The Northern Orc

The northern orc is serious blight on the Northern Freeholds and the northern and western Jutelands, these savage creatures a bit larger, a bit more ferocious, and savage than their southern cousins.  They are usually between 6 and 7 feet tall and 3 – 4  feet wide at the shoulder (1/2 foot taller than southern orc and ) and at a minimum 2 ft shoulder to shoulder (largest modern bodybuilder on record is 26” shoulder to shoulder w/ the human average being 18 inches).  

Unlike their southern cousins, these orcs spend much more of their time above ground and have no ill side effects from normal sunlight.  Their eyes have no white to them but are a single color with a pupil.  The eye color ranges from a golden yellow to a deep red with an orangish tint being the most common.  Above the eyes is a pronounced brow ridge (similar to a Neanderthal’s).   Their skin coloration often matches their environment to some extent – this gives them a greater than normal ability to hunt by ambush in the trackless forests of the far north.  

Status in the tribe is a major concern for the Northern Orc.  Each tribe has it own distinctive manner of indicating status.  In some tribes the brow ridge is pierced with rings as a status symbol – the more rings the more status, iron and base metals for youths just starting out, gold and silver for those who have taken precious metals from their victims and had them turned into decorations.  It is not uncommon for very high status northern orcs to hang strings of dried animal guts or even narrow strips of leather into which they have embedded precious stones, nuggets of precious metals, or other things indicating wealth.  Other tribes use facial rings in a similar fashion or pierce their boar-like tusks w/ small gems.  Yet other tribes employ tattooing both of body and face to indicate status.  These status symbols vary greatly from tribe to tribe and most conflict between hunting or raiding bands is usually over status and ranking.  Humanity would have much to fear from these monsters if they every developed a more universal system of indicating status.  

Typically northern orcs fashion the skins of the great northern beasts they hunt into hide armor, use a heavy wooden shield for protection and wield battle ax or spear as preferred weapons.  Leaders among them will often possess and use a longsword instead of a spear or axe and may possess chain or banded mail armor – usually taken from their victims.  The most ferocious of them will dispense with the shield and use a great 2 handed axe.  The younger and more agile (usually lower status individuals) will use bows and slings.  There is little glory in killing your opponents from afar – even if it is better for filling to cooking pot.

Orcish warbands are rarely more than a dozen or so fighters (double that number of females and children) as they are constantly bickering over status – only a very strong leader can bind larger groups together.  Unconfirmed rumors suggest that some highly intelligent giants have gathered as many as a thousand orcs into a single fighting band – but upon the death or defeat of the giant such bands break apart – sometimes in middle of the battle.