Let's Talk: Orcs

[Panashea 3325]

Over the last two maps, the orcish playerbase has continued to dwindle at a steady rate. Once, orcs were a proud and steady race, however due to failed Rexdom’s, the loss of nexus and pvp buffs have left the orcish community in a rough state. However, some of it is the orcish community’s mistakes as well, and I’d like to address them all.  I put TLDRs in bold for simplicity’s sake.

 

 

 

Leadership

 

Orcish Leadership has been at an awkward and disjointed place for months now, and although we’ve had a great leader here and there(Hi Smaw), one Rex alone has never been sufficient. Sadly, almost all past leaders of orcs have either joined Oren, or left the server, essentially erasing any precedent or guidance. This leaves both those who were orcs resenting new leadership, and new leadership left annoyed by the constant jabs at the current community, or simple advice that worked for them, or clashes with the current ideals of the orcs.

 

Though external OOC and past Rexdom’s has left the orcs in a tarnished state, the current actions of the orcish leadership has been less than adequate, myself included. Stagnation and apathy are some of the strongest forces in the way to orcish progress. Although we currently have a few good members, we do not make any attempts towards actually improving orc kind. A lot of good is said in chat, though no real actions are taken.

 

Events, generating roleplay and recruitment rarely happen consistently, and prevent the orcish community from consistently growing. It is up to the leadership however, but all orcs who are a part of the community. Anyone can host an event or teach the culture,religion,hunting, or gathering, it simply takes effort, and I encourage any current orcs do to the same. In our current state, we cannot wait on staff or leadership to do something. Any orc can make a gathering to do anything. There are tens of posts listing things orcs can do, and in this point, and many others, I’ll try to do my best to flesh out activities for orcs to do.  Essentially, orcs cannot look upon leadership to improve the race.  

 

The goal for each and every orc should be facilitating good RP not only for themselves, or their clan, but for all players of orcs, especially the newer ones.

 

 

Shamanism       

 

This topic may become even larger than the last one, and will be discussed in a few more posts I plan to write up, but I simply want to address the current issues, and solutions towards them. Shamanism exists as a point of contention for almost every magic user on the server, and the orcs themselves. Logically, being a locked off magic to orcs, it seems appealing for every other race, and orcs have closed it off to the point of it being considered a “circlejerk” by any outsiders. Worse still, the few who have shamanism are often struck with bouts of inactivity, essential to any sort of roleplay, leaving orcs who do not have shamanism stuck in the Uzg.  

 

I plan to clear up the current inability to have spirit RP with shamans, but I only seek to address the issue currently. As a shaman myself,  I see the request to teach non-orcs 5x more prevalent then the orcs of our own community. In my time on the server, I’ve seen these requests not only pointless for orc RP, but only adds to the spread of magic like candy. Shamanism is a connection with the spirits, one of the prime aspects of orc-life, and as such, it should be used much more often to enhance the general RP of the orcs. Elementalists can’t really do much in terms of generating RP, but Lutauman(Hi Hedge), Farseers, Witchdoctors, and Smiths have the ability to create. There are 40 or so spirits, and the ability to find more, and even if the interactions may seem stale to you, introducing a new player to how it's done is far more beneficial than just sitting on the magic. Almost every spirit has more than one aspect, granting the ability for better RP rather than “grr grr Orgon”, or the need to always flat some spirit.

 

Shamanism exists as a way to flavor,shape and generate RP, and anyone who   bears any subtype of this magic should be focused on how they can provide roleplay to the non-shamans of their community, specifically orcs, until our numbers return.

 

 

 

Culture

 

The culture of the orcs is not a complicated one, but a misunderstood one. Either by other players, poor roleplay generated by  bad orc players, or mistakes made in forum posts, one way or another, the idea of an orc has been manipulated. Even though two years have past, many still see the orcs as a poor group of roleplayers, desperate for pixels through shitty raids and pvp default. They find Blah too complicated and remain distant, continuing to sling mud at a dwindling descendant race.

