The Problem with D&D Orcs 

Big Bad Meanie Zucchini Brigade reporting for duty 😡

ORCS ARE BEST, GREEN IZ BEST, DEREFOR ORCS IZ GREEN

I have to say, the lore of how Gruumsh created the caves where the orcs live is sick as hell.

Fun fact: "Green" Orcs come from Warhammer's green Orks. GW made them green, so they would be distinct from Tolkien Orcs, who are described as having a swart and sallow (dark and sickly) skin tone. Then Warcraft made their Orcs green influenced by Warhammer, and then everyone else seemed to follow suit, including D&D. Ironic that GW made their Orks green so they would be different from other Orcs, and now thanks to them, green is the default colour for most Orcs.

Once had an orc paladin whose oath was to strive to be the best at anything he pursued His chosen pursuit? The parties chef who always spoke about how cooking was a battle against your ingredients, using fire and utensils to force them to submit to your will That was a fun character

"The DnD police can't get you at your own table" Nobody tell him about WOTC's relationship with the Pinkertons😅

TBF Dungeon Meshi has some of the best fantasy race designs I've ever seen. I love that they made half-foots (halflings) not just Hobbits or miniature tallmen (humans).

Inspired the idea to make gruumsh's eye be an artifact that must be recovered from an elf temple and somehow make contact with gruumsh to restore his true self

The best interpretation of Orcs I've seen (amendment: the best, prior to this video) was, once again, Sir Terry Freaking Pratchett, RIP. They were a rumored artificial race, believed to be made primarily from Goblin stock, engineered to be supersoldiers; not just fast and strong, but highly intelligent. A main character in one book realizes that he, himself, IS a surviving Orc, and on seeing a vision of the original Orc armies, realized that they couldn't have been based on goblins--the only race ferocious enough to based them off of was *humans.*

One of the many characters I've created was a wildfire druid orc. I gave them the mentality of, "Never fight nature." "You will wear your scars into battle with pride, but let them heal first." "Revenge will be worthless if you die." Still very much war hungry, but more pragmatic. I enjoy working with lore that I've been given.

the greyish skin thing is actually closer to tolkiens original description(of course if humans come in multiple colors no reason orcs cant so no reason not to have both)

Now I'm remembering the orc character I made. A one eyed orc exiled from his tribe (that's how he lost his eye) for the unforgivable sin of not believing civilization to be automatically bad. Yet he's also a paladin granted powers by Grumsh. (Yeah, he's a little confused too.) He now wanders through more civilized lands attempting to learn their ways so that orcs might adapt them to truly conquer. He's literally an evil paladin with the Oath of Conquest.

"The D&D police can't get you at your own table, you're fine, you're safe" *Pinkerton's sets down their beer*

Fun fact: Plato, the philosopher, was also a wrestler. "Plato" wasn't even his real name, it's just a nickname that means broad. Supposedly, when he lost an argument in philosophy, he would just flex his muscles and suddenly the other person would agree with him. Basically what I'm saying is that Plato was 100% an orc philosopher.

My favorite corellon v. Gruumsh story is that they were brothers and to compensate for corellon being the prettiest most specialest, Gruumsh got an eye that could see the future, which corellon gouged out, robbing Gruumsh of his clairvoyance.

another detail on how you could play a half orc in an interesting way at least following the manual: Half orcs are very emotional creatures as the player handsbook says in the race description "Beyond the rage of Gruumsh, half-orcs feel emotion powerfully. Rage doesn't just quicken their pulse, it makes their bodies burn. An insult stings like acid, and sadness saps their strength. But they laugh loudly and heartily, and simple pleasures - feasting, drinking, wrestling, drumming, and wild dancing - fill their hearts with joy. They tend to be short-tempered and sometimes sullen, more inclined to action than contemplation and to fighting than arguing. And when their hearts swell with love, they leap to perform acts of great kindness and compassion." you can write excellent concepts with this basis. As well as excellent roleplaying (and above all they make half-orcs who go beyond the basic concept of "bad monster go brr" even more viable)

I'm screaming in my garage for the Eberron video...DAILY. I get up, eat breakfast, SCREAM IN THE GARAGE, then I take a shower, get to work...

