The Evolution of Orcs in Popular Culture

In this video we explore the history of the Orc Race in the fantasy genre as a whole, including video games and tabletop such as Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, World of Warcraft and the Elder Scrolls!

I do not own the footage, art or music within this video.

Any feedback is always welcome, I hope you enjoy!!

Below are the songs used in the order they are played:

Assembling by Asher Fulero

The Memory of Jean Talon by The Mini Vandals

[InkandFantasy]

I hope you enjoyed my first video on the history of fantasy! If you have any suggestions, make sure to leave them down below!!!

[yeturs]

Orcs are part of an interesting segment of fantasy. They are so new, compared to how long humans have been telling fantasy stories.

[AmericanImperium]

The Orcs in the Elder Scrolls are in my top 3 favorite races in the series. Good warriors.

[badgamemaster]

Fun Fact: Warcraft: Orcs and Humans was in the beginning going to be a Warhammer fantasy game.

[Turnil]

Maybe you could make a second video going about the other Ork-inspired races like the darkspawn of Dragon Age or going over the evolution of all the horde races (trolls, ogres, orks, goblins, wargs and others) in fantasy.

[potato_]

Tolkein orcs: morlocks
Warhammer orcs: bri'ish
Warcraft orcs: muh honour
Bethesda orcs: poop elves
D&D orcs: mexicans

Did I miss any?

[ygong]

Supporting your statement that Games Workshop's orcs and orks are the most influential, they pioneered orcs being green coloured too.

[ZalimZograni]

This channel is actually an embodiment of how I spent most of my time, what I like most and what do I produce mostly. Started with WoW as a child after read Silmarillion and played and memorized whole Elder Scrolls. Learned Latin and Ancient Greek now I will begin my own humble legandarium thanks to be good inspiration in advance!

[vincentk]

I remember reading in a Dragon Magazine in the 1980s, an article that stated Orcs were created by a Wizard. I believe it said something like for workers or lackeys' with low intelligence and strong with endurance. Since then, they have spread through reproduction'; hence we have all the pig faced orcs today. Not sure if it stated they escaped and started to reproduce.
I always like this story compared to 'a portal opened from another world....'.

[MarsM]

Tolkien used orc interchangeably with "goblin", and they were much more in keeping with how we currently think of goblins: creatures who are smaller and physically inferior to humans, but cunning and utterly vile.

However, the fact that they were used as soldiers made writers after Tolkien to beef them up physically, making them bigger and stronger than humans, and to give them a warrior culture, much like the Klingons.

These Klingonesque creatures, creatures who had really nothing in common with the vile goblins Tolkien sometimes called "orcs", were pretty much new creations, albeit new creations who embodied the same tropes as Klingons and the like. It is these new creatures that people associate with the name "orc".

These creatures are sometimes evil warrior savages, and other times noble savages, but regardless are nothing Tolkien would remotely recognize.

[JonathanGhost]

As someone that loves to consume and write fantasy it is always such a fascinating thing to see such interesting shifts in the depiction of some creatures.

[vankraken]

Games Workshop got Orcs/Orks right by making them more unique and alien in their culture compared to humans or the other factions in their setting. In particular the 40K Orks evolved into this sort of comic relief faction that is 100% serious in universe and a huge danger to all other factions (and to themselves as they are most often fighting other Orks). Their culture is fleshed out to be this funny yet interesting thing from an outsiders perspective but incredibly well suited for their existence in the grimdark universe. Their Warhammer Fantasy counterparts are still quite interesting and different enough from other traditional fantasy settings but less of a departure from the genre standards than 40K Orks.

I just find a lot of the other takes on Orcs to be bland by comparison.

[isaacstovell]

super interesting! I'd also like to mention Stan Nicholls's novel series 'Orcs', where they're a morally-ambiguous army of very-much-protagonist characters

[alexandarvoncarsteinzarovi]

Tolkien Uruks, the darkest side of the men, elves and dwarves
Elder Scrolls, elven cousin race
Dungeons & Dragons, one of the many races of the world
G.W.Warhammer Fantasy, rugby hooligans, Warhammer 40K Orkz, American Texan football hooligans
WarCraft, alien race,

[gexity]

really cool video keep it up! #orc4life

[pikckazinkavicius]

I wonder if these metamorphoses were due to the ever-increasing fascination of the West with evil (vampires are another example that springs to mind).

[Diegoromir]

In my headcanon, the orcs of Warcraft universe originated from a group of orcs who surrendered to the Valar in fear, at the end of the War of Wrath, who could not kill them, since they had surrendered and the Valar saw them as Melkor's victims as much as elves and men, thus this particular group of orcs were sent to the World of Draenor where there, in contact with the elements, acquired a more shamanistic lifestyle based on warrior honor and developed a particular culture, but still retaining traces of their ancestral servants of Melkor, such as brutality, appreciation of violence, bloodlust and warlike lifestyle.

[kid]

What a fun video, after having made my own video a year or so ago it was nice to see somebody else cover the same points. Games workshop is actually more important than you covered because they're the ones who made orcs green and more muscular than humans. As well as the half ogre issue that dungeons & dragons kept having.

[SenorDiego.]

I always like to think orcs are just a species of human who evolved into a subspecies kinda like Neanderthals

[man]

Meanwhile, in Japan, orcs "evolved" into anthropomorphic pigs... How did that happen?