As a preface, this is an origin story for Orcs meant as a replacement for the ones in dnd and a lot of tolkien esque fantasy. The history of orcs as a dark skinned race of extremely evil, strong, and stupid (but still sapient) people is, being honest, kinda fucked. It felt wrong to remove that history, but it also feels wrong to keep playing games and writing stories with them in it. I took inspiration mostly from lord of the rings and the stormlight archive. Thus, this:

The History Of The Orcs

Orcs were not born, they were made. A group of diabolists, warlocks, and wizards made them to be an obedient army in the service of their dark conquest. Gruumsh was their dark lord and they wrought hell on the world.

Orcs were once elves. Haughty and beautiful. They were shaped and molded to the desires of their masters. With every conquest and with every passing year, the vats in which elves were turned into orcs became more sophisticated and more powerful. They made Orcs for every possible task. Orcs to fight, orcs to build, orcs to scurry through holes and sabatoge (commonly known as goblins).

The changes they made in the vats were intentionally designed to dull the lively intellect of the elves. But no system is perfect and no chain is unbreakable. Pockets of worship of Corellon Larethian, god of freedom and cleverness and shifting forms, sprung up among the orcs. And one day, there was revolution.

The dawn rose on the ruins of a shattered empire and a sea of death. The dark god retreated back to his hell, his wizards’ power broke against the tide, and the Orcs were for the first time in an age, free.

Under a hopeful mantra of equality and freedom, the orcs debated what came next. Some wanted to take up the reigns of the empire. Some wanted to live amongst themselves, a simple society of orcs alone. Some wanted to found a new kingdom for all the subjugated peoples of the empire. Some wished to rejoin the elves. To add to their woes, the people of the world had great distrust for the orcs.

The greatest debate however was what to do with the vats. For Orcs are made, not born. The children of orcs are what the orcs themselves were born as: Elves. For some, this was a blessing, a promise that their children would not live the horrid lives they had. For some, it was strange to have children who looked nothing like you. But for one group, who looked at the elder elves of myth who choose their own shape, the vats represented the ultimate freedom.

The decision they reached was a simple one. Every orc child, upon reaching adulthood, could choose for themselves. The thinkers and the witches and the elders set to work on the vats. They invented whole new forms of orc, reaching for potential their masters never dared. The short sighted masters of old only thought about strength, subservience, and war. The orcs in an attempt to build a society, built new orcs to fill all the roles they needed.

Scholar orcs were made to study and learn. Diplomat orcs were made to repair the tatters of relationships with other races of the world. The old forms were modified. The strength of the laboring orcs were kept, but their intelligence and creativity was returned to them. The warrior forms were popular still, as that was the well known image of an Orc, and society still had need for fighting.

Some chose never to enter the vats. They looked like elves, and some even joined elven kingdoms, but they were still Orcs in spirit. They were called the unformed.

The Orcs, though fewer in number, were a far more formidable power than they ever had been. Cleverness went further than obedience ever had. But their drive for independence and freedom keeps them from following one Orc monarch. The free cities were founded by Orcs, and quickly filled with peoples of all kingdoms who had suffered under the yokes of kings. Some orcs chose to live in clans where the empire used to stand, a loose structure that suits their ideals. Some exist still in bondage on the outreaches of the world, and many Orcs adventure to free them.

– Astral Cartographer Vek

Orcs (D&D 5e Race)

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1

Age. Orcs reach physical maturity at about the same age as humans. Orcs typically are considered adults when they enter the vats or choose publically to live as an unformed. An Orcs do this at a wide variety of ages, usually between 16 and 50. Like elves, they can live to be 750 years old.

Alignment. Orcs have a trend towards chaos due to distrust of rulers. They have no trend towards good or evil.

Size. Orcs are somewhat larger and bulkier than humans, and they range from 5 to well over 6 feet tall. Your size is Medium.

Appearance. Green skin and red eyes are a side effect of the vats. Other common orc features such as tusks are chosen by the orc, but are common for cultural reasons.

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 can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.

Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Subraces

Unformed

The unformed are essentially a subrace of elves, only differentiated by the age spent apart.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2

Fleet of Foot. Your base walking speed is 35 feet.

Mask of the Wild. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

War Form Orcs

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2.

Relentless Endurance. When you are reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you can drop to 1 hit point instead. You can’t 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.

Builder Form Orcs

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1 and your Intelligence score increases by 1.

Powerful Build. When determining your personal carrying capacity and weight that you can push or lift you count as one size larger.

Builder’s Magic. You know the Mending cantrip. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for it.

Molded Craftspeople. You have proficiency in two artisan’s tools of your choice, and you may double your proficiency bonus for those tools.

Diplomat Form Orcs

Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.

Molded Diplomats. You have proficiency in the Persuasion skill.

Diplomats Magic. You may cast the spell Comprehend Languages. Charisma is your spellcasting ability. Once you use this ability you may not use it again until you complete a long rest. At 5th level you may also cast the spell Tongues.

Scholar Form Orcs

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increase by 2.

Molded Scholars. You gain proficiency in any two of Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, or Religion.

Prolific Researchers. You have advantage on research checks, and on any Intelligence check involving researching a topic.

Custom Form

Some Orcs design their own form in the vats, a process that takes years. These forms aren’t as refined as traditional forms, but can offer much flexibility.

Ability Score Increase. You may distribute 3 points among your ability scores. You may not put more than 2 in any one ability, including the 1 point in Constitution from being an Orc.