Hello /TG/ I'm creating a world, and I have a question. Is rewriting the orcish culture to be a warrior society based on the Asian culture a bad thing? Now, before you make your judgement call, I'd like to give you a small bit of back ground to help you make an informed retort so I might better improve them.
They were mongol like tribes, but much like rome, a leader soon came to unite these tribes under a banner against humans, the only other known species of sentient humanoids on the land mass. This ruler, currently nameless, decided that the orcs were still to disorganized and took on a caste system based on family lineage among the orcs. Now, a few hundred years later, selective breading in the upper families has created larger, stronger orcs to fight in their militia, opposed to their weaker ancestors and lower families of farmers and workers opposed to soldiers. You can tell most higher ranking families by their skin colors, while most orcs are white, pink or red, higher families tend towards grey and black pigmentation because of their selective breeding.
The army structure is based on groupings of six to ten soldiers, trained as individual units meant for larger group tactics. These tactics assume that each group of six to ten works coherently with other groups on the battlefield, with up to twelve other groups assisting in a single maneuver.
The orcs melee weapons are based on two groups of weapons, a straight bladed katana like weapon, only used in self defense, as a last resort, or in dueling. And axes mounted on the moderate to long wooden and sometimes metal reinforced shafts for fighting and military use. Much like the pole axe. However, they use a single style of ranged weapon. A crossbow like weapon with pulleys in the front instead of arms that draws the string down the body, that relies of spring steel levers on the bottom to drive it forward and propel the bolt as the string is loosed.
>>43962312
>Let's just mix mongols and the wapanesse
>What could go wrong
>>43962323
To be fair, I had it thought out, and based the culture on Asia and the formation of their society on the Roman empire, and the selective breeding aspect based on Persia.
>>43962338
What bothers me is
>One orc unites them
This is kind of overdone. Why not have a nation led by successive rulers unite them instead?
>MUH KATANAS
No. Just no.
>Crossbows
Bingbongs invented gunpowder in the 900s. I mean, damn it.
>>43962352
Rome had one man unite them, and of course it's ruled by succession in family, considering these orcs will only live about 40 years on average.
>Katanas
Are meant as self defense weapons and use of the close combat, draw cut technique on unarmored targets. They are not for engaging enemies with armor, or at longer ranges than arms length, nor are they as useful as other weapons such as the gladius, or kukri. They are here as dueling, self defense and hold out weapons, just as flint lock pistols were when they were invented.
>Crossbows
The humans have plate armor, something the low technology of their guns cannot penetrate. Brodkin bolts on a lever system by way of spring pressure that is equivalent to an 80 pound draw, can. Crossbows were closen because they are not fighting other orcs. Otherwise, guns would have been used but they are pitiful against the human imperium attempting to expand into the comfortably controlled orc lands.
>>43962312
EXCELLENT CHOICE
>>43962312
There is polish tabletop game called "Wolsung".
Orcs in Wolsung are basically every "oriental" sterotype rolled into one green skined package
>>43962425
I'm going to say this once; Fuck green skinned orcs. They make little to no sense. Even in a fantasy setting. Look at the pigments of every other race. Look at humans here on earth. Unless orcs are reptiles, which they aren't as they are mammals, give them real flesh tones.
>>43962446
>give them real flesh tones.
Orcish green is one of the more realistic skin tones, anon.
>>43962458
Id your skin green? Is your families skin green? Name one other mammal with green skin. Elephants have grey to pink skin, humans have a wide range of white, yellow, tan, brown, black, and pinks, whales have blue skin although they are aquatic. Are you implying orcs are reptiles? that actually might be a good god damned idea. Orcs are now either amphibious or reptilian, haven't decided yet.
Tbh Wolsung is pretty racist
>>43962495
A lot of tabletop games are racist. I digress. I'm probably racist as all hell.
>>43962495
>Polish game
What the fuck did you expect?
>>43962446
Well, I mean, if you give real skin tones to your violent race of monstrous, primitve, perhaps 'subhuman' hordes of raiders and rapists, it starts to carry with it some unfortunate implications.
>>43962519
I don't know. Kielbasa and pierogies kurwa?
>>43962530
>I don't know
Poland is literally /pol/land. No memes.
>>43962312
>You can tell most higher ranking families by their skin colors, while most orcs are white, pink or red, higher families tend towards grey and black pigmentation because of their selective breeding.
JSW Orcs: The Quest?
>>43962591
It's called "SJW", anon. But good try.
