Excerpt from A Treatise on Orc Faith, by Professor Yorin Argirus Brunton

            Most people believe the orcs to be savages that possess strange rites and occasionally sacrifice captured bandits to primal gods. I have found in my time living amongst one of the three remaining orc clans outside of the Hobgoblin Empire, that the common beliefs are both true and false.

            I chose the clan of orcs that tend to roam from the west of Chor Kolav south to just north of Drynaryn. In the three months I spent as a guest, I saw the orcs in battle, at rest, at play, and in prayer. I have learned much of their religion and their strange culture.

            The orc language shows an aspect of their religion that clears up a common tale about orc faith in civilized circles. From what I have been able to determine, orcs primarily revere spirits that embody both the natural world and metaphysical concepts such as valor, loyalty, fire, an organization, and so on. The orc word for these spirits, collectively and individually, is dukhs. Their word for the gods is the same. From what I have determined, the orcs believe that the gods are simply powerful spirits, differing from the spirit of a rock on the side of the road only in power and scale. A ridiculous notion to be certain, but what should one expect from uncivilized barbarians?

            In any case, I made sure to take copious notes while observing their various rites and rituals. For example: on the Summer Solstice, when the rest of the Green Coast is celebrating the end of the year, the orcs of the clan that I am observing performed a ritual called Sunagokh Asnovlenal which I believe roughly translates to Blessing of Renewal. The entire clan spends the morning preparing a large bonfire, placing everything from wood, twigs, and some kind of oil on the growing pile. Everyone able to walk is expected to add something to the pile. Even gnome scholars intending to be simple observers. I don’t know if I should be insulted that I was told to add on wood the same size that the orc children were adding.

            At noon when the sun reaches its zenith, the clan chief  called up his familiar (a salamander that looked to be on fire) before throwing a small orb of fire into the pile, igniting it. The oil did its intended job, and the fire spread to the entirety of the pile.  Once the fire was burning, the chief’s sons each led a bison in front of the bonfire, one for each cardinal direction. Then as one they slit the throats of the bison in such a way that the majority of the initial spray went onto the bonfire. The knives used must have been coated in some sort of toxin or sedative, for the bison simply laid down and bled out. When the bison were dead, each son skinned their bison before hauling the carcass onto the bonfire. As the bodies began to burn, the sons presented the bloody hides to various orc women.

            After the bison were added to the bonfire the usually active orcs simply watched it burn. The entire clan just stood or sat and watched it burn down. My interpreter told me that sometimes the spirits will make an appearance, and to miss it is extremely bad luck. A superstition of course, but I was not foolish enough to say such aloud. 


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