Orcish culture
Specifics regarding the Orcish culture.
Contents
Historical changes
Many traditions and cultural heritage was destroyed in the Great Cataclysm.
Philosophy
The Orcish way of life can generally be said to be dedicated to leading a passionate existence based on emotions and the basic will to survive. Although they are a modern space-faring civilization that has evolved side by side with the technologically advanced Hemmoians, the Orcs have a significantly stronger appreciation of their ancient traditions dating back thousands of years, and are relatively slow to change their ways. Creating art, waging wars, eating, drinking, laughing and shouting, their customs typically revolve around the values of the individual and their Clan against others.
Orcs excel in the field of war, on everything from a personal to a galactic scale. Even in peace time, differences between individuals or Clans can be resolved through battle. When an outclanner wishes to join an Orc clan, it is traditional for the challenger to fight the Clan's most formidable warrior.
Every Orc clan maintains fighting arenas for this purpose, which are also used to settle other grudges and disputes. This way, arena fights can serve as an alternative judicial system.
People
Religion
Some Orcs have retained the animistic belies of their ancestors, perpetuated by self-proclaimed shamans. By contrast, organized religion is much less prevalent.
A well-known example of Orcish animistic belief is the CPitrbmpollrå, a mythical personification of an entire mountain.
Minorities
The Orcs may be differentiated into ethnic groups based on their skin color. While the green skins are the majority, red, blue, yellow and other minorities exist. Occasionally, this division has led to the rise of racist sentiment among some Orcs, such as the Green Power movement.
Telepaths
Natural telepathy is not commonly observed among the Orcs. However, artificial cranial implants provide various non-verbal thought-based communication methods between individuals linked into the Hemmoian-made Collective Network.
Family structure
- Main article: Orc clan
In conservative circles, an Orc's Clan lineage is considered to be of great importance. Wars have been fought between Clans in Orcish history, and governments based on Clan hierarchies. A large portion of Orcs are "outclanners", however, not claiming the heritage of any particular Clan.
Festivities and traditions
Literature
The 24 Pyramids, an ancient mystical text circulating on Orceron, is alternatively claimed to be of Orcish or Hemmoian origin.
Visual arts
Architecture
The Orcish architecture is typically very chaotic and organic in design, growing out of immediate necessity without a central plan.
Painting
Several painters of galactic fame have emerged from Orcish space, in particular from the clans CCÅoxmob and CCMsb.
Some of the Galaxy's worst art is also said to come from Orcish artists, such as the enigmatic I. Seko.
Sculpture
Holovision
Orcish visual entertainment is often saturated with random acts of ultraviolence - something the common Orc finds quite humorous - regardless of the actual subject matter.
Examples of this include the utterly pointless Räiskintämäiskintä, the only slightly more relevant reality show Heh heh - DIE!, as well as the game show Guess Wrong * Hang a Man! - all three of which featured the sudden deaths of contestants in shockingly gruesome and unwarranted ways. Similarly, even light romantic comedies, when produced by Orcs, could include rocket launchers and have titles like Flying Bits of Intestines, part 1.
Fashion
Media and communications
OrcNet and OrcNet 2.0 were the first planet-wide networks established on the Orcish homeworld. A similarly named subspace communications network, OrcNET, now exists as an autonomous data loop in the Collective Network.
Education
Several inter-species institutions of higher learning are located in Orcish space, including the Galactic School of Festive People and the Galaxy Alchemist Institution.
Language
- Main article: Örkix
The first Orcish written language was developed on Orceron thousands of years ago. Ancient Orcish, as it is known today, was written with a complex system of pictographs. The Orcish standard language of today, Örkix, was developed from this language.
Örkix has been called one of the hardest languages to properly pronounce, since written Örkix characters only vaguely correspond to the actual sounds they represent, and pronunciation rules can change dramatically based on context. In fact, the only rule everyone seems to agree on is that every word should be pronounced as loudly as possible, in a growling fashion. This is usually enough to get a foreigner started, even though their pronunciation might be less than perfect otherwise.
Universal Translators sometimes have problems translating sentences into Örkix because they "just aren't loud enough". This can be fixed with an additional pair of speakers hooked into an external amplifier.
Cuisine
A common school of thought among Orcs is that food is just another field of battle. They appreciate dishes that "fight back" and "provide a challenge", so to speak - are impossibly spicy, hard to swallow, or even outright poisonous and harmful to digest.
Orcish cheese, sold on the cheese markets of Raamkla and other Orcish worlds, is known Galaxy-wide, mainly for its pungent and somewhat toxic aroma. Similarly, Orcish booze distilled from Orceronian potatoes is known as a potent, mouth-burning intoxicant.
Most of Orcish cuisine is based on traditions originating from ancient Orceron. One of these is the cultivation of Orceronian potatoes. Orcberries, another Orceronian plant, are used for a variety of foods and drinks, such as orcberry jam and orcberry juice. Another traditional custom is the "morning drink" Iqsslsjsqsl and the "evening drink" Lsqsjslssq.
The Orcish food item known as Knoodles has historically played a large role in the development of Orcish (and Hemmoian) society.
The Orcs have also pioneered cooking with the aid of robotics, as seen on the ground-breaking TV show Raw Tomato.
Public holidays
Sports
Various bloodsports are popular in Orcish space, such as Biathlon and Aldaainian Icehockey. These are broadcast Galaxy-wide, a tradition going all the way to the Sports Channel of ancient Orceron.
