Fantasy: where an orc is not just an orc
My wife asked me the other day, “what’s an Orc?”
My heart skipped a beat, my palms - sweaty. In my mind a dozen flashes of undead tusked faces, wielding scimitars in a massive, heaving, grunting horde.
“Well, babe…”
Or were the faces green and were they in small bands? Did they have shamanic abilities and complex languages, or were they dumb brutish masses? Were they cave or plains dwelling? Is an Orc and Ogre? Does she mean troll?
“Do you mean Troll?”
By the time I asked half of these questions she was already on to texting with her friend and I was left twisted into clammy, silent disbelief that she would even ask the question. A question as huge as that is reserved for Stephen Hawking, greek philosophers, and those trying to solve the mystery of Oak Island. A question that has permeated the basement arguments of octave shifting pubescents for years, centuries... millennia?
The word Orc originally comes from the Latin name Orcus, appropriated from the conquered Etruscan civilization (modern western Italy) in 700-400 B.C. Depicted as a hairy bearded giant, god of the underworld and punisher of broken oaths.
From Wikipedia -
“From Orcus' association with death and the underworld, his name came to be used for demons and other underworld monsters, particularly in Italian where orco refers to a kind of monster found in fairy-tales that feeds on human flesh.
The French word ogre may have come from variant forms of this word, orgo or ogro; in any case... are exactly the same sort of creature.”
The descriptive and cultural differences of modern Orcs and Ogres could fill volumes and would need to be reserved for a later entry. In Tolkien's classic canon he depicted the Orc as a fallen Elf “taken by dark powers...tortured and mutilated..ruined and terrible forms of life.” Physically squat in stature, with broad noses, bow legs, sallow skin, long arms and fangs. Tolkien described a “huge” orc chieftain as “almost man high” to give you a measure of stature. Not fully incompetent mongrels, orcs in Tolkien's world were expert miners, making practical tools and weapons of war. But nothing of beauty or grace. Compared to the probable current most popular iteration from World of Warcraft, the Orc is described as being of Shamanic clans on the lush world of Draenor. Not giants, but very large in stature, the Orcs of Warcraft are green skinned, heavily muscled, and tusked. As opposed to Tolkein’s enslaved, morphed race, the Orcs of Azeroth are a free and self reliant race, able to self govern, create ornate weapons and armor, and have a deep heritage of natural magic:
The orcs of Draenor had lived in a noble shamanistic society, roaming in tribes the grasslands of Nagrand on their dusty world of Draenor, for over 5,000 years. They lived in peace with the draenei refuges and were at war with the ogres. Eventually, the presence of the draenei drew the Burning Legion to Draenor. After investigating their world, the powerful Eredar demon lord Kil'jaeden[… ]convinced Ner'zhul that the draenei were conspiring against the orcs, and were planning on attacking. In exchange for their service to the Burning Legion, …[etc].
Draenor, by the way, is one of several continents comprising the World of Warcraft universe and encompasses 13 fully developed cities and 11 distinct zones. All with a unique layout, terrain, history, and population.
Or, there's my favorite Orc story from Neverwinter Nights of Obuld Manyarrows who raised an Orc horde of 20,000 (only to align with the dwarves against other Orcs) to claim legitimacy of his people for trade and common defense.
Who thinks of this stuff!? Beyond crooked teeth and their (tired) opposition to elven races, these Orcs are hardly the same. An Orc is not simply an Orc.
What’s to be appreciated here is not only the differences in these descriptions of Orcs, noting that there are thousands in between, but that an Orc is an entirely invented subject. The imagination of people for 2800 years has woven hundreds of intricate tapestries of the appearances, diets, customs, abilities, professions, religions, governments, domestic and foreign policies, and hobbies of an entirely “make believe” creatures. To cycle through elves (including dark, wood, and high), trolls, goblins, humans, dwarves, hobbits, gnomes (not the same), undead races, sentient dragons, and the hundreds of other creatures of modern fantasy, is to marvel that all possess a deep back story from those acting as architects of imagination.
Though we no longer allow the Ancient Orc to oversee our business contracts, with detail comes belief, and these beliefs have allowed us to become lost in the worlds (minds) of others, appreciating the structures, their imaginations and playing roles in the stories they tell.
Brady Grimes appreciates Enter(ing) the Infinite.