Orks (Action)

Attributes and Schticks

Body: 6-10
Mind: 4-9
Reflexes: 4-9
Move: 5

Description

Appearance

Orks are big, sturdy folk with powerful muscles. Their faces are coarse, with pronounced lips, chins and pointy ears. This, along with sharp fangs and claw-like nails, gives them a bestial appearance. Few are beautiful, though not so few are impressive or even majestic. They have an affinity for earth, and have a variety of earth-tones for skin. Brown, green and brick red are all common.

Role

Orks are steadfast, proud, and honest but rude and demanding. Orks respect their comrades, but the respect has to be earned. Actions speak louder than words, many orks find discussion and debate tedious. They respect strong leaders who take initiative and lead from the front. You do not have to be a warrior to earn respect, a good healer, scout, or craftsman is valued, but a leader of orks has to be powerful in battle.

Politics

Orks tend to be clannish, honoring local authority and leaders over centralized government. Respect is earned in action, proven leaders can expect to have their words obeyed as law. This means ork leaders often have more brawn than brain. Strong leaders attract many followers, and strong ork tribes make really bad neighbors. Neighbors often try to kill ork leaders to scatter the tribes, sending their strongest warriors to challenge them. It has happened more than once that such a foreign challenger has won leadership of the tribe and turned on his old liege.

Integration

Orks are hard workers and take orders readily. Unfortunately, many Orks are not so bright and self-confident, so they often fare poorly in society. This fuels the Orkish tendency towards provincialism, as well as a general feeling of discontentment. Orks often find themselves on the fringes of society, as warriors, herdsmen, menial laborers, or bandits.

Family

Orks grow up quickly and are raised by the tribe. They can eat meat right away, walk after a week, by age three they can mostly fend for themselves, and by twelve they are young adults. Ork pregnancies are painful but short; the mother carries the child for five months without handicap, then is almost incapacitated for a month before giving birth and often for weeks after. Most children are adopted by other orks during this time and hardly know their closest kin. Loyalty is to the tribe. Orks lead short, violent lives, few reaching 30 and dying of old age before age 50.