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The Territok Orc Tribes

Started by nephero, June 21, 2014, 11:24:20 PM

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nephero

THE TERRITOK ORCS

Demonym: Territok

Governance:
The Territoks are led by their Chieftain, who maintains leadership through a demonstration of continued responsibility. Challenges to leadership are settled through physical feats. Second to the Chieftain is the tribe Shaman, and who outranks who is a matter of some debate. Typically, profane matters fall to the Chieftain, while the Shaman has the final say in sacred matters. If an agreement cannot be made over the subject, seniority wins, as the higher in age an orc gets, the more respect they command from the others of the tribe.

Current Chieftain: [open]
Current Shaman: [open]

Geographic Location:
Southwestern Terrin Mountain range

Borders:
The Territoks are nomadic, with no set borders, but a travel pattern that moves from a large valley in the Thunderblack Mountains and down into the Serha plains. Late springs and summers are spent up in the valley, and the tribe begins its movement southeast when autumn begins to arrive. They'll remain in the plains through the winter and into early spring.

Ethnic Diversity by Percentage:
95% Orc, 5% Other, who they also see as orcs. Being part of the tribe precludes any physical differences.

Appearance:
The Territok orcs, thanks to a steady diet of protein as well as access to milk and hardy nuts and fruits, grow huge. Hard work often results in huge amounts of muscle. The average lifespan of a Territok orc is about 70 years, though they may reach nearly a century.

The Territok orcs tend towards grey-brown to grey-green skin, giving them an almost rocky hue. They also practice scarification, making neat networks of lines and dots across their faces and upper bodies, sometimes inserting stones to raise the scars even further. This process is incredibly painful, but also a mark of personal pride and self-worth - to flinch is to show weakness, and often that weakness is permanently displayed in your scars. Scarification begins when an orc reaches adulthood, and the first scars are a very large point of pride in a young orc's life.

Their hair is dark and thick, which they often let grow long and manage via twists and braids wrapped up into one another. For special occasions, they may adorn their hair with brightly colored powders and ornaments. Their eyes typically range in light blues and greens.

Tusks are common, though their growth depends on many factors like genetics, age, and nutrition. If a tusk is knocked out, it won't grow back, so some orcs take to using rocks or metals to substitute lost tusks.

Heights for male orcs usually average around 7.5 feet, while females average around 7 feet. Both sexes sport bony protrusions from their elbows, which continue to grow throughout their life and must be regularly whittled down. They usually use the mountain rocks or nearby trees for this, and it's easy to see where the orcs regularly stay or travel by the marks left behind during this kind of grooming.

Their style of dress changes some depending on the season, but is often a combination of leathers and furs. Men and women both typically forgo shirts, the better to move and also display their scars. Instead, they'll wear wraps of cloth or leather around their biceps as decoration. They wear hide pants, often with fur or leather loincloths fixed with thick belts.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

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The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

nephero

SOCIETY
Culture:
The Territok orcs greet one another by butting heads, though the force used varies by relationship. This can vary from a light nuzzle to rearing back your head as much as possible before cracking the other person. As a general rule of thumb, the orcs go gentler if the other person is smaller than them by a foot.

Values:
Strength, courage, trustworthiness, and reliability are all highly sought after traits. Their way of life is not an easy one, and they need to rely on one another to each pull their own weight. While this can make for some very might-makes-right mentalities, the Territoks also value generosity, and they will often go out of their way to help out someone they see is in trouble. To them, cooperation is far more important than proving how much better you are.

Naming and Language:
Usually short, between two and three syllables, with hard consonants. Typical names are Kojo, Paja, Tocholok, Kochok, etc. Male orcs have o vowels, while female orcs use a vowels in their names. This is also reflected in their language, as the gender of the person speaking will determine if an o or a vowel is used for some words.

Art, Music and Dance:
Much of Territok art is in their tents. The canvases are often painted in bright colorful patterns, with hanging decorations, ornate rugs, and bright pillows and blankets. Music comes in the form of singing, with percussion in the way of clapping, stamping, and slapping their thighs. Dancing is a communal act, with some orcs providing the music while others dance.

Food:
Hardy nuts, fruits, and other wild grown vegetation that they can gather during their travels, with considerable amount of protein and milk from their cattle herds.

Housing:
Being nomadic, the Territoks live in large yurt-like tents that they can pack up and move as needed. These tents are filled with rugs, pillows, and other easily portable items that can be brought with them into the mountains or down to the plains.

Sexuality, Gender, Marriage, and Divorce:
The Territok orcs are rather shy about sexuality. They don't possess marriage in the way the other human nations might, as owning another person even in that mild sense is extremely weird to them. Discussion of sexuality almost never happens, beyond the implied statement that "Person A and Person B went up the mountain", after which the subject is dropped. Family units just "happen" and everyone acts like that's just how it's always been.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

nephero

DIPLOMACY AND LAW

Relations:
The Territok orcs get along well enough with the local human population, though this really depends on how the local human population chooses to treat them. Repeated abuses are not tolerated, but are very much specific to the people committing the crime rather than applied to humans as a whole. Showing due respect is met with their standard values of generosity.

Slavery:
The Territok orcs don't possess slavery. According to their values of personal strength, owning a person to complete work for you just makes you a weak, lazy person, and lower in status. To them, a slave-owner is next to worthless. They also do not see how one can actually own another person, and so the practice is overall alien to them.

Local Laws:
The first and foremost law is to never harm or even disrespect a dragon. Even if an orc were to make it out of a fight with a dragon alive, he most certainly wouldn't survive what the rest of the tribe would do to him. These orcs often will live in exile, never returning to the mountains again.

Otherwise, laws usually fall into what the severity of the wrong is. If one orc wrongs another, it is expected that they help fix the damage that had been done, whether in payment or with labor. If the damage is deemed to much for money to ever compensate, the orc may redeem themself through combat. If the crime is even more heinous than that, the entirety of the tribe will turn on him and put him to death with no chance for redemption.

More common disputes are often simply handled by the nearest, eldest orc, though if the dispute is intense enough, it may be settled by the Chieftain.

Major Sources of Income:
The Territok orcs are cattle herders. While they mostly are concerned with being self-sufficient, and do not often rely on trade, they are well known for their very large cattles, their even larger horses, and their particularly sturdy craftsmanship.



VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

nephero

SPIRITUALITY

Religion:
Heavy on ancestor worship, the Territok orcs seek guidance and assistance from those that came before them. If an orc were looking for assistance in a particular matter, they would as the ancestor best known for the same task in life. This seeking of assistance is often done through a shaman, who would commune with the spirits of those ancestors via special rituals.

The greatest of the ancestors, though, don't remain in the spirit world. Particularly legendary orcs, both male and female, are believed to be reincarnated upon their death. Their souls go into the mountains, where they are reborn as dragons.

As such, dragons are incredibly sacred to them, and the orcs will regularly leave offerings of cattle for the Thunderblack dragons to eat. When speaking of or to one of these dragons, the orcs adopt a very respectful manner, and often affectionately call the dragons Grandfather or Grandmother. Killing a dragon, even accidentally, is an unspeakable crime. Poachers are killed on sight.

Superstitions:
The smoke and rumbling from the more active Thunderblack mountains are believed to be the souls of ancestors being reborn. The more intense the weather, the greater the spirit being reborn as a dragon.


VIGILANCE WALKING THE TOAST
Characters here!

__guilds, yo__
The Territok Orcs // The Oratok Orcs // Fausteth // The Ashmen

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