Recently, there
occurred increasinlgy alarming reports from legates in occupied cities
regarding more and more frequent infighting among the orc troops.
At first, commanders were quickly punished for failing in keeping discipline. Nothing was solved.
Later, the legates in charge led investigations regarding possible betrayal or White Mother infiltration. No evidence of resistance involvement in such behaviour was ever found.
Of course, given the
violent nature of most orcs, infightings are usually dismissed as
excessive and unnecessary brutality, somewhat consubstantial to orc
nature.
But in truth, the
orcs are slowly separating. On one hand are the new, “civilized” orcs
who were born for the most part in northern Erenland and never knew the
harsh lands of the frozen North. They are part of occupying forces and
have become increasingly “softer” at the contact of humans and
halflings, realizing there was no need to make war to get food or
resources. Most of these orcs never faced real combat, and have slowly
forgotten the violent nature of their race. They were perverted by a
century of proximity to the “lesser races”, and slowly became
accessible to bribery and the “thieving ways”. They have become
thieves, too. They quickly understood that their build would make them
master exortionists, getting anything they wanted from terrified
humans. Why make war when you can get anything you want simply by
bullying humans or halflings?
Some have become
bounty hunters and roam the wilderness, earning their lives in a far
less dangerous way than if they were soldiers on the “fey fronts”.
Others have organized
their regiments into mafia-like organizations, meant to take the most
profit they can from occupied lands. Extortion, racket, theft, murder,
smuggling, black market, nothing is beyond their grasp. A few orcs of
the garrisons even act as hitmen to do the “dirty job” of the
underworld, or even for competing legates or traitor princes. After
all, who will have anything to say if an orc slays some human in the
streets? It’s just another anonymous orc…
Some orcs have even
gone as far as acting as “hired muscle” for criminal organizations, and
perhaps for some resistance organizations (the Liberators or the Hidden
Hand coming to mind).
On the other hand are
those who are “traditionalists”, who insist on keeping their culture
and behave in barbaric ways. Those are the orcs such as introduced in
the basic book (M2E).
Conflict is inevitable between the “modern” and the “ancients”. It is a ripe opportunity for the resistance. Will they grasp it?