# Race: Half-Orc > [!info] Quick Facts > | | | > |---|---| > | **Rarity** | Uncommon | > | **Perception in Gryth** | Negative overall, and sharply divided by who is looking. Dwarves and elves judge them on their orcish blood before anything else. Humans are broadly neutral, which is the single largest reason half-orcs manage at all. | > | **Guide Section** | Uncommon Races | ## Overview Half-orcs inherit human adaptability and orcish physical dominance in roughly equal measure, and the combination makes them formidable in a fight and difficult to discourage in anything else. They are quiet people, cunning, and natural leaders with a turn of mind that runs to war whether or not a war is available. ## No Culture of Their Own There is no half-orc nation, no half-orc quarter, and nothing a half-orc could point to and call theirs. Every one of them is raised inside somebody else’s arrangement. Those taken in by the human parent are brought into towns and cities and grow up as townsfolk who happen to be a head taller than everyone else. Those kept by the orcish parent are raised inside the tribal structure, with its obligations and its rankings, and are orcs in everything but blood. The two produce very different people, and a half-orc from one world often finds the other unreadable. ## Useful, Among Orcs A half-orc raised inside orcish society is not raised as an equal. They are held to be small and weak by the standards of the tribe, and they are also held to be useful, which is a harder thing to live with than contempt alone. Their size and their human face fit them for work no full orc could attempt: scouting, infiltration, subversion, and killing done quietly rather than loudly. A tribe with a half-orc has a tool it would otherwise lack, and uses it. The other use is worse. Half-orcs are the preferred vessels for dark magic in tribes that practise it, and the preferred offerings in tribes that sacrifice. Being valuable in that way is not the same as being valued, and every half-orc raised among orcs knows precisely where they stand on that question. That is also why a great many of them end up abroad. A half-orc who leaves the tribe and turns up in a human city is frequently not seeking opportunity so much as distance. ## Edaria and Norn The largest populations are in [[Continent - Edaria|Edaria]], where both parent peoples have been in contact and in conflict for as long as there have been records, and in [[Continent - Norn|Norn]]. Smaller numbers are scattered across the rest of Gryth, usually wherever an orcish territory borders a human one for long enough. ## Three Ways of Being Looked At Human society treats a half-orc in one of three ways. Some meet them with a wary, closed-off politeness that never quite relaxes. Some are frankly fascinated and make a nuisance of themselves about it. And a good many simply accept them, because the calm and subdued manner most half-orcs carry is easy to live beside, and because humans have never managed to think of themselves as one people and are therefore poorly equipped to think of anyone else that way. That last point is the likeliest explanation for why humanity regards half-orcs neutrally while fighting orcish wars in several regions at once. Dwarves and elves offer nothing of the sort. Both have ancient enmities with the orcs, neither distinguishes carefully between an orc and half of one, and a half-orc walking into a dwarven hold or anywhere elves hold authority will feel the difference immediately. ## Names Worth Knowing The record is not all grievance. Lord-Captain Annasar of [[Continent - Auken|Auken]] led a great rebellion against the northern forces of Whitemist and became a folk hero for it, remembered as much for his care of the working people under him as for the campaign itself. Ukrak the Monk is counted among the great saviours of Edaria for foiling the Eldari re-ascension, which is to say that a half-orc is one of the reasons the elves do not rule the continent today. Half-orcs tend to know both names. So do the elves. ## Half-Orc Traits **Ability Score Increase.** Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1. **Age.** Half-orcs mature a little faster than humans, reaching adulthood around age 14. They age noticeably faster and rarely live longer than 75 years. **Creature Type.** You are a Humanoid. **Size.** Half-orcs are somewhat larger and bulkier than humans, ranging from 5 to well over 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium. **Speed.** Your base walking speed is 30 feet. **Darkvision.** Thanks to your orc blood, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot discern colour in darkness, only shades of grey. **Menacing.** You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill. **Relentless Endurance.** When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You cannot use this feature again until you finish a long rest. **Savage Attacks.** When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit. **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and Orc. ## Lineage Options A half-orc takes one of the following, reflecting the orcish side of their ancestry or the lack of it. Both orcish lineages already gave the half-orc something. Relentless Endurance is a Green Hill trait and Savage Attacks is the Bonedagger Blood of Bagunn, and every half-orc carries both regardless of parentage. What follows is the rest of the inheritance. ***Green Hill Half-Orc.*** You gain proficiency in the Religion or Insight skill, your choice. Additionally, you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to track elves. ***Bonedagger Half-Orc.*** You gain proficiency in the Athletics skill. ***Unclaimed.*** You gain proficiency in two skills of your choice. This option suits a half-orc raised entirely among humans, with no contact with either orcish lineage. ## Connections - [[Race - Orc]] — Orcish parentage; Green Hill and Bonedagger lineages - [[Race - Half-Elf]] — The only other formally recognised mixed blood - [[Continent - Edaria]] — Largest half-orc population - [[Continent - Norn]] — Largest half-orc population - [[Continent - Auken]] — Home of Lord-Captain Annasar --- ## Gallery ![[Race - Half-Orc.jpg]] --- *See also: [[Races]]*