One thing I like about the Pathfinder orcs is that they are described as being not just angry and violent, but incredibly emotional and passionate. Which means an orc's love would make them profondly loyal and affectionate. I think it would perfectly fit with your past Gruumsh version.

Fun fact : The reason you can play as an Orc in the elder scrolls , is because the player character made a truce / alliance with them in the second game . Well , provided you didnt just say No to main quest lady after she send you the second latter asking "I have been waiting hero so many day , you coming or not ?"

Here's the thing, I actually really like the idea of different colored orcs for different areas. Green (most common) in forests and grasslands, grey in caves and caverns (and just rocky places), tan (Because I

I love this. I'm currently running a SpallJammer campaign where my players have 'adopted' the Orc tribe on Chandos. I'm combining the "jock" angle with the "Romans were the jocks of the ancient world" to turn them into a kind of "Orcish Roman Empire".

I have an Orc bard and this fits him perfectly. He's a big dumb sweetheart who only wants to play heavy metal (he has an enchanted lute/amp made by his gnome friend). His only goal is to learn better licks and find a drummer he thinks is worthy enough to jam with. He doesn't like violence, but will bonk if he has to.

One of the most creative reiterations you've done thus far. I can't help but imagine two orcs sitting at a table growing slowly more angry and aggressive towards each other while arguing aboot philosophy.

"The D&D police can't get you at your own table" The Pinkertons may disagree

I LOVE your take on the Corellon and Gruumsh conflict. Particularly the idea that there are two distinct categories of gods: "creator" and "destroyer". It a very fun concept to play around with, as most divine beings seem to prefer being creators to destroyers. You could also use it to expand upon the relationships between Gruumsh, Corellon, and other major D&D deities. For instance, Lolth started as a "normal" elf, before using her ambition to achieve dominance for the elves, and godhood for herself. Maybe she played BOTH Corellon and Gruumsh against eachother, giving each a type of poison that would wound and weaken the other, enabling her to siphon the other. Gruumsh loses, and Lolth becomes a "creator god" by stealing some of his essence. Also, Maglubiyet. Maglubiyet is currently fighting against Gruumsh, probably to conquer the orcs and make them the 4th race to fall under his control (along with goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears). It could be that he is an unusual "destroyer" deity, that is trying to become a "creator". And he now wants Gruumsh, who was one of the original creator deities, but is now "vulnerable", being an incomplete hate-driven reflection of his former self. (Bonus points: this also helps distinguish the two otherwise similar deities. Gruumsh is warring to take the regions of creation he was wrongfully denied. Maglubiyet is an interloper, that just wants to conquer and take what was never rightfully his).

Honestly this is probably some of your best work in regards to lore. Like it fits in almost seamlessly with the already present lore especially since we already do know Gruumsh getting his eye gouged out massively changed him. Especially since that eye came with most of his wisdom and foresight in it. As for this original form of Gruumsh, I think he definitely fits a kind of nature god vibe with the Verdant Orcs. Like if Corellon and the Elves were as pretty as a field of flowers, Gruumsh and his Orcs were as mighty as the oldest of Redwood Trees. Though with the tusks, general toughness, violent temperament, and connection to nature, I think some boar theming fits them. Now with the Verdant Orcs, I could see them keeping tamed boars around as more pets, mounts, and other roles. Now I wanna make a Verdant Orc Ranger with a super swine for an animal companion.

I have no other way to say it, but every time I see you’ve uploaded a video it absolutely makes my day. Thank you for sharing your imagination and creativity with us.

That's not an orc, that's a green elf.

Excellent storytelling fundamentals. You made Gruumsh into a character with a goal and obstacles instead of a static being. That change not only gives us room as DMs, it's narratively satisfying. Well done.

The ship has very much NOT already sailed on doing an Eberron focused video. Eberron is great, and by far my favorite D&D setting. Not to mention Keith Baker has also put out two "3rd party" (I struggle to call them 3rd party when he literally created Eberron) source books for 5e in Exploring Eberron and Chronicles of Eberron, with a third and final one on the way called Frontiers of Eberron. Not to mention an additional bit of content in the form of Dread Metrol, which delves into an Eberron specific Domain of Dread. Keith Baker and Eberron have addressed one of my biggest issues with the way 5e has gone about tackling different settings, that being the "one-and-done" mentality where they only release a single sourcebook for a specific setting. It's led to 5e feeling a wide as an ocean, but deep as a puddle, when it comes to worldbuilding. People want their favorite settings to be more fleshed out and elaborated on, and thanks to Keith Baker we've actually gotten that with Eberron, even if it's not TECHNICALLY official content (and with what WoTC has been putting out lately, who really cares about what's official anymore?).

