>Orcs are like indigenous people, guys! Not this shit aga-

I mostly see orcs as unmounted mongols, down to using the techniques of driving their enemies in front of them in battle to diminish any chances of the opposition charging in full force.
I been writing a campaign with a unifying figure that brings together the tribes a la Temuji, and it's basically the background of the main quest untill the two colide.the orc embasadors bring deals and demands of support, ahead of the horde to get them to surrender, and get them scared and riled up too.

>tfw my orcs are weird religious zealot vegetarians with weird culture up in the mountains where they dance around stone pillars and build giant cathedrals and shit
It makes more sense in context

If you're going the Temujin route, you need to have them beat up EVERYONE, including a society that's more technologically advanced. Preferably with copious pillaging included.

Recently had a game about this. It ended up full on tribepunk, completely destroying any ideals of the noble savage. Tribals were... well, tribals, Greedy, savage, superstitious,shortsighted, bellingerent honor cultures. They werent any more or less evil than the three major and atleast five minor human powers eyeing their lands and constantly playing them off aganist eachother but still not the honorable warriors players expected them to be. They had no identity about being orcs. Their tribes and their religion were their idenity and they were perfectly willing to kill eachother about it, or sign up to be dumb muscle for colonists if the pay was good or even turn on them if someone else paid better. They deemed a player orc who tried to get them to unite a clanless untouchable, worthless as dogshit. Orcish slaves born in captivity even refused to rebel because they had nowhere to go and prefered the easy(for an orc) labor of logging, safety and plenty of food to a life and blood trials of a warrior. The smarter orcs even knew their culture and way of life is essentially moribund as the humans will eventually overwhelm them, but they just didnt care about planning ahead as long there is raiding and pillaging to be done. Why bother about the inevitable when you could just invade the neighboring tribe, eat the chieftains liver and steal his four wives?

My orcs are more like ancient Greece, with philosophers, artisans, and a beefed up not!Spartan military. Organized into roughly independent city-states with roving barbarian clans. Then again, the region is also mostly humans with just a slightly more populated orcish majority.

>>50186981
Who is the Alexander the Great of your orcs?

>>50187024
General Stavros Ghral, the military governor and hero-king of not!Sparta. A folk hero among his people with numerous military victories under his belt, champion of various quests, token figure in most tavern tales, and said to be the son of at least three different gods of war (and one god of mischief). Wields a spear said to slay giants (more like one unlucky sleeping ogre) and a shield that supposedly intercepts any arrow. Incredibly charismatic, with many bards singing songs of his conquests over fawning women (and sometimes men). Currently leading a joint military campaign to "liberate" a neighboring territory from the not!Ottoman/Venicean empire.

>>50187275

So, are there not!Athenians or not!Persians to to give Alexandorc a challenge, or is he more or less the boss right now?

Orcs in my setting are a relic of what was once a widespread scourge. Historically, they would breed extremely quickly, spread in to foreign lands, and become more advanced as they absorbed the technologies of the peoples they conquered. Though they were very good at conquering land, it seemed the orcs were not very good at holding on to it. Almost every other generation there would be some sort of orc revolution and the orcs would continually splinter into smaller and smaller groups. Nearly every major race has some legend about driving the orcs from their native lands.

Now, the orcs are basically eskimos. They live in the coldest, most hostile regions because a) they are tough enough to survive it and b) because nobody is interested in taking these lands from them.

>>50186641
>When you encounter them, their disparate tribes are coalescing into confederacies or protonations
Depends on the setting

>>50187654
>Describe a specific setting
>Depends on the setting

>>50186641
Only way to make D&D interesting is turning all of its races and gods to monstergirls.

Orcs in my setting are hardcore motherfuckers who are hated by gods and demons alike. Created by Orcus by profaning the flesh of men, dwarves, and pigs, we wanted an army of the living to cause untold destruction. He poured his black blood into their veins which drives them to this day. They fought with the many other people of the world, taking and assimilating them into the Orcish Horde. That's until Grummsh, Orcish Odin, emerged from the stock and banished Orcus back to the abyss. Without purpose the clans splintered with infighting, and a religion was borne of saintlike orcs who became callous gods. Each tribe has their own rituals and devotions, many involving self mutilation and scarring, and they pray not for the attention of the gods, but so that the gods will forget them and not meddle in their lives. Orcish Hordes are now a mongrel people, with humans, dwarves, half-orcs, trolls, ogres, half-ogres, ettins, and even a hill giant or two. Their tribes are divided, some again under the rule of demons like Demogorgon, others more as a group of mercenaries taking tithes from the towns and cities they profect/won't pillage.

>>50187310
The various city-states, not!Athens included, are currently experiencing a period of unity and a cultural golden age. The role of the Persians as an outright enemy is currently occupied by the not!Ottoman/Venicean Empire (who are too busy dealing with not!Atlantis on the opposite end of the empire to launch a concentrated campaign against the city-states). Even if Stavros wasn't working on his current annexation game, there's always minor skirmishes against the bandit clans or minotaur warbands that descend from the mountains to keep him and his citizen-armies occupied.

Still boring as fuck.

>>50187310
Also, Alexandorc. I don't know why I didn't think of that.

>>50186641
>Orcs are like indigenous people
>The first thing they do is trade for the most advanced military hardware you have to offer
>Subsequent expeditions discover previously unknown orc tribes all armed to the teeth with +1 vorpal crossbows

>>50187730

This is fucking badass.