 

Orcish culture is not simply shamanism and fighting. Many orcs, including myself have made the mistake of dividing the entirety of orc culture into spirit worship and fighting. An orc holds the same mental capabilities of a human, and a goblin even more, and yet many new players assume that a LOTR/Warhammer, “Kill kill” is all that is available. Orcs have never been that simple, though were flanderized during the reigns of failed Rex’s.  

 

Born in the desert, orcs have bred strength for centuries, however, many would assume this only exists as physical strength, but this notion is false. This strength does not exist only in the flesh, but in the mind and heart as well. Rather than greed of possessions or wealth like the dwarves, orcs thrive in competition and surpassing their kin, becoming the greatest in any works they truly find interesting. Though the stars play a part in an orc’s birth and desires, and should not be ignored. Any orc may not simply be a warrior or a shaman, but a doctor, a smith, an alchemist, a teacher, or any profession any other descendant could take up. Strength exists as perseverance, determination, and the ability to achieve greatness.

Not all orcs are single-minded however, nor is agreement a necessary part of orcish life. Many an orc refuse to follow the spirits, and many do not seek the same call for bloodlust as their brothers, finding the mental fortitude to battle against their curse.  An orc’s mind, nor their ways are as simple as descendant kin make, granting characters far more interesting than the average dwarven smith, or the human guard who stands watch.

 

Orcs are not cookie-cutter warriors or shamans. Orcs are shaped by their lore and history, and as such, can be developed into complex characters if time is put in.

 

 

Blah

 

Another point of contention for anyone interested in making an orc. Blah is an instant turn off to all players seeking an orcish character, although it is not out of place. Personally, the lore-reason of tusks causing for blah seems a bit lazy, and as such I have always seen it as a pigeon english between the language of old orcs and spirits (Old blah), and common. As made evident by Smaw’s past post, the old way of speaking seems to be on its way out to simplify the difficult process of making an orc. If Blah is your only hesitation in making an orc, simply it down to common and change a few words here and there. There isn’t a need to write out long sentences of gibberish only to have the other person not understand it. The orcish community understands the difficulty, and if at first one needs translations, or simply cannot speak it, don’t worry about it.

 

 

Diplomacy and OOC

 

Though a majority of orcs have done a fairly good job keeping salt down, and doing their best to keep race relations and OOC relations well, I’d like to make note of a few important things. Being salty about something happening whether in RP or OOC doesn’t solve the problem. It just makes you immature. If something is truly going on, talk to staff, with screenshots, otherwise,  brush it off.  Do your best to make the community a better place. Also, with the influx(both currently and soon to be), make sure that the posts look nice.

 

 

 

So what does this all ******* mean? I literally just explained how the orcish community often says its problems, though does little to actually remedy the situation. Currently, this means **** all, so in turn, I’ll be doing an event tomorrow, and try to host an event everyday for the next week, permitting life does not get in the way.  More posts will be made on how orcish lifestyle, and general culture, along with improving spirit RP without the need for active shamans. I hope, that in my return to the server, an orcish reform will occur that will revive the race.

 

[Mabah 156]

first and reserved

EDIT: Good post :)

 

[Pinochet 356]

hopefully this event you speak of will help

nice post

[PraiseTheLord 868]

As an Orci Orc, I really appreciate this Divine. Well done.

 

EDIT: Literally all you have to do for Orc accent is replace s with z and use our key words.

For example: Mi am going to flat latz. It iz a hozh day. Boring here in Zan'Thraka.

[Mj. 697]

Well well well Divine you didn't have to write a post for me

[Stag 3230]

While I do agree that shamanism being connected to orcish culture is a great thing I believe if it were somehow treated like Druidism you might get a boon of activity from it. Anyone can become a Druid but once they do they tend to stay within welfland despite their race and F they don't they simply go out and generate more RP about Druidism which in turn will bring in new druids. Maybe teach some non-orcs but make it only teachable by orcs? Idk sounds like a cop out but group stability usually doesn't better with a mixture of races, even if only slightly. Diversity creates conflict and conflict creates intrigue.

[herculean_wud 3662]

56 minutes ago, DivineJustice said:

Rather than greed of possessions or wealth like the dwarves, orcs thrive in competition and surpassing their kin, becoming the greatest in any works they truly find interesting.

 

 

 

oh i see, so we're fighters, shamans and grinders now?

