World of Terria

Orcs and Goblins are one of the more unique races in the World of Terria.  Unlike many D&D campaign worlds, on Terria the common fantasy monsters called Orcs, Goblins and Ogres are all members of one species.  The most common examples are the common goblin and the common orc.

The brutish orcs, though less intelligent, tend to dominate the meeker goblins.  Ogres are far less intelligent than even orcs, and are typically found in postions of subserviance to their smaller kin.

Orcs in general are not very intelligent or knowledgeable but are capable of cunning. They are extremely warlike, with a society geared towards constant warfare, living in small tribal groups with a strong chain of command. The constant drive to fight keeps the orcs from forming anything but temporary alliances with one another. When multiple Orc tribes do unite it can be devastating to the surrounding area.

Orcs are rare on the island of Albion, normally living in small isolated tribes in the Wildlands, deeper forests, or underground.  The human kingdoms encourage adventurers and organized milita orc hunts in order to keep the orcish populations small and disorganized.

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==Physiology==
Orcs are ugly and filthy fanged humanoids. The largest can grow to be just taller than a man, but they are usually significantly shorter due to a characteristic apelike stoop. Many have long arms, like monkeys or apes. Along with that, many of them have crooked backs and legs. They have beady and bloodshot red eyes, and are naturally bald although some specimens have patches of spares hair. They have sour black blood, reminiscent of reanimated corpses

Orcs have an "adrenaline-fuelled metabolism", which means that they grow in size, strength, endurance and belligerence as they fight and defeat opponents. An orc will only stop growing when he finds an opponent that he can't beat.

Orcs do not reprroduce in the manner of men, the exact nature of their creation remains unknown, but it is known that they begin their odd lives as much smaller creatures (goblins) who grow larger with time. Eventually, some orcs grow so large that they become a thrid subspecies: the ogre.

==Society==
 
Orc "culture" is dominated by the concept of agression. There is no law, and therefore no crime. If an orc feels wronged, he can challenge the source of his grievance to a fight… the challenge can be as formal as shouting out ones intetion to fight or as simple as slitting the rivals throat as they sleep. Orcs tend towards the more open displays of agression, goblins favor the more subtle murderour options. Once the fight is over, and one or the other opponent is dead, the matter is considered settled. Orcs have no concept of pity; to an orc, the weak are simply weak, and are beneath them in society.

An orc attains a higher social rank by fighting and defeating members of that rank. Because of their bizarre physiology, orcs receive a steady supply of adrenaline when preparing to challenge a superior, causing him to physically increase in size and muscle-mass. An alert superior will spot this occurring and promptly beat the challenger down before he becomes a threat. If the superior fails to notice this development, then a battle inevitably results. Once such a leadership battle is won, the winning orc undergoes an extreme boost in power, gaining up to a dozen pounds of muscle in the wake of the fight. Orc veterans are known as "bigs", because they are literally bigger and stronger than ordinary orcs.

==Language==

Orcs communicate through their own language which has been described as a variety of guttural sounds, but they are often capable of speaking local human languages, mostly broken and fragmented Common.   Their written language is virtually nonexistant, and consits only of a few pictograms and glyphs, most of which are crude, obvious, and literal drawings. For example, the glyph for water is a few wavy lines and the the glyph for down is a downward pointing triangle. A waterfall is written as a few wavy line inside, ontop, or next to a downward triangle.