When it comes to asian orcs personally I prefer flavoring them closer to stereotypical oni.
>>43962312
>implying Asia has a single homogenous culture
>>43963057
It's not like europe is treated any differently.
>>43962312
Sounds interesting, but
>while most orcs are white, pink or red
I don't know how I feel about technicolor orcs
Also, Hobgoblins already fit the bill for most of what you're describing
>>43962425
well since the orks do most of their activities outdoor, it would be more immersive if you just give them black skin, as befit an outdoor race.
some people won't like that though
>>43962446
Usually the green skin is the result of the influence of some malevolent outside force, like gods or demons.
>>43962390
>rant about katanas
OP already said they use them for dueling or as a last resort, and that they use pole axes as their primary weapon. Chill. OP knows katanas are shit.
>>43962472
Dude, chill the fuck out, you look like a pansexual tumblrist being triggered
>>43962390
>Katanas, Crossbows, and Plate Armor
>attempting to use anachronistic logic
For some historical perspective, you have to remember that each of these develop in the context of their civilizations, fit to a particular function that doesn't exist when removed from that context.
>Katanas
For instance, folded steel smithing techniques continued in the Far East long after it had gone out of style in Europe precisely because Iron ore deposits in Asia were of low quality, especially in comparison to Toledo steel. The presence of folded steel weapons would be a direct indication of poor quality iron, which will inevitably mean the culture will not have an abundance of metal armors and would have to trade quite extensively for such things.
>Crossbows
Crossbows, in general, were not the province of nomadic tribes (even of formerly nomadic peoples), since Archery (which required considerable training, strength, and expertise) was essentially developed from childhood, and therefore generally caused class distinctions in most martial cultures. This is actually an important point, since the crossbow, much like early gunpowder weapons, had much lower skill requirements and was significantly less physically demanding, so of course it was shunned by quite a number of cultures (and in at least a few notable cases, shunned by nomadic tribes for being too "Chinese")
>Plate
Having extensive amount of plate in one culture when another is using poor-quality katanas is very... interesting. How have these cultures existed for any length of time without even a minimal amount of trade that would, for lack of a better term, level the material playing field? In our world these cultures would have to remain in fairly significant economic isolation for hundreds of years.
>>43962446
>>43963579
My campaign is that they are literally the equivalent of white blood cells of the planet, focused on a single objective: eradicate all alien forms that are a threat to the planet. Built for one purpose, killing.
>>43963817
Well, regarding the last point, the real world place that made Katanas did intentionally isolate itself for extensive periods.
The difficulty is in working out a way that said country doesn't get shrekt by the plate mail country. In my setting, its because they're Dragonborn while the plate dudes are just normal humans.
>>43963817
There's a simple explanation for plate armor alongside katanas
Magic
>>43963817
Why are so many people focusing on the fact that OP mentioned katanas? OP already stated that they'll be used in dueling, for self-defense in non-war scenarios against presumably unarmored civilian assailants, or as a last resort, at most? OP has already stated that they use pole axes as their primary martial weapon. Yes, we all know katanas are shit. Can we move on now?
>>43962312
Which Asian culture? Asia is the biggest continent, it has everything from arab and persian, nomads of all kinds, and the whole cluster fuck of the southeast.
>>43963927
Completely unrelated,
But what is a good armor piercing Asian weapon?
I am making a race of chinese beetle-men, and want some honorific dueling weapon, since stag beetles duel all the time.
But they'd need something to get through their natural armor with ease without totally mulching it.
>>43962529
Not if you have brown humans as a separate thing
>>43963567
Seconding this. Just into hobgoblins,
>>43964116
>>43964043
Guandao. Basically a bladed polearm with a back spike. Most of the surviving examples were rather ornate. It did see some use as a battlefield weapon, but its primary use was for testing the strength and endurance of officers (sometimes in duels, but mostly in very lengthy parade drills) which is why many examples of them were exceptionally heavy.
The spike could have been used to penetrate armor, just like the spikes on other pole arms.
If they're beetle men they can probably deal with getting penetrated a few times, insects are pretty fucking hardy even when you open them up.
>>43962312
>The Asian Culture
What?
>>43964043
Daggers. Lots of daggers. Multy-armed beetle men can probably put them to better use than humans, too.
Wait.....Asian's AREN'T Orcs?
>>43963817
>poor-quality katanas
The katana itself was fine, that's sort of the point of their extensive refining process for the shitty ore.
>>43962446
Fuck you, I'm not about to change the skin of Goblins and Trolls either.
Japgoblins
