions of Clans, and then internal schisms. Rokhan was again at war, but with itself.
Like in Bel, the Orkhai of the surface world have been engaged in their own Endless War since their emergence. Split again into four Clans, they fight for dominance. What remains is only one ideal: that the strongest should rule the jewel that is Rokhan, becoming its Gharrok, or Great King. Recent years have begun to see the re-emergence of Clan Saraghen's dominance, however, with many anticipating that the wars of Rokhan's great valleys may soon be coming to an end, their eyes set out towards conflicts of old.
Physiology/Biology
The Orkhai draw their name from the Druskai, who they were modeled after by Jaxkael. Always admiring their ruthlessness, violence and command over the seas, the God saw a strength in them he wished to emulate. Orkhai are not very different from the other humanoid races on Atharen, at least on the surface. They have two arms and two legs, with roughly similar proportions to their peers. What makes the Orkhai different is largely their physiques; they are brawnier, with thicker muscles, stronger hearts that allow for more endurance. The Orkhai barely need to exercise in order to have a brawny, bulky form, though to refine it and bring out their body's absolute potential, many do.
Aside from their bulk and height, they tend to have sharp ears, though they are roughly equivalent to a human ear in length. All pure Orkhai develop tusks, usually their bottom two canines extending beyond the parameters of their mouth. Their teeth in general are stronger and sharper, allowing for cannibalism. Orkhai are capable of digesting raw meat, an advantage in the wild or within their constant state of war. Most of them have green skin, but many have an accent or undertone to their skin such as red, brown or grey, and many from divergent clans have a more matte form of these colors.
The Clans
Clan Saraghen: Clan Saraghen was the first Orkhai Clan to exist, formed of the original group of Orkhai created by Jaxkael. Originally, the Orkhai were an all-male race, with Jaxkael believing their physiologies to be superior for the Endless War; brawnier and more durable, created for nothing but combat. In his short-sightedness, he did not give the Saraghen Orkhai the ability to reproduce, and so their numbers - which were limited to begin with - continued to dwindle as they were sent to fight the Dregs of other Gods. This issue was later alleviated, but only as Gods began to capture Orkhai and repurpose them for their own uses.
Y'shendra first constructed the female Orkhai within Clan Drakaal, and their race began to proliferate, with other Gods eventually capturing and adapting their own variations of the race. Reluctant to admit the design-flaw in his 'apex species', Jaxkael instead altered his original Orkhai to be able to reproduce without sexual conception: through cannibalism. He installed a birthing tract into their throat, one that would receive the genetic information of other Orkhai they devoured. Within a week, a throat lump similar to a goiter would form, which would only expand until - around two months later - the Orkhai would vomit out their child, and shortly after begin training them as a warrior.
Clan Saraghen are a uniquely brutal group of Orkhai, and given they primarily expand their people through murder and war, they tend to do so. They are violent and rash, but powerful, enduring warriors. They tend to have either green or brownish skin, and notable tusks. They are also known to be among the most hot-headed of their kin.
Clan Drakaal: Clan Drakaal was originally built by Y'shendra as a method of self-defense; an army to defend her own dominion against the warring madness of Valteran and Jaxkael, who assaulted her followers, culled her Dregs and sought to push her to the fringes of Bel. She captured and learned to alter one of Jaxkael's Orkhai, creating a female companion for him, the first female Orc. As their numbers continued to grow and as decades went by, Y'shendra became increasingly comfortable with her new domain of Undeath, and so began to alter many of her Orkhai to become undead abominations. Through her own advanced form of Necromancy she would alter them by the hundreds, adapting and shifting their forms to turn them into true weapons of war, nearly unkillable and brutally eager to fulfill her will.