My favorite character in Forgotten realms was a Half Orc Druid, who's motivation was raised by a farmer, his mother died during childbirth after she and other townsfolk were rescued from an Orc bandit group (you can guess what happened), he had twin brother, they both were more orc than human which caused the blood of Gruumsh to "boil" harder in them, they were bullied, his brother ran away, my character ran into the forest one day to chop trees to let off his anger, suddenly one of the trees went "ouch!", then when an oak Treeant held my (teenage) character in his hand and saw him terrified and lost chose to teach him the ways of Druidism to make up for his rampage of cutting down trees and to help him control his anger. My character had then three personal quests that was open ended: Find out what happened to his twin brother, repair and regrow forests, and to try to overcome the curse that flowed through his blood due to the wicked god of the Orcs. ...but. Would the ways of druidism be enough to overcome the curse which infected his orcish blood? Would Khaddock the Restless ever find a way to quell the rage Boiling within his very veins? Edit: and now I've watched the entire video, it fits Khaddock even better!

Slight misconception: in DnD, the mountain orcs are green and the grey orcs are gray and came from this portal from an alternate world. Mountain orcs live in caves and are piglike. Gray orcs look like the one in the 5e manual and do build stuff. Gray orcs just don’t live on the sword coast where like all published adventures happen.

Ok, this is REALLY well-done! You clearly put a lot of thought into analyzing and re-imagining the role of orcs in fantasy. I truly respect the dedication to not forcing a retcon on the Forgotten Realms lore AND creating something that isn't harmfully stereotyped. Inspirational, in fact. Phenomenal work!! 💚 P.S. As a lover of the Eberron setting, I'd be curious about what you'd pull from to make a twist. (Warforged are probably the lowest-hanging fruit but they already got a video - maybe Shifters? Maybe as an example of the many attempts to bridge mystic fantasy and science fantasy? 500k special? 👀)

How have you not written a book yet, this reimagining of Gruumsh is inspired. First class storytelling.

Dude this Verdant Orcs concept is downright brilliant. I’m running a campaign with a pacifist, violence-as-last-resort party and wanted to incorporate Orcs, my favorite race, but didn’t know how. Can I steal this? Also, appreciated how the video didn’t take the lazy approach to explaining why Orcs are “problematic.” Kudos!

I love how you incorporate sponsors into your videos with dnd type stories, the personal touch makes me want to buy it fr

absolutely love this little progression -- i've been waiting for a chance to play with a half orc paladin based around the same idea, though i'll admit i hadn't known about the coloration thing. the chlorophyll explanation was so cool!

In an asian-themed (Chinese and Korean, not Japanese) world I created for a oneshot, orcs are the most technologicaly advanced of all races and second in number only to elves (Who reproduce as quickly as other races while living and being young for 10 times as long, so no wonder they're first). Orcs are so advanced in fact, that they invented gunpowder by attempting to copy dragon breath, and were the first outside elven lands to develop both glassworking and metallurgy, and on top of all that they control and develop every major trade route in the known world (90% of the world is unknown, but it's still a lot). But they're still warriors, just more British empire and less vikings in terms they do warfare. Edit: Also, in this world dwarves are Korean.

An interesting take on Gruumsh. Typically in my games, I've not redeemed Gruumsh or given him a magical reason like this (I also don't have it be Corellon who he fought) but instead I use Luthic, his wife. She's not much "nicer" but she embodies the literal energy of a mama bear for her Orc Children, so I tend to have Gruumsh losing it over vengeance and getting back what they lost, and Luthic, who originally was with him, finally going "I love you, but our CHILDREN need something different." and offering a different path. Sometimes I even fast-forward and have Gruumsh and her working together.

At this point, every time I watch a pointy hat video the first thing I do is check the description for a goggle doc.

