Orcs

Orcs are the strongest and most brutal of the Races, having borne the brunt of the Dragon Wars alongside Humans. Unlike Humans, Orcs chose to abandon indefensible cities, and retreated to caves within the mountains where they hunkered down and resisted. Their caves soon became Strongholds against the Dragon raids, and from there the Orcs began planning their revenge.

Within the first few years, the Dragons exacted a gruesome toll, but the pressure of the changing world caused their reproductive rate to triple, and their population quickly began to grow once more.

With the stability of their strongholds, the Orcs began searching out the homes of the Dragons, and when they were found, they were raided. At first little came of these raids but death, but soon they uncovered the secret to true Dragon rage; their eggs.

The population of Dragons dropped significantly where successful raids of Dragon clutches were enacted. The parent Dragon would go into a rage and seek out those that had destroyed their clutch, but as the Orcs matured as a species, so did their tactics, and so Dragons were tricked into thinking other Dragons had raided their clutches. Some still worked out the true culprits, but the strongholds of the Orcs, and their siege weaponry discouraged these Dragons from pursuing true revenge.

Orcs are fearsome warriors that are stepped in the ways of war and hardship, and hardened against the mountains in which they dwelt. They have developed rough, muscled frames, with large protruding canines that only aid their fearsome presence. They are much more muscled than any but the Dwarves, but some specimens can still rival the height of an Elf. They show a distant relationship to Elves through their pointed ears.

This is because Orcs chose to stand and fight rather than hiding, and though they suffered great loss, they also became strong and more fertile.  Dragon’s first attack on their city of Arcbad, and though the city fell, the ruins of it and the other cities remained and with the aid of the Dwarves, they dug tunnels between the ruins from which they ambushed Dragons and their mountain homes.  Fighting creatures with thick hides and armor-like scales quickly led to an increase in their strength as the Energy flowed freely around them, adapting them to their environment.

With the end of the war, the Orcs began exploring the world, both growing and fighting constantly and with their inclusion into the races of good, they have become the backbone of many an army, fighting with mighty axes, cleaving their enemies like small trees.