1/31/2025 - The Fantasy Setting of Kith | Orcs

For the last few years, I've been developing my fantasy setting (as most GMs do), largely focusing on making something largely compatible with existing fantasy role playing games and modules. Also like most GMs, I quickly found aspects of my setting diverging from the kitchen-sink fantasy settings implied by D&D rulebooks into something at once more limited in what can happen, and more open to interesting developments. For example, I wanted Orcs to be more flexible in my setting, but still usable as a drop-in bad guy, while also avoiding all of the racial issues that surround a lot of depictions of Orcs. My solution was this; as in their original Lord of the Rings incarnation, Orcs are a fundamentally artificial species, having been mutated from captured goblins during a great war and organized into massive legions. After the country they fought for was annihilated while the various legions were on campaign, many have become nomadic mercenary companies following their legion structure. Others chose to reintegrate into goblin society, and others have broken away from broader "civilization", figuring the horrors of war cannot reach their previous heights if nobody abides by concepts of states/nations, but live in smaller communities. These orcs call themselves barbarians, and call their social groups tribes, as an active refutation of the value of kingdoms and nations. This allows for the majority of modules surrounding Orcs to coexist; an authoritarian Orc attempting to become King could be a Legionary General wanting to found their own nation. Orcs living in the woods raiding villages are Barbarians, carrying out their own form of political activism. Orcs following a Dark Lord are hired mercenaries, doing a job. However, it does not fundamentally cast Orcs as a species in continuous conflict with humans and demi-humans. I also like to think this arrangement and history makes sure that players understand Orcs as individuals with agency and personal philosophies, rather than a simple obsticle between them and treasure.