In recent decades, Y'shendra has been turning many of her Orkhai into Dunash, and pushing them out through the Gate of Zahn. Those who settled Rokhan beforehand, after the migration of the Orkhai into the Mortal Plane, tend to be strange Orcs with variable undead traits, burnished into their genetic code so that they pass down onto their children. The Drakaal who live in Rokhan have grey undertones to their skin, tend to live longer than others, and usually have at least one or two additional appendages that were added to their family line to make them more viable as soldiers.
Clan Variant: Clan Variant was made by Venadak and Saren, initially, the two of them speaking into the minds of the Orks of other Clans. Invited to Adena to meet with the Creator-God, many Orkhai could not resist the opportunity. Once brought there, they were given the chance to swear fealty to Venadak and to fight for equilibrium within the Endless War. Those who agreed, the vast majority of them, had their souls melded with the essence of Venadak's Dregs. In the process, they gained a unique familiarity with Bel that most other Orkhai could not claim to have. They became able to sense the location of Barrengates, becoming effective navigators within the Infernal Plane. Their skin became a brownish or deep red, their eyes a dark orange.
Clan Variant serves Venadak's purposes within Bel, ensuring that no God becomes too powerful within the Endless War. In recent decades, this means they have begun to align with the interests of Valteran, who continues to lose territory to Y'shendra within Arun. Those who go to the surface, such as those who reside in Rokhan, continue to be able to sense the Barrengates as if a distinct calling.
Clan Grontern: Clan Grontern was forged by Valteran as his secondary tool within the Endless War. Unlike the other Orkhai, who tend to rule their own Clans with some level of autonomy, Clan Grontern serves as the lapdog auxiliary of the Dranoch Huntsmen beneath Valteran's command. Trained to be their brutish hounds, they lash out relentlessly at their foes, known for their resilience, hunger and inability to be routed in the face of death. Grontern's warriors are physically dominant; stronger, larger, but utterly commanded by their perpetual state of starvation. Most are unintelligent brutes, the only incentive they desire for serving Valteran being a chance at the fleshy spoils of victory. When a battle ends, the Orkhai of Clan Grontern will derange into wild feeding binges, licking even drops of blood from the floor.
The members of Clan Grontern who settled Rokhan are the scourge of the rest: they cannot be reasoned with, viewing all other Clans as their sworn enemies, who they must batter and devour to the last.
Technology
The Orkhai wield surprisingly potent weaponry, their Clans harnessing siege weapons native to the Infernal Plane. These weapons include battering rams that produce massive explosions of red, kinetic energy, easily battering through gates; trebuchets that fire massive and rapidly oscillating blades, and most rarely, firearm-like condensers that draw and convert raw ether from the air into a piercing red blast. These weapons are most often utilized against Grisic Skyvessels or Krish Harbingers, a well-aimed shot capable of puncturing holes in their hull. Most Orkhai technology tends to be built of Obsidian with red accents, offering it a sleek red and black tone.
Psychology and Culture
Psychology in the Orkhai, in many ways, varies by Clan. A Saraghen tends to be more brutish, unapologetic and rash; a Drakaal more observant and subdued, a Variant more ideological and tactically-minded, a Grontern filled with impulse and less beholden to social norms. Aside from these traits, the Orkhai do share many things in common. They are fiercely Clan-minded, treating members of their own Clan like the members of their own family, often without the same level of disorder many families bear. They are cohesive within their own Clan structure; most conflicts are resolved with combat, often wrestling or a more formal fight, but even in victory or defeat they are largely gracious. Strength matters, but the strongest are not given permission to arrogantly loom over their kin and condescend. Instead, the Orkhai who rise to the top are expected to care for all their brethren, the collective weight of responsibility heavy within their race.
These values extend far beyond any national border, or the Endless War. An Orkhai of Clan Variant who meets one of their own on the open road will meet them as if siblings, their relationship immediately considered ironclad. Conversely, two Orkhai of opposing Clans may meet to immediate, brutal conflict. There are little areas of grey for an Orkhai: murder and victory, death and defeat, or the familiarity of kin. They view little things with nuance, and appear to have a difficult grasp on empathy.
