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I'm working on a story about a goverment agency that is charged with protecting our reality from supernatural forces. In this universe this comes down to trying to top fairy plots. I already have a lot of ideas for the fae plots but I wanted to include Orcs in the world. I want to make Orcs in this universe like a psychic infection.

Orcs are brown skinned humanoids with knobbly hide that has a greenish tint where the natural armor is thickest. They are stronger then humans, if a little shorter, and instead of hair they have porcupine like spines that grow swept back on there head, as well as wide mouths with tusks and fangs. They are smart, and cunning but proud and almost always hungry or full of rage. Orcs can be male or female but that doesn't matter since orcs don't actually breed. There are no new orcs born ever orc population is a set fixed number that never ever changes.

Orcs never die of old age but when a orc is killed, unless you have the right protections, that orcs spirit will infect its killer (if it cant it will take the nearest living thing.) The victim maintain there personality but they do start to change. At first its just mental you get all the orc's racial memory dumped into your mind, you know its name, how it fought what it did, how long it lived, all its skills (you know them but unlike the orc you don't have the muscle memory or actual skill but you can teach yourself them), and your temper starts to run hotter and on more of a hair trigger . Eventually your body does start to change. Your muscle and bones get denser, your metabolism speeds up your eyesight changes, your hair falls out you, and your skin thickens and starts to darken or lighten as the case may be, your jaw reshapes, teeth lengthening, and you begin to crave more meat, and want it to be rarer and rarer prepared until finally your just eating it raw. In the end you could pass for the brother or sister of the orc you killed and are a rage filled warrior. Even animals are effected like this though the change takes longer.

I'd say for a human the change could take up to 5 years to become a mature orc. Before you mature, just as its hard to pass for human, your personality is still there but your new orc instincts are fairly over powering and tends to drive you into the woods. where you begin to hunt and are driven to try and find a hunting pack of your own as well as hunting down your past orc versions weapons and gear. Orc can be solitary but they prefer to travel in packs usually around 4 or 5 orcs strong.


So what do you think? I wanted something different but I still wanted them to be orcs

I think that could work. it's a little like Lycanthropy, but has more reasoning behind it, and takes longer to set in. Can it be stopped?

I want to know more about the world though. Does the average fella on the street know about the supernatural?

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I think that could work. it's a little like Lycanthropy, but has more reasoning behind it, and takes longer to set in. Can it be stopped?

I want to know more about the world though. Does the average fella on the street know about the supernatural?

In the first month or so the process can be stopped, if you know what your doing but usually if you know what your doing you would have taken steps to prevent the orc infection before confronting them. But if you do manage to cast the orc out you will still have a connection to that new orc when it finds a new host, and once it matures finding you might be some where on its list between getting its gear and finding a pack. If you miss that window there is no way to stop it. It can be halted for a time but its a delaying tactic.

The average person on the street? no they have no Idea about the supernatural, but most of the supernatural int exactly evil just alien. Like the Orcs they are hunters, and don't really bother humans unless the humans invade there hunting grounds. Most orcs being former humans themselves wont hunt human for food, but conflict for territory does happen. Some legend of hostile bigfoot attacks are probably orc bands.

Most of the supernatural that the organisation I'm calling GRIMM, the name is treated like something of a joke,

"The organization has existed in one form or another for hundreds or years. Our current mandate stems from shortly after world war 2 when the various agencies were intergrated into a single organisation to make us more effective on a world wide front. our current name also comes from that time as well."

"what is the name?"

" Global Rapid-Reaction-Force to Incursions by Metaphysical Materials or GRIMM for short..."

"... Really?"

"Yes well its a product of the time... movie serials, comic books, and the like they probably felt a secret organisation needed a meaning full acronym Sheild, Uncle ,and Kaos stuff like that was all over... frankly we got off lucky"

But most of the threat comes from Fairies. The fae aren't evil exactly but extremely alien to us. so alien we cant understand there language simply because there is some component of it our senses cant pick up on. The fairies view us as little more then clever beasts in a backwater section of space time. so they tend to do what they want for what ever there reasons and then disappear. some bring them selves down and they can communicate with humans in our language some have even started cults, others have interbred with humanity, but even those humans who work for them cant really comprehend them. sort of like cuthulu cultists. The Boogeymen are one such cult,

Some fae have become part of legend, Santa is a fairy, and hes not evil, hes not good he's an unknown. he doesn't visit everyone just one or two people every year on Christmas. and he doesn't seem bound to those who observe Christmas. he slips in to the home and leave a small trinket, something that will not be noticed but its functionally indestructible. No one knows why hes doing it, or if he is the origin of the santa myth or a fairy taking advantage of the santa myth to further there own plan. So far hes hands off while they study the artifacts. but hes not the focus of the story im planning

and we also know that this isnt the only world the fae have visited since they some times bring others with them who are as alien to the fae as they are to us

This is fantastic. It feels like you've put massive amounts of thought and time into it. I really hope you share the end result with us.

I also think this really has the potential to be source material for an RPG. It reminds me in some ways of the old White Wolf RPGs, but far less cynical and not dark for the sake of dark.

Sounds good I'd recommend calling them something completely new though, rather than Orcs. You've created something a little different to the conventional Orc, and existing preconceptions could influence that

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
This is fantastic. It feels like you've put massive amounts of thought and time into it. I really hope you share the end result with us.

I also think this really has the potential to be source material for an RPG. It reminds me in some ways of the old White Wolf RPGs, but far less cynical and not dark for the sake of dark.

I liked the old white wolf games. never had anyone to play with though. ehhh oh well. You think this could be a good RPG? really? Hmmm I guess your right. darn now I have to work on that sometime after I'm done the rules to my tailspin style air pirates rpg. My brain just bubbles with too many things

I wanted to use fairies because people seem programmed to think fairies are good, they think of tinker bell, flower pixies, and fairy god mothers. People forget they can be really nasty. The story is going to have something of a cold open and I'll post that here if you like when it finished. If I do end up using the orcs in my story I'm thinking of pointing out that even fairies aren't immune to the orc effect. there is a former elf lord who killed an orc in combat with out knowing the consequences. He is currently suspected to be some where in the Himalayas having gathered a larger then normal pack of 30 - 40 warrior around him. He calls himself an Orc King, for some reason though the fae are trying to kill him and lead hunt after hunt into the area. He has survived for hundreds of years, and he is the only known fae orc

Delvian wrote:
Sounds good I'd recommend calling them something completely new though, rather than Orcs. You've created something a little different to the conventional Orc, and existing preconceptions could influence that

You have a point there and I have thought of it, heck they might make a better idea for Sasquatch, but I like to use our orcs are different trope too. Half the fun of a familer name is seeing what you can do with that creature to make it yours. people come in with preconceptions and run into something different then what they were expecting it can be fun. I'm not sure if they will stay orcs or change since this is still a rough Idea for now. I'm not even sure if these beasties will make it into the story I have planned