This website is to help in understanding the origins of orcs in fantasy, and how they are represented in media. Many people believe that orcs were first created in the popular story, "Lord of the Rings," which, to Tolkien's credit, was a very interesting representation. But, there are records of creatures that fit an orcish description in multiple of cultures, such as the ancient Irish and Romans. Since brought to the modern age, orcs are not inherently the monsters that they are usually made out to be, but unfortunately, some people take orcs and use them as a symbol of hate from the real world. Racism has made orcs as a race a bit of a hot topic, this website will also delve into some studies on peoples' beliefs around this.
Orcs are a race that you can find in almost any fantasy setting. There's the popular, Lord of the Rings, World of Warcraft, and, of course, Dungeons and Dragons. But is this were the orcs originated from? No, they, like most other fantasy races, have roots in many different cultures folklore. As with many other fictional creatures, orcish descriptions vary from culture to culture, some do not even resemble orcs as we know them. All the same, they are not just some token monster race that was made arbitrarily.
We'll have a few short talks about them in different settings and how they are represented there.
Our friends pop up in various different cultures throughout history and we will look at some of the differences between them.
It is unfortunate, but even in our fantasies, we cannot seem to escape the persecution of others. Orcs are very often on the receiving end of this and we will talk about some issues surrounding this idea.
As an author, I am trying to add to the lore of orcs in a positive light, and I would like to share some of my own thoughts that have developed from my research.
Orcs are usually thought to be the bad guy in many different fantasy settings, such as, "The Lord of the Rings, or simply, LOTR, for short. In this setting, the are mostly viewed as savage, bloodthirsty creatures that serve an evil master. But, if you look into the lore of the popular MMO, "World of Warcraft" or simply, WoW, you will see that, while the orcs seem to be depicted as evil, they were enslaved and forced from their home to fight someone else's war. In older editions of the popular TTRPG, "Dungeons and Dragons" or, DnD, orcs were considered a, "Beast" race, problems with this we will cover later, but in the modern day, they hold the position of a full playable humanoid race. Most times you see orcs acting with any kind of violence that is not typical of a war faring society is always associated with their own exploitation.
A classic that we all are probably familiar with. These poor sods are stuck serving Sauron. They don't seem to mind it to much though, they enjoy a good fight and actually share a lot of comradery between each other. They are even known to forms familial bonds with orcs born of the same pit.
Believe it or not, these people used to be semi peaceful shamans on a completely different planet. Until an evil force twisted their minds and tricked them into fighting a war in another dimension. Despite this, eventually they become a free people once more, but are still being punished for what they were forced to take part in.
Yes, Orcs even make an appearance in this timeless epic. It is only mentioned once, and the world is an old Anglo-Saxion term for monsters, but the "orcneas" incorporate many different types of monsters. Grendel himself fit under this description.
In DnD, orcs were originally considered a beast race and a monster. They later provided Half-Orcs to give players the option to kind of be an orc. You can see the problems here. Orcs were still considered a beast race. Later, Orcs were finally given the proper position as a humanoid, playable race that had it's own place in the world's society.
When they say all roads lead to Rome, they weren't kidding. Even ancient Romans had a representation of what they called an Orc in their folklore. It was a sea creature bigger than a whale with hundreds of razor sharp teeth. Maybe it was one of the last remaining megalodons. Kind of like a Loche Ness monster situation. Either way, the good old Romans spoke of Orcs as well.
In many different forms of media, it have been said that orcs are a racial stereotype of a multitude of different races, namely, the Black community. While many different forms of media use this to their advantage, the T.V. show, "Bright" being one of the most popular in recent times, studies have shown that most people do not believe them to be any kind of racial stereotype. One study shows that most of the identifying features that would line up with the description of an orc are only coincidently so. That is not to say that other forms of media do not do this. Unfortunately, our beloved DnD was created by a notorious racist and some of that bleed into the game. But, not only in orcs, but there are plenty of other races that are marginalized in the game. Most of it is for lore reasons, but it still is there. Despite this, people love orcs and produce plenty of positive media for them.
Orcs may represent monsters in folklore, but that does not mean that they represent anything in our world. They are a purely fantasy race that allows one to be something other than a human for a little while. It is actually, if anything, a helpful way to combat the negative stereotypes associated with orcs. Next time you can pick a race, play an Orc, it will be a whole different experience.
Orcs are typically shown as the evil force in a story. While this works, Orcs do enjoy a good war, they can be the hero of the story as well. For every bad Orc, there's a good one out there.