Orc Appearances

[Akeron 55]

Oblivion style?

[Lexperiments 18]

I think of orcs as very tall, strong humanoids, but not like hulk, who is just naturally DAMN INSANELY STRONG. They may have improved genes to make them naturally strong, but not everyone is like the Hulk.

Really, think- The first orc was just like the others at first, so Orcs are not too different. Due to the harsh environment and the curse, they may be uglier and taller, but not like Warhammer orcs that are like aliens compared to the other races. My headcanon for orcs is like a larger, stronger (but not too strong) human, with green, toughened skin.

[Urahra 5777]

I kind of want to know what makes us "ugly", though. We were cursed to be ugly in the lore, right? I can understand us looking sort of human like, since we are technically distantly related to humans. Still, we're often described as ugly and I have to wonder why.

Since humans in real life are writing the descriptions, I'd guess we're ugly by human standards. Humans find beauty in facial symmetry. We like it when everything lines up nicely (corners of the eyes with the corners of the mouth and nostrils, nose same length as ears, etc). So I guess orcs must have faces that don't necessarily conform to those standards. Irregularly shaped features, etc.

I would really like some facial description for orcs. We know our bodies are typically huge and well muscled with skintones varying from brown to green to grey. We know we usually have tusks. When Gragarn and I talked to Native the other day, he implied we had ears very similar to the elves'. We're described as "ugly", but just "ugly" is vague. '

Orcs, in most of the media I've encountered, are sometimes described as having pig like facial features. Small eyes, flat noses, piggish ears. I could see orcs also scarring themselves intentionally to make themselves look stronger, which might contribute to the "ugly" thing. Most don't have scars appealing, but they may have beauty for orcs. A heavily scarred face could be downright repulsive.

But I guess we're not vomit-inducingly hideous. There are a handful of pinkskins who find us appealing. I guess Loth would count, but she was raised by orcs and thus probably shares our standard of beauty.

[Vert 0]

I hate to bring up a relatively old thread but

I was just staring at my humorously recolored avatar, and while admiring the manliness, something hit me. I've never seen an orc with a beard.

So... Do they grow beards?... Can they? I know that in a lot of settings elves can't grow beards, I don't know if that applies here.

Never really considered an orcish beard before, but now I think Krahnag might have to grow one.

[Urahra 5777]

I gave Gragarn's skin 5 o'clock shadow.

If elves can grow facial hair, orcs definitely can.

[Vert 0]

Alright, just checking.

I just find it odd that I can't seem to find a good picture of an Orc with a proper moustache/beard combo anywhere on the web.

[Urahra 5777]

You can put beards on orcs in WoW. They look a little silly, though.

[Vert 0]

I did see some WoW pics, but none of them had my idea of the proper beard, which is a beard and a moustache at the same time.

I think that's just because orcs usually have tiny noses, so a moustache would look a bit odd. Still seems weird to me that nobody tried it.

[Urahra 5777]

We also seem to have giant jaws, so a mustache would look strange.

[Johnnycide 5]

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[Urahra 5777]

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[moondoggy 27]

even though i'm a big fan of tusks i think orcs from the lore would look mostly like this...

goblins like this...

nomads like this without the teeth like that although they would be most inclined to need them because they would probably eat the most raw flesh.

and shaman like this...

If all orc came from Krug and he was simply a very large brother to elves, dwarves, humans...he would have similar facial features before iblees and afterwards just have green skin and burnt features like maybe his nose was burned off. Iblees' curse was to make his children look like this but the huge tusks thing and no nose really makes little sense to me as living in a desert over millenia would make noses evolve larger not smaller...but it's all fantasy so i'll shuddup:p. i really like the goblin up there. considering gobbies came from a mix of orc, elf, and dwarf they would decently muscled. i can't see gobbies being scrawny if they have both orc and dwarf lineage but in fact be muscled much more than elves in fact. more like smaller orcs.

[Urahra 5777]

I find that third to last one weirdly attractive. I think it's the hair.

[Alex_Pan 112]

The common baldness of orcs could be explained in terms of sexual selection; or that hair is nothing but a burden in the desert. While I don't see orcs as 'not manly' enough for beards, I picture them having a vastly reduced amount of hair follicles - having no hair on their bodies or even hands, and very little on their heads. That said, the 5 o'clock shadow makes him look very human-like... Almost Homer Simpson-like.

We could easily come up with a myth as to why were bald. No wait - why the other races are hairy. ;)

[Urahra 5777]

Iblees cursed them all to be disgusting and hairy.