❤❤ absolutely loved the video, you knocked it out of the park! From the historical breakdown to the stats and abilities and of course the fantastic jokes. It was an awesome ride. The best part was your reimagining! The idea of utilizing orcs in that way with their lore was simply genius. I would love to play such a campaign but I think you hit the nail on the head early on when you talked about the love of orcs having grown over the decades. A game or series centered around something like this would be amazing and would really please a massive number of d&d and fantasy fans. Keep up the great work!

WotC has tried to "fix" the issues presented by older editions, something that is admirable, but they often take the laziest option when they do so. You however, put in the effort without retconning anything, which is incredible. So thank you and please keep adding to this game.

I really love the idea of these Verdant orcs. I actually had an idea about them that I think is cool. What if, for a story where they are trying to cure and restore Gruumsh, you make it so they are not all the way green, but instead are gray with green spots. As they go further in restoring Gruumsh, his influence on them grows, signified by the green spreading on them.

Getting some serious Eilistraee vibes from this. Love it. Would also love to see you tackle something similar with the drow and Eilistraee

I think this is genuinely one of the best videos you've made. The way you incorporated the lore, the script, the editing, amazing. also, i hate to be that person, but do you know when you'll post the Archon stats? your video inspired me to write a whole campaign so having a stat block for one of the main NPCs would be nice 😅

I've read somewhere a version of that "Orc Genesis" lore where Grumsh made them to be able to survive and conquer any territory, so i usually use biome themed colored orcs in my games, like, grey for mountais, yellow for deserts, white for snowy places, green for forest, i also give them some bonuses based on that biomes.

Your ability to ask “what if…?” And then create that story is incredible. You respect the connection the community has to the themes and ideas as they are and beautifully weave within and around the given constraints to tell a deeper and richer story that shines a new light on an old tale. Thank you for sharing your stories and creativity. It’s definitely helped me to be more creative with my own story telling and to look for more interesting ways to answer the question of how do I take what I like and make it what I love?

honestly, i think this video lacked a bit of research i missed more stuff talking about the different kind of orcs (greensxgreysxblues) and i believe that we could've adapted something without even needing to add a new race since its on the same multiverse, i think the wildemount (if remember correctly) already have kinda done it... it would be more about how to adapt it...

Now that's what I call some good homebrew! I can already imagine an Verdant Orc fighter who specializes in defensive fighting tanking around on battlefields playing at being a Merc with a heart. Background is Soldier and was once the village guard for a small village of Verdant Orcs. One day his mother and other Orcs Elders receive a vision telling of a set of scrolls that might be the answer to restoring "The Green" to all orc kind. A type of astral magic that could heal magic through "faith". Unsure of the true meaning of this vision, but still eager to find out if there truly is a way to unite all of Orc kind once more, he sets out to adventure as a means to learn more about the possibilities that this vision could bring!

YES *PLEASE* make an Eberron video!!! I'm so looking forward to what you could add to the setting, and Keith baker *has* been making followup books for it, even if not licensed with WOTC - see Exploring Eberron and Morgrave Miscellany

7:51 love the Hazel shout out, her work is wonderful ❤

My favorite part about your creative reimaginings is seeing how you manage to include so many seemingly disparate components. It shows you love the game and respect the players, even when they have different values than you-something the world desperately needs more of right now.

2 am, sleepy af, tomorrow is exam, seeing your new video "Ah f*ck it, bring me it! "

Eberron does a lot right. I'd love to see a Pointy Hat video on it. Lots of excellent lore and really does a good job flipping tropes and giving a lot of ways to make it your own.

