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marsden_online) wrote2013-11-13 09:47 pm
marsden_online) wrote2013-11-13 09:47 pm
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Alternate Reproductions: Orcs, the ultimate survivors
So I was lying awake at 5am one morning and my muse decided to get stuck into the fact that most fantasy races have the same sexual binary as humans, despite in a world with magic and elementals and active gods and so forth the options are far broader. This is the second in a short series, Dwarves can be found here
These are written with a lot of D&Disms but the principles should hold elsewhere.
This entry has a mild trigger warning - like the rest of their culture the orcish reproduction process is fairly brutal.
~~~
From the original Unearthed Arcana
If reproduction were not a religious obligation then the pure orcish race might well have died out within a few generations as the genitals of male* and female* are not well matched and copulating causes great pain to both participants. It is little wonder that orcs prefer the softer bodies of other races and most mating is performed in a state of intoxication, natural or otherwise.
Competition for survival starts at birth as the orcish cub - grown to a more developed state than most races after a 6 month gestation - must force it's own way out of the womb and through the stomach muscle to the outside world. In this it may be helped or hindered by it's litter-mates, of which there may be up to 5, possibly from different fathers. (Thus orc lineage, when it matters, is often traced through the female* line unless it can be absolutely certain that a female* was only impregnated by one male*).
This birth is also a terrific ordeal for the mother and only the toughest survive - one of many reasons why orcish mothers can be a force to be reckoned with if forced to fight. Those who are too weakened by or do not survive a solo birth often serve as baby's first meal (if there isn't a weaker or partly-formed litter-mate handy) and orcish women often give birth in groups so as to increase the overall survival rate by directing the young of weakened mothers to those already deceased.
Thereafter the cubs are usually raised in a communal crèche - although an orc mother always knows which cubs are hers it makes very little difference, all cubs are considered to belong to the entire tribe.
Thus although orc females* nominally rank only above slaves and are treated as little more than servants in orcish society in many ways, in sexual and reproductive matters they receive a great deal of respect from the males* who are always aware that they might be unlucky enough to be in that position themselves one day. Many an orcish warrior would prefer charging to certain death in combat than being accused of cowardice and sentenced to "breeding duty" (and acts accordingly).
The reason orcish populations rebound so quickly is that the sex of orcs is fluid. They emerge from the womb in a nascent hermaphroditic state and only begin to tend toward male* or female* during the power struggles of childhood, with the dominant tending towards male and the less dominant towards female. Between four and six years of age the differences are clear enough that young are removed from the crèche and start to be trained appropriately.
In adult populations should the majority of one sex or the other be wiped out (say by a band of adventurers slaughtering all the warriors, or all in the lair leaving only the warband who was out hunting) a portion of the remaining adults will slowly shift back the other way (with all the change in status this entails) until a breeding population is established.
When a population of orcs is starting to exceed the resources of the surrounding area the ratio of genders swings sharply towards male*, and groups of young warriors (usually) will start setting out looking for new territory. These will consist of a mix of high-status and low-status males* the later of which will be expected to become female* once a new territory is found.
Allowed to run its natural course (triggered by loss of status or environmental factors) this transformation places no strain on the individual. Orcish shamans know rituals to trigger and accelerate the process to as little as a few hours, with proportional agony for the unfortunate subject, and this is the usual fate for those convicted (I use the term convicted very loosely) of cowardice or other not-worthy-of-death crimes. Other circumstances where these rituals are invoked include
- when the entire tribe need to move a great distance quickly the female population may become male for a short time
- great orc heroes who are starting to lose their edge (or whose goals are at odds with the priesthood) may be "ordered by Gruumsh" (or Luthic) to pass on their strength through mothering cubs rather than fathering them. These individuals typically have a high chance of surviving multiple births, producing many strong offspring, and retaining all the skills (levels) they acquired as males continue to play an important role in lair defence.
As one orc's mother may be another's father orc family trees can get very complicated. This doesn't really matter to orcs who don't much care about any more than their immediate parentage. It only matters if you have descended from a notable hero, in which case it is merely a detail whether he sired or whelped you / your ancestor. Even with this orc generational memories are sufficiently short that all but the very greatest are usually forgotten within a handful of generations.
