Orcs are the scourge of civilization, the raiders who come in the night, slaughtering innocents for treasure and the simple joy of the kill. Their brutality extends even to their own kind, with tribes battling for supremacy and only the strongest individuals surviving to adulthood. Yet despite their fearsome image, orcs maintain a society of their own, having carved out the legendary Hold of Belkzen. Within this chaotic region, warlords vie for supremacy, adventurers plunder ruins long lost to orc barbarism, and those bold orcs who imagine a better life struggle for change.
Whether your players are treasure hunters stealing the riches of the past, soldiers seeking to end the orc threat once and for all, or orcs seeking to escape or rule their brethren, this book has everything you need to run a campaign in the war-torn Hold of Belkzen, including:
Detailed gazetteers of Belkzen’s settlements, from the surprisingly cosmopolitan capital of Urgir to the turbulent Blood Plains and the rare non-orc settlements such as Freedom Town and the hanging monastery of Sech Nevali.
Information on the terrifying orc gods, such as Dretha the Dark Mother and the Blood God, Nulgreth.
Overviews of the most prominent orc tribes, from the Empty Hand and the Broken Spine to the Ice Tooth and the Skull Eater.
Information on orc warfare, including their beast-powered war machines.
Tons of new adventure sites ripe for exploration, including the draconic Sleeper and the Flood Road, plus a detailed regional map ready to lead your player characters to riches—or a bloody death.
Nine new monsters, random encounter tables, and more!
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Belkzen, Hold of the Orc Hordes is intended for use with the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can be easily adapted to any fantasy world.
Written by Tyler Beck, Jason Garrett, Alex Greenshields, and David Schwartz
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Belkzen, Hold of the Orc Hordes should have been an opportunity to add more depth to orcs in Pathfinder, and to be fair, it makes a couple tokens attempts to do so. However, on the whole, it misses out on the opportunity, instead focusing mostly on describing locations and adventure sites, many of which happen to have orcs in them. It does little to give the orcs any real character beyond violent killers or to differentiate one orc tribe from another. By the end of the book, orcs remain pretty much as faceless as they’ve always been, just fodder waiting for for the PCs to kill them.
THE GOOD:
All major locations are mentioned and get a description.
Half of the inside art is great.
4 solid settlement stat blocks.
8 orc gods get half a page each.
24 orc tribes get a short write-up inclusive their leaders and their level.
The 4 orc warmachines are all solid.
The adventure site section is absolutely awesome - this is were the book shines! All 15 sites are great!
Half of the monsters in the bestiary are good.
THE BAD:
The inside-cover map of Belkzen is not very beautiful.
The timeline spans 10.000 years and is only one page.
3 settlements don´t get a stat block.
The city maps are not detailed enough.
Only 4 of 8 orc gods get pictures.
Not enough orc war-machines and the art for the 2 large ones that are shown is not very awe-inspiring.
Half of the monsters in the bestiary are lame.
Hmm... This looks like something that would appeal to me. December release date... And with the Giant Hunter's Handbook releasing the same month.
An AP with giants and orcs. Definitely sounds very traditional, if they do foreshadow the next AP installment. Either way, definitely one I am looking forward to. Love me some orcs.
Yeah, while I dunno if Giant Hunters has anything to do with the next AP, this book definitely makes it look like the next AP is in Belkzen.Which is awesome, because we really haven't seen a whole lot of detail about orcs in Paizo products, considering how popular they are. It'll be neat to see them in more detail here, and hopefully in the next AP.
Lastwall vs the Orc Hordes. There will be blood for the blood gods and good for the good gods and swords for the sword gods and fire for the fire gods.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
DM_aka_Dudemeister wrote:
Lastwall vs the Orc Hordes. There will be blood for the blood gods and good for the good gods and swords for the sword gods and fire for the fire gods.
Yeah I think that's the basic gist. plus battle combat.
Lastwall vs the Orc Hordes. There will be blood for the blood gods and good for the good gods and swords for the sword gods and fire for the fire gods.
And death for the death gods. And hot orc lovin for the Mikaze god! >.>
I've never liked the "always CE, bloodthirsty and violent" orcs, so they've never appealed to me as a fantasy race due to author hang ups.
However, in just a few long posts in a few short months, Mikaze has really won me over with just how rad orcs can be if given the chance (and a good author).
Now he gets to do it officially, and I'm stupid excited to read it :DDDDD
I remember being first introduced to this area by Eando Kline's pathfinder journal. It will be nice to see more on orcs and interesting to see the hold of Belkin fleshed out
I look forward to this one, and it has me a bit excited about the next adventure path reveal. Of course, it's quite possible that this book is tied to Daughters of Fury and not an upcoming adventure path.
CG tribe of bloodthirsty orcs who are into same-sex inter-racial marriages officiated by priests of Desna?
The tribe would storm across the land (because Desna, travel) pillaging only from the evil orcs who refuse to be saved and continue worshiping those dark and evil gods of theirs. They would leave behind them a holy swath of righteous destruction and divine decimation, all in the forceful name of Chaos, Good and Desna!