AND to put it into a perfect time frame: Gruumsh's real inner self didn't just send out waves of help to his people, but at the beginning of the spellplague, the poison Corellon used to damage his mind got weaker and weaker due to it's magical essence. Gruumsh actually got a little calmer and harmonious these days and as he saw what he had done to his people, not just with his mind, but with his eyes, he lifted the curse he woved upon his kind. Therefore orcs could build a culture on their own and revel in new ways to approach live. At first they built strongholds, then their first own cities and in the next years, the first kingdom of the orcish race, the kingdom of many-arrows grew in power and strenght, many miles away up in the north, hidden in the valleys of the spine of the world. King Obould Many-Arrows were an intelligent orc, even by human standards and with his wisdom and insight, many orcish tribes gathered in his kingdom, which were founded by a truce between him and bruenor battlehammer, the dwarven king of mithril hall, who even became a hidden friend of him, long before the spellplague. It were a time of change and evolution, a time destined to be infinite, but frackled at the same time. In the years of the spellplague, Gruumsh's influence grew stronger with the aspect of Talos, the storm lord, and Corellons poison got worse, which is why many orcish tribes were shackled by his call to war again. Thanks to king Obould, who were an exarch of Gruumsh himself, who stood with his inner will against the calling of his godfather. In this act he were able to shelter all the orcs in his kingdom from Gruumsh's influence. From this day on the orcs evolved, their skin, formerly pale or dusky, got it's primal and lively green color again and they spread their culture into the world. Obould died after many years of old age and were raised by Gruumsh to a deity himself, although many speculate, that he did it only to gain a chance to corrupt the rebels. PLEASE tell me if there are any plot holes in the lore! I've made it with help of the forgotten realms wiki and i don't know if there is everything, which is known about this stories. I hope you like this idea of the many arrows, i think they're way too underrated and sometimes they even get forgotten, which is kinda sad, really. :D

Great minds think alike, because this is kinda similar to Pathfinder's take. See, when they were fighting with the Dwarves all the way to the surface, not all of them ended up in not-Utah. Some of them ended up in not-Congo. "This ain't so bad," they thought. Then they bumped into demons, who were messing around with people's souls. That angered the Orcs, and not they're renowned through the Mwangi Expanse as demon hunters. Also, Elves are the space aliens here.

The Verdant Orc lore (and art!) you dropped at the end was incredible! This whole video was a pleasure to watch 😊

Back in the 3e days. I noticed Paladins in Fareun needed a god, but did not need to match the God's alignment. SO I rolled up a Half-Orc Paladin of Gruumsh. His goal was to bring back the original Gruumsh of Balance. His main enemies were the church of Grumsh,m who wanted to keep the current Gruumsh,. DMs hated it and called me a bad RPer. But now, It just means I made the first Verdant Orc.

Good news everyone! After One DnD drops, none of this matters. Effectively Hasbro will have defeated racism by deleting the differences between all races. Wait...

Dude, your videos were extremely good before (and still are). But this one is off the charts amazing. The jokes land so hard, I had several laugh out moments. That never happens to me. Amazing job, man. Wish you all the best.

I absolutely adore orcs, I think they are endlessly fascinating both as genre staples and what that entails as well as how varied and fun their manifestations can be. The dnd iterations have issues but I think Volo’s has some real highlights. What you did with Gruumsh was fantastic! It makes so much sense and is just plain interesting and engaging which is a gold star for lore/worldbuilding. I’ll always be of the opinion that Gruumsh is kinda justified cause what the other gods did was messed up. You really flew with that and gave Gruumsh some great nuance, which is hard given how hes like. Only critique I could offer (and this is quite common with dnd orcs so don’t feel bad) but some of the other orc gods present some incredible opportunities to add onto this. Luthic alone is imo the most interesting facet to orc lore in dnd but she is sadly often forgotten due to how niche she is. She is currently the main divine steward behind orcs in canon lore (or whatever counts for canon now, but thats a whole thing) and is a protector and shepherd as well as a role model for orc women and mothers. In contrast to her brutal and violent husband she is much more subtle and defensive, though still strong and fierce in her own right. Honestly she is likely the only reason orcs haven’t completely died out as she is responsible for fertility as well as reigning in their bloodlust spurred on by her husband. Its also implied shes in a loveless marriage with Gruumsh which is just fascinating. Given all that it would be pretty easy to add her into the story. She was Gruumsh’s devoted wife before his madness, but now finds herself having both to endure the shattered husk of the god she used to love, as well as working to ensure her people can survive and possibly heal him. She could be heavily influential among the verdant orcs, though I imagine she has to spend much of her focus on the non verdant orcs. I would also wonder if she would not be quite spoiled against the vengeance many orcs seek given what it has wrought, no matter how justified the initial intentions. This would explain her more defensive nature as well as why shes so unsatisfied with Gruumsh as she might ultimately blame him for this. Drama! (Its interesting to note that theres some small implications that Lolth and Gruumsh’s alliance against Corellon might have been something more…) Yurtrus is the orc god of death and disease. Maybe he spawned after the curse broke Gruumsh as a sort of manifestation of its effects. He is that poison made divine through its merging with Gruumsh. Thus he is responsible for the withering and entropic effects orcs have upon things they attempt to create. It would fit within his general domain and make him a potential obstacle or a potential avenue to healing Gruumsh. I’m just spitballing though. Still there are many possibilities. Shargaas is also an orc god of death, though hes much more focused around darkness, cowardice, and trickery. Imagine if he was completely different before Gruumsh lost his eye, but upon seeing his overgod so hideously changed he ran and hid instead of attempting to handle his fury with the rest of the gods. This outcast him and branded him as he is now, a god of rogues and scoundrels who skulk shamefully in the dark of night. He could be an element that despises the verdant orcs for he thrives on caves and dark places rather than the sun or nature. Gruumsh’s two sons are the least interesting of the bunch, but maybe they were both effected by their father’s madness too. Bahgtru was too weak in the mind and so succumbed to his father’s madness wholeheartedly, turning him into the boundless rage monster we know today. Ilneval may have been able to handle the curse, remaining mostly sane, though still tinged with a need for bloodlust and battle. This would explain why hes the more strategic and calculating of the family. He probably supports his father’s mission of revenge and is a patron of those orcs, verdant or otherwise, who seek to fulfill that duty. Theres so much more that could be covered with each god but hopefully this can give a partial idea of how to include the often forgotten other deities in the orc pantheon. I loved this video dude, keep up the good work!