Culturally, the Orkhai are fixated on self-improvement and conquering their fears. They spend an inordinate amount of time on physical activity; whenever they can break away from their fields or herds, they run, wrestle, climb, hike, swim in Rokhan's great lake. The Orkhai are exhilarated by fear, by being pushed to the absolute extremities of the mortal psyche. The rush they gain from fear is almost addictive; their quickening heart rate, the changes in their amygdala, the sweating of their palms and the reduction of their sense of pain. For this reason, an Orkhai with a terrible dread of high places or the sea will commonly be found there. Their culture is that of seeking all that they can within their short lives, avoiding complacency or the decadence of tedium. The Orkhai always seek to push their limits.
Clothing, Grooming and Art
Orkhai art is renowned for being terrible, or at least, terribly behind the rest of the world. Their most common art-pieces are effigies carved of wood, war-related iconography often related to animals (sometimes inscribed into walls), and abstract tapestries composed of colors typically ranging from blood-like to dried blood-like, most commonly speaking to the violent impulses of their race. As Orkhai are not philosophical thinkers by in large, their creations tend to reflect that fact. They are mundane, typically uncreative, and largely uniform.
Clothing-wise, Orkhai are unsurprisingly tribal. While in Bel they tend to wear armor for the majority of their waking hours, those on Rokhan largely spend their days herding sheep, bovines and other livestock, and unsurprisingly dress like herders. On hot days they'll usually wear little more than a loincloth, with a woman wearing a rag over her chest. Most of the time, Orkhai might wear a light-colored sash of sorts, often with one side of their chest exposed, a herder's skirt beneath their tunic. Orkhai tend to travel and tend their duties barefoot, with their harsh skin preventing them from needing shoes. Orkhai in higher positions largely wear red or deep brown colors, and wear accents of Obsidian armor over their clothing at all times in public places.
Orkhai are not typically well-groomed. Their hair is usually kept shoulder-length, commonly tied into buns or braids, or allowed to flow freely to their shoulders. While their teeth are naturally cleaner than human's, they rarely ever clean them, so some outside of Rokhan muse that an Orkhai will first be noticed by their breath. While their oral hygiene is markedly better than many peasants of other nations, it is rarely 'good'.
Rokhan often do bathe in lakes and rivers, so their bodies rarely smell poorly, though their large physiques, frequent physical activity and excess of muscle tends to result in them sweating somewhat extensively, at least in the summer months. An Ork's sweat is a very distinguishable odor from that of other women or men: not grossly pungent, but certainly strong. Even women are often described as smelling 'masculine', a fact they are often belittled over in foreign nations.
Religion and Worship
Unsurprisingly, the Orkhai tend to worship whichever Corrupted God created their Clan. The members of Clan Saraghen follow Jaxkael, the Variant follow Venadak, and so on. Their methods of worship tend to be rather primitive, but equally expected. To begin with, an Orkhai's most typical act of piety or reverence is slaying an enemy of that God's ambitions; typically a Dreg or the member of an opposing Clan. Battlefields are called 'altars', and the bodies of slain foes - after a battle is done - are frequently made into blood eagle-like effigies to the individual Orkhai's God. Within their settlements, the Orkhai light braziers every night in remembrance of their kin in Bel, and pray before their patron God as they observe the flames being lit. Each year there is a sacrifice of twelve herd animals in Clan capitals, the weakest, most feeble. Orkhai Shamans will devour their hearts before a roaring crowd, dedicating their sacrifice.
Shamans are the Priests of Orkhai Clans, and while they hold great cultural significance within Rokhan, they possess no political power. Shamans tend to be monk-like, residing in monasteries along Rokhan's surrounding mountains. They learn magics, most often Squall, Malformity and Summoning, and participate in the wars of Rokhan, the people of the Clans believing their presence brings them divine luck. They sometimes do manage to communicate with the Gods of Bel through their altars and effigies, though these occurrences are rare. Most Shamans tend to live largely detached lives, having few friends, their connections primarily made with visitors to their hillside places of faith.