 

jk, nice post man

 

also, i try to entertain my raguk minions by gettig them to get slaves, animals etc. but the lazy fuckers always go and forget about it @Xi'dius

[HedgeHug 2049]

5 minutes ago, Sir K Andruske said:

While I do agree that shamanism being connected to orcish culture is a great thing I believe if it were somehow treated like Druidism you might get a boon of activity from it. Anyone can become a Druid but once they do they tend to stay within welfland despite their race and F they don't they simply go out and generate more RP about Druidism which in turn will bring in new druids. Maybe teach some non-orcs but make it only teachable by orcs? Idk sounds like a cop out but group stability usually doesn't better with a mixture of races, even if only slightly. Diversity creates conflict and conflict creates intrigue.

This is a already the case. The shamans are under one banner: the order of the angathgul. Any orc can come to us and we go to orcs. Even more so: any non orc can come to us and possibly get accepted as well where they go through a similar thing as honorary.

[oblivionsbane 714]

My biggest problems with Orcs is probably the slavery, for all the reasons you can probably guess and specific ones I had while playing an Orc.

 

First off, I don't play an Orc anymore, and this is directly related to why that is. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I was either fighting or attacking something, or I was standing around. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. It wasn't that I didn't look either, it was that there were not many options, or at the very least, obvious options. As you said, the only three things I had available was shamanism, slaving, and combat RP. There wasn't anything different that I could do that I couldn't do on a Human or Elf character other than shamanism. However, it goes without saying that shamans are easily the best part of Orc culture and the orcish community altogether. All in all, the experience wasn't very engaging. It just had me standing around waiting for the next raid.

 

I think the orcish community should altogether abandon the whole violent war nation aspect, and they should work become almost like monks, training their minds to conquer their bloodlust. They should invite people from all around for tournaments in combat and festivals celebrating the spirits. If I had, had the option to be an orcish gladiator or to attend culturally rich, spiritual festivals, I might not have left.

 

TL;DR: Focus on moving away from the war nation mentality and invite people into Orcish lands. Make it an exotic and exhilarating experience in visiting another culture unlike any you've ever seen before. Because no matter what, this server will always thrive on social roleplay, and letting people into orcish lands would facilitate that amazingly.

[Stag 3230]

Just now, Hedgehug said:

This is a already the case. The shamans are under one banner: the order of the angathgul. Any orc can come to us and we go to orcs. Even more so: any non orc can come to us and possibly get accepted as well where they go through a similar thing as honorary.

 

Thats good to hear! I wish the orcish community good luck. Maybe I'll try popping by more to RP.

[HedgeHug 2049]

3 minutes ago, Sir K Andruske said:

Thats good to hear! I wish the orcish community good luck. Maybe I'll try popping by more to RP.

 

There is where your first problemo starts. Because who do you intent to visit. If it's the shamanic order.. you'd need to go to en entirely other place than if you were to go and visit the new orcish capital.

A series of events has led to this and as of now the order is reluctant to move in with the new orcs due to geopolitical developments, idk.. something with an 'O'

[CombatRolePlay 1863]

Oof , too bad i was removed from orc chat

[KBR 2046]

Well I almost had farseer but then hedge said nah because he will just get it with the merge that never happened. I would've then taught orcs before leaving but instead he said no even though he had already made around 2 rp posts about it. GG.

[Shalashask 1112]

Being a war nation is unsustainable when you have weak military leadership and a few grinders. I'd try and focus more on the spiritual side of things. Perhaps make a basic form of Shamanism that can be self taught and simply allows people to commune and interact with spirits on a smaller level.

 

I would also say that the removal of the pvp buff was good for us. During Vailor and before we had a big problem with pvp alts which gave us a very bad name. You don't want to inflate a race with people just there for the buff, with no interest in the rp.

[Smaw 2376]

An Orc is a stronger Human with more integrity and a specific mental disease; bloodlust. If you can combine all of these elements you have a good Orc.

 

There's no reason you can't pursue anything outside of Combat or Shamanism. Want to be a Merchant? Sure. Want to run a Tavern? Sure. There are no limitations if people are willing to look past the preconceived notions they set in place.