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Mythos:
In ancient times, the term Orc referred to no specific creature. They were shapeless phantoms, pulses of evil energy that haunted the world in its darkest places. They are the minions of Orcus, an ancient god of the underworld that was not worshipped but placated, to avoid bringing the tortures of death upon the living. But in the darkest of days when the power of Orcus is at its peak, the Orcs can take on physical form and unleash the biddings of their dark master across the mortal world. Infused with Orcus' darkest of power, the Orcs can take on a truly monstrous form.
In ancient times, the term Orc referred to no specific creature. They were shapeless phantoms, pulses of evil energy that haunted the world in its darkest places. They are the minions of Orcus, an ancient god of the underworld that was not worshipped but placated, to avoid bringing the tortures of death upon the living. But in the darkest of days when the power of Orcus is at its peak, the Orcs can take on physical form and unleash the biddings of their dark master across the mortal world. Infused with Orcus' darkest of power, the Orcs can take on a truly monstrous form.
Insight:
I was originally going to skip Orcs for the Acheron Series, because I don't like the idea of creatures that are intentionally ugly, I don't like fodder races that only exist to be bad guys and I don't like that Orcs are just made up by fantasy writers with no basis in genuine mythology. But then I binge-watched all of The Muppet Show with its sexy pig characters (Annie Sue more so than Piggy), and decided, what the heck, let's make a sexy pig demon and call it an Orc. There was a certain era of RPGs that depicted Orcs as pig-people or at least pig-nosed people, and to this day, I think of true Orcs as pig-shaped. As I point out in the mythos blurb, the word "Orc" just meant monster until Tolkien used it in Lord of the Rings. The word comes from the ancient Roman death god, Orcus, who wasn't part of the normal pantheon and seemed to live on in folklore long after the other gods had died out. So an "Orc" is some kind of servant of Orcus or a piece of his shadowy underworld powers made manifest. Sounds like the start of a Lovecraftian horror story, and a much more entertaining background for antagonistic fantasy people. Or at least a thinly veiled excuse to make sexy pig people with horns and dinosaur tails. I tried to look up other mythological pig creatures for alt names, but although there are specific pig monsters, like Chrysaor, Gullinbursti or Zhu Bajie, I couldn't find any races of mythological pig creatures.
Fun fact: you've probably heard that pigs are smarter than dogs, right? Well, wild boars are significantly smarter than domesticated pigs, as they've had the smarts bred out of them to make them easier to control. So if an Orc has pig-like physical properties, they should actually be one of the brainier races.
I was originally going to skip Orcs for the Acheron Series, because I don't like the idea of creatures that are intentionally ugly, I don't like fodder races that only exist to be bad guys and I don't like that Orcs are just made up by fantasy writers with no basis in genuine mythology. But then I binge-watched all of The Muppet Show with its sexy pig characters (Annie Sue more so than Piggy), and decided, what the heck, let's make a sexy pig demon and call it an Orc. There was a certain era of RPGs that depicted Orcs as pig-people or at least pig-nosed people, and to this day, I think of true Orcs as pig-shaped. As I point out in the mythos blurb, the word "Orc" just meant monster until Tolkien used it in Lord of the Rings. The word comes from the ancient Roman death god, Orcus, who wasn't part of the normal pantheon and seemed to live on in folklore long after the other gods had died out. So an "Orc" is some kind of servant of Orcus or a piece of his shadowy underworld powers made manifest. Sounds like the start of a Lovecraftian horror story, and a much more entertaining background for antagonistic fantasy people. Or at least a thinly veiled excuse to make sexy pig people with horns and dinosaur tails. I tried to look up other mythological pig creatures for alt names, but although there are specific pig monsters, like Chrysaor, Gullinbursti or Zhu Bajie, I couldn't find any races of mythological pig creatures.
Fun fact: you've probably heard that pigs are smarter than dogs, right? Well, wild boars are significantly smarter than domesticated pigs, as they've had the smarts bred out of them to make them easier to control. So if an Orc has pig-like physical properties, they should actually be one of the brainier races.