FUCK I LOVE THE ORC YESSSSS I'M ITALIAN I DON'T TALK A REALLY GOOD ENGLIS BUT I LOVE YOUR VIDIO AND I LOVE TE ORC

I love this video!! I'm glad we can both embrace the alignment "inheritence" while also allowing for complexity and depth. Awesome story. I will definitely use this in my setting

Sooo...the elves become the evil race?🙄 Orc in Tolkien was an umbrella term for goblins, hobgoblins and trolls. In classic D&D/AD&D they were human sized, big green and beefy is a Warhammer/WoWC import into AD&D.

Seeing this video gave me a traumatic flashback to Extra Credits

Eberron is my favorite D&D setting, and I've been playing since 2e. So I'd love to see you cover the setting!

In my setting, Orcs are descended from elves who ritualistically call forth and cull the entities from beyond the Umbrawelt-basically a chain of islands that is like the shadowfold from Shadow and Bone and the astral plane collapsed on one another due to a magical society fucking with the arcane veil itself, which gave rise to necromancy and other weird, powerful spells that exist in 5e like disintegrate and wish, known as wild magic (the goal is to present magic as a storytelling device rather than an arguably over-used mechanic that is divisive in the D&D community). They are essentially under a pact with their own rituals and society to practice this culling, known as the Helltide, and over generations it has altered their physicality and granted them many gifts. They are able to walk the line between life and death more easily and move rather freely/quickly due to being a coastal people who ritualistically fight massive battles on the ocean floor as their Tidecallers sing the Song of the Sword and part the sea Mose-style. Another cool thing about their culture is that anyone from any race and background can partake in these rituals and be considered an Orc. In fact, they even begin to take on the definitive orc features like growing tusks and the greying of their skin after a few Helltides, their offspring also under these conditions, effectively creating a new generation of Orcs with each new member. While a majority of Orcs descend from elves, there are those who were descended from both humans and even the beast races like tabaxi and tortles.

Actually really helpful, about to start my first home-brew campaign and one of the players is playing a half orc, also there's an orc capital in the mountains to the north I vaguely added in, this really helps to give me some direction and inspiration. Thanks, Pointy Hat.

“To green, or not to green, that is the question”. --- WILFRIED OF QUAKESPEAR, ORC BARD, FATHER OF SIX

An important part to remember is like the Tiefling, an Orc would be gernerally hated and treated with fear and caution

Love this Idea. Your videos are so much fun. Thanks for making them, Im sure it takes a lot of work.

