Endonym: Woriken
Shebek created the Orcs in his image, scaly skin, dark eyes, and a toothy smile. The Orcs occupy the deserts of Biriqia along the Rivers Uauthi and M’hatti. The Orcs are an honor-bound people, full of tradition and steeped in history. Their lineage is believed to come directly from the Gods, with the sons and daughters of the Gods being named their Pharaohs, their kings and queens. Many of their traditions are centered around fighting and war, each of which contains a code of honor, a set of rules to follow to honor the word of their Gods.
Orcs love to fight, and love to go to war, whether it be within their own nations in Biriqia, or the other nations of Ylembic. Their hordes are large in numbers, but well trained and knowledgeable of strategy and tactics. The honor bounds them to certain rules of war and fighting, sometimes allowing the other side to take advantage of the Orcs, but this is a price the Orcs are willing to pay. Orcs were at one point nomadic, and were amongst the first to settle their cities; their wandering spirit still remains though, and many Orcs instead prefer to bounce from city to city, selling wares or simply experiencing the culture of the destination.
Orcish cities are built of sandstone, with many open areas serving as markets, and often rudimentary walls surrounding the city, or sometimes, just the royal portion of the city. However, even though the walls are relatively weak compared to the walls of their manmade or Dwarven-made cities, they make up for it in the tenacity of the citizens. Each Orc is trained from a very young age in using swords or bows, and each child is expected to be able to barehand fight by age 10.
The Orcs tradition extend to their treatment of the dead. The dead are highly honored by the Orcs, and ancestors are prayed to as often as Gods. Important members of society are mummified and placed in pyramids, giant tombs meant for the dead, sometimes dedicated to a family, or even sometimes, just one person.
Orcish society follows a strict system which elevates the strong over the meek. The Pharaoh sits atop the caste system with their family and their court, with the wealthy and strong sitting below, commoners sit below them, and, at the bottom, are the slaves. Orcs do not share the same views of slavery as many other societies of Ylembic, as the firmly support it. In fact, Orcs rely on slaves to build many of their great structures, and venture outside their own nation to capture villages to enslave.
The dry heat of the deserts lead the inhabitants of Biriqia to don light garments of cloth, rather than heavier leathers and fabrics. Also, warriors wear minimal armor, to prevent overheating in combat and allow for a fuller range of motion.
From the Orcs the Ylembicn Pantheon gets the Gods Seht and Apep, in addition to Shebek. Seht is the God of Destruction and Chaos. Apep’s story roots itself deep within the Orcish culture, and is presented as the enemy of all Orcs. Many Orcs feared the night, worshipping the sun as a symbol of Shebek, and created Apep to kill the monsters of the night. But the chaos of the dark night corrupted Apep, turning him into what he once swore to destroy, and giving the Orcs another reason to fear the night.