Reproduction, Aging, and Death
The Orkhai weren't intended to live long. They were intended to be used as a power source for the Gods of the Endless War, living a quick life as a soldier only to shortly after fade, surrendering their souls to their creator. For this reason, they have short lifespans, do not really have reproduction cycles, and if born on Bel, they tend to be born fairly developed, reaching full adulthood in a matter of a few years.
Orkhai within Bel were created without any reproductive functions. While male Orkhai were not sterile, there were no other mortal species for them to reproduce with. Because of this, their original number of around a thousand quickly began to diminish as they fought within the Endless War. As stated previously, Y'shendra created a female Orkhai, and then more, and since then the majority of the Orkhai Clans have been able to reproduce biologically. Reproduction in an Orkhai is virtually identical to that of reproduction in a human or another sapient race on Atharen. If an Orkhai is born on the surface, typically in Rokhan, they will become sexually mature at the same age as humans, and their fertility period or cycle roughly mirrors the human one as well.
Orkhai of Clan Saraghen tend to reproduce... differently. Jaxkael eventually altered them to possess a peculiar method of reproduction. Installing a tract in their throat that receives and incubates the organic material of another sapient mortal they consume, the Saraghen Orkhai are capable of furthering their Clan by cannibalizing enemies. A terrifying, gruesome and unsavory practice, this allows them to expand their domain through nothing more than violence. This process is odd and brief. After around a month since consumption, a goiter-like lump will appear on their neck. It will expand until a very large bulb forms on their neck, and after two more weeks they will vomit out their child, who has their blood as well as the blood of the one they slew and devoured. This strange method of reproduction has led many to consider the Saraghen a non-viable future for the Orkhai, as they typically can only further their Clan through slaughter and cruelty. While they are capable of reproducing sexually like other Clans, they tend to stoutly follow the traditions imbued upon them by Jaxkael, and view themselves as the original and 'true' Orkhai.
Orkhai age benevolently until the last moment. They tend to remain strong, fit and healthy until their late sixties, at which point they will often spontaneously die despite appearing to be in peak health. Orkhai do grieve their fallen Clansmen, with different approaches to their grief. Saraghen burn their dead ones in open fields, Squall mages manipulating the winds of their ashes as the Clan dances within them. Drakaal rarely pass from age, but those rare ones who have not been afflicted with undeath are buried around or beneath their homes. Clan Variant will go on pilgrimage to bring their dead loved ones to one of the high mountains of Rokhan, where a powerful Resonance mage of their Clan - known as the High Shaman - will transport them to Bel. Finally, Clan Grontern will gather around their fallen Clansmen and consume them, often embittered by tears as they devour their fallen kin.
Language
The Orkhai speak Mor'drub, the common tongue of Bel. Mor'drub is a guttural, ferocious tongue, involving a lot of snarling and harsh annunciations. The vocal range associated with Mor'drub spans from cold and unexpressive to furious and uncontained. Being the primary language of the Infernal Plane, most Dregs also communicate in Mor'drub.
Orkhai names tend to sound strong, with Male examples being: Groghan, Korgak, Varbuk, Vorgarag, Margulg, Rosh'khan, Cagan
Female Orkhai names might be: Yukhar, Urzul, Ghorza, Garakhis, Lazgara, Durzana
The surnames of the Orkhai are simply those of their Clan. So, if Groghan is of Clan Saraghen, he will either go by Groghan Saraghen, or 'Grogan of Clan Saraghen'. Clan names are typically kept upon leaving Bel, with Orkhai fiercely loyal to their Clan above all. Even through the separation of entire planes, the Orkhai on the surface consider themselves merely the successor or 'surface Clan' of their original Clan.