I was literally thinking I wanted to hear you talk about Eberron earlier in the video just because of how different the lore is for Orcs and Goblins etc. Do an Eberron video! General thoughts/critiques would be fine, it’s a massive topic. Or just focus on whatever element you want. Thanks for all the great ideas and advice!

I love these changes to Gruumsh and it really does help flesh out the godbuilding lore! But Pointy, please! We still need the Archon Dragon Stat block! The description hasn't been updated yet! 😭

I don't know why people get so up in arms about a species that is inherently antisocial and stupid. Most animals are anti-social and stupid and nobody bats an eye, but make something one step above an ape and suddenly it's "awful." I think that if you want to play as an orc, then it should be about fighting AGAINST the limitations of the race. Accepting those traits and making a story that involves those traits. If you don't want to do that, then you aren't playing as an orc, you're playing something else entirely. Why call them "orcs?" Why not just call them "titans?" "Sympathetic Orcs" is like "the damsel who saves herself," something that used to be rare, but is now boringly common, and is only ever interesting in juxtaposition with the previous standard.

Thought of an orc war cleric once. Picture a hyper aggressive missionary promoting and giving passionate sermons about his pantheon of war gods.

This should become D&D canon *immediately!* Great video and great ideas! Holy shit!

i just wanted to say that ive been making homebrew setting as sorta a passion project for my own expansive menagerie of characters i'll never play because i'm a forever dm. i've used brownies and courtly elves as key parts of the lore as one of the defining features of the world is how it WAS an extention of the feywild but isn't anymore. so thank you so much for creating them, also alarcan from the 100k sub oneshot is there too. i made up a tavern for when i ran that oneshot thats run by a blunt mannered orc and chefed a tiefling who is so squeaky he's barely understandable. i try and include it in every oneshot or campaign i run because of the reactions i get whenever they walk into a tavern and hear oliver (the orc's) voice and the wacky explaination of how they somehow moved their business to an entirely new location.

In 3.5 Monster Manual on pp. 203-204, there is a section for Orcs as Characters, as there are for many humanoid and -ish races. Without going into the twiddly bits, their mods are +4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha. So they have been available as a playable race for at least 20 years.

Orcs were already playable in 3.5e. I don't know where you're getting that they weren't playable from

i dunno, orcs as philosopher warriors who are loyal to their local group but constantly infighting with other groups of orcs would make them resemble Ancient Greeks, which would be cool "what is justice?" "hmmm" "hmmm" "hmmm" "Hark! the Argolid Orcs have crossed the isthmus!" "Megaran Orcs! to arms!"

I do love how much you use imagery from the Warcraft film and Durotan, because honestly that movie did such a good job both having Orcs be sympathetic AND sticking to their known history. It's a shame the movie wasn't well received because that's one of my go-to depictions of Orcs.

Another interesting thing if you want to play a peaceful orc without bending Faerun lore: take a look into odonti orcs, a type of orcs blessed by eldath who try to live in peace and harmony. But sadly they got discovered by human and got ensalved to fight as soldiers but some remained. There is some cool lore to find about them online. (But sadly it’s not 5th edition) I very appreciated your video and I really love your idea about gruumsh.

I'm gonna say something potentially controversial: Orcs being a problem for the rest of the world was buy-in-large Corellon's fault. If he didn't decide to "prank" Grumsh, by denying him and his people a home, the orcs would have settled in much better, and have been much less prone to all-out war against everyone else. I'm not expecting kisses & hugs, but maybe something like the lizardfolk, where there's no real beef. Just sometimes we're serving opposing leaders/interests.

Actually, yeah! I would love if you made a video on Eberron. I love your way of explaining stuff and eberron isnt necessarilly the most intuitive of settings (same with Dragonlance/Krynn) for me at least. Looking forward for it already my friend, have a great week!

As a half orc player, it's fitting the elf god's name sounds like "quarreling" or "quarrel on" No clue how I missed that.

I love the design for verdant orcs. You did a really good job reimagining the lore without retconning it. Can you do tieflings? I know they don't "need" fixing, but I'd love an original subrace, maybe based on the 4 horsemen or ars goetia demons

While I wasn’t expecting trash (always love your videos to bits), I wasn’t expecting this to become one of my favorites from you!! You've inspired me in my little non-dm imaginings!

