Hello all! I'm a new player on the Pathfinder scene, coming from a long series of successful d20 Star Wars Saga RPG campaigns.
Being new to Pathfinder and fantasy settings in general, I'm unfamiliar with the concept of the half-orc. I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around this species... and while I do find them to be fascinating, I am having a hard time locating much about them in the lore outside spotty, brief descriptions.
One question I have in particular is this: Is there a possibility (or even a cited example) of half orcs living together in society? What would this society look like... and how do you suppose it would be different than tribes of orcs or towns of men?
Thank you for your time.
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In terms of Golarion, YES. There's an island in the Steaming Sea area that has a society built by half-orcs congregating from all over the world, and is quite cosmopolitan because of all the cultural influences being brought into the mix. They actually have regular council meetings to discuss and plan for the future and welfare of their people as a whole.
Beyond that, half-orc culture tends to be whatever culture they inherit from their human or orc parents.(and unfortunately there's not much in the way of culture to inherit from the latter in Golarion at the moment).
Other settings have developed them(both half-orcs and orcs) differently, giving them richer cultures of their own. Having half-orcs being born from willing and peaceful mergers between humans and orcs leads to a whole other set of possibilities.
On the go now, but I'll try to get the names of the relevant locations for that half-orc city in Golarion.
You can play any race/class combo in any way you choose. That being said, it is a hybrid race, and for simple cues to RP a half-orc off of you could consider some of the following.
-What was the predominant race/culture around you growing up? Orcs, humans, other half-orcs, something else? This should play into your character's ethical values and what you considered the cultural norm.
-How much of a part does racism play in your game? Did the people around you look down on your mixed heritage, was it seen as a boon or curiosity, or was it seen as but one aspect of who you are? Some kind of baggage or chip on your shoulder from how others view you has long been an aspect of the half- races in RPGs, but is not necessary.
-Concerning nature vs. nurture, what parts of your personality are at odds? Are you the one who figured out out why orc-built houses sink into the ground, how to make swords that don't bend, or did you teach others to read? Do you not see a problem with physical coercion, use your teeth instead of a knife because they work better, or forget that others can't see in the dark?
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Regarding that half-orc city mentioned earlier:
It's Averaka, located on the island of Flintyreach in the Steaming See, just off the coast of the Land of the Linnorm Kings. That island is part of the territory ruled over by White Estrid, one of the more forward thinking Linnorm Kings. The Land of the Linnorm Kings book has all the relevant info released on that place so far.
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In a homebrew campaign, I played a half-orc from a group of nomadic half-orcs. The group consisted of a few extended families and the occasional unrelated half-orc who traveled with them for convenience and safety (maybe 50-70 people, the size of a large hamlet or small village). There were a fair number of performers and artisans in the group who would set up in any towns they passed through to earn some coin, and they'd trade in regional goods like spices for profit. They also kept animals and hunted and foraged where possible.
It was a fairly close-knit group that looked out for its members, tried to avoid perpetuating negative half-orc stereotypes, and occasionally ran into racial prejudice.
Thanks all for your responses. Mikaze and Ciaran, thanks for your thoughts and knowledge! Weirdo... That's a very intriguing concept and it might find its way into my campaign. Much obliged all.
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Glad you like the concept. It was an interesting character to play. Practical, curious about other cultures, and very loyal once she'd decided that someone was in her in-group, since she was used to the idea that you had to band together or be at the mercy of a sometimes hostile world. Also had a strong sense of racial pride.
Of course, other individuals might have somewhat different responses to a similar background, such as resenting the fact that they didn't have their own homeland like all the other races that they encounter.
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The Scarred Lands setting had a nation that consisted primarily of half-orcs.
Part of the setting premise was that human nations existed south of a plains region in which savage nomadic orc tribes modelled on Mongol raiders would sweep down and ravage the northermost parts of the southern human nations. Many generations of this sort of thing resulted in an ever-increasing number of half-orc children growing up in the northern lands, and they ended up cliquing together due to human intolerance, discovering that when two half-orcs have a child, the child is also a half-orc.
Some cleverer-than-normal southern general got the idea of recruiting these strong and scrappy half-orc 'outcasts' into military service, and using them as a 'buffer' against their full-blooded orc neighbors.
Eventually, with the half-orc soldiers gaining more and more rights and status, thanks to their military service and commisions, the less tolerant humans of the area migrated south and left the area to the increasingly more connected and politically relevant half-orcs.
So, that's one way to go. Having some previous nation or culture having taken advantange of them, and ended up ceding unwanted territory to them.
In Golarion, the Shoanti would be a neat role model for a half-orcish culture. Bred as warriors by a culture (the Thassilonians) that are long gone, they wander 'wastelands' that nobody else wants to fight them for.
I like to think of half orcs as 'the Worf' (from Star Trek: the Next Generation). They've got to deal with prejudices and assumptions about a culture (orcs, klingons, whatever) that they themselves might have only read about in books, and, when they do finally meet members of this culture that has defined them all their lives, they find that it doesn't live up to it's reputation (or, more importantly, their expectations). Worf, for instance, grew up reading about Klingon honor being super-important, and then meets real Klingons in time for them to be allying with racial enemies and using poison and assassination for political advancement, etc. and, for the most part, being honorless treacherous backstabbing dicks. A half-orc might grow up with a similar 'romantic' notion of orcish society as being some sort of Randian utopia of the strong and the brave rightfully dominating the weak and the meek, hard and realistic and practical and 'grown up' enough to survive an unforgiving world, unencumbered by flowery ideals or naive fantasies, only to encounter real orcs and find that they are for the most part smelly, stupid and short-sighted. Not at all 'noble savages,' just basically violent antisocial idiots.
One of the concepts I've used in a game before was city of half orcs sheparded by elves.
The back story is that an order of eleven paladins had cornered the remnants of a Orc and human barbarian incursion and rather than slaughter the unarmed baggage train and injured soldiers cordoned them off and provided order. After three or four generations of elvish control, the village was essentially all half Orc and culturally very elvish influenced. The elves then used the half orcs as a legion of shock troops and reinforcements in their own armies as they breed much faster than elves do.
Lots of opportunity for rp in that scenario ranging from uncovering worshipers of banned Orc gods in the city, to dealing with various forms of prejudice to having a good reason for elves and half orcs working other.
It also kind of an neat resolution for how a LG paladin order would handle dealing with the remnants of an Orc invasion rather than genociding the remnants.