Orcs are among the most widespread races of the west, well established across the western southern continent and the western half of the great continent. Despite this there are few areas which can be said to be under the control of Orcs (at least in the comparitively well charted areas of the Great continent or the coastal regions of the southern). For the most part, Orcs exist as small tribes of a few dozen to a few hundred individuals in the less populated areas. While some tribes have some degree of relations with a few human, dwarfish and undead powers (often hiring Orcish mercenaries), these have at best been at arms length. Often orcs, either alone or in small groups will attack caravans, farms or villages and occasionally orcish clans will be united and launch attacks against kingdoms, although these are usually put down.
According to what can be deserned from what few records exist, Orcs were created by the Drow during the legendary war with the High Elves which led to the seperation of their society. Created from various creatures through unknown means by a Dark Elf Sorcerer, Orcs were created to provide a race of cannon fodder for their armies. This was sucsessful for a few decades before a few orcs were left stranded in the wild without Dark Elf overseers and set up their own crude societies. These renegages eventually made a habit of trying to free other orcs from the Drow yoke by killing the Drow officers commanding orcish redgiments, as did High Elf skirmishers. This eventually led to distrust among Drow officers to their Orcish Janissaries which eventually led to decent and eventually several major revolts, eventually causing the famed Dark Emperor of the Drow to execute their creator and sugnifigantly reduce the number of Orcs that he employed through a series of campaigns to kill off as many of them as possible. A few orcs are still employed by the Drow as shock troops, but their numbers are limited in comparison to other Janissaries (mostly human).
Standing slightly more than a than a bù in hight, Orcs have an apelike upper body and in general have three to four times the upper body strength of an average human, as well as thicker skin with a greenish tint which our scholars have discovered is because of a layer of microscopic plants similar to pond scum which act symbiotically to provide the creatures with additional nutrition. In times of severe famine, orcs have been known to go into a hibernative state in direct sunlight with a minimum of clothing. Despite this, orcs need twice the food of a human if active. Orcs are in genaral more durable than humans, although humans generally have more stamina. Orcs breed faster than humans, having six month long pregancies and reach puberty in four years (this factor is beleived to be the main reason why the orcs as a species have been able to survive) and live fairly short lives (the oldest known orcs are about fifty years old, though few orcs live to old age). Male Orcs tend to have less finely developed motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination than females (which often serve as archers and craftswomen in Orcish society). Despite this and despite myths, Orcs are in fact do not lag majorly in intelligence. Orcs are more prone to agressive behavior. This is especially true for male orcs going through puberty and adolecence, who are effectively emotional children with an even more pronounced tendancy towards emotional extremes.
While there have been groups advocating the extermination of the Orcs among the Imperial Court, it is beleived that Orcs might still be useful. For the first decade, attempts at integratinge female orcs, males have been problematic. Then several apothecaries devised a method to control there rage. This involved making use of a drug derived from a root vegtable native to the southern continent currently popular among the women of the upper classes and certain professions as a preventative. Said drug calms male orcs down and reduces their sex drive considerably. Currently many orcs are employed as basic laborers in areas which require alot heavy lifting, including steel mills and shipyards. A few orcish street gangs have been founded, but these are not praticularly large. Still, Orcs are kept somewhat seperate from the general society. A few orcs have been employed as soldiers by the Zhong Army.