Question about the Orc lore

[Pak0tac]

Are the Orcs in TotalWar got the same origin as the Orcs in Warcraft?
In Warcraft they came from a dead planet
And in Lord of the rings they are some sort of anciet underground demons right?

[Cocanut]

Warcraft Orcs and Warhammer Orcs are not similar. Warcraft Orcs are not green by default. They were actually orange/brownish until they drank the blood of Mannoroth after being mislead by the Burning Legion to be used as tools. (In the movie it went slightly different and were just mislead by Gul'Dan. Nonetheless, drinking the blood or getting imbued by Fel Energy... from orange they went green. Further Orcs are more like humans but then bigger and stronger and not half as dumb as Warhammer Orcs.
Furthermore stating that Orcs come from a broken world is not enterily true either. Their world was actually quite beautiful until they wrecked it by playing with powers beyong their control when a Human expedition went through the Dark Portal to stop the Orcs from invading even more. This is the very short and simplified story of the downfall of Draenor that afterwards turned into Outlands.

From my understanding Warhammer Orcs are spore based. They do not reproduce as Warcraft Orcs do.

When comparing Warcraft Orcs vs Warhammer Orcs. One on one Warhammer orcs stand no chance vs a Warcraft Orc and most likely the most battles will be won by Warcraft Orcs. But as histroy learned us... you can have the strongest army in the world, but if you lack the manpower to keep it up... you will succumb in the end (like why Sweden never could become a real great power eventhough they had the better soldiers at one point. But they lacked the numbers to refill the ranks after getting losses). They way Warhammer Orcs reproduce is never ending. Slaughter enough male and female Warcraft Orcs and at some point you just destroy them as they can't reproduce as fast.

[Ysthrall]

40k orks = fungus things to fight in an ancient war.

Warhammer fantasy orcs = their own damn species, GW generaly kept fairly quiet about their reproduction. Best guess is, also fungus people.

Warcraft Orcs = Native to the planet of Draenor, normally brown or green or grey or whatever depending on this weeks lore re-write. Mammalian. If left alone, very different from WH orcs in society and outlook, more laid back and shamanic, but still a fierce warrior people. If daemonically possessed and guided, quite similar.

Middle-Earth Orcs = A species derived from mutated and broken elves. Or, to put it another way, Morgoth (a classic 8-bit Dark God) grabbed some early elves, and proceeded to min-max them in bad way, reducing lifespan, intelligence and magical ability, boosting growth rate, reproduction rate, and aggression (reproduction method not defined). He got a slave race that was ugly as sin, loyal to whoever could bully them, and which was also rather photosensitive. A lot of the details (do they have souls? Are they irredemably evil?) were undecided when JRRT died, and are therefore canonically uncertain.

Discworld Orcs = A species mutated out of humans, bred in warrens to slavery and battle, whipped into battle. Fast, strong, and with a built in repair symbiote. Insufficient data for societal or psychological comparism.

The term Orc does predate Tolkein, turning up in some mythology, but is not really applied to anything properly described that I have found.

The Tough Guide to FantasyLand:
ORCS are a newer and better mutation of GOBLINS, even nastier and always in the service of the DARK LORD.

[SleepyNarwhalz]

Originally posted by Ysthrall:

Warhammer fantasy orcs = their own damn species, GW generaly kept fairly quiet about their reproduction. Best guess is, also fungus people.
/quote]
Actually there are mentions of orc spores in the army books. Also the skarsnik book shows it pretty clearly

[Ysthrall]

I have not read the Skarsnik book (end times series?), nor did I have the latest one or two army books for Orcs&Goblins.

Thank you for this new information.

[SleepyNarwhalz]

Originally posted by Ysthrall:

I have not read the Skarsnik book (end times series?), nor did I have the latest one or two army books for Orcs&Goblins.

Thank you for this new information.

Afaik skarsnik is not end times, but I haven't actually read it (Ask Rev he has).

[DaCrazyMofo]

Anything to do with a growth cycle? Are snotlings precursors to goblins, orcs, or both? They never defined what half orcs were, either half human or half goblin, who knows.

We do know there's different breeds like black orcs, hobgoblins, and gnoblars, while night goblins, forest goblins, and regular goblins are basically the same.

Damn you GW

[Jakal, Lady kisser]

Originally posted by DaCrAzYmOfO:

Anything to do with a growth cycle? Are snotlings precursors to goblins, orcs, or both? They never defined what half orcs were, either half human or half goblin, who knows.

half orcs were written out in favor of the "fungus warriors" thing, which was also when the pretty much wrote out that orcs would work for other armies if they paid "well". orcs, goblins and snotlings seem to be different breeds of greenskin though, so goblins make more goblins, until orcs move in and then they both make orcs and goblins.

[SleepyNarwhalz]

Originally posted by DaCrAzYmOfO:

Anything to do with a growth cycle? Are snotlings precursors to goblins, orcs, or both? They never defined what half orcs were, either half human or half goblin, who knows.

We do know there's different breeds like black orcs, hobgoblins, and gnoblars, while night goblins, forest goblins, and regular goblins are basically the same.

Damn you GW

I seem to remember when greenskins grow first snotlings, squigs and goblins appear to set up the production of stuff then orcs start popping up to defend them/enslave them though I'm not sure how accurate that is. The differnce between breeds is made because of living conditions (bar black orcs which are chaos dwarf creations)

Also are you sure that half orcs exist?

[DaCrazyMofo]

No half orcs were old editions/whfb.. only knew about em cause they came out in the medieval 2 mod lol

[Pak0tac]

From what i know from the Neverwinter series, which got some nice lore to them, HalfOrcs are the result of orcs rading human villiges and do what they do with captured women, and thats how HalfOrcs are made.. But im not sure of how much accurate that is

[The Mighty Mulletman]

Originally posted by Terran:

From what i know from the Neverwinter series, which got some nice lore to them, HalfOrcs are the result of orcs rading human villiges and do what they do with captured women, and thats how HalfOrcs are made.. But im not sure of how much accurate that is

Different sort of Orc. Not Warhammer orcs.