Origins: Unknown
Languages: Norahk and Common
Life Expectancy: 60 years
Approximate Age of Adulthood: 15 years
Adult Height: 5.5 feet to 6.5 feet (Approx. 1.7 - 2.0 meters)
Adult Weight: 140 to 220 pounds (Approx. 60 - 100 kilograms)
Religion: Darkening
Status: Alive
Modern Orcs tend to be divided into two major stocks: those of the mountain and those in the forest. The latter group tend to be shorter and stouter than their mountain cousins, hardy and thick muscled. They are of darker complexion, as well, with pigment generally ranging from somber green to black. The forest breed tend to be tall and lean, by comparison, with skin tone ranging from earthen brown to a more mild tan. Orcs have dense bones and thick hides, with long, very strong limbs, and all are known to demonstrate a great resilience in the face of extremes of temperature. Orcish eyes come in all colors, though they tend toward darker browns and greens.
The true Orcish lifespan can vary greatly, but in the unforgiving environment in which most live, it is a thing hard to maintain. There have been reports of an Orc living for over two hundred years, lending credence to certain theories of their origins. Nevertheless, most Orcish lives end by violence or weariness long before such time.
In Orcish society, permanent settlements are rare and they are a largely nomadic people though their regions of roaming are not especially extensive. Those locations that are established as permanent tend to be large and well fortified - often underground or within mountains. Given the conditions in which they live - much-maligned and forced to the fringes of livable land, in often harsh climes - Orcs have developed a civilization that tends to be purely survival-oriented, focusing on the fundamentals of existence, rather than philosophy or luxury. The Orcs value both physical might and endurance, and intellectual prowess and wit, especially as all are applied to the interests of survival and daily tasks. For an Orc, fortitude and ingenuity are the cornerstones of continued and prosperous life. This basic lifestyle has earned the Orcs a reputation of barbarism and simple-mindedness throughout civilisations - a claim about which they care very little.
Orcs often organise themselves into clans: collections of families with shared interests and hunting grounds. Within the clans, bloodlines are tacitly monitored to assure that there is no undue intermingling. Individual familial surnames are not used, but a clan name may often be employed by a traveling Orc. Occasionally, this will be replaced with appellations telling of an Orc's deeds or reputation.
Essentially all Orcs of a religious bent (being roughly one half of the population) prefer the tenets of the Darkening to what they consider to be the needlessly complex regulations of other faiths. Most especially, the emphasis upon practicality, and denouncing of frivolity, fit well into the Orchish way. Honour is considered to be a thing extended only to those that will return the treatment, and thus is reserved largely for relations from one Orc to another, or to other followers of the Darkening as members of many other races look down on Orcs as inferior beings. Those Orcs that do not consider themselves followers of the Darkening generally still respect it for its teachings, if they do not themselves spread the word.
There is perhaps a single trait that can be said to bind all Orcs as a common people: ambition. Some suggest that this element has stayed with them as the descendent of the drive with which Ba'dor instilled his servants; others theorise that the Orcs' demanding lifestyle has made them forceful and stubborn. Whatever the source, each Orc is motivated toward greatness - to raise an empire, to raze a kingdom, to raid the earth for its treasure, to rain justice upon its foes - to stand out and be recognized above figures of past lore by all in civilisation. Some have called this characteristic decidedly Elven.
The Orchish tongue (Norahk) can be traced in large part to dialects of the speech of man in the from about three thousand years before the Founding. It contains a smattering of elements with entirely different etymological roots, and centuries of isolation bred the language into its modern form. Consequently, the Orchish tongue is quite unlike any other spoken language. Its universal presence among all Orcs presents further evidence to suggest that they were once gathered, and since separated. The Orchish alphabet - an unofficial device - is sparse at best, lacking vowels or fully standardized symbols. With such inconsistencies, Orchish writing occasionally resorts to pictograms to clarify disputed spellings. Naturally, there is very little written in the Orchish language; most literate Orcs learn to pen common, rather than their own tongue. Orcish tradition is passed orally.
Orcs know that a great many people, including Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings, harbor a great distrust of the Driven Ones, the first two known to display such vehement hatred that it is said an insurmountable river of blood flows ever between them and the Orcs. Orcs are generally tolerant of those that receive mistreatment similar to their own, such as Trolls and Ogres, though one is slow to put faith in a Skaven. They share a certain kinship with the Drow, for both their heritage and their present practices. Some scholars previously speculated that there was some distant relation between Orcs and Goblins; this has since become less popular of a theory, and, in fact, the two societies have only recently encountered one another.
Thanks to Cristlefir for this information.