I definitely think the evil-aligned dnd races are the one part of dnd that deserves the most homebrew lore. This rewrite is absolutely incredible and gives me so many ideas for what a small verdant orc society or organization might look like, what some of its challenges might be especially as they relate to elves. I think I might run with an idea that, until Gruumsh is healed, children of verdant orcs are born grey and with rage. Every orc must forgive the elves in their heart and then complete an act of forgiveness to become verdant and gain the ability to create. A verdant orc not as a new subrace, but as a new state of being.

When i think about orcs i think about muscular orc women... no i don't have a problem 😂

Bruh the orc in the thumbnail summoned something primal in me

My group is full of players that started in ADnD. Orcs remain an NPC race in our campaigns. In some campaigns I have them old school evil baddies but often I present them as more barbaric/tribal and warlike race rather than evil for evil's sake.

The coolest Orc I've met was played in a Candlekeep campaign and it was a Gruumsh Cleric. It was a fantastic character, it may well heal his allies that headbutt you because you didn't like him. Just awesome storytelling all around, from that day I wish I just encountered more of that kind of character.

I believe it was Roger E. Moore who came up with the Orc creation myth in a Dragon magazine article

I absolutely LOVE this concept. It feels perfect within the lore and it's so entising for campaign settings. Your writing is phenomenal

Given the lore reasons as to why the Drow are the way they are, your version of the Orcish creation myth makes perfect sense.

I remember seeing one guy's comment in another video talking about Orcs and had this idea that allowed his homebrewed world have the classic Savage Orcs that do your classic killing and pillaging and the Orcs that are trying to fit in with the rest of humanoid society that is becoming more common in todays fantasy media, and the idea was that all Orcs have something in them by their creator god (it was a homebrew god, not Gruumsh) simply referred to as "the Itch". It was a sort of failsafe made creator god to make sure that Orcs did their bidding by driving them into a frenzy if they go too long without any sort of fighting. Ages pass and eventually a divide was created with some Orcs believing they could be more than simple brutes and eventually become a part of civilizations. primarily taking roles like soldiers, mercenaries, combat trainers, big game hunters, and prizefighters to help curb their Itch. and the divide still stands between the Savage Orcs who embrace their traditional murderous nature and the Civil Orcs who tries to rise above it with both sides claiming to be the "True Orcs" Its been a while since I saw the comment so I might have missed some details but I liked this idea as well as the Verdant Orc twist.

I really like this video. I like orcs for some reason, I think I just like to attach myself to the less popular things. This video has great suggestions for orcs which I think they deserve. The reasoning is sound and compelling and I like how you managed to make everything to work. The only thing that I would like now is something for those boar-brown orcs to make sense as well because they look cool. Maybe that coloration comes from having more hair/fur so this type of orc lives in colder climates like mountains. Given that orcs tend to be very muscular and also have a shamanistic culture in some fiction, I never thought it made sense for them to be incapable of magic. So one thing I thought of was that they are actually very connected to magic in that it passively nourishes their muscles, like their muscles absorb magic from the air like nutrition to keep them in peak condition. They definitely still train and exercise but maintain a highly muscular physique with less effort than a human. Side note, this video went from 14k to 2.2k over the course of watching it lol.

Pointy Hat! absolutely vote for an Eberron video. Especially if you like twists on D&D racial lore, it doesn’t get much more awesome than Dinosaur Wrangling Halflings, an ancient tradition of Orcish Druids that specializes in fighting Aberrations, Goblinoids once having ruled the world and had magical technologies that surpass even House Cannith inventions, Good aligned elf liches, basically the Dragon Illuminati….. so much cool stuff there to look at

I like naming my half-orcs pretty normal-sounding human names, even normal by our standards, but in reality these names are short for something. I'll list a few examples I remember: - Butch: short for Butcher (I named my Baldur's Gate Dark Urge half-orc ranger Butch; he's like big with luscious locks, he's nice, and his skin is like bluish grey) - John: short for Bludgeon - Terry: short for Terrifying or Tear (like rip and tear; they were twins, Terry and Terry) - Sarah: short for Eviscerate

This series has touched on my favorite playable species so far, each time you make one it makes me want to make a character with that