This is the fourth article looking at the lineages in the Tales of the Valiant game, not as fantasy stereotypes but as if they’re alien species similar to what you’d find in science fiction.

The point of this is straightforward: your character’s lineage should be a cornerstone of deep roleplaying, not just a mechanism for gaining some bonuses you’d like to have. Elves, dwarves, smallfolk, and the crew aren’t just humans with pointy ears or lush beards. Like everyone, you and me included, they are products of their culture, their upbringing, and their genes, which are very different from one lineage to another: one might even say alien. They don’t think, act, or view the world the way humans do—and that’s a fascinating roleplaying challenge.

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The Assumptions

This article looks at orcs with the typical, recommended heritage of diaspora or slayer. Some of what’s stated here won’t apply to orcs with different heritages—and it might apply fully to other characters who do come from these two heritages. In general, wherever we state “orc,” we mean “typical diaspora or slayer orc.”

The traits ascribed to orcs here aren’t exhaustive or universal. You’re free and encouraged to devise your own cultural details for your character, using these as a guide. But make it different, thought provoking, and most of all, a solid hook for a unique roleplaying experience. If you want to play your character like a human, play a human.

What Makes an Orc?

Diaspora and slayer heritages overlap at certain points in a way that works well for an orc character. For that reason, we’re not going to differentiate between the two heritages. When we say “orc” in this article, we’re referring equally to both diaspora and slayer orcs.

What characteristics set orcs apart from other lineages?

• Orcs’ ambitions tend to center around two main drives: glory at arms and curiosity-fueled wanderlust.

• Orcs have short lifespans, generally no more than 60 years, but they never really grow old. Age doesn’t debilitate them; they remain strong and active to the end of their lives.

• They have a knack for surviving even the harshest conditions.

• Whether hunting game for food or monsters for glory, the hunt is about imposing dominance and showing mastery.

Up Around the Bend

Typical orc culture values two things above all else: keenness to plunge into danger and keenness to explore new territory.

Of course, plunging into danger is not an end in itself. It serves the orcs’ larger purpose, which is to cover themselves in glory. Vanquishing enemies, slaying monsters, being the first through the breach (or the first to advance up a potentially trapped tunnel), risking death to rescue a comrade—conspicuous acts of bravery like these mark an orc as someone to be respected, someone to be sung about, and someone to be followed.

The drive to explore is no less strong, even if it’s less well known outside orc culture. In the orcs’ case, exploration is less about discovery for the sake of knowledge and more about claiming, even if the only thing that can be claimed is the knowledge of discovery. The first orc to scale a mountain to its peak doesn’t own the mountain, but they own forever the honor of being first to conquer it.

Live Fast, Die Young, Leave a Gloriously Scarred Corpse

Orcs grow up at about the same rate as humans, reaching adulthood by their late teens. But it’s rare for an orc to live beyond 60 years. Given their lifestyles and ambitions, many of them die violently before that, but 60 is not just an average of those who die at 30 and at 90. Neither is it a hard cut-off; think of it as a soft cut-off.

An orc who reaches adulthood and manages to survive battle and misadventure can expect to stay healthy and strong through about four decades of hard living. But around age 60, their bodies rapidly give out. A declining process that stretches across years or decades for a human is compressed into weeks or months for an orc. Even at the very end of life, a “decrepit” orc still appears strong and healthy to anyone who doesn’t recognize the signs: thinning hair, graying skin, cracking nails, and dulling eyes.

Knowing there’s no escape from time, some orcs who see their end approaching choose to go out in a final blaze of glory, an unforgettable mortal götterdämmerung against a longtime foe or a monster that plagues their people. Others use their remaining time instructing the young or composing songs and epic poems honoring themselves to be sung and recited at their funeral.

What Does Not Kill Me, Makes Me Stronger

Orcs have an astounding ability to survive conditions and environments that would certainly kill a strong human, elf, or dwarf. Such survivability fosters a certain sense of predestination among orcs, the idea that the time of their death is foreordained from birth. Until then, nothing can extinguish their spark.

This attitude spurs orcs to take enormous risks in pursuit of glory. No danger can kill you before fate’s chosen time and even the smallest thing will kill you when your time arrives, so you may as well go all-in all the time. No one can say whether it’s factually true, but most orcs believe it. It’s a self-fulfilling philosophy that gets reinforced every time an orc takes a huge risk and survives, as well as every time one dies from anything other than violence or danger. If a dive into danger leaves an orc horribly injured but miraculously alive, the proof is even stronger.

Furthermore, meeting one’s end during an act of foolhardy courage is not a sign of failure. It shows that someone had run out their time in the world, and they were absolutely right to go for broke and end in glory.

A Life Well Spent, a Death Well Earned

When orc explorers scout new territory and orc slayers hunt monsters, they aren’t motivated by the common good—or to the extent they are, it’s usually just a side benefit.

They do these things because cloaking oneself in glory and wealth is the surest sign that you’re worthy of the gift of life, however long or brief it might be.

Roleplaying Your Orc

Orcs are tough, resilient, swaggering creatures with a lust for personal glory and adventure. When roleplaying your orc character, keep these principles in mind:

• Glory, honor, and respect are as necessary as air and as slippery as water. But remember: a lake eventually dries up if it isn’t constantly refilled.

• Be the first, be the strongest, be the slyest, be the fiercest . . . or be forgotten.

• Tackle everything with the confidence that today is not your day to die—but if it should be, make your final act count!

• Life is a treasure, but so is treasure! And power, and reputation, and acclaim. You must earn them, and when you have, enjoy them.

With those ideals to guide you, your orc character will be remembered by everyone they encounter for a long time, as they should be!