~~~
Half Orcs
Orc seed is strong and mutable, and orcs can (and will attempt to) mate with the females of any humanoid species capable of bearing live young. Some of the weaker monstrous races allow or even encourage these half-breeds to term hoping to take advantage of strength from the orc parent, while the stronger ones will simply abort or kill the "weakling" child.
Most demi-humans (elves, dwarves etc) would rather commit suicide than bear the shame of bearing a half-orc child, and if they can't or won't do it themselves their friends and neighbours will. Such pregnancies are almost always aborted one way or another, and if they are not the mother almost never survives the birth. Those cubs which survive to find other food usually live out a solitary, bestial existence although sometime small packs will form in the aftermath of orcish raids. Those who do not and perish of starvation often rise again as childlike ghouls.
Humans are the exception - their biology more often allows the pregnancy to come to term (7-8 months) and give birth before the child is formed enough to be trying to make it's own way out. As another race with a strong parenting instinct they then more often than not allow the child to live and although this is often a miserable life it has better odds of survival than in an orcish crèche.
The majority of half-orcs are born with a clear sex as appropriate to the parent's biology (and can reproduce as such) but many display (or rather hide) some hermaphroditic features.
These are written with a lot of D&Disms but the principles should hold elsewhere.
This entry has a mild trigger warning - like the rest of their culture the orcish reproduction process is fairly brutal.
~~~
From the original Unearthed Arcana
In the beginning all the gods met and drew lots for the parts of the world in which their representative races would dwell. The human gods drew the lot that allowed humans to dwell where they pleased, in any environment. The elven gods drew the green forests, the dwarven deities drew the high mountains, the gnomish gods the rocky, sunlit hills, and the halfling gods picked the lot that gave them the fields and meadows. Then the assembled gods turned to the orcish gods and laughed loud and long. "All the lots are taken!" they said tauntingly. "Where will your people dwell, One-Eye? There is no place left!"
There was silence upon the world then, as Gruumsh One-Eye lifted his great iron spear and stretched it over the world. The shaft blotted the sun over a great part of the lands as he spoke: "No! You Lie! You have rigged the drawing of the lots, hoping to cheat me and my followers. But One-Eye never sleeps. One-Eye sees all. There is a place for orcs to dwell…here!," he bellowed, and his spear pierced the mountains, opening a mighty rift and chasms. "And here!," and the spearhead split the hills and made them shake and covered them in dust. "And here!," and the black spear gouged the meadows and made them bare.
"There!" roared He-Who-Watches triumphantly, and his voice carried to the ends of the world. "There is where the orcs shall dwell! There they will survive, and multiply, and grow stronger, and a day will come when they cover the world, and they will slay all of your collective peoples! Orcs shall inherit the world you sought to cheat me of!"
If reproduction were not a religious obligation then the pure orcish race might well have died out within a few generations as the genitals of male* and female* are not well matched and copulating causes great pain to both participants. It is little wonder that orcs prefer the softer bodies of other races and most mating is performed in a state of intoxication, natural or otherwise.
Competition for survival starts at birth as the orcish cub - grown to a more developed state than most races after a 6 month gestation - must force it's own way out of the womb and through the stomach muscle to the outside world. In this it may be helped or hindered by it's litter-mates, of which there may be up to 5, possibly from different fathers. (Thus orc lineage, when it matters, is often traced through the female* line unless it can be absolutely certain that a female* was only impregnated by one male*).
This birth is also a terrific ordeal for the mother and only the toughest survive - one of many reasons why orcish mothers can be a force to be reckoned with if forced to fight. Those who are too weakened by or do not survive a solo birth often serve as baby's first meal (if there isn't a weaker or partly-formed litter-mate handy) and orcish women often give birth in groups so as to increase the overall survival rate by directing the young of weakened mothers to those already deceased.
Thereafter the cubs are usually raised in a communal crèche - although an orc mother always knows which cubs are hers it makes very little difference, all cubs are considered to belong to the entire tribe.
Of course a simple procedure with a blade when the cubs start to stir could greatly increase the survival rate of all including the mother - but this would be a heresy.
