Orc

Due to orcs placing such a high importance on individual freedoms, most orcish governments are democratic. Some nations, like Agrimmak, have even developed democratic monarchy. The king has absolute power...as long as the people say he does. At any point, the citizens can decide to kick out the king and replace him for any reason. This transition is not always peaceful, but if the monarch tries to resist they have an entire city of armed and angry orcs to deal with. This never goes well for the tyrant in question.

Agrimmak was the first big orcish city, and while it has had its ups and downs remains a populated settlement to this day.

While it started out as an order of orcish knights, The Order of the Shattered Chain has since extended membership to people of all species. The Order of the Shattered Chain is a group of paladins dedicated to fighting oppression and slavery wherever it pops up.

Orcish society once revolved around violence. They were raised as warriors by their dryad overlords, and once they were free, they knew nothing else so they kept fighting. As they progressed from violent tribes to civilized society, the rulers of these cities had to contend with thousands of years of “might makes right”. While several attempts have been made, the most successful has been shifting from violence to competition. Sports, Olympic competitions, regulated fighting, anything to get the blood pumping and the competitive urge flaring. This channels that aggression into channels that don’t (usually) end up with dead bodies. One popular sport is known as Punchball, a sport a sport similar to soccer or basketball where each player has padded gloves similar to boxing gloves and has to punch the ball down the court and get it into the enemy's goal. Kicks, headbutts and other such hits are allowed but the main method of transport should be punching.

Orcs also have an obsession with freedom, likely stemming from fighting tooth and nail to escape their oppression. After centuries of being bossed around, they relish their freedom and will quickly turn their might against any who they see as trying to shackle them.

Orcs also worship a pantheon of gods, though which gods are in it can vary. Karthun is always present, as their chief deity, but his supporting cast varies from culture to culture. General archetypes are usually present, such as a caring mother goddess or a god of the moons, but various orc cultures assign different gods to these roles.  Despite this variety, the explanation is usually very similar. After losing his brother Khazarag, Karthun either adopted several demigods or fell under a dark mood, which attracted demigods who wanted to help. He then found a new family in these demigods who helped him guide the orcs through the darkest time of their history. Scholars are divided on how many demigods live within Karthun’s realm, but the two biggest theories are that either Karthun only has one demigod per archetype and various orcs just give them different names of that Karthun has a whole army of demigods, but each culture only venerates a handful. Due to his status as a god of battle, having an army is thematic enough for that to be the common explanation.

Once, orcs and dwarves were one species, named dworcs by later historians. These dworcs had a dual pantheon: the creator and the protector. When the dworcs were split, the future orcs were dominated by a powerful dryad. The bullhorn acacia dryad Geralia found these new creatures lost in her woods, and used her magic to make them serve. Bullhorn dryads are known to manipulate small creatures, much like how their trees manipulate ant colonies. Geralia however, was strong enough to pull this off on a grander scale, coercing the orcs to settle near her tree and subtly twisting their minds to make her seem more godlike. These new orcs began following her every whim, believing Geralia to be something like a goddess. This caught the attention of other dryads in the woods, and by using a combination of magic and orc messengers, the dryads formed a network which grew to alliance. With Geralia at their heart, an empire of dryads began to form. Using the orcs to extend their reach beyond the forest, the empire grew on the back of orc labor. These dryads enchanted these orcs, magically influencing both their bodies and minds. Their bodies became green, enhanced with trace amounts of chlorophyll like their dryad masters. They also became stronger, and more importantly loyal. This enslavement carried on for a long time, but as time wore on, the orcs began to see the situation for what it was. Innumerable smaller rebellions and revolts began, but none of them did much until the Day of Broken Shackles. The orcs broke free of the dryads and decimated them and their cities. The issue with having broken free of dryads telling them what to do for all those years is that now they didn't want to listen to anyone. The orcs then formed a large number of small tribes, where the group was only held together by the strength of their leader. This primitive, tribal existence carried on for a while, until a visionary named Agrimmak Steelpike founded the first orcish city, also named Agrimmak. Gathering several tribes to form this city, more eventually joined his city. As the nation of Agrimmak grew, more and more cities were founded.