It’s a lovely Orctober Wednesday and that means Orc Facts! I figured for the first one, we’d start off with Tolkein. I was gonna do something about the Uruk-hai but then I discovered a little nugget I hadn’t known.

Half-orcs were from Tolkien, too.

I always thought it was just a DnD/Pathfinder/etc. thing, but nope. And they work in the opposite direction of the usual half-orcs as far as size goes (and don’t worry, we’ll discuss the other half-orcs this month too).

Tolkien’s half-orcs were apparently bred from Dunlendings, the Wild Men, and Uruk-hai, making them what amounts to goblin-men. They were proportioned more like men, as tall as men could be, but they looked very orcish. And, of course, as comes with Tolkien’s orcs, inherently evil. Frodo spotted one in Bree, working as one of Saurman’s spies.

How ’bout that, huh?

And since we’re on the topic of half-orcs, I guess I could discuss my own heroic half-orc, the good Captain of the Greenreach Bluffs Watchmen, Trilgor. Trilgor was 24 in A Demon in the Desert. Something I never figured out where to put in the book was his mother’s name. Her name was Kleera. I never named his father. And something I plan to get to the next time I have him pop up (it’ll happen, I like him), is just how rare half-orcs on Arkod are. This doubly influenced his mother’s decision to head into the Wastes. Lots of folks still hate orcs and the idea of a half-human, half-orc child was more than they could stand. In his normal life (that is, not managing a town being screwed up by a demon), he was a lot like Grimluk. Fairly serious and dutiful. Less prone to dad jokes though. Kind of less prone to jokes at all but he has a good sense of humor all the same. The saber he had was his mom’s, too, from her time as a soldier.

So that’s some orc facts. Hope y’all enjoyed. Friday will bring us another Creator Spotlight!