Thus although orc females* nominally rank only above slaves and are treated as little more than servants in orcish society in many ways, in sexual and reproductive matters they receive a great deal of respect from the males* who are always aware that they might be unlucky enough to be in that position themselves one day. Many an orcish warrior would prefer charging to certain death in combat than being accused of cowardice and sentenced to "breeding duty" (and acts accordingly).
The reason orcish populations rebound so quickly is that the sex of orcs is fluid. They emerge from the womb in a nascent hermaphroditic state and only begin to tend toward male* or female* during the power struggles of childhood, with the dominant tending towards male and the less dominant towards female. Between four and six years of age the differences are clear enough that young are removed from the crèche and start to be trained appropriately.
In adult populations should the majority of one sex or the other be wiped out (say by a band of adventurers slaughtering all the warriors, or all in the lair leaving only the warband who was out hunting) a portion of the remaining adults will slowly shift back the other way (with all the change in status this entails) until a breeding population is established.
Some sages theorise that there is a point in this process where a single orc is fully hermaphroditic and could impregnate itself before continuing to female* and bearing her own cubs.
~
I would suggest that mechanically the MtF transformation result in -2STR and +2CON, and vice versa.
When a population of orcs is starting to exceed the resources of the surrounding area the ratio of genders swings sharply towards male*, and groups of young warriors (usually) will start setting out looking for new territory. These will consist of a mix of high-status and low-status males* the later of which will be expected to become female* once a new territory is found.
Allowed to run its natural course (triggered by loss of status or environmental factors) this transformation places no strain on the individual. Orcish shamans know rituals to trigger and accelerate the process to as little as a few hours, with proportional agony for the unfortunate subject, and this is the usual fate for those convicted (I use the term convicted very loosely) of cowardice or other not-worthy-of-death crimes. Other circumstances where these rituals are invoked include
- when the entire tribe need to move a great distance quickly the female population may become male for a short time
- great orc heroes who are starting to lose their edge (or whose goals are at odds with the priesthood) may be "ordered by Gruumsh" (or Luthic) to pass on their strength through mothering cubs rather than fathering them. These individuals typically have a high chance of surviving multiple births, producing many strong offspring, and retaining all the skills (levels) they acquired as males continue to play an important role in lair defence.
That orc brood mother? She's still got n levels of barbarian and a divinely ordained mothering instinct that puts some dragons to shame. She also has some opinions on that discussion you were having about the ethics of slaughtering all the women and children of the tribe.
As one orc's mother may be another's father orc family trees can get very complicated. This doesn't really matter to orcs who don't much care about any more than their immediate parentage. It only matters if you have descended from a notable hero, in which case it is merely a detail whether he sired or whelped you / your ancestor. Even with this orc generational memories are sufficiently short that all but the very greatest are usually forgotten within a handful of generations.
~~~
Half Orcs
Orc seed is strong and mutable, and orcs can (and will attempt to) mate with the females of any humanoid species capable of bearing live young. Some of the weaker monstrous races allow or even encourage these half-breeds to term hoping to take advantage of strength from the orc parent, while the stronger ones will simply abort or kill the "weakling" child.
Most demi-humans (elves, dwarves etc) would rather commit suicide than bear the shame of bearing a half-orc child, and if they can't or won't do it themselves their friends and neighbours will. Such pregnancies are almost always aborted one way or another, and if they are not the mother almost never survives the birth. Those cubs which survive to find other food usually live out a solitary, bestial existence although sometime small packs will form in the aftermath of orcish raids. Those who do not and perish of starvation often rise again as childlike ghouls.
I'm going to pause and give a nod to the Midnight campaign setting here, rather than half-human their half-orcs (dworgs) are half-dwarven by virtue of a distant common ancestry and are even more reviled than half-orcs in regular campaign worlds.
Humans are the exception - their biology more often allows the pregnancy to come to term (7-8 months) and give birth before the child is formed enough to be trying to make it's own way out. As another race with a strong parenting instinct they then more often than not allow the child to live and although this is often a miserable life it has better odds of survival than in an orcish crèche.
The majority of half-orcs are born with a clear sex as appropriate to the parent's biology (and can reproduce as such) but many display (or rather hide) some hermaphroditic features.