A Glimpse at Sylvanor Orcs

Silver for the mistress, gold for the maid.
Copper for the craftsman, cunning at his trade.
'Good,' said the Jarl, sitting in his hall,
'but iron, cold iron, 'is master of them all.'

—common orc poem

The orcs of Sylvanor are similar to their Green Coast counterparts yet very different in others. While both are tall and broadly built, Sylvanor orcs tend to have more and coarser body hair to the point that some have compared them to bears. Culturally the Sylvanor orcs seem to resemble the peoples of the Free Counties or Viridian Mere more than the Green Coast orcs.



Living in self-contained, isolated villages, the Sylvanor orcs tend to have a loud, boisterous personality. Life in Sylvanor is hard, and the orcs respond by living life to the fullest. They work hard, party harder, and fight hardest. In this respect, their Green Coast counterparts are nearly indistinguishable. 

Far more prone to fighting than the shepherds and herders from the Green Coast, the Sylvanor orcs have a strict Warrior's Code that they will not break. Despite the severity of being caught breaking this code, no written form exists. The aspects of the code are taught to every orc child as they grow.

The elements along with the most common interpretations are:
Courage. Stand fast in face of dangers to home and adskyn*.
Cunning. The highest halls of Vangalr** are reserved to those that fight smarter and harder.
Duty. The warrior that knows not his place is the warrior that dies alone.
Loyalty. We stand against the shrieking dead and wild ones together, or fall alone.
Respect. Show fellow warriors the respect they deserve, do not deny them the chance for Vangalr.***

* The best translation into Common would be "brothers in arms".
** The ideal orc afterlife, only those that die in combat are admitted.
*** Essentially, do not strike down a warrior that is unable to fight back.

The respect demanded by the code has been noted by colonists to frequently result in orc warriors pausing a fight when defending colonists loose their weapons. Often times the orcs will return the weapon to the colonist that they were just trying to to kill.

The most respected members of Sylvanor orc society are the Berlenr: elite warriors that are the personal guard of the jarl, the orc king. Their iconic weapon is a metal staff that is enchanted to endow the wielder with strength and fury of the ancestors. When being accepted into the berlenr ranks, prospective orcs swear an oath naming each of the gods that the Sylvanor orcs worship.

Called Daithnyr-Kren Berlenr, the tenants of the oath are:

"By the winds of Wolyn, I shall act with the purest of lungs,"
"By the forge of Temdor, my arm shall enact my jarl's will,"
"By the lidless-gaze of Ukaulr, my actions shall match my words,"
"By the fury of Tsobgath, shall I crush my jarl's foes,"
"By the whispers of Djorgr, I shall beware the wild-ones,"
"By the light of Sar Laisla, shall I smash the shrieking dead."

The king of the gods is Wolyn, a spear-wielding sorcerer with command of the winds. Temdor is the smith of the gods that taught mortals the secrets of metallurgy. The snake-god Ukaulr devours the dead that broke their oaths in life. Tsobgath the Mad is the most wrathful and mercurial of the gods. Djorgr is famed for his cunning and penchant for pranks. The goddess Sar Laisla embodies and lives within the sun.

Oddly, the Sylvanor orcs also make offerings to the gods of the Ninaq, an ethnic group of humans that live even further north than anywhere that the Sylvanor colonists have settled.
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